With nearly 30 years of experience in Jewish community relations and public policy, Guila Franklin Siegel is no stranger to fighting antisemitism.
In addition to serving as associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, where she has worked since 2016, Franklin Siegel is an attorney by training. Her “biggest professional win” is leading Northern Virginia’s interfaith coalition in securing Fairfax County School closures on more non-Christian religious holidays.
Franklin Siegel is the founding director of the Tikkun Olam Women’s Foundation of Greater Washington, a Jewish grantmaking organization that aims to advance social change for women and girls locally and in Israel. Her op-eds and columns on Jewish life, antisemitism, educational equity and disability advocacy have been published in numerous media outlets.
Originally from Brooklyn, Franklin Siegel lives with her husband, Nathan, and three sons in Potomac. She belongs to Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I was raised in a ‘Conservadox’ environment. I went to Orthodox day school for 12 years; I went to Yeshivah of Flatbush, which is a very well-known Orthodox faith school and [had a] very traditional upbringing in a neighborhood that was predominantly Jewish and Italian. I grew up surrounded by Holocaust survivors and their children; a lot of my friends’ parents were Holocaust survivors. I think my upbringing absolutely influenced my life path.
What inspired you to pursue Jewish community relations?
I went to law school, and my intent was to practice law for a civil law firm and then do something in the public interest. When it was time for me to make that move, I realized what I really wanted to do was take all of my social justice interests and passions and work on them in a Jewish context. I wanted to bring a Jewish voice to those issues and make Judaism relevant and meaningful to Jews in terms of them feeling like they were living out their Jewish values in their lives.
Why are Jewish values important to you?
I think our Jewish values compel us to both be responsible for one another in terms of the Jewish community and also dealing with what is fractured and broken in the world at large. For me, my life’s work has encompassed both the universalistic and the pluralistic.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
A lot of the work that I have done over the last several years has focused on combating antisemitism in our public schools and that continues to be a very acute problem in districts throughout the DMV, especially Montgomery County. The most rewarding aspect of my job is when I am able to provide support to people, whether they are students, teachers or activists who feel isolated or alone because of their Jewish identities because they’re experiencing antisemitism, and we’re able to support them and make them feel less alone.
You work to combat antisemitism in the community. What are your strategies?
There’s no one magic bullet to defeat antisemitism; antisemitism is the oldest hatred. At the JCRC, we apply a multi-pronged approach that focuses on both reactive necessities and on proactive steps that can be taken to reduce hatred and bias. That involves everything from strengthening hate crime laws to securing funding to increase security at Jewish institutions to programs like our Student To Student programs that train Jewish high school students to speak about their Jewish identities and experiences with antisemitism to their non-Jewish peers.
This work has to be stressful. How do you decompress after work?
This work is stressful, but it’s also a labor of love. We care deeply about the work that we do. We are a very mutually supportive team; we have a great staff with terrific professionals. I think it’s been very hard to deal with the stress of our work since Oct. 7, but that’s true of many people in Jewish communal spaces. We have tried to encourage everyone on our staff that self care is really important: using your vacation days, making sure that you are not running yourself ragged, and that you are doing what you need to for your own mental health, because so much of this work, particularly on the antisemitism front, is a marathon and we need to have a healthy JCRC to support and advocate for our community.
You’re also a writer. What inspires the essays that you write?
One thing about me that is not as well-known is that my parents had cerebral palsy and it was very unusual for two people with cerebral palsy to get married at that time. I’ve written a lot of essays about my experiences growing up and my experiences with my parents, and disability advocacy is something that is very important to me and something that I consider a personal imperative. I advocate for dignity and equity for people who live with disabilities. My work is deeply influenced by my parents’ experiences [with discrimination].
You have three sons. What do you hope they learn from you and your leadership?
What I hope they learn from me is a deep love for the Jewish people and Israel, a dedication to activism, to lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness and pursuing justice for all people and having compassion for all people.
