On Friday, May 17, Central will be honoring New York’s AVODAH Corps, among whom is long-time member Mollie Simon. Mollie shared her experience with AVODAH with us.

Methods of Social Change: Investing in Human Capital

My parents have been members of Central Synagogue for 36 years. They were married by Richard Botton, Cantor Emeritus, my mother’s cantor as a child growing up in Long Beach, N.Y. Soon after, he would perform my baby naming. When it was time to begin preschool, my father made the familiar four-block journey to Central from my childhood home where my parents still reside. My earliest memories are of the Nursery School classrooms. The lofted play area mimicked the one I had at home and felt comforting during my earliest adventures. Soon I would be graduating on with my peers to Hebrew school where Central nourished and guided my own personal brand of Judaism. I was able to explore intellectually and spiritually in a supportive and challenging community.

Central Synagogue’s Youth Group provided me with examples of what it meant to be a young Jewish leader and innovator in the Reform community. The time I shared with clergy while preparing for my bat mitzvah was encouraging and inspiring. Yet, at thirteen years old, a time of intense social pressure in my secular school, it was so vital to have my peers in the Youth Group to validate my growing commitment to Judaism. As Social Action Vice President and then President of the Youth Group, I saw firsthand how much time, energy, and funding went into supporting my cohort in our first roles as leaders. Several full time advisors gave us the opportunity to travel and collaborate with other Youth Groups in our region, further expanding my constellation of peers to encourage me. Today I live and learn with 23 former “Youth Group Presidents,” so to speak. We are the product of our supportive Jewish and secular communities who were brave enough to invest in our potential as leaders of social change. We are AVODAH’niks, as we affectionately refer to ourselves, members of a Jewish Service Corps.

AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps’s mission is to strengthen the Jewish community’s fight against poverty in the United States by engaging participants in service and community building that inspires them to become lifelong leaders for social change and whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values.

That mission resonates with each of us in unique and profound ways as we build this intentional community. Nationally, AVODAH supports and guides additional cohorts of corps members in New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and Chicago as they too hone their skills as future leaders. Both Central Synagogue and AVODAH have continued to invest their resources, time, and energy into human capital. In fact, our own Cantor Angela Buchdahl serves of the AVODAH board, further bridging the gap between these two forward thinking organizations. These unique and pluralistic communities give me great hope of a tremendous return on investment.

My service placement this year is at Neighbors Together, a soup kitchen and community based organization in Brownsville, Brooklyn. I am a full-time advocate working on helping the mentally ill, chemically addicted, and chronically homeless find supportive housing. It gives me great pleasure to be able to advocate on behalf of my clients, as I extend the same belief and investment in them as others have shown to me. Furthermore, our executive director, Denny Marsh, as well as our community organizer, Amy Blumsack, are both AVODAH alumnae and although we are a secular organization, I am able to see how their work is colored by their Jewish values. Next year as I embark on my masters in social work, I am confident in my ability to blend both my spiritual and intellectual sides.

Central Synagogue will be honoring the New York AVODAH corps members on May 17 and my fellow corps members and I look forward to meeting many of you then. I’d like to take the time now to acknowledge and thank the many communities and individuals who have invested in us. You’ll be seeing that ROI in no time.

Mollie Simon graduated from Cornell University where she studied human development. As an AVODAH corps member, she is working as a public education assistant at Neighbors Together. She and her family have been members of Central Synagogue since 1977.

AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps’s mission is to strengthen the Jewish community’s fight against poverty in the United States by engaging participants in service and community building that inspires them to become lifelong leaders for social change and whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. If you know someone aged 21–26 who may be interested in participating in AVODAH’s program and/ or would like to learn about ways you may get involved with the organization, visit www.avodah.net or email Pamela Wohl.