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Sydney’s Rachel Flitman is among 154 of the Jewish world’s leading young innovators from 30 countries spanning six continents who will convene in Jerusalem to reflect, ideate and collaborate, at the 2019 ROI Summit later this month.

For over a decade, ROI Community has convened some of the most promising young Jews from around the world, providing a platform for them to challenge each other and develop their visions for change. Through the annual summit and a suite of year-round opportunities for leadership and engagement, ROI has built an intentional community of more than 1,500 activists and innovators who are committed to making the world a better place and are driven by Jewish values. The 2019 ROI Summit participants are the newest cohort of changemakers to become members of the global ROI network.

This year’s ROI Summit will mark ROI’s 13th signature gathering, and inspired by the Jewish tradition of 13 representing a coming-of-age year, the summit will draw on the theme of responsibility. Through opportunities for deep self-reflection, knowledge sharing, artistic inspiration and more, participants will be encouraged to explore and grapple with their roles and responsibilities as leaders in their communities and in the world at large.

“The impressive change agents who have been chosen to take part in this year’s ROI Summit have already proven their ability and readiness to step up and to lead, and we are energized by their limitless potential to generate positive impact,” said No’a Gorlin, ROI Community’s associate executive director. “We hope that their encounters with like-minded peers at the summit spark vulnerability, ideas and collaborations, and that this global community of activists helps mobilize them in their efforts to advance positive social change in the Jewish community, Israel and around the world.”

Rachel Flitman is a human centred design consultant and community builder and was raised in a Jewish secular humanist home with a strong post-Holocaust legacy, her personal and professional life has been founded on values of resilience, pluralistic expression and empathetic connection.

Adept at facilitating people-centric approaches to projects, Rachel works with global infrastructure and advisory firm Aurecon, driving creative engagement and design-led thinking to buildan understanding of complex problems, enable a deeper understanding of users and generate innovative outcomes.

Previously Rachel worked with Australian Red Cross to build resilience, delivering experiential disaster preparedness education programs and campaigns nationally. She has also worked as chief speech writer and public affairs advisor to the Israeli Ambassador in Australia and as Sydney Hillel Director. Through Hillel, Rachel co-founded ‘The Ideation Project’- a four-month incubation program for young Jewish innovators and ‘Tribe: Let My People Know’, a mobile app providing centralised and personalised connections between Jewish communal event hosts and attendees.

Outside of work, Rachel drives Gen3 Sydney; a movement bringing together third-generation holocaust survivors to ignite conversations, preserve memory and explore contemporary commemoration. She is a Jewish Care Mentor, an Australasian Union of Jewish Students Board Consultant, an Emergency Services Volunteer with Australian Red Cross and has led over 150 students on immersive Jewish educational and service learning programs through the US, UK, Israel and Nepal.

Rachel holds a Bachelor of International Relations, a Masters in Community Development/Emergency Management and a Certificate of Engagement with the International Association of Public Participation.

The 2019 participants hail from: Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.

The Summit will take place between June 23-27.