Jay’s New Challenge

Jay Sanderson is sipping on an iced matcha latte as the two of us have breakfast in Studio City. We’re meeting to discuss the news, announced just days earlier on May 5, that he would, effective immediately, become interim president of American Jewish University (AJU).

“My first instinct was to decline,” Sanderson says, seated underneath an awning of the Ventura Boulevard-facing café, shading him from the city’s unexpected heatwave. “I never would have thought, one, that anyone would want me to do it, and two, that I would actually say ‘yes.’”

This candor is very Jay. I’ve known Sanderson, 68, since his time serving as president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles — known during Sanderson’s tenure, from 2011-2022, as the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. In many ways, his time at the Federation coincided with my time at The Jewish Journal, where I served as a staff writer from 2010-2020.

And in 2022, when Jay handed over the proverbial torch to current LA Federation President Rabbi Noah Farkas, it felt like the right time. Jewish LA was grappling with the hangover of a global pandemic, and the following year, there’d be true upheaval caused by the attack of Oct. 7 that would permanently alter the texture of the Los Angeles Jewish community.

In late 2023 and for much of last year, as Jewish organizations united to combat unprecedented levels of antisemitism, Sanderson, it seemed, was comfortably cocooned, attempting to reinvent himself on social media as a chef and mixologist, though that didn’t mean — to borrow language he coined when leading Federation — he stopped caring about the Jewish future.

“The minute I left, I basically was gone from the Jewish world, other than my personal relationships,” he said.

But now Sanderson’s back, not at the Federation, but at a similarly influential, legacy-driven institution, one that outsiders look at when gauging the health and robustness of West Coast Jewry. This is true particularly for the Conservative movement, as AJU houses the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, a seminary for clergy seeking to serve at Conservative synagogues.

In his new interim role, Sanderson is succeeding AJU’s former President Jeffrey Herbst, whose resignation was announced in a May 5 letter by AJU Board Chair Harold Masor and Incoming Board Chair Larry Platt. The letter was shared via email with the university’s community before news organizations, including this one, published stories about the leadership transition.

In assuming the role at AJU, Sanderson becomes the university’s fifth president since its founding in 1947 — and only the second non-rabbi president in its history.

So, what responsibilities does Sanderson feel as he takes the reins of AJU? What’s his vision for what the university, which operates a rabbinical school, graduate degree programs, community events and onine education, ought to be? And how does the former LA Federation CEO plan to meet the daunting challenge of making AJU, well, great again?

During a nearly two-hour breakfast, the fedora-wearing Sanderson — shades of his influencer days making cocktails on Instagram remained — addressed these questions and more. Though, it being less than one week since he began in the new gig, specifics were somewhat limited, including what the future portended for longstanding AJU programs, such as Camp Alonim and the Ziegler school. 

What is certain is storytelling will be a big part of the mission, said Sanderson, who before his stint at the LA Federation helmed Jewish Television Network, which partnered with PBS to produce the documentary series, “The Jewish Americans.” 

AJU, Sanderson said, hasn’t been telling its story effectively, which has limited its ability to raise its public profile. And an institution with as compelling a history as AJU has — prior to becoming AJU, it was the University of Judaism, which eventually absorbed the Brandeis Bardin Campus in Simi Valley, to become the sprawling institution it is today — ought to be better at telling the community what it’s all about, he said.

“My focus is the audience,” he said, channeling the former media executive still apparently residing in him. “If you focus on who you want to reach and what they want, you will have a line around the door. But there’s been a disconnect in Jewish life between institutions and the audiences, and I don’t look at the world that way.”

Though AJU sold its Bel Air-based Familian Campus to Milken Community School last year, the university maintains a presence on the campus via a leaseback agreement with the Jewish private school. AJU currently operates at three locations: the Bel Air campus, which is now dubbed “Milken East,” its Ziegler Campus, located in Beverly Hills, a short distance from the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood, and the Brandeis-Bardin campus, which is home to Camp Alonim and offers spaces for lifecycle events, such as b’nai mitzvot and weddings, as well as educational retreats and conferences.

In particular, the Brandeis-Bardin campus will play a central role to AJU’s future growth, Sanderson said. In fact, Sanderson married his wife, Laura, at the Brandeis campus in 1984, and he views the picturesque, 2,700-acre site, one of the largest pieces of land that is Jewish-owned outside of Israel, as a largely untapped resource in the community.

Sanderson, in some ways, was an obvious choice for the presidency. In February, several months before naming Sanderson AJU’s interim president, the university had tapped Sanderson to spearhead the 2050 Institute, a program that was tasked with envisioning what Jewish life ought to look like 25 years from now. Not just local Jewish life, but all Jewish life.

In previous interviews about the 2050 Institute, Sanderson spoke of Jewish and non-Jewish leaders from a variety of disciplines — technology, business, entertainment and marketing, to name a few — coming together at the Brandeis campus for in-depth discussions about the future of Jewish life for an experience like an “Aspen Institute,” albeit focused on Jewish ideas.

Given that a crucial part of AJU’s future will be its online impact, Sanderson is essentially also going global in his new role. As he assumes the role of interim AJU president, he’s more energized than ever about the work of 2050 Institute, he said. 

Also, he will be tasked with overseeing approximately 70 employees, fewer than the 130 employees of the LA Federation at the time of Sanderson’s departure, but a considerable number, nonetheless. AJU’s staff includes full-time, part-time and seasonal employees. Largely, the seasonal staff are those hired for the summers to work at Camp Alonim, Sanderson explained.

Along with Camp Alonim and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, now also under Sanderson’s purview is AJU’s Masor School for Jewish Education and Leadership, which offers a Bachelor of Arts in early childhood education, a master’s in early childhood education, a doctorate in early childhood education leadership as well as a doctorate in Jewish education and communal leadership, among other degrees.

He’ll also be overseeing AJU’s Miller Intro to Judaism Program, which offers in-person and online courses for those seeking to convert to Judaism or want to learn more about how to bring Judaism into their lives. The program is run under the auspices of AJU’s Maas Center, which continues to operate a community mikvah on the Bel Air campus now owned by Milken Community School.

In other words, there will be a lot on Sanderson’s plate — much more than the gluten-free toast he ordered during our breakfast together.

Richard Sandler has known Sanderson since his pre-Federation days working at JTN. Sanderson’s stint as Jewish Federation CEO, in fact, coincided with the start of Sandler’s tenure as chair of the Federation’s board. 

 In a phone interview, Sandler—who today serves as chair of Milken Community School and was, he said, “intimately involved” with the process surrounding AJU’s sale of its Bel Air property to Milken—predicted Sanderson would face many of the challenges he had when starting at the Federation. 

 “AJU has a credible name, but I don’t think most people today understand AJU’s present mission and business,” Sandler said. “We faced similar issues when Jay and I first started working together at Jewish Federation, and Jay proved he is extremely capable of doing what needs to be done.”

“Jay is an innovator and a deep thinker,” Julie Platt, a previous chair of Jewish Federation, told the Journal. “I’m excited to see how those unique skills move American Jewish University forward.”

When Sanderson was leading the Federation, he had a reputation as being blunt and outspoken, someone who took pride in being thought of as a “disruptor.” It’s been nearly 15 years since he first began working at the Federation, and the world has been through a lot since then, yet in many ways Sanderson is still a guy who isn’t afraid to call it as he sees it. 

Yet, there have been changes in Sanderson. The father of two grown children has gotten more patient as the years have gone on, and it’s a quality that’ll serve him well as he embarks on this new professional chapter, he said.

“This is my next chapter and AJU’s next chapter,” he said. “I’m looking into the future of AJU, not the past, and I feel lucky to be working with great people with whom my job is to reimagine AJU.”

But “I’m probably not like any other university president,” he said. “If you call me a university president, I’m not like any other university president in the university system. If you look at me as a change agent and someone who is deeply committed to the Jewish people and Jewish leadership, then I’m the perfect person for the job, but I’m not a rabbi, and I’m not a Ph.D., and I’m not going to act like it.”

In some ways, yes, it’s the same old Jay. And AJU might just benefit from that.