Creating Lasting Jewish Foundations with Alex Band and Bender Early Childhood Center
Thank you to Zoe Bell from the Washington Jewish Week for featuring our ECC Director, Alex Band. Read the Washington Jewish Week Article below.
A self-proclaimed “JCC nerd,” Alex Band believes she has the most fun job at the Bender Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington.
The Potomac resident and Congregation Har Shalom member is the senior director of the Bender Early Childhood Center.
“I get to work with an incredible team of teachers [and] early childhood administrators,” Band said, explaining that she is one of five leaders that helps oversee a team of about 35 teachers. “I would say my job is to really hold the compass. I’m the one who sets the tone. I help set the vision with this incredible team.”
Band always saw herself pursuing a career in education, but she initially thought that would take place in a public school. At a friend’s insistence, she took on her first job out of college as an assistant teacher at the Edlavitch DCJCC and “loved it.”
Band’s appreciation for the JCC dates back to her upbringing in southern New Jersey.
“My family’s first introduction as a family unit to the Jewish community was through the JCC up in Cherry Hill, so because of that, JCC has always played a special role in my life,” she said. “The JCC played such a huge role in building the foundation of my family’s Jewish journey.”
Band now takes pleasure in providing this “gift” to other families as they navigate “one of the most rewarding times of their life, but also definitely the most challenging times of their life,” figuring out how to not only raise young children, but also incorporate Jewish life and community into the family.
“So that’s why I was so hooked early on, on not only working for the Jewish community, but specifically working in the JCC world,” Band said.
She specifically appreciates the sense of community the JCC and its early childhood centers embody.
“Certainly in the JCC, you get people who are not just interested in the well-being of the Jewish world, but are also interested in the well-being of everyone around us — our customers, the children, the parents, our teachers, colleagues — that was what really drew me in,” Band said.
The ECC doesn’t operate alone — Band also works closely with the Bender JCC’s membership director, camp director and arts programming director.
“One of the greatest things about the JCC is that when kids come in these doors, they’re not just seeing other 3-, 4-, 5-year-olds or other teachers,” Band said. “Today is Wednesday; there are folks coming in for the senior lunch, so our 2-year-olds get to interact with seniors.”
The Bender JCC is also home to an art gallery, where preschool students recently had a hands-on experience with one of the featured artists. “I certainly don’t plan every program [or] every detail in every classroom, but I get to be the one to hopefully orchestrate and facilitate those connections all across the center,” Band said.
Band, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Jewish studies and education from the University of Maryland, knows the importance of forming these Jewish connections. Early in her career, Band would have said she was only focusing on the education portion, and not Jewish studies.
“Now, when we look at the state of the world, I feel a strong passion [that] everyone needs to understand where they came from. Certainly for us in the Jewish community, you’ve got to know the history to know where we’re going,” Band said. “So maybe I don’t always use the ins and outs of the history of Jews in Eastern Europe, but I certainly every day think about why we’re doing what we’re doing, and so much of that is connected to history.”
The ECC is more than a preschool, Band hopes to convey through robust family programming. Such programming was “booming” prior to the pandemic, according to Band.
“There were constant family events, and it seemed as though people had flexibility to come and go,” she said. “There was a lot, and I think COVID took that away from us.”
Band hopes to expand the ECC community to families in addition to the 1- to 4-year-olds who attend the preschool.
“I think the biggest thing that I want to continue to work on here in the school is to continue to help our ECC families realize that when you come to a JCC … you’re not just getting an incredible classroom with an incredible teacher — you’re also getting built-in community,” Band said. “That’s something I want to think about with our team here: What is this next generation of family engagement?”
Between working at the EDCJCC and now, the Bender JCC, Band worked as a pedagogical coordinator at Shaare Tefila Congregation in Olney.
“It was a really lovely, sweet shul,” she said. “The school was amazing. The teachers there were incredible.”
But she also described the job as “a little isolating”: “There wasn’t much going on during the day,” Band recalled.
“[At] the JCC, there’s always something going on in the lobby or something happening,” she said.
Band also worked in education consulting, which she enjoyed, “but at the end of the day, I love being in a school surrounded by children.”
Sustaining a thriving Jewish community is also a priority for Band.
“The JCC helped my family build a strong foundation, and I really want to make sure that that is something that continues to exist for generation after generation,” she said.
