The Opportunity
Senior Vice President | Director General Center for Israel Engagement JCC Association of North America
To apply: Interested applicants should email a CV and cover letter to Mikum Consulting, [email protected]
At one of the most consequential moments in modern Jewish history, JCC Association of North America is seeking an exceptional, visionary, and relationship-driven leader to serve as senior vice president | director general of JCC Association Center for Israel Engagement.
As a key JCC Movement leader, this executive will work within JCC Association’s Center for Jewish Peoplehood, one of three Centers of Excellence that form the strategic framework that supports the JCC Movement: Jewish Peoplehood deepens connections to k’lal Yisrael and promotes generational belonging; Talent Development builds and maintains the talent pipeline and leadership capacity for the largest employer on North America’s Jewish communal landscape; and Innovation and Impact maximizes effectiveness through data-driven innovation. All three Centers are supported by Advancement (Development and Marketing) and Finance and Administration.
The incumbent will help shape the future of Israel engagement across the JCC Movement by working closely with JCCs and JCC Camps and their leaders throughout North America to understand the needs of the field, strengthen their connections to Israel, and develop meaningful opportunities for engagement. Through strategic partnerships, transformative experiences, and authentic relationships, this leader will strengthen the bonds between Israel and North American Jewish communities. Leading a talented professional team while serving as JCC Association’s senior representative in Israel, this executive will play a critical role in advancing Jewish peoplehood and ensuring that Israel remains a vibrant, meaningful, and enduring part of Jewish life for generations to come.
Representation
The incumbent will:
- Serve as JCC Association’s senior executive representative in Israel, advancing the organization’s strategic priorities and strengthening its presence across Israeli governmental, nonprofit, philanthropic, and Jewish communal sectors
- Initiate and oversee relationship-building and agreements with the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs while maintaining an ongoing strategic partnership
- Serve as JCC Association’s liaison to major Israeli and international organizations, including but not limited to JCC Global, Maccabi World Union, the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), the Israel Association of Community Centers (IACC), Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL), Tlalim, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), RootOne, Birthright, and the Coalition for the Jewish People
Programmatic Leadership
The senior vice president | director general will:
- Lead the strategic vision and annual priorities for the Center for Israel Engagement
- Provide Israel engagement consultation to JCCs and JCC Camps and serve as a senior Israel strategy consultant to JCC professionals
- Provide strategic oversight of the Center’s Israel travel experiences, educational initiatives, leadership missions, learning cohorts, and fellowships. While the Israel-based professional team manages planning and logistics, this role is accountable for vision, partnerships, quality, impact, and overall program success
- Oversee the JCC Movement’s longtime shlichim program, including the partnership with JAFI’s shlichut department, candidate interviews, training, and ongoing support systems, all of which provide more than 400 shlichim annually to JCCs and JCC Camps across North America
- Serve as an Israel educator and thought leader through speaking engagements and as faculty for the Oshman Family JCC Zionism 3.0’s JCC Leadership Lab
- Cultivate ongoing people-to-people partnerships between North American JCCs and JCC Camps and Israeli matnasim (Israeli community centers)
Cross-JCC Association Collaboration
The head of the Center for Israel Engagement will:
- Develop and sustain cross-center collaborations to ensure Israel engagement is embedded throughout JCC Association initiatives, including Mifgash, JSummit, regional gatherings, JCC Association fellowships, and broader Jewish peoplehood efforts
- Serve as a member of the planning team for major convenings, ensuring meaningful Israel engagement is included in all major conferences
- Regularly author thought leadership messages to the field, providing leaders and members of North America’s Jewish community with perspectives of average Israelis
Administrative Oversight
The incumbent will:
- Provide executive leadership for all operations of the Center for Israel Engagement
- Lead, develop, and supervise the Center’s professional team
- Manage all amuta-related obligations, ensuring full legal and regulatory compliance to operate as a registered Israeli nonprofit association, including annual audits, governance requirements, and maintaining an ishur nihul takin (certificate of proper management)
- Oversee contracted legal, audit, accounting, IT, and related services
- Staff the Israel engagement committee of the JCC Association board of directors
Requirements
Qualified candidates will possess:
- Deep understanding of North American Jewish communal life and contemporary Israeli society. Senior shlichut experience or comparable cross-cultural professional experience is strongly preferred.
- Proven executive leadership and management experience
- Experience as a respected leader in Israel’s Jewish communal ecosystem, with an extensive network of senior relationships across government, philanthropy, education, and the nonprofit sector and a proven ability to convene leaders and build strategic partnerships
- Complete professional fluency in Hebrew and English (spoken and written)
- Deep cultural fluency in Israeli society and North American Jewish communities, with the ability to build bridges between the two
- Residency in Israel and active engagement as an Israeli citizen in the country’s Jewish peoplehood ecosystem
- An entrepreneurial, strategic, and business-oriented mindset
- Excellent communication, relationship-building, organizational, and problem-solving skills
- Background as a Jewish and/or Israel educator is preferred
- Relevant academic degree(s)
- An ability to work independently with flexibility for evening and international work hours.
Work Location and Hours
- This is a full-time, 40 hour per week position from Sunday–Thursday. Because it is a global role, workdays exceeding eight hours are common.
- Meetings with North American colleagues and community engagement follow American and Canadian work day schedules.
- The position requires overseas travel three to five times per year, for approximately 10–14 days per trip, and the incumbent must be able to travel to North America without restrictions.
Salary and Benefits
The salary, paid in NIS through an Israel-based payroll system, is commensurate with experience, and the position includes a comprehensive benefits package:
- Pension: an employer contribution of up to 5% of monthly salary to a provident fund (kupat gemel) or management insurance (bituach menahalim) with a matching 5% employee contribution. Following the six-month probationary period, the employer contribution increases to up to 13⅓% to a provident and severance pay fund (kupat gemel and keren pitsuyim) or management insurance, with a 5% employee contribution
- Training fund (keren hishtalmut): an employer contribution of up to 7.5% of monthly salary, with a 2.5% employee contribution
- Disability insurance (ee-kosher hishtakhrut): an employer contribution of up to 2.5% of salary
- Severance: following the probationary period, employer contributions are made under Section 14 of the Severance Pay Law, 1963 (hok pitsuyei piturim 5723–1963), in lieu of statutory severance pay, subject to the statutory minimum. Accrued funds are released to the employee at the end of employment.
- Twenty-three (23) vacation days per year for a full-time position, in addition to Jewish and Israeli holidays. Up to half of the annual allotment may be rolled over to the following year but must be used before the end of the year.
- Sick leave accrues at 1.25 days per month, up to a maximum of 60 days.
- Transportation and travel expenses within Israel will be covered or reimbursed in accordance with JCC Association policies.
About JCC Association of North America
JCC Association of North America, through its three Centers of Excellence—Peoplehood, Talent Development and Innovation and Impact—leads the JCC Movement, the largest and most inclusive platform for Jewish life in the United States and Canada, which includes nearly 150 Jewish Community Centers and Camps (JCCs) and the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council®. Collectively, the JCC Movement engages more than 1.5 million people each week— in person and online. With leadership and support of JCC Association, the JCC Movement strengthens Jewish community, advances vibrant Jewish life, and delivers intentional, measurable impact, locally, continent-wide, and wherever Jewish life is lived. Learn more at JCCA.org or on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
About JCC Association Center for Israel Engagement
Since its inception in 1977, JCC Association Center for Israel Engagement, part of the Center for Jewish Peoplehood at JCC Association of North America, has connected countless people the many facets of the land, history, people, and cultures of Israel. Through custom-designed travel experiences for professionals, lay leaders, campers, and members of JCCs, some 11,000+ individuals of all ages have connected to Israel through seminars, professional training opportunities, and other distinct initiatives. JCC Association Center for Israel Engagement also brings more than 400 shlichim to North America annually to serve each summer in JCC Movement camps, the continent’s largest network of Jewish day and overnight camps. Dozens more are employed throughout the year at JCCs.
Applying
Interested applicants should email a CV and cover letter to Mikum Consulting, [email protected]