There are 152 member Jewish federations in the Jewish Federations of North America umbrella organization — and Gerrald “Jerry” Silverman intends to visit every single one.
And Silverman, president and chief executive officer of JFNA for the past five-and-a-half years, is getting close to reaching this goal. With his visit to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation early in February, he has made it to 136 member federations.
As he told The Chronicle during his visit: “I believe very strongly in visiting our communities, getting to know them, getting to understand them, getting to know the people, getting to know the challenges, or that our agenda truly adds value to the community.”
Both in his position and via his visits, Silverman gets a national view of the Jewish federation system, that network of non-profit organizations that provides the financial infrastructure to most of the organized Jewish community. (JFNA members also include more than 300 networked communities that are not large enough to have a federation, Silverman said.)
And if, as the Yiddish proverb goes, “What happens to Israel will happen to Mr. [and Ms.] Israel,” Silverman has spotted national and world tendencies that are bound to influence Wisconsin one way or another.
For example, when The Chronicle asked him what are the “top priorities” he is thinking about and working on at present, Silverman said that first, “We’re seeing a significant turnover, a changing of the guard in federations,” and in fact “across the Jewish organizational world.”
For example, he said, some 38 percent of the federations have executives with “two years or less experience.”
(Milwaukee is not one of them, as President/CEO Hannah Rosenthal has held the position since 2012; but Madison is with Dina Weinbach being executive director since 2013, though she was interim director before that.)
That makes it even more important to make sure that JFNA is “stepping up” it commitment to “providing value to our federations,” Silverman said.
JFNA does this, he said, by providing a wide range of services to local federations. These include support in recruiting, training and developing leadership talent; supporting federation marketing efforts; and managing national affinity groups like Women’s Philanthropy, he said.
“We have a national planned giving and endowment office that supports foundations that are part and not part of federations,” he said. “We offer services and support in Israel.”
JFNA convenes groups of federation professionals, everything from missions to Israel during times of crisis — like the one during the recent Gaza conflict in which MJF board chair Daniel Bader participated this past summer — to the annual general assembly.
And JFNA works in Washington, D.C., having a lobbying arm that social service issue, charitable tax laws and security issues.
That last named item leads to consideration of what Silverman said is the second highest priority item on his agenda, “thinking about what is going on in Europe,” with a perceived rise in cultural anti-Semitism and increasing doubts about European Jewry’s future.
“We’re working closely with our partners, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Joint Distribution Committee, in trying both to address the security situation and really insure that there’s capacity building in the community for resilience,” Silverman said.
Silverman said he had a strong Jewish background. A native of Tulsa, Okla., his father was a cantor who later became a rabbi.
Nevertheless, Silverman had spent 25 years in the for-profit world before becoming involved as a Jewish communal professional. What attracted him to change fields at first was Jewish camping.
“The most transformational experience” for all five of his children “was Jewish camp,” he said. And so he ultimately became president of the Foundation for Jewish Camp.
But after five years, he was recruited to head JFNA, somewhat to his surprise. Though a contributor, “I was never involved in federations,” he said.
“However, there was a point in our lives where the [Cleveland] federation made a huge impact on our family, especially my mother, may she rest in peace,” he said. “I still remember the glow on my mother’s face from how important that was to her.”
“And I believe the values that were inherent in the federation [then] live as strong today,” he said. “What an opportunity and a privilege, frankly, it is to work across the Jewish community.”
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