Twenty-five mid-career Jewish educators in the Washington, D.C., area will soon have the opportunity to strengthen their Jewish leadership.
Professionals working in Jewish education, summer camps, day schools or Moishe Houses applied for the Kehillot Community Fellowship, organized by the nonprofit M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.
The 18-month community-based program aims to equip Jewish professionals who have five to 10 years of experience in the field with the tools needed to “cultivate long-lasting, purposeful career paths,” according to a May press release. The fellowship will run from August or September 2025 to March 2027.
“[Educators] typically go into this work because they are passionate, because they care, because they’re creative,” Shuki Taylor, the CEO of M², said in an interview. “But there’s only so long you can rely on passion, charisma and creativity, all of which are vulnerable to burnout.”
He said the goal of Kehillot is “really simple”: “How do we professionalize the field that we’re in?”
The primary goals of the fellowship include strengthening skills such as educational approaches to Jewish education, identity development and community formation. Another goal, Taylor said, is boosting career trajectory and mobility. Seminars cover Jewish values in action in Boston, dimensions of Jewish life in Toronto and design of educational experiences in D.C., according to M²’s website.
Between seminars, participants can reflect, try out new ideas, share experiences and look for opportunities for collaboration through the “Community of Practice” meetings.
“As they learn more, they’ll be inspired and more committed to stay in the field for longer, which is particularly important given a very significant talent timeline crisis within the Jewish community,” Taylor said.
Gil Preuss, the Federation’s CEO, said historically, the Greater Washington community has attracted “excellent educators.”
“There’s been a lot of innovation and creativity around Jewish education and we see that in our schools and in our synagogues,” Preuss said. “And at the same time, the challenges around delivering excellent Jewish education as the world continues to change and as our expectations change for what is high quality Jewish education requires ongoing adjustment and learning as we go forward.”
Jewish professionals play a fundamental role in helping communities thrive, according to the press release.
“However, due to a lack of investment in local Jewish educators to grow and collaborate, the field of Jewish education is facing widespread burnout, low retention and a shortage of fresh talent,” the press release stated.
Taylor added that he hopes the fellowship will teach transferable skills such that a Jewish communal professional who used to work for Hillel can successfully use that skill set at a Jewish summer camp.
Lastly, Kehillot is built to strengthen participants’ professional identities by establishing a specific goal or vision of how they currently want to change the world through their work, Taylor said. He also wants to collaborate more with community professionals and organizations in the Greater Washington area to make these goals a reality.
“It’s always critical to make sure that the people who are educating in this community have ongoing education, that they are also building a cohort among themselves,” Preuss said.
“Jewish learning is one of our top priorities, so [we] want to make sure that not only do we have great institutions, but also that we have great educators in those organizations.”
Like the Wexner Heritage Program, a two-year educational experience dedicated to Jewish learning and leadership training, Kehillot utilizes the partnership-based funding model — the fellowship is funded equally by national and local philanthropies and Jewish federations, according to the press release.
Kehillot’s 2025–27 cycle will run in Boston, Toronto and the D.C. area and is structured around three multiday group seminars, one in each of the three cities. Participants will also attend local cohort gatherings and individual workplace coaching, according to the press release.
The coaching includes topics such as Jewish diversity or year-round workplace management skills, Taylor said.
He and his team chose D.C. as one of the three participating cities for the fellowship due to a strong interest and community network.
“We found that the D.C. [Jewish] Federation is very committed to securing a strategy for talent development and [is] a willing partner,” Taylor said.
“Once we know that M² has a strong network within the community, meaning we have a lot of graduates who have done our national program that can help us identify the people locally that we should be investing in,” it’s a green light for the fellowship in that region, he said.
Preuss emphasized the importance of bringing Kehillot to D.C., especially given the current state of the country for the Jewish community.
“There’s been, obviously, a lot of very important attention to fighting antisemitism and increasing security in our community and something that we are very focused on at Federation,” Preuss said. “We also can’t lose the centrality of excellent education and educators. So having this program, particularly now, … is so important.”
The Kehillot Community Fellowship began about a decade ago in North America with an equivalent program in Israel, and has taken place in various American cities over the years.
“One of the things that we realized over time, we want to go beyond just professional but also [include] mid-level,” Taylor said. “There are a lot of people who aren’t qualified to participate in national programs, to make those kinds of commitments for a national program. We have come to realize the change in Jewish life … happens locally, in your
own community.”
