JELF Announces New Staff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


JELF Announces New Staff

JELF (Jewish Educational Loan Fund) has recently added several new staff members to its team. The goal of the new hires is to continue helping as many Jewish students as possible learn about how to receive an interest-free, last dollar loan to fulfill their educational goals. As the cost of a higher education continues to rapidly outpace inflation, the organization assisted 279 students in 2018 from its five-state region with a total of $1,011,266.

The new hires include: 

David Cohen, Director of Marketing, who comes to JELF with more than 18 years in different marketing roles including both corporate and advertising agency positions. David will be working to increase awareness of JELF’s loan program to as many student applicants as possible throughout JELF’s region of FL, GA, NC, SC and
VA.

Sandra Bass, joined JELF in April as the incoming Loan Program Manager, replacing Suzan Saidman who will be retiring later this year. Sandra has worked in the Atlanta Jewish community for over 20 years, most recently serving as the Director of Arts and Culture at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. Prior to her
time at MJCCA, Sandra was the longtime Executive Director of Camp Judea. As part of her role, Sandra will help usher students through the application process and work with JELF’s network of Local JELF Administrators
around the JELF region.

Jody Vane, Executive Assistant, comes to JELF after a long career as an experienced nanny, as well as working in customer service and marketing. Jody has also served as a volunteer on multiple board positions in the community and will assist JELF’s CEO and staff with many of their growth efforts.

As JELF’s CEO Jenna Leopold Shulman says, “This is an exciting period of growth for JELF. Our incredible staff are all very passionate about JELF’s mission and we feel very fortunate to now have the people we need to serve more of our community’s need.”

JELF provides interest-free, last dollar loans to Jewish students in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia (excluding metro DC) who lack needed resources for their higher education, including college, graduate school and degree-granting vocational programs. JELF has had a 99% student loan repayment rate for more than 10 years, which allows even more students to save on the interest they’d accrue with a private student loan.