In more than 25 years working in the world of Jewish federations, Todd Stettner has been in the thick of federation business in New York, Milwaukee, Seattle and Tucson.
The associate executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay is about to add another city to the list — Kansas City — where he’ll take over as executive director Aug. 9.
“Midwestern and Eastern communities are much different than out here,” observed Stettner, a Bronx native. “You have more of a sense of community, several generations of leadership.”
The Federation of Greater Kansas City MO/KS, based in Overland Park, Kan., serves some 20,000 Jews in the region. Stettner was impressed to see federation presidents whose children and grandchildren went on to become federation presidents themselves. He also liked the concentrated nature of the Jewish community.
“It’s not as spread out as we are,” he said. “It becomes easier to know where everyone is and to manage that.”
He also sees similarities between the Kansas City and East Bay communities — similarities he believes will help make his transition smoother.
The two federations are taking a comprehensive approach to strategic planning, he said. The East Bay federation is collaborating increasingly with synagogues, he said, while the Kansas City federation is looking in a similar direction.
“The old model was that the federation worried about the secular part of the Jewish community and the synagogues worried about the spiritual part. There wasn’t as much of an interrelationship.”
Stettner, 49, grew up in a secular Jewish home. He first became interested in expanding his Judaism into his professional life during college.
“I took a course called ‘The Old Testament as Literature’ taught by a Methodist minister, an Old Testament scholar,” he said. “That’s what really piqued my interest.”
He got a job at the federation in New York and at the same time took his first course in Jewish communal service at Yeshiva University, where he ultimately got a master’s degree.
Then he headed to Milwaukee and started his long career as a Jewish professional. Before joining the East Bay federation in 1994, he served as Marin director for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
Serving federations, he said, places him at the heart of Jewish communal work. “I like looking at the big picture. I love working with people. I like to be able to effect change.”
In addition to working for the East Bay federation, Stettner has been president of his synagogue, Conservative Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon. “That is something that’s not common for a Jewish professional to do as a volunteer activity,” he said.
He said he accepted the president’s post in part as the result of his experience in a two-year Wexner Heritage Foundation course in Jewish studies, which he completed in 1998.
He’s in the process of finding a Kansas City synagogue for himself, his wife and two teenage sons. Since accepting the job, he’s received letters and e-mails from members of the Kansas City Jewish community, offering to help him and his family get acclimated.
“Kansas City has been very welcoming to me,” he said. “That aspect I’ve really appreciated.”