Amy Goldberg’s life is all about connection. As a connector manager for the Jewish Connection Network, Goldberg helps facilitate the agency’s Community Connector program.
Specifically, she works with parent connectors, who mainly assist families with children who want to integrate themselves into Jewish communities in and around Baltimore.
Goldberg, 41, naturally has her own local Jewish connections as well. But she didn’t start out in Maryland. After spending her earliest years in a small Pennsylvania town, she said, “everything shifted in middle school when my family moved to Memphis, Tennessee — a place where religious identity is woven into daily life. In this new environment, my Judaism began to flourish. Though I had to be more intentional about connecting with Jewish friends outside my public school setting, I found meaningful community through regional youth group gatherings and by serving as a madricha (teacher’s helper) in religious school.”
After graduating from college, she said, her life took another southern turn: “I moved to Jackson, Mississippi — yes, Mississippi!” There, she spent two years as an education fellow at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. “I served as an itinerant Jewish educator, traveling to small Jewish communities across the South to share resources and developing meaningful connections with community members,” she explained. “I met community members who practiced Judaism in ways that fit their lives in tight-knit, often remote settings, including places without a synagogue or full-time clergy.”
Goldberg came to Baltimore 17 years ago to attend graduate school at the Baltimore Hebrew Institute, the continuation of the former Baltimore Hebrew College at Towson University. There, she said, she met a group of peers who quickly became her community.
“Having never really had a core group of Jewish friends before, this was deeply meaningful and strengthened my Jewish identity,” she said. She ultimately became fully immersed in the Baltimore Jewish community.
The “connector” job came about when Goldberg was pregnant with her first child, now 9 years old. She was invited to serve as a parent connector through the Center for Jewish Education. “I did that work for three years as a part-time paid position, in addition to my regular job. I built relationships with other families in the Towson area,” she explained.
When The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore advertised for the full-time job with the Jewish Connection Network, Goldberg said, “I was very interested, because I enjoyed my work as a connector. Doing full-time work was something I felt I would really enjoy.”
There are Jewish connectors at work in Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Harford County and Carroll County, and Goldberg says all are seeking community in some way. “They’re interested in bringing families together, and creating a community for their own family,” she said. “They either reach out to me, or they hear about the program and someone else connects me with them. Being a connector is a part-time job, but it’s very important work in the community. I help [prospective connectors] decide if it’s something that fits their schedule and their family’s needs, and help them get involved.”
The Towson resident said her own connecting work created lasting friendships for her family. “Many of the toddlers my son met in those early days are now his closest friends — camp buddies and religious school classmates who have grown alongside him,” she said.
Asked what values she wants to impart to her children and those she works with, Goldberg said: “Just the value of being an honest, good person, and how that will get you a long way. The values we teach in the Jewish community are just human values that transcend religion. In any kind of community, being a good person is the most important thing. My husband and I both want to teach our kids that you get out of things what you put into them. And with our involvement, the more we’re involved, the more we all benefit from being part of a community.”
