MAKE THE WORLD BETTER! - Greater Miami Jewish Federation

10
Dede’s Ladder
Dede Feinberg just co-chaired the GA and has held
almost every possible leadership position in Federation.
Funny, she never expected to get involved.
By Andrea Glick
THERE SHE WAS, STANDING in front of 3,000 people at
the General Assembly, the international gathering of the
Jewish Federations of North America. Though she’d spoken
to crowds in the past, none was quite this big, and
Dede Feinberg admits that climbing the stairs to the podium,
she was nervous. “Talking to 3,000 people took my
breath away,” says Feinberg, who with her husband,
Kenneth, co-chaired the November conference in their
hometown of Washington, DC.
She did fine, of course, but talking about the GA a
few days later, she did sound a bit breathless, this time
because she was thrilled with how well the conference
was received. “We met our goals. People were informed
and inspired and will return home better prepared to do
the work we do.” Just as important, “there was a wonderful,
warm feeling. Everyone was so happy to come
together and celebrate.”
Feinberg is quick to share credit with the GA committee,
saying, “My single greatest strength is the people
I surround myself with, people I’ve met along the way” in
the course of her Federation work.
She does wish she’d had time to go to more workshops
at the conference, but she was determined to be
visible and speak to as many people as possible, so she
spent a lot of time outside the meeting rooms. She was at
the plenaries, though, and she loved them, kvelling especially
about the session featuring the Jewish Agency for
Israel, where she sits on the Board of Governors, and
which was represented by its new chair, the famed Soviet
dissident Natan Sharansky, and by a group of fresh-faced
young people who spoke movingly about making aliyah
from all over the world.
This aspect of Federation work is crucial to Feinberg.
She believes passionately in promoting Jewish identity, in
the idea of a global Jewish people that must care for each
other and remain connected. “I’m not going to tell you
what type of Jew you should be, but if I can touch your
soul and connect you with your people and your history,
that’s not only a gift to you, but to me.”
Feinberg has held nearly every possible lay leadership
position in the Federation movement. Her resume is
a long list of Federation organizations preceded by titles
Dede Feinberg chaired the 2009 General Assembly
like “chair” and “co-chair” and “board member” and
“president.” A few highlights: She was Campaign chair
and president of the Jewish Federation of Greater
Washington, and prior to that held the same posts in the
Women’s Division. She sits on the executive committee
of the Jewish Federations of North America. She has
chaired the International Lion of Judah Conference and
was Major Gifts chair of National Women’s Philanthropy.
And since 2000, she’s sat on the Jewish Agency Board of
Governors, where she now chairs the Assembly Planning
Committee.
Feinberg discovered her passion for international
work when she joined the National Young Leadership
Cabinet in 1985 and went on her first mission, to Poland
and Israel. She was moved and fascinated, and hasn’t
stopped traveling since.
“I thought I was a fairly sophisticated woman, but I
have to tell you, if you’ve never been to the FSU, there’s a
depth of understanding you get when you travel to other
parts of the world. You step into the elevator hoping it will
actually get you up to the fifth floor, where you meet a
person in a wheelchair who hasn’t been out in 10 years
because the wheelchair doesn’t fit through the door.”
Feinberg never planned on getting involved with
Federation. But as a young wife and mother in
Washington, DC, she knew she needed to find “something
more” in her life. She explored various organizations.
But something just clicked about the Federation.
She attended a coffee sponsored by the Young Women’s
Coalition, went up to the head of fundraising and said
she wanted to volunteer. She never stopped.
One of the things Feinberg has loved about
Federation work is the education it’s given her, particularly
about the Jewish beliefs behind concepts like
tzedakah or tikkun olam, or what it means to be part of a
kehillah. That’s why she didn’t end up volunteering for
the ballet or the United Way—those causes, while wor-