Community Blueprints

Are democracies healthy for communal thriving? Should communal leaders switch out? What happens when communities grow and their demographics change? Neve Daniel started in the 80s but our guests didn't join until the second and third expansion. By then there was already an established leadership, direction, and one "mercazi" shul. After talking about the breathtaking views 1,000 mete...

Pnina and Judah came to Zichron Yaakov at different times and fill different leadership functions in their diverse community that doesn't specifically surround a certain shul or neighborhood. Pnina volunteered to join the city counsel to ensure budgets were set aside to build their local school and to get resources for the olim . Judah was looking for more space and air, leaving his place in J...

What if the biggest problem in your community isn’t a lack of volunteers, but a misunderstanding of human nature? In this episode of I reflect on how previous episodes led me to understand why the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) that 20% of people will do 80% of volunteering work should not be “fixed” but embraced. This episode delivers practical, immediately useful shifts you can apply right away:...

When Yosef returned from his gap year, Golf Manor Synagogue, an icon of the Cincinnati Jewish community dating back to the 1800s, was a shell of itself. After a breakaway split the membership, the once-vibrant congregation was on life support. Despite initial hesitation because of his age, Yosef stepped up to serve as Chairman and partnered with incoming Rabbi Alt to begin revitalizing the institu...

Neve Shamir is one of the newest communities in Ramat Beit Shemesh and has been rapidly growing since 2022. Raphy was an early adopter who moved from the nearby Mishkafayim neighborhood but initially was making the 15 minute walk to his old community. Fast forward a couple years and 15 locations, Avnei Shamir has over 80 families, an incredible rav, and has become a soft landing for Anglo Olim whi...

Mishkafayim is an extension of Ramat Beit Shemesh that feels like its own enclave. Aaron moved in the early days of Mishkafayim and has helped build a couple of the many shuls in the few blocks including Mevakshei Emes. Although there are many micro communities they, like a yishuv, come together at different points of the year for joint programming. Netanel joined Mevakshei Emes and played a key r...

Mill Hill East Jewish Community started when Avi moved to the area and missed the community life from his previous neighborhood and Josh was working on the United Synagogue team focused on creating new community. With careful thought and intentionality, Josh and Avi constructed the framework to attract the diverse crowd of mostly younger families, some who had never paid membership to a shul befor...

Neria was established in 1991 when 5 caravans intended to extend Talmon were unable to navigate the makeshift roads and just plopped then in Neria. Nir and Leeat Solomon share the rich history and defining decisions that led Neria from those 5 families to over 500 currently and include tidbits to how they actively ensure a community feeling at scale. One strong takeaway is not waiting for others -...

Dani and Yonatan came from different parts of Efrat in the early days of the Dagan and have been instrumental facilitating a sense of community while it grew to 300 families. Two initiatives they helped lead was creating a micro-community focused on growth and contagiously spread to the greater community and planning a "random" placement kiddush to allow people to meet. There is a reason...

Strong communities don't thrive because of one visible leader. They thrive because many people quietly choose to serve and do it consistently. Josh Delano is a leader in his LDS community, as a sports coach, and a university professor. He shares the common thread of consistency and love with the structure of education as the formula to bring people together and allow communities to continue thrivi...

The Shevet Achim Community in Kiryat HaSharon in Netanya almost didn't exist and David Bassan didn't have any ambitions to be the founding chairman of the board. Yet, a series of decisions and opportunities took this group of about 13 families from meeting once a week in people's homes to building a permanent space in an office building. Already at 85 families, listen to how this commu...

Carmei Gat has an awesome community life, but how did this happen here in only a few years? In this episode, past Chairmen of the Board Yisrael Kalker and Sruli Stein joined to tackle questions like: How much of Carmei Zion's success is a result of communal efforts and how much is a result of the general Carmei Gat infrastructure where it was established? What is the definition of success? If...

Mitzpe Yericho is a fast growing yishuv outside of Jerusalem. A lot of that growth is to the credit of Aliza Pilichowski - an immigrant that accidentally became the mayor in 2018. Aliza shares insights into the challenges faced by the rapid community growth including the strain of the existing infrastructure along with the opportunity of what more families bring along with the unique integration o...

Racheli Adler is the founding Head of the Board for Givot Eden, a yishuv in the Judean mountains that has quickly grown as an attractive destination for young families. In this episode Racheli shares the definition of a yishuv and some of the behind the scenes work it takes to start a community from scratch both technically and socially. Trust me, there is a lot to unpack here. Like, comment and s...

Aryeh Rachlin was the chairman of the board at a critical juncture when the Nitzanim community was plateauing and in between spritual leadership. Aryeh discusses the origins of Nitzanim and the challenges and successes of maintaining community engagement as the synagogue has grown, emphasizing the importance of programming, leadership, and the role of dedicated members in fostering a sense of belo...

85% of community building is the same. Regardless if the community is in person or digital, religious, sports, or hobby based, its members will encounter the same challenges trying to build the initial group and continue to grow it without losing its mission. That's the hypothesis I'm out to prove. Welcome to the Community Blueprints podcast. I’m your host Reuven Kirshner, a founder of the...