H eadlines
Jewish Federation Welcomes New Senior Executive
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
WHEN JEFFREY LASDAY
entered the world of Jewish
professionalism in the 10th
grade, leading a club of
10-year-olds in the Pittsburgh
Young Judaea, his reasoning
was simple: “I became a Jewish
professional for the money.”
The position paid $5 per
hour, but it opened Lasday up to
the world of possibilities being a
leader in the Jewish community
had to offer.

Now Lasday is taking his 40
years of experience as a Jewish
educator and professional and
applying it to his role as the
senior chief, external affairs at
the Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia, which he took on
Dec. 20.

“I navigate towards people
who don’t just look at this as a
job, but really embody the whole
Jewish community in their lives.

So they personally participate;
they personally engage. They’re
members of Jewish organi-
zations and not just someone
who clocks in at a job,” Jewish
Federation President and CEO
Michael Balaban said. “Jeff and
his family have always been
deeply steeped in the Jewish
community.” As senior chief, external
affairs, Lasday will work to build
relationships within the Jewish
Federation, as well as work with
congregations, organizations
and constituent agencies in the
Greater Philadelphia area to
build more synergistic bonds.

“It’s working with the larger
Jewish community and thinking
about, ‘What would an ideal
21st-century Jewish Philadelphia
look like?’” Lasday said.

Having served various leader-
ship roles in Jewish educational
institutions in St. Louis and New
York, Lasday made the bulk of
his impact thus far in Detroit,
where he was the director of the
Alliance for Jewish Education
and senior director of commu-
nity development at the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit before becoming the
chief operating officer of the
Jewish Community Center there
in 2017.

At the time, the JCC of
Metropolitan Detroit was losing
more than $1 million a year. It
was forced to close down one
of its two buildings and reduce
the staff and budget. In partner-
ship with JCC CEO Brian Siegel,
Lasday created a seven-point
strategic plan to rescue the JCC.

“We integrated
our Jeffrey Lasday assumed the role of senior chief, external affairs at the Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia on Dec. 20.
Courtesy of Jeffrey Lasday
departments in the [Jewish]
Federation with the depart-
ments that were existing at the
JCC and created a new vision for
what a 21st-century JCC should
look like,” Lasday said.

With a $2.5 million budget, 15
full-time professionals and more
than 100 consultants, Lasday’s
department was transferred
from the Jewish Federation to
the JCC to smooth out opera-
tions there.

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“In Hebrew, there’s a term,
tzimtzum, which
means contract,” Lasday said. “[Jewish]
Federation was willing to
contract some of its program-
ming for the better good of the
Jewish community.”
2017 was not Lasday’s last
encounter with tzimtzum. As
COVID hit in early 2020, the
JCC was forced to furlough 90%
of its staff — 230 employees —
as well as shut down its fitness
center, day care and day camp,
the lifeblood of most JCCs.

“At the JCC, for us, it became
a matter of just being able to
survive,” Lasday said.

Navigating decision-making
weekly, the JCC, under the
guidance of Lasday, was able to
successfully open their outdoor
pool and later other facilities
with COVID-protocols that
aligned with the information
available to them at the time.

“It was really a matter of
holding our breaths and getting
through and making decisions
— like everybody at that time
was — with not enough infor-
mation,” Lasday said.

After the birth of a grand-
daughter last year, Lasday
wanted to move back to the
East Coast to be closer to his
and his wife’s family. A friend
of Balaban’s for more than 27
years, the two connected to
discuss a position for Lasday in
Philadelphia. Lasday’s hiring is part of
a larger reorganization effort
within the Jewish Federation
that included the transition of
Nikki DeCaro to the position
of senior chief, finance and
operations. “This is a team sport,” Balaban
said. “We’ve reorganized three
key areas of the organization.

Nikki plays a central piece, I play
a central piece and Jeff plays a
central piece in helping to refor-
mulate those corridors of the
organization, those pillars.”
With Lasday on board,
Balaban is confident the
reorganization will progress
smoothly. “He really has an incredible
way of maximizing people’s
potential and will be a great
asset to me as we work to tackle
some of the larger issues and
opportunities that we face as a
community,” Balaban said. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM