From the CEO
A Commitment to Inclusion
“We are beginning 2020 as we begin every year — identifying and addressing our community’s greatest challenges and seizing its greatest opportunities.…”
- Jay Sanderson, President & CEO
Read MoreFrom the CEO
A Commitment to Inclusion
“We are beginning 2020 as we begin every year — identifying and addressing our community’s greatest challenges and seizing its greatest opportunities.…”
- Jay Sanderson, President & CEO

Highlights


We Include Those with Diverse Abilities
We recognize that those with disabilities want the same opportunities to belong and to be active participants in Jewish life, and we are honored to join this unified effort to raise awareness.
An integral component of this work is our Caring for Jews in Need strategic initiative, which helps provide a safety net of vital social services for the most vulnerable in our community. We make it a priority to offer accessible ways for individuals with diverse abilities to enhance their lives through enriching employment, supportive living situations, life skills development, and recreational opportunities like camping and social and educational gatherings.
To learn more about the Federation’s work and find out how you can become involved, please visit our website.


A Night of Togetherness Honoring the Nazarians
On Thursday, January 23rd, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles honored Younes and Soraya Nazarian with our Lifetime Achievement Award. The Nazarian family were honored for their decades of leadership and generosity to the local Jewish community, Israel, and the Los Angeles community at large.
The evening celebrated the work the Federation and the Nazarian family have done to bring together diverse segments of the Los Angeles Jewish population.
Aligning with the Nazarian family’s belief in the importance of giving back and looking forward, proceeds from the evening will support the Federation’s Next Generation Leadership Training Programs, which focus on ensuring that young adult leaders have the skills to help our Jewish community address our shared challenges.
Learn more about the Nazarian Initiative and its impact on Jewish L.A.


We Train Community Leaders to Bridge Divides
Now in its second year, Community Engagement (CE) partnered with Resetting the Table (RTT) to launch the second cohort of facilitator training. This month we hosted the opening retreat to introduce eight new facilitators to RTT’s six-month program, which will provide them with the opportunity to practice intervening amidst free-flowing conversation in ways that support participants to remain centered and connected as they exchange deep-rooted commitments, address misunderstandings, and challenge one another across their differences. Going toward the heat skillfully requires highly trained facilitators and, through this partnership, we are training community leaders to help bridge the divides within the larger community. The Jewish Federation and Resetting the Table will continue to work with these eight individuals over the next six months to ensure that they are prepared to serve in this capacity as we begin to host these types of conversations.


LAJTI Supports Parents with Teens and Screens
In January, we offered three sessions of the workshop Teens & Screens: Thriving in the Digital World with Julia Storm, an L.A.-based digital media wellness specialist. Julia is an educator, a writer, a public speaker, and the author of Reconnect, a whole-child and whole-family approach to life in the Digital Age. Her workshop offered relevant information, simple researched-based tips to support parents in this era of technology, and a helpful Q&A session. 48 parents attended. One parent shared, “Very relevant topic. Speaker was excellent — very informative and articulate. THANK YOU!” LAJTI hopes to continue the conversation around teens and screens because we know that parents are struggling to navigate these choppy waters.


Experts Share Insight on Homeless Crisis
Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas is a clergy member at Valley Beth Shalom, the former chair of the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority, and a past facilitator of our Rautenberg New Leaders Project (NLP). Rabbi Farkas drew from his recent experience leading a three-year campaign to address homelessness in Los Angeles County and galvanizing the largest coalition for housing in County history to provide valuable insight at the event. NLP alum Dara Papel also spoke on her decade of experience in social and economic justice and her work to address homelessness through a lens of human connection and collaboration. Taking part in the conversation was also Speak Up! Advocate Dorothy Edwards who shared her powerful personal journey struggling through homelessness.
Our Federation always welcomes our community members’ involvement, as it is a testament to the strength of our Jewish communal power. We feel it is important to educate ourselves and our community regarding the most pressing challenges we face together, homelessness rapidly climbing the list. While there is no quick fix, educating ourselves and our community about the work being done to solve this devastating problem is crucial.


Mentors Meet Mentees and Set Goals
During the month of January, all Community Leadership Institute (CLI) participants convened to meet their mentors for the first time. The CLI tracks retreated to individual breakout rooms where track chair pairs led strategy sessions that helped mentor/mentee pairs identify key learnings, goals, and milestones they plan to achieve by year’s end. It was a truly inspiring and energetic evening for all present. We were overjoyed with how the event turned out. Mentors and mentees came together to focus on their shared mission and discussed bold and creative strategies to achieve their goals. We believe that the partnership between established and emerging leaders is a bedrock of our Jewish community, and we are excited to see what this cohort can accomplish together.


L.A. Birthright Participants Return to Community
This winter, we sent over 160 Angelenos on a Birthright Israel experience. We executed trips in partnership with Hillel at UCLA, several classic Birthright Israel trips, and an entertainment professionals trip for young adults up to age 29. Some of our trip highlights this season included visits to witness Federation’s work in Israel, connecting with local Israelis, experiencing Shabbat in an Israeli family’s home, and participation in an archaeological dig. We are excited to welcome our new Birthrighters back to L.A. and to further connect them to each other, our warm Jewish community, and our Jewish Federation.


Connecting with Jewish Mexico
National Young Leadership Cabinet (NYLC/Cabinet) kicked off 2020 with a meaningful three days together in Mexico City for the group’s annual Shabbat Experience. The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), our Federation, and Cabinet are committed to actively engaging all alumni and creating opportunities for members and their spouses to take part together in this wintertime Shabbat Experience every year. Sharon Janks, Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles board member and former cabinet alum (1983-1989), along with her husband Leon, was one of 20 Cabinet alums who participated in the trip alongside NYLC Vice Chair of Engagement and L.A. Cabinet Member Robin Polansky.
With 95% of Jewish children in Mexico attending a Jewish school and most visiting Israel following their bar/bat mitzvah, it was clear that the Jewish community there is highly structured and extremely active. Over time, it has become a diverse community since Jewish families settled there from Syria, Turkey, and Eastern and Western Europe, bringing with them (and maintaining) the traditions, cuisine, and histories of their native countries.
Highlights included visiting the Centro Deportivo Israelita (an impressive JCC), hearing from Israeli Ambassador to Mexico Zvi Tal and US Ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau, touring the Museum of Memory & Tolerance, and sharing Shabbat services and dinner at Bet El Congregation where JFNA President & CEO Eric Fingerhut addressed 45 local community leaders from the bimah. Eric inspired the group with a call to action, and the young Jewish leaders fueled the movement and set an example for Cabinet today to be out in front on the community’s key issues.
NYLC is Federation’s 5-year premier national leadership and philanthropic development program that cultivates, trains, and inspires young leaders to take on positions locally and nationally that will impact the future of the global Jewish community. NYLC’s next stop will be Riga and Paris for the Cabinet Study Mission from March 23-29!
Applications are now open through May for the 2020-2021 cycle of National Young Leadership Cabinet. Contact Alexi Baker at (323) 761-8386 or ABaker@JewishLA.org to learn more about the application process.


From the CEO: A Commitment to Inclusion
We are beginning 2020 as we begin every year — identifying and addressing our community’s greatest challenges and seizing its greatest opportunities.
This month is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month. We are all deeply proud of our Federation’s long and deep commitment to accessibility and inclusion and to building a flourishing Jewish community for everyone. We work tirelessly with our partners to both provide life-enhancing services and create a place of belonging for those in our community with diverse abilities — from birth to adulthood.
One major focus of our work is on life skills that build self-confidence and self-esteem. This includes internships and jobs that lead toward independent living to social and recreational opportunities that promote social, physical, and emotional well-being.
This is another example of the powerful work we do together. I encourage you to visit our website to learn more.
I would love to hear from you! What do you think is our greatest challenge today? Email me at Heartbeat@JewishLA.org.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jay Sanderson
President & CEO