2019 was an incredible year! YOU were a part of that. As we reflect on the year and look forward to the year ahead, we want to recount our 5 favorite moments of 2019!
1. Nefesh Mountain
This collaboration with Temple Solel was a bright and warm January evening after a rainy and cold December! With over 100 people, we gathered to sing, dance, play and make Havdallah with a stunning sunset.
2. Purim: A Women’s Tell All
In March we mustered up the courage of Queen Esther to host our first Purim event that featured community members as speakers! During our “Women’s Tell-all,” we gathered women in our community who shared stories of leadership, identity and bravery, shedding a new light on the story of Queen Esther. It was an entirely new experience we created and it brought many new faces – and voices – to The Hive!
3. Capacity Building Workshops
Earlier this year we kicked off a series of workshops that brought actionable tools to nonprofits that can be used for capacity building. Our “Meet the Funders” events brought leaders from local foundations and other financial instutitions to The Hive to talk about insight to their giving models, intiatives, and focus areas. Look our for next workshop for capacity building, “Fundrasing & the Small Nonprofit” in January!
The panel from “Meet the Funders: Community Foundations” featuring Sharleen Wollach, the Vice President of Operations at the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego speaking about JCF’s philanthropic goals.
“Creating a Culture of Philanthropy” shared tools to get your whole organization involved in fundraising. This event reached over 80 people!
Krista Torquato from Bank of America talks with a guest about high-priority focus areas and BoA’s philanthropic trends at our “Meet the Funders: Financial Institutions” event!
4. This is San Diego Jewry
In October we introduced our theme for the new year: Belonging! Evolving from inclusion, “belonging” requires co-creation with your community to build a space that everyone has ownership of. We want people to feel that they have ownership of their experiences they have at The Hive at Leichtag Commons. To kick off this theme, we photographed and premiered the “This is San Diego Jewry” exhibit, illuminating the diverse and dynamic Jewish community in San Diego. We’re excited to explore this theme further through our upcoming workshops focusing on creating safe & equitable workplaces, and future cultural experiences.
5. Abundance of Visitors
Thanks to YOU, local nonprofits, and national nonprofits held 140 conferences, retreats, celebrations, and more. Over 9,000 community members participated and visited! We’re honored that you’ve made this place a home for so many creative, compelling and engaging experiences. We look forward to experiencing more beautiful moments with you.
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.