Tikvat Israel welcomed a new tenant to first-floor office space across from the Flax Library back in December when the Foundation for Jewish Studies moved here from another Rockville location.
In a recent interview, Lauren B. Strauss, the group’s director, shared insights into the organization’s unique niche and its budding relationship with our congregation.
Q: How did the Foundation for Jewish Studies land its headquarters at Tikvat Israel?
Strauss: When we heard that our previous landlords were moving and we had to find a new space, we started looking at properties all around town — from office buildings to the JCC to other synagogues. None of them fit our needs perfectly. I knew Tikvat Israel had space available, so we contacted your wonderful executive director, Sam Freedenberg. Sam responded positively to the idea, and we proceeded with logistics. The foundation was represented by our president, Arnold (Arnie) Hammer and our newest board member Art Hessel and me. The end result is happily apparent!
Q.: Did you have any previous knowledge or contact with our synagogue before negotiating your lease?
Strauss: Of course we knew of Tikvat Israel as a warm and welcoming congregation in this area, and several of our members (as well as our current treasurer, Manny Helzner) are members here. Personally, I did rikudei am (Israeli folk dancing) here for many years so I was also familiar with the building.
Q.: Are there advantages to being housed in a synagogue as opposed to an office building?
Strauss: The atmosphere of a synagogue is so much warmer and more vibrant than an office building, and frankly, we like that fact it’s a Jewish space! It’s so nice to have the same holiday schedule as everyone else in the building and to sense the energy of a busy Jewish community that has ongoing events and people coming and going.
Our favorite aspect (aside from the dessert tasting we were recently asked to join!) is the occasional sound of children from the ECC on the playground.
Q.: What’s your elevator speech when someone asks you, “What’s FJS?”
Strauss: The Foundation for Jewish Studies is a local foundation that has been providing high-level, Jewish adult education in the Washington, D.C., area (including Montgomery County, Md., and Northern Virginia) for more than 30 years. It was founded by a donation given to the indefatigable Rabbi Joshua Haberman, who at age 95 continues to be the foundation’s chairman of the board and a leading voice in our governance.
Q.: As Jewish education/cultural groups in the D.C. area go, what is FJS’ unique niche?
Strauss: First of all, we are totally independent — we are not affiliated with any particular movement or denomination of Judaism or with any synagogue or school, and we are not even grantees of the Jewish Federation.
Secondly, we draw scholars from around the country and the world (especially Israel) who teach and lecture on a very high level, addressing a wide variety of subjects. Almost all of our speakers are university professors, especially the featured lecturers in our Distinguished Scholar Series. We also hold community events like our recent film showing followed by a Q&A with the director, and our popular classes with local bible teacher Gideon Amir, who taught his Sunday morning class at Tikvat Israel for the remainder of this year.
Q.: You’ve already held one event at TI since moving your offices here. Do you envision holding other events here?
Strauss: Indeed, one of the Distinguished Scholar events was held in March at Tikvat Israel when Professor Daniel Schwartz of GW’s history department spoke about the philosopher Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza. The shul could not have been more accommodating with room set-up, internal advertising and, of course, providing tea and delicious cookies. (Thank you, Bonnie Cowan, for nourishing our attendees!)
We would love to hold another event (or a series of smaller events) at Tikvat Israel in the future.
Q. Do you maintain a mailing list for those interested in keeping informed about upcoming events?
Strauss: Yes, we maintain a list of e-mail addresses and home mailing addresses and would be thrilled to add more Tikvat Israel members to our FJS community. (We don’t send too many e-mails, by the way.) To join our list and receive updates about our events, please go to our website: https://www.habermaninstitute.org and enter your contact information (see the “Join our mailing list” box in the upper right-hand corner) or call our office at 301-770-4787. You can also check our website for a list of events for the current semester.
Q.: What would you want TI’s members to know about your group that would not be obvious from reviewing the website?
Strauss: All the information you need is on the website, but you need to actually show up at an event to truly appreciate the warmth and the intellectual depth generated at one of our events. Please join us and find out!
