his LinkedIn page<\/a>. In fiscal year 2017 at Penn State Hillel, he notes he oversaw \u201cthe highest grossing year in both dollars raised and individual supporters in the organization\u2019s 90-plus-year history.\u201d<\/p>\nBolotovsky learned of the J Leaders position when a friend of his from his time at BBYO forwarded him the posting. She had worked with J Leaders in the past as a consultant, and she had taken a look at the role when the national search had started.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018This seems like a perfect fit,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
Bolotovsky agreed because he saw it as a combination of his passions: He could help young Jews self-actualize and scale an organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this understanding, I feel like, and acceptance in the Jewish community that young people are unengaged, and it\u2019s this gloomy vision of what the future might be. I don\u2019t necessarily subscribe to that. There are thousands of Jewish young professionals looking to get engaged,\u201d he said. \u201cResearch shows that, more than any generation, Gen Z is looking for things that are defined by values.\u201d<\/p>\n
His approach to the well-documented challenge of engaging young Jews in organized Jewish life is refreshing in its clarity: \u201cWe need to figure out what our customer wants and needs and build an organization around that.\u201d<\/p>\n
From J Leaders, Gen Z Jews want and need what Bolotovsky describes as \u201ccareer self-improvement.\u201d A recent Deloitte Gen Z study found that \u201c86% value soft-skill building in a professional workplace,\u201d while \u201conly 6% are looking at the end goal of a leadership title in an organization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re already doing self-improvement work. Why not do it with us?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
To this end, the CEO has already implemented some programs that have seen modest growth.<\/p>\n
Under Bolotovsky, J Leaders\u2019 mentorship program, J Mentors, has expanded from 65 participants in the Bay Area to 120 participants nationally. The organization\u2019s new monthly career development boot camp has grown to include 10 to 20 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn every measurable way, we\u2019ve grown,\u201d the CEO said. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely still trying to figure it out as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bolotovsky estimates that all Jewish organizations combined reach between 15% and 25% of American Jews who are between the college and family planning stages. His long-term vision is to partner with other Jewish organizations to plan events, build programs and help young Jews connect.<\/p>\n
The CEO said he\u2019s working with Jewish Women International on a women\u2019s leadership initiative. J Leaders also runs young adult programs through Jewish Silicon Valley, a federation, and the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. Bolotovsky hopes to partner with fraternities, sororities and synagogues in the future as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really do believe if we work together, we\u2019re all going to be stronger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bolotovsky wouldn\u2019t be here if Jewish organizations hadn\u2019t worked together.<\/p>\n
His family landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, got picked up by relatives and driven to their apartment in Allentown. It was fully furnished and paid for, as was Bolotovsky\u2019s tuition to a Jewish day school and the family\u2019s JCC membership. Jewish groups also helped Bolotovsky\u2019s parents find jobs in the U.S.<\/p>\n
The groups that provided assistance included HIAS, the Jewish Family Service of the Lehigh Valley, the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley and the JCC of the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a full-on communal effort,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Bolotovsky (Courtesy of Alex Bolotovsky) Growing up in Allentown as a Russian immigrant, Alex Bolotovsky didn\u2019t always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[523,69,71,70,8402],"class_list":["post-236786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-people","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-you-should-know"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/YSK-Alex-Bolotovsky-1-300x300.jpg\")
Alex Bolotovsky (Courtesy of Alex Bolotovsky)<\/p>\n