Before last weekend, the last time Jeremy Schooler stood on the bimah at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville was for his bar mitzvah.

Schooler was there to deliver the d’var Torah as a part of B’nai Israel’s Summer Speaker Series, where he talked about his new role at Mem Global, the parent organization of Moishe House.

“I grew up in a large family,” the Navy Yard resident said. “I was the youngest of five kids, and I went to JDS for, like, 10 years … But I grew up in B’nai Israel, my dad grew up a member of B’nai Israel, and my sisters and brothers and I all got our bar and bat mitzvahs at B’nai Israel.”

Today, Schooler has been serving as the program specialist at Mem Global upon his return to the Washington, D.C., area roughly seven months ago.

“I run our large markets around North America, working with hosts on a variety of topics [and] program ideas,” he explained. “If they want to do much larger programs, what we call a capstone program, at the end of their hosting, which could be an overnight trip, or it could be a huge meal or it could be all sorts of stuff … I work with hosts on all sorts of programs like that, getting those organized, working on grant funding, helping them acquire what they need to make the programs more successful.”

Schooler’s focus is on the organization’s Moishe House Without Walls program (MHWOW), providing funding and support for young Jewish adults looking to host events in their community, without having to move into a rent-subsidized Moishe house.

“The big difference is Moishe House residents live in a home that is rent subsidized by Mem Global,” Schooler said. “They put on five to eight programs a month, depending on their size and their location. MHWOW, the big difference is, obviously the without walls component, meaning that there’s no living requirement, no number of residents or anything because it’s just on your own. Whatever house, apartment, wherever you live, anywhere in the world, you can host on your own.”

“It’s very similar to Moishe House, just a much smaller commitment,” he added.

Schooler said he loves his job, but working in the Jewish community as a professional was never something he saw for himself.

Growing up, Schooler participated in the JCC Maccabi games, attended Jewish sleepaway camp and the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, and took a gap year before college to live in Israel.

He added he was also very involved in Jewish life in college at Pennsylvania State University. “[Judaism] was kind of just always pretty consistent throughout my life and everything: school, sports, extracurriculars, family — everything.”

Schooler studied Journalism. After graduating, he worked in the tech world for Oracle in Boston. He later moved to New York City to work in healthcare public relations but would also work for Birthright.

“Zigzagging a little in and out,” he said. “[The Jewish world] was never too far.”

It was until he ran into an old acquaintance that the opportunity to work at Mem Global emerged.

“Last summer, I was working in the sports world,” Schooler said. “I happened to be [in the D.C. area] for a while with the baseball team and … I went to [a Maryland football tailgate] and I ran into Olivia Hazlett, who also works at Mem Global.”

Schooler explained that as they were catching up, he mentioned to Hazlett that he was looking to move back to the area and she put him in touch with the director of MHWOW.

Outside of his work, Schooler loves traveling and is a coach for a local little league team in his free time.

mresnicow@midatlanticmedia.com