By Andrew Adler
Community Editor
Sara Klein Wagner
President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Louisville and the Trager Family JCCSara Klein Wagner, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Louisville and the Trager Family JCC, is joining the national board of the JCC Association of North America. Her three-year term began this month by attending the national board meetings held prior to JSummit in Chicago.
Sara Klein Wagner, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Louisville and the Trager Family JCC, is joining the national board of the JCC Association of North America. Her three-year term began this month by attending the national board meetings held prior to JSummit in Chicago.
“I’m proud to have the opportunity and I’m excited to be part of the national dialogue,” Wagner says, explaining
that the national board comprises both lay leaders and JCC executives from communities throughout North America.
Headquartered in New York City, JCCA is made up of 172 JCCs and Jewish camps in the U.S. and Canada. Its mission statement is short and direct: “JCC Association connects the JCC Movement, advancing and enriching North American Jewish life.” Collectively its member JCCs employ 35,000 full and part-time staff – more than any other Jewish organization in North America.
Its portfolio is similarly vast. The Association administers the JCC Maccabi Games, billed as “the largest organized Jewish youth sports experience in the world.” JCCA’s early childhood education program serves an estimated 35,000 children; its network of 25 Jewish community sleepaway camps attracts 22,000 overnight and 70,000 day campers. Its chaplaincy division provides religious and related services to approximately 10,000 Jewish active-duty military personnel.
Wagner is one of about a dozen JCC CEOs on the national board, alongside close to 40 Directors-at-Large. She points out that her selection reflects Louisville’s history as a foundational member of the YMHA-based JCC movement – among the 10 oldest, she says.
“We have a lot to share,” Wagner emphasizes, “specifically, as a community others look to recognizing our successful merger of the JCC and Federation 15 years ago.
“I get called weekly by Federations and JCCs – whether by professional or volunteer leaders – who want to talk about, ‘How did you get to where you are? Was it the right move for your city?’”
Wagner recalls a time while she was in graduate school at Brandeis University, and her class spent several days in New York City “to visit with leaders of national organizations.”
“We met with everyone from what was, at the time, the UJA (United Jewish Appeal) to the JCC movement, Hadassah – the flagship organizations of Jewish Communal life.”
Those few days ended up being critically important to Wagner’s evolution as a Jewish leadership professional.
“We learned not only what we needed to know about how to work in our individual communities, but to understand the national network,” Wagner says. “I remember walking into the JCC national office and just feeling at home, because I grew up at the JCC – I chose the field primarily because of my experiences growing up at the Louisville JCC and going to overnight summer camp.”
Joining the JCCA board is an especially appropriate means of giving back, to “contribute to the conversation at the national level,” as Wagner puts it.
Still, it would be a mistake to assume that the Association’s national office dictates all aspects of policy. Instead, it’s more of a decentralized organizational dynamic. Policy ‘is run by the national office,” Wagner says. “The expertise is in the field. We use the JCC executive directors (Tom Wissinger at the Trager Family JCC) and CEOs, and have for many years, to be the conveners for learning, discussions and problem solving.
“For example,” she says, “when we were exploring building a new JCC, there was a cohort of a few JCC directors or execs. The national organization knew who the right people were who were living the experience, and put those experts in the room to share their knowledge. So it’s not really top-down – it’s more of a collaborative effort.”
Or as Wagner likes to say, “everyone JCC is connected by the larger movement and our shared vision to build and inspire Jewish lives by creating a platform for connection., learning and growth.”