Tag: inclusion

There was one moment during the Pozez JCC Pride celebration on June 21 that I haven’t stopped thinking about.

The event was designed to celebrate Pride and provide a window into Israeli culture, art, and community. As the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s Community Shlicha (Israeli emissary) in Northern Virginia, I was there to help bring the Israeli perspective into the evening through stories, culture, and personal connection. Guests explored our LGBTQ+ LOVE Archive, a photography exhibition featuring LGBTQ+ couples and families across Israel before settling in for a joyful drag performance by New York performers Matzah Belle Soup and Alvah Klempt.

It also happened to be Father’s Day.

During the performance, one of the performers invited the father of a gay attendee onto the stage, and he completely stole the show. He was hilarious, joyful, and fully embraced the moment.

After the performance, one of the drag queens came up to me and said:

“That dad is exactly like my dad.” She told me she immediately wanted to call him and wish him a Happy Father’s Day, telling him how grateful she was to have him as her father.

It was a small exchange, but it captured something much larger about the evening: community, connection, and the powerful impact of making people feel loved and supported for who they are.

Acceptance has a ripple effect. A supportive parent doesn’t only change the life of their own child. It shows others what love and belonging can look like. As she spoke about her father, I couldn’t help but think of my own, and of standing beside him at the Tel Aviv Pride Parade.

Where My Connection to Pride Began

My connection to Pride is deeply personal. Some of my earliest memories are of attending the Tel Aviv Pride Parade with my father. I remember the colors, the music, the joy, and the sense that everyone belonged. At the time, I didn’t fully understand the political or social significance of those moments, but I understood what it felt like to be surrounded by people who were free to be themselves.

Years later, I met my wife, Hila, and together we built our life within a community that made space for us. As an Israeli, Pride reminds me that progress is possible and that the freedoms many of us experience today were built by people who came before us and fought for them.

And as one of Federation’s Shlichim, Pride is an opportunity to create spaces where people feel seen, welcomed, and connected—to each other, to their community, and to Israel.

How Shlichim Bring Israeli Stories to Community Life

As a Shlicha, my role is to share Israel through lived experience: through memory, through culture, through complexity, and through real people.

For me, Israel education is ultimately about people and stories.

This event was intentionally designed to create a joyful and welcoming space during a particularly complicated and emotionally heavy time. Guests walked through a photography exhibition featuring LGBTQ+ couples from across Israel while enjoying Israeli-inspired cocktails. We then welcomed two Jewish drag performers from New York who brought humor, creativity, and joy to the stage.

What I loved about this format was that people were learning about Israel without feeling like they were sitting in a lecture. They were experiencing Israeli culture, stories, and exploring questions of identity, family, and belonging in a natural and personal way.

Seeing Ourselves in the Story

One photograph in the exhibition held special meaning for me.

It was a picture of my wife, Hila, and me under our wedding chuppah.

I included it intentionally. Rather than seeing LGBTQ+ Israelis as distant figures, participants were seeing someone they already knew through community connection. They know our story, our relationship. And suddenly, Israel was not just a place being described. It was a place being lived by people in their own community. Most importantly, I wanted people to see LGBTQ+ Israelis not as statistics or symbols, but as human beings with stories that many of us can relate to.

In many ways, our photo served as a reminder that the stories being told throughout the exhibit are not just Israeli stories. They are the stories of real people, families, and communities.

Israel Is Not One Narrative

LGBTQ+ life in Israel, like Israel itself, is complex and multifaceted. What I hoped participants would take away is that LGBTQ+ life in Israel is not one story. It is many.

There are moments of progress and celebration. There are ongoing challenges. There are vibrant communities and everyday lives that continue to evolve.

But most importantly, there are people—real people—whose lives are shaped by the same things that shape all of ours: family, love, belonging, and the search for community.

Why Storytelling Builds Connection to Israel

People often encounter Israel through headlines. But headlines rarely leave room for nuance, humanity, or complexity.

Stories do.

When we engage with LGBTQ+ Israelis, or any Israelis, we are engaging with questions that are deeply familiar: Who are we? Where do we belong? How do we build families and communities? How do we create spaces where people feel seen?

These are universal questions. And that is why storytelling matters so deeply in Jewish communal life.

What Shlichim Make Possible

This is where Shlichim play a unique role, and where Federation’s investment in this work becomes so meaningful. Shlichim help transform Israel from something distant into something immediate and relatable.

We don’t only bring information. We bring ourselves—our memories, our cultures, our families, our contradictions, and our hopes. Through that, we create a bridge between Israel and the Greater Washington Jewish community. Federation’s support makes it possible for those bridges to exist. It allows Israeli voices to be present in community life in an ongoing, sustained way, as relationships. These relationships build strong Jewish identities for now and for the future.

This Gives Me Hope

What gives me hope is not just that people came to this event. It’s that they stayed.

In fact, they stayed long after the program officially ended. They stayed across generations, across identities, across perspectives.

They stayed for conversations. They came to celebrate Pride, but they also came to learn, to listen, and to connect—to each other, and to Israel.

In a time that often feels fragmented, that matters more than ever. Because community is not built through a single moment. It is built through repeated acts of showing up for one another.

And often, it begins with something very simple: creating a space where people feel welcome.

Thank goodness for basketball. And soccer. And aliens.

I can’t claim to be a Knicks fan, but I am a fan of joy and connection and that’s exactly what I’m seeing pour out of official and unofficial New Yorkers. What a pleasure it is to see people come together and bask in something shared. Witnessing New York City’s jubilation has made me happier and my team was out in round one of the playoffs.

Likewise, as a soccer fan, I am also very much enjoying the stories coming out of the World Cup. There has been a lot of heartwarming content about fans coming to the U.S. and delighting in the hospitality of everyday Americans (and our ice-cold sodas). We are enjoying each other’s company as fellow sports fans and that feels good.

From what I hear, a sense of large-scale connection is also an animating theme in Steven Spielberg’s latest movie Disclosure Day, which I’m hoping to see this weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the movies but give me an intriguing premise, alien encounters, and a chance to meditate on our shared humanity and I’m there.

After all, our brains, and spirits, crave stories like these. Our desire to feel connected to each other and to something bigger than ourselves is hardwired. We don’t have to train or teach ourselves to seek this out. We want to belong. We want to celebrate and cheer and stand in awe in the middle of 5th Avenue. Watching the big game (or a UFO landing) is always better with a crowd.

What we do have to work at is acting on our instincts and lowering the barriers to connection. This is a major focus of our work at Federation. How do we build a regional Jewish infrastructure that can routinely spark and sustain meaningful relationships? How do we help people join and lead collective endeavors?

How do we ensure individual lives, experiences, and aspirations combine to form something larger, stronger, and more meaningful than any of us could create alone?

There’s a lot of darkness out there, but some of the highlights of the last couple weeks are reminding me that we have more in common than we think. So long as we work together, hatred and division don’t stand a chance against sympathetic joy, pride, amusement, and fellowship.

How do we build a healthier Jewish community rooted in respect, trust, and constructive dialogue, when it feels like we can barely agree on anything?

That’s the one million dollar question, and it’s exactly what brought 22 local leaders from throughout Greater Washington together over the last four months. From February through May, this group took part in the Courageous Leadership Fellowship, a partnership between Federation and the Shalom Hartman Institute, to sharpen their ability to lead with empathy, courage, and respect in a world that feels increasingly polarized.

Grounded in shared values of mutual understanding and encouraging belonging, participants explored what courageous leadership looks like in practice and left better equipped to lead meaningful change and foster constructive conversations across our community.

Instead of just talking about these ideas in theory, the sessions got down to the intricate reality of community work. Led by Hartman scholars Sara Labaton, Elana Stein Hain, and Masua Sagiv, the group explored various themes, including finding inner clarity, leadership in polarities, the challenges and importance of maintaining a big tent community, and finally the future through two lenses: repair and transformation. Through a “where do you stand” activity, they moved past case studies and tackled real communal dilemmas, followed by small group discussions.

By the time the fellowship wrapped up, these leaders walked away feeling far more confident in their ability to facilitate difficult dialogues and communal decision-making, and just as importantly, deeply connected to the leaders and institutions who are actively shaping the future of Jewish life across Greater Washington.

This work gets to the heart of one of Federation’s core commitments: creating a community where everyone feels like they belong, that they’re listened to, and that they can contribute to a vibrant Jewish future, not in spite of our differences, but with them.

A strong community doesn’t require us to always see eye-to-eye. It requires us to know how to talk to each other when we don’t. By investing in leaders and relationships across our communal landscape, Federation is helping cultivate the trust, respect, and connection our community needs to stick together and thrive.

Learn more about Federation’s work to build a strong, inclusive community here.

As Federation begins to look ahead to the priorities that will guide our work in the coming months and years, we are taking stock of what we’re hearing from our community. In fact, our Community Leadership Council recently concluded a monthslong listening tour to surface views and insights from across the community.

What they found was a widespread desire for Jewish life to be more accessible, affordable, and easily navigable. Just as we saw in our 2025 Community Impact Survey, people across almost all demographic, geographic, and socio-economic backgrounds want to be more engaged in Jewish life and community, but many aren’t sure where to turn or feel discouraged by barriers to entry. This is a sentiment we take seriously at Federation and one that will inform our continued efforts to ensure anyone who is interested in Jewish life can easily find what they’re looking for.

One project that is already underway is our work to make Jewish day school more affordable by taking advantage of a new Federal Tax Credit Scholarship Program. We expect this program to complement and amplify Jewish day school’s current tuition assistance and fundraising efforts and provide opportunities for more students to pursue a Jewish education, which we know also has positive ripple effects on families looking to dive deeper into Jewish life.

Starting in January 2027, eligible taxpayers may receive a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 per year by contributing to an approved Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO). Unlike a taxable donation, a tax credit provides a 1:1 reduction in taxes owed. These SGOs, which will operate as independent 501(c)(3)s, will then distribute need-based scholarships to participating schools and eligible families, who can then use those funds toward tuition or other education-related expenses.

Federation is working in close partnership with local day schools to set up SGOs in our region to ensure our community can benefit from this new program. We are also working with other Jewish organizations, public school leaders, and community non-profits to help them understand the changes and opportunities that come with the legislation.

Our work in this arena is only one part of a broader agenda to make sure that all members of the Jewish community seeking to engage in Jewish life are able to do so. As we consider the future, we can’t let a lack of information or inability to pay keep anyone from participating.

There is a lot of coordination going on behind the scenes, bringing together schools, partners, and community leaders to tackle crucial communal issues. Ultimately, this is where Federation thrives, aligning efforts, building and strengthening infrastructure, and helping turn opportunity into access. We don’t consider any of our work finished—far from it—but we are confident that as we move forward with a clearer sense of what’s getting in the way, and what it will take to address it, we can do so with an ear to the ground and eye toward progress.

A special thank you to the inaugural members of the Community Leadership Council. More to come on their findings from the listening tour!

Since October 7, Jewish teens around the world have been navigating a complex mix of emotions: grief, fear, pride, resilience. And increasingly, they’re not just processing these feelings quietly. They’re turning them into action.

A recent report from the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) found that 74% of young Jews believe they can positively shape the future, a striking reflection of growing optimism and stronger connection to Jewish life.

In Greater Washington, a group of teens is doing exactly that.

Turning Emotion Into Expression

Through Our Eyes, an original art exhibit created by local teens Emma Libowitz, Ayelet Magder, Ofek Bar-Ori, Sophie Moyal, and Aviela Dennen, brings together the voices and experiences of Jewish teens in this moment. Through paintings, poetry, and mixed media, the exhibit offers a deeply personal look at what it means to be Jewish today, grounded not in headlines or politics, but in lived experience.

“At a time when antisemitism is often discussed in abstract or political terms, this exhibit restores humanity to the conversation,” said Ofek. “It allows [people] to see Jewish teens not as representatives of conflict, but as individuals with complex emotions, identities, and stories.”

For many of the teens, the exhibit is both a creative outlet and a communal space. “It acts as a space for teens to lean into their Jewish identities and express their thoughts and emotions, where they might not have otherwise had a place to do so,” Ayelet shared.

That sense of belonging, expression, and connection doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Each of these teens is involved in Jewish life across the region: whether through the Bender JCC, camps like Ramah and Capital Camps, or other youth experiences that have helped shape their identities over time. These are the environments where Jewish teens build confidence, explore their values, and form the relationships that allow them to show up fully as themselves.

Investing in the Ecosystem

Federation plays a critical role in making those environments possible, supporting both teens and the professionals who guide and work alongside them.

By supporting camps, youth groups, JCCs, and other teen programming across Greater Washington, Federation invests in the spaces where identity is formed and strengthened. These investments don’t just power programs, they power identity, helping to cultivate a generation of young people who feel connected, confident, and empowered to express what being Jewish means to them.

As the exhibit travels to JCCs, synagogues, and schools across the region, it is creating new opportunities for connection, not just between teens, but across the broader community. “We hope the exhibit will help teens know that you’re not alone,” said Aviela. “That there are other teens going through the same things.”

And that expression matters now more than ever. “There has been a variety of reactions to October 7 within the Jewish community,” Emma shared. “Our experience as Jewish teens isn’t a monolith. Right now, we need the support and encouragement of adults to speak openly, voice our concerns, and reaffirm our communal values.”

The Through Our Eyes exhibit is modeling something powerful: that in the face of challenge, Jewish identity is not only something to hold onto. It’s something to build, express, and share.

Because when young people are given the tools, the space, and the support to explore who they are, they don’t just respond to the moment—they help shape what comes next.