Jewish Contributions to Humanity

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a paid job. Her counselor guided
her on how to talk to Tamarack
about the possibility of joining their
professional team and, ultimately,
Tamarack created a job that hadn’t
existed before, just for Devries.
“I wouldn’t have had the courage
or known how to do that if not for
my career counselor at JVS,” Devries
said. “I worked at Tamarack for sev-
eral years. I loved it so much, but I
thought, maybe I’ll see what else is
happening right now, and if it’s the
right time for me to start thinking
about growing in my career.”
Having heard about NEXTGen
Connect, Devries emailed Rubin,
writing that she was interested in
exploring the idea of taking her
career in a new direction. Someone
from JVS replied and explained that
Rubin had taken a full-time position
with NEXTGen Detroit and was no
longer working as the NEXTGen
Connect Employment Specialist,
but someone else would be happy
to help her in the meantime while
they worked to fill the position.
“So I responded, ‘Could I apply for
that position?’ It was a bold move
— but it paid off. I interviewed and
got the job,” Devries said.
In her new role, Devries works at
the JVS building in Southfield three
days a week and at the Federation
Building in Bloomfield Hills with
NEXTGen Detroit two days a week.
Now that’s she’s settled in, we
asked Devries to tell us what
young adults should know about
NEXTGen Connect. Here’s what she
had to say.

WHO DOES NEXTGEN
CONNECT HELP?

RD: Students as young as juniors
and seniors in high school. We go
into classrooms and teach skills
like resumé writing, but we also
talk about professionalism and the
appropriate way to conduct oneself
in a workplace. These are skills stu-
dents can use anytime, whether it’s
at a summer or after-school job, if
they work through college or when
they start a career after graduating
from high school or college.
• College students at various
campus Hillels. I’ll go to Michigan,
Michigan State, Eastern and so
on. In those situations, we really
let the students discuss the topics
they want to talk about. I go to help
them get excited about entering
the working world, and I also share
ways to get involved with NEXTGen
Detroit and their Jewish community
post-graduation.
I want them to know what a
rewarding life they can start to
build for themselves in Metro
Detroit when they’re done with

school. Our hope is that these col-
lege students understand that they
can find great jobs here and also
have meaningful social lives.
• Recent college grads are prob-
ably who we help most often.
Navigating a job search, especially
when you’ve never done it before,
can be very intimidating. Recent
grads are writing their resumés
from scratch, probably don’t have
a lot of interview experience and
often have a degree but not a clear
idea of how they want to use it.
We’re here to help with all of that.
• People who have been working
in the same job for several years
and are looking to make a change,
both within their current field or in
a new sector. We help people iden-
tify how their skills are transferable,
how to craft a cover letter for a
specific position that plays up their
unique talents and experience and,
of course, how to discover job open-
ings that might not be easy to find.
• People thinking about relocat-
ing to Michigan or returning to
Michigan. A lot of young families
are moving here for the first time or
returning after being gone for sev-
eral years. Often one spouse is com-
ing for a job and the other spouse
wants to find work once they get
here. We also help newcomers make
connections, not just professionally,
but also socially.

WHAT CHALLENGES ARE UNIQUE
TO YOUNG ADULTS LOOKING FOR
JOBS TODAY?

RD: A lot of young people haven’t
built a network yet. We always say
that the best way to get a job is
through networking. About 20 per-
cent of jobs are posted online. But
what about the other 80 percent?
Word of mouth. And even if you do
find your dream job online, having
an “in” can make a huge difference.
When you’re younger, you don’t
know that many people with those
types of connections. Just building
that network is one of the main
challenges.
I think young adults today are
very social media-savvy with plat-
forms like Snapchat, Facebook and
Instagram, but they aren’t investing
in LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a real asset;
it’s a great way to network and
jobs are being posted constantly.
If younger adults harnessed the
power of LinkedIn, it would be a
game changer for a lot of them.
The interview experience can be
really intimidating for young adults.
I had a client come to me the
other day and say, “I have all these
interviews, but I’m not getting any
offers. I know at least one of the
reasons is that I’m not enthusias-

continued on page 18

The Fathers of
Modern Israel.

THEODOR HERZL (1860-1904).

b. Budapest, Hungary. d. Edlach, Austria-Hungary.
The ideological founder of modern Israel.
If there is one person who most laid out an impactful
vision of a modern state of Israel, it was Theodor Herzl.
Born and raised in Hungary, Herzl grew up in a secular
family influenced by the German-Jewish Enlightenment. He
moved with his family to Vienna as a young adult, signing
on as the Paris correspondent for Neue Freie Presse, a
major Vienna newspaper. It was in the anti-Semitic Paris
environment that Herzl recognized the need for a Jewish
state. In the birthplace of the secular enlightenment,
crowds chanted, “Death to the Jews!” during the Dreyfus
Affair. Herzl, an assimilated Jew, concluded that not even
assimilation could protect European Jews from anti-
Semitism. In two of his published works, Der Judenstaat
and Altneuland, Herzl laid out and helped popularize his
vision of a secular, socialist Jewish state that would be a
“light unto the nations.” His vision was so popular among
many of Europe’s secular and wealthy Jews, that in 1897
the First Zionist Congress convened in Basel, Switzerland.
Out of this grew the World Zionist Organization (Herzl was
its first president), the Jewish National Fund, and many
of the ideas and structures that would lead to Israel’s
founding in 1948. Herzl died in 1904 long before he could
see his life’s work realized. In 1949, his remains were
brought to Israel and buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

CHAIM WEIZMANN (1874-1952).

b. Motal, Belarus. d. Rehovot, Israel.
The first president of modern Israel.
Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann’s life was so
dramatic that his obituary in the New York Times said “it
was sufficiently full of adventure…to have been lived by
a dozen men.” Weizmann was born in a small Russian
village, received an advanced education in chemistry,
and lived in Germany and Switzerland, where he became
involved in Herzl’s Zionist movement. Moving to England
in 1905, Weizmann was head of the British Admiralty
Laboratories and helped develop a process to make synthetic acetone, which the British
military desperately needed during World War I. A grateful Prime Minister David Lloyd
George asked Weizmann how the British government could repay him. Weizmann’s wish: A
Jewish state. What followed was the Balfour Declaration, in which Britain pledged support
for a Jewish state in Palestine. The de facto ambassador for Zionist efforts, Weizmann
became the head of the World Zionist Organization and led the Jewish Agency, which
served as a quasi-government organization upon its creation in 1929. He moved to Rehovot
in 1937, fought the British White Paper
in 1939 (which basically ended Jewish
immigration to Palestine) and, after
the Holocaust and World War II, was a
major player in adoption of the United
Nations Partition Plan in 1947, and U.S.
recognition of Israel in 1948. Serving as
Israel’s first president until his death,
Weizmann helped bring to reality Herzl’s
Zionist dream.

Original Research by Walter L. Field Sponsored by Irwin S. Field Written by Jared Sichel

jn

August 9 • 2018

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