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