Photo: Denise Brundage has been helping Federation run smoothly for the last 28 years, seen here assisting David Harris, now Chief Development Officer, and Danielle V. Minson, now CEO, on Super Sunday in 2016.
Next week, Denise Brundage, my Senior Executive Assistant, retires after 28 years at the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.
In that time, she has worked alongside four CEOs and 28 boards and welcomed 12 Israeli emissaries to Cincinnati. She has known hundreds of professionals and lay leaders by name, including past board presidents.
I was here when Denise first started. She likes to remind me there are photos to prove it.
I often say the secret sauce of this place is the combination of extraordinary lay leaders and talented professionals. Some of those professionals you see at the front of the room. Many more you never see at all, and the work wouldn't happen without them. Denise has been one of those people for nearly three decades.
That kind of work matters more than most people realize. New research from Jewish Federations of North America, drawn from nearly 20,000 Jewish adults in 30 communities, including ours, found that belonging comes first. Many people who aren’t engaged say they want to be. They just don’t know where to start. Here in Cincinnati, as across the country, only about one in three feel that someone would notice if they stopped showing up. Being noticed almost always starts with a person, often one of the professionals most of us never see.
That sense of belonging matters for the people who work here, and for the relationships they build with all of you.
I believe great people build a great community. More than 900 people, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, work in Jewish Cincinnati’s agencies and congregations, more than 400 of them full-time.
I’m deeply committed to making sure the people who choose this work can build a career here. Denise built hers here.
Our staff told us they want more room to grow. Since then, colleagues in nearly every department have grown into bigger roles, some on entirely new teams and some at other Jewish organizations across Cincinnati. That’s how we want it to work.
This week, we kicked off the Monaco Jewish Nonprofit Leadership Institute (M-JNLI) for managers across Jewish Cincinnati. It’s named for Tom Monaco, a beloved Cincinnati educator who spent his retirement teaching nonprofit leaders to put relationships first. Six members of our Federation team are in the class.
During the first session, Valerie Plis, a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, had everyone write “I use my strengths every day” with the hand they don’t normally use, then switch. The first try was slow and awkward, and a few looked like random scribbles. The second felt natural, the way work feels when you lead with your strengths. As one of our six put it afterward, a strength you don’t practice is about as useful as writing with your other hand.
To keep great people building this community, we have to invest in that kind of growth at every level. Next, we’ll build a program for senior leaders across Jewish Cincinnati’s agencies and congregations.
Strengths start with knowing yourself. Leadership also means really seeing the person in front of us. Last week, the 15 civic, faith, education, and business leaders in our Cohen Family Leaders in Light Institute met for their second session. Pasha Dashtgard, an extremism researcher at American University, walked them through how social media and AI can pull people toward hate, and the warning signs to watch for. He urged parents to keep talking with their children about what they’re seeing online, and especially about who they’re talking to. Those conversations begin with paying attention, asking questions, and making sure our children know someone is listening.
We all have a part in helping the people around us feel they belong, from our children and colleagues to the neighbor still looking for a way in. It starts with noticing them.
Denise has spent 28 years making people feel connected. Seasons change. Hers turns next week, just as a new class of leaders begins theirs.
This week, think of someone who makes your life, or this community, better. Tell them what they mean to you.
I’ll go first.
Denise, you taught me that the relationships we build here reach far beyond office hours. For 28 years, you’ve helped so many of us feel we belong here, me included. Thank you.
Shabbat Shalom,
Danielle V. Minson
CEO, Jewish Federation of Cincinnati
jewishcincinnati.org/give
PS Israelis voted in the highest numbers in decades, more than three in four eligible voters. The campaign turned on questions close to home, like who serves in the army and who's accountable for October 7. I hope you'll join us at IsraelLENS: Unpacking the Israeli Election on Thursday, November 5, at 5:30 p.m. at the Mayerson JCC to sort through it together. Save your spot here.