Using the power of relational engagement, I work to facilitate the development of micro-communities to strengthen the fabric of membership-driven Jewish organizations.
Relational engagement starts from the belief that relationships are the basic organizing principle of community. What this means, then, is that to build community, one must create circumstances under which relationships are likely to form — to make the feeling of belonging and connection the goal of everything one does. In a relational model, the focus is on going deep instead of going wide. In other words, quality over quantity.
My work in relational engagement has included taking part in the first Relational Engagement Think Tank, hosted by Ron Wolfson and Rabbis Lydia Medwin and Nicole Auerbach through the Kripke Institute Center for Relational Judaism, developing the HBTogether initiative at Holy Blossom Temple, and incorporating relational engagement best practices in all of my work in the Jewish community.
I approach this work through the lens of Jewish text, whether drawn from the Jewish canon or from modern Jewish sources like Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas or Jacques Derrida.
I am excited to continue to work to develop the field of relational engagement in the Jewish community.