Forging Connections that Strengthen Leadership and Friendship

Phil Frischer thought there could be value in participating in the Millstone Fellows, a high-level, select leadership program for emerging and established leaders run by the Millstone Institute for Jewish Leadership. What he found opened his eyes to the whole Jewish community.

“The Fellows program widened my focus and my friendships,” says Frischer, Senior Vice President at Lockton Companies. “The main thing I got out of the program was meeting a good group of people, a wide cross-section of the Jewish community. I made important connections in parts of the Jewish community that I wouldn’t have made without the Millstone program.”

Those connections have been helpful to Frischer in his business and in organizations with which he’s involved. “I’ve used the concepts I learned in managing my team and working with clients and prospects,” he says. As a member of the board of United Hebrew, the contacts he has made have helped him gain a new perspective. “Before the Fellows program, I would have based my involvement on my experience alone. Now, I’ve developed a network that I can use to forge connections in the Jewish community.”

Before his experience with the Fellows program, Frischer thought the differences among Reform, Conservative and Orthodox organizations were so great that there was little common ground. “I walked in thinking there was not a lot of commonality,” he says. “But there are many things we can share. We have to work together, interact more effectively, and the connections we’ve made through the Millstone Fellows program are going to help.”

The Millstone Institute for Jewish Leadership is a community-wide endeavor to engage and inspire volunteer leaders and professionals. Programs are made possible by support from the Lubin-Green Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, the Millstone Foundation, Bill Solomon & Family and Mont & Karen Levy.