This year marks a significant milestone for Avodah as we celebrate a decade of leadership from our CEO, Cheryl Cook. For the past 10 years, Cheryl has been at the helm, guiding our organization through a period of incredible growth and transformation. We sat down with her to reflect on her journey, the evolution of Avodah, and her vision for a more just and equitable future.
Avodah: To start, can you tell us the story of what brought you to Avodah 10 years ago?
Cheryl Cook: I’ve worked in the Jewish community for my whole career and I actually watched Avodah grow from its infancy. I was in graduate school at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and a Rabbinical student, David Rosenn, had this idea that if there was no Jewish Service Corps by the time he graduated, he would start it. And indeed he did. I worked in an office next to Avodah for many years when I was at Hazon and had the opportunity to see it grow and thrive.
I came to Avodah because of a mentor of mine, Marilyn Schneiderman, who was the Executive Director of Avodah before me. When she decided she was leaving, she approached me and encouraged me to apply. At the time, I had been in senior leadership, but had not been the ED/CEO of an organization. Just the idea of a mentor, and a female mentor, reaching out to say – you would be a great fit – gave me the confidence and push I needed to apply to lead Avodah. And it was just such a perfect fit.
Avodah: What has brought you to focus your career on working within the Jewish community, and specifically within Jewish advocacy and anti-poverty organizations?
Cheryl Cook: I would say I’ve always been involved in the Jewish community. I’m a day school kid, a Jewish camp kid. When I was in college, I found that I was involved in the Jewish community and I was also involved in the justice community, and they were very separate. I was involved in the Women’s Center on campus, helped organize Take Back the Night, an annual event around ending sexual violence. I was involved in advocating for disability rights on campus. At the same time, I was involved in Jewish groups on campus – organizing a trip to the March for Soviet Jewry, a huge demonstration in DC during my first year of college, organizing , organizing Shabbat dinners and more.
As I came into my career working in the Jewish community, it just felt like there was a choice to be made. I could either be involved in justice work, or I could be involved in Jewish work. Slowly, there was a field emerging around Jewish justice which was exciting to see. About 20 years ago, I started working at what was previously Hazon, currently Adamah, working on raising awareness about sustainability, climate change, and environmental issues within the Jewish community. That was the first time that I had this “aha” moment that there’s a way to bring together these different passions of mine and actually work to create a better world, repair the world, and do that as a Jew and in a Jewish framework. Avodah has been a coming together of all of my passions.
Avodah: You’ve been at Avodah for 10 years. Tell me about how Avodah has grown and how you have grown in that time.
Cheryl Cook: I have led through turbulent and challenging times – from Trump’s first election, the Me Too movement, the pandemic, racial justice uprisings, a backlash to DEIJ, October 7th and all that followed, and now Trump’s second election with a focus on targeting marginalized populations – those who are poor, those who are trans, those who are immigrants as well as the rise of antisemitism. I have seen young adults come to Avodah with a much more sophisticated justice analysis and seen changes from generation to generation. Our work is both proactive and responsive; we’ve grown our program offerings across geography and audience, and we’ve grown our curriculum to respond to the needs of our times, we’ve added economic access lines in our budget, mental health trainings and support, a racial justice guide for organizations and this year, we created antisemitism trainings for all partner organizations.
And of course, the core of our work is training Jews to work on justice issues in the US, inspired by Jewish values – through the Jewish Service Corps, the Justice Fellowship, and with continued support for our incredibly vibrant alumni network. This year, we did a survey of our alumni and 98.6% of our alumni work on justice FOR THEIR LIVES. 90% say that because of Avodah, they feel more in touch with their Jewish identity and 95% say that because of Avodah, they are better prepared to advance social justice work. That is extraordinary to me! Already close to 1 in 5 of our alumni are leading Jewish and justice organizations and I believe that number will continue to grow.
And I grow every day – as a person, as a leader. I learn from my brilliant staff and board, from the participants in our programs and from our partners. I am more curious about how we can have conversations with each other across difference, how to hold our own and others complexity and how to build a world with more justice and more compassion.
Avodah: You were selected to be part of the Elluminate cohort of leaders. What has that experience been like for you?
Cheryl Cook: It is very powerful to be part of a network of Jewish women who are leading both in the United States and in Israel. I never worked for a woman CEO and now I get to be the CEO and be a model for others. This cohort allows me to grow and learn, to celebrate my and other’s achievements and face hard questions – with support, with guidance and with care. I am in awe of the Israeli women who are leading not for profits through the war. That has put my own work in perspective. I am honored to be part of the Elluminate cohort of leaders.
Avodah: What has kept you going in this work for a decade?
Cheryl Cook: It’s the people! I work with a talented staff, an incredibly smart board, and colleagues who are also doing Jewish justice work. When I feel like I hit a low, I turn to those people. And when I have real highs, I feel like I am celebrated. And that is nourishment for me. The world is very broken right now. It’s been a hard 10 years in our country, in our Jewish community, and in our world. And I find hope every day from the work that I do. It is a privilege to be able to make a difference every day through my work.
Avodah: When you look to the next 10 years, what are your hopes for Avodah?
Cheryl Cook: Avodah at our core is a Jewish justice education organization and we are addressing important questions that matter to our country and the Jewish community. How does the Jewish community stay focused on justice even at moments when it’s hard? How do we stay in relationship and even deepen relationships with other communities that are being targeted, just like we are being targeted? And how do we move our work forward together to create the vision of this country that I believe is possible, where everybody has what they need, where poverty doesn’t exist? We will keep investing in young adults to build jewish justice community, we will invest in building Jewish justice leaders, and we will keep working to create a better country and world.
