When Abigail Malischostak was a young adult, the Baltimore native was pretty sure that she would not be returning home as she got older. Malischostak went to college in Minnesota and then worked in New York, experiencing the hospitality of the Midwest and the hectic nature of the biggest city in the United States.
But eventually, she wanted to be a Baltimorean again.
“You know how things go,” she said. “Everyone seems to make it back here.”
Today, Malischostak works at the Macks Jewish Connection Network as the senior director of operations and strategy, a role she took on last August after serving as director of operations and strategy since June 2024. She obtained her undergraduate degree in religion and master’s degrees in Jewish/Judaic studies and social work.
While Malischostak is well-educated and well-equipped for her role, in her mind, the way things fell into place is interesting.
“It’s one of those funny things where I feel like, while I was going through it, I didn’t realize that I was building up the credentials to do the job that I’m doing,” she said. “I thought for a long time I wanted to be a teacher, potentially a day school teacher, and in various ways learned that that was not the right fit for me. But I clearly did have a hold towards the Jewish community in some way.”
Malischostak’s first job when she returned to Baltimore in 2015 was working in partnerships with Jewish Volunteer Connection. When that organization merged with the Center for Jewish Education and became the Network, her role changed to be more centered around operations and strategy.
“I help lead a lot of our internal strategy planning and systems work that helps support our organization’s relationship-based engagement approach,” Malischostak said. “Figuring out how connectors are going to share and report some of their data, figuring out what kind of resources we want to share out through connectors and through our staff and program to help people understand the resources that are available to them in Baltimore, so that they can figure out how they want to [be] Jewish.”
While working behind the scenes means that Malischostak isn’t always interacting directly with clients, she still hears plenty of praise through the grapevine.
“I think there’s a lot of love for the Connector program, and for the understanding that everyone navigates their Jewish life differently. I think the community members that we interact with really notice how we accept all different types of families, all different types of backgrounds, no matter what,” she said.
Today, Malischostak belongs to Chizuk Amuno Congregation, just like she did as a child.
She lives with her family in Lutherville, but will soon move to Stevenson. The move home started out being driven by logistics, but has evolved into a fully-embraced homecoming.
“It was not going to be financially feasible to live and build a family in New York, so we knew we needed to get out,” Malischostak said. “I’ll admit, I feel like my parents had their eyes out. They wanted me back, but it was the right fit. I will always remember a conversation I had with my mom, where she really encouraged me to think about where I felt like I could make the most impact, and I when I really thought about it, that is what guided me towards work in the Jewish community, but also what really supported me to move back, because it is a community I care about.”
One of the things that Malischostak has really come to appreciate about the Jewish community in Baltimore is how diverse it is. In Minnesota, she didn’t have access to Jewish communities as large or ingrained as those in Baltimore. She described New York simply as “a whole other piece.” Ultimately, Baltimore is where she feels most comfortable.
“I think Baltimore has a whole range of options for all of the different ways that someone might want to be Jewish and connect to Jewish community,” she said.
Malischostak took the long way to end up right where she started, which worked out great. Now, she is focusing her efforts on both her immediate family and her larger one — Baltimore’s Jewish community.
“It helped shape me, and that made me uniquely qualified to be able to continue to work in it,” she said.
