Michelle Korin is a local leader and has been a top volunteer with the Jewish Federation and the Indianapolis Jewish community for decades. One of her greatest recent accomplishments has included serving as the U.S. Partnership2Gether Chair and soon, she will finish her three-year term and start a new path.
As the U.S. Partnership Chair, she represented 16 U.S. communities in partnership with communities in Budapest, Hungary and in the Western Galilee in Israel.
In 2010, Korin visited Israel for the first time since she had kids. She said she was hooked. It was because of that trip that she became involved with the Partnership. She found herself enjoying the opportunity to identify young leaders and to mentor them. She hit the ground running, traveling to Budapest with the Partnership’s U.S. delegation only a year later.
By 2014, Korin was entrusted with planning major events. She designed and oversaw the planning of her own delegation event, and she was hooked yet again. She loved that the program was volunteer-driven, because that meant the teams involved were passionate, creative, interested, and interesting. This was her opportunity to help create a global Jewish family, she said.
Korin developed the program in so many ways. She created new ways for Partnership participants to connect with one another using technology, instituting the use of a Facebook group, webinars, Whatsapp groups and conference calls.
With the help of Korin’s leadership and fundraising efforts, the first Partnership building was opened in Israel in 2019. Indianapolis and its partner communities make up the only consortium with a dedicated building out of all of the partnerships within the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Korin helped lead the efforts to invite and accept two additional communities -- Peoria and Springfield, Illinois -- into the consortium. She also helped develop a strategic plan and rebranding for the Partnership.
Another major accomplishment led by Korin: she helped facilitate the first MOMentum Women’s Delegation. Almost 100 women from eight of the Federation consortium communities traveled to Israel and spent several days with the Partnership in the Western Galilee.
To Korin, the Partnership program is about “doing Israel your way, any way, everyday.”
As she reflects on this motto, she is grateful for the Partnership’s influence on her children. They have each grown up with Israelis in their home. They have also slept and eaten meals in Israelis’ homes.
The Partnership is the perfect opportunity for so many people who want to fall in love with Israel. She said Partnership is not a one size fits all. There is something for everyone.
Michele Boukai, Israel and Overseas Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis, says Korin has brought so much love, energy and soul into her role as Partnership Chair.
“Her energy and commitment nourished the partnership to grow into the success it is today,” Boukai said. “She helped bring the program to new heights. She helped create so many opportunities for our community, and 15 others, to be involved with our family across the sea.”
Korin says she will continue to be involved with the Partnership. She may join the organization’s Board of Governors. Regardless of her technical role, she will continue to maintain the friendships that she made through the Partnership for the rest of her life. She is used to traveling to Israel regularly -- she flew there roughly 20 times between 2010 and 2020. She spends most nights awake until 1 or 2 in the morning, chatting with her Israeli friends via Whatsapp.
She misses her friends there, in all their beautiful diversity. She misses her Jewish friends, her Arab friends, her Bedouin friends and Druze friends. Her 87-year-old Arab friend Salaam recently invited Michelle to her grandson’s summer 2021 wedding. She always felt among her people at her Partnership meetings and events - she didn’t feel too loud, too tall. She was with people who cared just as much as she did about creating a global Jewish family.
“I would definitely say Partnership breaks down the barriers,” Korin said.
Korin says the next Partnership Chair will have to manage the deep cultural political divides in both Israel and the U.S. right now.
“Partnership can be that bridge through cultural relationships,” she said. “It can be the bridge to really understand each other’s cultures and to create the future.”