Rabbi Ilana Zietman was drawn to work at Georgetown University because of its celebration of many religions. In fact, her office is right between the Muslim and Protestant offices. As the new director of Jewish life at Georgetown, Zietman has many opportunities for interfaith efforts and collaboration and she’s ready to make a difference.
This is the career she’s envisioned for herself: teaching, facilitating and working with young people as a rabbi. Zietman was the senior rabbi at GatherDC for five years, and before that, a rabbinic fellow at Tufts University. Ordained at Hebrew College, she has two bachelor’s degrees — one in Bible and Biblical studies and one in religion — and a master’s in Jewish education.
Zietman lives in the Petworth neighborhood and belongs to DC Minyan.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I grew up with one side of my family that goes back a couple generations in Brooklyn, and then the other side of my family from Poland. My grandparents were Holocaust survivors, but after [World War II] and after my dad and aunt were born in Poland, they moved to Brooklyn, so I very much had the classic New York Jewish experience growing up. I’m a product of Jewish day school and summer camp and Conservative Judaism.
How does being the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors influence your life and Judaism?
I feel connected to the Jewish story of survival and persecution from their story of looking for a better experience in this country and how grateful my grandparents were to be in America, and that, of course, influenced the way I see what it is I can do with my life. I like having purpose and meaning to make the world better than the world my grandparents grew up in.
What brought you to D.C.?
I’ve lived in D.C. twice. I moved to D.C. first after college for the Avodah Jewish Service Corps program, and I ended up staying in D.C. because I found such good community here. Then I left to go to seminary in Boston — I went to the rabbinical school at Hebrew College; that was a five-year program, then I came right back to D.C. after I graduated in 2019.
I knew I wanted to come back to D.C. because I love the Jewish community here. As a 20-something, I had found it to be vibrant, and there were always so many ways to tap into Jewish life. I really liked that there was a symbiotic culture of going to different synagogues for different events and having relationships with different rabbis. It was just a really unique place to be Jewish that I hadn’t found in New York or Boston. I just think there’s something special here in D.C.
What inspired you to pursue the rabbinate?
I really wanted to be someone who could shepherd people through their big life questions in a way that I didn’t have growing up, to be honest. I was the kind of kid who was really excited about Judaism as a religion and all the ways spirituality is used in that, and I don’t think that the rabbi I grew up with was equipped to have those conversations with a 12-year-old. There’s a big part of me that always wanted to be a rabbi who knew how to speak the language of young people, who knew how to take young people’s questions and life experiences seriously.
There’s nothing like having Jewish community to go through life with, and nothing like having longstanding beautiful tradition to lean back on when life is both joyful and messy. I wanted to be a teacher and facilitator.
What are your responsibilities as director of Jewish life at Georgetown?
I am responsible for shepherding the Jewish community at Georgetown through everything: providing religious spaces; queer spaces; spaces for shabbat and holidays; meals; educational programming; making sure Jewish students feel a sense of community, that they have a relationship with the rabbi, both for pastoral care but also for Jewish learning and Jewish knowledge. At this point in time, resilience-building and identity-building, and also being a liaison to the rest of the university; it’s a Catholic school, so I am a translator of Jewish experiences to my non-Jewish colleagues and vice versa.
I love getting to work with and getting to know these students; they’re incredible. It’s not the easiest time to be Jewish students … so I am here to also give them a sense of normalcy when I really feel like they need it.
Your hiring along with another colleague marks the first time in Georgetown history that half of its campus ministry is women. How do you feel about making history?
It’s great. I was drawn to working at Georgetown because it has a really unique interfaith life here. The Jewish life office is embedded into Campus Mission and Ministry, which is Georgetown’s language for interfaith and religious life. My colleagues are the chaplains from all the other faith traditions. It’s wonderful being part of the community that is half women, but in general, people opt in to this role here because they understand the value of not just their own faith tradition but also of it being integrated into a larger whole and trying to get to know each other. There’s so much potential for all different opportunities that I’m so excited to tap into and to create here.
