Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Courtesy
Rabbi Daniel A. Septimus
(JNS) — Daniel Septimus, CEO of Shalom Austin, thinks his experience as a congregational rabbi, who works on college and university campuses, gives him a “perspective of the broad needs of the Jewish world and how it relates to Jewish life” that will serve him well in his new role as executive director of the JCC Association of North America’s new Center for Jewish Peoplehood.
Shalom Austin is an umbrella group, which includes the Jewish Federation, Dell Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Service and Jewish Foundation. The JCC Association consists of 172 Jewish community centers and camps, which employ 35,000 full- and part-time staff and 20,000 summer staff, per its website.
Septimus, who is slated to assume his JCC role on July 1, has led what he says is one of the nation’s fastest-growing Jewish communities. “We are like other Jewish communities creating vibrant Jewish life and finding ways to connect with our Judaism and the Jewish people,” he told JNS, of Jews in Austin.
“Where we are different is that the greater Austin Jewish community has grown tremendously and with a true entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. “It was a small community for more than 100 years. We also have a fast growing Israeli population, which adds another dynamic to the emerging nature of Austin’s Jewish community.”
Septimus will work for the JCC Association from Austin but intends to travel to New York City regularly and across the country. “I will be out on the field on a regular basis spending time where I’m needed to make sure people are getting the support they need,” he told JNS.
In the new role, he will oversee Jewish education, Israel engagement, Jewish camping, JCC Maccabi and Jewish welfare initiatives North American JCCs and camps. The new center comes with a budget in the multimillion dollars, he said.
“The Center for Jewish Peoplehood brings together all of our work that helps individuals and families feel part of a Jewish community — strengthening Jewish identity, breaking down silos and identifying connection points across the evolution of a Jewish person, a Jewish family and a Jewish community,” Barak Hermann, president and CEO of the JCC Association, told JNS.
Septimus’s “credibility, his wealth of experiences and the trust we’ve built made it clear that he was the right leader to bring this center to life and advance the overall mission of JCC Association,” Hermann said. (Septimus told JNS that he and Hermann are “colleagues and close friends.”)
To Septimus, the Jewish peoplehood center is a “dream portfolio.”
Under the new center, JCCs will “see laser-focused attention on both teens and families with young children and new, innovative approaches to engaging them,” Hermann told JNS. The focus, he added, is on building community and “helping diverse Jews and the larger community feel part of something shared and meaningful.”
Septimus told JNS that polls Jewish Federations have conducted and anecdotal feedback indicate that “more and more people are seeking out places and people to connect with post-Oct. 7 in safe environments.”
“The JCC is pluralistic, non judgemental,” he said. “People can come and find the right connection point to them.”
Beyond security concerns, Jews are grappling with loneliness and internal polarization, issues that Septimus thinks JCCs are uniquely positioned to address.
“JCCs provide a space and community where people can come together with similar interests,” he told JNS. “People of a variety of different backgrounds and perspectives can come together at JCCs to grapple with those different perspectives.”
