ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Moving Traditions originally intended to conduct our strategic planning process in 2020 – but a global pandemic put the project on hold for a year. Amidst the ongoing uncertainty in early 2021, and a leadership transition in 2022, we bravely set out to imagine the future of Jewish adolescent programming through a gender lens. We have so many people to thank.

This Strategic Plan was made possible by the generous support of the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Crown Family Philanthropies. Moving Traditions’ success – today and into the future – is built on your national philanthropic leadership and shared commitment to increasing the number of Jewish youth who participate in high-quality, powerful Jewish educational programs.

We sincerely appreciate the dozens of philanthropists, educators and program participants who provided their time, energy and wisdom (often more than once), as we explored the current landscape of Jewish and adolescent life in the United States; and looked for best practices in our tradition and the secular world to address the needs of the Jewish community.

We thank our tireless Strategic Planning Committee and our engaged Board of Moving Traditions, whose members continuously demonstrated their passion for our organization through the challenges of a global pandemic as well as our first CEO transition. You never wavered in your curiosity, creativity and support, as we developed our new vision, mission and goals for this critical moment in Jewish history. We want to thank our strategic planning firm, Third Plateau. Finally, these acknowledgements would not be complete without recognizing the vision of our founding CEO, Deborah Meyer, and founding Board Chair, Sally Gottesman. This plan for growth is scaffolded on the strong foundation they built over decades of work. Our ambitions aim high only because they stand on the shoulders of giants.

The Ethics of our Ancestors tells us to find a teacher. Through the pedagogy and personal example of everyone who helped this planning come together, we learned how to respond to a global crisis with rapid needs assessments and mitigation plans, and then created this inspiring 2022-25 strategic plan that we are excited to implement.