Don’t Wait for ‘After’: Lead Jewish Innovation Now
“At a time when the Temple was destroyed, we learned to build Judaism without walls.”
(Inspired by Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s transformation of Jewish life at Yavneh)
Right now, we are living through a period of Jewish history that will be studied for generations.
Two years after October 7, the aftershocks are still rippling through the Jewish world, not only in Israel or the headlines, but in boardrooms, Zoom rooms, and the hearts of every Jewish nonprofit across the globe. The emotional, financial, and structural reverberations continue to challenge us from the inside out.
Personally, I have felt it too. Not just as a leader, but as a Jewish person trying to make sense of what it means to show up in this moment. In conversations with friends and colleagues, questions about being Jewish today, no longer feel rhetorical. Sometimes, they feel existential, and it demands more from all of us.
We’ve watched funding pipelines contract, donor behavior shift, team fatigue deepen, and uncertainty persist.
Beneath the surface of every organization, a quiet question pulses: Are we built to withstand this or to transform through it?
These aren’t isolated concerns. They’re systemic. And they’re calling us to do more than cope. They’re calling us to innovate.
What I’ve Seen Up Close
As a nonprofit executive for over two decades and currently the COO of Momentum, I’ve lived inside this tension daily.
We, the Jewish professionals, have been holding our breath – waiting for stability to return, for clarity to arrive, for a sign that it’s safe to plan again.
In the meantime, our teams are confused, decision-making is slowed, and vision is narrowed.
We cling to what’s familiar and safe, even when it means postponing or walking back activities. And by default, reducing our impact. Not just because it’s working, but because the alternative feels too overwhelming.
While we wait, the people we serve (our communities, and our donors) are still moving, changing, evolving, and looking for opportunities to feel meaningful and impactful. If we don’t move with them, we risk becoming irrelevant to this very moment we were built to meet.
I’ve also seen what’s possible when we don’t freeze. I’ve seen, across continents, Jewish individuals not retreating into fear, but instead reaching for one another. They have connected, organized, and deepened their bond with the Jewish Peoplehood and Israel, even in its most painful hour.
This didn’t happen because the crisis ended. It happened because someone opened a path for them to take action.
From Operational Overwhelm to Operational Courage
In times like these, it’s natural to act from confusion, adding meetings, layer on activity, or say yes to every opportunity. But not all motion brings direction and focus. What we need now isn’t just urgency, it’s intention. We need a model for innovating in the messy middle – one that allows us to build upwards and onwards, even while the ground is still shifting.
I call it “Operational Courage”.
It’s not post-crisis planning. It’s not just resilience or agility. Resilience helps us bounce back. Innovation helps us imagine what’s possible. Operational Courage is what happens between the two. It’s the capacity to act, design, and adapt in real time even when the path isn’t clear, and especially when the stakes are high.
What Operational Courage Looks Like
- Name What Hurts
Innovation doesn’t start with brainstorming; it starts with truth-telling.
Name the losses and acknowledge the fatigue. This is the emotional reset that clears space for possibilities. - Notice What’s Stirring
Don’t only look for what’s broken because of conditions you don’t control. Instead, listen to what can emerge from the core.
What part of your mission has been quiet for too long?
Innovation often begins with a whisper, create structured space to hear it. - Reconnect to Mission
Not your tagline, your why.
What sacred role does your organization play in Jewish life today?
This reconnects your team to purpose and filters noise from necessity. - Design in Motion
You don’t need a perfect plan, you need movement – pilot small and fail fast. Focus on ideas with potential to scale from the start, even if scaling will take time. Use entrepreneurial tools test, iterate, and debrief. Let small wins build organizational muscle and momentum. - Protect the Soul
Innovation isn’t reinvention.
As our tradition teaches: “Make a fence around the Torah.”
Know what must remain sacred and innovate around it, not through it.
Momentum as a Living Example
At Momentum, the past two years demanded that we shift our approach to leadership. We didn’t wait for conditions to stabilize. We led with Operational Courage.
We reconnected to our mission as a living strategy: To empower Jewish women to transform themselves, their families, their communities, and ultimately, lead the Jewish future.
From there, we designed in motion. We adapted core programs to meet the needs of women navigating unprecedented uncertainty. We forged new partnerships and reshaped operations in real time.
We also reimagined how we work, implementing cross-functional Hubs where teams could co-create, experiment, and refine ideas across silos.
Some ideas took root. Others didn’t. We had to strengthen our own muscles for courage, creativity, and to let go of what no longer served us. Our ability to innovate under pressure and uncertainty has grown, as well as our ability to tell our story with clarity and purpose. Through it all, we protected what mattered most: our core, our values, and our mission.
The Jewish Blueprint for Innovation
Judaism has always innovated in moments of disruption.
Our people have never innovated from abundance, we’ve innovated from conviction.
We did it in Yavneh.
We did it in exile.
We’ve done it every time continuity required courage.
This is one of those times.
Join Me in leading through Operational Courage
The next chapter of Jewish organizational life will be shaped by those willing to lead from the inside out: the implementers., the builders, and the ones who turn vision into reality, one courageous decision at a time.
If that’s you, I see you.
Let’s stop waiting for stability and start building what comes next. Together.
