It is official: Wisconsin for the first time in its history has women in charge of the Jewish federations of both of its two largest cities.
On April 23, Dina Weinbach became the second, when the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Madison unanimously appointed her the JFM executive director.
Weinbach, who grew up in Madison, thereby joins her former Sunday School teacher, Hannah Rosenthal, who has been the president and chief executive officer of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation since the summer of 2012.
In a recent interview, Weinbach said the JFM currently faces two challenges, but she views them as opportunities for the organization’s growth.
The first is the need to raise additional money for the JFM’s annual Tzedakah Campaign. The funds are used to support organizations like Jewish Social Services, the University of Wisconsin Hillel, as well as global initiatives.
Another challenge, Weinbach said, is having enough space for the JFM’s daily operations at the Max Weinstein Jewish Community Building.
“The office building we have outgrown,” she said. “A lot of people have two people in their office. There’s not a lot of storage space.”
To address these administrative needs, as well as those of Madison’s Jewish community, the JFM is conducting an assessment and developing a strategic plan to find solutions.
“I think the Madison Jewish community is a very strong community,” Weinbach said. “As to where it’s headed, I hope that we will continue to do the work that we are doing on so many levels, and continue to bring in new people and keep them engaged and interested. We are certainly open to innovation and new ideas.”
Weinbach had been serving as the interim director since July 2012 when the previous director, Jill Hagler, took a position at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation in Florida.
During the nine month selection process, a search committee headed by past JFM president Jim Youngerman interviewed three candidates out of 35 who applied, according to an article written by JFM President Deborah Minkoff.
Youngerman said in an interview that the search process was fair, objective and transparent.
“Our charge was to conduct a broad national search,” he said. “We considered a number of candidates from outside of Madison, from different areas of the country, one from outside the country…. We carefully evaluated strengths and weaknesses, measured against the job description and what we were looking for.”
Youngerman said the search committee had the opportunity to gauge Weinbach’s performance during the nine months she served as interim director. He said the committee observed many positive qualities in their evaluation.
Weinbach was familiar with the organization of the JFM, created positive relationships with community members, contributed to staff morale and secured important donations, he said.
“We were aware of the fact that we had a situation that was working well,” he said. “So the question is: Would you change that? … [W]e didn’t find anybody in our search that was so compelling that it would cause us, at the end of the day, to make a change when the person that is in the position has demonstrated that [she was] really doing a very good job.”
This is Weinbach’s 19th year working for the JFM. She started in 1994 as the first full time program director of what was then known as the Madison Jewish Community Council. According to an article on the JFM’s website, Weinbach oversaw more than 18 programs, including Camp Shalom, Midrasha, Chug Ivrit and Gan HaYeled.
Weinbach said working as the executive director is “very different” from her previous job responsibilities.
“I still work with a lot of volunteers and lay leaders, board members, panels and committees, but they are different than they were when I was program director,” she said. “Now I work more with fundraising [and] community relations — the day-to-day running of the organization.”
Given the smaller size of the JFM compared to those in cities like Milwaukee or Chicago, Weinbach oversees a broad array of activities that larger federations may delegate to multiple staff members.
“It was interesting because when I [visited] Milwaukee, I met so many wonderful people at the [Milwaukee Jewish Federation], and they were asking me who their counterparts would be in Madison,” she said. “For the most part, it’s me.”
Throughout her work as program director, Weinbach said she made it a point to collaborate with community partners. She said, as executive director, she is meeting even more people in the larger community.
Weinbach said the JFM may collaborate with several cities, including Milwaukee, in a program called “Partnership2Gether.” The program pairs Jewish communities in the U.S. with those in Israel. Madison has been invited to join Milwaukee, Tulsa, Okla.; and St. Paul, Minn., in a partnership with communities in Israel’s Sovev Kinneret (Around Lake Kinneret) region.
“I think on one level, it would be very nice to be in that partnership with Milwaukee because then we could certainly work together and share programs and resources between our two communities, which are obviously very close when it comes to distance in Wisconsin,” she said.
Bennet Goldstein is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with master’s degree in the history of science and is currently a Madison-based freelance writer.
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