Tag: inclusion

We often think about B’nai Mitzvah as being about the moment when a child gets up, blesses and reads from the Torah, chants haftorah, gives a D’var Torah, and maybe even leads some of the prayers in synagogue. Scenes in film and TV, and perhaps our own experience with family and friends, reinforce the idea that, to become B’nai Mitzvah, this is what one must do. For the parent of a child with learning disabilities or other needs that make following this scenario impossible, marking the milestone might seem inaccessible.

The good news is that, according to Jewish tradition, the only thing that someone has to do to become an adult in the Jewish community is to turn 13 (or, traditionally, 12 for girls). And so, there are many ways to mark this milestone according to the needs of your child.

Across Greater Washington, Israeli shlichim (emissaries) are part of everyday Jewish life—showing up in synagogues, schools, JCCs, and community spaces. They share stories, lead conversations, and build relationships that help make Israel feel present and personal.

Hands-On Israel (HOI) is one of the primary ways this connection happens. Led by Federation’s community shlichim who live and work in Greater Washington, HOI offers interactive workshops grounded in conversation and personal experience.

Creating Space for Real Conversation

Hands-On Israel creates space for people to engage with Israel through lived experience and open dialogue. Workshops focus on story, discussion, and shared reflection—helping participants connect in ways that feel grounded, human, and approachable.

Designed for Different Starting Points

HOI is built with the understanding that people come with different levels of familiarity, curiosity, and questions about Israel. Sessions are designed with that in mind, offering context and conversation without assuming prior knowledge or a shared point of view.

Reaching Communities Across the Region

Workshops take place across Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia, in partnership with synagogues, schools, JCCs, and community organizations.

Last year, the shlichim hosted 20+ Hands-On Israel workshops across Greater Washington. In the past five months alone, HOI has engaged approximately 150 participants through six workshops, with six additional sessions already scheduled. Several organizations that hosted workshops last year have invited HOI back to experience new offerings, and across settings, participants have asked for sessions to continue.

“After each of the classes, I received requests from our adult learners to please bring them back! Both Maya’s and Tamar’s presentations were thoughtful, engaging, exciting, interactive, and checked all of the boxes.”

A Steady, Long-Term Approach

Hands-On Israel reflects how we approach Israel engagement in Greater Washington: through relationships, conversation, and ongoing connection over time.
This work is part of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s long-term commitment to building meaningful, people-centered connections to Israel across our community.

Learn More About Hands-On Israel

Interested in bringing a Hands-On Israel workshop? Sessions can be tailored to different audiences, ages, and interests, with themes ranging from Israeli culture and identity to facilitated conversation and pre-Israel trip preparation.

For me, working to facilitate greater connection between our community and Israel feels like second nature. Since joining the Jewish professional world, it’s been a given that helping more people form meaningful relationships with Israel would be a core part of my work. Indeed, it’s a pillar of what we do at Federation and near to my heart as someone who knows and loves Israel.

A Changing Relationship Across Generations

In the current social and political climate, I am also recognizing how important it is that we articulate why we do this work and how we go about it. The Washington Post recently found that 68% of American Jews over 65 feels emotionally connected to Israel. For those between ages 18 and 34, that number drops to 36%. Stats like these abound.

There are a variety of reasons for this drop that I will not address at the moment (though I will in future reflections), but it’s clear we need to do more to support all Jews, and particularly younger Jews, in accessing one of the premier benefits that comes with their identity. Staying in relationship with Israel, even when we disagree or face different challenges, allows us to deepen our own Jewish experience. I’ve been fortunate to accompany many people on their first visit to Israel. It never gets old seeing them discover how special it feels to be immersed in a country with a Jewish rhythm, a thriving culture, Hebrew as a national language, and a clear sense of Jewish agency. It is an unparalleled mix of comforting and empowering.

Making Space for Complexity and Difference

Importantly, any successful approach to Israel engagement must honor the diversity of perspectives that exist in our community. I’ve seen the way October 7th and its aftermath has awakened people’s interest in and affinity for Israel. I have also seen the way many among us are struggling to figure out their relationship with Israel in this moment—and witnessed that struggle enrich our community by helping us all wrestle with what we believe and who we want to be as a people. The pathway forward must make space for multiple avenues of exploration, learning, and questioning.

How Federation Is Deepening Connection

To that end, Federation is undertaking a new phase in our Israel engagement work. Our goal is to strengthen the connective tissue—the infrastructure, programming, and partnerships—that will bring Greater Washington and Israel closer, year after year, in ways that resonate with each individual and organization. And to do so in partnership with Jewish organizations, lay leaders, educators, clergy, professionals, and philanthropists. We’ll be focusing on deepening everyday connections and building on the partnerships that have been forming organically these past few years.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Take our relationship with Kibbutz Nir Oz for example. A group of local synagogues came together to turn an emergency fundraising effort after October 7 into a genuine exchange. Kibbutz members have come to visit Washington, including former hostage Gadi Mozes, and some members of our community have visited the kibbutz in Israel. We are now supporting local lay leaders who are leading the partnership to shape opportunities for our community members to volunteer at the kibbutz and visit other Federation partners in the area.

There’s more to come, and I will be sure to keep you updated. For now, I’ll leave you with the thought that articulating the meaning that comes from a personal connection to Israel is a precious and urgent imperative. It’s on those of us who know and bask in that meaning to help others find it too.

This summer, more than 1,300 Jewish community members from across Greater Washington participated in Federation’s Impact Index Pulse Survey, giving us a clearer picture of how Jewish life is experienced across our region. Through a 20-minute text-based survey, respondents shared their attitudes and behaviors across eight pillars of communal wellbeing: engagement, education, belonging, safety, activism, health, caring, and connection to Israel and global Jewry.

Conducting research like this is core to our role in the community. We invest in data projects like this to inform our strategies and investments, and to equip synagogues, schools, human service agencies, and community-building organizations with insights they need to strengthen Jewish life in alignment with their own missions.

While we are not a synagogue, this insight matters deeply for synagogue leaders to know that among 29% of individuals who are not currently engaged but want to be, affordability is real barrier. 78% of those individuals say they would participate more in synagogue life if membership were more affordable.

This finding is especially important for our human service agencies: only 44% of individuals who identified as financially vulnerable reported knowing where to find help in the Jewish community during a time of need—in comparison to 55% of more well-off individuals.

We do not exist in a vacuum. Our community is telling us clearly where the opportunities lie: deepening engagement, expanding belonging, strengthening care, and ensure that every Jew regardless of geography, background, or perspective has access to a vibrant Jewish life. The survey shows that 72% of Jewish adults in Greater Washington consider themselves engaged with Jewish life to some degree, and at the same time, 54% say they would like to be more engaged, including 62% of respondents under the age 35 who live in the inner core of Northern Virginia and D.C. proper.

Federation will continue to fund and lead studies like this because understanding our community is essential to strengthening it, and to stewarding our collective resources responsibly.

Cheryl Cook brings an unmistakable sense of joy into her work—and into any conversation about Avodah. As CEO, she meets young adults right as they’re deciding who they want to be in the world. “There’s a lot to do in our country,” she says. “There are a lot of challenges, always.” But for Cheryl, that reality isn’t discouraging. It’s motivating.

What excites her is watching young people step into purpose. “We reach people at the beginning of their career and help them find work with purpose.” Her energy makes it clear: this isn’t just a program. It’s a launchpad—for meaningful work, for Jewish community, and for the kind of leadership Federation aims to nurture across Greater Washington.

Finding Purpose Through Service

Cheryl’s take on Avodah’s impact echoes what we see across our partners: early, hands-on experiences shape the kind of Jewish leadership our community needs. “Avodah means work, or service, or holy work,” she says. “How you start your career often feeds what you do in your life.”

The outcomes are striking. 98.6% of participants stay involved in social justice work, a number Cheryl still delights in repeating. She shares the story of Aaron, who joined Avodah simply because he wanted to do something Jewish. His placement introduced him to immigration law; today he stands beside people facing detention and deportation. “I never would have done this work without Avodah,” he says.

What DC Brings to the Experience

For many Corps Members, Washington, DC isn’t just a placement site—it’s the place they’ve dreamed of living. Some come for politics, some for activism, some for the city’s energy. Cheryl sees how DC shapes them.

She recalls a participant on a homelessness street team who began carrying Narcan because of what she saw daily. Another said that protesting on the National Mall felt like stepping into history. Even when the federal government shut down this fall, the learning didn’t pause; the cohort explored parks, found hidden corners of the district, and quickly felt embraced. In Cheryl’s telling, DC is more than a backdrop. It’s a teacher.

Why Community Matters

If the service year is what placements do, the community is what helps them stay.

“Justice work is hard,” Cheryl says plainly. “It takes being in community, and getting the joy and sustenance of Jewish life—celebrating Shabbat, being together—to stay in this work.”

Avodah designs that community with intention: shared homes, shared meals, shared questions about who we are and who we want to become. Participants arrive for a year, but Cheryl knows the relationships will outlast the program.

Strengthening the Field

For Federation, partners like Avodah strengthen a broader ecosystem of agencies working toward dignity, justice, and inclusion. Avodah’s impact extends far beyond its Corps Members.

Cheryl describes Avodah’s antisemitism trainings for social‑service partners—sessions that illuminate how antisemitism connects to other forms of hate. After one training, immigration advocates shared they had never connected the chant “Jews will not replace us” with anti‑immigration rhetoric. “We were able to connect the dots,” Cheryl says. The room shifted.

For her, helping secular partners understand Jewish identity within the broader landscape of equity and inclusion is both timely and hopeful.

A Partnership That Feels Like Partnership

When Cheryl talks about The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, her gratitude is unmistakable. “DC is really exceptional at seeing us as a partner,” she says. “It makes us feel really valued and cared for by the Greater Washington Jewish community.”

She describes a partnership built on trust, storytelling, and shared purpose. Federation lifts Avodah’s work; Avodah lifts Federation’s impact. “How do we hold you up, how do you hold us up, how do we elevate our work together? It really works.”

Cheryl also names the joy of seeing Avodah alumni featured in Federation stories. “Thank you for holding up so many Avodahniks,” she says.

Rooted in Jewish Values and Human Dignity

At the core of Cheryl’s leadership is a set of values that feel both timeless and urgently needed. She names b’tzelem Elohim—the dignity of every human being—as a guiding force, especially for Corps Members meeting people experiencing homelessness or poverty.

She also emphasizes holding complexity. “You don’t all have to be the same,” she says. “You can hold an array of difference and also see each other as full humans.” Her favorite teaching, inspired by Pirkei Avot, captures it simply: “When nobody else is being human, be human.”

The Work Ahead

Cheryl sees Avodah as a place where young adults connect what lights them up with what the world needs—and where Jewish community helps sustain them for the long haul. “I feel very humble and lucky to be in this role,” she says.

Through its partnership with The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, Avodah helps strengthen Jewish life, develop emerging leaders, and shape a more just future for our region and beyond.

On their first Shabbat in DC earlier this fall, 13 young adults gathered in Rock Creek Park not just to meet each other, but to ground themselves in purpose. Under the trees, they sang Hashkiveinu together in a ritual led by Rabbi Gita Karasov, an alumna who once stood where they now sit.

That moment marked the start of a year that will challenge, stretch, and shape them as individuals and as leaders.

These 2025–26 Corps Members are part of Avodah, a Federation partner that places young Jewish changemakers in a year of immersive service. They live together in the DC bayit (house), explore Jewish pluralism in daily life, and serve at local nonprofits including Bread for the City, Jews United for Justice, and Higher Achievement.

Their orientation alone included a walking tour of U Street to learn about the legacy of Black Broadway and a deep dive into disability justice with Rabbi Lauren Tuchman. More than just training, it was a week of becoming rooted into community, justice, and Jewish values.

We believe Jewish leadership must reflect the urgency, diversity, and moral clarity this moment demands. Through your support, we’re helping these young adults lead with purpose, live their values, and build something bigger than themselves—right here in Greater Washington.

This is what happens when generosity meets action. Together, we’re shaping a Jewish future built on justice, belonging, and bold leadership.

Since August, something beautiful has been unfolding across the DMV: more than 120 families have said “yes” to Jewish connection with a PJ Library get together for young families. Some gathered in sukkot under the stars. Others lit Shabbat candles in costume before heading out to trick-or-treat. Still others braided challah, painted pottery, or welcomed old friends and new faces to celebrate a sweet new year.

Each one made Jewish life feel personal, joyful, and shared.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect

No one waited to have the “perfect” house or the “right” Judaica. They just showed up—with apple cake, with s’mores, with grape juice, with laughter. One family, hosting for the first time, built their own sukkah and invited 16 people to fill it. “We’d never done this before,” they said. “But we wanted to create space for others who don’t have the room to build one.”

That’s the kind of ripple effect this program sparks. When one family opens their door, others feel more welcome to do the same.

Little Moments, Big Memories

From Halloween Shabbat to challah-braiding brunches, every event looked a little different. But the feeling was the same: warmth, fun, and connection. A group of moms gathered to paint pottery for Rosh Hashanah. One host filled their table with “everything apple” to celebrate a sweet new year. Another welcomed 31 people across state lines to share in Rosh Hashanah dinner, marveling as kids realized—some for the first time—that everyone in the room was Jewish.

And these memories? They stick. As one parent said, “The party was the best part of the holiday!”

Your Turn to Say Yes

If you’ve been waiting for a sign, let this be it. Light the candles. Bake the kugel. Invite someone new.

These gatherings weren’t fancy. They were real: challah and crafts, backyard sukkahs and break-fast bagels. What made them meaningful wasn’t the setup. It was the people around the table, and the joy of being together.

This kind of connection isn’t limited to holidays or host homes. It’s happening across our community through Federation events, local gatherings, and meaningful moments both big and small. If you’re looking for your next step, the Community Calendar.

And if you’re not yet receiving free Jewish children’s books from PJ Library each month, it’s the perfect time to sign up. Stories are just the beginning.

You don’t need a theme, a guest list, or a perfect table setting. Just start small. When you’re ready, your Jewish community will meet you where you are.