.svg)
Midway through her ambassadorship with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (COP), Shoshana Simones, 38, of Arizona, is honing the skills needed to help shape the future of Jewish communal leadership.
Simones is representing Hadassah in the COP’s inaugural Ambassadors Young Leadership Program, which launched this year. But Simones had already been practicing the art of leadership for some time.
Engaged in Evolve Hadassah: The Next Generation since 2022, Simones has become an active voice in her local Jewish community, working to transform the face of Hadassah and shepherd it into the future. Her commitment to this goal helped earn her the ambassador role.
As a member of the first class of Evolve Leadership Fellows, Simones learned the breadth and scope of Hadassah’s mission and history, including its work to build Israel’s medical infrastructure. Regarding the United States, she said, “Hadassah continues to evolve and address issues that matter deeply to me, including women's health.”
Engaging younger women in Hadassah’s mission is essential, according to Simones, as they are “more diverse than ever in their religious backgrounds, political perspectives and life experiences, and they want meaningful opportunities to connect, lead and make an impact.”
Since the Evolve fellowship, Simones has served as Evolve chair on her local board and has continued to bring together emerging leaders to develop relevant programming for young women in the greater Phoenix Jewish community. “Creating pathways for younger women to engage in Jewish communal leadership remains especially important to me.”
Kicking off the COP ambassadorship in January, 17 ambassadors gathered in New York City as strangers. After a three-day meeting, which Simones called “incredibly eye-opening,” they parted as partners.
“We came from different organizations, backgrounds and perspectives, yet we were able to build trust and learn from one another.” With this, one of the ambassadorship’s core aims was fulfilled: to cultivate a spirit of collaboration by fostering relationships among the participants.
One of the meeting’s sessions focused on turning varying opinions into constructive, meaningful dialogue. The topics were sensitive; Simon Greer, founder of Bridging the Gap and the exercise’s facilitator, posed a series of statements ranging from antisemitism under the current administration to transgender athletes to the death penalty. Ambassadors were asked to select a side of the room designated for their perspective: “strongly agree,” “strongly disagree” or “neutral.”
“It was interesting to see how the group shifted and separated, and then people could choose to defend or explain their choices,” Simones said. Some participants even changed their minds, based on hearing different viewpoints.
The session armed Simones with a valuable and practical model for engaging disagreement through listening and curiosity rather than defensiveness, a skill she said is “vital for the future of the American Jewish community.” “Now more than ever,” she added, “we need unity, understanding and shared purpose.”
More recently, Simones returned to New York City for a leadership summit focused on antisemitism. There, the ambassadors met with leaders from across political and ideological landscapes, including Matt Williams of the Anti-Defamation League, Steven Fransblow of Blue Square Alliance, Marnie Black of The Nagen Project and Leah Soibel of Fuente Latina. They discussed strategies for combating Jewish hate and cited specific examples, such as the data and messaging surrounding Blue Square Alliance’s controversial 2026 Super Bowl ad. The ambassadors also spoke with college students about their experiences with antisemitism on campus after October 7, 2023.
“What struck me most was the urgency of the moment and the importance of coordinated action across the Jewish community, specifically in connecting with our allies outside the Jewish community.”
She added, “I left with both a deeper understanding of the challenges we face and concrete tools to help address them at the local level.”
For Simones, representing Hadassah as a COP ambassador is both an honor and a unique opportunity to shape the program’s future while also building community among her peers from across the country.
“Getting to know the other ambassadors has been the most exciting part of the program, and those relationships are truly at the heart of the mission. We are learning what it means to be the next generation of lay leaders and how we can collaborate across organizations and communities for the greater good of Am Yisrael.”
The ambassadorship is also an opportunity to provide the other ambassadors a better understanding of the impact of Hadassah’s work, which several fellow ambassadors didn’t know extended beyond Hadassah hospitals in Israel. “I shared about how reproductive rights and women's health equity resonated with me and were the issues that first drew me to Hadassah,” she said.
She added, “I think we are at a pivotal moment as we determine how to carry Hadassah's mission forward for the next generation.”
