The Jewish Emergent Network: From Emergence to Evolution
February 11th, 2025
In May 2014, rabbis and professional leaders from our seven organizations — IKAR in Los Angeles, Kavana in Seattle, the Kitchen in San Francisco, Lab/Shul and Romemu in New York, Mishkan in Chicago and Sixth & I in D.C. — came together for the first time at the Leichtag Ranch with support from Natan and the Leichtag Foundation. As leaders, we were building Jewish community in new ways, focusing on an entrepreneurial approach that was purpose-driven, rooted in tradition and radically welcoming. We had a common passion for invigorating Jewish life and were dedicated to collaborating with one another to raise the bar for our own organizations and, hopefully, for the entire field.
As this loose affiliation began to take shape, we partnered with the Jim Joseph Foundation to create the Jewish Emergent Network, with the idea that new and thriving Jewish spaces could grow together in surprising and creative ways. The story of the Jewish Emergent Network echoes the story of Jewish tradition and innovation, in which new forms of community emerge in response to the needs and desires of the people we serve, informed by the past but fundamentally oriented to the present moment. The Network formed a meta-community as the leadership of our seven communities leaned on each other and learned from one another, creating relationships that have now lasted for over a decade.
The Network’s first official project was the Rabbinic Fellowship, crafted with the Jim Joseph Foundation, who engaged other funders. Rather than competing for grants or being cut off from national funding opportunities, the Network worked collectively on behalf of the seven communities to secure funding for the fellowship. This was a unique partnership — independent synagogues located in different regions of the country don’t usually collaborate with one another on projects of this scale or duration, and large national funders don’t usually directly fund individual spiritual communities. Along with the Jim Joseph Foundation, over the course of the fellowship we were privileged to receive generous support from an anonymous family foundation, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, the Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, Natan, the Righteous Persons Foundation and the William Davidson Foundation.
read the full piece in eJewish Philanthropy
Melissa Balaban is the CEO of IKAR. Rachel Cort is the executive director of Mishkan. Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum is the rabbi and executive director of Kavana. Justin Rosen Smolen, formerly the director of the Jewish Emergent Network, is the vice president for thriving communities and partnerships at Reconstructing Judaism.