Meet-Ups and Learning Discussions

These small-group, informal learning sessions will feature exceptional faculty and peers and are designed to encourage practical insights, candid exchanges, and real-time applications.

Monday February 2 | 9 - 10:15 a.m.

Please note these optional Monday sessions take place before the official start of Mifgash 2026.

Introduction to Leading Edge and the Employee Experience Survey

Location: SAVOR Bar and Kitchen

Join us for a brief, interactive meet-up with the Leading Edge team to learn about its work to strengthen Jewish organizations and promote excellence for all in the nonprofit Jewish sector. This session will introduce Leading Edge’s mission and approach and offer an overview of its Employee Experience Survey—what it measures, why it matters, and how leaders can use the insights it provides to support talent, culture, and performance in their own organizations.

Thinking About AI and My JCC: A Conversation

Location: SAVOR Bar and Kitchen

Join us for an interactive, small-group discussion with Amanda Loveland, CEO and founder of Puzzles and Profits to investigate what AI might do in your JCC. In this meet-up we’ll think together about practical applications, opportunities, and questions related to AI, including how to approach it thoughtfully and strategically and how it can support operations and engagement and have an impact in your community. Amanda also will lead a more formal workshop, The AI-Enabled Executive, twice on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday February 3| 8 - 9 a.m.

Conversations with Evolve Giving Group

Location: Rodgers, Concourse Level

Proposed Topics:

Are We Ready for a Major Fundraising Campaign?
The CEO-Board Partnership in Organizational Capacity Building

Join us for one of two different conversations with Evolve Giving Group. One will explore what it takes to successfully launch a major capital, endowment, or anniversary campaign, and the other will delve into the critical partnership needed between the CEOs and the board to build organizational capacity and ensure long-term sustainability of your JCC. Join whichever discussion interests you the most.

Improving the Business of JCCs: A Conversation

Location: Foster, Concourse Level

Join Kurt Atherton, president of Avidon Health, for a small group conversation that builds on his earlier workshop, From Wellness to Wellbeing: How Promoting Health and Partnerships Can Create Sustainable Revenue for Your JCC. Whether or not you attended the workshop, this discussion will offer an opportunity to explore practical insights, ask questions, and think together about strengthening the business side of JCCs by partnering with healthcare institutions and pursuing other real-world applications.

JCC Global Breakfast

Location: Kern, Concourse Level

Join executives from JCC Global and JCCs around the world for an informal conversation over breakfast. Featuring Smadar Bar-Akiva, executive director of JCC Global; Leah Garber, director general of JCC Association’s Center for Israel Engagement; and other JCC Movement leaders from Europe, Israel, and Latin America, this meet-up offers a unique opportunity to connect across regions, share perspectives, and explore opportunities and challenges shaping JCC leaders—and their leadership—in a global context.

Creating Meaningful and Effective JCC-Federation Partnerships

Location: Porter, Concourse Level

Join this informal, meet-up for a practical and candid discussion about how JCCs can build strong, effective partnerships with Federations. Featuring JFNA’s Mimi Kravetz, chief impact and growth officer, and Rabbi Mike Uram, chief Jewish learning officer, alongside Mike Goldstein, executive director of the JCC of Central New Jersey, we will explore what productive partnerships looks like, where common tensions and opportunities arise, and how you can align strategy, communication, and impact to advance shared community goals.

Leading When It Is Hard: Building a Resilient Organization

Location: Copeland, Concourse Level

Especially in these times of fear, uncertainty, division, and fatigue, it is vital for Jewish communal leaders to ensure their workplaces and workforces are resilient. Adapting and applying lessons that endure from past challenges—the coronavirus pandemic and the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, for example—can strengthen the workplace and employees’ commitment to it. In this interactive session, Maggie Feinstein, executive director of the 10/27 Healing Partnership at the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh, will share hard-earned lessons, practical frameworks, and use-now techniques to foster resilience in your JCC.

Narrative Tools for Strategy and Visioning

Location: Berlin, Concourse Level

Join Miriam Brosseau, CEO of Tiny Windows Consulting, for a practical, interactive meet-up to explore story-based techniques that can strengthen organizational strategy and visioning. Drawing on frameworks she’s used successfully with clients, including individuals and boards, Miriam will guide us in applying a narrative approach as a tool to clarify where we want our JCCs to go in the coming years—and what it may take to get there. Like her Movement Moment presentation, this session will offer practical, use-right-now techniques and a bonus opportunity to converse and learn with Miriam.