Articles JELF CEO Jenna Shulman’s 2022 Passover Message (4/20/22)

Jenna Shulman shares her inspiration and thoughts on this year’s Passover holiday with the community.

Over the past two years, I think about all the ‘plagues’ that we have collectively navigated throughout the pandemic. Weak broadband signals during Zoom meetings.

Canceled and rescheduled events. Virtual learning. Masks. Solitude. And so many missed connections as we pondered whether life, as we once knew it, would ever return to normal.

This Passover, I think about how lucky we are to be, mostly, on the other side of this journey – with kids back at school and our Jewish Educational Loan Fund professional team now able to come back into the office. But none of us are the same as we were before the pandemic. We appreciate different kinds of things and have better learned how to adapt to changing circumstances.

Through my work with JELF, I am continually inspired by the resiliency of our student recipients, who have persevered to finish their degrees, despite so many additional challenges. I am honored that JELF was able to come to their rescue, providing extra resources when students were not able to learn in-person and were caught in the thick of their higher education, as inflation soared.

Most of all, however, I am inspired by the sheer presence of our Jewish community, which invigorates me to continue doing what I love in the face of endless challenges – helping individuals in need overcome obstacles.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Passover!

Jenna Shulman is the CEO of Jewish Educational Loan Fund, as well as Co-Founder of juLuv Matchmaking.