NJ Jewish News | Seasoned executive entrusted with developing community campus

by Marilyn Silverstein
NJJN Bureau Chief/PMB

It was a Monday morning in mid-May when Drew Staffenberg hit the ground running in his new position as executive director of the Jewish Community Campus Development Council — and he hasn’t stopped to catch his breath since.

What’s spurring Staffenberg on these days is the dream of a new Jewish Community Campus of Princeton Mercer Bucks. Designed to be the region’s central Jewish address, the $23 million campus will be built on an 80-acre site bordering Clarksville-Grovers Mills Road in the Princeton Junction section of West Windsor Township.

“My biggest challenge is to help make this community dream a community reality — working with the community leadership to raise the money, working with the agencies, working with the architect and builders, and then getting the building open,” Staffenberg said as he sat in the library of the United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks in Princeton.

“We’re going to focus on talking to people who haven’t yet made a commitment, have some parlor meetings, and really let the community know the new campus is happening,” he said. “I’m not a patient man. I just want to get it done. The community deserves this project.”

Anchoring the new campus will be a multi-use facility that will house the core Jewish agencies in the region — the federation, the Jewish Community Foundation, the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County, and the Jewish Community Center of the Delaware Valley with its early childhood learning center and its Abrams Day Camp. The campus complex will also include classrooms, meeting rooms, a kosher cafe and kitchen, a fitness facility, and recreational acreage for a camp and family park.

“Part of my job is to be the quarterback — to push and help lead and ensure that the campus happens,” Staffenberg said. “Every person in this community should be able to participate. I think the project is very do-able.”

The 58-year-old Staffenberg, who holds a master’s degree in social work, brings to that challenge some 35 years of experience in the world of Jewish nonprofits. He has been executive director of the Jewish Community Council in Rockford, Ill.; assistant executive director of the JCC in Louisville; and executive director of the Jewish federations in Calgary and Vancouver in Canada. In 1992, the Jewish Community Centers of North America named him “Professional of the Year.”

Most recently, Staffenberg served for four years as president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia. After leaving that post last August, he established the Organizational Advisory Group, a consulting firm offering guidance to nonprofits in the areas of fund-raising and strategic development.

“After 35 years, I figured I would do that, and then this sort of happened — and I’m thrilled that it happened,” he said, referring to his new position. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in the community as a professional.”

Central to making that difference will be the task of reaching out to the community to raise the funds for the new campus. So far, Staffenberg said, community members have pledged about one third of the $23 million price tag. “My commitment will be to stay within budget,” he said. “We’ll only build what we raise, but we’re going to raise it all.”

In 2010, he noted, the JCC of the Delaware Valley will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the day it first opened its doors in Trenton. “It will be a nice target to raise the money, start building, and get our doors open to the campus by the 100th anniversary of the center,” he said.

Currently a resident of Voorhees, Staffenberg is in the process of putting down his own roots in the Princeton Mercer Bucks community. In 2004, then a widower, he married Ronnie Boorstein of West Windsor, blending his family of two children with hers — David Staffenberg, chief development officer of the Jewish federation in Tampa; Jennifer Staffenberg, a second-grade teacher in Camden; Hilary Boorstein, a doctoral candidate in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Connecticut; and Naomi Boorstein, a nurse at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.

Members of Congregation Beth Chaim in Princeton Junction, the Staffenbergs recently opened DeLiteful Foods in the Park Plaza on Quakerbridge Road in Lawrenceville. The specialty food store features kosher, organic, sugar-free, vegetarian, and portion-controlled foods.

As he tackles the job of making the dream of a Jewish Community Campus a reality in Princeton Mercer Bucks, Staffenberg said, he plans to reach out to every segment of the community, including the unaffiliated.

“We’re asking everybody to participate to the level they can to build something very special for this community,” he said. “It is imperative in building a strong community to have a strong Jewish community center. I think this campus will solidify and bring this community together, creating a community living room. It’s vital. That’s why this project is so special to me.

“It’s going to be a gathering place for the community,” he said. “It will enrich Jewish life. This isn’t just about building a community campus. It’s about building a community and bringing people together.”