Olga Semenova, a Program Coordinator and Certified Marketplace Navigator at Jewish Family Service of Detroit, has been accepted to the Brandeis Jewish Leadership Incubator. Ms. Semenova started the program with a four-day seminar at Brandeis University last week.

The Brandeis Jewish Leadership Incubator is a 12-month fellowship that strives to nurture a cadre of effective Russian-speaking Jewish communal professionals, fortified by superior management skills, Jewish knowledge, systematic understanding of the Russian-speaking and American Jewish communities, and commitment to the future of the Jewish people. The fellowship combines distance learning with residential seminars at Brandeis University and in New York City along with an overseas mission.



The program is designed for Russian-speaking professionals with up to five years of experience working at Jewish communal organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Ms. Semenova is a member of the first cohort of fellows. For more information, please visit the BJLI website.

Jewish Family Service of Seattle received a major grant from The Covenant Foundation to support a new educational initiative that will recharge connections to the organization's Jewish values-driven mission.  

The $109,245 grant, over three years, allows JFS to design, develop and implement Project Kavod, providing staff, board members, volunteers and others with opportunities to examine the Jewish roots of the organization's work and enhance their capacity to serve the community.

"Jewish is in our name, but that is no guarantee that the Jewish values that historically guide our work are discussed and reflected upon," said Will Berkovitz, JFS Chief Executive Officer.



"For people to process what they are doing within a Jewish framework, it is important that Jewish values are infused into the DNA of our agency. Project Kavod gives us a structure to launch this critical conversation."

Broadly, Project Kavod will create the organizational space for JFS officers, employees and stakeholders to discuss religious, philosophical and cultural concepts and texts with each other, within and across all levels of the organization's structure, and to create a shared language and consciousness. In its first year, the program is expected to directly involve approximately 300 people and will reach 7,000 households through the agency's communication platforms.

On the first night of Chanukah, I was glad to join a large and spirited public gathering of Jews. We greeted old and new friends, we sang, we prayed, we heard words of wisdom and inspiration about this holiday of resistance and rededication . . . and then we marched together in the cold and rainy San Francisco night, calling out for justice for African American men and boys. We said Kaddish for those whose lives were ended far too early, and we stood in a silence that reverberated powerfully in the middle of Market Street. It was a proud, sobering, and altogether fitting start of this year's Chanukah season.



There are so many reasons why hundreds of us gathered together in the rain that night. Continue reading Avi's blog here.

Visit  AJFCA's Calendar
to learn more about free calls and webinars. For more information login to the Member Resources section of the AJFCA website, followed by Webinars. Contact Megan at 410-843-7327 with questions.

Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month

Wrap Up:  Solutions to Senior Hunger

MAZON gave the group sweatshirts that read: "I'm working to transform how it is into how it should be. "

Development Quarterly Webinar - Passive Revenue Sources

Join Daniel Goodman, President of Special Kids Fund and Co - Founder of

CharityChoice Gift Cards for AJFCA's Quarterly Development Conference Call as we discuss generating revenue from existing systems. CharityChoice Gift Cards was born in 2004 and is a nonprofit pioneer in creating charity gift cards that can enable your communities to participate in helping your Jewish family service agency. This program makes it possible for everyone to add a charitable dimension to their special

occasion; by giving a charity gift, whenever ...meaningful matters. CharityChoice is an Official Donation Site for the American Red

Cross. They recently launched a turnkey solution, 'Donate Your Card', converting unused retail gift card balances into cash donations. Forty percent of merchant gift card recipients do not use the total value of card. American households have an average of $300 in unused gift cards. This 30-minute webinar will showcase three examples of passive revenue sources. The last 30 minutes of the webinar will be devoted to Q&A and professionals sharing what existing revenue

generating systems they currently employ at their agencies.

PurchasingPoint Discount Program Webinar -

RESCHEDULED

AJFCA partners with the National Human Services Assembly to provide our members access to the PurchasingPointŪ program, an exclusive discount program for nonprofits that leverages group buying power to get access to significant savings from your everyday vendors. The program is designed to help nonprofits reduce overhead costs by providing access to discounts on a vast range of products and services including, but not limited to: office supplies, shipping, copiers, postage equipment, furniture, cleaning supplies, promotional merchandise, car rental, cell phones, and more.