Celebrating How Our Jewish Community Has Come Together
I have been a Jewish professional for over twenty years. During this time, I have seen several ebbs and flows—not only in how organizations have operated and been received by community members but also in how the professionals and organizations interact with one another. In fact, our local Jewish community has evolved over the past almost 19 years I have worked at our Jewish Federation.
When I first began, it seemed that while there may have been interest in working collaboratively, there was very little impetus for doing it. Don’t get me wrong… everyone was always friendly to one another, including the Jewish professionals who enjoyed seeing and talking with one another. However, there never seemed to be a reason for everyone to come together except to expose the different synagogues to one another.
However, when I first worked in our local Jewish community in 2005, I felt that there was a perceived competition between the synagogues and our Jewish Federation. What is fascinating is that it was not just our community… many places around Southern California were like this. In fact, I remember growing up in Northern California and feeling that the same was true.
Today, it gives me incredible pride and pleasure to share with you that there has never been more collaboration, collegiality, and willingness to come together between the Jewish organizations in Southern California than at this very moment. More importantly, I enjoy sharing that this change happened long before October 7.
This relationship building, which has been taking place for some time now, as well as a better understanding of the various roles the different Jewish organizations play within the community, has allowed this to happen. There’s that and a “new” collection of organizational leaders who see the value in this collaboration as the collective Jewish community is confronted by an overwhelming collection of existential threats that were only exacerbated after October 7.
I wanted to inform you of this because unless you were working with us “behind the curtain,” you might not know this was happening. And I can honestly say our local Jewish community has been one of the direct beneficiaries of this collaborative atmosphere and cultural shift.
I want to share two examples that illustrate this shift.
When word got out that Pasadena’s City Council was considering adopting a ceasefire resolution, senior staff at LA-based Jewish organizations (i.e., American Jewish Committee, StandWithUS, Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, ADL, and others) reached out to me to see how their staff, organization, and mailing lists could help. And rather than work to take control, they allowed us to use our local relationships and resources to drive and direct the effort. In fact, because of the plan we put forth, they were able to take lessons learned from our experience and use them to counter other similar efforts across Southern California.
The second example pertains to the collaborative work being done around Ethnic Studies in school districts all across the state. While our local community only has me trying to work with and stay informed about how local school districts are addressing this upcoming requirement, there is a statewide effort among leading (and larger) Jewish organizations to work together to ensure Jewish American voices and stories are included in the curriculum. And, in many ways, and more importantly, that anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias is kept out of the curriculum. Last month, a colleague from the Jewish Federation of Greater LA and I met with staff members from a local school district in OUR community to discuss their curriculum and provide their district resources.
These partnerships and opportunities to work together across geographic boundaries will continue to enhance how we collectively address the ongoing challenges the Jewish community will be facing for many years. And thankfully, in a community like ours, we no longer have to try and “go it alone.” We now have incredible friends, partners, and allies who see us as equals and understand the importance of working together. And value us as partners as well.
So, next time you feel like we are alone in facing the challenges confronting the Jewish community, remember that this is not true. We have an incredible team working with us.
Jason Moss is executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Greater
San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys.
