One Diverse People. One Dynamic Mission.

One Diverse People. One Dynamic Mission.

Zach Benjamin | Chief Executive Officer, Jewish Long Beach

As my Jewish professional journey has progressed, my perspective on the Jewish communal landscape has become increasingly holistic. Rather than view the missions of federations, JCCs, congregations, and Jewish advocacy organizations as merely parallel or complementary, I have grown to believe that we all serve the overarching mission of ensuring that Jewish identity and peoplehood thrive, across the diaspora and in Israel, from birth to end-of-life, from generation to generation.

My experiences throughout my first 90 days overseeing the integrated Jewish Long Beach and Alpert JCC have served to reinforce this belief. In March, I had the singular privilege of gathering with over 100 Jewish community center executives from across the continent for four days of discussion, reflection, and collaborative learning at the Jewish Community Center Association’s Mifgash Executive Leadership Retreat in Houston. One of the great rewards of Jewish communal work is to experience the comradery and benefit from the expertise of colleagues from around the world who share a fundamental belief in the criticality of Jewish continuity, self-determination, and values.

We live in a time of radical evolution in perspectives on Judaism, tzedakah, engagement, and on how we navigate interpersonal relationships and human interaction. Thus, Jewish communal leaders and institutions around the globe are all facing similar challenges and are asking many of the same questions. No community escaped the trauma of the pandemic, nor was any community unaffected by the seismic shifts that it created in how we interact socially, professionally, and philanthropically. While the nature of these shifts depends largely on geography and on each community’s cultural idiosyncrasies, all Jewish agencies are grappling with the same fundamental question: how do we remain relevant not just for the short term, but in a way that is sustainable and adaptable in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable environment?

All Jewish agencies are grappling with the same fundamental question: how do we remain relevant not just for the short term, but in a way that is sustainable and adaptable in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable environment?

Now more than ever, it is critical that we build as wide and welcoming a tent as possible for Jewish people of all backgrounds, streams of observance, and paths to Judaism. It is also important to examine our imperative to serve as a light unto the nations and determine how we will exercise that responsibility, not only in the coming years, but indeed through the decades that lie ahead. Throughout our history, the Jewish people have fared poorly when we isolate ourselves, both from our fellow Jews and from the broader communities to which we belong. We now have the opportunity to help shape a global rethink of how we make our collective impact, both Jewishly and for others, all within the framework of the Jewish value system to which we are all so deeply committed.

Next month, Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies will deliver the results of the first comprehensive Long Beach and West Orange County Jewish community study in nearly seven decades. It is our belief that this data will yield valuable information on gaps in how our agencies, congregations, and other Jewish organizations serve both Jews and non-Jews, as well as on those segments of our Jewish community that remain marginalized and underserved.

Jewish Long Beach is responsible for fostering collaboration and partnership through programs that serve the observant and the secular, Jews by choice and Jews by birth, those who are partnered and those who are single, Jewish couples and those in mixed relationships, those with children and those who are childless, as well as Jews adhering to a nearly inexhaustible array of races, cultures, sexual orientations, and other intersecting identities. At the same time, our individual institutions must resist the temptation to be everything to everyone, and thus we must strategically determine in which areas we will respectively focus and invest.

Next year, Jewish Long Beach will celebrate its 75th anniversary. Now that the integration of Jewish Long Beach and the Alpert JCC is functionally complete, we are assembling a strategic planning committee, which will use the community study data, focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and the guidance of Jewish communal experts to determine both a medium-term roadmap and a long-term vision to steward us through the century mark and beyond. Our strategic plan will be bold, creative, and firmly rooted in Jewish values. It will enable us to advance Jewish identity and continuity here at home, will allow us to cultivate our community’s cultural and functional ties with Israel and overseas Jewish populations, and will empower us to raise the tide for those of all backgrounds who call Long Beach and West Orange County home. Most importantly, the plan will both ask and answer painfully difficult questions about how we must evolve to remain relevant and of maximum impact long after we have passed the mantle of Jewish communal leadership to our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

All of us at Jewish Long Beach and the Alpert JCC not only welcome the full community’s participation in this once-in-a-generation process, but indeed we believe that such participation is key to the formula that will ultimately ensure our ability to carry out our mission l’dor v’dor: for generations to come. The future of Jewish community is collaborative, inclusive, and visionary. The shared purpose of all Jewish institutions, both in strengthening Jewish life and in serving as a light unto others, is the sustainable continuity and vibrancy of Jewish identity and peoplehood. We invite you to not only dream with us, but to create with us a legacy of impact that will long outlive those of us who are building it.