This past week, Erin Berger, Lindsay Fineman and I went on a study mission to Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; and Budapest, Hungary, as part of our participation in National Young Leadership Cabinet, the premier leadership development program that educates and connects the next generation of global Jewish leaders and philanthropists.
On our trip, Jewish Federations of North America facilitated meetings with local leaders, including the US Ambassador to Latvia, the Jewish Agency for Israel, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and World ORT.
The mission focused on secular Jewish life, looking back at the atrocities of the Holocaust and looking forward at the dynamics of Jewish life in these thriving cities. With our strong support of overseas Jewish communities, our own community makes a big impact, far exceeding that of our peers, and gives us something unique in which we can truly take pride.
These communities in Europe are growing rapidly, by any measure. Budapest had an estimated 2,000 Jewish people in the 1990s, while today there are more than 20,000 Jews, with six kosher restaurants, a community center that hosts hundreds of programs each month, and 26 active synagogues. (The city has the highest number of Jewish citizens, per capita, of any city in Europe.) The people there are proud to be Jewish, feel purpose in their communal efforts and understand how they fit into the world, while also building an inclusive, dynamic, and engaging Jewish culture.
In Riga, from Chabad to secular, Jewish schools cannot keep up with demand, with applicants exceeding capacity at all of the schools we visited. Part of this is from exceptional leadership thanks to years of investment and work from partner organizations and philanthropic families, part is from the partial state funding received, and a significant portion is done with the support of Jewish Federations of North America. These schools have a deep desire to impart Jewish values to the next generation.
To bring it home, I hold these same values of the Kansas City Jewish community as sacred. Be it actively or passively, we in Kansas City play a big role in the global Jewish narrative. Now I’m left reflecting on how our community will collaboratively deepen its ties to the movements it is already connected with.
This week’s parsha talks about sacrifices. What heroic sacrifices are we willing to make for the broadest Jewish movement, and what opportunities are we missing that those who came before us or in other communities have sacrificed for us?
If you or someone you know under the age of 40 is interested in learning more about leadership and global Jewry, please reach out to Erin, Lindsey or me to learn more about National Young Leadership Cabinet, and the impact you can have both locally and globally through participating.
Josef Loeffler is an entrepreneur, investor and community volunteer. He is a graduate of Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.
