Part of future convenings, Finkel said, will involve other noted speakers, including government leaders. And also to really see how we can accomplish that much more on a philanthropic economic development, community development side when we have more energy shared between us.
In Michigan , Finkel served on the founding outreach team of the annual Detroit Homecoming, a weekend-long gathering that brings former Detroiters back to the city for three days of events and networking. In May , as internships, Jewish summer camps and trips to Israel were abruptly canceled due to the COVID pandemic, thousands of Jewish college students stared down a summer with nothing to do. Scrambling to keep these young adults engaged, the Jewish Federations of North America threw together the Jewish Changemakers fellowship.
Changemakers seemed like it might have an expiration date, with much of Jewish life β and the world more broadly β leaving Zoom behind. But Jewish organizations have found that some audiences still prefer meeting online, reports Lev Gringauz for eJewishPhilanthropy. Added value: For Jewish organizations, retooling these programs means accepting that online connections are no longer a begrudging necessity of , but a value-add in their own right.
That is now a feature, not a bug. Younger audiences, including families, have mostly gone back to in-person, the center has found, but many older adults are still social distancing for safety. Fifteen of 17 exercise classes for older adults are now hybrid, with the remaining two meeting entirely in person. Cultural arts programming, like book talks and history seminars, which often found an audience among older people, have also stayed online.
Now a coalition of roughly 90 Jewish and non-Jewish Israel trip providers, including Honeymoon Israel and Birthright, the alliance was conceived as a way to better navigate rapidly changing border policies worldwide, and brainstorm ways to deal with a sudden loss in funding and the ability to travel. But even as international tourism has resumed, the travel and hospitality industry has continued to struggle and the need for the alliance has outgrown its emergency origins.
