Dear JCC Movement Friends,
Jewish peoplehood. It is a big phrase, so vast it can be hard to hold. What does it actually mean? Where does it begin, and where does it end? Those were the first questions I asked myself when I became the first-ever executive director of JCC Association’s Center for Jewish Peoplehood.
I came to JCC Association from Shalom Austin, where I served as CEO, so I know firsthand what it means to lead a JCC. But that was the view from one community. Since stepping into this role, I have been able to see our field as a whole, and I have been overwhelmed by the sophistication, creativity, and impact of what is happening in JCCs and independent JCC Camps across North America. The more time I spend with the professionals in our field, the more I find the answer to those questions is already being lived every day.
Our field consists of 149 affiliated JCCs and independent JCC Camps. It is 23 overnight camps and more than 100 day camps, where children spend their summers swimming, singing, and forming friendships that last a lifetime. It is 53 JWB Jewish Chaplains Council® chaplains on U.S. military bases around the world, bringing Jewish life and spiritual care to service members and their families wherever they are stationed. It is 163 early childhood centers, along with theaters, fitness floors, senior programs, and Israel experiences. It is countless moments in which people encounter Jewish life, sometimes for the first time, and often in ways they never expected.
What strikes me most is not only the breadth of that work, but also its depth. Many JCCs are doing serious Jewish education, and many others want to be doing more.
This summer, we brought together 20 senior Jewish educators and executives at our offices in New York City to think through the future of Jewish education in the JCC Movement. I expected to find interest. What I found was something stronger. Around that table there was not only a desire to deepen Jewish learning in our JCCs and JCC Camps, but a shared conviction that this is our commitment and our responsibility.
That conviction is grounded in what we have seen. During the surge in Jewish engagement following October 7, 77% of previously unengaged Jews who chose to engage with Jewish life overwhelmingly chose JCCs, and they continue to do so today. They came looking for something, and they found us. That matters more than ever. At a time when so much divides us—denominationally, politically, and geographically—the Jewish people need places where those who might never otherwise meet can sit at the same table and see one another as family. Unity does not happen in the abstract. It happens in shared spaces, and JCCs are one of the few places built for exactly that.
For many young people, a large-scale experience like JCC Maccabi® is their first powerful encounter with Jewish life, bringing them together across communities and countries and building Jewish identity and belonging within the global Jewish community. Whether that first spark comes through JCC Maccabi, a summer at camp, an early childhood classroom, or a social program at their local JCC, it matters, and so does what comes after it. We are here for Torah, for text, and for Israel, and our Israel Engagement team helps JCCs build on those beginnings, deepening meaningful connections to Israel. These are not competing goals. They are the fullest expression of what a JCC can be: an open door, a place to find community, and a serious invitation for anyone ready to go deeper. People come to us for many reasons, and every one of them belongs. To me, that is what Jewish peoplehood looks like in our movement.
Our JCCs and JCC Camps differ in size, geography, and history, and the local resources available to them vary widely. That diversity is not a weakness of our movement. From our vantage point at JCC Association, we can see what is working across the field and help bring it to more communities, while recognizing that not every idea will fit every place. That is where the Center for Jewish Peoplehood can help: meeting each community where it is and making serious Jewish and Israel learning possible for every JCC and JCC Camp.
The title may be vast, but so is the work already underway. And the opportunity before us is greater still. I am grateful to be part of it, and the best is yet to come.
Rabbi Daniel Septimus
Executive Director
Center for Jewish Peoplehood
JCC Association of North America