Jewish Chicago Magazine
Irene Kaufman
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Irene’s friend calls her “one of Chicago’s most vibrant and promising Jewish leaders,” despite only living in the city for a few years.
As a member of the JUF Young Leadership Division (YLD) Board and Co-Chair of YLD’s Volunteer Committee, the Champaign, Ill.-native helped increase participation by 25 percent, revived Mensches in Motion, and helped launch the Mensch Bench: a hub connecting young Jews to centralized volunteer opportunities through JUF’s Tikkun Olam Volunteer Network (TOV), Repair the World, ChiTribe, and Moishe House.
Now serving as the YLD Board’s Internal Vice President, Irene will focus her entrepreneurial energy on empowering her peers, as well as identifying emerging leaders and helping them find meaningful ways to grow.
Described as “a dynamo of community building,” Irene is also one of the forces behind Chi-Town Schvitzers, Chicago’s premier Jewish run club. She is proud to have run her first marathon, and is even more proud to have already signed up for another.
Age: 28
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Primary gig: Senior Finance Analyst at Kraft Heinz
Jewish summer camp/summer camp: Tel Yehudah
Synagogue/Jewish organization affiliations: Sinai Temple of Champaign-Urbana
A Jew who inspires you: My grandfather is a huge inspiration to me. As a refusenik in the Soviet Union, he was fired from his naval lab research position and was forced to divorce my grandmother to protect her career. Despite holding a PhD in physics, he spent a decade working as a janitor at a train station. When he finally got permission to leave the country, he remarried my grandma and led our family’s immigration to the United States. Last year, he published a physics article, he works out daily, and he holds a five-minute headstand every morning!
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I see myself continuing to invest deeply in the Chicago Jewish community. I want to mentor the next generation of leaders, support causes I care about, and help create community where people feel connected and valued—all in honor of the people that have done that for me.