Last night, we held an incredibly successful, first ever, Men’s Night Out event.  A crowd beyond our expectations came out to hear ESPN star Herm Edwards.  The evening was fun and inspirational as we talked openly and directly about the needs of our Jewish community and the ways that these men can make a difference.

Last Sunday, the Federation held a meeting of 19 different Jewish organizations to discuss ways to maximize communal real estate: can underutilized space in one institution be used by another in need of space?  The program facilitated by outside experts seemed to get the conversation going.  This, once again, proves that one of the key roles for Federation is as convener.  We can bring the diversity of our community together to discuss important issues.

Finally, I, like many others, subscribe to the daily ejewishphilanthropy blog.  It contains some interesting and important articles about the Jewish world.  Yesterday’s caught my eye and I am sharing it with you now – CLICK HERE.  As you read through the articles, take note of the authors.  The first, Charles Cohen, was part of our Federation Planning staff and now serves as the Executive Director of Palm Beach’s version of our AJL.  The second is by Carly Zimmerman.  Carly got her start as a student at our Edward and Rose Berman Hillel Jewish University Center and then as a staff person there.  While in Pittsburgh, she was one of our community’s participants in the Spertus Institute’s Master of Jewish Professional Studies program.  Today, she is the Executive Director of Challah for Hunger.  The final article about Jewish adult education is written by our former Community Scholar at the AJL, Rabbi Danny Schiff.

Pittsburgh was named by Forbes Magazine as the second smartest in the United States (click hereto see the story).  Yesterday’s ejewishphilanthropy blog demonstrates that fact in our own Jewish communal professionals.

Shabbat Shalom.