What Do We Mean by Jewish Engagement?

By Molly Ritvo

At its heart, engagement is about helping people find a way in.

It means creating invitations that feel genuine, accessible, and relevant. It means listening closely enough to understand what people are seeking, even when they may not yet have the words for it. It means noticing who is already connected, who is standing at the edges, and who may not even realize that Jewish community is available to them.

Engagement is not only about asking, “How many people attended?”

It is also about asking:

• Did someone meet a new friend?

• Did a family discover a Jewish tradition they want to bring home?

• Did a person living far from a synagogue feel less alone?

• Did a local organization find a partner, resource, or idea that strengthened its work?

• Did someone feel, perhaps for the first time, that there is a place for them in Jewish Vermont?

• Is a person living in rural Vermont connected to Jewish community, even if that connection is virtual?

• Is PJ Library reaching more families?

These questions are why Jewish Communities of Vermont plays such an important role.

JCVT is Vermont’s central Jewish agency, serving as a statewide connector among individuals, families, congregations, community groups, educators, funders, and partner organizations. In a rural state where Jewish life is spread across many small communities, and where the nearest Jewish gathering may be an hour or more away, connection cannot be taken for granted.

It must be cultivated with intention.

JCVT is part of the connective tissue that allows Jewish life across Vermont to feel like something larger. We share information, build partnerships, support local leaders, connect people with resources, and help Jewish organizations learn from and collaborate with one another.

Sometimes that work is highly visible such as a family program, a holiday celebration, a community gathering, a newsletter, or a statewide calendar filled with opportunities to connect.

Sometimes it happens quietly: answering an email from someone who is new to Vermont, introducing two leaders who should know one another, helping a family locate Jewish resources, connecting a small community with a grant opportunity, or making sure that someone facing a moment of need reaches the right person.

During the past year, JCVT has built relationships with hundreds of Vermonters, as well as synagogues, Havurah groups, Jewish organizations, cultural institutions, and community partners across the state. JCVT also represents Vermont’s Jewish community in partnerships with national organizations, supports schools and community leaders responding to antisemitism, and serves as a trusted resource for individuals and organizations navigating complex community needs.

Through PJ Library and PJ Our Way, JCVT currently serves 625 Vermont children, with enrollment continuing to grow. Since PJ Library launched in Vermont in 2008, it has engaged 1,758 children through Jewish books, ideas, family programs, and opportunities for connection.

Across JCVT’s gatherings, educational programs, communications, partnerships, and community initiatives, more than 9,000 people discover and participate in Jewish life, wherever they live in Vermont.

These numbers matter. 

They help us understand the reach of our work and identify where opportunities and barriers remain.

But numbers tell only part of the story.

Engagement may begin with a book arriving in a child’s mailbox. It may begin when someone opens an email and notices an event happening in their town. It may begin when a family attends a gathering where they do not know anyone and leaves with two new phone numbers. It may begin when a small Jewish organization realizes that it does not have to solve every challenge alone.

Engagement is the slow, steady work of building relationships, trust, and connection.

It is helping people move from awareness to participation, from participation to belonging, and sometimes from belonging to leadership.

JCVT supports the beautiful Jewish community work already happening throughout the state inside congregations, organizations, informal groups, and people’s homes. We do not replace that work. Our role is to strengthen it and make it easier for people to find it, support it, participate in it, create it, and feel part of a broader Vermont Jewish community.

This is especially important because there is no single way to be Jewish in Vermont.

Some people are deeply connected to a congregation. Others find Jewish meaning through books, food, social justice, music, nature, family traditions, learning, friendship, or through grappling with and celebrating their relationship with Israel.

Some are returning to Jewish life after many years. Some are raising Jewish children in interfaith or multicultural families, like mine. Some are new to Vermont. Others have been part of this community for generations.

Meaningful engagement begins by honoring all of those paths.

As I begin this new role, working closely with Beth and the JCVT board, I am eager to listen. I am eager to learn where people are finding connection, where barriers remain, and how JCVT can continue helping Jewish life flourish in every corner of our brave little state.

Because ultimately, engagement is not about persuading people to attend something that does not speak to them.

It is about building a Jewish Vermont in which more people can recognize themselves, find one another, and know that they belong. It is about helping people feel part of something whole, joyful, strong, and resilient.

Because we are stronger and more connected together.

I look forward to connecting more with you as we weave our tapestry of Vermont Jewish life together. Thank you for sharing this with me.

Shabbat shalom!