For the past three months, 13 members of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s NextGen group participated in the Pathway Fellowship – formerly called the Leadership Development Program. Chaired by Emily Schwartz, this five-session fellowship is a cohort-based experience for rising leaders in their 20s and 30s, who learn about the issues facing our Jewish community and the role they can play together with the Jewish Federation to address them. 

“The Pathway Fellowship enabled me to meet other strong members of the Jewish community who I can confidently call my friends now,” said participant Rachael Grobman. “I have been exposed to programs provided by the Jewish Federation that reinforced why it is so necessary to get involved and I have regained my voice in the Jewish community as a leader.”

The 13 participants will now embark on a year-long mentorship program where they will delve deeper and explore their leadership interests and passions.

Learn more about each of the five sessions of this fellowship below.

In the first session, participants learned about the work of the Jewish Federation and the fellows got to know one another while discussing their leadership journeys.

In the second session, participants visited the Jewish Federation-supported Judith Creed Horizons for Achieving Independence (JCHAI) to learn about the services they provide to people in our community with disabilities. The fellows engaged with JCHAI members in a fun Purim activity of making mishloach manot to donate to senior citizens.

In the third session, the fellows learned about how the Jewish Federation raises dollars for the community, including the Annual Campaign, endowments and the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program.

In the fourth session, the fellows learned about how the Jewish Federation allocates dollars out to the community. Following this, participants role-played and decided where to allocate funds with a limited budget.

In the fifth session, the fellows met their mentors and completed an activity about their leadership journeys. Fellows and mentors will meet one-on-one six times over the year to come.

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Learn more about NextGen’s Pathway Fellowship by clicking here. NextGen of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia brings together leaders and philanthropists in their 20s, 30s and early 40s who are looking to give back as they build community. You can learn more about NextGen by clicking here.