Rebecca Shapiro | WJW Intern
Alex Chaves didn’t always envision the career he has now. “When I was younger, I always wanted to be a veterinarian,” the Washington, D.C., resident said.
“So that was the path I went through college, and through a long series of items that kind of shifted over to a lot of community service work,” Chaves said.
Chaves is currently the GLOE ambassador at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center. Prior to that, he was the president of NJB+ DC, a social organization for the local Jewish LGBTQ+ community, adding that he felt honored to have led it for three years and describing it as his “first queer and Jewish home.”
“It gave me a safe space as I was getting my footing,” Chaves reflected in an email to Washington Jewish Week.
Chaves worked at the United States Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service as a contractor for nearly six years. Around Oct. 7, his team got to create an antisemitism training course that they had been asking for. The process, with help from subject matter experts, took over a year to complete.
“I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Chaves explained. “It will be one of my greatest prides to have spearheaded the creation of this training.”
Prior to working at GLOE, he worked in the DEI workspace for the federal government.
Currently, he’s a GLOE ambassador. GLOE stands for Gay, Lesbian, Outreach and Engagement. This organization was one of the first queer Jewish organizations affiliated with a JCC.
“It’s a really unique space in D.C. The intersectionality of just being Jewish and queer can be difficult anywhere. In a city as large as D.C., there are a lot of options but sometimes you don’t really know where you fit in, and I think the JCC is really good at connecting those folks,” Chaves explained.
Chaves has been going to GLOE events for eight years. In September 2025, he was offered the opportunity to run GLOE.
“It was a very easy yes for me,” Chaves said.
When GLOE started, “it was almost revolutionary,” because it had never been done before.
“I’m hosting drag shows in the middle of the Jewish community center, which was not something [that] when I was 5 years old would happen,” Chaves said.
In March, during Purim, GLOE hosted a Queen Esther’s Ball.
“It was so much fun to have a full lineup of Jewish drag artists perform to a full room at the JCC,” Chaves said. “We were able to fully exist as Jews and as queer people celebrating together.”
This will be the first year that Chaves gets to help with the Pride parade.
“I’m pretty excited for the Pride Month lineup that we have this year,” Chaves explained.
He was driven by this type of work because “being raised in a Colombian and Jewish household, it was always instilled in me to give back when you can, and I’ve been very fortunate in life to have had so many opportunities to [do so].”
Chaves didn’t always feel comfortable with his identity growing up.
“Most of the trouble I had came internally, being Colombian and Jewish was complicated in itself, and as I discovered and understood my sexual identity, it only added to it. I was, thankfully, raised in a loving household and a wonderful Reform congregation where I was welcomed and was even youth group president.”
Originally from South Florida, he currently lives in the Shaw neighborhood in the district. With his father’s side of the family from Colombia and Catholic, and his mother from New York and Jewish, “I grew up in an interfaith household,” Chaves said, describing it as “loud, with a heck of a lot of food.”
“I also grew up having Chanukah and Christmas at the same time,” Chaves added.
Chaves said he was “able to choose [his] own path and always felt a really strong connection to Judaism. So I kind of built my own path out of that.”
Chaves describes “just living life in the city.” Outside of helping people, “I like to take my dog Remy for walks, he’s my best friend.” He and his partner like to go traveling. He plays kickball on the weekends, and participates in other LGBTQ+ Jewish events around the city.
