Scarcity thinking haunts the Jewish communal sector, whether it is reluctance to share resources, hesitation to open-source successful programs or fear that generosity erodes a competitive edge. But in a field often defined by proprietary ideas and protectiveness, several dozen organizations recently dared to ask: What if innovation wasn’t something to protect, but something to share?

Last month, more than 1,300 Jewish community professionals gathered at JPro2025, co-hosted by Leading Edge and the Jewish Federations of North America. Amid the learning and networking, Leading Edge and JFNA partnered with UpStart to create Steal This, a joyful, open-source innovation showcase where 28 organizations pulled back the curtain on their best ideas and said, Go ahead: take them, adapt them, make them your own.

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A festival of ideas — and sharing them

Leading Edge cultivates thriving Jewish workplaces and leadership; UpStart supports bold Jewish ideas, fueling new models of community; and JFNA is the backbone of the organized Jewish community in the U.S. and Canada, representing 146 federations committed to building flourishing Jewish communities at home, in Israel and around the world. All three organizations understand that thriving and innovation are collective projects, so we knew collaboration and partnership were essential for this undertaking.

• Portability: Ideas had to be easily applicable across different types of Jewish organizations, from synagogues to social service agencies to camps.
• Permission-giving: Presenters had to be excited about others using, adapting and remixing their ideas — no gatekeeping.
• Diversity: The wider the range of organization size, type and community, the richer the learning.
• How over what: Presenters spotlighted how an idea came to life, not just what the finished program or product looked like.

The result? Picture a buzzing outdoor tent with trivia and game stations; conference rooms with conversation tables and card decks; deep discussion beside step-by-step poster presentations; and two stages with TED Talk-style “Steal Spiels” and Q&A sessions. Conference participants floated from station to station and idea to idea, trading “aha” moments with each other and with the innovators themselves. 

Everywhere you looked, ideas were changing hands.

Heather Fineberg, caring and social Justice program manager at Combined Jewish Philanthropies (Boston’s Jewish federation), presented a creative partnership model to meet community mental health needs. Tamar Frydman, director of the Orthodox Union Impact Accelerator, shared an idea for an internal accelerator blueprint that unleashes staff-led innovation. Amy Weiss, program director for Olam, presented her idea of weaving bite-sized, values-grounded Jewish learning into meetings and communications. Matthew Nouriel, director of community outreach at JIMENA, presented their Sephardi & Mizrahi Education Toolkit. 

“Having to distill the complexities of our work into a 5-minute, problem-solution pitch was an amazing exercise in effective communication; and even more so, it empowered me to make unexpected connections with colleagues from across the country doing similar work,” Fineberg said. 

Frydman loved being able to share something that others “could adapt, remix or run with,” she said. “Hearing from people afterward who were inspired or curious was honestly the best part.”

In addition to providing presenters with a platform to share their ideas, Steal This allowed participants to empower themselves with a “choose your own adventure” that packed 28 different learning opportunities into one hour.

If attendees left with only one thing, we hope it was a new mindset about innovation itself. Steal This empowered participating organizations to model curiosity, humility and a willingness to try and adapt, elevating the entire field. Questions came to the surface: What problem are we solving? What assumptions need challenging? How might someone else adapt this idea into something we never imagined?

Here’s the core of the Steal This mindset: Sharing freely doesn’t diminish your work’s value; it multiplies it. Embracing “stealable” innovation demands the humility to learn from others, the courage to relinquish ownership and the faith that what lifts the field lifts us all.

Looking ahead: A culture of open innovation

The real impact of Steal This is just beginning. We are already hearing from participants who are bringing ideas back to their communities. But we hope the ripples go further.

We dream of a sector where more convenings build open-source sharing into their DNA.

Where funders reward collaborative knowledge-sharing, not just proprietary programs.

Where leaders coach their teams to think like innovators: curious, experimental and generous.

In short, a Jewish nonprofit sector where Steal This is the norm, not a novelty.

This idea wasn’t meant to stay in a conference tent in Baltimore. It’s yours to take, adapt and improve in your next convening. We encourage you to find creative ways to share your ideas, tools and works in progress with your audience and your colleagues.

Our community faces profound challenges and possibilities: rising antisemitism and an unabating VUCA world, and simultaneously the surge of Jewish engagement following the Oct. 7 attacks that invites us to reimagine Jewish life. Meeting this moment will require openness, connection and generosity.

Consider this your permission slip: Steal this. Then let us know what you build next.

Isabel Shech is the director of leadership programs at Leading Edge.

Aliza Mazor is the chief philanthropic engagement officer at UpStart.

Jessica Balboni is the associate vice president at the Mandel Center for Leadership Excellence at the Jewish Federations of North America.