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A Feb. 25 summit at East Brunswick Jewish Center identified and began to address major issues derived from the results of a 2008 study of the Middlesex County Jewish community.

The summit, led by Gail Zucker from United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization for North America's Jewish federations, identified several major issues facing the community, the most prominent being elderly services, education, public relations and marketing, and outreach and engagement.

Beth Kraemer, the planning associate for the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, said that the day began with a vote on the core issues that will guide the decision making process. Some of the top answers were integrity and tzedakah.

After the vote, participants who were representatives of all demographics of Middlesex County sat at assigned tables to identify the strengths and challenges of the community, and the larger issues facing Middlesex County.

"Around the tables, they are processing issues," Kraemer said. "The conversations will lead the group to identify the things that they think are key priorities."

After the main issues were identified, task forces were appointed to each issue.

Seth Gross, chair of the strategic planning committee, which will oversee the task forces, said that the task forces will work for the next four to five months to create a strategic plan mapping out the course of the task forces over the next three to five years.

"Our plan is to focus on only three or four or five [issues] because we're afraid if we go to more major issues, we'd spread ourselves too thin and we don't focus on the more critical needs," Gross said. "We want to limit it to what we think are he critical needs, but we will have a list of many more than those three or four that we're aware of, and if we have time and resources, we'll work on those."

Gross was impressed with the enthusiasm and involvement in the discussions at the summit.

"This is phenomenal turnout," Gross said. "We expected 50 to 60 people, and we got over 100 responding. The involvement, the concern, and the interest show that people want to figure out where the community is going."

Gross was also glad to see a cross-section of community members present.

"The idea was to get a cross-section of the community, geographically, religiously, and professionally," Gross said. "This goes from north to south Middlesex County. We try to get everything in between."

Dr. Ira Sheskin, hired to conduct the survey this past summer, said that it was "simply the time" to conduct a survey to better identify the needs of Middlesex County Jewry.

"This is really the first time this community has done this as a scientific study," Sheskin said. "When you have no idea how many Jews there are, where they're living, how many are old and how many are young, you have no idea how to allocate your resources."

Sheskin said that the federation collects at least $20 million that should be allocated properly.

"In order to do a good job on allocating the money, you need to decide what the priorities of the community really are," Sheskin said.

Sheskin said that because of the recent downturn of the economy, a lot of the task forces would need to consider longer-range projects. Short-term projects may need to be limited to little money or a strictly volunteer basis.

"There are some things that we already started that require almost no outlay of money, like trying to build the federation's mailing list," Sheskin said. "If you don't send someone an invitation to something, they have no idea it's there and they don't come. If they started to get invitations, they might come."

This project costs no money and it helps address the issue of public relations, Sheskin said.

"One of the things that we did once we realized how meager the mailing list was, we started going through a computerized phone book and started adding all the Cohens and Levys that aren't on the list," Sheskin said. "If it turns out someone isn't Jewish, then you take them off. In the meantime, we find names that are probably 90 percent for Jews, and why not [use them to] build the mailing list?"

Sheskin said that one of the major discoveries made regarded the elderly population in Middlesex County. According to the study, 37 percent of the Middlesex County Jewish population is elderly, which is three times the national average. In southern Middlesex County, the figure jumps to 71 percent.

"You take a look at that and you realized that services for children should be right here in the center, and services for the elderly should be in the south," Sheskin said. "In the north, it looks more like a normal American Jewish community with a relatively high intermarriage rate. And so your Jewish continuity program probably ought to be orientated towards the northern part of the town."

Sheskin said that findings like these should help the community better spend the money it collects.

, who is a consultant who works with many communities in the area of strategic planning, was happy with the outside of the summit.

"I think the issues brought up today are exactly the issues that should be tackled, Zucker said. "There's a growing elderly population, and while services are indeed being met, many of them are being met outside the Jewish community. It's really important to take a look and see what we can be doing to provide services under Jewish auspices or not, or what kind of partnerships can we have with other communities and organizations."

Zucker noted that the outreach and engagement issue is a prominent issue for many communities across the country. She said that the strategies to get in touch with those who just moved to Middlesex County or are unaffiliated need to be found and implemented.

"We learn from other communities and we take the best… and see if they might work here," Zucker said. "A current organization or a synagogue can do a reflection of what they are doing or not doing and what can be done as a community-wide intervention. There are federations that have brought together the agencies and synagogues and just worked on the issues of outreach and engagement."

Zucker said that a significant factor in deciding the issues is a desire to be a tighter community that she saw during the summit.

"How do we work together as a community and see what's there?" Zucker said. "There is definitely a sense here that there's a desire to be more of a tighter community. You can see from the turnout and the kinds of comments that came up. I think that's a real opportunity for the community, because a community that knows how to put things together enjoys each other and works together well."