Ellen Braunstein
Jenny Oswald is always planning her next trip or those of her traveling clients. The Conshohocken resident operates Go With Jenny O to help people customize their trips and travel with less stress.
Her day job is as a project manager for the hospitality startup, Placemakr, a digital platform that offers furnished properties for rent.
With her event planning and project management experience, and her passion for travel, Oswald, 30, wants “to make travel accessible rather than overwhelming.”
“I want everyone to use their time off and go see the world,” said Oswald, who has traveled to 18 countries so far. “You learn so much from other cultures. I want to help people do that.”
She has also made inroads into the Jewish world.
Oswald is president of the Philadelphia chapter of Young Women’s Impact Network, an organization within Jewish Women’s International. YWIN brings Jewish professional women in their 20s and 30s together to grow as leaders in their workplaces, their communities and their personal lives.
“It’s been really fun and rewarding,” Oswald said of her work with YWIN.
The board plans advocacy programs for young Jewish women. The next event is career-focused. Women will hear from a panel on how to network and negotiate successfully.
“We’re really providing valuable resources to young women and providing a social space for everyone,” she said.
Young Women’s Impact Network recently held a drive for feminine hygiene products to donate to women’s shelters.
JWI, the umbrella organization, is involved in financial literacy, women’s leadership and preventing domestic violence.
“We do our best to support the pillars of JWI, particularly financial literacy,” Oswald said.
Born and raised in Cheltenham, Oswald was active with BBYO as a teen and her family’s Reconstructionist congregation Or Hadash in Fort Washington. Her father was a behavioral therapist and her mother worked in sales for Fox 29. Her brother is a playwriting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her sister is vice president of talent acquisition for a startup tech company. She lives in Lafayette Hill.
“We always went to synagogue, and I went to Hebrew school,” she said. “We lit the candles and ate challah on Shabbat.”
Oswald graduated from Cheltenham High School and attended Muhlenberg College in Allentown. She received her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in Jewish studies.
After college, she became BBYO’s regional director for six years.
“It was hugely transformative for me. It taught me organizational and public speaking skills,” Oswald said. “It has brought me most of my best and closest friends in my life.”
Oswald is still connected to BBYO, which turned 100 this year. She helped staff the organization’s 100th anniversary international convention.
“It’s so important to stay connected to my Jewish community, and it’s a huge part of who I am,” she said.
Among her hobbies, she loves reading, Pilates and concerts. She counts herself as a Swiftie. She makes room for family and time with friends. Her big priority is travel.
She has visited Israel three times including once on a Birthright trip.
“The Jewish community is really how I relate to my Judaism. So being in a place where there’s so many Jewish people, everyone has that innate shared experience and culture,” Oswald said. “It’s also a fun place with great food and great people.”
Oswald doesn’t consider herself religious, “but the community is incredibly important to me.”
She is also connected to the local Jewish community through Tribe 12, a fellowship program that links entrepreneurial Jewish people in their 20s and 30s to Jewish life and community in Philadelphia.
“Innately Jewish values are what guide me all the time whether in a conscious way or not,” she said. “Judaism is a religion of curiosity and asking questions.”
That relates to her travel venture, Go with Jenny O.
“I explore new places and get to know other cultures through travel. I get to be a lifelong learner, both about other communities and by expanding my horizons and getting out of my comfort zone and learning new things,” she said. “Jewish values [are] how I live my life by.”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.
