Mayor Rahm Emanuel lauds Chicago federation

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised the city’s Jewish federation for its work in and out of the Jewish community.

“To be a Jew is to be a member of a community—and that’s not just our community but the community at large,” Emanuel said Tuesday at the 111th annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. “We have an obligation beyond our community to serve.”

Emanuel, the first elected Jewish mayor of Chicago, also said, “I as mayor cannot achieve what I want to do for the city if the JUF is not standing shoulder to shoulder with me.”

He said that as a member of the Jewish federation and as mayor of Chicago, “nothing makes me prouder than your work and the work of JUF [the Jewish United Fund].”

Also during the meeting Dr. Steven Nasatir, president of the federation and JUF, its fundraising arm, was presented with the annual Julius Rosenwald Award, the federation’s highest honor. He is the organization’s first sitting president to receive the award.