Jewish community centers have served as central pillars of Jewish life in North America for more than a century. Pioneers such as Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan envisioned the JCC as a cornerstone of an “organic Jewish community,” integrating diverse activities and institutions for Jews, with the goal of fostering Jewish peoplehood, culture and religious life as primary values.

For much of the 20th century, however, JCCs largely functioned as general community centers, places for socializing, recreation and civic support, but with relatively limited investment in explicit Jewish education and identity-building. Few made Jewish learning or peoplehood their central mission. This began to change in the late 20th century. Facing rising concerns about assimilation and Jewish continuity, communal leaders realized that JCCs could not fulfill the full holistic vision of Jewish community without a stronger educational core.

Shalom Austin/Instagram

Photo from the debut of the Carol & Kaylen Silverberg Family Interactive Wall Celebrating Israeli Innovation and Global Impact, a permanent exhibit focused on Israel innovation and global impact, at the Dell JCC in Austin in January 2024.

In 1982, the Jewish Community Center Association (JCCA) sponsored the COMJEE Task Force on Reinforcing the Effectiveness of Jewish Education in JCCs, which urged the development of JCCs as intentional platforms for nurturing commitment and belonging to the Jewish People. By 2014, the JCCA codified this new ethos in a bold “Statement of Principles for the 21st Century,” affirming that “the JCC is a primary destination for Jewish engagement, a locus of learning and celebration and a connector to Jewish life: a place where individuals and families can encounter Jewish ideas, principles, practices, and values; where they encounter Israel and explore the ideal of Jewish Peoplehood in their lives; and a public square for convening important conversations both within the Jewish and among the broader community”(For context and background on the Jewish evolution of JCCs see: Jewish Education and the Jewish Community Center. Barry Chazan and Mark Charendoff, editors, 1994, JCC Association; and David Ackerman’s essay “JCCs as Gateways to Jewish Peoplehood” in The JCCs as Gateways to Jewish Peoplehood, The Peoplehood Papers, Volume 20, Shlomi Ravid, editor, October 2017, The Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education.)

Launched in 2015, the Z3 Project has positioned itself as a catalyst for this transformation, complementing and supporting JCC leadership and those working to provide JCCs with a values-driven framework to integrate Israel engagement and Jewish peoplehood into their institutional DNA. Hosted by the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, Calif., it is an initiative that seeks to integrate Zionism, Israel and Jewish peoplehood into the Jewish communal landscape.

The Z3 Project’s flagship event is the Z3 Conference, which brings together leading voices to engage in meaningful discourse aimed at creating a vibrant and pluralistic Jewish future. At the November 2024 conference, a record-setting 1,800 people attended in person and online, including 120 Jewish professionals who also joined the post-conference two-day Leadership Lab, a program designed to equip them with the tools to advance Israel-related initiatives and foster collective belonging within their communities. JCCs nationwide are hosting similar local Z3 conferences, with at least eight slated for the coming year.

During the rest of the year, Z3 is nurturing a growing network of JCC leaders dedicated to driving change at their JCCs. The developing ecosystem enables collegiality and mutual support both to complement and build upon the increasing number of initiatives for Jewish and Israel engagement and education sponsored by the Jewish Community Centers Association (JCCA), JCC Global, Brandeis University, Boundless and others. 

Crucially, Z3 does not impose a one-size-fits-all program; it offers a values-driven playbook that any community can adapt. The Z3 Leadership Lab, launched in 2021, is a training seminar that empowers Jewish professionals with the language, tools and framework to implement Z3 initiatives worldwide. Cohorts of JCC executives, educators, and lay leaders participate in intensive learning on how to weave a “Zionism and Peoplehood lens” into their everyday work. 

Across the network, over 40 JCCs have engaged intensively with Z3 through the Leadership Labs to date, and many more have adopted its frameworks in spirit and practice. Through shared language, leadership cohorts, peer exchange and strategic guidance, Z3 is contributing to an environment in which JCCs don’t just run better programs — they see themselves as part of a shared mission, grounded in three key principles: unity without uniformity, engaging as equal partners (referring to partnership with Israel) and diversity of voices.

A powerful example is the Tucson JCC, where its president and CEO, Todd Rockoff, has integrated Z3 principles across his institution. Through the Leadership Lab, Rockoff and his team expanded the role of the Tucson Israel Center, brought on a senior shlicha (Israeli emissary), embedded Israel into professional development and reshaped staff learning to include Jewish text, Zionism and peoplehood. In Rockoff’s words: “The Z3 Project is helping us create a JCC culture where people feel empowered to ask questions, speak across differences and build shared purpose.”

The Tucson JCC was already doing meaningful work; what Z3 enabled was amplification, validation and connection. The Tucson JCC staff are no longer operating in isolation. They are part of a cohort, a field, a framework — one that reinforces their direction, strengthens their voice and connects them to colleagues on a shared journey. 

Like Tucson JCC, Shalom Austin now sponsors an annual Z3 Conference in the Texas capital. They have also created dynamic public installations, such as an Interactive Israel Wall, and expanded their already robust Israel programming. They, too, have expanded their staff dedicated to Jewish and Israel education, focusing on engaging Israelis living in Austin in the Jewish life of their JCC. The MARJCC in Miami was the next JCC to host a conference and is planning its second one for 2026. Other JCCs are taking similar steps, including implementing “drip-feed” strategies to ensure that Israel and peoplehood are present in times of crisis or celebration and as part of the community’s everyday rhythm.

These outcomes aren’t anecdotal — they reflect a clear theory of change. Z3 begins with emotional engagement and shared inquiry. From there, leaders gain confidence and capacity. Over time, that individual transformation evolves into institutional normalization, where pluralistic and meaningful engagement with Israel becomes a core part of communal identity, rather than a source of tension or avoidance.

The Leadership Lab ensures that Z3’s impact extends beyond a single annual conference or flagship JCC by equipping leaders with practical skills and connecting them to a growing network of practitioners. It’s a field in motion — energizing JCCs to not only ask better questions about Jewish identity, but to create institutional cultures where shared belonging is possible.

In doing so, Z3 is not just shaping the future of JCCs. It is renewing the very idea of what Jewish communal life can be.

Rabbi Amitai Fraiman is the founding director of the Z3 Project at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, Calif. He is also the founder of Shazur/Interwoven, an educational startup dedicated to reorienting the conversation around Israel and Diaspora communities. 

Ezra Kopelowitz is the CEO at Research Success Technologies and co-director of the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education.