COMMUNITY W H AT ’ S H A P P E N I N G I N N O R T H E A S T F L O R I D A
BRIDGING THE WAY FOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT By Faye Hedrick, Jewish Federation & Foundation of Northeast Florida
Much has happened since The Jewish Federation & Foundation of Northeast Florida’s Leadership Development Initiative, BRIDGES, kicked off. The mission of BRIDGES is to expand the vision of nextgeneration Jewish volunteer leaders, deepen their Jewish knowledge of community, both locally and abroad, and inspire them to exercise transformative leadership. BRIDGES fulfills this mission by educating up-and-coming Jewish lay leaders in the history, thought, texts and contemporary leadership challenges of the Jewish People. The ten-month program is designed to develop the next generation of Jewish leaders in Northeast Florida, address the challenges and meet the needs of the community. BRIDGES Chair Nicole Brown and I sought to create a program to help answer questions, prepare for the future, and become more educated on topics our Federation and our Jewish values support. At the beginning of each session, a member is invited to talk for a few minutes about their Jewish Journey and why they
BRIDGES session on Exploring Your Leadership Style at The Jewish Community Alliance.
“
chose to participate in the quickly are able to see how program. “It’s not just a these components intertwine leadership while program for sharing and Jews, it’s a listening to BRIDGES is so program that each others' explores journeys.” important to the leadership Several of longevity of our through a the 28 Jewish lens,” participants community. Nicole says. have shared “We wanted a bit about Nicole Brown, to bring in themselves BRIDGES Chair components and reasons of Judaism for joining as well as the group. personal and professional Class member Joe Young development. Participants asserts, “Hearing from
”
members of my class and sharing my own personal story has made me realize just how different everyone’s Jewish story and identity can be, but yet we all have so much in common at the same time.” At a class on Jewish identity Joe noted, “We may be Conservative, Reform or Hasidic, from the north or south, or from different countries, but we’re all Jews working towards the same goals. Our diversity, within this Jewish community, helps BRIDGES cont. on pg. 6
5
