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Friday October 13, 2006

Building ‘a new Jewish tomorrow’ in the East Bay

by dan pine
staff writer

While volunteering at an immigrant absorption center in northern Israel, Sean Mandell witnessed something that changed his life forever.

“I saw an Ethiopian woman and a Russian man hugging and crying together,” he recalls. “I remembered we are all Jewish, despite our cultural differences. There’s something unique and bonding about us as Jews.”

It was a lesson Mandell never forgot. In the 10 years since that moment, he has made his living as a Jewish community professional, and is now beginning his new post as campaign director for the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay.

Mandell’s mission is to help the federation meet or exceed its 2007 target of $3.4 million. It’s a tall order, but given that the federation hit its 2006 goal, and its Israel emergency campaign rallied the community to donate $1.3 million, Mandell likes his chances.

“My job as a fundraiser is to be the best storyteller,” he says, “to tell of the incredible growth and development of the East Bay Jewish community, made possible because of the work of the federation.”

Though he grew up in Cincinnati, Mandell is no stranger to the Bay Area. From 1998 to 2002 he served as assistant director of the Young Leadership Division of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation in Palo Alto.

He might have stayed on, but he chose to earn an MBA at Brandeis University. While there he managed to complete internships at Combined Jewish Philanthropies and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston. From 2004 until this summer he was director of Israel & Overseas Projects for the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County in South Florida, overseeing a $9 million budget.

Like most federation executives, Mandell has a passion for Judaism, its culture, community and Israel. That’s something he shares when he meets with federation donors. “The idea is to tap into people’s interests,” he says, “their personal set of Jewish values, and understand how that correlates with the community priorities.”

Now an Oakland resident, Mandell is impressed with the breadth of the East Bay Jewish community, which has grown considerably in recent years.

“What was formerly a small and dense community is now quite vast,” he observes. “With Contra Costa County having more of a suburban feel, and Oakland-Berkeley-Piedmont having a more centralized urban lifestyle, the East Bay is more congruent with being a diverse community.”

Mandell is delighted to be back in the Bay Area, which he describes as the “most beautiful place on Earth.” He’s also happy to be back with colleagues he first met while serving at the JCF.

But he’s all about the East Bay now, and when he ponders the future of the Jewish community there, he speaks with intense zeal.

“There’s incredible initiative and inborn energy at the federation,” he says. “I’m not sure we know yet what it will be, but this is a new Jewish tomorrow in the East Bay.”

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