JUNE 18 • 2020 | 15
learning. And look at how we’
re
all really connected around the
world.
”
Before embarking on her
Jewish journey around the
world, Katz devoted her energy
to leading Metro Detroit’
s Jewish
community.
Katz, a Royal Oak resident,
grew up in West Bloomfield
and attended Michigan State
University. After college, she
worked for Hillel and Birthright
Israel before getting a master’
s
degree in higher education from
Loyola University Chicago. She
worked in human resources for
the Michigan-based outdoor
gear retailer Moosejaw and then
for a series of local start-ups,
and served on the boards of
Kadima, NEXTGen Detroit and
The Well.
Katz found out about the
Ralph I. Goldman Fellowship
from an email newsletter — her
advice to everyone is to read the
newsletters they sign up for. She
decided to apply on a whim.
The fellowship is a competi-
tive, self-designed program that
allows one Jewish young adult
from anywhere in the world
each year to travel to many
different worldwide Jewish
communities on the JDC’
s dime,
helping Jewish organizations
around the globe while building
leadership skills they can bring
back to their own communities.
“We live in an intertwined
and interconnected Jewish
world,
” Shaun Hoffman, deputy
director of JDC Entwine, told
the JN. “The more young lead-
ers who … see Jewish identity in
global terms and appreciate the
richness and diversity of Jewish
life around the world, the stron-
ger our Jewish communities are
going to be.
”
When Katz got the call saying
she’
d been selected, “I sort of
had this moment like, ‘
Oh, what
just happened?”’
she said.
Looking back on her selec-
tion, she said, “I always think
anyone could do this. But I also
recognize there is an element
of my ability to be resilient and
kind of just go with the flow."
Less than three months later,
in January 2019, she found her-
self setting off on a year-long
journey.
Because the fellowship is
self-designed and based on
which world events and JDC
projects are in motion, no two
years look the same. Typically,
fellows will spend their year
divided between placements in
two or three different countries
working on community-build-
ing projects that use their pro-
fessional backgrounds.
Katz’
s year looked a little
different — because of her back-
ground in human resources, she
spent much of the first half of
the fellowship conducting inter-
nal HR interviews with JDC
staff all around Eastern Europe.
She also did research for the
organization on their leadership
programs across Europe.
After a few weeks in New
York and a month in Israel for
orientation, Katz spent every
Shabbat from March through
July in a different place. She
explored Budapest, Krakow,
Warsaw and Riga, Latvia,
before heading back to Israel to
regroup. Then she returned to
Eastern Europe to visit three dif-
ferent cities in Ukraine, as well
as Istanbul, Turkey.
While in Eastern Europe,
Katz came along on home vis-
its to JDC beneficiaries, often
elderly Jews who couldn’
t leave
their homes. She also visited
Camp Szarvas, a summer camp
run by the JDC in Hungary that
welcomes 1,500 Jewish campers
annually from 20 different coun-
tries. (Two other Jewish Metro
Detroiters were also at Szarvas
that summer, one as a camper
and one as a counselor.)
Spending time in Eastern
Europe was important for Katz.
A large portion of the JDC’
s
work today involves providing
assistance to vulnerable Jews
across the world, including in
the countries that make up the
former Soviet Union. Beyond
that, though, Katz’
s time in
Eastern Europe helped bring
Jewish history to life for her. She
remembers sitting on a train
from Krakow to Warsaw, look-
ing out the window at the land
on which her ancestors may
have once lived.
“I was looking out into the
countryside of Poland where
a huge population of Jews
once lived. And it was just this
moment of realizing … this is
“Look at what I’m doing and
learning. And look at
how we’re all really connected
around the world.”
— JESSICA KATZ
continued on page 16
learning. And look at how we’
re
back to their own communities.
self-designed and based on
before heading back to Israel to
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JESSICA KATZ
Dubai
Mallorca
Ukraine
(L-R) Snapshots from Budapest and Dubai; the
view from a shabbaton in Mallorca, Spain; par-
ticipating in a Passover seder in Kyiv, Ukraine.