The Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville’s Leadership 615 program celebrated its third cohort at a May graduation brunch. Surrounded by past participants, community leaders, and program sponsors, this year’s fellows shared their vision statements for the future of Jewish Nashville.
Hineni, a Jewish concept meaning “Here I am,” anchored the morning’s message. Though simple, it carries deep meaning, said Michal Eskenazi Becker, the Federation’s chief impact officer and program coordinator.
“I learned that community is not a given, it’s practiced. It has to be chosen again and again,” Eskenazi Becker said. “Community only happens when people decide what matters. When they say, ‘This is worth my time, this is worth my attention.’”
In her opening remarks, Eskenazi Becker reminded fellows that they chose to show up, on Sunday mornings and on Zoom calls after work, demonstrating that commitment.
For cohort member Becky Warren, who has been involved with The Temple, this program provided a way to expand her impact across the broader Jewish community. She especially valued opportunities to engage directly with local leaders.
“The thing I liked was they talked about some of the challenges they were facing in their organizations and then sat down with us, and we chatted it through with them. Asked them questions and gave them ideas,” Warren said. “It really clicked, they're trusting us to be full participants and to come with our ideas and they're taking us seriously.”
Alex Anhalt, who grew up in a large Jewish community in New Jersey, said he previously never felt the need to step into leadership.
“The community was so large, it supported everybody and did it all for us,” Anhalt said.
After moving to Nashville, he came across the program through a Federation email. As he and his wife began putting down roots, he said, “I just felt like this was the right place for me to find out more about how I could become more involved in the Jewish community and create the community I want to be a part of.”
After getting acquainted and building trust with fellows, being part of the 12 learning and practice sessions, then beginning to think about his vision statement, Anhalt was overwhelmed.
“I always have thought of myself as a great seer of the landscape, and if I can understand the landscape of something, I can come up with a solution,” he said. “I felt like coming out of the program that I didn't actually have a good enough handle on the whole landscape of issues facing a Jewish community.”
With additional brainstorming and support from Eskenazi Becker, he refined his vision: creating a pipeline connecting graduates with leadership opportunities, board meetings, and real-time community challenges.
“Following graduation, voluntarily, cohort members could sign up to be a part of different boards in the city and sit on them without voting rights but really get some access to what we're actually working on, as a way to figure out where to best apply themselves next,” Anhalt said.
Ideas like this inspired program sponsors and supporters Dr. Mark Goldfarb and Beth Levine.
“I was thrilled about the enthusiasm in the room, all the individuals were very excited, they were appreciative, and I think many of them are very motivated to engage in the community, which is the whole purpose of what we're trying to do,” Goldfarb said.
Leadership 615 was developed in partnership between Goldfarb and the Federation to provide training, connection, and growth opportunities for emerging Jewish leaders in Nashville.
“I think the prior generation were huge leaders. Financially, and motivating people to get involved in the community,” Goldfarb said. “And my perception, maybe it's naive, I saw a drop off in my generation and the younger generation. I thought it was important to create something, to bridge that gap and take us into the future.”
Ayelet Berger, who has lived in Nashville since 2014, first heard about the program when it launched but said the timing never felt right, until this year.
"After October 7th, I started to become a lot more involved,” Berger said. “I always thought that Jewish leadership was like this elusive thing that I was like, how does one become a leader in the Jewish community? I just really didn't understand it.”
Now, she does. Berger said her leadership journey began in BBYO, and when the opportunity to join Leadership 615 arose, she didn’t hesitate.
At graduation, three fellows presented vision statements developed through months of reflection, discussion, and community engagement. Their ideas ranged from building a stronger bridge between program graduates and leadership opportunities, to creating a community-funded medical expense support program, to expanding Jewish education to help preserve tradition.
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Federation Board President Aron Karabel praised the practicality of their statements.
“This is what you want for future leaders, to be able to work through problems and come up with solutions that may or may not work but at least create a space for thought leaders,” Karabel said. “I was blown away by all of them. They’re leaders, this just enhanced it.”