Even as the Milwaukee Jewish Federation has completed its search for a new chief executive officer, the Jewish Federation of Madison is embarking on a search for its new executive director.
According to an article on the JFM website by JFM President Deborah Minkoff, Jill Hagler, the JFM executive director since September 2010, has taken a position in the foundation of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation in Florida. Hagler had come to Madison from Miami and will be moving closer to family members when she returns there, according to the article.
In a telephone conversation on July 24, Minkoff said the JFM has formed a seven-person search committee, whose members were announced to the JMF executive committee on July 23.
This committee will be meeting “in the next couple of weeks to determine the direction of the search,” she said. This committee will “formalize the job description” and explore options, including that of consulting the Jewish Federations of North America about the process and candidates, she said.
Minkoff said the JFM is “hoping to bring in candidates” after Jan. 1. “In the ideal world, we would hope to have a candidate identified and hired by June,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dina Weinbach, the JFM program director since 1994, is presently serving as interim executive director. She also is one of the candidates for the executive position.
In a telephone interview with The Chronicle on July 23, Weinbach, 44, said she grew up in Madison and had participated in Jewish community programs, including the Midrasha Hebrew supplementary high school and served as a counselor at Madison’s Camp Shalom day camp.
In fact, such experiences showed her that she “enjoyed children” and moved her toward a career in education. She earned her undergraduate degree in education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then moved to Atlanta to teach in the public schools.
While there, she became involved in a synagogue’s “young professionals” group and so began Jewish community involvement as an adult. She also decided to go to graduate school to get into education administration.
She earned a master’s degree from Stanford University in California. But while she was there, she learned that the then-Madison Jewish Community Council was creating a full-time program director position, and a friend encouraged her to apply.
“I enjoyed living in California and going to school there,” Weinbach said. But “I felt I was ready to move on,” and “I didn’t appreciate Madison until I had left it for a while.”
According to the JFM website article, as planning director Weinbach “has worked with many committees, organized and planned a large array of programs, and has supervised staff and budgets.”
Programs involved have included the Midrasha, Camp Shalom, Madison’s Israel emissary program, and the community’s Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) and Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel Independence Day) events.
When she returned to Madison, Weinbach met the man she married, former Milwaukeean Dave Weinbach, who works as director and certified financial planner in Madison. They have three children.
After returning to Madison, Weinbach also earned a master’s degree in educational administration from UW-Madison.
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