BBYO reaches milestone

Even as a busy father, husband, and corporate attorney in Chicago, David T. Brown still devotes so much of himself to the Jewish community.

He is a longtime JUF leader, including serving as a past Chair of the Board. He has also taken on leadership roles at a slew of Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Federations of North America, the American Jewish Committee, the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, AIPAC, and his synagogue.

Brown credits his dedication to Jewish life in his adulthood to another Jewish organization he spent a lot time with in his younger years: BBYO. He sees the Jewish teen movement as the genesis of his passion for the Jewish community and so many of his broader life’s accomplishments.

A proud alumnus of BBYO, now celebrating its centennial anniversary, the Waukegan native said that “had it not been for BBYO, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Brown said that BBYO provided him with “immersive leadership development experiences” critical to building the skills and confidence he needed to grow personally and professionally. Additionally, the BBYO board member says it helped cement his identity as a concerned and dedicated Jew.

Founded in Omaha in 1924 as Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA) by a group of young Jewish men, BBYO has grown into a movement with 725 chapters in more than 60 countries. Each year, tens of thousands of Jewish teens participate in its social, travel, philanthropic, and leadership programs and events. Its hundreds of thousands of alumni include Sheryl Sandberg, Adam Sandler, Mark Cuban, Carl Bernstein, Russ Feingold, Henry Winkler, and the late Leonard Nimoy.

In Chicago, which is preparing for its own BBYO centennial event, more than 800 Jewish teens participate in 10 chapters spread across the metro area. One local BBYO member, Samantha Dombar, said that her experiences in BBYO have offered her opportunities to pursue her interests in communications, a subject she hopes to study at the college level. Dombar said that the group has also reminded her of “how proud I am to be Jewish.” This is particularly important to her, she said, because her Chicago magnet high school does not offer her many chances to interact with other Jewish students.

Dombar’s experiences mirror those of Chicago BBYO alumnus Adam Shaw, a 20-something management consultant, who became involved in BBYO while attending Whitney Young High School. Shaw said he was “looking for a Jewish connection,” and BBYO offered it in abundance. Its “hands-on” approach to Jewish leadership was “foundational” for him. He became a leader in his chapter, which inspired him to remain active in Jewish life at Indiana University Bloomington, his alma mater, where he joined Alpha Epsilon Pi, the largest Jewish fraternity, and attended Hillel events. Today, he is a member of BBYO’s alumni council.

That BBYO retains its vibrancy after a century’s service to Jewish youth is heartening to Ruth Perlman, a vice chair of BBYO’s board and 100th anniversary chair in Chicago. Her grandmother, Anita Morris Perlman, was an early advocate of programming to support the development of young Jewish women, successfully pushing for the creation of B’nai B’rith Girls (BBG), a vital component of BBYO.

“My grandmother was very forward-thinking for her generation,” said Perlman. “She believed that women’s perspectives deserved the same validity as men’s.”

Perlman added that when BBG was founded in 1944, her grandmother had observed how important it was for youth to learn how to stand up to the “great crisis in Nazi oppression.” Today, Perlman said, with a worldwide spike in antisemitism, young people continue to play a vital role in pushing for a fairer, more humane world.

For more information on BBYO’s Centennial celebration, head to bbyo.org/100 or email Stacy Friduss, Vice President, Community Engagement at [email protected] .

Robert Nagler Miller is a journalist and editor who writes frequently about arts- and Jewish-related topics from his home in New York.