Beyond happy hour

Young adults draw together to build relationships, community

BARRY COHEN
Community Editor

YLD members enjoy Mazelpalooza '98 at Axis in Scottsdale. From left, Michael House, Lori O'Koon and Jeffrey Becker.

The gathering of a Valley's young leadership program is more than an excuse for happy hour. Its first event did not take place at Hops, Carlos O'Brien's or Cooper'stown.

When, in the fall of 1997, Brian Weisberg, Mark Blonstein, and Steven Schwarz met with Art Paikowsky, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, they didn't just have after-work drinks and conversation on their minds.

"Every other major city has a Young Leadership Division. We want ours," Weisberg recalls telling Paikowsky.

Within days, Paikowsky called to say that the federation would be on board. He casually added, according to Weisberg, "Oh, by the way, I have your first speaker - Charles Bronfman."

YLD thus officially began not in a bar, but at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, at a 7:30 a.m. breakfast meeting featuring world-known businessman and philanthropist Bronfman, then an owner of Joseph E. Seagram and Sons.

Still, the social element of getting together with peers was also important to the group's future co-presidents.

"I had a vision of a group similar to an adult BBYO (B'nai B'rith Youth Organization)," says Blonstein.

"For me personally, there was nothing in Phoenix for young people," says Weisberg. "There was no venue that accepted everybody."

"I wanted an organization where (Jewish young adults) could get involved helping the community and could meet others," says Schwarz.

When choosing words to describe YLD, they all said, "cohesion" or "cohesiveness." But at the rate the group is growing, maintaining a feeling of cohesiveness is an ongoing challenge.

In the beginning, Weisberg says, he, Blonstein and Schwarz set up a steering committee and scrambled to the phones to get people to the Bronfman event. Some 150 attended.

Now, two and a half years later, YLD has built of mailing list of approximately 2,000 names, and the steering committee has evolved into a board, executive board and five committees - campaign, community relations, community service, leadership development and education/outreach.

"It just absolutely ballooned," says Blonstein.

"We've had difficulty controlling rapid growth, channeling it in the right direction," adds Schwarz. But the committee structure "naturally evolved," after the founding leaders' first four meetings, he says.

The community service committee alone planned some 10 social-action events last year, Weisberg says, including activities with Kivel Geriatric Center, the Council for Jews with Special Needs and St. Mary's Food Bank.

Stuart Rush, current community service committee chairman, joined YLD six months after its inception. He was drawn to the community service aspect of the group.
"In college, I always volunteered for events like Special Olympics and March of Dimes," he says.

As his involvement with YLD increased, he assumed a leadership role.
"I did not go in looking for it," adds Rush. "But it felt good giving back. I can't always give money, but I can give time."

His current goal is to get even more people involved with mitzvah and tzedakah (charity) projects that benefit the Jewish and general communities. He says he is pleased that more people his age are getting involved, "doing what they never did before."

The 2000-2001 calendar is quickly filling up with events, each sponsored by one of the five committees. Between July 2000 and April 2001, the leadership development and the education/outreach committees will hold at least one event a month. The community service committee has planned six events.

Monthly happy hours are scheduled between August and November, and between February and April. These get-togethers have attracted as many as 150 people, at such locations as Axis, the Tequila Grill, Earl's and the Adobe Restaurant at the Arizona Biltmore.

Programming diversity notwithstanding, many young Valley Jews are spending their time elsewhere.

"I am taking part of other opportunities, and (being affiliated with a synagogue) is important," says Scott Wiegand. "Federation is, from what I understand, made up (mostly) of the non-affiliated."

Though no hard numbers exist, YLD Director Rachel Richter estimates that "around 20 percent" of the members belong to a congregation.

Wiegand adds that he does not need the YLD for his social life. "I already have a good group of friends."

"I don't know what (YLD) is," said Mollyann Allen, "but that does not mean I would not be interested."

She says, however, that she and her husband, Dan, are very involved with Temple Beth Israel's Young Couples Group, a social group for those between their early 20s and early 40s, whether affiliated or not with the congregation.

Allen says she has never received YLD mailings, which she attributes to being non-affiliated and also to the fact that they "have never looked."

"Some of it is up to us," she adds.

"For me it is more of a time issue," says Matthew Levine. Though he views YLD as an "excellent organization," he sees it as devoted to socializing and networking. Levine is active instead with the American Jewish Committee, an organization he says that has a "direct effect" on the community.

Tim Eckstein attended one of the YLD's first organizational meetings.

"It was on a Thursday night, in the last season of 'Seinfeld,' during the second-to-last episode," says Eckstein, adding that there was nothing "compelling" about the meeting that moved him to become active.

"I also recall a (fund-raising) pitch raised at the first organizational meeting of the year. I thought that was kind of strange," he says.

Since then Eckstein has attended a handful of YLD social events, such as an occasional happy hour and Mazelpalooza, YLD's annual Christmas Eve party that last year attracted 500-plus partygoers for dancing and shmoozing.

"I choose things that are of interest, where I can make a difference," says Eckstein. Currently, he serves on the ASU Hillel board and coaches a mock-trial student team at Central High School in Phoenix.
While acknowledging that it is important to have a social network of young Jewish people, "other than as a potential fund-raising arm of the federation, I do not know what they do" at YLD, Eckstein said.

"Education gets us past the preconceived notion that all they want is money," says Blonstein, concerning the group's relationship with the federation. He cites the YLD's leadership training classes - a six-session series covering in part, board logistics, how YLD fits within the federation structure, and ethics - as but one example of its educational programming.

This year, between October and April, the leadership classes will be repeated. A future series may be devoted to business, says Richter.

Phoenix's federation, like its counterparts in some 200 cities and towns throughout the United States, coordinates, plans and finances various groups in the local Jewish community. An ongoing challenge may be to overcome the notion that the federation looks to YLD not to train future federation leaders so much as to train future donors.
"The perception was that (federation leaders) had a hidden agenda, but they never did," says Schwarz.

Paikowsky says his goal for the YLD is simple and two-fold: to create "opportunities for Jews to get together" and to provide experiences where they can "be Jewish, learn Jewish" and become part of the Jewish community.

Concerning the perception characterizing the YLD as a fund-raising adjunct of the federation, Paikowsky says only a small percentage of the group's activities are campaign-oriented.

"Fund-raising is a natural co-existing partner with any nonprofit," says Elan Mizrahi, a YLD board member. But he adds that the YLD does not really push anyone to give money. "If people are involved and interested, they will support (the institution) somewhere down the line."

"We have to overcome what parents have ingrained in them," says Lori O'Koon, campaign committee chairwoman. She explains that too many people think that giving money to the federation is an end, rather than a means to an end.

"I am motivated by how many lives we can effect by the money we give," she adds. She wants others to feel a similar "passion for the cause."

She hopes to build lasting relationships and slowly to change people's attitudes, mostly through face-to-face solicitations.

Lisa Pinkus is newly elected YLD president, succeeding Blonstein, Schwarz, and Weisberg. She, like O'Koon, is concerned about relationships, bringing Jews together "to build a cohesive community."

She explains that during the group's annual meeting last month, she looked around the room and asked herself, "Why are all these people here?" Her answer: "There is something deep inside that connects us all together."

She says one of her challenges is to "connect" with young adults who do not know about or are not active in YLD.

Pinkus has been involved with YLD from the beginning and has chaired the community relations and education/outreach committees.

As a means of outreach, she wants more family-oriented events, in part to stress "we're not a singles group."

However, she did meet David Pinkus, now her husband, at a YLD community-service event, she says.

Pinkus also sees e-mail and YLD's Web site as a valuable tool. "It's a cheaper means of communication," Pinkus explains. The Web site, www.yldphx.org, will have bulletin boards, and enable YLD members to confirm their attendance for events.

Right now the Web site is down, but it should be functional in mid-July, says Richter.
Pinkus says also that she wants YLD to build positive relationships with area synagogues and does not want to duplicate programming, "but to add and to enhance."

In order to foster "connections," she envisions a rotating program that visits various synagogues. "If it leads to affiliation, that would be great," she adds.

Pinkus hopes the YLD's membership base will reflect the many "perspectives, practices, and levels of observance" of the young Phoenix Jewish community.

Looking back over the past two and a half years, Weisberg says, "We have shown ... there is a vibrant, young Jewish community in Phoenix."

"I had friends before, but none of them were Jewish," says Rush. "(But) I met Jews through YLD, and that's made all the difference."

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