JUNE 15 • 2023 | 23

ON THE GROUND IN BALTIMORE
Trip participants included Perry Ohren 
of Jewish Family Service, Paul Blatt 
of Gesher Human Services, 
Shaindle Braunstein of JARC, 
Bassie Shemtov of Friendship 
Circle, Rabbi Joseph Krakoff 
of the Jewish Hospice & 
Chaplaincy Network; Nancy 
Heinrich of Jewish Senior Life, 
Daniella Mechnikov of Yad 
Ezra and Tzadok Eliyahu 
of Detroit Chesed. Brian 
Rothenberg, CEO Steven 
Ingber and Schnaar represent-
ed Federation. 
While in Baltimore, 
the professionals visit-
ed the Associated: Jewish 
Federation of Baltimore; 
CHAI: Comprehensive 
Housing Assistance; the 
Weinberg Foundation; 
Adamah’s Pearlstone Retreat 
Center; Na’aleh: The Hub for 
Leadership Learning; Macks 
Center for Jewish Connections; 
Jewish Educational Services; 
Ahavas Yisrael Charity Fund; 
CHANA Baltimore; and Jewish 
Community Services.
Daniella Mechnikov of Yad 
Ezra said she enjoyed visiting 
the Baltimore organizations 
that deal with food insecurity 
and urban gardening, and she 
enjoyed getting to know the other agency 
professionals from Detroit.
“We all talked about what we do and 

started to talk about collaborative ideas,
” 
said Mechnikov, who came home from the 
trip with new ideas for Yad Ezra’s Giving 
Gardens and ideas to better serve senior cit-
izens working with Jewish Senior Life. 
“The trip also gave me a better perspec-
tive on how our organization can relate bet-
ter with Federation, and I think it did that 
for everybody,
” she said.
Paul Blatt from Gesher Human Services 
said he came away with ideas to continue 
building on its relationship with Jewish 
Senior Life and new ways to work with 
Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy. “There 
were many good conversations we had as 
a result of this trip,
” he said. “I also came 
back knowing Detroit has a strong Jewish 
community. We have great collaboration. 
We have strong relationships with our 
Federation. That doesn’t always happen in 
other cities.
”

Perry Ohren of JFS said the primary 
win of the trip for him was to be able to 
spend time with his colleagues from other 
agencies and Federation “so that we can 
lean into making our community’s human 
service infrastructure even better than it 
already is.
”
He added that it was great to see how 
another community tackled its challenges. 
“It was great to see how another commu-
nity’s makes its special sauce,
” he said. “I 
think that we brought back many ingredi-
ents to improve our special sauce because 
Baltimore is also an exemplary community. 
We started off as an exemplary community 
and learning more from others in Baltimore 
was just eye-opening.
”
Shaindle Braunstein of JARC came away 
with a new volunteer opportunity. “There 
was a program we saw that provided tech-
nology classes for older adults,
” she said. 
“Nancy said she would love to do some-
thing like it at Jewish Senior Life. I’ve spent 
a lot of time in technology and computer 
training and that actually speaks to my 
strengths. I told her I would love to do 
some volunteering,
” she said.
Braunstein added that she also recog-
nized that the Detroit Jewish community is 
second-to-none in taking care of our frail, 
older adult populations. “We’re really here 
for the vulnerable.
” 
According to Schnaar, the professionals 
who went on the trip are planning subse-
quent meetings to get together and strate-
gize and there have been talks about doing 
site visits to one another’s agencies. 
“Detroit has such a strong Jewish com-
munal infrastructure already,
” Schnaar 
said. “I think the biggest takeaway we came 
home with is our agencies need to know 
what each is offering so they can better 
collaborate and help community members 
connect to those services.
” 

Perry 
Ohren 

Daniella 
Mechnikov 

Paul Blatt

Shaindle 
Braunstein

The group toured Adamah’s 
Pearlstone Retreat Center.

COURTESY OF FEDERATION

COURTESY OF FEDERATION

