Her colleagues, said Tanya Mazor-Posner, would describe her as generally cool, even-tempered and professional. But ask her about her commitment to Jewish communal work, or what can happen when she views the fruits of that work overseas, and this new campaign director of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation can find herself at a loss for words.
“I feel like I’m making a difference,” she said in a recent interview in her new office. “It’s really hard to discuss.”
So Mazor-Posner, 33, told a story. During her last job at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, she went to Kiev, Ukraine, as part of a team that focused on Jewish rebuilding, including Jewish renewal efforts and welfare initiatives.
“It was just incredible to think that a little more than ten years ago, people didn’t even know they were Jewish, let alone celebrate a holiday like Chanukah. To see how they blossomed Jewishly; honest to goodness, it’s a miracle what’s going on there. I become speechless and overwhelmed with emotion.”
That depth of commitment to a vibrant Jewish life envelops both her personal life and her work life. “For me, [my work] is not just a job and it’s more than a career. It’s something that I have very strong convictions about,” she said.
Community enthusiasm
Mazor-Posner brings varied personal and work experiences to her work of managing and overseeing MJF’s annual community campaign, which she began last month.
Daughter of an Israeli mother and a father who emigrated from Europe to Israel during the Holocaust, she was born in Staten Island, N.Y., the youngest of three. Fluent in Hebrew and a day-school graduate, she spent two years at Bar Ilan University in Israel before returning to New York to continue her studies.
In New York she met her future husband, Chanan, who lived in Detroit. A year-and-a-half later, she moved to Detroit and continued her studies, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in market research from Wayne State University in 1994.
From 1996 until this year, she held positions at the Detroit federation as associate director of the Israel and Overseas Department; Partnership 2000 director; senior community development associate and campaign associate.
And she has a clear vision of what she hopes to contribute in Milwaukee.
“Enthusiasm,” she said. “And making the donors feel proud about their contributions to the community. Being more donor-service oriented,” by maintaining contact with more donors, “both those who are continually making contributions and those who have given in the past but no longer give.”
She also hopes to “make people feel excited about what Milwaukee does here and abroad,” she said.
And for the future, Mazor-Posner expects growth. “Milwaukee has a good reputation nationally for its leadership and its commitment to Jewish life and philanthropy. I think we can take all the good that this community has done and bring it to new heights, because I think this community aspires to even greater achievements.”
On a personal level, the Glendale resident is delighted with what the community has already offered her family, which includes eleven-month-old Benjie.
“People told me I was going to enjoy living in Milwaukee, and living here exceeds everything they told me,” she said, listing Milwaukee’s cultural offerings, “the warmth of the community” and child-centered activities.
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