Julia Pollock, 24, is the programming and outreach coordinator at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel in Center City.
Her role is to plan synagogue events and create promotional material. For the upcoming High Holidays, she is building a magazine that will feature the synagogue’s strategic plan, life and legacy program and youth and family program.
For Pollock, this job, her first out of college (she’s a 2022 graduate of Temple University), expresses her Jewish identity. But for the first 10 years of her life, she did not even have that identity.
She talked about how she came to it.
What was your Jewish life like growing up?
My mom (Nicki Pollock) and I converted in 2010. I was 10.
But my family is Roman Catholic. We converted because my mom worked for the Jewish Federation (of Greater Philadelphia) and the Jewish Learning Venture. So, I think it was important to her.
Once we converted, I started going to Hebrew school. I grew up going to (Congregation) Beth Or in Maple Glen. I got bat mitzvah’d and confirmed.
My great-grandfather was Jewish, but his wife was a devout Catholic. They weren’t Jewish by any means other than the fact that his lineage was.
What made you want to serve the Jewish community professionally by working at BZBI?
I loved going to Hebrew school, studying for my bat mitzvah, being confirmed. Obviously, a lot of my friends were Jewish.
My current boss, (BZBI Executive Director) Lynne Balaban, worked with my mom for many years. She was hiring when I graduated. I applied. And, lo and behold, I got it.
What do you enjoy most about working at BZBI?
I honestly think it has to be not only my co-workers, but the fact that I feel like working for a small organization allows you to see the differences you make in people’s lives.
You don’t always get to see that. I look forward to going into the office every day.
Just the trust our members have in me. They call me and they need something. I get to see members come in and they recognize me.
It feels like a community that I’m a part of.
(Photo by Julia Pollock)
Where might you like to go in your career? Do you want to continue in Jewish community life?
That’s hard to say. I have no plan of going anywhere as of now.
I’m also studying and in grad school (communication management at Temple). I don’t know where it will take me.
What is your Jewish life like as a young adult?
That’s hard to answer. I don’t consider my working life and my personal life as two separate things. I think because I work for a Jewish institution and I’m Jewish it kind of mixes.
I think I always kind of carry my Jewishness around and the fact that I’m proud to be Jewish.
I don’t attend Shabbat services regularly. But, of course, I do enjoy Shabbat dinners with our congregants.
What do you envision your Jewish life becoming as you grow older?
I think that because I started my professional career at a Jewish organization, it has only cemented the feeling that it’s important to incorporate it within my life.
If I get older and don’t work for a shul, I would like to think that it would be a part of my life by joining a congregation. One of the things that keeps our Judaism alive is to be in a community at a synagogue.
And be sure to tell us any other Jewy or Jew-ish things about yourself.
My partner (Rob Sample) is not Jewish. So, one of the most amazing things I’ve been able to experience is by passing it on to someone else.
BZBI offers an introduction class called “On One Foot.” He took that because I wanted him to have some background on what was so important in my personal and professional life.
We go for Shabbat dinner to congregants’ homes. To see him enjoy the customs, to have the challah and light the candles and enjoy the blessings, has been really cool.
