Washington University Professor Will Succeed Barry Rosenberg in Key Community Post
ST. LOUIS, June 27, 2012 – After a nearly 18-month national search, the Jewish Federation of St. Louis has chosen Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D., an associate professor of political science and professor of law at Washington University with an extensive background in Jewish community affairs, to serve as its next chief executive officer and president.
The Federation’s board voted unanimously yesterday to enter into a two-year contract with Rehfeld, beginning Sept. 1. Rehfeld will begin to prepare for his new position immediately, however, with an “onboarding” process of meetings, briefings and related activities.
“We are thrilled to have found a person of Andrew’s caliber to lead our organization and the whole St. Louis Jewish community into the future,” said Robert Millstone, Federation chair, who also led the search process. “Andrew brings us the intellect, passion, energy, collaborative skills, and the gift for communication that we were seeking in our new professional leader.”
“I am honored and humbled by the trust the Federation has placed in me,” Rehfeld commented. “The opportunity to provide a leadership role in one of the most stable, generous and forward-thinking Jewish communities in this country is clearly the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Rehfeld (pronounced RAY-feld), is 46. He will succeed Barry Rosenberg, 61, who after 20 years as the Federation’s top executive will retire in August 2013. During the period of overlap, Rosenberg will assist Rehfeld with the transition.
“I am looking forward to working with Andrew and to helping him establish himself as my successor,” Rosenberg said. “It’s a source of great satisfaction for me to know that the position I’ve held will be filled by a man of his talents and commitment.”
Rehfeld grew up in Atlantic City, Philadelphia and Baltimore, in Conservative and Reform Jewish households. His mother, Beverly Rehfeld, now a resident of St. Louis, raised him with a commitment to Jewish values and engagement, and his father and late stepmother, R. Rex and Ruth Wolf Rehfeld, were involved professionally and as volunteer leaders with the Jewish community in Baltimore. He earned his B.A. at the University of Rochester, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received his Masters in Public Policy and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty at Washington University in 2001.
As a scholar, he already has written one book published by Cambridge University Press and has another under contract there as well, including dozens of articles, conference papers, and reviews. His research has focused on democracy and voting as well as the history of political thought and the philosophy of the social sciences.
As a teacher, he was selected as one of just seven recipients in 2010 by the school’s undergraduates to receive the James E. McLeod Faculty Recognition Award for having “positively and profoundly influenced their educational experiences at Washington University.” In that same year, the university selected him from among its entire faculty to give the welcoming address to incoming freshmen and their families. In addition, the university appointed Rehfeld as a faculty fellow, in which capacity he and his own family lived in a dormitory with students for two years.
And as an administrator, the university has placed him in numerous roles, including as Director of Undergraduate Studies for the political science department and — by appointment of Chancellor Mark Wrighton — chairman of the university’s undergraduate disciplinary body. His colleagues also elected him to the university’s Curriculum Committee, which oversees the undergraduate program.
“Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D. has distinguished himself in several different ways here at Washington University,” Wrighton commented. “We are truly sorry to lose him, but we are pleased to see the St. Louis area retain him in this vitally important leadership role.”
Rehfeld has been active in the Jewish community his whole life. As an undergraduate, he was president of his Hillel chapter. His first jobs out of college were with the National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) in New Jersey and with the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in India and Europe. As a graduate student in Chicago, he served on his synagogue’s board and was director of the confirmation program and adviser to its youth group.
Since moving to St. Louis, Rehfeld has served on:
- The board and executive committee of Hillel at Washington University, where he directed the successful search for a new rabbi;
- The board of Sha’are Zedek Synagogue, where he also has performed with a musical group that participates in Shabbat services (he is both a guitarist and vocalist);
- The board and executive committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council, which awarded him the Michael and Barbara Newmark Emerging Leader Award in 2008;
- The Federation’s board of trustees.
The search process that found Rehfeld was authorized in January of 2011, at the recommendation of a board task force charged with studying the alignment of the Federation’s organizational structure and operations with its new strategic plan, adopted the previous summer. The task force recommended that whoever was going to be charged with implementing the new plan own and be accountable for that process.
With Rosenberg having already made known his intention to move on when his contract expired in 2013, the board decided to begin the search process immediately. Prompting the board’s sense of urgency was a tight executive-labor market in the world of Jewish non-profits and a belief that Jewish nonprofits have too often failed at succession planning. That belief received support just this month, when a study by the New York-based Jewish Communal Service Association of North America (JCSA) concluded that Jewish community succession planning should be “far better planned and mutually effective for CEOs and organizations.”
Then board president Sandy Neuman asked Millstone to head the national search. Millstone, who later in 2011 succeeded Neuman as Federation chair, was joined on the committee by Neuman and a group of executives, professionals, religious and volunteer leaders, many of whom had direct experience in recruiting and who represented the full spectrum of the Jewish community. They were:
- Patricia Croughan, a psychotherapist and vice chair of the Federation’s campaign;
- C. Bradley Gross, a project manager at Gross Mechanical Contractors;
- John F. Kalishman, Federation vice chair of financial and human resources development and managing director of Harcourt Capital Management, an investment advisory firm;
- Mont S. Levy, principal of Buckingham Family of Financial Services and a past president of the Federation;
- Dr. Steven B. Miller, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Express Scripts;
- Ruth Raskas, a staff vice president at Wellpoint, Inc. who chairs a Federation allocations subcommittee;
- Rabbi Hyim Shafner of Bais Abraham Congregation;
- Stacy Siwak, a community volunteer active in Federation and many other Jewish organizations;
- Todd Siwak, operating partner at Catterton Partners, a private equity firm, and the Federation’s vice chair of finance/treasurer;
- Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration and senior lecturer at Washington University; and
- Lynn D. Wittels, president and CEO of the St. Louis Jewish Community Center.
The search committee, in turn, hired the New York-based Mandel Center of the Jewish Federation of North America (JFNA) to assist and broaden the focus to the entire continent.
JFNA contacted more than 500 people in connection with the search, and referred 14 candidates to the search committee. The 14 came from backgrounds that included other Federations, business, and higher education.
What the committee sought, Millstone said, was:
- A deep commitment to the Jewish people and the Federation’s work;
- Strategic thinking;
- A fresh outlook to the issues of the organization and the St. Louis Jewish community;
- The ability to motivate the next generation to care about being Jewish;
- The ability to connect well with the community’s various constituencies; and
- The ability to articulate a vision and inspire others to follow it and to contribute to it philanthropically.
“Andrew doesn’t come to us with the most conventional resume for this job,” Millstone said. “But he is the best person for the job, because he gives us all of these skills and attributes and in generous measure. We feel very fortunate to have found him.”
Rehfeld is married to Dr. Miggie Greenberg, vice chair of the department of neurology and psychiatry at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. They have a daughter, Emma, 17, and a son, Hoben, 16. The family lives in University City.
Jewish Federation of St. Louis is the Jewish community’s central philanthropic, planning and community-building organization. Founded in 1901, it is one of the region’s most respected and effective nonprofit organizations. Federation is committed to the ongoing development and enhancement of a thriving Jewish community through a family of more than 60 local, national and international agencies, programs, services and innovative projects. Federation’s annual Community Campaign and ongoing Planned Giving opportunities raise funds necessary to provide services to engage both young families with children and young adults, support Jewish learning, educate and advocate for a strong Israel and safe Jewish world, and provide a safety net for vulnerable Jews. Jewish Federation is a proud member of the United Way.