Profile of Debby Goldenberg

Marshall Weiss

The Dayton Jewish Observer

An interview with new Jewish Federation President Debby Goldenberg

When Debby Goldenberg was chair of the Jewish Federation’s Women’s Division in the early 1990s, her job was to run a two-line campaign: one for the annual United Jewish Campaign, the other for Operation Solomon, the rescue of more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews that brought them to Israel in 36 hours in May 1991.

Shortly after, Debby visited the Ethiopians in an absorption center in Israel.

Nine years later, she returned to Israel and visited an absorption center near Jerusalem, where Ethiopian Jews were still trying to adjust to Israeli society.

Now, as the new president of the Jewish Federation, Goldenberg will guide the organization as it opens another two-line campaign.

This time, the additional campaign — Operation Promise — will bring the remaining 13,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel and will see to their proper absorption into Israeli society.

“I think Israel has learned from the first group of Ethiopians who have come into the country,” she said.

“Because of their primitive culture, Ethiopian absorption has been a challenge for Israel,” she said. “To the Ethiopian olim, running water is a miracle and Hebrew is very difficult.

“It’s important to get as many Ethiopian Jews out as we can. But it is equally important for Israel to absorb them carefully and properly.”

Goldenberg, known in the general community as a staunch supporter of the arts, said she learned the art of fund-raising through the Jewish Federation.

She met her husband, Daytonian Dr. Robert Goldenberg, on a blind date in her native Louisville, where he was attending medical school.

“We got married the day before he graduated from medical school,” she recalled.

In December 1975, they moved to Dayton. “Shortly after we arrived in town,” she said, “I got a cold call for a UJA pledge. It was not a positive thing.”

It was later, at a seminar with retired Huffy Corporation Chairman and CEO Fred C. Smith, that he advised her, “You have to friend-raise before you can fund-raise.” This has become her mantra.

Goldenberg said her commitment to Jewish causes solidified on a Federation young leadership mission to Israel in 1979.

“The emotions of being in Israel were profound,” she said. “Things were a lot different then. The settlements in the Gaza Strip were just being built. I’ll never forget that they were filling deserts with flowers to be exported. The agricultural part of Israel was growing by leaps and bounds at that point.”

When she returned to Dayton, Golden-berg became more involved with the Federation. Over the years, she has served as chair of the Women’s Campaign twice, as president of the Women’s Division, and as co-chair and then chair of the general Campaign. She is a past recipient of the Federation’s Dorothy B. Moyer Young Leadership Award.

She and her husband, a past president of Temple Israel, have a son, Ted, who lives in Denver and is training to be a financial advisor.

Goldenberg said that her mother-in-law, Judith Goldenberg, and former Campaign Director Carol Pavlofsky were key mentors for her.

“They really taught me what is important: it’s how you deal with people, it’s how you ask, it’s how you educate.”

With the Federation now on firm financial footing, Goldenberg said the high priority during her presidency will be outreach to the nonaffiliated Jewish community and interfaith families.

“We present solid programming and reach out; we think about people’s needs, but we can do better. We have a lot of friend-raising to do. Reaching out to Jews who are not affiliated is very important, not just for Campaign, but for the health of the community as a whole. The more Jews who are affiliated, the better for all of us.”