Julie Perilstein Mozes is NextGen’s local Cabinet chair. Cabinet is a five-year leadership and philanthropic journey for emerging Jewish leaders ages 30 to 40. It’s grounded in Jewish values and focused on leadership development, global Jewish responsibility and meaningful philanthropic impact. Members engage in national and international experiences while continuing to lead locally. Mozes shared these reflections from a recent Cabinet trip to Greece. 

I recently traveled with the National Young Leadership Cabinet (Cabinet), a leadership program of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), on a study mission to Thessaloniki and Athens, Greece. On this journey, we set out to better understand our people’s history and the complicated lives of Jews in Greece and around the world today.

Traveling with 120 young Jewish adults with JFNA in 2026 was not simple. There were security protocols, police escorts and a ban on social media posts to conceal our whereabouts. This is the reality of being Jewish in today’s world.

Such travel was not easy on a personal level either. It takes planning and intentionality to leave behind a busy family, household and career to push “pause” for 10 days. I had to make time and space to better understand the Jewish world and connect meaningfully with my “chevre” (Cabinet peers and classmates) so that together we could unpack how we can continue helping the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia make an impact in communities at home and abroad.

On this trip, we learned that Thessaloniki was the hub of Greek Jewish life for generations. During the Holocaust, 50,000-plus Greek Jews were loaded into cattle cars and deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. Fewer than 2,000 survived. We visited the contemporary Jewish community’s synagogue, helped provide input on a forthcoming Holocaust Museum and observed Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) next to those very cattle cars that were used in the process of wiping out 96% of the Greek Jewish community not so long ago. This mighty community is fighting to honor their past and struggling to survive.

In Athens, we were not prepared to find the beautiful, historic city filled with antisemitic and anti-Israel graffiti. During our time, we met with Jewish communal leaders, old and young, to learn about Jewish Greek overnight camps, elderly day programs in partnership with the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and youth groups that offer Jewish Greeks a sense of belonging and support. There has also been a growing Israeli community in Athens, resulting from immigration after Oct. 7.

The Greek Jews we met are so proud, yet they do not always feel comfortable sharing their Jewish identity with neighbors or colleagues. Elderly community members quietly shared that they have moved their mezuzot inside their homes in hopes of concealing their religious identity from neighbors. In an abundance of caution, men in our group were advised to remove their kippot prior to touring the Acropolis. This is the reality of being Jewish in Greece and, honestly, not so different from what we are seeing in the United States.

This is why we traveled to Thessaloniki and Athens. People see our social media posts and comment, “What an amazing trip. It looks so fun!” Of course, it was wonderful to travel alongside great friends who are also parents, professionals and community leaders. But more importantly, it is critical that we bear witness and understand what is going on in our Jewish communal world. By traveling with Cabinet, we approach these issues together as a group with shared values and priorities. We lean on each other for support, encouragement and innovation. Many of us with young children contemplate how to best teach our next generation about the importance of Jewish identity and community. We work together to fight rising antisemitism. Most importantly, we return home energized and motivated to continue fighting, working and fundraising.

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Cabinet is a five-year leadership and philanthropic journey for emerging Jewish leaders ages 30 to 40. It’s grounded in Jewish values and focused on leadership development, global Jewish responsibility and meaningful philanthropic impact. Members engage in national and international experiences while continuing to lead locally.