It is a challenging time to be a communal professional. Since our 2023 Jewish Community Professionals’ Conference, a lot has happened. Most notably the harrowing day of October 7 and the devastating impact it has had on the community. As communal professionals, we may have seen our workstreams adapt, or at times found it difficult to separate work and home life. On top of this, we continue to find ourselves living and working through a cost-of-living crisis affecting our service users, organisations and us as individuals. One thing this period hasn’t been is easy.
That’s why this year’s Jewish Professionals’ Conference will look at building emotional resilience and wellbeing during these difficult times. Last year, we welcomed over 100 community professionals to join the JLC and Lead for our annual Conference. This year, we hope to welcome even more professionals who are eager to meet up with fellow colleagues from across the community and support one another.
The conference will take place on Wednesday June 5 from 9.30 to 15.00, with an optional extra hour. We have carefully curated a programme that allows participants to choose two breakout sessions that most resonate with them from the following: Building Emotional Resilience and Well-being, a CEO panel looking at Leading Through Challenging Times, Navigating the Multi-Generational Workplace, The Art of Connecting, How to Effectively Measure and Evaluate Your Impact, an Open Question Time, Navigating the Middle Management Compass and Speaking with Confidence.
We are extremely excited to also be joined by Zoom Rockman, the award-winning satirist, editorial cartoonist, puppet-maker, animator and director. Zoom has been in the spotlight from a young age thanks to his incredible talent and has had to overcome many hurdles to be where he is today. Amongst other areas, he will be discussing his resilience and the tools and techniques he has learnt, which we hope will inspire everyone in the audience.
The event is attended by participants with a wide range of experience – from people who have just started their first job, to the more seasoned senior leadership team from both small and large organisations. We are proud that this event really is for everyone!
Despite the recent challenges the Jewish community have faced, I’m constantly in awe of the attitude of our communal staff – the amazing collaboration between organisations on specific events or projects, the ability to turn ideas into reality in incredibly short spaces of time and most importantly, ensuring our organisations’ core business has still been attended to at the highest of levels so that service users are still receiving the same, if not more, levels of provision they always have done.
But have any of us had the opportunity to step back, take a breath and focus on ourselves in any way?
This conference will be an opportunity to prioritise your own development through the eight topics mentioned above, as well as hearing from speakers from both inside and outside of the community. But what has really been fed back to us through the years is how participants value the opportunity of being with other communal professionals and having the opportunity to talk through any challenges they might be facing; as well as having the chance to meet with people that hold similar roles in other organisations. These connections can form a fantastic support network, and we are proud of the many connections we have made over the years.
As an attendee said last year: “This event ranks as a highlight in my annual calendar” – make sure it does in yours too and don’t miss out on the opportunity to join by finding out further details and signing up at www.thejlc.org/professionals.
We are delighted that this year’s event is sponsored by the Pears Foundation and are grateful for their support.
We look forward to seeing you and your colleagues on the June 5.
For further information and to sign up, click here
Laurence Rosenthal is head of programmes for the Jewish Leadership Council and Lead
