After Lois Kimmel was laid off from her federal government contractor job, she asked herself, “What’s something I care about that I could do instead?”

The answer, it turned out, was right in front of her. “I love the D.C. Jewish community. It’s been such an important part of my life,” the Gaithersburg resident said.

Kimmel now works as the director of convening at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, where she brings together Jewish leaders and organizations.

Her work includes conducting one-on-one and small-group meetings with lay leaders and executives of Jewish communal agencies, building relationships within the community, and designing and planning for gatherings.

“I love bringing people together,” Kimmel said. “I think the people I work with and get to work with within the community really care about strengthening Jewish life. We all have really similar values.”

One of the groups she convenes is the Federation’s Community Leadership Council, made up of 70 lay leaders, agency executives and board presidents who serve as a “thought partner and sounding board” for the Federation and the larger Jewish community.

The council, which is concluding its first year, recently completed a listening campaign, hearing from 200 people across the community. “That was our big accomplishment,” Kimmel said. “A big part of my work is bringing together this group of people to figure out what does Jewish community look like in greater Washington? What does a thriving, connected community look like?”

Kimmel didn’t initially see herself as a Jewish professional. She wanted to be a teacher.

After graduating from college with a degree in political science, she moved to Washington, D.C., and spent the past decade as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Education doing research and evaluation work.

“A lot of that was also convening and bringing people together,” Kimmel said of her former job.

Researchers developed evidence-based educational practices, but states and universities were unsure how to implement them.

“So I would bring together a bunch of state policymakers or a bunch of universities, and we’d explore how to implement these evidence-based policies and develop the teacher workforce,” Kimmel said. “Convening was such a big part of my professional life.”

She continues this practice outside of work as well, as a Sacred Facilitators Fellow with the Den Collective, a nonprofit that seeks to create intentional Jewish experiences for adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s in the DMV.

As a Sacred Facilitators Fellow, Kimmel participates in trainings, receives personal guidance from the Den’s Rabbi Aderet Drucker and hosts small group gatherings, such as Torah learning sessions.

Kimmel recently hosted an educational program on “Fat Torah” — a movement to merge body liberation with Jewish communal life — and will host a Mizrahi Shabbat dinner later this summer, both through the Den.

“I’ve done a lot of facilitation with government agencies [and] universities, and a lot of the principles are the same,” Kimmel said. “But there’s also things that are really different when you’re facilitating a Shabbat dinner versus facilitating a data analysis workshop.”

She became involved with the Den when she sought community as a newcomer to Maryland last year. In addition to gaining friendships, the fellowship also offered an educational aspect.

“There’s a lot of Jewish learning opportunities, but not on facilitation,” Kimmel said. “My education background of teaching is really facilitating and letting people discover it for themselves.”

The young professional wanted to improve her facilitation skills within a Jewish context and make new friends in the area.
She is also a weekly b’nai mitzvah tutor at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase after teaching Sunday school from 2016 to 2026.

“I can’t imagine not doing it,” Kimmel said of teaching. “It just brings me so much joy.”

Jewish learning and education is fun for Kimmel, who grew up in Atlanta attending a Reform synagogue and Jewish summer camp.

“And then also seeing [the material] through a seventh grader’s point of view gives you a new perspective on these stories that I’ve heard so many times,” she said.

Kimmel enjoys the intergenerational aspect of tutoring. “Sometimes I feel like I would never interact with a seventh grader or fifth grader if I didn’t do that,” she said. “I learn so much about Judaism, about life from them.”

Her first group of fifth grade students is now in college and some of them are teaching at Temple Shalom as well.

“I feel that sense of l’dor v’dor,” Kimmel said. “I got to teach these students, and now they get to put their own spin and perspective on whatever they’re teaching and pass it on to the next generation.”

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com