The times they are a’changing.
For the first time in its 95-year history, AMIT has included men on its board of directors, a move that the leadership said widens the tent of the organization by bringing in new perspectives and opinions, opens the door to greater fundraising potential, and, not coincidentally, dovetails with the trend in America’s profit and non-profit corporate boards that has moved toward more diversity and gender parity.
The new board of directors and AMIT’s new national president, Audrey Axelrod Trachtman, was elected on June 17, 2019 at the Annual Assembly & Inauguration, at which time the five new men were voted to the board of directors. That move changed the face and personality of the formerly all-female board. The men, who began their term on Sept. 1, 2019 include Avi Adelsberg, Evan Green, Evan Jerome, Alexander Luxenberg, and Jared Isaac.
“It became clear that we needed a broader range of opinions,” said AMIT Executive Vice President Andrew Goldsmith. “We wanted to broaden the appeal and bandwidth of the organization and we felt the time was right to ask men to join us as part of our communal conversation. We felt it would be a growth opportunity on every level.”
Among its other duties, the AMIT board of directors is charged with setting policy and approving strategic plans. Board membership is voluntary. Each board member contributes their time and money to the organization.
Axelrod Trachtman said there were many reasons to make the change, chief among them was that as AMIT moved into the 21st century, the organization’s structure needed to reflect the new times.
“The same way AMIT in Israel represents innovation, education and 21st century skills, I want the board to be a place that is generating new ideas and developing new constituencies and be a place of dynamism and excitement. We want to generate ideas that will continue to help Israel,” said Axelrod Trachtman.
“It felt wrong to completely exclude men from serving as leaders of AMIT,” Axelrod Trachtman said. “Why exclude half the population? You can get a better board if the pool you are selecting from is greater. We are an educational institution. If we want to teach messages to our students, we should be living them.”
While Goldsmith said the discussion to open up the board to men “was percolating for a long time,” it wasn’t exactly easy to break from AMIT’s nearly century-old, all-female tradition.
“There were strong and very valid feelings,” Goldsmith said.
For her part, board member Dr. Francine Stein, a past national president of AMIT and currently chairwoman of the board of the American Zionist Movement, said at first, she was not keen on the change because historically there had been very few leadership opportunities available to Orthodox Jewish women.
“Initially, I was very hesitant,” said Dr. Stein. “Not because of men per se, but because of the position of Orthodox Jewish women on the world stage. AMIT was unique in giving Orthodox women leadership roles. With AMIT, we automatically had a seat at the table. While it’s still early to tell, I think the change will be an exciting one.”
AMIT’s strong Jewish female, storied beginnings is part of its lore – and its pride. The organization first known as Mizrachi Women, AMIT, was founded in 1925 by Bessie Gotsfeld, a housewife-turned-Zionist activist, who pushed the “pushke” culture of women dropping a few coins into their tzedakah boxes before lighting Shabbat candles into a full-blown female fundraising movement on behalf of Palestine. With vision, determination, and success in raising money, Gotsfeld, and her cohorts, were unhappy with the status quo: Women raised the money, and the men decided how it was spent. Gotsfeld took the reins of the organization and decided where the money would go. From the start, AMIT, a woman’s organization, focused on the educational needs of girls and creating a home for disadvantaged children being resettled in Israel. As Jewish history unfolded, AMIT continued to respond to Israel’s needs.
Today, AMIT is considered an educational powerhouse – ranked number one by Israel’s education ministry – and serves more than 37,000 children in more than 30 cities in Israel.
Among the newest board members is Alex Luxenberg, 30, who found his way to AMIT through AFLI (AMIT Future Leadership Initiative). He is a client partner at Facebook and works with its largest client partners and has held a number of roles in media and e-commerce, including leading a retail marketplace at INTURN, sales at Twitter, and FP&A at American Express.
For his part, Luxenberg, who also is a tri-state regional vice president for the organization said, “I hope to bring my knowledge and background in marketing, branding, and social media to AMIT.”
In the few months he has served on the board, he already has brought his expertise to AMIT. Luxenberg recently met with the marketing department to discuss social media strategy.
As a new member, he said, “my first job is to listen, which men could probably do more of in general. I have a lot to learn from the women who lead AMIT and I am excited to gain from their perspectives. Ultimately, AMIT exists to serve the children in Israel, and I hope through my involvement more men become passionate about the cause.”
Likewise, new board member Evan Green, the founder and chairman of Personiv, a business process outsourcing company, who chairs the Los Angeles Leadership Council, said he wanted to bring his business acumen and expertise to AMIT, an organization that he became most passionate about after going on the 90th Israel Mission with his wife, Layla, in 2015.
“I think my background in business, as an entrepreneur, and as a visionary are my strengths and I hope to bring new ideas and get traction with those ideas. AMIT is producing miracles and creating breakthroughs, but we can do better. I hope I can add a fresh perspective and an entrepreneurial approach to the issues and challenges confronting the organization,” Green said.
“Men and women are fundamentally different,” Green said. “They have different perspectives and different life experiences. The more diverse, the more powerful any board can be. It’s going to take a wide variety of people and perspectives to fully capitalize and leverage those opportunities.”
Historically, organizations that have stayed true to their founding ideals and mission and have embraced change as necessary, not only have staying power, but also the potential to move into the future with great success.
That is the hope for AMIT.
