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S Moving Traditions
Welcomes New CEO
he’s never been a CEO before. She’s taking
over for the woman who built the nonprofi t
organization, Moving Traditions, from
nothing. And the task before her, from the board of
directors, is no less than to expand the organization
to communities all over North America.

But Shuli Karkowsky says she is ready.

According to Deborah Meyer, Karkowsky’s
predecessor at the Elkins Park nonprofi t, as well
as the board’s search committee, Karkowsky is the
ideal leader to guide Moving Traditions forward.

Th e new CEO’s professional network recognized the
same thing: When Meyer announced her retirement,
connections started reaching out to Karkowsky to
encourage her to apply.

And she agreed.

At the time, Karkowsky was the executive
vice president of Hazon, a New York City-based
environmental advocacy organization, overseeing
more than 50 staff members and a budget that
exceeded $9 million. After handling those
responsibilities for more than two years, she believed
she was ready to be the boss.

Karkowsky also believed in Moving Traditions’
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
mission of giving teenage Jews a space to work through
their feelings, fi gure out their identities and then
manifest them through positive community work.

“I wanted to take the best job in the world,” she
said. On Feb. 7, she did. But luckily for Karkowsky,
Meyer is sticking around until March 31 to train and
help her.

Th e new CEO, 38, is embracing the insights of her
soon-to-be emeritus mentor; it was Meyer who created
the organization in the early 2000s as a program for
teenage girls to talk about their emotions.

Meyer, a longtime community activist, noticed
increasing rates of anxiety and depression in the youth
population. She responded by opening a space for
girls to discuss friendship, academic pressure, gender
and sexuality, among other topics. Th e CEO also
rooted the conversations in Jewish values like shleimut
(wholeness), hesed (caring) and tzedek (justice).

Th ose values challenged teens to think Jewishly
even aft er their bat mitzvahs, according to Meyer.

Th e leader kept repeating the same questions in
her head as she considered the importance of her
program. Why isn’t Jewish education focusing on what it
means to be a teen and a human being? Why are we
letting kids drop out aft er their bar or bat mitzvahs?
“If you drop out, you haven’t really had a chance to
talk about sexuality, how to be a responsible member
of society, how to advocate for a better world,” Meyer
said. “We wanted to bring Jewish values and the
adolescent experience together.”
Th at approach was successful, as Moving Traditions
grew from girls to boys, too, and then to pre-teens
preparing for their bar and bat mitzvahs, and fi nally
to other parts of the country. Today, the organization
serves more than 5,000 kids a year in 29 states on a
budget of $3.6 million.

Meyer’s legacy is in those numbers. But really, it’s
deeper than that, according to Darcie Crystal, the
chair of the nonprofi t’s board of directors.

It’s in the thousands of kids who Moving Traditions
has helped, Crystal said.

“She gave teens a space to explore their identity,”
she said. “She saw a need in the Jewish community
and built an organization to address that need.”
But Meyer’s life’s work was only part one, according
to Meyer herself.

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