Naomi Stanway has lived all around the world — including in Rome, Israel and Rwanda — and has now found a permanent home in Washington, D.C. Stanway earned her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and developmental psychology from The College of New Jersey in her home state.
She taught fourth grade at DC Prep and served as a teaching fellow with Teach for America in a Rwandan youth village, before pursuing a career within the Jewish community.
Stanway is the director of community engagement in D.C. for Honeymoon Israel, an organization that aims to bring Jewish life and understanding into homes by sending cohorts of couples on a 10-day Israel trip. Beyond those 10 days, some of the couples have kept in touch and meet up for a monthly Shabbat with their kids.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I was born in Southern New Mexico. My family had a lot of Jewish wisdom. My dad is a Reform rabbi, so is my grandfather, aunt, my uncle and my uncle’s father, and my mom is the director of the synagogue religious school where my dad is the rabbi. So Judaism and Jewish community have always played a really big role in my life. When I was in second grade, my family moved to central Jersey, where I was enrolled in Solomon Schechter [Day School], which is a Conservative day school, and I spent every summer at URJ Camp Harlam.
My mom’s side of the family is Sephardic and my dad’s side is Ashkenazi, and my hometown in New Jersey has a really big Syrian Jewish community. Growing up, I always had conversations about different ways Judaism shows up in different communities. As a high school student and into college, I worked at camp, I taught Sunday school and I was able to travel to Israel a half dozen times with a handful of different organizations. I’ve really been able to experience so much of the diversity that the Jewish community has to offer, and that is eventually what brought me to Honeymoon Israel.
What are your responsibilities as director of community engagement?
The core of my job is to work with our couples, not just in Israel, but here at home. We’re called Honeymoon Israel, but the vast majority of my work happens here in D.C. I get to build really deep relationships with our couples, whether it’s a couple who’s trying to develop a Shabbat practice for their family, or connect with other couples navigating infertility, or get to know other Jewish families in their neighborhood. I’m here to be a resource and support as folks are navigating what building a Jewish life looks like to their families. Sometimes my job is as simple as passing on a book recommendation or an event listing that I think somebody would be interested in.
Sometimes, it’s more involved. I check in regularly with families going through really hard times to make sure that they know they’re not alone and provide any support that Honeymoon Israel and our alumni and network can provide. I get to represent Honeymoon Israel in the larger DMV Jewish community. In my role, I serve as a partner to Jewish organizations and congregations. If we’re planning an event or program and it’s the right fit for Honeymoon Israel, I can come in as a partner, and I also just get to be a community member — I get to attend a lot of our community events and be around in the community.
You’re used to working with children. What prompted your career change?
I taught for a little over 10 years, and I really love teaching. I love my colleagues, I love working with families. When the war started in Israel last year, I really knew that I needed to be with the Jewish community, and I saw how people were looking for support from Jewish institutions and organizations — I was one of them.
I also knew, with my background in teaching, and with my own upbringing and my own experiences, I had the right skills to meet the needs of our community at this really pivotal moment. I made the decision to leave working with kids, and now I work with adults. It’s a lot of the same skills: community-building, support and relationship-building, so it was an easy transition, and it was the right fit.
What’s your favorite place that you’ve lived?
I spent the summer teaching in Jerusalem with a program called TALMA: [The Israel Program for Excellence in English] that paired North American teachers with an Israeli co-teacher. They spend four weeks teaching summer school to Israeli students. It was 2015 that summer and I was able to live in downtown Jerusalem. I taught in the morning, and we did Shabbat every week. It was just a beautiful, beautiful time.
What do you like about the Jewish community in D.C.?
There’s so many options, especially when you think of our relative size to some other cities. We’re not a huge city, but no matter what you’re looking for, the DMV Jewish community really has something to offer you. There’s congregations for every denomination you can think of, classes, holiday events, social programming, affinity spaces and support groups and cooking classes and places for kids to play. We really have it all.
I think we’re also so lucky to have so many incredible rabbis and educators and organization leaders that are here to guide and support us.
