{"id":445146,"date":"2026-11-02T15:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T15:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/445146\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T15:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T15:04:09","slug":"lia-mandelbaum-jewish-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/445146\/","title":{"rendered":"Lia Mandelbaum – Jewish Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For Lia Mandelbaum, a Shabbat service at age 24 became a turning point in understanding how her Jewish identity and her identity as a gay woman could come together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will absolutely never forget the moment I began to fully accept myself as a gay woman,\u201d she recalled. \u201cIt happened during a Shabbat service when I stood up to say the Shema, knowing I was out, accepted and able to bring my queer and Jewish identities together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt whole, and the prayer took on an entirely new meaning for me,\u201d she said. \u201cThat experience inspired me to create spaces where other LGBTQ+ Jews could find that same sense of wholeness and belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of belonging has become a guiding force in both her personal and professional life. After spending 13 years in Los Angeles, Lia returned to her hometown of Tampa to live closer to family.<\/p>\n

Shortly after starting her new role with Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services (Gulf Coast JFCS) in 2023, her coworker and fellow Hope Cohen Barnett Leadership Institute (HCBLI) alumna Hana Cowart encouraged her to apply to the leadership program, offered by the Tampa JCCs & Federation and the Jewish Federation of Florida\u2019s Gulf Coast. <\/p>\n

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Lia\u2019s cohort began just days after October 7, 2023, making the experience especially meaningful. At a time when connection, identity and community carried \u201cprofound significance,\u201d HCBLI helped her rediscover her own sense of belonging. The following year, she was invited to join the Tampa JCCs and Federation board of directors, continuing her commitment to strengthening the community that had helped her feel at home.<\/p>\n

Since then, Lia has helped develop LGBTQ+ Jewish programming in Tampa in partnership with the Tampa JCCs & Federation, building on the work she began in Los Angeles. Her goal is to create spaces where LGBTQ+ Jews can connect with one another, celebrate their identities and experience the same acceptance she found in her own journey.<\/p>\n

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One recent gathering, the Federation\u2019s Pride Brunch in June 2026, offered an encouraging glimpse of what that com munity can look like. More than 40 people attended from across the Tampa Bay region.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blown away by the turnout,\u201d she said. \u201cParticipants traveled from New Port Richey to Wimauma to meet, share a meal and build relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Lia, the work is deeply personal. She knows what it means to find a place where all parts of your identity are welcomed.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Tampa, Lia describes herself as a third-generation Tampanian. Her family\u2019s local story began when her grandparents, Jacob (z\u201dl) and Deborah Gottfried, moved from Miami Beach with her mother, Erica Mandelbaum (z\u201dl), then an infant. Her grandfather was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base, and Tampa became home.<\/p>\n

Although Lia eventually spent more than a decade in Los Angeles, her connection to Tampa remained strong.<\/p>\n

In California, she earned bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in social work at California State University, Los Angeles. The profession appealed to her in part because of its connection to Jewish teachings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think really spoke to me about social work was how deeply connected it is to my Jewish values, particularly tzedek, tikkun olam, and the belief that we have a responsibility to care for one another,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her career has brought those values into both Jewish communal life and direct service. As director of programming and engagement at a large Los Angeles synagogue, she built relationships and developed programs to strengthen people\u2019s connections to Judaism. She particularly enjoyed managing the synagogue\u2019s travel program and creating Jewish trip experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter where we go in the world, we can find community, shared traditions and a sense of belonging,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Today, as senior director of Jewish Family Services at Gulf Coast JFCS, Lia supports Holocaust survivors and the broader Jewish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes this work so meaningful to me is being able to walk alongside someone during some of life\u2019s most difficult moments and help ensure that person does not have to navigate those challenges alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

During graduate school, Lia\u2019s concentration was focused on aging and families. Among the skills she learned was conducting a life review, helping people reflect on their experiences, preserve memories and identify the values they want to pass on.<\/p>\n

That training became deeply personal when her mother was living with Parkinson\u2019s disease. <\/p>\n

Over the years, Lia recorded videos of her mother sharing childhood memories, formative experiences and lessons she hoped to leave behind. Since her mother\u2019s death this past August, those recordings have become especially precious to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage everyone to take the time to do this with their loved ones,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her interest in preserving family stories extends to genealogy. An enthusiastic Ancestry.com researcher, she enjoys tracing family lines and uncovering stories that might otherwise be lost.<\/p>\n

For Lia, preserving these stories is another way of honoring the relationships, experiences and values that shape who she is.<\/p>\n

Outside of her professional and volunteer commitments, Lia enjoys spending time with her wife, Deah, and their 8-year-old daughter, Bella.<\/p>\n

\u201cBella loves challenging me to dance and singing battles, which I consistently lose by a landslide,\u201d Lia said.<\/p>\n

She enjoys planning elaborate road trips, complete with unique stops and interesting places to stay along the way. She is especially drawn to Old Florida, exploring places with winding rivers and towering live oaks draped in Spanish moss. \u201cThere\u2019s something about those places that feels untouched by time and makes you want to slow down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For Lia, that journey of discovery extends beyond the places she explores to the ongoing Jewish practice of reflection and personal growth.<\/p>\n

In her early 20s, a rabbi helped Lia reconsider the belief that she had to get everything right to have worth. She came to understand that people she admired were also working through their own struggles\u2014and that taking responsibility did not require perfection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that continuing to look inward, take responsibility, and try again is some of the most meaningful work we can do as Jews,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause the relationship we have with ourselves shapes how we show up for our family, friends, jobs and the greater community.\u201d <\/p>\n

This feature profiles the inspiring young adults of the Tampa Jewish community who are making a meaningful impact through volunteerism and leadership. These emerging changemakers embody the values of tikkun olam \u2014 repairing the world \u2014 by giving their time, energy and passion to causes that strengthen both the Jewish community and the broader world around them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 For Lia Mandelbaum, a Shabbat service at age 24 became a turning point in understanding how her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-445146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}