Open a Jewish newspaper on any weekend and you can’t miss it: Bergen County is giving.

Our community and our neighbors are stepping up to meet needs in Israel and Jewish communities around the world. An ambucycle. A hospital wing. A new dormitory or beautiful beis medrash. A yeshiva or seminary. A community project that will touch thousands of lives.

And there is a reason these stories make it into the paper. They are being made possible by people right here in our own communities.

We should be proud of that.

There is something deeply satisfying about knowing that a donation can build something tangible and lasting. An ambucycle can race through the streets of an Israeli city. A new building can give students a place to learn for decades. A community project can strengthen Jewish life thousands of miles away.

Those causes deserve our support.

But as Elul arrives, we also have to remember something that is easy to overlook when the needs elsewhere are so compelling:

Our own community needs us, too.

The Gemara in Bava Metzia teaches “עניי עירך קודמין”, the poor of your city come first. The Rambam codifies the principle, and the Shulchan Aruch does as well.

It does not mean we stop giving to Israel. It does not mean we stop supporting causes around the world.

It means that while our hearts can stretch across the globe, our responsibility starts close to home.

Here in Bergen County, that means our shuls, yeshivas, schools and community organizations. It means the institutions our children attend, the places where we daven and learn and the organizations that are there when one of our neighbors needs help.

These needs can be less visible.

There is no dramatic photograph when a local organization quietly helps a family through a difficult period. There is no ribbon cutting when a shul keeps its programs running or a yeshiva makes sure it can continue providing what our children need.

There is no press release every time Bergen Hatzalah, Bergen Shomrim or Chaverim of Bergen County answer one of the countless calls they receive. There is no newspaper story every time one of our shuls helps a family, one of our community organizations steps in or a yeshiva quietly meets a need.

Most of it happens without fanfare. That does not make it any less important.

In fact, these are the things that sustain Jewish life right here.

And we know that because we live it.

We see these institutions every day. We send our children to these schools. We walk into these shuls. We rely on these organizations. We see the neighbors who make our community what it is.

That is why the Project Ezra campaign this Elul deserves our attention.

This is not about choosing Bergen County over Israel or Bergen County over the rest of the Jewish world.

We can and should continue to be the generous community that responds when Jews elsewhere need us.

But we should also be the community that makes sure our own institutions and neighbors have what they need.

Elul is a time to take stock. To look at where we are and where we want to be.

Maybe part of that means looking at our tzedakah, too.

We have already shown that Bergen County knows how to give.

Let’s make sure we are giving here with the same sense of responsibility we show everywhere else.

עניי עירך קודמין.

This Elul, let’s remember that our community is not somewhere else.

It’s here.