Mazel Tov

Jennifer Maxbauer grew up in West Bloomfield. Her involvement in the Jewish community began at a young age, with some of her earliest memories being attending ADL and Hadassah meetings with her parents as a toddler. She is a lifelong member of Congregation Shaarey Zedek and attended the Frankel Jewish Academy, where she served as the alumni coordinator for a few years.

Jennifer currently sits on the NEXTGen Detroit Board as president elect. This is Jennifer’s seventh year on the board. She spent the last two years on the Executive Committee as a campaign vice president and led NEXTGen Detroit to raise more than $1 million for the first time in its history. In her role as president-elect, Jennifer helps as a sounding board for the current president, is consulted about major programming ideas, led the board’s Elevate series mentoring the first-year board members, and has begun to craft her vision for the NEXTGen Detroit 2023-2024 Board Year.

In addition to her involvement in NEXTGen Detroit, Jennifer is a middle school special education teacher. She has been teaching in Walled Lake Consolidated Schools for 11 years as a teacher for students with moderate to severe autism. A favorite activity in her classroom is taking field trips to Friendship Circle’s Life Town. While there, Jennie tells her students about when she used to volunteer at Friendship Circle during high school and college.

Jennifer previously worked with the Alliance for Jewish Education’s Opening the Doors Program as a special education teacher at Congregation Shir Tikvah for four years. In December of 2021, Jennifer received her BCBA and, in addition to teaching, is a board-certified behavior analyst.

Jennifer and her husband, Sam, live in West Bloomfield with their children, Betsy, 4, and Carl, 2. They met when Jennie was 15 and he was her camp counselor, but didn’t start dating until many years later.

When their first child was born, the couple got involved in Chabad of Royal Oak, attending events and often consulting on program ideas. Having two children attending Hillel Day School, Jennifer has started volunteering with the PTO and is currently working to create programs throughout the year for Hillel’s ECC parents to attend.

She enjoys going to Kensington Park to see the changing leaves and go for a hike.

Judy Margolin Landau, 33, is a business strategy and transformation manager at Ford Motor Company, where she oversees large-scale collaborative projects across the SUV portfolio. In this role, Judy enjoys helping her team make data-driven decisions to solve unique business challenges.

For the past six years since she’s been back in Metro Detroit, Judy has been an active participant in the Detroit Jewish community and is passionate about ensuring its vibrancy for the next generation. Judy is on the NEXTGen Detroit Board of Directors and was previously a vice president of campaign for three years. Judy now serves on the Local Agency Planning Department (LAPD) for the Jewish Federation, is the NEXTGen liaison to the Board of Governors and is on the Advancement Committee at Hillel Day School.

Judy has a master’s in public policy from the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, a master’s in education from Relay Graduate School of Education and a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, though her favorite title she is most proud of is “Mom” to daughters Emma, 3, and Naomi, 7 months.

Judy lives in Birmingham with her husband, Andrew, and their girls. Beyond spending time with her family and friends, Judy loves to exercise, watch sports, bake and travel to big cities or places with warmer weather.

Adam Bleznak started his involvement in the Jewish community of Metropolitan Detroit immediately after graduating from the University of Michigan in 2010. Since that time, he has served as a board member of Hillel of Metro Detroit. In the years that followed, Adam was nominated to the JFMD Real Estate committee, attended the 2015 ELP couples’ mission to Israel, served as a chairperson of the 2019 and 2020 NEXTGen event Epic, currently serves as a board member and vice president of Real Estate for the JCC, board member of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and as a member of Federation’s NYL Cabinet representing the Detroit community.

Adam is a passionate leader in the Jewish community, looking for new ways to build meaningful relationships and make an impact on the security of the future of Jewish life locally in Detroit and around the world.

Adam learned the importance of involvement in Jewish causes and leadership from his grandparents, Richard and Phyllis Bleznak, and his parents, Mitchell and Michele Bleznak, who are all longtime members of the community and have held important leadership roles throughout many areas of Jewish life in Southeast Michigan.

Adam is married to Meryl Bleznak and together they have three children, Frankie, 5, Stella, 2, and Oren, 4 months.

Adam is a passionate fan of University of Michigan athletics and loves spending time with his family in Ann Arbor, especially on football Saturdays.

Lauren Rubin, 32, is proud to say she wears many hats. As an employee of eight years at the Jewish Federation, Lauren has served in many roles, including employment specialist with JVS/NEXTGen Detroit, senior associate and associate director of NEXTGen Detroit, and now philanthropic advancement senior associate.

Lauren earned her bachelor’s degree at Indiana University and is a proud Hoosier. Following her bachelor’s degree, Lauren earned her master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan in 2014 and became fully licensed shortly thereafter.

Jewish community is an important part of Lauren’s life as she is a product of our community, born and raised here in Metro Detroit. In fact, Jewish community and Jewish philanthropy run through Lauren’s blood — her mother was an employee of the Federation and is still an active volunteer, and her father has had active involvement serving as president of YAD and as the president of Tamarack Camps. Because of this, Lauren believes strongly in our community remaining vibrant, today and in the future.

Lauren is a proud “boy mom,” raising sons Abe, 3, and Wally, 1, who both attend the ECC at Hillel Day School. She is married to Adam, also born and raised in our Jewish community. She is an animal lover, as well, and dog mom to Axel, a 3-year-old golden retriever. Lauren loves to travel, listen to music, bargain hunt, exercise and work her many side hustles.