Welcome to the Jewish Emergent Network

June 22, 2021 – After a vigorous national search, the Jewish Emergent Network is pleased to announce that Justin Rosen Smolen will be joining as its incoming director. In that role, he will lead collaborations across the seven Jewish Emergent Network communities to advance a bold and inspired vision for Jewish life.

“I am honored to join this collaborative of visionary leaders and organizations reimagining Jewish life and creating new pathways for Jews and co-journeyers to build community, make meaning, and pursue justice,” Rosen Smolen says. “I am inspired by the Network’s innovative, optimistic, and inclusive approaches to Judaism, and look forward to strengthening and forging new and diverse partnerships to collectively transform our communities and our world in service of these values.”

Rosen Smolen brings over 15 years of experience in the Jewish professional world, where he launched and scaled innovative national programs with a focus on education, access, and inclusion, and built robust networks and ecosystems to support them. He is a Certified Diversity Practitioner through The People Company Inclusion Institute. He holds an MPA in nonprofit management and an MA in Jewish Studies and is an alum of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Generation Now Fellowship. Rosen Smolen lives in northern New Jersey with his partner and their two young children.

Rosen Smolen will succeed Jessica Emerson McCormick, who has led the Jewish Emergent Network as its inaugural director since 2016. Jessica will assume the executive director position at the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation in July.

“The Jewish Emergent Network has been blessed to be the beneficiary of the enormous talent and skills of Jessica Emerson McCormick,” says Melissa Balaban. “She joined us as director and created the entire Network infrastructure and contours of our programming for our first five years. University of Arizona Hillel is so fortunate to have Jessica. And although Jessica is irreplaceable, we are thrilled to have found Justin, who brings incredible amounts of vision, skill, creativity, and enthusiasm to this role. The Network is at an interesting inflection point and the entire Network leadership team is excited to work with Justin as we navigate through this next iteration of Jewish life.”

The communities in the Network do not represent any one denomination or set of religious practices. What they share is a devotion to revitalizing the field of Jewish engagement, a commitment to approaches both traditionally rooted and creative, and a demonstrated success in attracting unaffiliated and disengaged Jews to a rich and meaningful Jewish practice. While each community is different in form and organizational structure, all have taken an entrepreneurial approach to this shared vision, operating outside of conventional institutional models, rethinking basic assumptions about ritual and spiritual practice, membership models, staff structures, the religious/cultural divide, and physical space.

The Network is working with past funders and cultivating prospective funders in connection with its next major projects and ongoing field-building work. Past funders include: the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Crown Family, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Diane & Guilford Glazer Philanthropies, the William Davidson Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation, the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and Natan.