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Tema Smith

Rhymes with Emma | Diversity Advocate | Writer | Educator | Jewish Community Builder

My Words & Work

About Me

Tema is dedicated to building a meaningful and inclusive Jewish community through research, training, writing and relational engagement work.

She is currently the Director, Jewish Outreach & Partnerships at the Anti-Defamation League, and a contributing columnist at The Forward.

Today
Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

Director, Jewish Outreach & Partnerships, 2022-

The Forward

The Forward

Contributing Columnist, 2020-present

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18Doors

18Doors

Director of Professional Development, 2019-2022

Unlocking Jewish

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MNjcc Tikkun Leil Shavuot Jewish Learning Festival

MNjcc Tikkun Leil Shavuot Jewish Learning Festival

Co-chair, 2019; Presenter: “JoCs from A to Z: A Guide to Being Inclusive and Building Community”

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Relational Engagement Think Tank

Relational Engagement Think Tank

Songleader Bootcamp, St. Louis, MO, February 2019

With colleagues on-site at the Staenberg Family Campus of the St. Louis JCC.

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PEP-RJ and the URJ Biennial

PEP-RJ and the URJ Biennial

Program and Engagement Professionals of Reform Judaism, and the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial, Boston, December 2018

At a working lunch with the Membership Directors of large congregations, URJ Biennial, Boston, 2017.

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Interfaith Families Jewish Engagement Fellow

Interfaith Families Jewish Engagement Fellow

Hebrew College, 2016-2018

The first cohort of IFJE Crown Family Foundation Fellows with program director Dr. Keren McGinity at the summer residential seminar on campus in Newton, MA, July 2017.

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Holy Blossom Temple

Holy Blossom Temple

Director of Community Engagement, 2016-2019

With the Senior Staff team, summer, 2016.

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Big Tent Judaism Professional Affiliate

Big Tent Judaism Professional Affiliate

2014-2016

On-site at Public Space Judaism program, Passover in the Matzah Aisle, April 2014.

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Be’chol Lashon

Be’chol Lashon

Toronto Program Coordinator, Speakers Bureau Member, 2012-present

With Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder, Rabbi Juan Mejia, and Rabbi Gerhsom Sizomu at the Be’chol Lashon International Thinktank, San Francisco, 2013.

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Congregation Darchei Noam

Congregation Darchei Noam

Manager of Membership & Communications, 2012-2016

At Hands-On Hanukkah with our community partner, The Mad Bean Café, on Eglinton. 

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National Task Force For Holocaust Education, Remembrance & Research

National Task Force For Holocaust Education, Remembrance & Research

Project Coordinator, 2009-2012

National conference, The St. Louis Era: Looking Back, Moving Forward, with staff from the Multiculturalism branch of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Sutton Place Hotel, Toronto, June 1-2, 2009. 

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Massey Hall

Massey Hall

Front of House Usher & Floor Captain, 2000-2002; 2008-2018

My heart will always belong to Massey Hall. More than a job – a family.

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Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Visiting Graduate Student, 2007-2008

Emphasis: Hebrew Language, Jewish Civilization, Religious Studies

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McMaster University Department of Religious Studies

McMaster University Department of Religious Studies

M.A. Candidate, TEACHING ASSISTANT, RESEARCH ASSISTANT, LEVINAS RESEARCH SEMINAR COORDINATOR, CONFERENCE COORDINATOR FOR "JEWISH PHILOSOPHY: PAST APPROACHES, NEW DIRECTIONS" 2006-2009

Major Area: Religion & Politics, Minor Area: Early Judaism

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Trent University

Trent University

B.A. (Honours) in Cultural Studies & Philosophy, 2006. Dean's List, President's List, Philosophy Department Gadfly Prize.

Receiving my degree from Chancellor Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut.

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Words & Works

What I Do & How I Do It

Community Building

Using the power of relational engagement and user-centered design, I work to facilitate the development of micro-communities to strengthen the fabric of membership-driven Jewish organizations.

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Interfaith Families

I work with Jewish organizations and interfaith couples and families to explore how to bring meaningful Jewish life into their relationships and homes in ways that honour their unique dynamics.

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Antisemitism

I educate groups about antisemitism – its history and contemporary manifestations and overlaps with other forms of oppression, and lead conversations on understanding and dismantling antisemitism as part of a broader anti-oppression strategy.

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Jews, Race & Diversity

I work with Jewish organizations to explore barriers to participation for racially and ethnically diverse Jews and work to make our institutions represent the full diversity of the Jewish people.

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Want to learn more?

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Speaking

Select Panels & Presentations

Drexel University College of Nursing and Healthcare Practitioners Board of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (2021): What We Talk About When We Talk About Black/Jewish Relations (Distinguished Presenter)
The American Jewish Committee Global Forum (2019): The “I” Word: Intersectionality And The Jewish Community (Panel)
Anti-Defamation League New England – The Good Fight (2021): Understanding Anti-Israel, Anti-Zionism, & Antisemitism (Panel)
The Forward #ForwardFocus Talks In Trying Times (2020): A Plague Of Our Own (Panel)
Anti-Defamation League/Shine a Light (2021): Why We Should Talk About Antisemitism in the Workplace: A Discussion for DEI and HR Professionals (Panel Moderator)
Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies & Hutchins Center for African & African American Research (2021): “Not That Far Apart: Black And Jewish Identities In Intersection” (Conversation)
Jewish Democratic Council of America (2020): Racial Justice is a Jewish Issue (Panel)
Holy Blossom Temple (2021): A Celebration Of Black Women As Community Leaders And Advocates (Panel)
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington (2020): Welcoming and Engaging Jews of Color (Webinar)
Ackerman Institute (2022): From Shared Pasts to Shared Futures: Black-Jewish Relations in Context (Lecture)
Anti-Defamation League Never Is Now (2020): Antisemitism In Progressive Spaces: What It Looks LIke, How To Address It (Panel)
Limmud North America (2020): Global Day of Jewish Learning – Human Dignity (Presentation)
Anti-Defamation League Never Is Now (2021): Confronting Anti-Black Racism to Fight Antisemitism (Panel Moderator)
The Forward (2021): Juneteenth 2021: How American Jews Are Reflecting On A Year Of Racial Reckoning (Conversation)
The Forward (2020): A Jewish Conversation About Juneteenth (Conversation)

Additional Invited Presentations, Panels & Trainings

Congregation B'nai Jeshurun logo

They’re Saying

A brave and strong voice

Headshot of Liv Mendelsohn

Tema Smith is a light in our Toronto Jewish Community and beyond. She is a connector, bringing people together across difference and with an intersectional lens. Her commitment to inclusion as a mindset and an action is manifest in everything she does.

Tema is a brave and strong voice, committed to a vision of equity and justice in her Judaism and her activism. It is a joy to stand beside her in this work.

Liv Mendelsohn
Director, Accessibility and Inclusion

An indispensable voice

I’ve had the distinct honor of collaborating with Tema on one of her many projects exploring Jewish identity and social positioning. She is a uniquely adroit writer and thinker, comfortable with both high academic theory and in-the-trenches activism. Her work on matters of equity and inclusion in Jewish spaces — including, but not limited to, matters of race and disability — is characterized both by an uncompromising intellectual focus and a deep and abiding kindness and care for the entirety of the Jewish communal world. Hers is a voice that is indispensable in the present moment and I suspect will become only more influential in the coming years.

As the Jewish community starts to take intra-communal egalitarianism more seriously, they will need thoughtful, provocative, and engaged thinkers like Tema in on the front lines.

David Schraub
Assistant Professor

Learning without Judgement

The Buffalo Jewish Community Relations Council formed a four month intensive Racial Justice Working Group last summer. The group met bi-weekly learning about racial equity and justice issues (in the Jewish and larger community.)

Without judgement, Tema delivered a clear presentation we themed, “Jews of Color are Us.” Tema’s welcoming approach is based on Jewish value that all Jews are made in the image a G-d or a higher power. We all have worth. There was plenty of time for open and honest dialogue and questions. A member’s quote: Tema helped us realized how Ashkenormative (focused on Ashkenazi Eastern European experience) our Jewish community is and that to truly be a place of belonging, we need to make space to broaden our tent. If we don’t see Jews of Color in our communal spaces, it is not because they don’t exist. We have not provided a belonging space. We are eager to do the real work.

NB: Buffalo JCRC has created a standing racial justice sub-committee and is one of the inaugural JFNA’s Racial Justice cohort. This could not have happened without the caring expertise of Tema Smith.

Mara Koven-Gelman
Director

Look out world!

Headshot of Rivka Campbell

Tema Smith is a rising star at a time when we need real leadership. She uplifts, building bridges within our diverse Jewish community. Always approachable, she is not afraid to challenge and to be challenged. Weaving her identity and her passions into everything that she does, she is an engaging teacher and writer, who always encourages her audience to reflect and to act.

Tema is dynamic and she is smart. I see big things in her future and look forward to benefiting from her work in the Jewish community.

Rivka Campbell
Founder

A visionary new leader

Headshot of Carly Pildis

Tema Smith is a visionary new leader in the Jewish community. Her unique perspective and intersecting identities make her a natural bridge builder, bringing together racially diverse Jews, interfaith families, people with disabilities and Jews throughout a variety of cultural and political divides.

Tema is the voice our community needs as we face new challenges to Jewish continuity and security. Her ability to break down barriers to building community and foster understanding and partnership is unparalleled. She is engaging, kind, and deeply knowledgeable about Jewish life. She is one to watch.

Carly Pildis
Columnist

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