Angelica Berrie Wants Fellows to Be More Inclusive

On one level, Angelica Berrie was pleased with the first two groups of participants in the Berrie Fellows, a program started in 2004 to help develop new leaders for North Jersey's Jewish community.

"Ninety-nine percent of the members of the first two cohorts of fellows have become recognized as valuable leaders, sitting on boards of Jewish organizations and in other leadership roles," said Berrie, president of the Russell Berrie Foundation in Teaneck. The foundation is named for her late husband, the toy company owner and philanthropist. It sponsors the fellows and works jointly with the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey in managing the program.

But Berrie also felt the group wasn't reaching enough of the Jewish community.

"We didn't have the richness of the community: Jews of color, gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender Jews, Jews of Hispanic heritage, Israelis, Russian Jews, who are here but not connected to our community," Berrie said. "We're missing the whole richness of what contributes to Jewish life."

The first two groups of fellows "were all people we found through our own community," she said. "A lot of them would've become Jewish leaders anyway."

So she set out to change matters with the upcoming third cohort of fellows.

"We reached out to different people," Berrie explained. The organization contacted the Genesis Philanthropy Group, a New York foundation that works with Russian Jews. "We reached out to their director, who lives in New Jersey, to help us find the up-and-comers in that community, because they would never come to us."

The fellows program also contacted rabbis whose congregations include gays and lesbians, and to Hispanic Jewish communities.

In the past, all nominees for the fellowship came from among prominent members of the North Jersey Jewish community. This time, "we added a self-nomination process," said Laura Freeman, herself a Berrie Fellow who now heads up the program. "We were interested in people who don't know anybody at one of the Jewish agencies or a rabbi."

The nominations are nearly closed (anybody interested or who knows someone they want to nominate can still do so through today), and a panel comprising Freeman, two other fellows and a consultant will select the 20 people to participate in the next class. The two-year program will begin in August.

"We want a picture of the community that's inclusive," Berrie said.

For more information on the Berrie Fellows or to nominate a candidate, visit ujannj.org and click on the Berrie Fellows Leadership Program link on the right-hand side of the page.