Last week, 25 ARJE Board members and Committee chairs gathered in Philadelphia to reflect upon the priorities we set on March 1, 2025 and how we wanted to ensure these were more fully implemented by the end of 2026. These priorities are:
- We will strengthen our culture of belonging to decrease insider/outsider perceptions.
- We will intentionally cultivate our members’ creativity in our organizational offerings.
- We will enhance the quality and quantity of ways we recognize and celebrate our members as diverse Jewish educational leaders
We committed to thinking about how we engage our volunteers and how we use data-based evaluations to help us create new programs and initiatives to meet the needs of our members. You have hopefully seen this work through the regular evaluations of ARJE programs and the increased opportunities for volunteers.
We gratefully acknowledge our board members who have completed their board terms: Sharri Isserles, Jamie Mafdali and Rabbi Lisa Levenberg. While in Philly, we installed four new board members Rebecca Good, Rina Liebeskind, Rachel Petroff Kessler and Julie Wohl. We are so looking forward to their leadership and contributions to the ARJE!
If you want to get more involved in the work of our leadership, we invite you to fill out this Volunteer Form. You can learn more about our committees here and see our new board members here.
This year’s leadership meetings felt especially powerful as we reflected on the strong value our members feel towards ARJE, our continued increase in membership numbers, and our budget surplus and fundraising accomplishments. In the coming weeks, the board will consider how we might reinvest our surplus into a staffing structure that will better support our members' needs and our organizational priorities. Our leadership is hard at work to support you!
Sincerely,
Stacy Rosenthal, RJE
ARJE President