2. Our delegation of volunteers and staff attended numerous different sessions.  The absolute highlight for me was sitting in room over dinner with our Pittsburghers discussing what we had learned and how we can utilize that knowledge for the betterment of our community.  Thank you to all who attended for making my experience so fulfilling.

3. One of our community members was sitting in a session.  It turns out that the person sitting next to him was born and raised in Pittsburgh.  Through further discussions, it turns out that her family lived in the house where I now reside.  The theme of this year’s GA was “The Original Jewish Social Network”.  This was networking at its very best.

On November 10, the Federation’s Blue Knot group (for members of our community who work in the field of technology) held a fabulous event hosted at the Google offices at Bakery Square.  It was fascinating to learn about Google’s work culture and technologies.  The night before, the Holocaust Center of the Federation held its annual Kristalnacht commemoration.  The speaker, Robert Satloff, the Director of the Washington Institute, spoke about “righteous gentiles” from Arab countries who saved Jews during the Holocaust, a piece of the story of the Holocaust not as well known.  In these two evenings, we connected hundreds through our programming to our wonderful community.

On the 14th, the Federation and the Agency for Jewish Learning will kick off a new speakers series entitled “Conversations for a Jewish Future”.  Our first speaker, Dr. Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University will speak about “The Ever Dying People:  Jewish Continuity and the Future of our Community”.  Dr. Sarna is a world renowned Jewish historian (and married to a Pittsburgher).  I want to strongly encourage you to come to hear him at 7:00 pm at Chatham University.  Everyone involved in the Jewish community needs to hear what he has to say.  It will help to inform each of us in our leadership roles.  For more information and to register, please click here.

All of these programs allow our community to gather and network.  This week’s Torah portion shows Abraham as an early adopter of networking principles when he invites three strangers into his tent as guests.  As social networks form and strengthen, so does our community.  While I will encourage you to connect with our fellow community members through social networking websites (see my P.S. below), nothing can replace the personal connections.  I hope to see you at lots of upcoming programs throughout the Jewish community (Federation programs, agency programs and synagogue programs) and as a participant on next summer’s Centennial Mega Mission to Israel (which hit 150 registrants this week).

Shabbat Shalom.

P.S.  You can follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/jfedpghceo, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/jefinkelstein, on Linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=13582360&trk=tab_pro or at Google+ at https://plus.google.com/u/0/?tab=wX#.  Looking forward to being connected!