This Simchat Torah, I’m Embracing the Joy of the Dance

Those who make Jewish life possible across Europe — JCC directors, program developers, educators, and so many others — turn to Agata Rakowiecka for guidance and mentorship.  The founding director of the JDC-supported Warsaw Jewish Community Center (JCC), Rakowiecka, 43, now serves as the director of Yesod, a partnership between JDC and Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe that equips Jewish professionals with the tools they need to steer their communities into the future. 

In this Simchat Torah reflection, Rakowiecka likens the critical work of Jewish communal professionals to a dance — one that brings all Jews together and keeps them joyful and resilient in the face of today’s challenges. 

The Pioneers of Jewish Life

In Poland, where I come from, and across Europe, Jewish communal professionals shape the everyday reality of our communities — they are on the frontline of building vibrant Jewish life. 

So much depends on this work. These dedicated people are the faces of Jewish organizations — those who community members meet when they walk through the door. From filling out Excel spreadsheets to launching meaningful Jewish programs, they need to have the skills and confidence to navigate the many demands placed on their shoulders. 

With so much at stake, career development isn’t a “nice-to-have,” it’s a “must-have.” Yet many Jewish communities simply do not have the resources to invest in their professionals.

Yesod helps fill this gap. A partnership between JDC and Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, Yesod provides Jewish communal professionals with a diverse array of opportunities to strengthen their careers and learn about their Jewishness: one-on-one coaching, a fund for professional development, a senior professionals’ forum, Jewish learning, in-person and virtual workshops, as well as the European cohort of JDC’s Kaplan Leadership Initiative.

Let’s say a professional wants to develop a set of seminars about the High Holidays, but doesn’t know where to start. They can reach out to us, and we’ll connect with top experts in Jewish learning and support them in attending training.Or, let’s say someone wants to develop a skillset or work through a problem, we can pair them with an experienced mentor who will meet with them regularly — free of charge. 

Even in the best of times, what we do is sometimes not seen as real work. Many of us come from families in which our parents wanted us to be doctors or lawyers (i.e., something “serious”). Yesod encourages a different mindset. We aim not just to empower Jewish communal professionals — and connect them to a broad network of like-minded changemakers — but to elevate their work as the legitimate career path it already is.

Why I Chose This Path

I became a Jewish communal professional early in life. At the time, it was an unconventional choice. My generation grew up in a time of great transformation. For the first part of our lives, Jewishness was something you kept hidden or felt was exotic or didn’t even know about until your grandmother, on her deathbed, confessed the truth. 

All of that changed in the 1990s. Communism had collapsed, and seemingly overnight, we could start figuring out who we were. But we didn’t know where to start. 

Then along came an organization called JDC. They said, “We’re here and we care about you.”

JDC opened up doors of opportunity to meet other young Jews in a similar position as myself — curious about their Jewishness, excited to embark on this adventure, and a little unsure about what it all meant. Our Jewish life felt like an empty vessel we could fill with whatever we wanted to. We participated in young leadership seminars. We attended Szarvas, the JDC-Lauder international Jewish summer camp in rural Hungary. We took the helm of Jewish community programs, a level of responsibility most people wouldn’t have had. And we learned as we went. 

Over time, we figured out that no one was going to give us the recipe for Jewish communal life. No one said, “Being Jewish means X or Y.” We owned everything we did, and JDC trusted and supported us. Our goal was to build something that brought Jews together, and there was an acute sense of urgency behind all this activity. Sometimes it felt like trying to raise a vulnerable child to become a thriving, successful adult. 

“We’re such a small community and we’re only just reviving,” I found myself thinking at the time. “If not me, then who?” 

JCC Warsaw: An Example of What We Can Accomplish

Our efforts paid off. More than two decades after the fall of communism, we opened what has now become the hub of Jewish life in my native city — the JDC-supported Warsaw Jewish Community Center (JCC). 

We knew Warsaw’s Jews were hungry for this space. Up until 2013, when JCC Warsaw was founded, we’d been doing all kinds of exciting programming — Shabbat celebrations, day camps, classes, and more — in separate venues. Now that we had galvanized a critical mass of people to reclaim their Jewishness, we felt it was time to establish a home where they could gather, discover, and create their collective future together. 

More than 13 years later, JCC Warsaw has more than delivered on that promise. I could recount numerous stories about people who randomly walked past JCC Warsaw, chose to stop in on a whim, and kickstarted a decades-long connection to their heritage. 

One JCC member was a man who’d never before participated in Jewish life. He just lived in the neighborhood, and when he walked by, thought a new café had opened (the JCC has a café on the first floor that serves strong coffee and delicious pastries). He went on to become one of the most committed members, just one among many other Jews who may not have otherwise embraced their identity without this home away from home.

What initially felt like a startup — with all of the expectation, excitement, and hope such a venture can bring — has become a cornerstone of Jewish Warsaw and Poland more generally. Now it feels like a no-brainer: Whenever there’s a holiday celebration, a seminar, a Torah discussion, or any other Jewish gathering, you head to JCC Warsaw. 

JCC Warsaw is proof that Jewish communal professionals are indispensable to the strong, resilient Jewish future we all want and need. And Yesod is the ground beneath their feet. 

Yesod: A Dance With Jewish Community & Traditions

The greatest lesson I learned as founding director of JCC Warsaw has to do with continuity: You need to lay the groundwork for the leaders who will come after you. Yesod does just that, equipping Jewish communal professionals with the values, learning, and cultural know-how to carry the torch of Jewish life into the future. 

I’m proof that it works. Years ago, I received support from Yesod while I was at JCC Warsaw. When I needed them most, Yesod guided me and invested in my career. I want to provide others with that sense of unremitting support. 

Our participants need Yesod more than ever. Many professionals tell me they feel isolated, others mention the pressure they feel to address the urgent needs of their communities. Still others talk about being thrown into the limelight after the October 7 Hamas attacks, when they felt they had to become spokespeople for all Jews. 

Our work is serious. Nearly three years after October 7, Jews everywhere feel scared and alone in the face of rising global antisemitism. But I believe the best prophylactic against this fear and uncertainty is our investment in a generation of skilled, passionate, and bold Jewish leaders. 

Jewish communal professionals confront different challenges than the ones I faced more than 35 years ago when communism collapsed. The one thing that hasn’t changed, though, is that sense of joy amidst the uncertainty, like you’re jumping into unknown waters. 

It’s a bit like when we dance on Simchat Torah. Without overanalyzing it, without overthinking it, we enter this dance with our community. We touch the Torah — we move around with it, holding it against our heart. As Jewish communal professionals, we commit ourselves to learning everything we can about this most sacred book, our traditions, and our heritage, and Yesod helps us gain this knowledge and use it to address the most urgent, complex issues. 

Though we may not know everything at first, we choose to embrace the joy of the dance, learn, and keep going anyway. Just like on Simchat Torah, when we rewind the Torah back to its beginning, we wake each morning fresh with the faith that the seeds we planted yesterday will bear fruit tomorrow. 

That’s the very reason Yesod exists. And that’s the essence of JDC’s mission — a promise to the future they continue to make each day. 

Agata Rakowiecka, 43, serves as the director of Yesod Europe — a partnership between JDC and Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe —  leading its work to support the learning, leadership and professional development of Jewish communal professionals across Europe. A native of Warsaw, Poland, Agata was the founding director of the JDC-supported Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Warsaw, where she served for nearly a decade. Before joining JCC Warsaw, she was involved in Jewish community building and informal Jewish education through a range of initiatives in Poland and internationally, including the Szarvas International Jewish Youth Camp and the ATID Jewish summer camp in Poland.

Agata is an alumna of the Senior Educators Program at the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since relocating to Israel in 2022, she has lived in Haifa, where her own experiences of transition have deepened her curiosity about identity, change and the ways people respond when familiar assumptions are challenged. She enjoys exploring the Carmel forests overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

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