John Hardwick

Getting a Great

and currently are four blocks from
Shayna’s sister. Today, like Shayna years
ago, their children are growing up in the
heart of the community. Brandon, 8, and
Marni, 6, are both at Hillel Day School,
and twins Cailey and Mia, 4, attend
Temple Israel’s Early Childhood Center
(ECC).

ON FAMILY BACKGROUND,
EARLY INFLUENCES
Shayna: I grew up in Detroit — literally
in this building [Temple Israel] and, of
course, as far back as I can remember,
I was involved in Jewish life in Detroit.
I went to Hillel Day School and in high
school was part of the Temple Israel
Youth Group (YFTI), serving as presi-
dent. Starting at the age of 1, I traveled
to Israel with my family just about every
other summer of my childhood.
Josh: My family is originally from
south Jersey. We moved to Atlanta when
I was 3, when my dad took a job with
the Atlanta Jewish Federation. Like
Shayna, I went to Jewish day school —
the Solomon Schechter Epstein School.
Summers were spent at Jewish camps
— Camp Judaea in North Carolina, then
Tel Yehudah in New York. I always was
active in sports. In high school, my soc-
cer team won the state championship
and, in my senior year, I won the wres-
tling state championship. As a result,
I earned a spot to run with the 1996
Olympic Torch.
Q: Fast forward: (Josh) from the
University of Texas and (Shayna) from

the University of Michigan, you meet
at the University of Tel Aviv in your
junior year. After graduation in 2000,
Josh takes a job back in Atlanta as
a financial consultant with Towers
Perrin, and Shayna moves to Atlanta
in 2001 to join the corporate offices
of Home Depot. When did you get
engaged?
Josh: We got engaged in 2002 while
I was an associate at Towers Perrin
and still working on my MBA in the
biz school at Emory. I proposed at
Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Shayna’s
parents flew in for a surprise visit, and
my parents were waiting with them to
celebrate with us at a restaurant in the
park. Shayna was totally surprised,
but actually 80 percent of the wed-
ding had been planned before we got
engaged! If you know Rabbi Harold
Loss, you need to get on his calendar
early! The rabbi was booked a few
weeks before the bride even knew to
set the date.
Shayna: We had the rabbi, we had
the date, we had the place. I was the
only one in the dark on this whole
thing. We were married July 5, 2003.

ON RETURNING TO DETROIT
Josh: I always knew through the course
of our relationship that Shayna was
going to come back to Michigan. I knew
how important her family was, but to her
credit, we both decided that we really
needed to get the right opportunities. We
had great jobs in Atlanta; we had a good
life. We started looking, but really look-
ing using our connections.
Shayna: We found Detroit to be really
eager to bring back great talent. You hear
it all the time now, but it wasn’t that hard
of a process. We both found incredible
opportunities, both in different indus-
tries, fields, but much more aligned to
what we wanted to be doing anyway.
This was even before the Detroit resur-
gence — way before the cusp. At that
point, people were still leaving in droves.
Josh: People thought we were crazy!
Leaving Atlanta to go to Detroit?
Shayna: We’ve both been with the
same companies since we moved, almost
11 years now.

ON JEWISH DETROIT
Josh: Detroit has the history and you
hear about the strong Jewish community
here; it’s very evident. I had a wonderful
time growing up in Atlanta and wasn’t
sure how I would be received after mov-
ing to Detroit.
We came to Michigan and immediate-
ly, Jonathan Goldstein, Federation’s YAD
(Young Adult Division) director at the
time, invited me to join the board. Fast
forward: today, my colleague, Matt Ran,

is the incoming NEXTGen president,
and we have more applicants for board
positions than spots available. We’re in a
great place.

NEXTGEN AND NEXT THINGS
Q: What accomplishments of NEXTGen
have made you most proud?
Josh: Overall, it’s been a great experi-
ence. I had chaired a number of com-
mittees, Entree, the David Ben-Gurion
Society and the Campaign, before my
term as president the last year of YAD
in 2011-12. One of the things Shayna
and I did together was participate in the
Adam and Jodi Becker “All-Star Mission
to Israel.” There were 15 people on that
inaugural mission, and every one of
us has become extremely involved in
Federation over the years.
While I was president in 2011,
Miryam Rosenzweig joined Federation
and, along with a number of people
including Robb Lippitt, Rachel Wright
and Marty Maddin, we developed and
implemented the idea for NEXTGen.
What followed was our first EPIC Event,
where we really started to see our donor
base and fundraising dollars grow. And
we have a great pipeline of people —
doing a lot of great things.

WHAT’S NEXT?
Josh: In my opinion, you have to stay
attuned to what the community wants.
Just like in business, the community
landscape always is changing. That’s the
impetus of some of the dramatic changes
we’ve seen at Hillel Day School as well as
Temple Israel’s ECC.
Shayna: When Josh talks about
Temple Israel being very adapting to the
world, it’s true that we’ve had a direct
impact on changes in the temple, par-
ticularly in the ECC. When our son first
started in the preschool, I found the
hours for a napping child to be challeng-
ing with my work schedule and imag-
ined other working moms felt the same.
With my input, they have since added
a napping room and extended pre-care
and after-care hours. The school is now
packed with children from the hours
of 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Today, we have a
really strong preschool and kindergarten
where our kids have an exceptional all-
day experience, and I’m happy to see our
youngest girls run around like they own
the place.
Josh: The transformation of Hillel
over the past two years is another great
example of innovation and progressive-
ness in our Jewish community. With the
building remodeling, they’ve opened up
a different school, a different feel and
approach to teaching. Everything about
it is impressive — just where we want
our kids to be.

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August 4 • 2016

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