Across Jewish communal organizations, a familiar phrase comes up often: “We wear many hats.” 

That flexibility has long been part of Jewish organizational culture. Small teams adapt quickly, respond to changing community needs and take on new responsibilities to make things happen. But over time, many roles have expanded far beyond their original scope. A single position may now include communications, programming, administration, events, volunteer coordination and community engagement.

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What were once the responsibilities of several positions have gradually become one job.

For many employees, this creates constant task-switching, competing priorities and overwhelm that leads to higher rates of turnover. For neurodivergent professionals, including people with ADHD, autism, learning differences, anxiety, chronic medical conditions and other non-visible disabilities, these job structures can create additional barriers, even when they have the skills, education and experience to succeed.

Neurodivergent professionals can bring valuable strengths to organizations, including creativity, deep focus, problem-solving, attention to detail and innovative approaches to complex challenges. The question is not whether these talented people exist. The question is whether organizations are designing roles where different strengths and working styles can succeed.

One approach worth exploring is job carving.

Rethinking how work is designed

Job carving is a workforce strategy commonly used in disability employment. The process often begins with a job developer or employment specialist from a disability employment agency or vocational rehabilitation provider working with an employer to understand organizational needs.

Rather than relying solely on a traditional job description, the employment specialist examines how work is actually being done. They identify the tasks that make up existing roles and ask whether those responsibilities need to remain together or could be reorganized in ways that better serve both the organization and its employees.

This expertise matters. Most nonprofit executives and human resource professionals are not trained to analyze workflows through a disability employment lens. Employment specialists bring experience in redesigning responsibilities, matching work to individual strengths and identifying workplace supports that can help employees succeed.

Rather than starting with a job description, job carving starts with a different question: What work needs to get done, and how can that work be structured more effectively?

Job carving is not about lowering expectations or creating unnecessary positions. It is about creating clearer, more intentional roles where both employees and organizations can thrive.

Consider a typical synagogue office manager role. That position may include bookkeeping, communications, event planning, volunteer coordination, database management and administrative support.

Job carving asks: Does one person really need to do all of these things?

Some responsibilities may become a communications role. Others may become program support or administrative positions. Some tasks may remain together, while others may work better as part-time or shared responsibilities.

The goal is not to make jobs smaller. It is to make jobs clearer.

Inclusion requires both intent and action

Many Jewish organizations have made meaningful progress in disability inclusion through efforts to improve facility access, inclusion committees that create statements to “welcome everyone” and offering accommodations to participants attending events.

Those steps matter. But inclusion is not only about welcoming people with disabilities. It is also about creating an organizational culture where neurodivergent individuals and folks with disabilities are recruited and can thrive once they are hired.

For some neurodivergent professionals, the challenge begins before they ever apply. A job description that combines too many unrelated responsibilities can make a position feel inaccessible, even when someone has the skills to perform the work.

Yoel Shulman has experienced this firsthand: “I often feel discouraged from applying to roles where too many responsibilities are concentrated in a single job description. I would be more comfortable in organizations that use job carving to create clearer, more focused roles.”

Creating more intentional roles can help organizations reach talented professionals who may otherwise overlook opportunities.

Building the bridge between two systems

For job carving to become part of Jewish communal workforce conversations, organizations will need more than awareness of the concept. They will need stronger connections to the professionals who already do this work.

Many Jewish organizations are unfamiliar with disability employment agencies, job developers, vocational rehabilitation services and supported employment providers that exist to make roles like what we describe possible. At the same time, disability employment professionals often have limited experience with the culture, mission, staffing structures and day-to-day realities of Jewish communal organizations.

Rather than expecting either side to develop this knowledge independently, Jewish organizations and disability employment agencies should build ongoing partnerships that combine expertise in workforce development with expertise in Jewish communal life.

As Meredith Polsky, executive director of Matan, has explained, her organization’s work evolved from providing direct services to helping Jewish organizations build their own capacity for disability inclusion through training and consultation. This shift reflects an important lesson: Lasting inclusion is most successful when it becomes part of an organization’s culture and shared responsibility rather than the work of a single specialist or program.

The same principle applies to employment. Building more inclusive workplaces requires collaboration among organizational leaders, human resource professionals, disability employment specialists, vocational rehabilitation agencies, funders and staff.

Together, these partnerships can help redesign jobs in ways that strengthen organizations while expanding opportunities for talented professionals whose skills may be overlooked by traditional job descriptions.

An opportunity for the Jewish communal sector

Job carving should not be viewed only as a disability inclusion strategy. It is also a workforce strategy. As Jewish organizations face ongoing challenges with recruitment, retention and employee burnout, redesigning roles may help create workplaces that are more sustainable, flexible and accessible.

For funders and communal leaders, this represents an opportunity to invest in the infrastructure behind inclusion. Support for education, manager training, pilot projects and partnerships between Jewish organizations and disability employment agencies can help organizations test new approaches, build relationships across sectors and identify models that work in Jewish communal settings.

Jewish organizations have always adapted to changing needs. The next step may be not only rethinking who we hire, but also building stronger partnerships with disability employment professionals and rethinking how we design the work itself.

Continuing the conversation

This conversation will continue on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 1 p.m. ET when Matan hosts a free virtual panel exploring job carving, neurodiversity, disability inclusion and the future of Jewish communal employment. Join or learn more about the expert panelists at www.mataninc.org/betterjobs 

Yoel Shulman, disability advocate, is a Jewish communal professional and experiential educator with a master’s in education and more than 10 years of experience in Jewish programming, community engagement, and communications. 

Jennie Gates Beckman, programs and partnerships manager at Matan, has spent her 20-plus-year career building joyful Jewish experiences engaging people in community, relationship building and positive Jewish life and learning.