Though she is retired, Robin London stays busy between her lay leadership with Jewish Women International and her work educating local students about teen dating violence.
London was named a 2022 Women to Watch honoree by JWI in part for her Jewish community involvement. The board member of JWI has formerly served on the board of the Bender JCC of Greater Washington and Women of Washington Hebrew Congregation.
London also co-chaired the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Next Generation Board for four years, ending in 2021.
Passionate about promoting healthy relationships, she is a volunteer with Montgomery County’s Family Justice Center, where she goes into Montgomery County Public Schools to facilitate and teach about safe dating.
London earned her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and moved to Washington in 1994. She lives in Rockville and belongs to Washington Hebrew Congregation.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I am the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. My grandmother lived in Cologne, Germany, during the war and was a survivor of the Holocaust. She escaped to Poland, and then, when Poland got bad, she escaped to what was then Palestine/Israel, and lived there for six years before moving to the U.S.
I was born and raised in New York City, and I was very aware of antisemitism growing up, not because I felt it, but just because of my grandmother’s history. She’s very open about it; we talked about it a lot, so it’s a part of what I knew about our history as a Jewish community. It became very important to me to be involved, which is why when I came to Washington, D.C., I immediately got involved at the Holocaust museum.
My Jewish upbringing was pretty traditional. Once in a blue moon, we celebrated Shabbat. I went to Hebrew school and went to a Conservative temple in New York City for most of my upbringing, then we moved to a Reform synagogue later in my life. [We were] not observant in any way other than the High Holidays, which I always loved and are very important to us as a family.
What are your responsibilities as a board member of JWI’s board of trustees?
I serve on several committees at JWI: I am on the hiring committee and actually chaired the hiring committee this year. I work very closely on the Women to Watch luncheon, which we’re very excited about. It’s our biggest event of the year, and most important to our organization for fundraising and for exposure and letting everybody know what we’re doing.
My responsibilities are to get the word out on JWI, what we do and our mission, which is to eradicate gender-based violence globally by empowering young women through leadership and knowledge of understanding financial literacy and how to break the cycle of gender-based violence in communities and families here in the United States and globally.
Why are you so involved in the local Jewish community?
I feel like, partially, because of my grandmother. I [get involved] in her honor, and I also do it because I think it is really important to understand as a community where we’ve come from and where we’ve gotten, and that it is so important to always remember that and to hold it close in our hearts as we go through life, but also to educate the younger generation on our principles, values and shared history as a community of Jewish individuals.
Why are you passionate about supporting survivors of domestic violence?
I’m passionate about this issue because I’ve seen situations where women have not had the confidence and support to lead independent and healthy relationships with their partners in a way that affected families and children involved. I was able to, fortunately, marry someone who is supportive and wonderful and kind and be in a healthy partnership — I don’t take that for granted. I truly feel like it’s my calling to ensure that through education and my own personal resources, I can make a difference in the lives of other women who may not be as fortunate.
What’s one thing you’ve learned from being a longtime member of the DC Jewish community?
I’ve learned that it is a powerful and amazing community that I feel I’m very grateful to be a part of. I find that the DMV Jewish community is very close-knit and proud to be a Jewish community. I also feel that it is [an] extremely generous community. It’s a community that really comes together to give back. It’s made me proud to be part of it, and it’s made me want to do as much as I can.
What are your upcoming goals?
My goals are to get into as many Montgomery County Public Schools as I can to give the “Choose Respect” class I’ve been teaching through health classes at MCPS. My goal is to raise as much awareness and money for JWI so we can continue to do the important programming that we do. I want to ensure that [JWI’s] ReStart program is fully funded for many years to come. [I also want to] make sure my three children are happy, healthy and thriving.
