When Izzy Arbetter first moved to the nation’s capital, knowing no one, she was drawn to Jewish communal events to make friends.
“Being part of the Jewish community has been … really important to me,” the Washington, D.C., resident said. “I immediately gravitated towards Jewish events because that’s where I knew there was community and gatherings and events, and things to attend and people to meet.”
She said she quickly found a home with Rodef 2100, the “20s and 30s voice of Temple Rodef Shalom” in Falls Church.
“I feel like Rodef 2100 and TRS in general has given me so much in terms of making the DMV home and being embraced for the Jewish person that I am,” Arbetter said. “It was the one group I kept going back to because they’re just so genuine.”
Arbetter is now the president of Rodef 2100, a role she assumed in the summer of 2025. She’s served as a board member at TRS since 2023 and taught fifth graders in the Reform synagogue’s religious school from September 2022 to May 2023. She also sings in TRS’ choir, Koleinu.
Arbetter chooses to stay involved because she hopes to provide the same social opportunities that helped her so much as a newcomer to the DMV.
By day, she works as a health equity and policy advocate at a government relations firm. It was her profession that brought Arbetter to the District.
“D.C. always interested me,” she said. “Three days into [a college internship program in D.C.], I was like, ‘I am moving here. I’m going to work here.’ Advocacy and public service has always been an interest of mine since I was in sixth grade. … I just felt like D.C. was the place to do that.”
Arbetter was raised in Highland Park, the northern suburbs of Chicago. “It’s a predominantly Jewish community,” she said. “And a lot of my friends growing up were Jewish.”
She sang and played the piano and violin, musical abilities that were wholeheartedly embraced by her childhood cantor. She also participated in high school programming by the Jewish Federation of Chicago: a philanthropic giving circle and a research training internship.
“I feel like service and tikkun olam is a really big part of where I’m at in my Jewish identity,” Arbetter said. “Whenever I’m singing or volunteer[ing] with the Jewish community, that’s when I feel the most Jewish.”
Arbetter attended a B’nai B’rith summer camp in Wisconsin, day camps at the JCC and Hebrew school at a Conservative synagogue, crediting her involvement in the Jewish community to her bat mitzvah.
“For me, that was a very formative experience because I felt like that was the first time I was put in a position in a Jewish space of being a leader,” Arbetter explained. “As a young woman, getting up there, leading all these prayers, chanting the Torah, having my whole family there and being so supported, … it was a very meaningful experience.”
After, she began getting more involved. As an undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio, Arbetter interned at Hillel: “My job was to get coffee with freshmen and put on events, and I really enjoyed it.”
Her current role as president of Rodef 2100 is similar. Arbetter creates meeting agendas, leads bimonthly meetings, plans events, represents Rodef 2100 in the community, attends TRS Shabbats, gives announcements, serves on the nominating committee and works with Rabbi Alexandra Stein, the group’s clergy liaison.
“My role and responsibility is kind of being the link between Rodef 2100 and the greater temple,” Arbetter said.
When coordinating events, she considers, “What do we want people to walk away with?” and “How do we want people to feel? What’s our goal?” Sometimes, gatherings are a response to challenges the community faces.
Immediately following Oct. 7, 2023, Rodef 2100 hosted Arno Rosenfeld, an enterprise reporter at the Forward, who led a conversation on the impacts of antisemitism in America.
“I always like to start with, ‘What are the needs that we’re hearing right now?’ ‘What is the current climate?’” Arbetter said.
While she enjoys serving the community, Arbetter added that she didn’t join TRS or Rodef 2100 with the intention of assuming a leadership role. “I chose Rodef 2100 not just because you’re only in your 20s and 30s once, but also because I wanted to continue to lead a community that I feel so a part of,” she said.
Arbetter said she hopes to embark on more leadership training opportunities in the Jewish communal world.
“Ultimately, I just want to continue to be a leader for now in the 20s and 30s Jewish community and uplift our voices in Jewish spaces where there aren’t a lot of young Jewish voices,” Arbetter said.
