Dr. Helene Lotman, who has served as president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City since May 2016, will step down at the end of the calendar year.
In an email to the community on Oct. 14, Amanda Morgan, Federation board chair, shared that Lotman plans to return to Florida to serve the Jewish community there. She will be taking on the role of president and CEO of Jewish Family & Children’s Services of the Suncoast.
Morgan noted Lotman’s tireless efforts on behalf of Jewish Federation and the Kansas City community over the past 6.5 years. “We thank her for making our community better and stronger,” Morgan wrote.
The Federation will organize a CEO search under the leadership of longtime volunteer and Federation board secretary Amanda Palan, who also has chaired a number of committees and task forces around the Greater Kansas City Jewish Community Study.
The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle staff met with Lotman to discuss her tenure at Federation, the progress of the organization and the community during this period, and what she’s enjoyed and appreciated about serving the Kansas City Jewish community. What follows is an edited question-and-answer segment.
Looking back on your time in Kansas City, what stands out as two or three major accomplishments of Jewish Federation and/or the community? What are you particularly proud of?
Jewish Federation finding and dedicating the resources and the best possible research partner for a comprehensive Jewish community study–which was conducted in the spring/summer of 2021–is a really important achievement. It had been many years since a study of this quality and caliber had been done, and doing so allows for a really full understanding of the community at this point in time. It allows for data-driven decision making around community needs, opportunities and resource use.
Raising millions of dollars to establish, sustain and constantly enhance a robust, best practices-based community security program is another accomplishment worth celebrating. This has been a quiet effort, and we’re not resting as there is still more to do, but the latest security campaign has raised about $7 million toward covering all security program costs through the year 2030.
Finally, I’m proud of the position Jewish Federation is in from a professional and lay leadership standpoint. We have worked to have a strong professional team in place with talented and dedicated members across functions, and to ensure a pipeline and deep bench of future board members and leaders for both Federation and the wider Kansas City Jewish community. Leadership development is a passion of mine, and I know I’ve been able to nurture and further what Federation offers in this area.
What has been the most enjoyable part of your work on behalf of the community?
Helping to convene and guide the organizations in the community from cooperation to collaboration has been a pleasure. Whether it is convening working groups around different demographics, the scenario planning work undertaken during the pandemic, or the establishment of Jewish Experiences, for example, I feel the community sees Federation differently today than it did when I arrived.
I had the goal of Federation really becoming the convener of the community, and I believe that has been actualized. That is a satisfying feeling, but even more important, I’ve enjoyed the process of working with partner agencies and executives to go beyond niceties to doing meaningful work, in alignment, on behalf of the community.
What was it like to lead the Federation through the COVID-19 pandemic, including a rapid pivot from in-person work, meetings and events to remote work and Zoom meetings and events?
It was a challenging time across the board–for individuals and families, for organizations and for the community. It would have been hard to articulate how great it was to be together in so many ways in 2019 without seeing this coming. Being alone, apart, isolated and struggling with not getting out or having the social interactions and community connections we’d grown accustomed to was really difficult, and in many cases has had deep and lasting impact to mental health and general well-being.
Leading the organization responsible for raising and allocating the resources to help our community navigate through such times was a lot of pressure. And that doesn’t touch on any of the many quick changes, from canceling a mission to our partner communities of Bulgaria and Romania just a week before departing in March 2020 to vacating our office and going fully online and digital all at once, without any ramp up.
I’m proud of the staff for confronting those challenges and many more head on, and working tirelessly for months on end to ensure our organization was doing its best for the community, even when we couldn’t be physically together. We made thousands of check-in calls, brought forward key questions and solutions, and generally learned that innovation out of necessity can be a good thing, even in far-from-ideal circumstances.
How has the community responded to challenges it has faced, whether the need for additional security or the need to raise funds for crises either locally, nationally or globally?
This community is caring and generous–there is no shortage of philanthropy, and while we do hear the word “no” sometimes, it’s rarely “no, never,” or “please don’t ask again.” We see individuals, families, foundations and boards in the community stepping up to meet challenges on a regular basis. Most of the funds raised to deal with crises and security don’t come with a lot of recognition or naming opportunities, but that hasn’t deterred generosity in any way.
Perhaps the greatest challenge is that because the next crisis is always around the corner, and the needs of the local community already are great in different areas, it can be difficult to build endowments–whether unrestricted or for particular community programs. Still, this is something we work diligently to do, and we’ve seen success with the Polsky Family PJ Library Endowment Fund, for example.
In what ways do you feel the community is positioned for success moving forward?
With the community study complete, good relationships between Jewish organizations and institutions in the community, good leadership development opportunities and an appropriate focus on education and engagement, I am confident the Kansas City Jewish community is set to be a vibrant, thriving community well into the future. That doesn’t mean there isn’t still much work to do, just that the community is well positioned to do that work, with caring people who are dedicated to ensuring the work is done. We continue to do additional research and pilot new initiatives that can further build our community, and I have no doubt that such research and development will continue beyond my time in the community.
What are your hopes for the community in the next few years?
Generally, I hope for economic stability and investment growth, which will allow for additional generosity, risk-taking and future planning. More specifically, I hope for a shift to radical hospitality that makes people of all types and backgrounds feel warmly welcomed into the community, as that will allow for growth from within in addition to potential growth from the outside. The community cannot be at its best without addressing some of the statements and recommendations coming out of the study.
What advice would you offer the future leadership of Federation, whether professional and/or volunteer leadership?
To quote Rabbi Nachman of Braslav, “The whole world is a narrow bridge and the main thing is not to be afraid.” This is challenging work from both sides, and it can be exhausting and frustrating, but if it is approached with positivity instead of anxiety, and if we are able to recognize progress and celebrate the good, it can be extremely rewarding and fulfilling.
