Leading the Way
by Emily Raij
Leaders embrace change, and the Bornstein Leadership Program is evolving with our ever-changing community. Find out what this fun and fulfilling program can do for you or a leader in your life.
There’s a centuries-old debate about whether leaders are made or born, but the Central Florida Jewish community may already have a solid answer: Jewish leaders are made through Bornstein.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando (JFGO) Jerome J. Bornstein Leadership Development Program, named in memory and honor of community leader and volunteer Jerome J. “Jerry” Bornstein, is a yearlong program designed to develop the next generation of Jewish leaders in Central Florida in order to address the challenges and meet the needs of the community. The program is run every other year and includes monthly leadership sessions at different Jewish organizations in the area.
Founding chair Roz Fuchs, who has mentored many Jewish leaders in the community, developed Bornstein’s curriculum and led the program for 14 years, starting in 1994. The program has been one of the Federation’s greatest success stories, producing graduates who have gone on to hold leadership positions at many synagogues and nonprofit organizations. In fact, one of those graduates – 2018 alum and 2019 Byron B. Selber Young Leadership Award recipient Abby Nelson – is now leading the program as co-chair with Rhonda Forest, JFGO’s immediate past president, and Dr. Maxine Silverman Rosenthal, JFGO board member.
After her Bornstein experience, Abby felt the program needed a revamp to better meet the needs of the changing Central Florida Jewish community and to inject more passion and Judaism back into the curriculum. She gave her feedback to Rhonda, who then asked Abby if she would spearhead the program and help implement the improvements.
“I think it’s important that when you have criticism about something, you don’t just complain – you jump in to help,” says Abby.
Along with Rhonda and Dr. Silverman Rosenthal, Abby also met with JFGO executive director Keith Dvorchik, who later helped interview candidates for the program and find leaders for the monthly sessions. The group talked about what worked and what didn’t work.
One big change they enacted was in the criteria for selecting participants. In previous years, the program targeted young professionals in their 30s and 40s, but this year, the chairs didn’t set age restrictions, encouraging people to apply who are “young in their journey versus young in age, necessarily,” explains Abby. “Why not give people who are ready to start their
leadership journey the tools, regardless of age? I wanted qualified people. I didn’t care about age.”
Many of this year’s participants were recommended by others, and the chairs have already started putting together a list to interview for the next program. Abby also made the interview process more fun and tried to get to know the candidates better.
Other areas Abby sought to improve were the curriculum and schedule.
“First was coming up with a really good curriculum and a set calendar in advance,” she says. “We set the expectation that if you’re going to go through this program, you’re not going to miss any of the dates. And you must make the retreat.”
That Shabbat retreat, which took place in January and starts the program each year, was a big focus for Abby. She didn’t want it to be just a kickoff event, but rather a structured weekend led by someone with a focus on bonding the group.
Keith brought in Rabbi Lou Feldstein from Atlanta to not only lead Shabbat and Havdalah services that weekend but to facilitate sessions and discussions on personal identity, Jewish connection, relationships, leadership, and change. The rabbi asked participants to bring in a Jewish article with personal meaning, so the retreat started with everyone placing their items on a table and explaining why they brought them.
“When you can get so personal so quickly with people, it really helps you bond,” says Abby. “You feel like you’ve gotten to know people so well in such a short period of time.”
And immediately after the retreat ended, Abby, Rhonda, and Keith were back to work, talking for three hours about what to change for the next year. One aspect they want to work on is keeping alumni connected more during the off years with events like quarterly dinners with a speaker.
For this year’s group, Abby wanted to provide more leadership training to enhance skills like fundraising and meeting management. And there are some logistics to improve, as well, such as making it easier to get to the different organizations, which are spread out across the greater Orlando area. Doing two Sunday bus tours – one to Central Florida Hillel, Kinneret, The Rosen JCC, and Jewish Family Services; and the other to the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center, The Roth Family JCC, Jewish Academy of Orlando, and Jewish Pavilion – will solve that issue while allowing for more group bonding during travel.
Another change was to make sure the curriculum had a stronger tie-in to Judaism.
“It’s not just a leadership program for Jews, it is a Jewish leadership program,” Abby says. “So we did want to bring in more components of Judaism and extra teachings.”
At the beginning of each month’s session, a rabbi has been invited to talk for a few minutes about that class’s topic and how it relates to Judaism.
“That’s what separates this program from any other leadership program,” says Abby. “This is what really bonds us, our commonality. We are Jewish people.
“We really want to show the older generation that the young leadership is here in our community,” Abby continues. “The involvement is going to be different, but that doesn’t mean it’s not here. We need guidance from older generations. A lot has changed, and things need to change with the times. This is so important to the longevity of our community.”
To learn more about the Jerome J. Bornstein Leadership Development Program and the
2020 Bornstein class, visit OrlandoJewishFed.org/Bornstein/#class.