26 | MAY 25 • 2023 

require learning to find solutions — are 
relatively new but have seen success 
in Cincinnati and even nearby in 
Pontiac. “Working together not only has 
practical benefits but it also promotes 
collegiality and a sense of being part of 
something larger,” Siegel says. 

THE STAFFING WORKGROUP
Gesher’s Charnas jumped at the chance 
to be a part of The Collective’s staffing 
work group, which set out to tackle 
the community’s post-COVID vacancy 
issues. Along the way, he connected and 
brainstormed with people he knows, 
as well as area professionals he’d only 
exchanged emails with or previously just 
recognized by name. 
As part of the staffing work group, he 
helped organize a job fair in September 
2022 and one in May 2023, which had 
an added professional development 
component. 
“The idea came, let’s try to put this 
career expo together, let’s try to bring all 
of our agencies and put our resources 
and efforts toward an event where we 
can try to find job seekers that can help 
fill these vacancies,” he says. 
The staffing work group also helped 
build a job board, hosted on Federation’s 
digital platform Jlive, that aggregates all 
the jobs in Detroit’s Jewish community. 
“If we can keep bringing people together 
in one place that’s a success,” he says. 
Charnas adds that he hopes the 
staffing work group will be able to help 
out as long as it’s needed. “The greatest 
part would be in the future, if we’ve 

eliminated the need for the staffing 
work group,” he says. “But this is a 
challenge we’ll be working through and 
trying to figure out creative solutions to 
for a long time, that’s just part of where 
we are.” 
Robin Pappas, director of Early 
Education at Hillel Day School, was 
part of the initial cohort that attended 
The Collective’s launch retreat in June 
2022. She says she felt a sense of pride 
to be part of the purposeful leadership 
initiative. 
“I think The Collective is a great way 
to keep the Jewish entities within our 
community on the same page, working 
together, helping each other and 
supporting one another,” she says. “It 
helps us all look out for each other.” 
Being a cohesive group means 
everyone can make better hiring 
decisions, says Pappas, adding that she 
hopes more people get involved and 
it can be a starting point for Jewish 
entities. 
“If we are all competing, then 
nobody’s going to get the top people 
they need to be working,” she says. 
“This way, I can say, ‘Look, this person 
would be great there.’ Or if someone 
wants to be part of Hillel Day School 
but also part of a synagogue, I can say, 
‘Those synagogues are also fabulous.’”
Pappas says she’s been involved in 
cohorts before, but not within the 
Detroit Jewish community. Though the 
meetings haven’t yet matched up with 
her schedule, she says she has stayed in 
touch and eagerly follows along. 

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
The Collective is currently in 
conversation with Rosov Consulting 
about commissioning a focused study to 
address key questions in its work, and 
plans to continue to expand its reach, 
Katie Vieder says. Planned for spring 
launch, the study will assess what the 
community has to offer as well as where 
there are gaps and inefficiencies, and 
more opportunities to collaborate. 
The joint endeavor between the 
JCC and the Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit is aimed at helping 
support “more Jews doing more Jewish” 
in the community, says Allyn. “What 
we’re hoping to achieve is collaboration 
that allows us to maximize funding, 
maximize quality and maximize Jewish 
engagement,” she explains. “I think we 
will get a better quality of programs 
and continue to strengthen our Jewish 
community in this evolving and 
changing world.”
This extensive collaboration through 
The Collective is also about firming up 
an investment in relationships within 
Jewish education and engagement in an 
ecosystem that already exists, Witkin 
says. They’re trying to build on best 
practices they see in other communities 
that promote shared ownership over an 
ecosystem, he explains. 
“The goal is to elevate the output 
and the experience that members of 
our community are having,” he says. 
“Part of that is seeing the opportunities 
that are currently being unmet, part 
of it means identifying where there 
are redundancies, part of it means just 
sharing resources with one another with 
an eye toward collective growth and 
improvement.” 
Partnering with the JCC to bring 
different players to the table and 
leverage resources means the ability 
to have a bigger impact across the 
board, Witkin explains. “We want 
to help connect organizations with 
the resources they need, to help 
the organizations do it to make the 
connection with individuals as powerful 
as possible.” 

Playwright Aaron Henne led a retreat last year for education and engagement professionals. 

OUR COMMUNITY

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