I’ve spent a lifetime experiencing the incredible, vibrant diversity of the Jewish world. I grew up Conservative in Toronto, navigated Reform spaces in Anaheim after my family moved there when I was nine, engaged with Chabad, and even spent time backpacking through Israel, staying on my family’s kibbutz.

Moving around as much as I have, I’ve seen just about every model of Jewish community layout imaginable, from tiny, 20-family pockets with a traveling rabbi to massive communities where people only show up for the High Holidays. Experiencing that full spectrum also gave me a deeper understanding about what makes a Jewish community thrive.

When my family and I moved to Alexandria right before the pandemic, we knew it was time to finally put down deep roots and find a true home in our local community. I jumped into leadership, eventually chairing several committees at Beth El Hebrew Congregation. But while I loved my synagogue, I couldn’t shake a familiar feeling: NoVA’s Jewish community was missing out on key opportunities to come together.

The structures we’ve inherited naturally build walls between community leaders throughout our region. But the reality is, leaders across our different NoVA organizations actually want to work together. At our core, we are facing the same challenges and chasing the same goals. We are more alike than we realize and are stronger and more effective together. We just needed the space, the trust, and the opportunity to do it.

That opportunity came for me when I learned about Federation’s Northern Virginia Leadership Cohort from Carly Rubenstein, Board President at Beth El. She told me it was something I’d find fascinating and impactful for my work in the community. I didn’t know a single other person who had signed up for it, but I decided to take the leap.

Professional-Grade Tools for Community Transformation

I recently took six months off from the corporate world to dedicate myself fully to volunteering as a leader in Jewish communal work, so I wasn’t looking for a casual networking mixer. I wanted something substantial. To my surprise, the caliber of this Federation program ranked right up there with the absolute best professional development trainings I’ve ever done in the corporate sector.

Led by renowned leadership consultant Rae Ringel, the program is entirely about giving you tools, learning by doing, and doing in a group of leaders who have the same mission and values. Through a dynamic mix of in-person and virtual sessions, Rae guided us through “connection modalities” that taught us how to surface differing perspectives, navigate difficult conversations, and truly articulate both our personal stories and our organizations’ missions.

For me, the most tangible takeaway was learning structured, innovative frameworks to pull apart larger, sometimes overwhelming community challenges into manageable, actionable pieces, building the concrete skills to execute your vision.

The Power of Coalition: “Shipbuilding” in NoVA

What surprised me most, though, was the sheer willingness of everyone in the room to work together.

There is a distinct difference between standard corporate or nonprofit experience and Jewish nonprofit experience. To me, the main difference is “shipbuilding,” learning how to build lasting coalitions across different denominations, synagogues, and grassroots organizations in a casual, high-trust environment.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington understands this, explicitly designing the program to facilitate these deep connections by assigning us to smaller “coffee groups,” which became the foundation for real collaboration.

Just this week I was texting with another participant from my cohort. We recreate those coffee groups all the time. We are constantly leaning on one another, bouncing ideas off each other, and using the exact problem-solving structures we learned together to figure out how to best serve Jewish NoVA.

By bringing together leaders from across the Jewish communal space in NoVA, Federation is actively weaving a powerful network of friends and collaborators. The cohort has allowed lay leaders and professionals across the region to realize we are not facing our challenges alone.

Now’s The Time: Join the Third NoVA Leadership Cohort

If you are reading this and feeling even a little bit intrigued, my advice to you is simple: don’t be afraid to give it a shot.

Whether you are a seasoned board member, a dedicated committee chair, an engaged volunteer, or someone who hasn’t held a formal leadership role yet but has a passionate desire to grow, this cohort will give you the tools to decide how you want to be involved and the lifelong network to back you up.

Federation is launching the third Northern Virginia Leadership Cohort this fall. From August 2026 through May 2027, a new group of 16–20 lay leaders will come together for a kickoff event, a closing celebration, and 8 monthly sessions (alternating between in-person and Zoom) led once again by Rae Ringel. To learn more and nominate a talented and dedicated individual with a desire to grow in their Jewish leadership journey (including yourself), please see here.

We need a diverse set of organizations, ages, and perspectives to make a truly strong, vibrant, and unified NoVA Jewish community a reality.

Take it from me—it is entirely worth the investment.