The Wexner Foundation at the GA 2014

The Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly (GA) gathers together Federation volunteer leaders and professionals and those involved in the business of Jewish philanthropy from across North America and around the world.

JFNA represents 153 Jewish Federations and more than 300 Network Communities, which together raise and distribute more than $3 billion annually for social welfare, social services and educational needs in their local communities and around the world. The Federation movement is collectively among the top ten charities on the continent.

This year the GA will be at the National Harbor, MD, from November 9th through 11th.

The Wexner Foundation will be present at the GA: as a sponsor of the GA, as the planner and faculty for Sunday morning’s program on adaptive change for Young Leadership Cabinet, and more. 

Each year we bring a class of Wexner Graduate Fellows to the GA to give them an opportunity to see a slice of North American communal leadership in action, addressing and digging deeply into pressing issues facing the Jewish community. Class 26 of the Wexner Israel Fellowship will also be at the GA this year as part of their learning about the North American Jewish community, augmenting their studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. We hope that this experience will give all Fellows and Alumni the chance to engage in deeper conversations with people involved in Jewish life in different ways; to participate in more informed discussions of the most crucial issues facing the Jewish community at home and in Israel; to learn, to question and to leave more aware of North American and Global Jewish issues- and with many more insights and questions still unanswered. 

Presenters at this year’s GA include Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent; Nina Totenberg, NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent;  Supreme Court Associate Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer; Isaac Herzog, Chairman of Israel’s Labor Party, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Ambassador Liora Herzl, David Horovitz, founding Editor of the Times of Israel, David Makovsky, Dr. Erica Brown and Wexner alumni presenters including  Julie Platt (WHA, LA/Bear Stearns), Dr. David Bryfman (WGFA, Class 17), Rabbi Shira Stutman (WGFA, Class 17) and Akiva Tor (WIFA, Class 14).

Foundation staff present this year will include Rabbi Elka Abrahamson, President, along with Lori Baron, Cindy Chazan, Elisha Gechter, Jaclyn Hirsch, Or Mars, Liz Meyers, Rabbi Jay Moses, Larry Moses, Adam Reiss and Ruthie Warshenbrot.

The GA is a time to come together as a community, thinking, working and learning together. It is also a time for the extended Wexner “family” to gather at our annual outstanding GA Reception, Monday, November 10 at 10 PM in the Foundation Suite at the Gaylord Hotel to relax, meet one another and enjoy. Invitations have been sent and are not transferable. If we missed you somehow, please contact Aliza Storchan. You also must RSVP, also to Aliza, by Monday, October 27.  

We look forward to seeing you at the GA!

Cindy Chazan is Vice President of The Wexner Foundation. In this capacity, she facilitates collaborations among the Wexner leadership constituencies in North America and in Israel, develops partnership communities for the Wexner Heritage Program and engages Jewish communities in greater leadership development activities. She holds a B.A. in Jewish Studies from McGill University and an M.A. in Contemporary Jewish Studies from Brandeis University. As a lay leader, Cindy is a founding Board Member of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community and is on the Board of the Jewish Funders Network. Cindy can be reached at cchazan@wexner.net.