Professional Biography
Tema Smith is a diversity advocate, writer and Jewish community builder. She is currently the Director, Jewish Outreach and Partnerships at the Anti-Defamation League. Tema was most recently Director of Professional Development at 18Doors (formerly InterfaithFamily) an organization that empowers people in interfaith relationships to engage in Jewish life and make Jewish choices, and encourages Jewish communities to welcome them. This comes after seven years as a synagogue professional, most recently as the Director of Community Engagement at Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto’s oldest synagogue.
Tema is also a contributing columnist at The Forward whose writing has been published in MyJewishLearning, the Globe and Mail, and the Canadian Jewish News. Tema is dedicated to building a meaningful and inclusive Jewish community through research, training, writing and relational engagement work. Her leadership and commitment to the future vibrancy and vitality of the Jewish community will be honoured this May with a 2022 JPro Young Professionals Award.
Over the past ten years, Tema has worked to advance the conversation on racially diverse Judaism, working with organizations like Be’chol Lashon, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the Miles Nadal JCC, CJPAC and conducting trainings and presentations for numerous Jewish organizations, including the Boston JCRC, the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Hillel International, Limmud North America, the JCRC of Greater Washington, the Buffalo JCRC, Hadassah, the AJC, and the ADL. She has also been a Distinguished Presenter for Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions Board of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Tema is also a member of the Nexus Task Force examining the issues at the nexus of Israel and Antisemitism in America hosted at the Knight Program in Media and Religion at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.
Before beginning her career in Jewish communal service, Tema was a graduate student in Religion and Politics and Early Judaism under the supervision of the former Canada Research Chair in Modern Jewish Thought at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
(Not So Professional) Biography
Tema gets excited about good coffee, craft beer (especially if it’s sour or funky), making playlists on Spotify, and going out dancing with friends.
Tema lives with a chronic illness called ankylosing spondylitis, which is a kind of inflammatory arthritis that primarily affects her lower back, but also often causes joint issues in her hands and feet, and a litany of other unpleasant symptoms. She is involved in patient advocacy through the Canadian Spondylitis Association. She writes about life with A.S. infrequently on her other website, Kiss My A.S..
She is often very online, and has been called the “nicest person on Twitter” more than once. Chelsea Clinton even retweeted her!
Tema lives in her hometown of Toronto with her sidekick, an eleven-year-old extraordinarily stubborn shih tzu named Tashi and his tiny buddy Padma, her pour over coffee gear, and way too many books.
