Temple Beth-El (Richmond, VA), a dynamic community of 350 member units and 100 students in our K-10 religious school, seeks a Director of Family Life and Education (DFLE).
The individual in this new position will be responsible for creating and implementing cohesive educational programming for our multigenerational community working with our rabbi and lay leaders to advance our educational vision and community engagement strategy. The DFLE will engage directly with our community, help lead educational opportunities for both our youth and learners of all ages, serve as a mentor and a resource to both students and staff, and work to bolster opportunities for Jewish education and experience.
In this role, you will be responsible for leading our twice a week religious school – to include recruiting students and staff, overseeing curriculum development and delivery, and ensuring smooth, safe, and secure operations. You will also oversee our B’nai Mitzvah tutoring program and youth groups, coordinate our family Shabbat and Holiday experiences, partner with the rabbi to provide relevant and inspiring adult education, engage congregants in service leadership.
As an exciting feature, we are hiring for this role a school year “early” as our current director is planning to retire in October 2026. In the first year, you will have the opportunity to work alongside her and have an opportunity to engage with our community prior to taking on the administrative tasks of running our school. In the 2025-26 transition year, we expect the new DFLE will lean into additional teaching roles as well as lead a review of our curricula and other special projects designed to advance our educational activities.
The ideal candidate will have a strong background in Jewish Education, including demonstrated administrative capabilities, demonstrated success in supplementary congregational school setting, and hold an MAEd. and/or Rabbinic Ordination. Over time, this role has the potential to become a key leader and partner to our Rabbi, lay leadership, and broader community.
More about our Community!
In the heart of Richmond's stunning and historic Museum District, Temple Beth-El is this city's address for a Judaism that fuses devotion to our heritage with insights from today and imagination towards our future.
As an exciting center of community, faith, celebration, and learning, Beth-El offers many points of access to an invigorating, meaningful, and engaging Jewish life: dynamic and moving prayer; illuminating and engaging social activism; nourishing and fulfilling relationships.
We believe that Judaism should be joyous and accessible to people of all backgrounds, ages and stages. We proudly welcome everyone into our congregational family: Jews by choice and those by birth, interfaith families, LGBTQ+, those of all abilities, the Jew-curious, and more! Whatever your background, and wherever you are on your journey, we are eager to help you enrich your lives through Judaism and community.
Our Religious School welcomes 100 students to a life of Jewish learning, with lively large spaces and personal, meaningful education. Our innovative and child-centered approach to Jewish learning provides a dynamic environment where Jewish education is joyous, inspiring and spiritual. Our curriculum includes traditional classroom learning using music, art, nature, literature, and project based learning to deepen students’ understanding of our Jewish traditions, values and practices. We also make use of unique resources in our community including the local Virginia Holocaust Museum and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
More about our City!
Richmond is a rare gem. Virginia’s capital city, Richmond is fast becoming a destination for foodies and fans of craft breweries and distilleries, and boasts a thriving scene for art, music, and culture. The metro population is 1.3 million. Eight Fortune 500 companies are headquartered here. The well diversified economy, including state government, minimizes economic shocks. Great schools and multiple universities keep the city “young”, and a booming community of startups is making Richmond a new hub of innovation. A growing number of businesses are catching on, expanding into the area or even relocating their headquarters here. At the same time, traffic is (nearly) nonexistent, and it generally takes only 20 minutes to get anywhere in the metro area. Easily accessible to other major East Coast cities, Richmond is only a 2 hour drive away from the beach, the mountains, and Washington, DC.
In addition, Richmond is surrounded by several regional parks with bike, run and hike trails, and a river for kayaking and aquatic activities. The local airport is very user-friendly and has non-stop flights to most major cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, New York, and Boston among others. All this is at a cost of living that is 35-50% lower than the major metropolitan areas in the Northeast and in neighboring Washington, D.C.