From spinning dreidels to lighting the menorah, Hanukkah is a time of joyful celebration, family traditions, and connecting to our Jewish heritage. These same values are at the heart of Pozez JCC’s Camp Achva, where children create their own traditions, build lifelong friendships, and deepen their connection to Judaism. This Hanukkah, as we light the candles each night, we’ve illuminated eight reasons why sending your child to Jewish summer day camp is a gift that keeps on giving.
1. Embrace Diversity: Children learn to appreciate and respect individual differences, fostering empathy and understanding towards others with diverse abilities and backgrounds.
2. Build Confidence: Inclusive environments promote a sense of belonging and acceptance, encouraging children to step out of their comfort zones, try new things, and develop self-confidence.
3. Develop Social Skills: Camp Achva provides opportunities to interact with a wide range of peers, improving communication, cooperation, and conflict-resolution skills.
4. Experience Personal Growth: Inclusive settings challenge children to overcome obstacles, adapt to different needs, and discover their own strengths and abilities. In 2025, we are thrilled to announce that we will be installing a community challenge course which will be part low ropes elements and part ninja warrior/parkour elements! We believe the course will enhance our ability to deliver on creating connections, fostering personal growth, and be downright awesome to experience!
5. Cultivate Leadership: By interacting with and supporting campers with diverse needs, children learn to become patient, understanding leaders and advocates for inclusion.
6. Strengthen Jewish Identity: Immersing in Camp Achva’s environment – teaching Jewish values – fosters a strong connection to their heritage through traditions, stories, songs, and Hebrew language.
7. Lifelong Friendships: Camp friendships create bonds built on shared experiences, acceptance, and understanding that can last a lifetime.
8. Fun and Engaging Activities: Camp Achva offers a wide range of activities adapted to all abilities, ensuring everyone can participate and enjoy the classic camp experience.
Camp Achva 2025 registration is open! Click here to register your child(ren) while space in their age group is still available.
Impressions by Jeff Dannick, Matthew Berger and Zina Segal following their trip to Budapest in the frame of the JCC Global program FROM GOOD TO GREAT.
This past summer, Matthew Berger, a Pozez JCC board member, was excited to learn about the JCC Global program “FROM GOOD TO GREAT.” This program invited JCCs across the USA to partner with JCCs in Ukraine and Israel. Matthew immediately saw the importance of the program: “The last couple of years have changed everything for the Jewish people. First, Russia invaded Ukraine, putting Jews and others at risk. Then, on October 7, 2023, Israel was attacked in the most brutal way. With that backdrop, we knew we had to act. We are only 15.8 million worldwide, and we must support each other.”
Jeff Dannick, who shared Matthew’s commitment to Jewish solidarity, quickly agreed to join the initiative. Understanding the challenges facing Jews worldwide, Jeff believes it’s crucial to support Jewish communities wherever they are. The Pozez JCC board approved the partnership, and in early December, Matthew, Jeff, and Zina Segal—who had a deep background in Russia and Ukraine—traveled to Budapest for the four-day retreat. They returned with new friendships, heavy emotions, and plans for the future.
The “FROM GOOD TO GREAT” program, funded by a grant from the Jewish Federations of North America, aims to strengthen JCCs in Ukraine by facilitating global cooperation with partner JCCs worldwide. Pozez JCC was paired with Hesed Besht (JCC in Khmelnitsky, Ukraine) and a community center in Beit Shemesh, Israel, for this three-year project. Over the retreat, participants met with colleagues from Khmelnitsky, Beit Shemesh, and other global JCCs to learn, build relationships, and discuss plans for future collaboration.
Zina Segal, Sr. Director of Community Impact and Engagement at Pozez JCC, shared her thoughts: “It was heart-wrenching yet inspiring to be in that part of the world again. I met with old colleagues from Odessa and Ashkelon and provided context about Jewish Life in FSU (Former Soviet Union) to my current colleagues. While the program provided translation in English, Russian, and Hebrew, true partnership requires understanding the deeper context—why, for example, JCCs in Ukraine provide night nurses to the elderly or how a JCC with a $2 million budget supports 400 employees. These were realities I knew well in my own city of St. Petersburg.”
Matthew was struck by the resilience of their Ukrainian partners. “Despite the war, they run multiple programs for several generations across four community centers with limited resources. Most of their funds go toward serving their community, especially the elderly.” He mentioned speaking with the JCC director from Zaporizhzhia, Inessa Nosenko, who was working to relocate classrooms to her center after a Russian attack destroyed a destroyed a local Jewish day school. “These JCCs are doing incredible work under unimaginable circumstances,” he added.
Jeff also marveled at the strength of both their Ukrainian and Israeli partners. “These communities are in the midst of war, and despite that, or perhaps because of it, they are resolute, adaptive, and creative. They remain warm, friendly, and engaging in ways that are truly inspiring.”
During the retreat, Zina had an interesting conversation with Yael Wolf, a lay leader from Beit Shemesh. “Yael had watched the show Nobody Wants This before attending and asked if the portrayal of American Jewry was accurate. We talked about Jewish identity, Reform and Conservative movements, and my personal experience as a Jewish convert. By the end of the conversation, she was fascinated by the diversity of Jewish expression in the U.S. and wanted to learn more about Jewish life in America and Ukraine.”
Budapest was chosen for its accessibility to participants from Ukraine, Israel, and the U.S. With its rich Jewish history, it was the perfect backdrop for the retreat. Jeff noted, “The Jewish community in Budapest has an incredible history and a promising future. The JCC in Budapest plays a crucial role in that community, and their CEO, Marcell Kenesei, is an inspiring leader.” Jeff fondly recalled his first experience tasting Chimney Cake, a local delicacy, which added a memorable touch to the retreat.
Matthew reflected on his upbringing in the Jewish community in Boston. “I grew up in the Boston area among many Jews, though my family was not religious. My parents grew up in communist Poland, and I had to find my own way to the more organized sector of the Jewish community. It turns out that many people I encountered in Hungary had the same experience: That first post War generation did not always promote their Jewish identity leaving it to my generation to rediscover it. I, for the first time in my 46 years, realized that my story was not unique and can now much better understand my place in the Jewish world.”
Zina shared her emotional experience in Budapest: “The city felt so much like home, it was almost painful. From the classical architecture to the Soviet-era constructions, everything reminded me of Saint Petersburg. On the last night of the program, we had dinner on a boat on the Danube. While we enjoyed the view of the city lit up for Christmas, Ukrainians discussed the Jewish school destroyed in a missile attack, and Israelis talked about the hostage situation. Yet, we also laughed together, planned our next meeting, and held both pain and joy in the same moment. That’s our Jewish superpower.”
As we enter our season of miracles, a time of light and joy, we’re reflecting on all of the meaningful connections we’ve created together as a community. At the center is Jeff Dannick, whose programmatic vision as Executive Director of Pozez JCC guides all of our engagement opportunities and helps weave the fabric of connection that runs through Northern Virginia.
We sat down with Jeff to discuss his philanthropic beginnings, what makes the J such a special place, and recent sources of light in the Northern Virginia community.
Q: How did you find your career path?
A: I grew up in a suburb of Syracuse in a Jewish household. My parents have always been civic-minded, and raised me with those values. When I was a kid, there was a bike-a-thon to raise money for cancer research. The first year I did it, I raised the most money in contributions, and won a new bike. That was my first foray into fundraising, and I was hooked.
I spent 20 years in the nonprofit theater sector, and then seven years working for Israel Tennis and Education Centers, raising money through the sport of tennis to fund programs teaching life skills to economically challenged children in Israel. But I missed being close to the impact. A friend suggested I look into working at a JCC. I was skeptical at first because I’d never been a member of one. But as it turns out, a JCC is an amalgamation of all the things I care about – helping people in need—in particular, children and seniors, promoting arts and culture, and repairing the world. I realized I could shape the programming to focus on causes that I had experience with, like Israel engagement and supporting families battling pediatric cancer. My career has very much come full circle in that sense.
Q: You’re very focused on having a direct impact on those in need. How do you create a space at the J that’s supportive and impactful for people of all ages and backgrounds?
Our tagline is “Building Community, Enriching Lives,” and that guides everything we do. We lean into Jewish holidays, we lean into Shabbat, and we lean into our support of Israel, but we want everybody to feel comfortable here, whether that’s Jewish people or people of other faiths or people of no faith.
Q: You’ve created a Northern Virginia community built on engagement. How do you plan to move forward? What are your goals for our community this upcoming year?
A: The first goal is to continue to serve the people who we’re currently serving and to do it in a way that allows them to be successful in their lives, whether that’s the educational aspects, the social interaction aspects, or the physical, mental, and spiritual health of people.
Beyond that, we’re only scratching the surface of those we could impact, both in the Jewish community and in the broader community. So we’re looking to dig deeper into our outreach areas, and we’re also leaning into social impact areas. We’ve created a new Volunteer Services program because we believe that when people volunteer, it not only contributes to the cause they’re supporting, but it contributes to their own feelings of connection and accomplishment.
Q: Speaking of accomplishments, can you share a few sources of light and inspiration from the J this year?
A: Dean Bagdadi, our Israel Shaliach (emissary), has been an absolute bright spot. The way he’s been able to engage with people about a very complicated topic has brought light to the community and the individuals he has touched along the way. The work that we did around Oct. 7 to guide and comfort the community through an unimaginable tragedy, and programming the one-year commemoration of that massacre was very impactful.
Also, just being in this building. I love being at the J. If you come and sit in our lobby on any given day, you’ll see it’s a multi-generational place where everyone is valued—the people playing games, reading books, or chatting over coffee with friends and the Educators and little ones passing through while singing and holding hands. One member I was recently talking to said that she’d really been struggling personally in her life until she found her community at the J. You can talk about big picture issues that bring light. You can talk about specific events that bring light. But ultimately, to me, it’s the individual people whose lives have been affected by the work that we do that illuminate everything. To help Pozez JCC continue to create light and connection for our community, make a gift before the year ends.
Within the Inclusion and Disability Services program at the Pozez JCC, there is an active social group for people with disabilities. This group is called Going Places!. And yes, the exclamation point is an important part of the name! The group meets once a month to connect – to socialize and catch up on what is happening in each other’s lives and to participate in a fun activity. Most of the time, the group, true to its name, goes to places, but sometimes they meet at the Pozez JCC. Going Places! is a social group where people come to find acceptance, community, friendship, and fun.
In November, to echo the spirit of gratitude that is abundant at this time of year and to introduce the Jewish value of gemilut chasadim (acts of loving kindness), the Going Places! group met at the Pozez JCC to work on a volunteer activity coordinated with the J’s Volunteer Services program. The event, Cupcakes and Kindness, brought participants together to decorate cupcakes that were later donated to Second Story for Teens Shelter, a local organization serving teens in crisis.
After learning a little about the mission of Second Story, the group of mostly young adults, with a couple of mature teens who joined in on the fun, learned cupcake decorating techniques and created art with icing, candy, and decorations. Everyone took great efforts to make beautiful cupcakes that they were sure would make the Second Story teens smile with delight when received. And, don’t be mistaken, the Going Places! friends made sure to make enough cupcakes so they could also have some for themselves. So many cupcakes were decorated that there were even enough to bring some home to family and community members at a group home.
The cupcakes were delivered to Second Story that week and the staff were so appreciative of the beautiful work and kindness shown by the Going Places! members.
