Leading Edge

Excellence in Jewish Leadership

Leadership Starts with You

Why are great leaders for Jewish organizations so hard to find? Opinions vary. Some think we don’t do a good enough job preparing the next generation of leaders to take the helm. Others think the culture of traditional Jewish organizations is not attractive to top talent. Both mindsets are right.

To ensure the institutions at the heart of the Jewish community will be around to support and nurture generations to come, we need to invest more in building a talent pipeline and developing organizations to make sure they are great places to work.

This is the call of Leading Edge.

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What We Do

Founded in 2014, Leading Edge influences, inspires, and enables dramatic change in attracting, developing, and retaining top talent for Jewish organizations by creating a forum for the sector to address talent and culture issues.

Leading Edge’s flagship program areas focus on the immediate and long-term leadership and talent questions facing the Jewish sector, including – onboarding new CEOs, strengthening partnerships between lay leaders and professionals, and helping to create leading places to work.

LEADING EDGE RELEASE: Are Jewish Organizations Great Places To Work?

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Career Hub

Leading Edge announces a pilot job board for career opportunities with Jewish organizations.

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Leading Edge Programs

Our flagship programs focus on both the immediate and long-term leadership and talent questions facing our sector:

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Leading places
to work

Aimed at helping create great workplace cultures that recruit, retain and support excellent people who are empowered to do their best work.
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Board & Staff

Leading Edge is an unprecedented partnership between Jewish foundations and federations to build a robust talent pipeline for Jewish organizations.

B. Elka Abrahamson – President,
The Wexner Foundation

Robert Bank – President & CEO,
American Jewish World Service

Phyllis Cook – Managing Director,
Helen Diller Family Foundation

Gali Cooks – President & CEO,
Leading Edge

Lisa Eisen - President,
U.S. Jewish Portfolio, Schusterman Foundation
Barry Finestone – President & CEO,
Jim Joseph Foundation(non-voting)

Rachel Garbow Monroe – President & CEO,
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation(non-voting)

Joe Kanfer – Founding Director,
Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah

Randall Kaplan – CEO,
Capsule Group LLC

Ilana Kaufman – Executive Director,
Jews of Color Field Building Initiative

Scott Kaufman – Co-Managing Partner,
JLIFE
Marty Linsky – Faculty,
Harvard Kennedy School

Daryl Messinger – President,
Messinger Associates, Inc.

Kimberly Miller Rubenfeld – Vice President,
Circle of Service Foundation

Gabrielle Sirner-Cohen – VP, People Operations,
FullStory

Jacob Solomon – President & CEO,
Greater Miami Jewish Federation

Past Board Members


Sandy Cardin – CEO,
Our Common Destiny

David Edell – President,
DRG Search

Rafi Rone – Program Director,
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Cynthia Shapira – President,
David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation

David Shapira – Chairman,
David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation

Julie Sandorf – President,
Charles H. Revson Foundation
Jerry Silverman – Former President & CEO,
The Jewish Federations of North America

Jeff Solomon – Senior Advisor,
Chasbro Investments

Andres Spokoiny – President & CEO,
Jewish Funders Network

Staff


Gali Cook

Gali Cooks | President & CEO

"Our work is just beginning. We're eager to invite you into the conversation."

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“At the most fundamental level, this work is about the future of Jewish nonprofits across North America and the contribution we hope to make collectively in ensuring our professionals, especially those leading the way, are the most dedicated, mission-committed, and highly-trained professionals they can be."

—Rachel Garbow Monroe,
President & CEO, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation

"

LEADING PLACES TO WORK

Supporting Nonprofits to Reflect and Grow

Traditional Jewish organizations are struggling to attract and retain new talent. Some have steep hierarchies and bureaucratic cultures, little autonomy for junior and mid-level staff to take risks and feel ownership over their work, limited career advancement, and low salary levels compared to jobs outside the sector. Many rising professionals are willing to take on challenging roles, but not in organizations with rigid cultures that lack collaboration, innovation and autonomy. The most visionary leaders strive for connectivity, open communication, and collaboration in both life and work.

Leading Edge knows that organizations are the sum of their people, and like people, they must constantly reflect on their cultures in order to be their best selves. We believe organizational growth is a practice, not a destination.

Our Leading Places to Work program has established five criteria in the Jewish nonprofit sector that are the key ingredients to a great workplace, and we are developing a method for ranking organizations based on these criteria.

As a baseline to understand what is and is not working, we have developed an employee satisfaction survey in partnership with DC-based Hay Group. We are also creating a process with measurable benchmarks for helping organizations move through their growing edges in each key area.

The survey is set to launch with a pilot batch of organizations this winter.

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