East Passyunk resident Brett Richman loves Philadelphia. “I really do believe this is the best city on earth,” he said.
But as passionate as he is about his native city, he’s equally dedicated to Jewish communal work, having spent his entire career in roles across several states with different Jewish organizations.
Today, Richman is the mentorship program manager with Tribe 12, the event manager for public programs at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and a volunteer chapter advisor with BBYO.
Richman explained that he wasn’t always looking to become a Jewish communal professional, but when it became clear that his initial plans weren’t going to work out, he looked for another way to apply his skills.
“I had really positive experiences as a kid and as a teenager doing youth group. I was really involved with BBYO growing up, and then confirmation, post-confirmation, and all the different programs, worked at my JCC day camp, and then I had some fantastic Hillel professionals that I got to learn from while in college,” Richman said. “And so, when it became clear that law school was not the right path for me professionally, I pivoted to Jewish communal work because I thought this would be a really interesting way to use my skill set.”
Richman started working with Hillel in Boca Raton, Florida, where he grew up, before taking on roles across the country with BBYO, Moishe House and United Synagogue Youth, which brought him back to Philadelphia.
Richman said the first call he made when he moved back to Philadelphia in 2022 was to Tribe 12, having been previously involved with the organization a decade prior.
He explained that he started attending Tribe 12 programs again, and a year later, he participated in its fellowship program.
After leaving USY in 2023, Richman worked as a contracted fellowship consultant for Tribe 12 and was involved in developing the curriculum for the program. That eventually led to Richman joining the organization part-time in September 2025 as a mentorship program mentor.
The Philly native also went back to school and got his master’s in Jewish professional development.
“I love the opportunity to work with and develop professionals and community leaders over time. Why I went and got a master’s in Jewish professional studies is because I want to figure out how to set up the Jewish future for as much success as possible. So, I’m doing that with young adults through my work with Tribe 12,” Richman said.
He explained that the mentorship program he works on is a refined version of the fellowship he participated in a few years prior.
The program has been adapted to fit the needs of the younger generation based on trends that showed people seeking professional development and career guidance. The program has two yearly cohorts, and Richman said applicants are accepted on a rolling basis.
“They’ll [participants] get assigned a mentor for six months. They’ll work with them one-on-one. They’ll attend monthly professional development sessions, and then, subsequent to that, they will have lifetime access to monthly professional development sessions that occur during future cohorts,” Richman said.
He explained that Tribe 12 is constantly looking to see if its programs meet the community’s needs.
Richman’s full-time position is with the Weitzman. He said before taking on this job, he’d never worked in a museum before, but he figured if he could work with teens previously, he could work with adults here.
“I have a touch point on anywhere from 70 to 100 programs a year at the Weitzman, whether we’re fully operating them or helping to support them. It’s been great,” Richman said.
He added that Tribe 12 has its offices in the Weitzman, which has made for an engaging experience.
“It’s been really nice to be able to work side by side with them [Tribe 12], work for them, support their programming and figure out how to kind of balance both those pieces of my work life and my social life and all of those things that go into it while being at a museum that’s going through a lot of fun, exciting changes, with new galleries opening and exhibits,” Richman said.