Heartfelt Congratulations to Beckee Birger

By Shuli Karkowsky, Moving Traditions CEO

I am so excited to share with you, Moving Traditions’ friends, supporters, and stakeholders, two honors bestowed on our beloved colleague, Beckee Birger, last month. First, she was selected to join the Obama Foundation Leaders Program. The program trains participants around the world in leadership development and civic engagement to help build their skills and scale their work across public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Second, Beckee received the 2024 Pomegranate Prize, which is designed to recognize emerging leaders in the field of Jewish education by encouraging them in their pursuits and offering the resources and connections necessary to accelerate their development, deepen their self-awareness, and amplify their impact on the field. Last week, I watched Beckee receive the Pomegranate Prize in person, and my heart soared. I invite you to watch her brief, but moving, personal remarks.

I first met Beckee while teaching at a convening of Chicago-area teen educators in 2022. I brought an archaic text rich with meaning, and I distinctly remember locking eyes with her in the crowd and feeling an instant connection with the spiritual and cerebral joy she brought to Jewish learning.

It felt bashert that about six months later, Moving Traditions received funding from the Shards of Light Foundation to launch a new program to help Jewish teens interrupt racism, antisemitism, and other manifestations of oppression, and we were looking for a director for the program. Beckee was our dream candidate – bringing the perfect mix of love for Judaism, experience with teens, and passion for feminist and antiracist work. Bringing that brilliance to this role, Beckee has shaped Kumi, a program that helps teens make sense of heart-wrenching events such as the murder of George Floyd and the flaring of antisemitic sentiment after October 7. She has become a beacon for the understanding that antisemitism does not put us at odds with other marginalized communities; rather, antisemitism, sexism, racism, and many other forms of discrimination share common roots and need to be studied and responded to systemically and together.

Beckee comes to this work with a vast trove of personal experiences: moments from childhood that made her love Jewish tradition, and those that made her feel alienated and othered in the mostly-white Jewish spaces. She shared with me once that when she was young, she doesn’t remember meeting any role models, any Jewish educators, who looked quite like her.

In that way, seeing her win these prizes isn’t just a triumph for Beckee personally, or for Moving Traditions. It is a victory for every young Jewish person who might want to be part of the Jewish community but doesn’t know if they belong. Recognizing Beckee in these public ways, putting her educational genius in the spotlight, will help a new generation of young people understand all the variegated ways a Jewish role model can look.

By happenstance, the mother of one of the teens Beckee mentored many years ago was at the Pomegranate ceremony, too. She said to Beckee, “My daughter didn’t connect with a lot of educators, but she really loved learning with you.” Beckee’s entire career has been dedicated to moments like this, to the young people who will feel seen, heard, and inspired by her presence. As one of the few grown-ups who had the chance to lock eyes with her while nerding out over a Jewish piece of text, I can only say: We’re all so lucky to be along for the ride.

I hope you’ll join me in sending heartfelt congratulations to Beckee, by learning more about Kumi, or making a donation in her honor to support her transformative work.