NextGen’s Arthur Borinsky Young Leadership Development program kicked off on February 4 with a group of 10 dedicated individuals from all over Greater MetroWest. The seven-week series exposes a select group of rising leaders to breadth of Federation’s world. The Borinsky cohort represents Essex, Morris, and Union counties and come from varying levels of Federation involvement including two members of the NextGen leadership team and one JESPY House client. Every person has a different reason for wanting to participate and each hope to gain something different from this incredible program.
Our first Borinsky session, held at Friendship Circle, focused on getting to know one another. In addition to a tour of Friendship Circle’s LifeTown facility, a highlight of this session was hearing everyone talk about their Jewish journey. We asked all participants to bring in an item that helps represents their Jewish identity. Participants brought in very unique and personal items, ranging from fraternity t-shirts to art with quotes from Pirke Avot to a tallit that was received during a conversion. The conversations surrounding these items not only allowed for each Borinsky participant to open up about their Jewish identity, but it also enabled us to connect their stories to Federation’s work.
Our second session, Jewish Mutual Responsibility (Kol Yisrael Arevut Ze’La Zeh), is the cornerstone of the Borinsky program, the who, what, and why of Federation. For the last 101 years, Federation has been looked to care, build, save Jews here in New Jersey, Israel, and around the world. This session helped explain why.
In upcoming Borinsky sessions, we will hear about our partnerships with local agencies, our communities in Israel, with the JDC and about our campaign and allocations process. Our hope is that every participant in the Borinsky program will walk away with some inspiration and desire to take on future leadership roles at Federation.