Janine shapiro is representing the greater Indianapolis community as the newest Jewish Federations of North America National Young Leadership Cabinet member. She joins Marina and Leo Grabovsky, who have been on the cabinet for 5 years.

Cabinet is a leadership and philanthropic development program based on Jewish values and is open to those between ages 30-45 who are looking to increase their philanthropy and are excited to become leaders in their local or national Jewish community.

Shapiro has known about Cabinet for some time now – and often heard about how great Marina’s experience has been. Between the significant time commitment, work, and raising young children, it was never the right time for Shapiro, until now.

“I recently shifted focus across all areas of my life,” she said. “It was time to exit the business world and focus more on my family and my community.”

So far, Shapiro has been on one retreat to Palm Beach where she met many leaders from other communities, with plans to attend a mission trip to Riga and Budapest to see Federations’ work around the world. She also plans to attend this year’s retreat in Detroit. Shapiro is still learning the ropes of Cabinet and exploring how she can best serve her community. She said she loves that she has met fellow leaders to learn what they are doing in their own communities. She is currently looking into those ideas to see what exists and what doesn’t exist locally that could benefit Indianapolis.

Shapiro joins a weekly Zoom meeting with other Cabinet leaders, and they are constantly communicating through a WhatsApp group.

“I have met so many wonderful people,” she said. “It really is a very impressive group of people and what’s so wonderful about them is that they build each other up and are so supportive. They celebrate the achievements of others.”

Shapiro is looking forward to going on the mission trip to continue developing her leadership skills, volunteering, and seeing Federation dollars in action.

While she has enjoyed her experience so far, Shapiro knows she still has so much more to learn. Shapiro is still exploring her next steps in the Indianapolis community as well. She is currently serving on JFGI’s Planning & Allocations Committee – her first big role in the community since joining Cabinet. She is also using Cabinet as a way to figure out how to merge her skills and training with her interests for her next Federation opportunities.