Jewish Federation, The J begin new collaboration
By Lacey Storer
Contributing Writer
Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and The J — Jewish Community Center are starting a new partnership that will expand the Jewish Experiences programming available to the community, bringing more opportunities for Jewish learning and engagement.
“This is a new and exciting venture for us in moving our community from cooperation to collaboration,” said Dr. Helene Lotman, Jewish Federation president & CEO. “We’ll be more united and working together to offer comprehensive engagement activities to the community as a whole, rather than as separate individual organizations.”
The J and Federation will be creating a committee comprised of staff and volunteers from across the community, representing various organizations that are interested in promoting the programming and events created out of The J’s department of Jewish Experiences.
“The J was very receptive to the idea of working together to align Jewish experiences and engagement to have a greater reach,” said Samantha Hammontree, The J’s chief operating officer.
“Especially during the pandemic, this collaboration is a better use of community dollars. It will be incredible to share our ideas, reduce duplication, and join forces to offer our community amazing programming and events,” Hammontree added.
“We want to keep the best of what The J has done, but we also want to enhance and broaden and deepen what’s been working,” said Annie Glickman, Federation’s financial resource development officer who will act a liaison between the two agencies.
Glickman will work closely with Hammontree and The J’s new director of Jewish Experiences, Penina Hoffnung.
Hoffnung brings extensive educational, engagement and Jewish Federation experience to her new role. Her previous positions include director of Jewish education for the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey and director of Lifelong Learning at Beth Sholom Synagogue in Memphis, Tennessee. Most recently, she spent three years as the senior manager of Community Engagement for Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
Hoffnung says she was drawn to the director of Jewish Experiences role because it was in a pluralistic setting, had multiple elements of outreach, and focused on designing creative and dynamic programming, which is her passion.
She also appreciated the openness to taking risks and trying new things that she felt during the interview process.
“I kind of operate on the philosophy that if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten,” she said. “This seemed like a place where people were willing to try different things. I’m very grateful to Jill (Maidhof, former director of Jewish Experiences) because she did such a wide variety of programming and she changed the types of programming she did. I have not yet once heard, ‘That’s not the way we’ve done it before.’”
Hoffnung said her first few months here will be spent doing a lot of listening to learn not only what is happening in the community, but what’s not happening. The Kansas City community, like many across the country, is dealing with “the shifting paradigm of how people connect Jewishly.”
“It used to be measured by standard metrics, you belonged to a synagogue or a JCC, you belonged to something, but now that’s not necessarily how people are connecting to a community,” she said. “Now it’s a shift to, how do we help people connect if those classic ways are no longer in play?”
Hoffnung calls those under-engaged people “the bagel in the hole people,” and said one of her main focuses will be finding them and helping them connect in a meaningful way. These under-engaged segments of the community include those who identify as LGTBQIA, parents who converted as adults and are now trying to give their kids a Jewish childhood, second generation Russian Jewish families who still predominantly speak Russian, and single Jewish baby boomers, just to name a few.
Hoffnung said Federation’s plans for a comprehensive community study will also help identify those members of the community who are under-engaged and/or under-represented.
“I’m so heartened to hear that the Federation is doing a population study coming up, that is going to be so revealing,” she said. “The community I just came from just did their 10 year study and it revealed lots of different things.”
Hoffnung explained some of those findings in Philadelphia included discovering the community is now far more diverse than generations before, with borders that are fuzzier than they used to be. Younger community members are less inclined to join things. Millennials and the generations beyond can create their own worlds with technology, so the question becomes, “How can we be a part of that world? What can we do for you to make you feel meaningful and important and part of something greater than yourself?”
Lotman echoes that sentiment.
“I think we’ll see that there are a lot of people out there who are not aware of what the Jewish community has to offer,” she said. “This Jewish Experiences partnership is a good vehicle and a non-threatening way for them to get involved.
“I’m thrilled that this new initiative is coming to fruition, and I look forward to working very closely with Penina and The J staff to make this a success, and to reach as many people as we can.”