With heightened demands on Jewish communal leaders due to the “Surge” in Jewish engagement — and antisemitism — Leading Edge has acquired JPro, creating a “central address” for development and support of Jewish community professionals and volunteers, the firm told eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Established in 2015 to provide training, research and support for Jewish nonprofits, Leading Edge acquired Boardified in 2022, expanding its scope to include board leadership development. With its acquisition of JPro, a group focusing on professional development and career growth in the Jewish communal world, Leading Edge hopes to create a “field-wide organization working on recruiting, engaging, and developing the Jewish nonprofit sector’s employees, executive leaders, and board members,” according to a statement.

“The idea is to create one central address for the people who are working within the ecosystem of Jewish organizations,” Gali Cooks, president and CEO of Leading Edge, told eJP of the merger, which took effect on Jan. 1. “There’s been a 10-year history of deep partnership [between JPro and Leading Edge]. And there’s been, especially in light of post-Covid and post-Oct. 7, a real understanding that we do need to invest more and better and more strategically.”

According to Erika Rudin-Luria, former board chair of JPro and now a vice chair of Leading Edge, the acquisition is a result of numerous conversations that highlighted the organizations’ shared goals and trajectories.

“Leading Edge was creating norms in the space that Leading Edge was in and JPro was creating in the space that JPro was in. But those spaces started to move together,” she told eJP.

JPro, founded 120 years ago as the National Conference of Jewish Charities, was focused on supporting the professional ecosystem and talent across its member affiliate organizations. According to Rudin-Luria, having noticed the increasingly diverse backgrounds of professionals and volunteers drawn to the Jewish nonprofit sector, JPro and Leading Edge both wanted to increase their capacities to support and develop leaders, grounded in research. 

“Even 30 years ago, there were very clear paths into work in Jewish communal work. And frankly, there were very clear types of organizations.” Rudin-Luria told eJP. “Organizations have evolved and changed, and there is interest from people coming in from many, many different career paths. Our system needs to be able to respond to all of that today.”

Cooks also highlighted the partnership’s potential to help alleviate stress on communal professionals in the wake of Oct. 7 and increasing antisemitism, which in her perspective, is not going anywhere. 

“We’re dealing with issues that we are going to be dealing with for the next several decades, and we’re in it for the long haul.” Cooks told eJP. “We need to do whatever is necessary in order to strengthen ourselves and shore up our resilience as our board leadership and our professionals as well.”

The merger will not impact prescheduled programming for either organization in 2025, though, according to Cooks. Leading Edge is focusing on a strategic planning process and gearing up for JPro’s conference in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America in May. The acquisition also did not result in any layoffs; all JPro employees have moved to Leading Edge.

“Leading Edge and JPro coming together holds great promise for the Jewish communal world,” Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, said in a statement. “At Jewish Federations of North America, we believe that communities only flourish when all organizations, schools, and synagogues have best-in-class professionals and lay leaders. We’ve been proud of our partnerships with JPro and Leading Edge to achieve this and look forward to the future.”