Laura Siegel is really honored to be one of this year’s Mishpacha Coordinators. She is a Joint Masters student at Hebrew Union College studying for her degrees in Jewish Education and Jewish Communal Service. Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, she spent every summer at URJ camp Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute in Wisconsin, and was a unit head in 2005. The experiences of living Judaism at OSRUI were what really inspired her to pursue a career as a Jewish professional. After completing her undergraduate degrees in Jewish studies and political science at Indiana University, she returned to Chicago for a year before starting HUC. In that year she worked as the Regional Director of the University Student Division of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency for Israel and also taught 6th grade religious school at her home congregation, Temple Beth Israel.
While in Israel, Laura coordinated all of HUC’s tzedekah volunteer opportunities; in addition to diverse monthly tzedekah events, she volunteered her time tutoring a new immigrant family from Ethiopia with 5 kids, helping them learn Hebrew and adapt to Israeli society. She also participated in the Ride for Reform, a 5 day- 220 mile bike ride raising money for progressive Judaism in Israel.
This past year in LA Laura interned with the American Jewish Committee as part of her communal service internship. In addition, she taught 7th grade at University Synagogue and worked closely with Rachel Margolis, a previous Mishpacha coordinator.
Laura is greatly looking forward to working with Mishpacha this year. After learning about Mishpacha throughout the year, she has been continually impressed with the kind of educational and family growth opportunities Mishpacha has created. After having the opportunity to join us for our last Mishpacha session this year, Laura commented on how welcome she felt, even though she was new to the Mishpacha experience. She also reminisced, “Mishpacha reminds me so much of the congregational family retreats that I grew up loving. An important difference that I’m really looking forward to is that Mishpacha is a yearlong experience and the community is so dedicated to learning and growing together”. Laura is already working hard with Rebekah on this year’s program and is thrilled to work with the Or Ami community throughout the year!
