30 | AUGUST 3 • 2023 

E

mily Gordon of 
Farmington Hills 
comes from a family 
of helpers. Her parents are 
both educators who worked 
in underserved 
and vulnerable 
communities, and 
she was driven to 
work in the Jewish 
communal space 
after watching her 
mother become a 
full-time caregiver 
to her own parents at the end 
of their lives. Those experienc-
es and her Jewish values led 
Gordon to her current role as 
a family caregiver support pro-
gram coordinator for Jewish 
Family Service of Metropolitan 
Detroit.
Gordon took the job at 
JFS, which she says she finds 
both meaningful and chal-
lenging, after finishing the 

Jewish Communal Leadership 
Program at University of 
Michigan and graduating 
with a master’s in social work 
and a certificate in Jewish 
Communal Leadership in 
2022. 
“I wanted to help strengthen 
Jewish and secular local com-
munities and empower the 
people who belonged to them,” 
she says. “When I was at 
University of Michigan, I was 
focused on communities and 
the collective, and I realized 
my Jewish values of tikkun 
olam, mitzvot and the focus 
on community are big pieces 
of what living Jewishly looked 
like for me.” 
Jewish Detroit has a long 
tradition of communal leader-
ship, says Dr. Karla Goldman, 
Sol Drachler professor of social 
work, professor of Judaic stud-
ies and director of Michigan’s 

Jewish Communal 
Leadership 
Program (JCLP). 
The five-semes-
ter program she 
directs gives stu-
dents skills work-
ing with organi-
zations and people through 
an education in Jewish history 
and culture, as well as social 
work, she explains. 
They go on to work in a 
wide array of fields in the 
Jewish community and beyond 
across the country, with a good 
number remaining in Metro 
Detroit, she says. As such, 
many people who grew up in 
the area are now working in 
the community. 
According to jlive.app/
detroitjobs, there are currently 
more than 140 openings in 
the Metro Detroit Jewish com-
munity. A May job fair at the 

Jewish Community Center of 
Metro Detroit saw more than 
100 job openings on offer, and 
job seekers can also search 
Jlive’s job board for open posi-
tions. 
Meanwhile, Gordon, who 
celebrated a year at JFS this 
summer, says she listened to 
her gut when it came to choos-
ing her workplace, and she’s 
clear she has found the right fit 
both because her job matches 
her own mission — to help 
others in the community — 
and because of the people she 
works with. 
“I knew that doing some-
thing that is helpful and where 
I work with so many compas-
sionate and skilled people who 
I can learn from and have as 
mentors was going to be very 
fulfilling,” she says. “So, I knew 
going into this I was kind of 
lucky, because I knew I was 

Local Jewish professionals share what makes their jobs great. 
Mission-Centered Careers

continued on page 32

Emily 
Gordon

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

Dr. Karla 
Goldman

Jake Ehrlich leads 
congregants in song, 
pictured with Rabbi 
Alana Alpert and 
family.

www.lifetimedentalgroup.com

