Peri Dunn, Candidate for the 5th Board of Manhattan BBG
Peri
Dunn
Chaverut BBYO
aspiring to be your 2nd Regional Sh'licha
Biographical Information
School:
Hunter College High School | Class of 2022
NYC Neighborhood:
Upper East Side
Favorite Restaurant in NYC:
Tiramisu
Favorite Quote (and who said it):
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -Peter Drucker
Who is one of your Role Models and why?
Isadora Duncan is the founder of modern dance, and a pioneer for women all across the world due to her ability to break gender norms.
Reflection Questions
Why do you want to serve in the position for which you are caucused? Why are you qualified to do so? What will you uniquely bring to the Regional Board?
As quarantine began in March 2020, I found myself scrolling through pictures and videos of IC. In those lonely first few months, I could reminisce on my BBYO memories in Dallas. From then on, my rock during quarantine became BBYO—group zooms with IC friends, planning virtual programs, and finally reuniting with my MHR friends in Central Park—so I am running for regional board to ensure that everyone has the light of BBYO that I had this past year. I will use my experience from my two-year sh’licha term and my job as Vice President of my synagogue’s food pantry to bring Jewish enrichment and community service programs to MHR. Through my work making Chaverut BBYO a Target Chapter, which required weekly calls with a Jewish educator, and my work planning multiple conventions, I will ensure we can spread the light of BBYO through Jewish education and community service.
Select one of the Menorah Pledge Principles and explain how you apply this principle in your day-to-day life. How does this principle influence your leadership style?
There is no better way to exercise and spread Jewish values than through community service. Since middle school, I have attended my synagogue’s food pantry once a week. This past year, I was lucky enough to be elected vice-chair of this pantry. Every week, I order, pack, and distribute food for around 150 families. Not only have I developed leadership and management skills through having this job, but I continued my journey of discovering the meaning of tzedakah. For my day-to-day life, my family and I always try to put money, even the smallest amounts, into our family tzedakah box. When I was younger, I used to track the money in a little spiral notebook, which brought me so much joy. Although I may not do this anymore, I always try to bring that spirit into every community service leadership-venture I do.
BBYO is a pluralistic Jewish youth movement open to any Jewish teen. How can we provide holiday, Shabbat, ritual, and prayer experiences for Jewish teens that are accessible for, and welcoming to, Jews from a diversity of denominations, practices, and knowledge-levels?
We must ensure that every Jewish teen, regardless of their religious practice, has a service where they feel comfortable. We can do this by establishing two or more prayer experiences in region-wide events. Prayer experiences should not be minimized to fit the least-religious Jew but enhanced to ensure the service is not just secular songs. Nevertheless, it is important for there to be a space where even the least religious Jew can feel a connection to prayer in a way that does not feel forced. Whether this is creating separate song sessions during conventions where we focus on more commonly-known Hebrew songs or English songs with religious connotations, it is just as important that all attendees feel a natural connection to davening. Having separate davening spaces can ensure that all members do not feel like their connection to prayer is being forced or stripped.