JFCS Welcomes Sobel-Berlow as Engagement Specialist

lisa sobel-1colJewish Family & Career Services welcomed a new staff member in January. Lisa Sobel-Berlow, a Louisville native, started her Jewish communal service career at JFCS in Louisville 10 years ago as a development intern through the joint internship program between JFCS and the Jewish Federation of Louisville.

Since then she has gone on to work in many different agencies within the Jewish community across the country and describes herself as a “Jewish Jill of all Trades.” Her passion is in creating connections between people, groups, causes and organizations, which makes her perfect for her new role as Engagement Specialist.

Sobel-Berlow will be working for the next year to help create strategies to connect more people and organizations to the mission of JFCS. She will be working closely with Executive Director Judy Freundlich Tiell to build a roadmap for the agency to reach more young adults and other groups.

“We are excited about Lisa joining the JFCS team. We believe that in order to continue to attract excellent leaders, volunteers, and interested individuals to JFCS, we must develop new ways of engagement. We are looking for Lisa to explore best practices in engagement, which will be meaningful and relevant in the coming years,” said Tiell. Sobel-Berlow is the daughter of Sue and Tom Sobel and grew up in Louisville, where she was an active member of The Temple before she went to college at Denison University in Granville, OH. During her time at Denison, she helped to rebuild Jewish life on campus and, after participating in the internship program at JFCS, she decided to pursue a career in Jewish communal service.

After graduating with a degree in religion, she moved to Claremont, CA, just outside of Los Angeles, to act as an engagement professional for Hillel as a Jewish Campus Service Corps (JCSC) Fellow. She continued her second year in the JCSC Fellowship at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

After meeting and marrying Benji Berlow, they moved to San Jose, where she worked as a development director for a Jewish day school and then as a synagogue membership coordinator. She and Berlow relocated to Pittsburgh, where she focused her work on experiential Jewish education at The Agency for Jewish Learning while getting her MBA with an emphasis in Entrepreneurial Leadership and Strategy at Chatham University.

Benji Berlow is the new Young Adult Director for the Jewish Federation of Louisville. Sobel-Berlow is excited to be back home in Louisville working for the Jewish Community. “The chance to make lasting connections between the larger Louisville community and JFCS was an opportunity that I could not pass up! I am looking forward to meeting and connecting with many community members and leaders,” Sobel-Berlow said.

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