Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Rabbi Joanna Samuels of Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan Is Helping To Change Our World
…What if everyone gave themselves the gift of logging off their devices for 25 hours a week? In my home on Shabbat, we don’t interact with technology in any way. We don’t spend money or travel anywhere. We just engage in activities of delight and enjoyment and rest. Shabbat has a few magical effects, at least on me, and I believe for everyone who observes Shabbat. When you really have a break for 25 hours, it’s amazing how fresh you can be when you walk back into the world of work and news and society. Shabbat trains my mind to step away from a constant state of engagement in things we can’t do anything about in practice. I don’t believe we become happier or more productive by encountering a constant stream of news, products, and everything else that our phone delivers to us. The 25 offline hours of Shabbat teach us that we don’t need to be engaged in this way. Not everyone is Jewish, not everyone is religious, but if everyone could commit to a major break each week for an extended period of time, a break from technology, a break from commerce, a break from to and fro, we would all be happier and more productive…
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rabbi Joanna Samuels, CEO of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. Rabbi Samuels, with her extensive leadership experience — including being covered in The New York Times as the founding executive director of the Manny Cantor Center at Educational Alliance — became the CEO of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan in 2022. She previously led Congregation Habonim and has written for national publications. Rabbi Samuels graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College and received Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. She serves on the advisory board of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger and lives on the Upper West Side with her husband and two children.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story briefly about what brought you to this specific career path?
When I graduated from college, I planned to go to law school and work in legal services for underserved people. After I applied and had been accepted, I went to Israel to learn Hebrew and study in Yeshiva. I had never been to Israel, and I ended up being there from 1995 to 1996, which was a momentous and painful year marked by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination and terrorist attacks by Hamas that ended the peace process. Unfortunately, one of these hit close to home as my soon-to-be roommate was tragically murdered in a bus bombing. Because she was the fiance of a JTS rabbinical student, I got to know a group of rabbinical students who were mourning the loss of their beloved classmate. I was inspired by their desire to build community based on Jewish text, tradition, and responsibility in a time of tremendous loss . That fall, rather than enrolling in law school, I postponed for a year and decided to embark on a second year of Jewish study. One thing led to another, I ended up in rabbinical school enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), beginning a mechina preparation year to eventually go to rabbinical school.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your organization?
I would say the most meaningful experience that I’ve had since beginning this role is helping to lead our community in the aftermath of Oct 7th. My colleagues and I immediately saw that we needed to bring the community together in ways that were supportive, nourishing to our very broken hearts, and that would help us all to understand that the way through a crisis is by being in community with other people. We’ve learned from the end of COVID and post-October 7th how special and precious it is to be together with other human beings and how important it is to our sense of identity. In particular, the Jewish community has persevered in hard times by finding ways to be together — to mourn, to celebrate, to learn, to pray, to sing. Those experiences give us sustenance that may not change the reality of what is out there, but increase our fortitude to face what’s outside of us.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us about the lesson you learned from that?
Our fitness center and pool are wonderful places to exercise and get healthy, and I feel lucky to be able to avail myself of those experiences. Sometimes if I have a free half an hour, I’ll pop out midday and work out. One day, I was in the women’s locker room at the JCC, which is a very social place. I was getting changed in the locker room and somebody started chatting with me, and I mentioned that I am the CEO of the JCC. Suddenly, I had a crowd of people around me while I was getting dressed telling me all the things they like — and some things they don’t like! — about the JCC. What can I say? I work in a truly unique environment!
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
We make a social impact every day, 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. Thousands of people are in this building doing everything from nursery school, to after school, to older adults programming, to fitness, Jewish text study, programs for people on the autism spectrum, and so much more. I see our impact both in the ways that individuals take part in all of the things that we do, but also in the ways that their participation ripples outward to build a world that’s more connected, kinder, and more community minded. If parents feel more connected and less isolated, then that may make them better parents. If people feel more connected to their Jewish roots, they may live lives of greater meaning with a deeper sense of spirituality. If people are working out and getting healthy in one of our fitness classes or in our pool or in our cancer care program, then they have that much more strength to persevere in their lives outside of this place.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Since October 7th, we have been holding a regular gathering for Havdalah — the ceremony that ends Shabbat each week. We do that to remember the hostages who remain in Gaza and to support their families and each other in living in a time like this. Many people have told me that this has been the most meaningful community gathering that they go to post-October 7th because it is just focused on the hostages and on how we give each other the gift of resilience in the face of this tragedy. It demonstrates how we use our tradition as a tool to carry us through hard times. It’s a privilege to be able to play that role in a time that is so difficult and in a situation that is so very painful.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
The world that we imagine is one that gives people the opportunity to find out what the points of connection are, rather than the points of division. One of the things that works against that is the rhetoric that comes out of our media and some of our politicians that makes us think that we are very divided from each other when, in fact, there’s almost always a spark of connection. My goal would be to help us move past extreme divisiveness, so that we are better able to see humanity in others. Three things that would aid in this issue would be for 1) all media, including powerful platforms, to help us see points of connection between human beings, 2) for politicians to be aware of political rhetoric that makes people see each other as adversaries, and 3) for members of society to look for the ‘spark of connection’ between each other.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is about communicating and actualizing a narrative about the way that things can be better and what each individual can do to bring about that better future. My role as the CEO of this wonderful center is to imagine a world where our community members feel more connected, more grounded, more Jewish-ly inspired, and more active, and then to communicate that vision and to provide our community and our staff with the tools to get there. Leadership also means being a part of a constant feedback loop that determines if we’re getting there or not, and adjusting as needed. A leader holds an ideal of what a better world, a better society, and a better community can look like while helping to create the steps that will get us there and help to inspire people to be taking those steps.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1) Schedule time to exercise and DON’T make any exceptions.
We have a wonderful gym and pool at the JCC Manhattan, and sometimes I schedule time to go swimming/go to gym, and then I decide that there’s something that seems way more important to do. I’m still looking for the secret behind striking a balance here.
2) Don’t fill every single day with meetings.
I’m learning not to fill every single day with meetings and rather taking the time to be thinking strategically, visiting our programs, standing in our beautiful lobby, and witnessing the community.
3) My learning hasn’t ended just because I have this job.
I’ve been much more careful to take time to read, listen to podcasts, and engage in Jewish learning. These are all things I enjoy and that help me be more effective.
4) Elevators are slow — take the stairs!
5) If you are having a difficult day, remind yourself of the results of your efforts and what is at stake.
If I’m having a difficult day and I need a reset, all I need to do is go to the nursery school and peek into the classrooms and watch all the play, exploration, and community building. It reminds me of what I’m doing, what’s at stake, and magically makes me feel better every time.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
The observance of Shabbat! What if everyone gave themselves the gift of logging off their devices for 25 hours a week?? In my home on Shabbat, we don’t interact with technology in any way. We don’t spend money or travel anywhere. We just engage in activities of delight and enjoyment and rest. Shabbat has a few magical effects, at least on me, and I believe for everyone who observes Shabbat. When you really have a break for 25 hours, it’s amazing how fresh you can be when you walk back into the world of work and news and society. Shabbat trains my mind to step away from a constant state of engagement in things we can’t do anything about in practice. I don’t believe we become happier or more productive by encountering a constant stream of news, products, and everything else that our phone delivers to us. The 25 offline hours of Shabbat teach us that we don’t need to be engaged in this way. Not everyone is Jewish, not everyone is religious, but if everyone could commit to a major break each week for an extended period of time, a break from technology, a break from commerce, a break from to and fro, we would all be happier and more productive.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There’s a beautiful teaching in Pirkei Avot, which is translated as Ethics of our Fathers, that says, “Who is rich? A person who delights in what they have.” That is a great life lesson, and it’s a great aspiration. It’s good to consider how we can reset expectations to align with gratitude for what we have, rather than anxiety about what we don’t have. In a world that is constantly telling us that we don’t have enough and that our lives aren’t as perfect as people we see on social media, we choose the radical act of trying our best to live in a space of gratitude for what we have.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?
When I think about the heroes that walk among us on this day, I think a lot about Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin z”l who was murdered in captivity by Hamas terrorists last year. The way that they have held faith, heartbreak, integrity, and truth through the most impossible set of circumstances is, to me, a manifestation of the Divine. I wouldn’t ask them to have breakfast with me, because I just wouldn’t want to ask anything of them, but when I think about what we should be aspiring to in this world, I think they have modeled a kind of integrity, honesty, love and set of values that are an expression of what the Jewish people are and what we need to be. It is extraordinary, and I am their (heartbroken) student from afar.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Rabbi Joanna Samuels:
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan:
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Rabbi Joanna Samuels of Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan Is Helping… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.