Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we had an excellent year in 2011 raising a total $53,385! Here is a summary of our results:

There is still time to donate to the 2012 Campaign! Click here for the status of our 2011 campaign. Thank you all for your support!

The United Jewish Fund for Charlottesville reflects a core principle of our faith: we Jews are responsible for helping one another. And the UJFC’s spending priorities also reflect fundamental Jewish values: the importance of education, and the centrality of children and youth in our lives.

The first Jewish charitable fund in our community was begun in the early 1980s by Ed Eitelberg. Eddie was surprised to find no central Jewish philanthropy here when he and his wife Helen moved to Charlottesville in 1978. So he started the forerunner of UJFC, collecting money for Israel and local causes. The fund became inactive in the 1990s. Then Ruth Hanft began work on a new fund in 2002. With the active help of Bill Gray, Sonia Haimes, Vikki Bravo, Faye Rosenthal and Rob Capon among others, UJFC came into being as a 501 (C) (3) tax-deductible fund in 2003. It raised over $25,000 in its first year and has prospered ever since.

Since 2006, we have contributed to four causes:

The PACT preschool program for Ethiopian 
Jewish preschoolers and their parents in Israel








Scholarships to Jewish summer camps for youth who need financial assistance to attend






Congregation Beth Israel award-winning preschool







The University of Virginia Hillel Foundation








UJFC is led by a board of directors. Each board member contributes to the fund. Our annual drive begins after the High Holidays each fall, and runs through December, but contributions are welcomed at any time.

For more information, contact the board chair, Russ Linden: russlinden@earthlink.net