By Carl Zebrowski
Editor

Lauren Rabin understands what it’s like to be a young mom with young kids and still want to volunteer in the community. 

Fifteen years ago she moved to the Lehigh Valley with her husband, Doron, and two young children. With no local family to help out with the kids, she discovered fast that there’s not much time left for volunteering. Yet she also knows that there’s a place for philanthropy-minded community members with responsibilities at home and elsewhere to get involved at a level of commitment they can handle.

Lauren will soon be bringing this personal experience to her new role as president of the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley Women’s Philanthropy. She says a particular focus of hers will be to bring in young women and mothers who may not currently have a lot of time to devote to community work but who can get started now and grow into roles as dedicated volunteers and leaders.

“I hope that other women will see my path and want to do the same,” she says. “But it took time, and that’s OK. You can get more involved as your family evolves.”

A grandchild of Holocaust survivors, Lauren grew up in Toronto and lived there with her husband, Dr. Doron Rabin, also a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, and two young kids in the 2000s. Doron, a neurosurgeon raised in Ottawa, got recruited by St. Luke’s Hospital. He and Laruen came here for a visit to see how the Lehigh Valley Jewish community compared to the strong communities they had known all their lives. 

The hosts for their visit were Robby and Laurie Wax, president of the Jewish Federation board and outgoing president of Women’s Philanthropy, respectively. “We got a beautiful tour by Laurie and Robby,” Lauren says. They saw the JCC, the Jewish Day School, and other important places and were impressed. “It made our decision easier.”

The decision was for Doron to accept the St. Luke’s position. The family moved here in 2010 and right away got involved in the Jewish community, to the extent that they were able at that time. 

Lauren has become very involved since those days. She has volunteered at the JCC and the Jewish Day School. She and Doron soon became philanthropists at the “major donor” level to the Federation’s Annual Campaign for Jewish Needs. Next, Lauren got her Pomegranate pin, a Women’s Philanthropy recognition for philanthropic work and giving $1,800 or more to the campaign. After that came her Lion of Judah pin (gifts of  $5,000 and above). 

Her and Doron’s kids, Aron and Golda, are involved too. They had their bar and bat mitzvahs at Chabad of the Lehigh Valley. They both attend Parkland High School and remain involved in things Jewish in and out of school. “They have very strong connection to their religion in their community,” Lauren says.

As Lauren prepares to take over as Women’s Philanthropy president, she says she’s going into the job with the goal of continuing to expand the group as her recent predecessors—Laurie Wax, Beth Kushnick, Carol Bub Fromer, and Iris Epstein—have done. “My ideal would be for every woman in the Lehigh Valley who’s Jewish to be part of Women’s Philanthropy,” she says. 

She also wants some of the most popular and poignant speakers and performers to come to the Valley for events that encourage big turnouts. “I follow a ton of amazing influencers on social media that have made their rounds globally within the Jewish community,” she says. “I’m hoping we can bring some of them here”

However close Lauren comes to her ideal of full women’s participation in the community, she wants all the women here to know that she’s available to talk. “I want them to feel like they can call me and maybe talk about what they’d like to do,” she says. “I have an open door. So pick up the phone, text me, meet me for coffee.”

“I know it can be very daunting,” she continues, “but if I can do it, anyone can do it. We’re here to support and be nonjudgmental and to get young women involved.”

For more information about getting started in Women’s Philanthropy—at any level of commitment of time and giving—contact Lee Solomon, the Federation’s director of community engagement, at lee@jflv.com. Or invite Lauren out for coffee.