Michelle Goldberg helps to facilitate meaningful conversations between people in the community struggling with loss, disability and isolation. It’s part of her job description — as the senior manager of community engagement and partnerships at Jewish Community Services, she oversees the organization’s support groups, which they refer to as Meaningful Conversations.

From Parkinson’s disease to pet loss, Goldberg uses her background in social work to bring people together so they can work through whatever problems are affecting their lives and bond with others in similar situations.

Goldberg, 58, lives with her husband and their dog in Clarksville. She has an adult son who lives in New York. The family belonged to Bet Chaverim Congregation in Columbia until the synagogue closed its doors earlier this year.

Growing up in Montgomery County, Goldberg was raised in an observant household that she describes as “Conservadox,” and always felt that she had a strong connection to Judaism. She even got her master’s in social work from Yeshiva University.

She notes that going into the mental health field was always something she was interested in, though she was not looking for specifically Jewish work after she graduated.

“My whole life, I knew I was going to go into mental health. I’ve always been a person people talk to, and I was a peer counselor in school,” Goldberg said. “I was interviewing all over … I was interviewing in the prison system and the hospital system.”

She first got involved in JCS, which was Jewish Family Services at the time, in 1989 as part of their relief efforts for Soviet Jewish immigrants coming to the United States. At first, she was apprehensive about the job, but was reassured by a family friend who was also a social worker who worked with Soviet Jewish clients. From there, a one-year grant turned into 20 years of holding different positions at Jewish Family Services.

Goldberg notes that JCS has changed a lot over the years she’s worked there, in more ways than changing its name.

“It was smaller [when it was Jewish Family Services], and a little more like a family,” she recalled. “It was a lot more Jewish-focused. The clients were Jewish, and the staff were predominantly Jewish. Now, it serves a much more diverse community — the clients and staff are much more diverse.”

This change was exemplified by Goldberg leaving the organization for a period of over 10 years, seeking employment elsewhere. She worked at Kennedy Krieger Institute, Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, the Jewish Federation of Howard County and a Parkinson’s-related organization. Her work was less focused on clinical social work at this time, though she said there’s always been a social work component to the work that she’s done.

She hadn’t been looking to come back to JCS, but seeing a listing for an open position there changed that.

“I felt that it was everything I’ve ever done in my career, all in one job,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg now oversees a variety of different Meaningful Conversation groups at JCS, focused on topics including Parkinson’s disease, dementia, low vision and grief. Notably, she started this work towards the end of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, during a time when many people felt lonely and isolated.

As a result, these groups are designed with the idea of combating loneliness and isolation in mind.

One of JCS’ newest ventures is their Memory Cafe, which focuses on people with memory-related issues such as Alzheimer’s disease.

“We’re one of the first Jewish memory cafes in Baltimore,” she said. “We don’t use diagnoses … you can check your diagnosis at the door. Nobody talks about it unless they want to. And you don’t always know who’s there. Aside from people with memory loss, we have adult children, aides and caregivers, spouses, friends … It’s pure joy without having to worry about stigmas or anything.”

Social work is not always a field where success can be concretely measured, as social change can be a very slow process. But Goldberg says that she’s seen Meaningful Conversations help many people work through challenges and losses.

She told one story about Heartstrings, a program for preschoolers who have experienced loss. One little boy was struggling with the death of his father.

“He said that he missed him very much, and the teacher asked if he talked to him,” Goldberg recalled. “He said ‘I never thought about that,’ and he had a big smile on his face. When [the teacher] came back and told me, I felt that this work is so good and so important, because she just gave this child a gift for the rest of his life. He’s a little person who didn’t even know he could talk to his father even though he wasn’t there, and now he has this coping mechanism.”