Johanna Chanin views Judaism as a source of great joy, so it’s only natural that she’s spending her retirement years facilitating Jewish communal life in the nation’s capital.
The Bethesda resident is the board president of the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, which has served as a local hub for Jewish life for nearly a century. Located on 16th Street in Washington, D.C., the EDCJCC building was constructed in 1925 and opened its doors in 1926. “We’re celebrating our centennial,” Chanin said.
Her two children learned to swim at the EDCJCC in the 1990s along with “almost every Jewish kid in Northwest Washington.”
As the board president, Chanin and the EDCJCC team organize programming focused on what she calls the “current generation” of Jewish communal life.
“We’re doing a lot with [the young professionals] community to build community and to make the JCC a gathering place where people walk in knowing that, as someone said to me recently, they may not know of everybody there, but they feel like they know everybody there,” Chanin said. “That’s a goal for me.”
One of the ways she’ll work to foster a welcoming environment is ensuring that the EDCJCC’s physical spaces fit the community’s needs and are “comfortable and warm,” specifically making sure the lobby is a usable “third space” for gathering.
She most enjoys working with the EDCJCC’s professional team and with the 55 board members plus honorary board members.
“It’s well known around town that we have a large board,” Chanin said. “It’s just wonderful to work with them and have a diversity of thought and opinion that make our decision making better.”
Chanin, who previously lived in D.C. for 30 years, was drawn to the EDCJCC due to its “downtown vibe.”
“We’re not like a school district where you get assigned to a JCC according to where you live,” Chanin said. “[The EDCJCC] is something that I just appreciate and enjoy.”
She specifically appreciates its cultural programming, including JxJ — the Washington Jewish Film and Music Festival — Theater J and numerous guest speakers.
“I’m a synagogue person, in a way,” Chanin said. “I grew up in the synagogue. My leadership, up until getting involved with the JCC, was focused a lot on synagogue life.”
Chanin and her three siblings were raised in Macon, Georgia, in a town with 250 to 300 other Jewish families. The town had two synagogues: one founded in the late 19th century by German and Austrian Jewish immigrants and the other, a Conservative synagogue where Chanin and her family belonged, founded in the early 20th century by Polish immigrants.
Chanin joined Adas Israel Congregation about 35 years ago, became involved in some committees and chaired the personnel committee. She served as Adas Israel’s president from 2011 to 2013.
She is a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Prior to her board president role with EDCJCC, Chanin served on the Federation board’s executive committee, doing leadership development and trying to increase the Federation’s outreach to diverse parts of the Jewish community.
Chanin is a fourth-generation member of Hadassah and a lifelong supporter of Camp Judaea.
Involved as she is, Chanin realized that Jewish community members of all ages are seeking different things.
“I saw the JCC as a place where all kinds of Jews and non-Jews can come to learn and to experience cultures together and be in community,” Chanin said, describing the EDCJCC as a “warm and very welcoming tent for Jews in the DMV.”
She added that an institution such as the EDCJCC has the ability to cross divides and reach the non-Jewish community.
“There’s so much going on in the world that has a tendency to develop into antisemitism,” Chanin noted. “Even in the best of times for Jews in the United States, there’s an undercurrent of misunderstanding, of antisemitism, of distrust of the ‘other.’ So I feel like shared experiences and person-to-person engagement [are] way[s] for people to become more educated about the Jewish community.”
She emphasized the importance of “creating strength from within,” which is accomplished partially through Jewish programming and social opportunities.
“From my own personal experience, [Jewish communal life has] been the greatest source of moral clarity, of guidance, of a way to live a life that’s got meaning and that builds strength in the world,” Chanin said. “I view Judaism as a place of great joy for me, for my family, for the circle of friends that I have.”
Before embracing these leadership roles, Chanin worked as a lawyer, following in her mother’s footsteps. Chanin said she loved this work: “I thought [being] in-house counsel was about as much fun as you could have in life.”
She began as a litigator, helping mostly corporate clients with financial matters. In the 1970s and 1980s, Chanin represented many colleges in the Title VI desegregation litigation filed against Southern states by the Department of Justice. She was a corporate lobbyist for the last six years of her career.
Chanin retired a few years ago, freeing up hours of her day to dedicate to volunteering, something that’s near and dear to her heart.
“I haven’t been doing a good job of being retired,” Chanin quipped.
