Mishmash engages new Russian-Jewish community leaders

This past Saturday, twenty-three 20- and 30-something San Francisco Bay Area Russian Jews ascended a steep hill in the heart of Mill Valley to start off their collective involvement in the Mishmash Leadership Program, a ground-breaking effort to engage potential new leaders among young Russian Jews. The Mishmash Leadership Program is truly one of a kind, not just in the Bay Area but in North America. The eight-month long course aims to raise communal consciousness in the younger population of the Russian Jews, most of them products of late '70s and early '90s immigration tides. Culturally diverse and multilingual, Mishmash participants have signed up to tackle complex questions about core values and responsibilities of being young Russian-American Jews in our community.

Russian Jewish community leaders engage through the Mishmash program

The visionary behind this educational project, Sasha Belinski, an emissary from The Jewish Agency for Israel, working out of the Federation’s Israel Center, built the Mishmash Leadership curriculum around the mission of strengthening the participants’ Jewish identity, their connection to Israel, and their sense of belonging to the local Jewish community. To reach these goals, the program is structured around three core components: personal exploration, Jewish community exploration, and personal leadership initiative. The last component will take shape as a communal project—ranging from a cultural event, to an outdoor adventure or Jewish holiday celebration—that each participant will conceive, plan and deliver as a mindful contribution to the quality of local Jewish life. For more information contact Sasha at alexandrab@sfjcf.org or 415.512.6285.