The Jewish Talent Project, a recently launched pilot program, is hoping to turn Washington —- already home to many Jewish organizations — into a hub for skilled Jewish professionals, Gil Preuss, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, told eJewishPhilanthropy.  

The two-year pilot project, spearheaded and supported by the federation’s former president and president of the Phyllis Margolius Family Foundation, Philip Margolius, is still in its early stages. Now the project — and launched through the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s Jewish Community Foundation — is searching for a director and will be assembling a national advisory committee that will help develop and oversee the program, Preuss told eJP. 

As it develops, it will focus on improving working conditions, providing professional development opportunities and enhancing respect and communication within Jewish organizations to attract talent to the Greater Washington area. 

According to Margolius, the project was inspired by the work of his late wife, Phyllis Margolius, a lifetime D.C.-area Jewish lay leader who held over a dozen positions within the Jewish communal world throughout her lifetime. As Phyllis climbed the ranks of a number of Jewish organizations, she often lamented poor conditions for entry-level and mid-management staff.

 “She felt that they were underpaid and worked too hard,” Margolius said. 

That memory inspired Margolius, alongside Scott Brown, Hillel International’s former vice president of talent, to conduct surveys and over 100 interviews with Jewish professionals across the ranks of Jewish organizations across the country. Interviewees cited high costs of living, lack of pay transparency, improper onboarding, feelings of isolation and a lack of upward mobility as some of the factors that impacted them, Margolius said. Through JTP, Margolius hopes to counteract that. 

“We really want to attract the best, because my wife’s philosophy was that Jewish organizations and Jewish life here is only as good as the people who lead it,” Margolius said.

The Jewish Talent Project’s approach will be two-pronged, according to Preuss. On the communal level, JTP will be focused on creating networking and learning opportunities, programming and support for Jewish professionals. On the structural side, the project will select a handful of organizations that will commit to improving working conditions to draw and retain Jewish professionals, with the hope of expanding. 

“We want to make sure that everyone can reach their full potential within the Jewish community,” Preuss told eJP. “So we need to really be thinking about what is needed to make sure that people who want to be, you know, successful Jewish professionals have the capacity to develop their skills and grow and then want to stay.”