Jessie Gindea is an imaginative and adventurous Jewish educator dedicated to creating immersive and joyful Jewish experiences for diverse environments and audiences. She believes that there is an inherent beauty and eternal relevance of Jewish wisdom and Torah learning. Throughout her career in the Jewish non-profit world, Gindea has worked in various settings, always seeking innovative ways to engage learners in wrestling with Jewish texts, Jewish identity, and Jewish history.

“There is no one right way to connect to Judaism,” she says.

She grew up in Skokie, Illinois, in a family closely connected to Jewish life and she attended Jewish schools. As a self-described “camp kid,” Gindea fondly recalls her summers at Young Judea Midwest as a foundational experience in exploring her Jewish identity.

“Learning about Israel and Zionism while my peers and I explored our Jewish identities was crucial in shaping my path as a Jewish educator. I had never experienced anything like the immersive Jewish education at camp, and as I got older, I realized that it was possible to infuse that sense of joy, excitement,  and connection I experienced at camp in other environments as well,” she says.

These days, Gindea strives to recreate the magic and sense of connection she experienced at camp in her teaching, making everyone feel part of something bigger.

Recently, Gindea moved to New York, where she will serve as the Lower School Director at the Luria Academy of Brooklyn. She shares the school’s vision of inspiring students to be kind, critical thinkers, confident in their Jewish identity, and responsible for making the world a better place.

“Working with other Jewish educators is such a gift. I love being able to support other Jewish educators in leadership spaces and in talking about creatively engaging their learners,” she says.

Most recently, she served as the Interim Head of School and Director of Judaic Studies at a small day school in Miami. She utilized funding from her Pomegranate Prize to collaborate with theater artist and educator Jonathan Shmidt Chapman (the 2023 Covenant Foundation’s inaugural Jewish Family Education Fellow) to build and implement immersive parsha experiences for her community. Together, they experimented with different methodologies to develop innovative and playful methods to engage children, their families, and teachers in embodied parsha study, making the weekly Torah portion accessible and relevant for all.

As an example, she explains that when she and her class studied the parsha about the receiving of the 10 commandments, each student climbed the stairs of the school to the top in order to gain a sense of the experience of climbing Mt. Sinai.

“It was just wonderful to watch,” she says.

“Torah is not just a book. It’s how we live and appreciate the world. I want to give kids a sense that there’s nothing boring about Torah. That feels thrilling to me.”

Prior to heading the school, Gindea and her husband Rabbi Adam Gindea founded Base Miami, a home-based, pluralistic program aimed at engaging young Jewish professionals in the area. Embracing the idea of radical hospitality, they ran the program for more than six years, welcoming thousands of people to their home.

Weekly, the Gindeas hosted Shabbat dinners and other programs of Jewish interest in their home, gathering a diverse group of individuals “interested in immersing themselves in intentional and open-minded Jewish experiences.” One of her favorite ways to make guests at Base feel comfortable and connected was to use Jewish texts and traditions as the basis for conversation.  At Shabbat and holiday meals, Rabbi Gindea would share a brief d’var torah and ask a personal question based on the themes in the weekly Torah portion.

“Everyone would go around the table to share their stories and insights – this would establish connections between people at the table and highlight the fact that the Torah is eternally relevant,” she says,

Their daughter Charlie, who was two years old when they opened Base, would always add a question about favorite ice cream flavors or memories of favorite teachers, to lighten the mood and make sure that each guest felt comfortable — joining in the family’s efforts to make everyone feel that they not only belonged but were valued.

At that time, Gindea also worked for KAHAL, helping students find Jewish experiences and communities all over the world while studying abroad. Working in both hyper-local and global spaces of Jewish connection proved to her the power of building global Jewish connections and the immense impact of relationship-building on individuals.

Gindea infuses her sense of gracious openness and joy into her role as a Jewish educator in all settings. She believes, “There are infinite doorways to connect with Judaism, and it’s beautiful to explore that idea within a community of diverse Jews.” Especially in these particularly challenging times, she feels a deep sense of responsibility to equip communities with the tools to feel connected and safe in their Jewish identities. She is committed to making Jewish wisdom, history, and texts accessible and relevant, always exploring different methodologies to help people feel connected and empowered.

At the suggestion of another Pomegranate winner, Rabbi Jordan Soffer, who was her study partner at Pardes about 15 years ago, Gindea has been taking part in the DSLTI, Day School Leadership Training Institute, a program of leadership development, ongoing mentoring, learning opportunities and collaborative problem-solving.

Looking ahead at her return to a school setting at Luria, she says, “It’s an honor and a gift to help kids understand what it means to be a light to other people.”

While she hasn’t lived in Brooklyn before, moving there “feels like we are coming home. It’s so nice to go to a playground and see a lot of other kids in kipot and also see wide diversity.”

Echoing her hopes for her students, she says of her family, “We want our children to see that Judaism doesn’t look like one thing.

“Whatever I’m doing, I want to  be able to impact other people, to help them to know that their unique spark in the world is divine and vital in this world.”