Supporting Jewish Nonprofit Professionals

I am an “elder millennial,” which means I have endured both the cultural shame of AOL instant messaging in college (how many variations of ‘gym, class, study’ can there be?) and the medical indignity of being called a geriatric mother during pregnancy.

I have also spent much of my career nestled within the Jewish community. I feel called to support Jewish life, and I feel a deep sense of comfort, safety and belonging when I work with other Jews (even with police stationed outside the buildings, but that’s another blog). There is a sweetness and ease in working alongside fellow Yidden, even when our community feels fractured, divided, exhausted, and, at times, challenging to be part of.

Still, I am proud to be a Jewish communal professional.

I am proud to fundraise for, support, and uplift my community. I know the work matters, even when it doesn’t always feel like it. I am committed to using my skills to increase belonging and connection in a rural state that needs a lot of love for its Jewish community. I am also grateful for my professional and Jewish friends who uplift me, share my passion, and remind me that it is okay to put down the fight once in a while.

I have also been fortunate to have mentors who have taken the time to support my work and encourage me. And, on the other side of the same coin, I have experienced some pain along the way, as many of us have.

There are beautiful blessings that come with being a “professional Jew,” or a “Jewish professional”: not having to use vacation time to honor the High Holy Days, finishing work early on Fridays before Shabbat, being surrounded by people who understand the rhythm of the Jewish year. But there are also unique challenges that make this work harder than many people realize.

If you work with, manage, or employ Jewish communal professionals, in Jewish or non-Jewish environments, I hope you will read on. These incredible humans show up over and over again in tired, wary, committed Jewish bodies because they want to serve. 

Here are some ways to truly support them:

Provide Real Mentorship

When hiring younger staff members, which all organizations should do, make sure they have access to real mentorship. Ideally, this comes from their direct supervisor. But if their manager does not have the bandwidth, which is often the case for overextended executive directors, find someone else on staff or in the community who can serve as a support person.

A mentor does not need to know every answer. They need to be available, kind, steady, and willing to listen. New hires should feel welcomed and supported from the moment they come on board, not left to decode the culture and expectations by themselves.

Many Jewish organizations are powered by volunteers, which can be a beautiful expression of commitment and leadership. But volunteers do not always have the time, training, or skill set to actively manage staff. Staff need supervisors, mentors, and clear points of contact who are equipped to support them.

Clarify Roles, Responsibilities, and Growth Paths

Many nonprofit organizations are understaffed and underfunded, which means staff members often wear many hats and take on duties far beyond their original job descriptions. Some flexibility is inevitable. But ambiguity should not be the operating model.

Clear roles matter. So do clear expectations around “as needed” responsibilities. Staff should understand what they are accountable for, who they report to, how decisions are made, and what success looks like.

This also applies to holiday closures. Please be clear about Jewish and secular holidays so no one is surprised at the last minute to learn they were not supposed to be working on Shavuot, Juneteenth, or any other day the organization observes.

Employees also need to see paths for growth. Even in small organizations, there are ways to nurture professional development. A marketing assistant might grow into a marketing manager after a year and supervise a college graphic design intern. A program associate might receive training in facilitation, fundraising, operations, or nonprofit management.

And for legacy Jewish organizations: hire remote workers, please. When geography limits hiring decisions, great people never have the chance to support your work.

Create Psychologically Safe Workplaces

Workplaces and work culture have changed dramatically, and with AI entering full force, the changes are only beginning. “Kind and inclusive environment” language is now boilerplate, but true psychological safety is something deeper. I have experienced the quiet relief of working in psychologically safe environments, and I have also experienced the damaging alternative.

Unsafe workplaces lead to burnout, poor retention, low morale, fear, cynicism, and a lack of trust. Psychologically safe workplaces allow staffers to ask questions, share concerns, admit mistakes, offer ideas, and disagree respectfully without fear of punishment or humiliation.

This begins with leadership.

Managers can model vulnerability by owning mistakes and asking for help. They can include staff in decisions and invite real input, not performative feedback. They can use anonymous staff surveys as regular temperature checks. They can address incivility before it becomes culture.

Psychological safety also means not treating everything as an urgent crisis. Of course, Jewish communal work can involve real urgency. Antisemitism is real. Community needs are real. Security concerns are real. But when every email, event, donor concern, or board question is treated like an emergency, staff nervous systems never get to come down.

Healthy workplaces make room for hard conversations without creating constant alarm.

Recognize Emotional Labor

Jewish communal professionals are not just producing programs, grants, newsletters, services, classes, campaigns, and events. They are often holding people’s grief, fear, loneliness, anger, and longing for connection.

This is especially true in moments of crisis. Staff may be expected to respond to antisemitism, security fears, communal trauma, Israel-related conflict, grief after violence, or painful internal divisions, while also sending the newsletter, setting up chairs, writing the grant report, and remembering who needs a gluten-free meal.

That emotional labor should be named and supported.

Organizations can offer counseling or EAP resources, trauma-informed management training, and structured debriefs after difficult community, client, or crisis situations. Staff should not be expected to simply absorb pain and keep moving.

Make Appreciation Specific and Material

Pizza is nice. A living wage is nicer.

Recognition should be both emotional and practical: fair pay, benefits, professional development, public credit for work, clear growth pathways, and sincere appreciation.

Instead of saying, “Thanks for all you do,” try: “Your grant narrative helped us secure funding that will feed 200 families this summer.” Specificity lands. It tells people that their work was seen, understood, and valued.

Appreciation should not be used as a substitute for sustainable working conditions. Gratitude matters. Compensation matters too.

Train Managers to Notice Burnout Early

Burnout often shows up as withdrawal, irritability, missed deadlines, cynicism, decision fatigue, lower creativity, or a person who used to care deeply suddenly seeming checked out. Managers should be trained to respond with curiosity, not shame.

Preventing burnout in nonprofit organizations requires more than encouraging individual self-care. It requires building sustainable systems of work.

Burnout results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. In nonprofit settings, it is often intensified by underfunding, high emotional labor, limited staffing, and urgent community needs.

Jewish organizations can reduce burnout by funding the full cost of programs, setting realistic workloads, protecting rest and time off, giving staff a voice in decisions, offering flexible schedules and strong benefits, recognizing emotional labor, and building cultures of belonging, appreciation, and psychological safety.

These practices do not only protect employees. They strengthen retention, service quality, trust, and long-term communal impact.

May we all have the courage to keep striving to create safe, thriving Jewish communities that welcome and encourage a diverse staff, and the patience to nurture and support the people who make that work possible.

And yes, we probably need some sort of collective decision on AI too.

But that is for a different blog.