Well Wishes from Familiar Faces
We asked some former Rosov Consulting team members to share about what they learned while working at RC and give an update on where they are now.
If you'd like to add to the well wishes, please email communications@rosovconsulting.com or post on LinkedIn with the hashtag #RC@15wellwishes.
Shai Weener
Congrats on 15 years of Rosov Consulting!
I am extremely grateful for my years at RC and for the continuous support I receive even now. As a new graduate with the excitement of a new city and a new world, you provided mentorship and guidance. You gave me the space to grow, and encouraged me to do what I enjoy and have fun while I work.
Above all else, RC empowered me to never stop learning and to never stop asking questions. I now work at a small start-up in the technology space, and these are lessons and skills that I carry with me today and will stay with me throughout my career.
To another 15 years!
Sarai Brachman Shoup
My time at Rosov Consulting (2011-2015) as Director of Philanthropic Advising and Foundation Consulting was one of intense personal and professional growth. I've never before or since had colleagues that I respected more or learned more from. My identity as a social scientific researcher crystallized, and I felt part of something larger as we contributed to helping make organizations more impactful and foundations fund more strategically.
Since 2015, I've been back on my own, advising mid-size family foundations and taking on discrete research projects. I now direct three foundations (all part-time, obviously!) and have been fortunate to work on issues as diverse as collective impact in Pontiac, Michigan, supportive car-buying in Detroit, exploring new options for Jewish young adults, ensuring better opportunities for Ethiopian Israelis, and skill-building for the Arab citizens of Israel.
I love running into Wendy, Alex, and others I worked with in the U.S. and Israel: those friendships are lasting and deeply meaningful. Congratulations to Wendy and Rosov Consulting for 15 years of the very hard and fulfilling work that is research and evaluation, and through substantive interactions with many and varied Jewish organizations, tremendous behind-the-scenes contributions to how the Jewish world works.
Rafi Cashman
Working at Rosov Consulting came at a critical point in my professional life. I was a couple of years into my doctorate and still working as a high school teacher, about to make the shift to school leadership. I had only worked in Jewish day schools which are, even in the best cases, somewhat insulated from the pressures and expectations of high level professionalism. After messing up one too many times in my first months on the job, along with a good (as well as very fair and decent) talking-to from Wendy, I recalibrated what my workplace expectations were, and, thank God, haven't looked back. I've always been exceptionally grateful to Wendy for showing me this path, and tolerating me long enough to make the progress I needed.
The second impact of my time at Rosov was exposure to an exceptional and high-level group of Jewish professionals. My exposure as a high school teacher was very narrow, and I had only begun to move out of my local orbit. Through Rosov I was introduced to a great number of thoughtful, creative, and inspiring leaders, many of whom I've continued to cross paths with over the years, and others who have been wonderful role models.
Where has this led me? First to being a principal, and now, for the last seven years, as a Head of School at Netivot HaTorah in Toronto.
I want to wish Wendy, Alex, and the entire Rosov team continued success and bracha ahead!
Pearl Mattenson
Mazal Tov, Rosov Consulting team, on your 15th anniversary. You have been so important to so many, and I count myself among those who have learned from you.
After 7 powerful years with RC, in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, I returned to private coaching practice working with leaders and leadership teams within the Jewish non-profit world.
As a relatively new citizen of Israel, it was also important to me to be involved in some effort that aims to build bridges between Arabs and Jews. For the last two years, in a volunteer capacity, I coach Arab and Jewish co-facilitators of a professional development program (called Teacher’s Lounge) designed to bring together teachers who share a city but would not normally encounter one another.
I learned so much in my 7 short years at RC that it is hard to condense down. But here is a partial list:
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I developed a discipline around how to enter into a project and how to sustain exquisitely collaborative and transparent partnerships with my clients.
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I carry with me so many case studies of how to do things right in terms of building a company culture that is sustainable as well as examples of how to navigate the challenges and bumps in the road that inevitably arise.
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I have a much deeper appreciation for the complexity and the richness of teamwork in general and of distributed and matrixed teams in particular. Rosov Consulting was a laboratory for intentional experimentation in this area always with an eye toward serving the clients but also without ignoring what will enable the team to thrive.
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And, as I write this in the midst of an unwanted war in Israel, I am deeply moved by the number of people who have reached out to me from across the spectrum of the Jewish world who were my clients or colleagues while I was at Rosov. The RC value of honoring and working at relationships has continued to pay dividends in my life after Rosov.
Finally, in the realm of relationship, while it has only been 4 years since I left Rosov, I feel blessed to have gained not only colleagues but friends in the process. Over the years Rosov attracted and continues to attract such a high caliber of staff- people I respect, can learn from, with passionate commitments with whom I can also laugh and relax, and I love that those relationships have persisted.
Thank you and may you go from strength to strength!
