Interim Director Announcement

Jessica Doucette • Mar 19, 2024

Interim Director Announcement

Dear JCA members, friends, and neighbors,

We hope you saw our email from two weeks ago with information about upcoming changes to the JCA leadership structure and our nationwide search for a CEO. As mentioned in that email, we have selected an interim executive director (ED) to serve as the JCA’s short-term leader during this transition. We’re so pleased to be able to share the details with you at this time.

When the Executive Search Committee discussed the organization’s needs and goals for the interim role, we identified several key priorities to guide our selection process. Included in this list is an individual who embraces and will advance the mission and values of the JCA, a trusted and respected leader among staff and the community, and someone with the experience and drive to both manage day-to-day operations and keep our work moving forward during the transition period.

We couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that we have chosen a candidate who checks all of these boxes, and more: Stuart Piltch, current JCA Board president and long-time Board member. Following Molly’s last day on May 3, Stuart will officially step into the interim ED role.

Many of you already know Stuart, which is one of the reasons we feel he is such a wonderful fit. He is a seasoned technology entrepreneur and consultant with over three decades of experience. He has worked for small startups, large corporations, and universities; and has developed technology solutions for nonprofits in Maine and beyond.

Stuart and his family have been active and generous volunteers in our community for more than 20 years. He and his wife Laura raised their two boys in Falmouth before moving into the Back Cove neighborhood in Portland as empty nesters two years ago. For those of you who have not yet met them, please introduce yourself the next time you're at the J.

Stuart will be stepping down from the Board when he starts as interim ED. Laura Kittle, our vice president, and Sarah Allenby, our treasurer, will serve as co-presidents throughout the transition. Additionally, Sarah Allenby and Lena Geraghty (JCA Board member) are the co-chairs of the Executive Search Committee. We will miss Stuart’s leadership and thoughtful participation as Board president, but are excited to partner with him in this new capacity.

As always, we are happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have about these changes.

Shabbat Shalom,

The JCA Board of Directors
board@mainejewish.org

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Dear JCA Community, As you may be aware, email and web-form bomb threats were made today against several Synagogues in Maine. Bomb squads checked the facilities and nothing was found; in addition, State, Federal, and SCN investigations have found the threats not credible. These threats are part of a broader pattern of incidents categorized as “swatting”, and Jewish facilities nationwide have received these threats at historic levels in the past few days. This issue predates the attacks of October 7 th and the war in Israel, and has unfortunately been a necessary feature of our institutional training for several years. Between September 14-17 th of this year (around Rosh Hashanah), there were 15 reported incidents of an individual calling authorities and falsely reporting a bomb inside a Jewish facility. During the same timeframe in September, there were at least 10 incidents of Jewish facilities receiving direct threats via their online contact form or email. As media coverage of swattings and bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions has intensified, individuals within extremist networks have begun advertising and suggesting additional swattings. SCN has identified at least one instance of an unidentified individual in an online forum advertising to teach others how to conduct similar swattings for a fee. SCN will continue provided training to local Jewish institutions to help all of us establish and develop our protocols to manage these incidents. Clergy, staff, and lay leaders will continue to work together to keep our communities safe while operating as normally as possible. Talking to children about these issues can be particularly difficult; PJ Library has been updating their list of resources actively since 2017: https://pjlibrary.org/beyond-books/pjblog/january-2017/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-scary-situations . While it is both enraging and devastating to know that there are those who wish to disrupt and terrorize us, the best way we can respond is by refusing to give this more attention than is necessary to neutralize any threat. We are so grateful for the support of our law enforcement partners at the local and national level. Our primary focus must continue to be living our lives openly, safely, and with joy and pride. -Molly Curren Rowles Jewish Community Alliance Executive Director