When nearly 600 people gathered in Manhattan last week to celebrate outgoing UJA-Federation of New York CEO Eric Goldstein, the program opened with board members taking turns speaking in front of a projected timeline, each marking a tectonic shift that took place in the Jewish world during his tenure.<\/p>\n
That timeline started the day before Goldstein started his role, on June 30, 2014, when the bodies of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel \u2014 three Israeli yeshiva boys who had been kidnapped and killed by Hamas terrorists \u2014 were discovered. Soon after, a 50-day war against Hamas, Operation Protective Edge, commenced in Gaza, the first of a number of crises the Jewish community would weather during Goldstein\u2019s 12-year term at the federation\u2019s helm.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no easing into this role, no time to observe and no time to learn the ropes,\u201d Alisa Doctoroff, past president and former board chair of UJA-Federation of New York, said during the presentation. \u201cIt said so much about Eric, who stepped in with strength, humility and resilience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speakers described Goldstein as a methodical and empathetic leader, highlighting the formation of the Community Security Initiative following through the 2018 Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh and the ensuing rise in antisemitism domestically, his leadership through the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the federation created infrastructure to support elderly Jews and Holocaust survivors and worked to prevent agencies from shuttering, and the Oct. 7 terror attacks in southern Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a gigantic, bittersweet moment,\u201d Amy Bressman, a former UJA board president, told eJewishPhilanthropy. \u201cHe will be really remembered for navigating unforeseen circumstances that you couldn\u2019t plan for, you couldn\u2019t even imagine, you couldn\u2019t in any way expect. And he just led in the same consistent heart-mind combination. I think that a lesser leader might have been unbelievably thrown by crisis after crisis after crisis, and he just wasn\u2019t. He just had the resources to handle circumstances that no one could have foreseen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dinner also included a video address from Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who thanked Goldstein for his support in the aftermath of Oct. 7, specifically the federation\u2019s Israel Emergency Fund, through which it raised over $150 million to support Israel throughout the past nearly three years of crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the earliest hours of that fateful day, you modeled friendship and offered support, and in every moment since you declared in words and in deeds, an enormous amount of deeds, that the New York federation will always be with Israel,\u201d said Herzog. \u201cThe outpouring of support from this federation in so many spheres of life in Israel and so many spheres of life in the Jewish world amidst the incredible storm, the vast funding and support for our homeland will never be forgotten.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n