Steven Silverstone discusses the FJMC Leadership Development Institute

One of the FJMC activities that is not well known throughout our membership is the “Leadership Development Institute” (LDI). This article is written to acquaint our Western Region members with LDI.

In 1945, the Jewish Theological Seminary appointed Rabbi Joel S. Geffen as FJMC's spiritual advisor. His initial responsibility was to travel throughout North America to expand the influence of the Seminary and to build future synagogue leadership through Men's Clubs. Rabbi Geffen guided the organization for 40 years, during which he linked FJMC to the rabbis in the field and to Seminary leadership. In 1997, FJMC established the Rabbi Joel S. Geffen Leadership Development Institute dedicated to training lay leaders for the Conservative Movement.

Each year the FJMC conducts an LDI retreat weekend. Each region is asked to identify four (4) regional members to participate in two days of leadership training usually starting about Noon on a Friday and ending at Noon the following Sunday. This year LDI is being held on November 10-12 at the Pearlstone Center in Reisterstown, MD. Some of the training topics for this year, and they can vary from year to year, are: 

• The wonderful world of FJMC
• Doing good for your regional community
• How to make your region and clubs stand out
• Yellow Candle Training
• Effective Oral Communication
• Best Programing in Large and Small Regions
• How to run a Meeting Using Technology
• How to run a Regional Retreat
• What does the FJMC do for clubs?

We also set aside time for all attendees to meet each other. The attendees come from all around the United States and Canada.

The four regional participants are broken up into two groups called “Regional Leaders Track” (Usually the Regional President and Executive Vice President) and “Emerging Leaders Track” (two members either from Regional or Club boards). Some of the training sessions are joint sessions, however many are split session between the two tracks and the training is developed specific for each track.

For 2017 (5778) the Western Region participants are:

• Regional Leader Track;
  • Benny Sommerfeld Regional President , Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks CA and
  • Gary Katz Regional Executive Vice President, Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks CA
• Emerging Leaders Track:
  • Jon Medwin Regional Secretary and President of Congregation B’nai Shalom Men’s Club, Walnut Creek CA and
  • Joshua Kaplan Congregation Beth Shalom Club Officer, Santa Clarita CA.

Also participating at LDI this year from our region as staff members are:

• Mitch Ross – Co-Training Leader for the Emerging Leaders Track, Congregation Or Tzion, Scottsdale AZ
• Norm Katz – FJMC Executive Board, Tifereth Israel Synagogue, San Diego CA
• Ken Matlick – FJMC Executive Board, Congregation Or Tzion, Scottsdale AZ
• Steve Silverstone – LDI Co-Leader, Congregation Ner Tamid, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
• Aren Horowitz – LDI Religious Services Leader, Congregation B’nai Israel, Albuquerque NM

If anyone has any questions or comments please let me know.

Steve Silverstone

Western Region, Immediate Past President

Slvrstn1@gmail.com