Jewish Learning: Between Passion and Career

Editor’s Note: The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Jewish educator training programs at institutions of higher education around the country. These programs help develop educators and education leaders with the skills to succeed in a variety of settings. This blog–the fourth in a series of reflections from participants in these training programs (read the first, second, and third blogs)–is from Erin Dreyfuss, a graduate of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts at The George Washington University. She is the Development Associate at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center.

Almost all of my Jewish education has been experiential. As a convert to Judaism, I have learned Judaism and created a Jewish identity by doing, celebrating, schmoozing, eating, and absorbing everything around me. Through that process, I have come to appreciate the power of experiences to shape identity and I was hopeful that I could find a career that would allow me to create meaningful Jewish experiences for others. It was with this goal that I joined the inaugural cohort of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts (EEJCA) at The George Washington University in the summer of 2014.

During our EEJCA orientation, we received this piece of advice from Carole Zawatsky, the CEO of the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center (EDCJCC): “Your passion is your career path.” In the two years that followed, the EEJCA program, supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation, blazed a trail between passion and career for my fellow educators and me. Through a cross-disciplinary curriculum that combines the arts, education, Jewish history, and museum management, the EEJCA program prepares its students to create innovative and engaging programs that enrich contemporary Jewish life and strengthen Jewish identities. I am extremely fortunate to have learned from community leaders and my students and co-workers in fellowships with the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital and the EDCJCC’s Washington Jewish Music Festival. Each of these experiences was contextualized by classes that ranged in scope from the history of Jewish music to the implementation of organizational change.

My extracurricular involvement in Jewish life has grown right alongside my professional development; I continue my annual tradition of personal reflection by counting the omer on my blog dedicated to Jewish learning and I recently joined my synagogue’s Board of Directors. These commitments reflect perhaps the most important lesson that I learned during my time in the EEJCA program – that my passion can be my career path and more.

Erin Dreyfuss is a graduate of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts at The George Washington University. She is turning her passion into a career as the Development Associate at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center. Follow her blog at GoAndLearnIt.blogspot.com.