January 2011 Report
January 17, 2011
Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum's report from the January 2011 Joshua Venture Group Fellowship conference for Jewish social entrepreneurs.
I’m excited to be able to report back to the Kavana community about the retreat I attended last week with the Joshua Venture Group Fellowship program for Jewish social entrepreneurs.
The theme of last week’s JVG conference was “Harnessing Human Capital.” I attended workshops on topics ranging from management and staff supervision to the conscious creation of organizational culture, and I had the opportunity to learn from other social entrepreneurs about board development, fundraising, and volunteer systems. None of these are subjects that I studied in Rabbinical School – and so I am particularly grateful to have these experiences now, when they are enabling me to grow in my Executive Director role as Kavana grows.
Most of my weeks are spent “in the trenches” of community organizing, programming and pastoral care (all of which I love!). In contrast, the JVG retreat provided me with the chance to step out of the day-to-day work and “onto the balcony,” where I had the opportunity to reflect about the community we’re building here in Seattle. The group was inspired to hear not only about the great programming we offer and the sense of community we’ve built here in Seattle, but also about Kavana’s vision of itself serving as a local laboratory for innovation. It is my hope – and Kavana’s Board’s – that our cooperative community will come to serve as a model for how 21st century Jewish institutions can best meet the needs of a contemporary Jewish community.
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