Jumpstart Co-founder Shawn Landres speaks to White House gathering
of faith-based social entrepreneurs
Jumpstart presented a Jewish perspective on social entrepreneurship at the July 11th White House Faith-Based Social Innovators Conference. The afternoon’s discussions offered new insights about the important role that faith-based social innovators play in expanding opportunity and addressing social issues.
Senior White House directors Jonathan Greenblatt of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation and Joshua Dubois of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships convened the gathering of more than 100 leaders from a diversity of faiths and organizations.
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| Emily Leventhal, Shawn Landres, Jonathan Greenblatt (White House), Joshua DuBois (White House), Joshua Avedon, & Paul Vandeventer (Community Partners) |
Shawn was one of only nine featured “spotlight innovators” chosen to address the entire conference because they and their organizations “are finding innovative ways to make a positive impact on our society and economy.” His remarks were about Jumpstart’s work, and about bridging the gap between faith-based and secular social entrepreneurship.
“Faith-based need not mean faith-bound,” Shawn reminded the room. “And secular social enterprise need not isolate itself from faith-born creativity.”
Jumpstart was represented by Shawn and Co-founder Joshua Avedon, as well as board members Emily Leventhal and Rachel Cohen Gerrol (who just started her term as Chair this month). We were joined by Paul Vandeventer of Community Partners, with which we operate the Project Partnership, a joint venture to fiscally sponsor emerging Jewish and interreligious organizations. Also present was Perry Oretzky, President of the Angell Foundation.
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Follow the conversation on Twitter: #WHInnovation, #FBSocInn
By Eli Winkelman
cross-posted at The Huffington Post
Two weeks ago, I went to the White House for its first reception in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month.
I went with excitement, but also some uncertainty. Jewish American Heritage Month: what does that even mean? What does it mean to me?
My understanding of my Jewish heritage and my American heritage shift daily, sometimes hourly. They’re even more confusing mashed up together and bundled into 31 days: May, Jewish American Heritage Month.
The event was wonderful and moving. Rabbi Alysa Stanton‘s recital of Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” brought goosebumps. President Obama’s words brought tears. And Regina Spektor‘s performance brought enthusiastic applause; I am a huge fan.
But for me, the real kicker came a few days after the reception.
First, I received an email from Jumpstart‘s Shawn Landres, asking me to call him, pronto. I also received a voicemail from my grandmother Alice. Her message was not really clear, but I heard something about Shawn’s photos on Facebook.
I talked to Shawn first, and he told me about an aunt of his, Phoebe, who had passed away quite young. She left behind a husband, Floyd, and a son, Marc. My dad once had a step-brother named Marc, which is also my dad’s name. Apparently my dad adopted the name Matthew for a while, to avoid confusion, but it didn’t stick. Neither did Alice’s marriage to Floyd. But for a few years, my dad and Shawn’s cousin were step-brothers.
Alice had seen the photos of me at the White House that Shawn had posted to Facebook and friended him with a message that I was her granddaughter. Shawn and I figured it out: My grandmother was once Shawn’s cousin’s stepmother, which makes Shawn my almost ex-step-cousin once removed. Whatever, we’re family!
Depending on how you do the calculation, half of American marriages end in divorce. This is often cited as a negative, but it can have positive outcomes, too: Until I was 22, I had six grandparents! And, of course, I was everyone’s favorite granddaughter, so just imagine all of the birthday and Chanukah presents. (For the sake of full disclosure, my own parents are happily married, so I never went through a first-hand divorce.)
Alice was married several times. Although she has had a rocky relationship with her Jewish heritage, she always married Jewish men–and she always divorced them. Alice has taught and continues to teach me how to build and invest in relationships–whether with a significant other, a job, or a friend–and how to recognize when a relationship is not healthy for me. She’s now single and an empty-nester for the first time since she was nineteen. Now in her seventies, after four decades of living in Los Angeles, she upped and moved to New York City. And she’s never been happier. She’s an inspiration.
A few days after such a neat conversation with Shawn, I received a Facebook message from a stranger: Amy R. had been looking through her friend’s Facebook photos from the White House event. Her mom walked into the room and saw a photo of me and told her that we’re “related.”
This is the message I received:
Apparently, your grandma ‘adopted’ my grandparents, Ruth and Henry K. in Detroit. My grandparents were survivors and they always spoke lovingly of your mom and grandma. Have you ever heard this? I have such a tiny family and really welcomed the news.
I immediately called my mom, who confirmed the story, telling me about “Uncle” Henry leading family seders and recalling Amy’s parents’ wedding. My mom called her dad, Grandpa Bernie. Grandpa Bernie called me back, crying. Family is the most important thing to him, with or without quotes.
I went to the White House–and came home with two new cousins. One from the messiness of divorce, and one from a hodgepodge family formed after the Shoah (Holocaust). This is my Jewish American Heritage.
Eli Winkelman is the founder and National Coordinator of Challah for Hunger (CfH), which bakes and sells challah bread to raise money and awareness for social justice causes. She is a Joshua Venture Fellow and a 2010 Ariane de Rothschild Fellow.
