Connecting the Connectors: Developing and Supporting Jewish Outreach Professionals

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Bringing Jews closer to Judaism is a full-time job and more. The dedicated professionals who serve this important role rarely have the opportunity to do the kind of important work on themselves that they ask, and help, others to do.

Unlike many other non-profit staffers, these Jewish professionals have few formal opportunities to grow and develop. The Jewish non-profit world has many opportunities for professional development, but, since the Association for Jewish Outreach Programs (AJOP) closed its doors in 2017, there has not been any holistic professional development program focused specifically on supporting the people working to connect the Jewish people. While both Chabad and Aish host annual conferences that are wonderful inspirational and social experiences, they do not provide the kind of deep personal and professional support needed.

As a foundation whose mission is to proliferate Jewish wisdom and values in the contemporary world, it is not surprising that many of the Mayberg Foundation’s grantees are working tirelessly to connect Jews to their heritage. Their dedicated staff provides meaningful experiences and accessible learning opportunities to thousands of adults and families each year – without any professional support. Through conversations with grantee staff members, we learned about this critical void that needs to be filled. Individuals from a variety of Jewish outreach backgrounds have sought to provide some aspects of this work for themselves and their peers. Many of these existing programs are small, addressing only the particular needs of a small segment of professionals. In response, the Mayberg Foundation created a pilot program, allocating grants and convening professionals from three leading outreach organizations: M54: The Institute for Insourcing - Avodas Pnimis, Orthodox Union’s NCSY professional development, and Aish Jerusalem’s professional development.

At the OU, we’re creating strategic and meaningful learning opportunities to meet the needs of these amazing professionals. With the Mayberg Foundation convening this group and supporting our collective efforts, we are not only laying the foundation; together, we’re building that community.”

–Orthodox Union Assistant Director of Talent Development Shai Kopitnikoff

Our cohort of professionals, representing a diverse spectrum of Orthodox Judaism, spent six months working together, sharing updates on our efforts and exchanging best practices. Our work culminated in an in-person meeting where we grappled with shared challenges and respectfully learned from, and with, each other. Each of the three groups reported on the aspects of their professional development projects that they felt were best suited to scaling or sharing. They engaged with each other's topics, helping guide their peers towards bigger and better visions for what comes next.

Orthodox Union Assistant Director of Talent Development Shai Kopitnikoff shared his biggest “aha” moment – that all of these professionals share one dream: of supporting and empowering our professionals in their incredible work to build a stronger, more thoughtful community. “At the OU, we’re creating strategic and meaningful learning opportunities to meet the needs of these amazing professionals,” Shai said. “With the Mayberg Foundation convening this group and supporting our collective efforts, we are not only laying the foundation; together, we’re building that community.”

(L-R) Mayberg Foundation Managing Director Amanda Mizrahi, M54 Founders Chanie and Peretz Chein, Orthodox Union Assistant Director of Talent Development Shai Kopitnikoff, Atlantic Seaboard NCSY Regional Director Rabbi Jonah Lerner, Aish Global COO Rabbi Elliot Mathias, and Aish Global Branch Coordinator Rabbi Daniel Rose

“Aish professionals around the world are so mission-driven and idealistic. They are hyper-focused on making a big impact on their students and participants,” noted Aish COO Rabbi Elliot Mathias. “But they have been given limited space for their own growth – both professionally and personally. The Mayberg Foundation has given us the opportunity to provide this space to our dedicated staff, and we look forward to continuing and expanding this crucial opportunity."

“We are deeply grateful to the Mayberg Foundation for seeing us in our entirety and not just for what we produce and making the investment needed to bettering our lives and ultimately the work we do,” commented Chanie Chein, who, along with her husband, Peretz, founded M54: The Institute for Insourcing - Avoda Pnimit. The couple have also served as Chabad schluchim (emissaries) to Brandeis University since 2001.

So what happens next? The group unanimously agreed that they had just begun to scratch the surface of the field’s professional development needs. They also expressed their shared appreciation of the enormous value of working together as a group, and they would like to expand their group’s efforts to the larger Jewish community. We are still imagining what a shared product could look like, and we are excited to continue this journey together.

Congratulations to Yeshiva University and Erica Brown

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The Mayberg Foundation congratulates our esteemed colleague and friend, Dr. Erica Brown, on her selection as director of Yeshiva University’s new Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Center for Values and Leadership. We are pleased for Dr. Brown as she takes this next step in her professional and personal journey, and we look forward to a continued close connection with her as she continues to make important contributions to the Jewish people.

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The Case for Operational Support

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The Case for Operational Support

Amanda Mizrahi, program officer for Aish from the Mayberg Foundation, and Dan Hazony, Chief Information Officer of Aish, discuss why an operational framework for giving is so important. According to Mizrahi, outward signs of an organization’s major growth, like a new building or program, are flashy and fun, but they only work if they continue to stand on a strong foundation, which has to grow with the organization. “I would think that anyone who cares about the success of any nonprofit would want to understand the base’s stability before adding onto it,” she writes. “A new program that aligns with an organization and donors’ mission is exciting, but only if that success is sustainable because the organization’s baseline operations (fundraising, data, and communications) are all in good shape.”

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The Backstop: An Underused Tool for Overcoming the Chicken and Egg Challenge

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The Backstop: An Underused Tool for Overcoming the Chicken and Egg Challenge

In this piece by Rebecca Weisman, The Backstop: An Underused Tool for Overcoming the Chicken and Egg Challenge, she lays out a dilemma many nonprofits know all too well – the organization cannot secure funding until they launch the project, and at the same time, cannot start the project until they secure funding.

During moments of uncertainty, like a global pandemic, finding creative solutions to funding challenges is even more necessary.

Enter, a creative tool that the Mayberg Foundation found to be particularly effective in funding an initiative as an early investor and mitigating risk. The “backstop,” which was successfully implemented in its funding of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC), allowed the organization to build a track record while seeking other funding sources.

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The Power of Difference

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The Power of Difference

In this blog by Momentum COO Ruth Baars, she relates, “Over this past decade, and our intensive work in partnership, I’ve discovered that there is so much to gain from coming together with those who think differently and there is much to lose from being comfortable with the like-minded. The Jewish people are a kaleidoscope of differences and these differences can be used to collectively shape and strengthen our Jewish future.”

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Telling Your Story: A multilane highway

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Telling Your Story: A multilane highway

In this blog post by Amanda Mizrahi, she uses the motif of a multi-lane highway to describe the differing and changing needs of donors, end users, community members, colleagues and potential partners, and how they interact with information that an organization shares. “They need different ramps to get on or off of your highway, rest stops and safe shoulders, fast and slow lanes and definitely lots of appropriate signage to help them make good choices along the way,” she states. “Whether it is in the boardroom, on your website, or at the point of service, each individual needs to have access to the right sets of information at the right times to ensure their journey is comfortable and gets them where they want to go.”

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Mayberg Foundation Grantee-Clients Embrace the Value of Collective Effort

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Mayberg Foundation Grantee-Clients Embrace the Value of Collective Effort

In this blog post by Tyler Grasee, Associate Manager of Grantmaking, he describes how Mayberg Foundation grantees have embraced the value of Collective Effort, especially during the pandemic. This past year, he related, “by continually listening to our grantee-clients, we have had the opportunity to see the broader effects of their collective efforts, meeting the communities they serve where they’re at and addressing communal needs as holistically as possible.”

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Not Locked Up During Lockdown: Appreciating the Value of Volunteers

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Not Locked Up During Lockdown: Appreciating the Value of Volunteers

Rising Trustee of the Mayberg Foundation Yacova Mayberg explains why she, as part of a group of Israeli and international participants on a preparatory gap year program, went door to door in an Arab village during the climax of the global pandemic, offering support. The answer lies, she relates, in the “culture of the state of Israel and the value it places on volunteering.”

“I feel blessed to be involved with the Mayberg Foundation, which values collective effort and foundational Judaism,” she continues. “This means having an impact on communities we care about and on the world through our instilled Torah lens. I have had some incredible, expansive volunteer opportunities this past year, which further shape my understanding of philanthropy.”

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Bringing a Spirit of Innovation to Town

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Bringing a Spirit of Innovation to Town

Learn about Mayberg Foundation grantee JEIC’s work to reimagine Tefillah in this piece by Rabbi Arnold Samlan - originally published in eJewish Philanthropy - titled “Bringing a Spirit of Innovation to Town.”

JEIC’s program to ‘reimagine tefillah’ is in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Broward County at Brauser Maimonides Academy and Shaarei Bina Torah Academy for Girls.

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Leadership, Passover and Maintaining Our Humanity

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Leadership, Passover and Maintaining Our Humanity

In Dr. Erica Brown’s blog, on “Leadership, Passover and Maintaining Our Humanity,” she argues that collaboration can be a form of liberation from old notions of power. Ironically, she pointed out, “being a slave to power is one of the ways we injure our freedoms.”

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The seeds of Jewish community are planted on the front door

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The seeds of Jewish community are planted on the front door

MyZuzah Director Alex Shapero writes that in the wake of COVID-19, MyZuzah ”has managed to weather the inhospitable climate of the past year, and thanks to some introspection, quick pivoting and collaboration with fellow educators, has not only emerged into a beautiful flower, but has encouraged a field of other seedlings to flourish.”

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Values that have encouraged Jews to allocate their charitable dollars to the Jewish future 

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Values that have encouraged Jews to allocate their charitable dollars to the Jewish future 

As Jews, we are encouraged to pass on our values through the generations, l’dor v’dor. From the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, our values have endured, and sustained our people. We review our histories to do just that, such as at the Passover table, when we are instructed to recount the Exodus story with our family during the seder, and glean valuable insights into what being Jewish means to us, and how that guides our actions.

Today, we continue to pass along our values to the next generation through our traditions and mitzvot/commandments and through our tzedakah/charity. Every Jewish family actualizes their values in different ways, and one recently launched initiative, Jewish Future Pledge, provides a platform for Jews to express their values through a lasting gift to the Jewish people. The pledge calls on global Jewry, young and old, to allocate in their estate plans at least half of their charitable dollars to Jewish and Israel-related causes. But more than just giving, the pledge asks donors to share their pledge with friends and family, sparking conversations about Jewish legacy and the values that can be expressed through philanthropy.

Motivations for signing the pledge vary like the Jewish people itself.

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The Value of a Jewish Day School Education is far Above Rubies

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The Value of a Jewish Day School Education is far Above Rubies

What is the case for day school besides that they are less worse than the alternatives? What is their special value proposition? The answer is rooted in their promise of deep and ongoing learning that integrates multiple dimensions of the child’s identity; their nurture of thick relationships between children, and between children and adults; and — above all — their embeddedness in the local community.

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Cynicism and Sarcasm - A Not So Silent Killer

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Cynicism and Sarcasm - A Not So Silent Killer

Never before in Jewish history have so many children been enrolled in Jewish day schools. Thousands of young Jewish men and women travel every year to Israel to study their heritage. Tens of thousands of Jews study a page of Talmud every day. In short, there is no comparable era in Jewish history for the amount of Torah being studied around the globe. Yet, there is a silent, growing problem which is only being spoken about in darkened corners. For all of the Torah being studied and the commandments being kept, many of the practitioners are sorely lacking a relationship with the Almighty.

The irony is that Torah and Mitzvot (commandments) are a means to an end. They should direct a person into the arms of the Almighty. Unfortunately, something seems to be lost in translation. I recently spoke with a young woman from a very religious seminary in Israel. She had come to Aish HaTorah to attend some classes that discussed G-d. She told me that having gone to a Jewish school her whole life, she knew the intricate laws of the Sabbath. That having been said, she wasn't sure she believed in G-d! She quipped, “It's not like G-d was on the test!”

The ramifications to this issue are felt far and wide. The result is a large population which is socially Orthodox. They have grown up Orthodox, their friends and family are Orthodox, so they feel at home being Orthodox. This is a dangerous phenomenon. Religion untethered to G-d doesn’t last and certainly won't exist when the community is absent. Hence these Jews tend to be lax on vacation or if they go away to university. Absent the community, there is no incentive to “stay Jewish.”

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What We Can be Certain of Even in Uncertain Times: Using the New Year to Find our Inner Voice 

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What We Can be Certain of Even in Uncertain Times: Using the New Year to Find our Inner Voice 

This past year has been one of unprecedented challenge. No matter one’s personal circumstances, the shifts and pivots we have all had to make on an individual, communal, nationa,l and global scale have been enormous. And perhaps, even greater than the changes we have had to undertake, is living with the uncertainty of not knowing what will come next.

While often the High Holidays are a time of self-reflection and a commitment to change, this year’s Holiday season affords us an opportunity to look anew at these Days of Awe, and utilize them to examine what we are certain of in this uncertain world.

Rosh Hashanna liturgy contains the sentiment, “Hayom Harat Olam”, today the world was born, and we often conceptualize Rosh Hashanna as the first day of creation. Yet, there is an important Rabbinic understanding that Rosh Hashanna commemorates not the creation of the world, but rather, the creation of the human being.

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Tapping Students' Passions about their Judaism through the Inquiry Beit Midrash

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Tapping Students' Passions about their Judaism through the Inquiry Beit Midrash

Three years ago, as part of the Hakaveret initiative, in which the Mayberg Foundation brought together teams of educators to design innovative models, Michal Smart, Rina Hoffman and I developed The Inquiry Beit Midrash (IBM), a project-based learning model for Judaic Studies. I have had the good fortune to bring this model to life at the Idea School in Tenafly, NJ. The idea behind IBM is to find out what the students are passionate about in their Judaism and to use that passion project as the basis for some of their Judaic learning.

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Joining for Ourselves

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Joining for Ourselves

In Pirkei Avot 2:4, we interrupt learning about the importance of doing God’s will with fervor to hear that, additionally, Hillel says “do not separate yourself from the community.” We learn in one breath that community deserves and requires as much effort as mitzvot, an astounding comparison. Some commentators tie it to our prayers, others connect it to the mitzvot that can only be done with a minyan. Community, however, is more than just these components - it is a critical element of an actively Jewish life. Even for many who are more removed from “traditional” Judaism, many still find themselves drawn to the aspects that revolve around community. Why would community be an essential part of religion? What makes it important enough to insert into a conversation about the individual’s effort to do God’s work?



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The need for Jewish educational continuity

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The need for Jewish educational continuity

Hebrew has two ways of posing one of the most basic questions we can ask – “why?” One is מדוע (madua) and the other is למה (lama). Madua, shares the same root as the word for “science,” implying a more empirical response. Lama, can be read as ל-מה (l’ma) – towards what end, asking what we are meant to learn from that which we are asking about.

During the COVID-19 crisis, public health officials are crucially asking the first question: madua? They seek to understand the cause of the virus in order to slow its spread, develop a vaccine, and prevent its recurrence. This is the essential first response.

However, while living with this different reality, many who are not healthcare workers cannot help but ask the second question: lama? What lessons can we learn from this pandemic? While not a reason for the occurrence, is there some collective meaning we can take away which will serve us beyond these uncertain times?

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It’s All About Relationships...Especially After a Pandemic

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It’s All About Relationships...Especially After a Pandemic

I write this sitting in a Hilton Rochester hotel room in what is known as “Med City,” Rochester, Minnesota. My wife Susie and I have been in this same room since February 10 when we arrived to enter the world-famous Mayo Clinic kidney transplant center. That amounts to more than 90 days, isolated from most family and friends. We were sheltering-in-place for weeks before the rest of the world, living like John and Yoko during their “bed-in” protest for peace at the Hilton Amsterdam in 1969.

The good...scratch that...the great news is that Susie’s new kidney - she named it “Sydney” - is working magnificently. When we arrived here, her function was around 13%. It is now 75%. Twice as good as mine. I donated my “spare” to a lovely woman in Florida, whose husband is a Southern Baptist minister who studied at seminary with my friend Pastor Rick Warren, and who, after Googling me, wrote in an email: “I feel so blessed to have a Jewish kidney!”

So, for the most part, we have been alone all this time. Yet, here’s the thing. We are hardly “alone.” We are surrounded daily by our kids and grandkids, our cousins, our friends, and our colleagues who call, who write, who send, who never let a day go by without letting us know how much they care for and love us. Much of this contact has come through the amazing CaringBridge platform where they see daily updates on our progress. We have come to depend on these virtual connections that lift our spirits. We have been alone....together.

Who knew that the entire Jewish world would learn this same lesson, simultaneously, across denominations and heretofore impermeable institutional borders?

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