Jaynie Levinson — Connecting Jewish Young Adults
10 Reasons to Join Federation’s Young Adult Leadership Class
A new LEAD cohort is forming now—deadline is August 15. Apply here.
Why join a group of young Jewish adults, once a month, to learn about leadership and the Jewish community?
Emily Zemboch Werbel knows why. She and her husband Aaron both just graduated from last year’s program, called LEAD, organized by the Young Adult Division (YAD) of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. Having just moved to Blue Ash, the couple has two young children, the younger only three weeks old. They belong to Adath Israel Congregation; Emily grew up as a member there before moving away for 14 years.
Here are Emily’s top 10 reasons to join:
1. Unique situation: “My husband and I have a unique situation with LEAD. I am from here, but I haven’t lived in Cincinnati since 2005 when I graduated high school. So it was a great way to get involved in the community quickly. It was really cool to connect with people right away other than a synagogue or a Mommy and Me class.”
2. New in town: “My husband is from Atlanta, and he met these people fresh too—I wasn’t introducing him. It was a great way to network and learn about our community, being new.” [The couple returned to Cincinnati in March of 2018, and started LEAD last October].
3. Great launch pad: “It’s simply a great foundation to getting involved.”
4. Learn new things: “If someone was considering getting involved, I would ask them if they knew the valuable things I learned about in LEAD—then I would say, you have to do LEAD.”
5. Learn what’s important to you: “Each session was valuable in its own way, each of them had an impact, whether small or large, I can still tell you what happened in every session and why they were important to me.”
6. Not hard to do: “It’s not a huge commitment, and you get a lot out of it.”
7. Take a bus trip: “Of all the sessions, I got the most out of the bus tour. Because I am a fourth generation Cincinnatian—and still—I did not know or hadn’t seen about 90 percent of what we saw and learned that day. It also made me proud to show my husband. We needed another day!”
8. Elida Kamine and Robyn Lamont, Chairs of the LEAD program, are amazing: “I really enjoyed Elida and Robyn. Elida was our guide on the bus tour. She is super smart, super savvy, a pleasure to be around.”
9. Create a special bond: “I feel like I met a great group of people that I’ll always have a special bond with; all around the same age, all doing it for similar reasons. Being a native Cincinnatian, it’s important to get involved for anyone; but also, my family is very involved in the Jewish community in Cincinnati, and it was a way I could get involved as well.
10. Prepare to join a board, committee, or specialized project. Emily is not involved in a board or other leadership position, preparation for which is a part of LEAD training. She has a good reason: she had a baby three weeks ago. “I have nothing lined up because I knew I was having a baby right now. So I don’t want to take anything on quite yet. But when things slow down, I will. Especially being a stay-at-home mom, I really need an outlet, something that’s just for me. We are all so busy with work and our kids, but making the time to invest in our community is a top priority.”
LEAD sounds great, how do I apply?
Applications open July 1 and close August 15 online at jewishcincinnati.org/LEAD. If you have any questions, please call Jaynie Levinson, Young Adult Division (YAD) Development Officer at the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, at 513-985-1518 or jlevinson@jfedcin.org.Thanks for caring about our community and what we do.
Stay connected: sign up for our newsletter here.
