Last month, together with Sea Change DMV and Avodah DC leaders, Avodah cohosted an uplifting panel– Finding Hope Together: How the Jewish Community organizes through relationships in challenging times– shining a spotlight on the power of relationships as an essential building block to addressing a litany of issues of social and moral consequence that the local DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia area) and Jewish and wider communities face today.
The panelists reflected on how they have grappled with hard conversations even when there are fundamental differences between you and another. Millie Landis (DC 2023-24) whose Avodah year started just a few weeks prior to October 7th explained that thanks to Avodah’s programming, she had to grapple with hard conversations from the get-go. In Avodah, Corps Members are thrust into an intentional communal living environment at the bayit and she and her cohort had to balance decisions around money, health and privacy from the start, “Avodah actually taught us how to have those conversations and gave us the the groundwork before we needed them in the Israel/Palestine context because we needed them in the communal living context too.”
Millie furthered her point on how building strong relationships was essential to navigate the post October 7th landscape by emphasizing that, “We didn’t bring in that conflict when it wasn’t necessary and we didn’t make it an issue when it wasn’t relevant. We were prioritizing our safe and healthy and happy communal experience and learning from each other and relationship building over what was sometimes the easier choice of being really divisive.”
Maya Goldenberg, a current Avodah DC Corps Member, added on to this sage advice, expressing how Avodah’s trainings have highlighted for her the importance of self-awareness and understanding your and others needs, particularly in topics that are challenging to navigate, “One of my main takeaways from these trainings is trying to understand people’s needs which then inform the way they act in a divisive or challenging conversation.”
Maya explained that by understanding yours and others needs, it is easier to empathize with others even in divisive conversations, “try to think about what’s your need at this moment, do you need to feel safe? Do you need to feel heard? And what is the other person probably feeling? […] When you come from this perspective of needs, I think you’re much more able to empathize with the other person and have conversations on things that you may never end up agreeing on in the end, but like you can agree about what your deepest needs are.”
The conversation and panel— was moderated by Rabbi Emmanuel Cantor, Community Rabbi at the Den Collective and Avodah DC Alumnus, who served at JUFJ in 2018-19, and individuals from SEA Change DMV and the Avodah community including:
• Linda Adams, Member, Washington Hebrew Congregation and SEA Change
• Maya Goldenberg, Avodah DC Corps Member, HIAS
• Millie Landis, Volunteer Coordinator, Affordable Homes & Communities and Avodah DC Alumna/JUFJ
• Cynthia Marshall, Executive Director, Action in Montgomery
This inspiring conversation also touched on roadblocks to getting involved with organizing and how to overcome roadblocks to getting engaged (At 30:30), how grabbing coffee and listening to another’s life and story can spark possibilities for social justice work (At 24:30) and why doing this work in an intergenerational context is valuable (At 49:50).
We are so grateful to everyone who participated in, and attended the panel discussion. You can watch the full video of the event here.
SEA Change DMV is a dynamic network of synagogues in the DMV acting in multi-dimensional partnerships with the wider community to attain a more just society where everyone thrives. Visit seachangedmv.org for more information and to see links to all of the SEA Change congregations. You can also contact us at info@seachangedmv.org to get more information.
You can sign up to learn more about AIM at actioninmontgomery.org, or our sister organization, Washington Interfaith Network at windc.org (if there are people from Virginia, they can sign up at voice-va.org.
Connect with the Den Collective by visiting their website and checking out their upcoming gatherings
