34 | FEBRUARY 23 • 2023 

OUR COMMUNITY

T

o commemorate the 
100th anniversary of 
the founding of AZA, 
Michigan Region is honoring 
Arnie Weiner, a man whose 
dedication to the organization 
spans half a century. Weiner’s 
affiliation dates back before he 
was even born, to the founding 
of AZA in Omaha, Nebraska. 
In 1924, cars from Grand 
Rapids traveled to Omaha, 
marking the beginning of 
the first chapter in Michigan, 
Wasserman AZA #5. Arnie’s 
father was one of the first 
members of that chapter, and 
when Arnie was old enough, 
he joined and was an active 

member for five years. 
While he was in social work 
school at the University of 
Michigan, Weiner’s professor 
suggested that he might enjoy 
working with teens in a newly 
created cooperative effort of 
B’nai B’rith and Beth Israel. 
He started out as an adviser 
to Eilat BBYO, mentoring 
teens and attending conclaves 
and conventions. It was there 
that he met Manny Mandell, 
who offered him the position 
of Michigan region assistant 
director in 1969. Arnie became 
regional director in 1972.
Michigan Region flourished 
under Arnie’s leadership and 

is still considered one of the 
strongest regions in the country. 
He was committed to providing 
the BBYO experience to as 
many teens as possible and 

worked to develop scholarship 
funds so more teens could 
attend conclaves, conventions 
and summer experiences. 
When he retired, he asked that 
any contributions in his honor 
go to a fund to help BBYOers. 
His longevity in this position 
gave the teens in our area 
the opportunity to continue 
growing in their involvement 
in BBYO locally, nationally 
and globally. He was actively 
involved in directing programs 
both in the United States and 
abroad, including leadership 
trips to Israel, a German Jewish 
Exchange program in the 1980s 
and a peer encounter trips to 

Michigan Region kicks off local celebration 
by honoring Arnie Weiner.

AZA Celebrates 100th Anniversary 

Arnie 
Weiner

L

ooking for a job in 
Jewish Metro Detroit? 
Are you an organization 
in Jewish Metro Detroit looking 
to fill an important position? 
Everything is about to get easier 
with the JLive Job Board.
A community initiative led 
by The J Detroit and the Jewish 
Federation of Metro Detroit 
called The Collective — an eco-
system that seeks to empower 
education and engagement 
across the community — has 
started organizing working 
groups of Jewish professionals 
who have identified some com-
mon challenges and opportuni-
ties across all their work. 

One of those working groups 
is looking to address staffing 
challenges and opportunities 
across Metro Detroit. Meetings 
have been taking place with this 
working group for about eight 
months now.
One challenge this group 
identified was that there was 
no central place to see all of 
the available opportunities in 
Jewish Metro Detroit.
“There was no one-stop 

shop to see who was hiring and 
for what positions,
” said Sarah 
Allyn, assistant executive direc-
tor of Strategic Development at 
The J Detroit.
The staffing working group 
said they would like to have one 
place where all of the commu-
nity organizations could post 
job openings. 
“
And if I have a great candi-
date come across my desk but 
they’re not a good fit for my 

position, I want to keep them in 
the Jewish community,
” Allyn 
said. “So I want to send them 
to this central place where they 
can see all of the other opportu-
nities, with the goal being that 
we can attract and retain the 
most talented professionals who 
want to work for our Jewish 
community.
” 
Realizing that the commu-
nity already had a centralized 
event platform, JLive, the group 
reached out and asked if JLive 
could help build a careers page. 

The JLive Job Board will be a centralized location for 
both sides of the Jewish community’s workforce. 

One-Stop Shop

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Sarah 
Allyn

