Raised by a pulpit rabbi father and Jewish educator mother, Rabbi Penina Alexander embodies a perfect blend of both parents’ professions.
She is the afterschool network director for Jewish Kids Groups, a role she began in August. She guides a national community of Jewish weekday afternoon programs – 17 across North America, including three in Atlanta alone – supporting the educational leaders who run these programs.
JKG provides Jewish learning and gathering spots for children in kindergarten through 10th grades during the school year. The programs are modeled after camp, Alexander said: “[It’s] meant to be experiential and active and hands-on and energetic and joyful.”
“I feel really fortunate to have this job because I feel it brings together some things that I really love, like Jewish summer camp and informal Jewish education,” the rabbi and educator said.
Alexander lives in Washington, D.C., where she belongs to Adas Israel Congregation, but she grew up on the opposite coast, in southern California.
There, Alexander attended Jewish day school and participated in Jewish teen programs and activities. She spent summers on retreats at Malibu campsites, and visited Israel with a group of fellow teens from the Los Angeles area. “I was always connected to Jewish identity in some way, shape or form,” she said.
While studying abroad in Israel as a junior in college, Alexander took a course on Jewish education in America, from day schools to informal synagogue education for all ages.
“[The seminar class] inspired me to continue figuring out what I wanted to do in Jewish communal work,” she said. “It inspired me towards Jewish education and its value in inspiring the next generation, giving kids the opportunity to be excited about all that Judaism has to offer.”
She returned to the States and changed her major at UCLA to include Jewish studies. She also taught Hebrew school at a synagogue during college. “I always knew I was going to do something [in Jewish education], but I didn’t know exactly what it was going to be,” Alexander said.
Alexander was ordained as a rabbi in 2009 and worked as a Judaic studies teacher, then as a rabbi-in-residence at Camp Ramah in California. She earned her master’s degree in Jewish education from American Jewish University in Los Angeles in 2015.
Nearly 10 years ago she moved to Maryland, becoming the Talmud Torah director at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville. For six years, she developed family education programming, created school-wide holiday programming, led prayer services and crafted professional development sessions for teachers.
She was also an instructor at Chevy Chase’s Ohr Kodesh Congregation, where she co-developed a women’s Torah study class, and worked as an educator at Ramah Day Camp of Greater Washington.
Alexander doesn’t consider herself the type of educator who knows it all.
“I want to bring a text or story, open it up and see what conclusions people are going to draw,” she said. “I try to allow people to bring their whole selves.”
Her passion for Jewish learning stems from her love for the religion.
“I really love Judaism and I believe that the tradition is so rich and deep — it has a lot to teach us, so I feel very connected to that,” Alexander said.
She added that she tries to incorporate “Jewish joy” into her lessons and relate Judaism to people’s lives. “Judaism shouldn’t feel like it’s formal or archaic or so ritualized that people can’t connect to it,” Alexander said. “I find ways to make it accessible.”
In practice, that means using art, music, nature, song and dance to help students more effectively connect to their learning: “Trying new things, using your body, using creativity, these are all tools in our toolbox.” One technique is teaching Hebrew through movement.
Alexander now uses her experience to lay the foundation for building and strengthening a network of educators.
“I’m thinking of ways that I want to create a group of leaders, to empower leaders, to become a leadership cohort,” she said. “I’m working on really developing some of the learning opportunities and also building relationships.”
Alexander said she hopes to get to know the others in JKG’s network. “I’m really looking forward to deepening my relationships with people, thinking of ways for everyone to bring the things that they love and they’re good at to the network,” she said. “We’re sort of building that up.”
She notes the network has existed for some time — JKG piloted its model in 2012.
“But part of my goals in the new year is to really build it up so we have more of an active presence in everybody’s lives,” Alexander said.
