FEBRUARY 3 • 2022 | 19

Yet it also creates new challenges and 
opportunities. 
“How are we welcoming people? How 
do we reach all types of Jews in the Jewish 
community? How do we infuse Jewish 
identity into social events in a way that 
doesn’t push people away?” Lucker asks.
We spoke to Lucker about his journey 
into the Detroit Jewish community and how 
he hopes to make that journey even better 
for his peers. 

WHY NOT DETROIT?
SL: My wife [Stephanie Bloom] and I 
were both on the East Coast. I was based 
in D.C., working for the federal govern-
ment and the Obama administration on 
rural development for an agency called 
the Delta Regional Authority, which is 
focused on the economic development of 
the Mississippi River Delta. That was so 
meaningful for me as a native Arkansan. 
I had been there for years [including a 
transition period into the Trump admin-
istration], and Stephanie was in manage-
ment consulting — both very high-inten-
sity jobs that we were just exhausted by. 
By 2018, we were both ready to leave our 
current jobs and ready to leave New York 
and Washington, D.C. We decided, whoev-
er gets a job first, the other will follow.
Three or four weeks after that conver-
sation, Stephanie’s father and uncle called 
and asked if she’d join the family business. 
She presented it to me as, “I told them it 
doesn’t seem right for us.” And I was like, 
“Why?” Detroit has so many things to 
offer in such a cool city, and I had always 
read exciting things about Detroit profes-
sionally. I was comfortable with working 
in … places like Memphis, Little Rock, 
New Orleans, Jackson. Detroit is very 
much the southern city in the North — 
the assets as well as the challenges. 
The Jewish community is one of the 
first places I tapped into when network-
ing and trying to figure out what my 
next job would be. My mother-in-law 
started connecting me with her friends 
and folks she was connected with through 
Women’s Philanthropy. I started looking 
at NEXTGen, volunteered with Repair the 
World and served on the JCRC/AJC board. 
Dipping my toe in the water — that’s 
what I intended to do. I wound up div-
ing in deeper. People were so embracing. 
They were so excited that I was here. 
They were intrigued that someone with 

a diverse background was coming to the 
city. And they were like, “We’re so happy 
you’re here, and we’re going to do what 
it takes to make sure you land here, lay 
roots here and thrive.”

AN ADVOCATE FOR EVERYONE
SL: In my conversations with NEXTGen 
staff and with George Roberts, the current 
president, all of my passion is focused on: 
How do we continue to evolve NEXTGen, 
to ensure that everyone feels welcome? 
I was lucky in that I had an advocate 
on my side who helped me navigate how 
to get involved. But not everyone has an 
advocate. How do we make NEXTGen 
accessible to people who are new and, 
frankly, unlikely to have a connection 
to the community? How do we partner 
with Federation agencies, as well as the 
many other Jewish organizations that are 
not necessarily Federation-affiliated or 
funded? These questions are at the cen-
ter of our work this year in growing the 
NEXTGen community.
NEXTGen is not religious. It’s not 
a temple or a congregation. But [we’re 
exploring] how can we infuse and lift 
up what may feel like a social event or a 
happy hour [with] that Jewish connec-
tion. Because you wouldn’t be here if you 
didn’t have that Jewish identity compo-
nent. And so how do we talk about that? 

And how do we lift that up as a common 
thread that binds us all?

MAKING A SAFE SPACE 
TO TALK ABOUT ISRAEL
SL: I also lead the Israel and Overseas 
workstream. In many ways, this is some-
thing that has always been operational — 
the Federation has an Israel and Overseas 
department that supports NEXTGen with 
targeted programming. But historically, 
NEXTGen hasn’t been part of [the Israel] 
conversation. And we risk losing the next 
generation if we remove ourselves from 
the conversation and don’t help to create 
a space for all Jewish young adults. 
 I think we lose more by not engaging 
young adults in the conversation, and at 
least asking questions and posing ques-
tions back to them because everyone else 
is engaging in those conversations. We 
are forfeiting the right to tell our own 
narrative to someone else who will try to 
fill in, “What does Federation and what 
does NEXTGen believe?” 
We have the opportunity to open up 
NEXTGen to folks with a diversity of 
opinions and let them know that if they 
don’t necessarily agree with what the 
Federation stands for [on Israel], that 
doesn’t mean they don’t have a place with-
in our Jewish community and that they 
can engage Jewishly with NEXTGen in the 
Federation in many other ways. I think it’s 
also a missed opportunity for education 
and awareness building.

WE HAVE THE INFRASTRUCTURE
SL: My mom [in Arkansas] is still calling 
on me and saying, “How do we engage 
young people?” Whereas in Detroit, I feel 
we’re really lucky in that the leadership 
over the past 10 to 15 years . . . had the 
foresight to say, “This is important.”
We haven’t figured it all out yet. But we 
at least have the infrastructure to engage 
young adults, and we have innovative 
programming. All the things that we need 
to have a thriving young adult Jewish 
community are here. And then . . . that 
becomes an even stronger Jewish commu-
nity — the strong Jewish community that 
our parents’ generation and frankly, our 
generation grew up in — that was partially 
harmed when some of us left, 15 to 20 
years ago. 

This story was first published on MyJewishDetroit.org.

“ ALL THE THINGS 
THAT WE NEED TO 
HAVE A THRIVING 
YOUNG ADULT JEWISH 
COMMUNITY ARE 

HERE.”

— SPENCER LUCKER

Mingling with other board members at the 
NEXTGen Detroit Annual Meeting

