A Leadership Update
Outside, it is the height of summer. And yet, we have also entered the Three Weeks — the period between the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av when Jews have, for centuries, paused to remember brokenness.
Somehow, we have already arrived at one of the great paradoxes of the Jewish calendar.
Outside, it is the height of summer. The days are long. People are heading out of town, lingering in parks, enjoying slower Fridays and evenings that seem to stretch on forever.
And yet, we have also entered the Three Weeks — the period between the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av when Jews have, for centuries, paused to remember brokenness: the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls, the destruction of the Temples, and so many other moments when the world seemed to come undone.
This can feel like a strange rhythm. Why interrupt summer’s lightness with a dedicated time for mourning?
But the Jewish calendar masterfully reminds us of this truth: not everything broken can be avoided by looking away. These weeks ask us to look honestly at loss and destruction — not because we are meant to stay there for too long, but because we are meant to learn from what fell apart.
And one of the ways our tradition understands the destruction of Jerusalem is as a crisis of failed leadership.
Yes, there were enemies outside the walls. Yes, there were political and military forces far beyond the control of any one person. But our sages also tell stories about what was happening inside the community: public humiliation that went unchallenged, hatred that went unchecked, leaders who stayed silent when they should have intervened, and leaders who could not act decisively when the moment demanded courage.
In other words, the Three Weeks do not only ask us to mourn what was destroyed. They ask us to notice what kind of leadership might have helped hold the walls up.
That question feels especially alive for us right now because Tzibur is growing. More people are showing up, more people are finding one another, more people are asking how they can help build this community into its next chapter. And we know that a community cannot be sustained by good vibes alone, though we remain very pro-good-vibes. Community needs tending. It needs structure. It needs people willing to raise their hands and say: I can help carry this.
So we are delighted to share that a Tzibur Leadership Committee has begun to take shape.
Like many things we do at Tzibur, this committee is also an experiment. We will try this model over the next few months and then evaluate together what is working, what needs to be reimagined, and what might need to be built differently. We are committed to staying nimble, relational, and innovative. And at the same time, we know that excellent volunteer leadership is part of what will allow this community to flourish.
We are deeply grateful to the people who have stepped forward to help steward this next chapter:
Jessica Rothman — Leadership Committee Chair
Scott Berlin and Ayelet Meridy — Fundraising Co-Chairs
Justin Hudis — Outreach Chair
Rachel Malaga — Social Programming Chair
Julia Stewart — Stage Management Chair
Each of these leaders will be helping to organize a small subcommittee around their area of work. If you are eager to contribute to one of these efforts in some shape, form, or fashion, we would love to hear from you. Reply to this email and let us know where you might want to plug in.
Even in weeks when the Jewish calendar asks us to remember destruction, we are still invited to practice the opposite. We gather. We welcome. We organize. We make room. We build leadership that is sturdy, generous, and humble enough to hold a growing community.
And yes, go enjoy the sunshine, too. ☀️ Take the weekend trip. Eat watermelon. Let summer be summer. But as these Three Weeks unfold, may they also remind us to look within community for the path forward.
