Associate Editor

Annie Lumerman wanted to put a human face on the District's Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

Josh Kram's goal was to use his political campaign skills to benefit Jewish organizations and nonprofits.

For Noga Zimerman, the objective was to acquaint emerging superpowers with Israel.

The challenge facing Graham Hoffman, meanwhile, was to figure out a way to reach an untapped reservoir of unconnected Jewish college students.

These four Washington-area residents were among 120 to win coveted slots at the recent ROI Global Summit for Young Jewish Innovators, held in Israel. ROI -- return on investment -- is a project of the Center for Leadership Initiatives in partnership with Taglit-Birthright Israel.

The five-day event convened 120 thinkers and doers "with the potential to change the face of the Jewish world," according to summit organizers.

Nearly 600 applicants vied for entry into the June 28-July 2 get-together, a forum for pacesetters from 29 countries to share ideas, collaborate on new projects and improve their community-building skills. Many of them, including Hoffman, are implementers as well as innovators.

A 30-year-old District resident, Hoffman is director of strategy at Hillel's Schusterman International Center in the District.

He created a pilot project at Hillel called the Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative, which employs influential Jewish students who serve as "superconnectors," or coalescing points for unaffiliated classmates.

"Graham has the ability to interpret the current environment and forecast trends and produce interesting programs that ignite Jewish passion," said Lori Yadin, director of the CEI program. "He has a work ethic like no other. And he's good at mobilizing a team."

The CEI program, Hoffman noted, has spawned successful identity-building initiatives at campuses from coast to coast.

At the summit, he said, he learned more about building social networks, connecting with other paradigm-changers and in general polishing his skills as an "intrepreneur" rather than an entrepreneur -- that is, one who creates change from inside an existing organization rather than from outside.

Terming the summit an incredible gathering, he said, "I saw millions of ways we could benefit from each other."

As for Lumerman, she sought to create a sense of ownership at Sixth & I by making it more accessible and welcoming to attendees. "The idea was to turn it over to the people and make it clear that this was for the community," explained the 26-year-old District resident, who is the community development coordinator at the synagogue.

She created the Ambassador Program, a corps of about 40 volunteers who welcome people to Sixth & I, make announcements and find other ways to help out at events.

"They are sort of the face of Sixth & I," said Jackie Leventhal, cultural programming coordinator at the nondenominational shul and a huge fan of Lumerman's. "Annie has moved mountains single-handedly. She sees natural synergies between people and she just makes it happen. I consider her a mentor." (Leventhal and Lumerman are the same age.)

Among Lumerman's other duties at Sixth & I are directing 6th in the City, a Friday-night program for 20- and 30-somethings that draws more than 200 participants each month.

She is also responsible for assembling art exhibits at Sixth & I and for coordinating four simultaneous High Holiday services in various denominations for a total of 1,200 worshippers.

"The summit was about creating a world Jewish network," said Lumerman, who bonded with Jews in South America, Mexico, Austria, and the Netherlands, among other far-flung places.

"We're already friends on Facebook and we're been messaging each other," she said in a interview last week. "We're planning to create a Web site about how to be better bridge-builders."

She also learned how to structure programs that create "a safe space" where participants can speak with candor on sometimes sensitive subjects, an atmosphere that pervaded the summit, she said.

"That's why people were able to get so close in such a short period of time," she explained.

Israeli-born Zimerman's mission was to put Israel on the radar screen of Asian countries, principally the emerging financial giants China and India.

"They really do not know Israel," said District resident Zimerman, 30, who served as the associate director of American Jewish Committee's Asia Pacific Institute. The position was created for her about two years ago. "We thought it was important that they learn about Israel because alongside economic power comes political power."

Zimerman and her colleagues sought to cultivate long-lasting relationships with the target group by briefing ambassadors from Asian countries on a variety of Israel-centric issues, most importantly the threat that Iran poses for the Jewish state.

"Noga has a very clear read on U.S. policy in the Middle East and toward Asia and on the role of Diaspora Jewry in helping shape public policy," said Jason Isaacson, director of governmental and international affairs for the AJCommittee, calling her "an emerging leader."

Zimerman, who is now a consultant to the World Bank, said the summit was a good opportunity to network informally with other Jews who have an interest in Asian affairs. "I met some interesting people," she added.

They included a participant from the World Jewish Congress who discussed the WJC's planned activities in Asia. "We talked about how I might help as a volunteer or in some other capacity," Zimerman said.

Another participant was trying to figure how Israeli technology companies might help farmers in China, "and I gave her a few ideas," said Zimerman.

Religion and politics don't necessarily mix, but Josh Kram, a 30-year-old Arlington resident, felt "there was a place for political campaign-style skills to be applied more broadly within Jewish organizations and nonprofits."

As a template, he pointed to last year's Great Schlep, the campaign to encourage young Jews to flood Florida and persuade their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama for president. The centerpiece of the campaign was a wildly popular Web video in which comedian Sarah Silverman put out the call for schleppers.

"It went viral and it changed the nature of the conversation," said Kram, who helped promote the cause through his work at District-based Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications. He is now a political and marketing consultant.

Kram also melded politics and religion by building a strong network of Jewish support in the last presidential election cycle, first as national director of Jewish outreach for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and then in the general election as the Virginia director of Jewish-voter outreach for the Obama campaign.

Steve Rabinowitz, president of Rabinowitz/Dorf, said Kram demonstrated his talent for innovation when he organized grassroots Jewish political support on a hyper-local level during the presidential campaign. "To mobilize people on a very local level like that," he said, "is an organizing feat that I don't think been done in that way before. Josh did it really well."

As for the ROI summit itself, Kram said it was stimulating to swap ideas, share techniques and pick up new skills in the company of so many other Jewish innovators. "It was sort of like a Jewish community-building Davos," he added, referring to the city in Switzerland that hosts the annual World Economic Forum, a meeting of political and business movers and shakers from around the world.

"There were lots of structured and unstructured opportunities for us to figure out ways to collaborate with each other," Kram said, "but I think what was most valuable is what I learned from individual contacts with people from other countries and being exposed to their Jewish experiences and seeing the challenges they face." He met, for example, a Jew from Mumbai who is involved in microfinancing and a young Jewish leader from Romania.

"It was eye-opening to hear about their experiences," he added. "It made me think that maybe we can help them build their own communities or work with them to build a virtual community that's Facebook-based or online-based."