Tag: leadership development

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.

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I set off on a drive up to Boston to see our daughter graduate from college and then a few days later over to Pittsburgh to see our son graduate with a Master’s degree. It won’t surprise you to hear that witnessing these two milestones got me thinking about life’s transitions and the swirl of excitement, loss, and uncertainty that frequently come with them.

As Bruce Feiler points out in his book, Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age, we spend more of our lives in flux than we realize. Life events can be good or bad. They can be determined by a decision that we make on our own or something that happens to us. Major life events also typically last about five years, and much of our adult lives are spent in unsettled states. This isn’t necessarily a negative thing—change can indicate growth and evolution—but it is the reality of most of our lives.

This sense of unsettledness is pervasive for many of us today. The world is changing faster than any of us could have imagined. Deep assumptions about our security, identity, friends, work, etc. are being challenged. And that is beyond changes that may be happening in our personal lives. All of this can get to be overwhelming. But that sense of instability is lessened and, in some ways, even reversed when we find community.

Feiler argues that a well-constructed life is one guided by the ABC’s—agency, belonging, and cause. To thrive, we need to feel like we can impact the world around us; that we have people to lean on; and have a way to serve something greater than ourselves. These three factors keep us grounded through life’s twists and turns, and they are all on offer in our community.

That’s what I hope people who engage with Federation and our partners come to feel, that Jewish Greater Washington is a place where they can commune with the ABC’s, across every life stage and within the ongoing story of Jewish peoplehood.

Our work as a Federation, therefore, is to ensure our community remains host to a grand Jewish playground, where people can come learn about themselves and find people with whom to climb through good times and bad no matter what’s going on in their lives.

That’s what I see as the beauty of community building. In choosing to join forces on our quest for meaning, we vastly improve each other’s odds of success. By engaging in Jewish discovery and expression together, we multiply each other’s agency, deepen each other’s sense of belonging, and further each other’s ability to pursue what matters to us most.

P.S. happy to recommend Bruce Feiler’s thoughtful guest essay in today’s New York Times.

Northern Virginia is one of the fastest-growing centers of Jewish life in our region. With more than 120,000 Jewish residents, a rich and vibrant fabric of Jewish life is already taking shape. But for this community to truly thrive, leaders need to be connected, supported, and equipped to work together to tackle shared challenges. That’s where Federation’s experience in developing leaders and strengthening community-wide connections plays a critical role.

Bringing Leaders Together Across NoVA

In April, Federation marked the completion of its second Northern Virginia Leadership Cohort, bringing together 16 leaders from across the region, representing synagogues, Jewish communal organizations, social service agencies, campus groups, and other institutions serving Jewish life across NoVA. While these leaders come from different institutions and backgrounds, they share a common goal: strengthening Jewish life in Northern Virginia together.

Over the course of the program, participants built their leadership skills, deepened relationships, and explored new ways to collaborate across their organizations. But the true impact goes beyond any single session or workshop. The cohort was facilitated by executive leadership consultant Rae Ringel, whose approach helped participants translate these conversations into practical leadership strategies.

From Parallel Work to Shared Vision

Federation’s NoVA leadership initiative brings leaders together to help them move from parallel work to shared vision. By creating space for connection and coordination, the cohort helps leaders better understand one another’s challenges, identify opportunities for partnership, and align around the broader needs of the community.

“[The program] was really great and helped me better understand what I need to work on,” shared one participant. “It’s diverse enough that you have people from all parts of NoVA Jewish life.” Another noted, “It helped introduce me to other community leaders who are experiencing the same challenges and are already thinking about ways to resolve them.”

Looking Ahead: Sustaining Momentum

This year’s program built on previous momentum by bringing together participants from both the 2025 and 2026 leadership cohorts for a shared evening of connection and future visioning. In that room, leaders weren’t just reflecting, they were imagining what the future of Jewish life in Northern Virginia could look like.

That continuity is intentional. As Federation prepares to launch a third cohort this fall, participants from past cohorts will remain connected as an alumni network, continuing to collaborate, support one another, and help shape what comes next.

Through initiatives like the Northern Virginia Leadership Cohort, Federation is helping to cultivate a more connected, collaborative, and forward-looking network of leaders—ensuring that as Northern Virginia grows, it does so with the vision and coordination needed to support a thriving Jewish future.

For the past several years, really ever since COVID, our communal agenda has been shaped in large part by external crises. There’s no shame in this. Federation, supported by a passionate Jewish community, is well suited to crisis response. We have the local and global infrastructure to reach people and deploy help, a core part of our role.

Through a pandemic, wars, antisemitic attacks, the devastation of October 7, economic uncertainty, and political and social upheaval, we, as a community, have been there to help the Jewish people and those in need locally and around the world.

Across our community and in conversation with others from around the country, I hear how eager people are to reclaim a sense of agency over the Jewish future. To not only fend off the destructive forces of the day, but to build something great. This isn’t to say that we should abandon our work to be there for the Jewish people and Israel in times of crisis, not at all. Without question, we will need to remain diligent in responding to a dysregulated world. But we can be serious about our dreams too.

As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks used to say, “Jewish faith is written in the future tense.” We are in close contact with our past, but we are also a people of possibility. We would be doing the Jewish story a disservice if we did not make the most of the opportunities in front of us to strengthen Jewish identity, pride, joy, and connection. This is the spirit that defines our community, and one we will continue to harness in our work ahead.

Already, we are working to grow and scale the things we know have significant impact. Shabbat dinners (as I wrote about last week), Jewish summer camp, youth groups, Jewish day schools, Jewish learning, and immersive Jewish experiences, including trips to Israel and local retreats, have tremendous effects on someone’s identity. How can we expand these offerings and make them more accessible to more people? How can we be a home for people with diverse opinions? How do we use our resources and relationships to maximum effect for people across all age groups?

It feels strange in this time of absurd and heartbreaking headlines to be talking about agency. But it’s precisely in this moment when things feel most out of our control that we are called to wrestle it back. Like so many times throughout Jewish history, we can define for ourselves who we are and where we are going. Between our collective responsibility and capacity to strengthen Jewish life, and Federation’s relationships, resources, and talent for convening, the future is ours for the shaping.

The Phyllis Margolius Family Foundation is excited to announce that Rabbi Aderet Drucker has been named as the recipient of the 2026 Phyllis G. Margolius Impossible Dream Award. Rabbi Drucker, the Executive Director and Community Rabbi of the Den Collective, was selected by the committee in recognition of her achievements in building intentional Jewish community for adults 20s-40s in Greater Washington.

Rabbi Drucker is the fourth recipient of the Phyllis G. Margolius Impossible Dream Award, given annually to a Jewish communal professional who echoes the character, inspiration, and determination of its namesake, Phyllis Ann Goldman Margolius. Phyllis cared deeply about strengthening the Jewish community in Washington, DC, Israel, and around the world. Where others saw problems, she saw opportunities and solutions, pushing the needle forward and motivating those around her to do the same.

As part of the award, Rabbi Drucker will receive an $18,000 cash prize for her dedication to fostering intentional spaces of belonging and growing meaningful Jewish connections.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Phyllis G. Margolius Impossible Dream Award,” said Rabbi Aderet Drucker. “Phyllis’s legacy of creativity, determination, and belief in what is possible, even in the face of challenge, continues to inspire me. In a time marked by profound loneliness and disconnection in our world, our work at the Den Collective is rooted in cultivating intimate spaces where deep transformation is possible, fostering a community of true belonging, rich Jewish learning and exploration, meaningful relationships with rabbis who walk alongside people with care and guidance, and opportunities for leadership empowerment and development.”

Rabbi Drucker has served as the Executive Director & Community Rabbi of the Den Collective for eight years, helping guide the organization into its milestone 10th year while expanding its reach, programs, and infrastructure into a nationally recognized model of intentional Jewish community for adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s throughout the Greater Washington area, blending community organizing, pastoral care, and mindfulness to create spaces grounded in Jewish study, leadership development, and meaningful connection.

Prior to joining the Den Collective, Rabbi Drucker was a campus rabbi at Maryland Hillel, where she co-founded the University of Maryland’s first Interfaith Student Fellowship in partnership with a minister and an imam, creating a space that brought Muslim, Christian, and Jewish students together for transformative relationship-building.

She is also a certified Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher through Or HaLev and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, a Global Justice Fellow with American Jewish World Service, and was selected for the inaugural cohort of JCADA’s Ambassador Program, dedicated to creating safe spaces for survivors of intimate partner violence.

“What makes Aderet an impossible dreamer is her approach,” said Diane Schilit and Dani Schneider. “Aderet is a visionary leader whose work blends Jewish wisdom, relational organizing, pastoral care, and mindfulness to create transformative community for adults in their 20s–40s. She is shaping a transformative future for Jewish Washington, innovating from the ground up with a person-centered approach, embedding Jewish learning, empowering members to lead in their homes and communities, and extending the Den’s impact beyond its walls.

The Jewish Community Foundation and The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington have been invaluable partners in the fulfillment of this award. Phyllis devoted many hours in the work of Federation, and it is one of the many organizations in which she observed the depth of devotion and talent that Jewish professionals bring to our community.

Rabbi Drucker will receive her award at the Impossible Dream Award Celebration to honor Jewish communal professionals on Thursday, May 7, 2026 in Rockville, Maryland. The event is co-sponsored by the Phyllis Margolius Family Foundation, the Jewish Community Foundation of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and the Bender JCC.

We’re excited to introduce Vanessa Sax, who joined The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington in December to focus on strategy and community building in Northern Virginia.

A former Northern Virginia resident herself, she’s excited to reconnect with the community she came to know well. In her role, she’ll work with partners across Northern Virginia’s Jewish community to strengthen relationships, expand leadership opportunities, and build on the strong momentum already underway across the region.

“As someone who lived in Northern Virginia for seven years, I understand firsthand the opportunities this community has to offer.” Vanessa shared, “My goal is to continue strengthening a sense of connection and belonging for Jews living in Northern Virginia, both in their micro-communities and across the broader Northern Virginia Jewish community.”

Vanessa brings a strong background in community building. She was the first employee of Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, helping establish it as a hub for arts, ideas, and Jewish life in Washington, DC. She later held a leadership role at Zuckerman Gravely Management, focusing on mentorship, professional development, and complex negotiations shaping several DC real estate markets.

Her work reflects a deep commitment to building relationships, strengthening community, and helping shape the next chapter of Jewish Northern Virginia.

Federation CEO Gil shared: “One of the key takeaways from our Community Pulse Survey was the desire for greater engagement in Jewish life and community in Northern Virginia. Through Vanessa’s vision and community-building skills, we can achieve exactly that.”

Curious about our ongoing work in Northern Virginia?