Creating Pathways Into Jewish Life With Lauren Dworkin
Thank you to Zoe Bell from the Washington Jewish Week for featuring Lauren Dworkin, Director Jewish Life & Community Engagement. Read the Washington Jewish Week Article below.
Lauren Dworkin feels like she grew up with the Bender JCC of Greater Washington, between serving as a camp counselor there and, now, leading Jewish life and community engagement.
The mother of two began working there full time when she was six months pregnant with her daughter, who is now a teenager.
Dworkin’s decade-plus with the JCC began in search of community for her own young family.
The Kensington resident grew up in Gaithersburg and Rockville, and after college, worked stints in New York City and Los Angeles. When she returned to Montgomery County in 2012 with a 2-year-old son, Dworkin found that she didn’t know anyone who still lived locally.
She stumbled across a free Shabbat playgroup at the Bender JCC’s Parenting Center and brought her son to meet fellow Jewish tots.
“I met all kinds of great people,” Dworkin said.
A few months into attending, the playgroup teacher announced she was leaving. Did anybody know anyone familiar with nonprofit work and family programming?
Dworkin raised her hand, having previously worked for an Israel-focused PAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. She also served as program director for the nonprofit Room to Grow — which supports expectant and new parents — and managed operations for The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in LA.
Dworkin led the Shabbat playgroup from November 2012 to this past spring. During that time, she introduced hundreds of young children to their first Shabbat, which she said can be transformational for Jewish families.
“Until you have your first child, you might not even really be participating that much,” she said. “But once you have a kid and you want to introduce them [to Judaism], the Shabbat playgroup was the most low-barrier, easy access into what it means to do that.
“Being able to first come as a participant and later to lead that group, I felt like I was giving families a piece of tradition that they could pass on to their own kids.”
Dworkin’s kid-friendly traditions included shaking off “all the yucky things from the week” before lighting the Shabbat candles and bringing in peaceful, more positive thoughts. Every week, she would remove the challah cover and exclaim, “Voila, challah!” to the children’s immense joy.
“I know that over the years, families have come back to me and said, ‘We still do that thing every Friday like you taught us,’” Dworkin said. “Or, ‘My kids always say, ‘Voila, challah.’”
Some of the playgroup regulars are now teenagers, like Dworkin’s own kids.
“I feel such a privilege to be able to have played a role giving families an opportunity to create tradition,” she said. “When I walk the halls of this building, I see so much, not just of my life as a professional community builder, but also as someone who was looking for community and came here to find it.”
Eventually, Dworkin was named director of the Parenting Center. She and her young family didn’t belong to a synagogue for the High Holidays in those early days.
“We didn’t have anywhere to go [for services] and we didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars for the four of us … to go to a synagogue,” she recalled.
So the following year, Dworkin created High Holiday programming at the Bender JCC — “Apples and Honey,” “I’m Sorry Day” and “Sukkah Village” — which are still going strong 13 years later.
“All of these things were to serve the community, but also, I didn’t have anywhere to go, and I needed somewhere to go,” she said, adding that she now belongs to Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County.
Dworkin sees each of these family programs as more than stand-alone events.
“I’m building pathways into Jewish life, and every program is designed to be a door into the next chapter,” she said. “If [you just had] your first kid, you’re at an apex moment where you’re looking for community, you’re looking for other people who are in your same boat, and if you’re interested in Jewish life, these moments become doorways.”
Fourteen years after Dworkin was that new parent in search of fellow new moms, she has become a fixture of the Bender JCC young families community.
“What I love about being here for so long is that these types of communities aren’t just built in one moment; they’re built over years of showing up,” Dworkin said. “What’s nice for me is that I am that consistent thread that people see every time that they come back. I just love knowing that I’m someone that these families trust.”
She created all of the Bender JCC’s service initiatives — the Delivering Good Network — and spearheaded volunteer opportunities for middle school students. Her favorite program is the annual MLK Day Interfaith Playhouse Build, which takes place every January.
Dworkin continues to oversee the Parenting Center, the Grandparenting Center and the Jewish Family Ambassador program, and runs family and community programs and events.
She recently participated in the Jewish Service Alliance Israel Service Seminar, a leadership experience organized by Repair the World and Yahel – Israel. Dworkin said she brought back Jewish leadership and community service skills to the job she loves.
“After 14 years, it’s not just about creating these individual programs,” Dworkin said. “It’s really to help build a Jewish space where people can find their belonging and purpose and relationships that last a long time.”
