Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management Convenes Rising Leaders from Six Countries in Inaugural NYC Leadership Conference

Hebrew Union College's Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management drew rising leaders from across the globe for its annual Leadership Conference. The five-day in-person gathering kicks off the academic year for degree and certificate students and was held in New York for the first time this year.

From June 8-12, 33 students came together from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the U.K., Poland, and Israel. Participants included students who serve full-time in Jewish organizations across the world, along with others who are earning concurrent degrees, including Hebrew Union College rabbinical students, as well as students enrolled in master's programs at Fordham University and University of Southern California.

The program included leadership training at Hebrew Union College's New York Campus led by Rabbi Benjamin Ross '16, who focused on developing vision and purpose-driven leadership.

After this intensive self-reflective work, the focus turned outward as participants visited Jewish organizations of all kinds across New York City. Students met with senior professional leadership at Columbia/Barnard Hillel, Hadar and JDC in Manhattan, and Luria Academy, Congregation Beth Elohim's Union Temple House, Ammud, and Temple of the Stranger in Brooklyn. Leaders spoke with the students on a confidential "colleague-to-colleague" basis about the opportunities and challenges facing them and their organizations.

"The Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management Leadership Conference in New York was powerful and uplifting," said Anna Dyson, a student in the Master of Science in Organizational Leadership & Innovation program (MSOLI) who is based in Leeds in the U.K. "A combination of high-quality seminars on campus led by a top-quality scholar-in-residence and then meeting inspiring leaders of amazing Jewish initiatives in Manhattan and Brooklyn, really filled me up and was a brilliant way to start the summer program."

A highlight included the "Leading Jewish" program on entrepreneurialism and the leadership talent pipeline featuring Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management faculty Shari Merrill, COO of Hillel International, and Dan Libenson, President of the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, moderated by Director Rabbi Shirley Idelson, Ph.D. Attendees at the session included alumni, professional leaders, and supporters of the College from the New York area.

"With the Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management now attracting students from across the globe for our remote + in-person program, the Leadership Conference plays a critical role in our training," Idelson said. "Students spend five days together engaged in leadership development, cohort-building, and learning with some of the most impactful leaders in American Jewish life, the benefits of this shared immersive experience are immediately evident when students reconvene online for classes, sharing close collegial relationships as well as a network that will endure throughout their careers."

"This was a truly wonderful Leadership Conference," said incoming MSOLI student Ella Cooperman Schachter who serves as the Director of Jewish student life at Penn Hillel. "I have attended so many workshops and professional conferences run by Jewish organizations, and this was by far the best one I have been a part of. Our site visits were so inspiring and exciting, our sessions about finding our purpose were grounding and moving, our individual moments with the Torah truly filled my heart, and I really loved meeting my classmates. I feel so fortunate that this is only the beginning of my journey."

Future Leadership Conferences will alternate between New York City and Los Angeles, Idelson says, enabling all degree students to learn about and experience two very different hubs of Jewish life.