Laura Kurcfeld uses her event-planning experience to organize activities for the JCC of Greater Baltimore.
She serves as the senior program director at the Weinberg Park Heights JCC, but she also owns and manages Consider it Done! By Laura, her own event-planning and coordinating business where she helps people prepare for weddings, b’nai mitzvahs, synagogue events and more.
Kurcfeld, 55, lives in Pikesville with her husband, Rabbi Mayer Kurcfeld of STAR-K Kosher Certification. They belong to Kehilath B’nai Torah and have four children from Laura Kurcfeld’s first marriage. She also has five stepdaughters.
Born in Manhasset, New York. and raised in New Rochelle, New York, Kurcfeld recalled that her family was fairly secular but has attended an Orthodox synagogue since the 1960s. As a result, she was heavily influenced by the Orthodox community growing up, which led her to become more involved in it later in life.
It was at the Orthodox synagogue she attended in New Rochelle that she first discovered her passion for Jewish community work.
“In my 20s and 30s, I did a lot of work at the shul, which was kind of dying at the time,” Kurcfeld said. “I helped with office work and running events. I loved being part of the shul atmosphere and helping to reinvigorate the dying shul, which I’m happy to say is still there and thriving.”
Kurcfeld moved to Baltimore in 2000 and continued to be involved in local synagogues in a similar capacity. She also worked at Weinberg Academy until it closed in 2009.
Being professionally involved in the Jewish community “just kind of happened organically,” she said.
Shortly after, she founded Consider it Done! By Laura, which led her to even more Jewish work. She often organized retreats for clients at Pearlstone, which merged with Hazon and became Adamah earlier this year. Because of this, she was brought onto the Pearlstone team to coordinate Passover programming for children, and would later become an official Passover program coordinator and eventually director of guest services.
“I loved working with them, and I learned that they loved working with me,” Kurcfeld said of her time at Pearlstone.
Though she is no longer with the center, she still coordinates events through Consider it Done! By Laura, ranging from small Shabbat dinners to large-scale corporate retreats. Of everything on her event-planning resume, though, Kurcfeld noted that she is most proud of running the Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals (now known as the Association for Jewish Outreach Programs) convention for several years with its former director, Rabbi Yitzchok Lowenbraun A”H.
“[Event planning] was a great way to meet people in different lines of work from around the world who needed my help,” Kurcfeld said. “And meeting so many different people at the AJOP conferences was an amazing experience. I did a lot with that company, and it was really fun.”
While her work at Pearlstone ended due to layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic eventually led her to her current position at the JCC.
During the time between the two, she worked for Jewish Volunteer Connection. She also served as a COVID vaccine outreach coordinator during the pandemic, when the Baltimore City Health Department reached out to The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore and its respective agencies to request that they promote the COVID vaccine in Baltimore’s Jewish community.
She was responsible for the video “Covid-19 Message From Our Local Rabbanim: Get Vaccinated,” which accumulated over 14,000 views on YouTube and inspired similar videos from rabbis in New York with an even wider reach.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I’ll take it,” she quipped.
This led her to be recommended for a position at the JCC, where she works today.
“I love working with the JCC. It’s an amazing, amazing place,” she said. “Barak Hermann is an amazing CEO. And with his vision, his empathy, his direction, the love and respect that he has for his staff and the JCC mission keeps everything going here incredibly. … It’s a great place to work.”
Kurcfeld continues to plan events for the JCC, which brings her a lot of joy. Right now, she is working on JCC programming for the High Holidays.
“I love that I’ve been able to enrich people’s lives with the programs we offer here,” Kurcfeld said. “You never know what new friendships will come out of [my work], and I’ve been very fortunate to meet a lot of wonderful people and make some great connections. I love to keep people happy and engaged in different kinds of programs.”
Correction 8/30/23: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Rabbi Yitzchak Lowenbraun as the current director of AJOP. He was its former director and passed away in 2021.
