Our Woman of Impact profile features a local woman making a notable impact in our community. For this issue, we spoke with Meryl Mandell Braunstein, incoming board chair of the Mandell JCC and board chair of the Koby Mandell Foundation, a US-based nonprofit that provides therapeutic support and community for families bereaved by terror in Israel. A West Hartford native, Meryl earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester before attending Suffolk Law School. Her legal career took her to New York City, where after practicing law for five years, she went on to volunteer with Trial Lawyers Care, a non-profit organization that provided free legal services to the families of those who were killed on 9/11. A Lion of Judah and alumna of Federation’s Community Leadership Initiative, Meryl has deep roots in Greater Hartford’s Jewish community. After serving for many years on the Mandell JCC board, including as first vice chair, Meryl will assume the board chair position this July. Meryl and her husband Scott live in Avon. They have three college-age children.
Your family has a storied history of volunteerism and giving back to the community. How did you find your own path to these practices?
I’ve always found my path based on the stage of life I was in, and the volunteer work I’ve done has reflected that. After I graduated from Suffolk Law School, I took a job as a litigator in New York City working for the Brooklyn Tort Division of the Corporation Counsel’s office. I defended the City on personal injury cases, which is where I met my husband, who was a plaintiff’s attorney at the time. We got engaged about a year before 9/11 and were already planning to move back to West Hartford, where I’m from originally. After the Corporation Counsel’s office, I worked for the firm of Boies, Schiller and Flexner but I decided to leave my job that August, thinking there was no reason to continue because we’d be moving soon, and then September 11th happened. Knowing I needed to do something with my skills after our wedding in November 2001, I walked into the New York State Trial Lawyers Association looking to volunteer. They had just created a pro bono legal service called Trial Lawyers Care, which provided free legal services to the families of 9/11 victims. It was for all of the families, from investment bankers to maintenance workers, anyone filing a claim against the Victim Compensation Fund. I volunteered and helped to create the first set of test cases, working closely with bereaved families. It was one of the most rewarding things I’d ever done: impactful, authentic, and using my skillset to give back.
When my husband and I moved back to West Hartford, I wanted to continue to use my skills to give back, which, reflecting on it now, was a steady progression. We had our three children who started going to the JCC, and I got involved from the moment our oldest started preschool there. I was already familiar with the JCC through my mother, Joyce Mandell, who was the first female board chair from 1995-1997. One day, I was dropping off my youngest for the Twos and David Jacobs, the executive director and a very good friend of my mother’s, stopped me in the hallway and said, “It’s time. You’ve got to be on the board.” I said “I do?” And he gave me a resounding “Yes!” From that point forward, I discovered why being a board member at the JCC is such an amazing experience: the staff and leadership are people who want to say yes. So, as an emerging leader, you can make a really big impact; if you want to create something, you have the support to do it.
What specific opportunities did your volunteer experience with the JCC afford you?
Helping to open the Family Room Parenting Center was one of the first things I got involved with at the JCC. And once I joined the board, I mentioned that I’d like to create a parenting conference and got another yes. At the time, I felt like the JCC could be a resource and expert in parenting for the community.
The idea was to make the conference an annual event with a keynote speaker and breakout sessions, changing the theme each year based on whatever topic felt most relevant: sleep, resilience, sibling rivalry, bullying, etc. I'll be honest: the topics also mirrored what I was going through as a parent at the time. As I learned more about the different aspects of my own parenting challenges and that there are experts who could share their wisdom, I wanted to bring this knowledge to the community.
In the conference’s sixth or seventh year, bullying was a national conversation, so we decided to create a two-day event on bullying for parents and middle school-aged children. We asked middle school principals throughout Connecticut to select four students to attend who they considered leaders in their schools, both Jewish and non-Jewish. We brought in Rosalind Wiseman as our keynote speaker; she wrote “Queen Bees & Wannabes,” which became the movie “Mean Girls.” We ended up with hundreds of parents and students in attendance, and at the end of the conference every student filled out an action sheet describing what they were going to bring back to their schools to educate their peers on bullying. It was powerful.
Today, we have an antisemitism committee at the JCC, and I keep thinking back to our experience with that conference. We brought in so many young people from Jewish and non-Jewish communities, and it could be a powerful opportunity to do something similar with antisemitism.
Tell us about your involvement with the Koby Mandell Foundation. What’s your connection to their mission?
My grandfather was one of eight children, and my father’s first cousin, Seth Mandell, and his wife, Sherri, made aliyah to Israel in the mid ’80s with their four children. In May 2001, their oldest child, Koby, 13, had just had his bar mitzvah and was murdered by terrorists during the Second Intifada. About a year later, the family created the Koby Mandell Foundation to help bereaved families in Israel who had lost family members to terror. The foundation provides therapeutic support and grief counseling, and helps families heal by being part of a community. This includes facilitating women’s and family retreats and providing free camp for children who’ve lost siblings, parents, or other family members. They have been doing this work for almost 25 years.
My mother was one of the first funders and board members, and our family helped raise money here in America for the program side in Israel. Years later and shortly before October 7, Seth was thinking about retiring, but his daughter Eliana wanted to make sure the organization continued. So he brought her to America and they met with my husband, my brothers, my parents, and me. Eliana told her story, which is so authentic because it’s about her brother, her family, and her experience losing a sibling, and then explained that they were looking for a board member to join who was part of the family, and a woman. They all turned to me. I said yes, of course.
We were already working to reinvigorate the foundation and its donor base in the US when October 7th happened. From that point on, the foundation experienced massive growth. The families we serve went from 400 to over 2,500, and our Israeli staff grew with them. In January 2024, they asked me to serve as board chair. Because of both my family connections and the impact they have on bereaved families, this is some of the most rewarding work I’ve ever done. The impact is so direct and personal, with programs for bereaved mothers, children, orphans, fathers, widows, and adult siblings. This organization is literally saving lives.
Federation has been a tremendous partner in helping to make that work possible. After October 7th, Carolyn Gitlin, former chair of the board of Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and past chair of Jewish Federations of North America’s (JFNA) Women’s Philanthropy helped us secure a large grant from JFNA’s Israel Emergency Campaign. She also co-chaired a Ruby Lion of Judah mission to Israel this past January, bringing together Lions from across the country to learn about the rebuilding efforts in Israel firsthand. On that trip, the Lions had a chance to meet with about 30 bereaved mothers who are part of the Koby Mandell Foundation community, and were able to witness the foundation’s work up close. More recently, President and CEO David Waren helped us secure an additional grant from right here in Greater Hartford. Their support has meant the world to the organization and to me personally.
You were also part of Federation’s Community Leadership Initiative (CLI) in 2024. What did that experience mean to you?
It was a phenomenal program; a year-long leadership development experience for incoming board chairs, and I recommend it highly. Past cohorts have traveled to Israel, but we went to Poland, and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Heather Fiedler [Federation’s Vice President of Impact and Strategy] was an extraordinary guide through all of it. In addition to what I learned on the trip, what strikes me most is what the CLI program represents: that our Federation is investing deeply in our community’s leaders. They’re not just allocating dollars and responding to crises; they’re developing the people who will carry this community forward. I’m a direct beneficiary of that, and I’m so grateful.
As someone who has stepped into significant leadership roles across multiple organizations, what are your hopes for Greater Hartford’s Jewish community moving forward?
My greatest hope is that we continue to build bridges between our agencies, our synagogues, our institutions, and the community. One of the things I’ve learned stepping into these leadership roles is that everyone is working hard, but we can end up in our own silos. Federation does something really important in encouraging collaboration, and I’d love to see that continue to grow. The JCC also has an important role to play in welcoming and connecting both the Jewish and non-Jewish community. Greater Hartford is truly extraordinary. When I went to the Lion of Judah Conference in Phoenix a few years ago, everyone kept asking “What is in the water in Hartford?!” People couldn’t believe that there are so many incredible leaders and innovative programs created right here in Harford. I couldn’t agree more.
The next generation question is something I think about a lot. How do you sustain philanthropy across generations? Sustain leadership? Sustain engagement? Sustain Jewish identity? I don't have all the answers, but I know what the questions are, and I think that’s an important start.
What I do know is that Jewish women have an enormous role to play. I’ve been so fortunate to lean on the Jewish women in this community who have paved a path before me, women who have been generous with their time, their mentorship, and their example. My mother is my greatest role model, and I hope that I’m doing the same for my own daughter. Women helping women. I think that might be the most powerful thing we can do for the next generation.