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Bold agenda: •Building Jewish identity •Developing young leaders •Improving the larger community.

NEXTGen Detroit

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urs is a shrinking Jewish
community, but that hasn't
deterred Rachel Wright from
focusing hard on retaining
participants and donors as she takes the
presidential reins of NEXTGen Detroit,
the Detroit Jewish community's engine
for young-adult
communal
+
engagement
and leadership
development.
Thinking big,
the Birmingham
resident hopes
to end her
presidential year
Robert Sklar
next June with the
Contributing
highest retention
Editor
percentage
nationwide among
young adult agencies affiliated with the
Jewish Federation network.
"What this will mean is that we are not
only giving our community meaningful
young adult programs and leadership
development opportunities," she tells the
JN in a wide-ranging interview, "but we
also are creating a sense of 'home' for our
NEXTGen community.
"When we have this accomplished, it
assures our continued success within the
Federation system."
That's a prudent plan.
Wright, 33, is a star on the national stage
of young adult activism. She is national
women's membership chair for the Jewish
Federation of North America's National
Young Leadership Cabinet. From that
perch, she helped organize the 2012 JFNA
TribeFest conference in Las Vegas, which
drew nearly 1,700 young adults, including
almost 100 Detroiters.

eower Of Connection

NEXTGen is sending positive vibes about
local Jewish life in the wake of Michigan's
economic downturn. Young people still leave
for urban areas perceived to be hipper as
well as riper with jobs and nightlife, much
to the chagrin of their parents, grandparents
and the larger Jewish community here. Still,
more are returning than had been, based
on the buzz around town, an improved job
market, increased venture-building prospects
and NEXTGen participation numbers.
Meanwhile, despite outmigration, there
have been young people here all along.
Connecting the diehards, the newcomers
and the returnees to the Jewish community
is the NEXTGen rallying cry.
"When people connect, it becomes
contagious," says Wright, ever optimistic, but
also a doer who leans on inclusivity in how
she approaches NEXTGen. "Young people

50 August 29 • 2013

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"Young
people
needed this
sense of
community
again in a way that
would lead to hope
and a future."

- Rachel Wright, new NEXTGen president

Pitch for Detroit 2012, clockwise from top left: Sara Bloomberg, Rachel
Wright, Alexandra Fynke and Leah Bold, all of Birmingham, Jodi Soloman of
West Bloomfield and Ariana Blumenfeld of Berkley.

needed this sense of community again in a
way that would lead to hope and a future."
NEXTGen became a division of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
last year when it incorporated three
previously separate Federation young adult
agencies. Its budget has grown to more
than $550,000 — roughly 30 percent from
Federation, 40 percent from foundations
and directed giving, and 30 percent from
event sponsorship.
NEXTGen is on pace to log 5,500 event
participants in 2013, compared to 1,500 in
2010. In 2012, it recruited 2,300 donors,
who gave $780,000 — up from 1,004
donors and $604,000 three years before.
The 2013 projection is at least 2,500
donors and $850,000 raised for Federation's
Annual Campaign, which helps support
local, national and international Jewish
causes. Jewish Detroit has had a special
relationship with, and has been a significant
supporter of, Israel since statehood.
NEXTGen's 2014 fundraising goal is $1
million. Achievable or not, it's reflective of
Wright's "Set Your Goals High" mantra.

Finding Her Way

Professionally, Wright, a former magazine
editor, is strategic development director for
EHIM Inc., a Southfield-based healthcare
strategy solutions company. She attends
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield.
Wright graduated from Michigan State
University in 2002 with a bachelor's degree
in journalism and a portfolio of Hillel
involvement, including joining a free, 10-day
Taglit-Birthright trip to Israel with peers.
Following graduation, it would be three
years before she re-entered the organized

Jewish world. In 2005, Federation asked her
to help restart Latke Vodka as a social event.
"I immediately reconnected to the need
I always felt to be part of something larger
than myself" says Wright, who ended up
chairing Latke Vodka from 2006 to 2009.
She visited Israel for the second time on
JFNA's 2006 Tel Aviv One national young
leadership mission.
"Because of that mission, and
remembering what I had been part of
during Birthright on my first Israel visit, I was
hooked," Wright says, "Suddenly, I realized
not only how important we all were to
world Jewry, but I also realized the impact
Jewish Detroit has made overseas."
Wright has been back to Israel five times,
most recently on a 2011 Federation-hosted
Sherman Campaign leadership mission,
during which young leaders learned about
the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel.
They also accompanied 93 Ethiopians who
were making aliyah.

A Multilayered Audience

Executive director Miryam Rosenzweig,
associate director Jessica Goodwin and
president-elect Jay Hack of Detroit also are
part of the NEXTGen leadership. Rosenzweig
says Wright "creates an
environment of greatness
that we all want to be
part of."
Hack describes Wright
as an innovator who
welcomes and leverages
change.
Miryam
"For instance," he
Rosenzweig
says, "she was a pioneer

for our community in the
social media promotion
of events and in bringing
a large-scale fundraising
event to Detroit from
Chicago — namely,
EPIC."
Some NEXTGen events
serve as fundraisers
that require a minimum
donation to Federation's Annual Campaign.
While numbers matter as a metric of
success, Wright says building a vibrant
Jewish community isn't measured so much
by donors as by how many young adults
are showing up at NEXTGen events. These
attendees are tapping into their Jewish
identity through the attraction of young
adult programs or activities as opposed to
through traditional Jewish institutions that
built our Jewish community.
An outgrowth of such rising event
participation, despite a Jewish Detroit
population drop from 96,000 25 years ago
to 65,000 today, is the creation of a pool of
future communal leaders.
Explains Wright: "If we look at the
community as a pyramid, we need a large
base to feel part of the community so a
smaller portion will be energized to support
it and so that an even smaller group will
be inspired to volunteer time and effort as
communal leaders."
It's hoped that giving grows along that
continuum.
In the pursuit of improved retention
numbers, Wright is seeking to do more
than just have great attendance at such
NEXTGen signature events as Latke Vodka,
EPIC, TribeFest, Pitch for Detroit and the
Becker All-Star Mission to Israel.
"Retention means more than just
showing up," Wright says. "We need to
engage people and inspire them to do more
Jewishly."
Retention may be center stage this