“I think I feel connected to the [Milwaukee Jewish] Federation and the work that they do because I have benefited from it,” Hannah Sattler said recently of her involvement with the Jewish community.
“I was in the fifth graduating class from the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, have been active in B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and went to [the Steve & Shari Sadek Family] Camp Interlaken-JCC. I feel comfortable in the Jewish community,” she said.
This involvement, she said during a recent telephone interview, has made her want to give back to the community. A new Milwaukee Jewish Federation program is offering her that opportunity.
Sattler is one of 15 volunteers selected by the federation’s Young Leadership Division to be part of the George Weinstein Fellowship, a new young leadership development program.
Ranging in age from early 20s to mid-30s, the fellows are led by Jody Kaufman Loewenstein, chair of the federation’s Human Resource Development workgroup; Ellie Gettinger, coordinator of the Young Leadership Division; and volunteer co-chairs Aaron Bernstein and Stephanie Dykeman.
According to Gettinger, this young leadership program differs from previous programs in its expansion from a one- to a two-year plan. The added second year will be devoted to planning and initiating a tikkun olam project and also a “highly subsidized” group travel experience in Israel – “a piece that was very important to the Weinstein family,” said Gettinger.
These components will add opportunities for hands-on follow-through and group cohesion not available in earlier programs, she said.
Named for its benefactor, the group has been meeting monthly since last November. Topics have focused on the work of the federation and its constituent agencies, and understanding the local connection to the world Jewish community.
‘ A lot to give’
Co-chairs Bernstein and Dykeman both “graduated” from Visions, an earlier young leadership development program at the federation.
In preparing for the new program, they, along with Gettinger and Kaufman Loewenstein, “spent a lot of time sifting through names, looking for 15 to 20 people who had already demonstrated their commitment to the community through involvement [with area organizations and agencies]. As a result, we have a small committed group with low attrition,” Bernstein said.
An immediate benefit of the program has been the connections formed between the fellows, Bernstein said. “[The bonding] is happening even sooner than I thought it would.”
But it has also served to educate and excite the participants.
Samara Palay, a 2003 University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, has not seen herself as being very involved with the Jewish community until now.
“I think it’s a great first step in getting more involved. Before this, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation was just a phrase, but every month, as we learn more, it’s helping to paint a picture [for us] of what the federation really is…. As we get older it will help us decide just where we can best serve,” Palay said.
Weinstein fellow Gary Lippow, a new board member at the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, said that his involvement began last year at the United Jewish Communities’ Washington 14 Conference for young leaders.
The Oconomowoc native said the gathering was the first time he had ever seen 1,500 Jews in the same room. “It was then that I really started to appreciate the fact that I was part of the larger Jewish community.”
Native Milwaukeean Hallie Loeb said that she is especially excited about “producing a real ongoing project.” Describing herself as “on the older end of the age range” of the fellows, she said she has been impressed with the group members on the younger end of that range. “A 25-year-old has a lot to give to the community,” she observed.
Kaufman Loewenstein said that the George Weinstein Fellowship fits with her “m.o. [modus operandi] — I try to help build the community by giving people the tools they need and showing them they are not alone; there is a large network to help them. It is [the fellows] responsibility to make sure there are others to follow them.”
“The fellowship would not have been possible without the generosity of the Weinstein family, which has a vision of how the community should be,” she said.
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