Rebecca Chinsky is the senior director of operations and programs at the Weinberg Park Heights Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore on the Goldsmith Campus. While she started at the JCC in 2015, she has worn several different hats within the community long before then.
Growing up, Chinsky attended summer camps through Beth Tfiloh and the JCC. She participated in the JCC Maccabi Games, an Olympic-style sports competition run by the JCC Association of North America.
“I really do enjoy working at the JCC and giving back to the Jewish community, because the Jewish community is what shaped me,” the Canton resident said. “I was a product of Jewish day school, I was a product of Jewish summer camp, I was a product of the JCC Maccabi program. And a lot of those experiences are what shaped who I am today.”
Chinsky grew up in Pikesville as an avid attendee in Jewish life. She attended Krieger Schechter Day School through eighth grade and then Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School for her high school education.
During the summers, Chinsky attended Camp Milldale, later becoming a camp counselor, helping run the athletics department and participating in the JCC Maccabi Games.
“I loved the outlet that sports provided for me, the mental outlet, the physical outlet,” she said. “It was a place where I could shine and thrive. And I knew when I was looking at colleges that I wanted to do something in the field of kinesiology. I love movement. I love the body.”
For Chinsky, coaching and working in sports was always a passion. While she considered attending school for physical education, she said being a physical education teacher had a stigma surrounding it, so she entered college to study movement science, thinking she might become a physical therapist.
“I remember coming home Thanksgiving time of freshman year, and having the conversation with my parents that I think I want to switch my major from Movement Science over to physical education,” Chinsky explained. “My sophomore year I, switched tracks from the Movement Science track over to the physical education track, and that’s really how I got involved and then certified as a teacher and started teaching.”
Chinsky graduated college from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s in physical education, went on to receive her master’s at McDaniel College for sports management and worked as a physical education teacher for Baltimore City Public Schools.
Although she worked for the public school system, Chinsky would spend her free time on the weekends helping out at the Beth Tfiloh sports clinics.
“I’ve coached a lot of different sports, and for me, it’s all about giving back to the community,” she added. “I never necessarily saw myself working in the Jewish world, but I knew I wanted to give back to kids and help instill in them that passion for movement and activity, to see the benefits for them.”
Over the summers, she stayed involved within the Jewish community, working at Beth Tfiloh’s athletic camps. Then, in early 2015, the public school Chinsky worked at was set to close when she got a well-timed phone call.
“I remember the original phone call,” she explained. “It was a snow day, and I remember [now JCC of Greater Baltimore CEO] Paul Laurie called me, and he started floating this idea of a position might be opening up at the JCC in the sports and rec field, and [asked] if it was something I might be interested in.”
Chinsky started at the Owings Mills JCC overseeing sports and recreational programing, the preschools’ physical education program and more. In 2019, she moved from the Owings Mills JCC to the Park Heights campus, where she became the senior director of Park Heights Aquatics and Recreation. In her current role as senior director of operations and programming, Chinsky oversees more of the day-to-day operations.
“My job is very different now. Today, I spend a lot more time in my office, at my desk, so I’m definitely not nearly as active as I used to be. But now I am here to make this building a better place and make sure operations are run smoothly, so that the community can be served,” Chinsky said. “It’s a very different role that I play now than what I ever thought I would be doing, but I find that it complements a lot of my skill sets. I see the needs of our members, I see the needs of staff, I see the needs of our community to create the best place possible.”
