In her past life, our in-house matchmaker Danielle Selber was a Fellow in the inaugural class of the Tribe 12 Fellowship and went on to run the Fellowship program for four years. Here, she reflects on each of the incredible honorees for the Tribe 12 Hanukkah Celebration on Monday, December 19th, a night of food and fun open to everyone in the Tribe 12 community!
When it comes to Tribe 12, Rachel is an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a Tastykake. Her fingerprints are all over this organization and it’s not an exaggeration to say that none of us would be here without her. There are a lot of layers to this so hold on tight.
Rachel was a founding member of the executive committee of the Tribe 12 Fellowship. That means she breathed to life this thing that did not exist in any form before she came around. Rachel is as collaborative as they come, so she would definitely want me to mention the powerhouse team of volunteers who sat on the committee with her: Rebecca Bar, Matt Hoffman, Rachel Meyer and Dustin Seidman. With their powers combined, they helped Tribe 12’s founder Ross Berkowitz bring this Fellowship to Philadelphia.
Rachel is an entrepreneur herself. The founder of R&R Creative, she’s a brilliant marketer with her hands in every cool, creative cause in the city of Philadelphia. Talk about practicing what you preach – Rachel exclusively works with mission-driven nonprofits and socially conscious organizations. It is not uncommon to hop on a phone call with Rachel and find that she is walking out of City Hall, working on yet another important thing that impacts all of us while we go about our days.
A fun fact about Rachel is that she has a background in theater, so thanks to that expertise her list of clients includes some of the best cultural institutions in this town including the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, Theater Horizon, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz, and the historic Plays & Players Theater, where she served as Managing Director.
Because she wasn’t busy enough, Rachel became chair of the Tribe 12 Board of Directors in 2020, a calm year where pretty much nothing happened. Right out the gate, Rachel fearlessly led the organization in everything from delivering on our commitments to racial justice to changes in organizational structure. She is a roll-your-sleeves-up, hands-in-the-dirt kind of leader. She is also hysterically funny, with pitch perfect dry humor that has, on more than one occasion, caused entire rooms of people to crack up and need a five minute break. Rachel leads with intuition, empathy, and a huge amount of heart.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, everyone who joins us at the celebration owes Rachel a fist bump.
Please join me on December 19th at the beautiful Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History to celebrate these honorees and enjoy drinks, latkes and jelly donuts with the Tribe 12 community at large. You don’t want to miss it! Get details and RSVP at tribe12.org/hanukkahcelebration.
