The Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville’s 90th annual meeting, scheduled for January 25th, will recognize and honor several of the community’s new and veteran leaders. This year’s meeting is a refresh of the traditional format and features the popular band Nefesh Mountain, along with brunch, and the launch of the 2026 campaign theme, and recognition of the community’s Life & Legacy members. Judy Alperin, Federation CEO says, “We are looking forward to seeing everyone in our community join us for this year’s meeting when we gather to honor our leaders, enjoy great music, and share plans for making 2026 our best year ever.”
One of this year’s new features is the inaugural Mark S. Freedman award for Professional Excellence. Pam Kelner, executive director of Jewish Family Service will receive this award for the first time. Kelner has been in her role for 16 years and says she is touched by the honor. “There are many Jewish professionals in Nashville who are all wonderful, but being the inaugural is extremely special to me. The fact that it is named for Mark, for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect. We worked together when he was here and it was a true partnership.”
Kelner says her driving force is the community itself. “The work we do is very important and I say this a lot, I really am lucky that I get to do what I do.” Before coming to Nashville nearly 20 years ago, Kelner worked in the corporate world for Bloomberg in New York City. “I loved working there. It was fast paced, it was very fun, but this is different.” Among the highlights she says is being surrounded by her colleagues at JFS, and the staff at Federation, and others in the community.
In addition to her professional team, Kelner says she has been fortunate to work with her team of lay leaders, too. “I have gotten so lucky with my leadership. Every single president I have worked with has been amazing in a different way in terms of what they bring to the table.”
Among the highlights for Kelner has been JFS receiving the HRC Equality Award for leadership with the LGBTQ and transgender community, particularly in the area of same sex adoptions. “That was a huge deal to be recognized by them,” she says. Kelner herself was also honored in 2022 by Nashville Pride as the ally of the year. Kelner is also proud to see an increase in donor levels and overall fundraising, creating a financially stable agency. “When I started, we were raising $40,00 a year in our annual campaign. This year our goal is $235,000.”
In reflecting on her tenure with JFS Kelner says it has been a rewarding experience, and there is still more to come. “I like to say I’m not a social worker, but I have a social worker heart.”
This year, the Federation President’s Award will be presented to two people, Hayley Levy Kupin and Anna Stern. The pair have been the guiding force for the past five years behind the creation and implementation of the newcomer’s program. They both were newcomers themselves at one time and understand the importance of making those first connections. “I moved here knowing no one, I moved here for a job and a decade later, because people were so welcoming to me, it made me want to stay.”
Kupin and Stern started doing newcomer outreach through NowGen. We welcomed newcomers who were around our age, getting them oriented, telling them about our experiences, how they could get involved,” says Kupin, “The most common questions we got were, ‘How’s the dating scene and how do you meet people?’ It worked out really well for me, I met my husband through newcomer stuff.”
Stern and Kupin took expanded the newcomer program beyond NowGen during the COVID19 pandemic. “People were moving here and wanted to get involved but no one could go out and do anything,” says Kupin. They met with people over Zoom, for outdoor coffees, and eventually created an ambassador program to connect volunteers with newcomers of similar age and interests. Stern says, “We really enjoyed getting to meet people and welcome them to town. It was also great to work with the broader team of Ambassadors.” To date they have reached approximately 1,000 people. “About half of those people want to meet with us and talk, and about 25% of those we see at events and want to stay engaged.”
Stern says in the process, she herself has made many friends. “We have been lucky to meet some of our closest friends thanks to having the opportunity to greet them as newcomers. It was also really wonderful to see people we have met out at events months later enjoying the community.” She says the best byproduct was the friendship between her and Kupin. “Hayley is a joy to team up with.”
Kupin says she loves helping people find their place in the community and cites as an example Federation donor and engagement associate, Erin Wides. “We met for coffee when she first moved to town and look at her now working at Federation and running Nice Jewish Runners. She really wanted to get engaged and she found her community here.”
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Both Stern and Kupin are honored to be recognized with the award. Stern says, “I was surprised! It is very kind that the Federation thought of us for this award.”
The annual Sandy Averbuch Young Leadership Award is being given this year to Brooke Wasserman, a leader in the music industry and graduate of the Federation’s Leadership615 program. Wasserman, who has been in Nashville for the past eight years, says growing up she was resistant to organized Judaism. “I was literally kicking and screaming the night before my Bat Mitzvah because I didn’t want to do it.” Moving to Nashville, she found others who felt similarly. “Especially in the music industry, I found there were a lot of people who were Jewish but didn’t want to go into spaces where they would be forced to say prayers, or they would feel like they weren’t Jewish enough.”
Wasserman’s answer was to create something different. “After October 7th I went to an industry party, and I found myself crying in the corner. It was a release because I hadn’t been able to talk about this, and it was the first Jew I saw that I could talk about this with.” Later on at an industry party specifically for Jewish professionals to talk about October 7th, something surprising happened. “Someone chased me down the street and said, ‘Somebody said we should talk,’ and then just poured their heart out to me.”
After learning of others who felt similarly, Wasserman created a group chat for music industry professionals. The idea was to casually, through brunch or coffees, connect to others in the business. “I started adding friends and I thought we’d never make a minyan. It’s now close to 100 and that’s just predominantly the younger generation.”
Her involvement with the music industry group ignited her interest in becoming more involved in the Jewish community at large, which led her to apply for Leadership615. She says at first she felt somewhat out of place, but she says she learned about herself. “In doing the program it was really powerful in the sense that I realized I had something to say and that I could actually add value in the room.”
Wasserman says the program was rich in content as well as connection. “Every facet of Judaism was touched.” In addition, she says her eyes were opened to the various organizations in the Jewish community. “We had so many members doing different things, whether it was sitting on boards or East Side Tribe.”
She says the conversations around navigating Jewish life helped her understand the resources available in the community and she is only just beginning. “I feel there is this runway where I have this toolbox of resources that I can really go out into the community and start plugging people in where it fits for them.”
Wasserman is honored to receive the young leadership award, and has bigger plans for Jewish Nashville. “I want us to be the place where if you miss out, there’s FOMO. I want it to be the place to be.”
The Federation’s 90th Annual Meeting takes place on Sunday, January 25th at 10am. Featured will be Jewish Americana band Nefesh Mountain. To register, visit www.jewishnashville.org.
