Galia Messika Greenberg is prepared to take on a top leadership role with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington board in a turbulent time for the community.

In July, the Bethesda resident will become the first Israeli to serve as president of the JCRC board of directors. Messika Greenberg joined the board more than a decade ago.

“I was just generally very interested in the work that JCRC has done,” said Messika Greenberg, who works as a general counsel and belongs to Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County. She also served on the Israeli American Council regional board from 2015 to 2021. “Through that, I got more interested in how I can influence and be involved in Israel advocacy, given my background, and JCRC is the preeminent organization that does that type of work in our region,” Messika Greenberg said.

She found out more about the nonprofit through a friend at her synagogue, and applied for a board member role. Messika Greenberg is a fixture of JCRC’s advocacy efforts: co-chairing its Israel Action Center, getting involved in “all” of its Israel-related initiatives and providing input whenever the organization issues a statement on Israel.

Involvement with the JCRC is also personal for Messika Greenberg. She has three children who attend Montgomery County Public Schools.

“What became very apparent throughout the years … is that there’s an uptick in antisemitism, and we’ve certainly seen it in our schools,” she said. “So I became more interested in JCRC’s work on that, as well.”

Messika Greenberg said JCRC does “amazing work” in trying to combat antisemitism in the region.

“Living it with my own kids and understanding how important that work is just got me more involved in those aspects and wanting to do more to help because we definitely need that, unfortunately,” she said. “Throughout the years, I’ve taken on more responsibilities and [got] promoted to vice president.”

As JCRC board president, Messika Greenberg is responsible for overseeing JCRC’s staff to ensure the team is focused on its mission, the budget is properly aligned and resources are effectively allocated.

“A lot of our work is, unfortunately, emergency-based,” she said. “We have faced, as a community, more threats to our security, so we’ve been [funding and working through] a lot of that. We need to be nimble.”

Raised in Kokhav Ya’ir, a small town in central Israel, Messika Greenberg brings her firsthand experience and knowledge of Israel to JCRC. She visits Israel “frequently” to spend time with her parents and a sibling.

“I have a deep appreciation [for Israel] and bringing that understanding of the culture, the politics, the daily life, the struggles and the challenges in a very personal way to the role makes me focus on Israel advocacy initiatives,” she said.

Messika Greenberg has served on the board since 2016, but said this new leadership position will allow her to help shape JCRC’s initiatives more. She hopes to raise funds to bring American delegations to Israel, a program JCRC once had in place.

“It’s just the best way to really understand Israel,” Messika Greenberg said. “You don’t really get a real sense until you’re actually standing in Israel, seeing how integrated it is, seeing all these different facets of Israeli society: Arabs, Jews, Christians, everyone [coexisting] together.”

She also wants to host Israeli delegations of lesser-represented groups, such as women in Israeli government or Sharaka, a nonprofit organization that aims to promote people-to-people diplomacy in the Middle East.

“We’re striving to not just keep it within the Jewish community, but making it broader, so people really learn and understand Israel better, to be able to advocate better for Israel,” Messika Greenberg said.

Another focus area is JCRC’s work combating local antisemitism. “It’s alarming, and it’s sad, but it’s the new reality,” she said of the increased instances of hate.

Messika Greenberg said she appreciates that JCRC strives to “provide students with that agency, finding their voice, being able to advocate … being comfortable with their own identity, being proud” to be Jewish.

Her third focus area is interfaith outreach and partnerships. “I want to continue doing that type of work because I do think that working together, creating those alliances, makes us stronger,” Messika Greenberg said.

She also wants to promote representation of non-Ashkenazi Jews, as her father is Sephardic and originally from Libya.

While attending an MCPS curricular seminar on Zoom, Messika Greenberg left a comment: “I don’t think there was really much education about Jews that are [of] non-Ashkenazi [origin].”

County administrators took her lead and partnered with JCRC for an informative session titled, “Exploring Jewish Diversity.” “We had speakers, and everyone introduced their own family story of their Jewish background,” Messika Greenberg said. “I was talking about the Libyan Jewish community.”

Other speakers discussed the Jewish communities in Iran, South America and India.

“I just think teaching about those experiences is very important to understand Judaism in general,” Messika Greenberg said. “I was very happy to be part of that program.”

The program also acknowledged MCPS’ need to expand student learning on this topic, according to Messika Greenberg.

This program is something she hopes to replicate. MCPS is coordinating a panel to discuss changes to the curriculum, such as teaching about Middle Eastern Jews, she said.

“That’s something that we’re involved in,” Messika Greenberg said, referring to JCRC. “Being able to partner with different school systems to help shape that education, bringing the experts, bringing a group of people who have lived experiences in all those regions, I think that’s important.”

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com