At first glance she may seem like a regular girl from Southern California, but Yael Glouberman is already a Jewish leader in her own right.
Yael used NCSY as a threshold to get involved in the Jewish community while in high school because her pluralistic high school did not her offer her any Orthodox opportunities. Attending some Shabbatons in 9th grade led Yael to join the city board for her NCSY chapter in Los Angeles during her sophomore year. Her involvement with NCSY escalated as the years of high school went by, and she quickly rose through the ranks to become the vice president of the West Coast Regional Board.
As a freshman at UCLA, she continued with her indefatigable efforts at growing the Jewish community on campus. After getting involved with JLIC, the OU’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, she realized that there were many former JSU-ers on campus who were unaware of the infrastructure of Jewish opportunities at UCLA. Even though her family lives close by, Yael chose to dorm at UCLA so she could get the full college experience and dived head first into the Jewish community there as an extension, or Phase 2, of NCSY.
Her authentic efforts and experience in driving people to get involved in the Jewish community led the OU to hire Yael as the connector between former NCSY-ers and JSU-ers at UCLA and the JLIC couple on campus. She actually has a list of people on campus from all the regional directors that she calls up and informs about upcoming events at Hillel and JLIC. Sharona Kaplan, the JLIC Educator at UCLA, says that she is “grateful that the OU is supporting our program by designating Yael as a liaison for their NCSY and JSU students. People feel comfortable when she reaches out to them and are responding in a positive manner.”
“I don’t just have a responsibility for myself, I feel that it’s up to me to get others involved, “ says Yael. If this is what Yael is saying now in the first quarter for her freshman year, we can’t wait to see what this powerhouse will be up to as a senior!