Lisa Redisch cares deeply about Jewish education, which has been central to her life, and later, career.

For the past year, the Silver Spring resident has led the Alvin Browdy Religious School at Ohr Kodesh Congregation as its education director. The school is home to about 100 students.

“I think Ohr Kodesh is a great place to work,” Redisch said. “It’s such an active and engaged community, which I think of as such a blessing. I know that a lot of Jewish communities struggle to get people into the building and show up, and I think it’s really beautiful that that’s not a challenge we have.”

Redisch is a longtime Jewish educator. She previously taught at the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital — now Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School. She also served as director of youth and family programs at Ohev Sholom Congregation in Northwest D.C., while earning her master’s in Jewish education.

From 2020 to 2025, Redisch served as director of family engagement at a Conservative shul in Brookline, Massachusetts. But she returned to the nation’s capital, pulled by a feeling that the D.C. area was her home.

It was at the University of Maryland where, immersed in Jewish studies, Redisch realized she wanted to work in the Jewish world.

“I think it was just being part of something that’s so much bigger than ourselves, feeling really connected to our history, to our people, to our heritage going back so many generations, and the appeal of bringing that forward into future generations,” she said.

Now, Redisch oversees holiday youth programs and three weekly children’s services at Ohr Kodesh, coordinates youth programming throughout the year, plans and prepares for religious school and teaches weekly tefillah.

Upon her arrival at Ohr Kodesh, Redisch was pleasantly surprised to see that many religious school students already knew a lot of the prayers. She credits the shul’s former cantor.

“Our cantor who recently left, Cantor Hinda Labovitz, was very instrumental in developing our school and building it,” Redisch said.

Redisch also has taken on additional responsibilities, including overseeing Ohr Kodesh’s madrichim teen leadership program and preteen Mitzvah Scholars.

She has big plans for the religious school. She hopes to soon implement more field trips, an increased emphasis on Hebrew reading and opportunities to cook Jewish foods, such as challah, hamantaschen and charoset for the holidays.

Redisch chose these activities specifically for their fun, hands-on nature, recognizing that on a weekday, religious school students are coming from eight full hours of school for an additional two hours.

“I’m trying to get them to do things that they are really excited about and can still have really rich learning opportunities and opportunities for them to build relationships with one another,” she said.

These changes are part of an effort to make religious school enjoyable and accessible.

“I’d like to continue to shift the school culture a little bit to one [where] the kids are really excited to be there and they’re happy to learn and are really proud to be Jewish,” she said. “I think that already exists to some extent, and I think we can push ourselves a little further.

“I’m very passionate about our Jewish future and I think about my experiences as a child: some of the things that really drew me to Judaism and some of the things that I felt like, ‘How did I make it through 12 years of [Jewish] day school without ever learning about this?’” Redisch said.

Redisch was raised in a Conservative Jewish household in Atlanta. She attended Jewish day school from kindergarten through 12th grade, but said she has more of an appreciation for Jewish education now than she did as a student.

“I think education is a really powerful tool to help children learn to be good people, to make the world a better place, to be a part of our people, and I think [religious school] is a really good way to do that,” she said.

Redisch began teaching at what is now Milton in 2010.

“The kids that were in kindergarten in 2010 are now in college, and I’ve been able to really see the trajectory of their lives,” Redisch said, adding that some of her former students are members of Ohr Kodesh.

“I see them around the community in Silver Spring, so I really feel like I’ve had an impact on some of those children, seeing what they’re involved in,” she said. “It’s been cool to see that.”

She is also involved in a two-year fellowship with the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute with hopes to develop her leadership in Jewish education and bring her newfound knowledge back to Ohr Kodesh’s religious school.

“When I got here, the school was already in a really great place, which was a nice thing to come into, and I’m looking to push it forward even more,” Redisch said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com