The third cohort of JUF’s Jewish Leaders Institute, an intense, six-month curriculum focused on Jewish learning and leadership, has been announced.

Participants, who will graduate in June, include Miriam Ament, Joel Bennett, J.R. Berger, Hannah Bloom-Hirschberg, Carey Davidson, Stacey Dembo, Simon A. Fleischmann, Matthew Gaines, Lori Goldberg, Danielle Goodman, Danny Gutman, Mark Hartman, Steven Levine, Jeremy Liss, Emily Pevnick, Lori Silverman, Alissa Simon, Kyle Stone, Brad Weiner, Matthew Wolfson and Eteri Zaslavsky. This cohort is chaired by JUF Board member David Goldenberg.

The institute is an outgrowth of the Chicago Jewish community’s rich tradition of volunteer leadership and commitment to global Jewish peoplehood. The Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Chicago has maintained a deep dedication to leadership development programming for volunteer leaders for many years. In order to maintain that commitment while adapting to a continually changing Jewish landscape, JUF launched the Jewish Leaders Institute in 2010 with a commitment to educate and prepare a new generation of leadership to take on the complex issues facing our community.

The purpose of JLI is to educate Jewish communal leaders in the history, thought, traditions and contemporary challenges of the Jewish people. The program will expand the leadership vision of its participants, deepen their Jewish values, and bring a Jewish language of discourse to their policy and decision-making in the community.

The goal of JLI is to develop a cadre of leaders who will be able to translate and adapt Jewish learning to the realities and needs of the future. JLI is for volunteers with a potential for long-term leadership within JUF, and participants are selected by invitation only.