Manny Menchel ‘18, Senior Program Officer for Jewish Life at the William Davidson Foundation, was part of our inaugural class of the Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management’s M.S. Organizational Leadership & Innovation. He enjoyed working with Zelikow leadership during the pilot program, finding it to be complex and rewarding, complementing his entrepreneurial spirit. He shared, “The relationships I built with program leadership and instructors have remained instrumental in my professional development. I turned to Erik Ludwig, Ph.D., Director of the Zelikow School of Nonprofit Management, Mandi Richardson, Associate Director of the Zelikow School of Nonprofit management, and numerous instructors to glean wisdom around how to approach my career and transition from education to communal professional work. It was very helpful and remains that way.
One of the things I really like about my work is that working for one of the largest Jewish foundations nationally and globally, we are part of the big conversations around policy, determining how Jewish life will function. My voice is included in those conversations, which is invigorating. Before my time at the Zschool, I built Jewish community as a Jewish educator. The Zschool helped me transition to my role in philanthropy where I’m building Jewish community as an educator and thinking about it on a strategic and philanthropic level. I had a community building mindset, but now I have a broad macro-communal mindset that involves policy work and partnerships with stakeholders and stewardship of partners. Zschool empowered me.”
One of the reasons Manny chose the Zschool was “because I wanted to be immersed in a diverse environment and I was interested in experiencing the historic legacy of Jewish life within the Reform movement and within HUC.”
Words of wisdom from Manny: “Really enjoy your time and take advantage of having wise and experienced instructors. Zschool faculty are generally executives that people in the real world would benefit from. You have the opportunity to develop relationships and learn from them.”
You can be part of our next MSOLI class! Visit zsjnm.huc.edu to learn more.
