Wurzweiler Students Descend on Nashville for the Annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly

Between November 11th and 13th, 17 Wurzweiler students had the privilege to be among the nearly 4,000 participants at the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly. Under the theme of “One People, One Destiny,” the GA, held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, looked to tackle a myriad of challenges facing the organized Jewish community in North America, including:

• changing trends of philanthropy,
  
• Israel advocacy,
  
• and promoting, nurturing and cultivating the involvement and emergence of tomorrow’s Jewish leaders.
  

This last concept--celebrating new and younger leaders--pervaded much of the proceedings. There were many young speakers at the plenary and breakout sessions, and there was a very large delegation of college and university students in attendance.

Under the guidance of Professor Saul Andron, Wurzweiler students were personal benefactors of this special attention. Professor Andron arranged an informal question and answer session with three Wurzweiler alumni who currently hold executive positions in their respective Federations (Judah Isaacs in Detroit, Marc Terrill in Baltimore and Max Kleinman in MetroWest, NJ). This session actually led to an impromptu invitation from Marc Terrill to a Baltimore Federation reception, attended by Baltimore professionals and lay leaders, later that evening.

Wurzweiler students met in a special session with volunteer leaders and professionals of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. After presentations from the chief professional and volunteer officers of the federation, students were paired with individual members of the Atlanta federation delegation for more in-depth discussion of the issues facing this rapidly growing Jewish community and the challenges the federation faces to implement new strategies to engage Jews in Jewish life. There was also time for a more intimate conversation between students and the professionals of this community about their career choices.

The Wurzweiler students returned energized from this conference with added enthusiasm for the Certificate program and commitment to pursue leadership positions in the Jewish community.

Summing up her experience, first-year student Samantha Leapman noted that...

The GA was an opportunity to join our fellow students in seeing our classroom learning experience come alive. With Dr. Andron’s help, we learned about the importance of creating new and innovative ways to engage the Jewish community, paving the way for our future involvement in the larger Jewish community.

Adena Kaplan, 2nd year student added...

Each year, the G.A. provides an ongoing opportunity for young professionals in the field to open their eyes to the depth, strengths, and gaps in the field of Jewish Communal Service. Our trip again reminded me of the enormous but exciting roles there are for us to take on in the field.

(Thanks to Yehezkel Jesin for reporting this story.)