Gesher, a business networking group for Twin Cities Jews, will soon have its own advisory committee on the Jewfolk Board of Directors.
Josh Awend, who co-founded Gesher a few years ago, hosts monthly coffee and lunch meetings and networking events for early- to mid-career professionals in the Twin Cities Jewish community. Awend will now co-chair the Gesher Advisory committee at Jewfolk Media along with Jewfolk board member, Joshua Winchell.
In a unanimous vote, the Jewfolk board decided to bring Gesher — Hebrew for “bridge” — under the auspices of their organization in order to help promote the events and work together in reaching a similar demographic.
President-elect Joe Fahndrich said the move was approved at the most recent board meeting last month.
Jewfolk Media Executive Director Libby Parker said the partnership was in the works for the last two years. “It was just kind of a natural progression.”
Parker said the partnership is moving toward a membership model – a Jewish “chamber of commerce” – for Jewish businesses and individuals.
She said the goal of the collaboration is to have a monthly event for the remainder of the year with more networking events and guest speakers.
“The whole idea of Gesher from the very beginning was formed on a very old idea that Jews in business can help one another professionally – and oftentimes, form deeper relationships as a result,” Parker said. “So this is kind of the new version of that for young professionals. The new position that we are hiring in the coming few weeks will be instrumental in growing and shaping Gesher in the coming months.”
Fahndrich said not much will change for now in terms of Gesher as an organization, but he said the goal is for Gesher to grow its reach and impact.
“We’re basically going to be continuing that and giving it a little more muscle and we’re going to be leveraging off of the audience that TC Jewfolk has,” he said. “But beyond that, it’s going to be more of a continuation of what Gesher was doing before with a focus on professional networking, providing professional development opportunities, mentoring, and supporting our community through relationship building.”
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