Our Mission
Our mission is to seed LGBTQ leadership in Jewish
organizations that need stronger and more diverse representation,
and to help LGBTQ emerging leaders feel confident and competent to
serve in such roles. Hineni is designed to acquaint and connect its
leaders with the Jewish organizational map – from both a lay and
professional perspective - at the beginning stages of communal
involvement.
We aim to educate, empower, connect and build
leadership capacity by mining and merging each participant’s Jewish
identity, LGBTQ identity, and leadership identity in a meaningful and
organic way.
Although Jewish organizations today are generally more
inclusive than they’ve ever been, under-represented populations can
be valued but still not fully integrated in an organization’s leadership
culture. Some LGBTQ leaders may feel uncomfortable or overly self-
conscious in established legacy organizations. Culture shifts happen
when diversity is normative, organizational lay and professional
leadership is more holistically woven together, and those in the
LGBTQ community feel empowered and knowledgeable in
heteronormative Jewish settings.
Hineni supports organizational transformation from the
inside out, encouraging and promoting leadership from different
perspectives by enabling LGBTQ leaders to summon their voices and
articulate their views, while educating organizations to hear and value
those voices.
