Portrait

Jessica Flamholz: Working for Change

The objective on Jessica Flamholz’s resume reads:

To obtain a position that will enable me to use my strong organizational skills, my diverse experiences in the community, and my passion for working with people toward social change.

Nothing too earth shattering, but consider the resume that follows.

  • Volunteer at Yemin Orde Wingate Youth Village in Israel, helping students improve their English skills.
  • Enumerator for the U.S. Census (working in rural southeastern Pennsylvania, driving to the kinds of places your GPS will not help you find, braving everything from slammed doors and suspicion to a screaming woman, with her hand on a shotgun).
  • Volunteer coordinator, Trivedi for Congress, Reading, PA (working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the last month of an intensely fought race).
  • ESL and housing organizer, New York Communities for Change, NYC, (traveling daily to slums in inner-city communities like Hunts Point, Morris Heights, and Far Rockaway, fighting for tenants’ rights and forming life-long friendships with them in the process).
  • Assistant to Cantor Rogosnitzky at the historic Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, working as event planner, coordinator, administrator, and secretary, meeting people ranging from the famous Dr. Ruth Westheimer, queen of all things taboo, to her musical idol, Itzhak Perlman.

It is easy to quickly gain an appreciation for Flamholz’s “diverse experiences”—especially considering she is 25 years old.

Flamholz (A&S’09), received her bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Italian summa cum laude from the Dietrich School’s Departments of French and Italian Languages and Literatures and Hispanic Languages and Literatures. Her adaptability and self-proclaimed “wanderlust” has already led her around the globe and to the rich and varied blend of jobs and experiences that grace her resume today—just three years post-graduation.

***

Down the path from her apartment, the air crackles with rhythmic clapping and the sound of a quivering violin, a triumphant horn, and drums blasting through speakers. She rushes toward the crowd gathered around a makeshift stage where three pairs of hanichim (students) from 12th-grade are dancing in white, gauzy tunics and dresses. She drinks in the sight of the dancers shaking and shimmying. The boys kneel before the girls, hands on their hips, and the girls respond and shimmy back. As everyone cheers, the boys leave in a procession, acting as priests. A few shoulder Torah scrolls, and others hold embroidered umbrellas over the student playing rabbi. From the stage, the rabbi reads Psalms and prayers, and then announces the procession to the synagogue. The entire village breaks into balagan (chaos)—jumping, shrieking, clapping, cheering, undulating toward the edge of the mountain.

Jessica Flamholz is experiencing the Sigd, a traditional Ethiopian Jewish holiday that symbolizes the acceptance of the Torah.

“In Ethiopia, the community fasts and walks to the highest point on a mountain where they read Psalms and remember their desire to return to Jerusalem,” Flamholz writes in “The Sigd: A Jewish Ethiopian Celebration of Brotherhood” (an article she wrote for the cultures and customs section of Bright Hub, an educational web site, and from which the above description was taken). “To break the fast, they descend to the village to feast and rejoice.”

Flamholz lived and worked in Yemin Orde Youth Village outside Haifa, Israel, for five months in 2009-10. She was looking for an opportunity to do meaningful work after her graduation from the University of Pittsburgh. When she heard about the position through her godmother, who was president of the local Jewish Federation—she jumped at it.

“The village was (and still is) in constant flux; if at breakfast you were told something would happen, by lunch it was already rescheduled or nixed,” Flamholz recalls, noting that communication was difficult as well. Though she spoke three languages fluently (her native English, as well as Spanish and Italian), that did not help her with many of the residents, who spoke Hebrew. “All of this, though, definitely made me more adaptable and ready for any kink in the chain.”

Flamholz did not have a set framework for or supervision of her duties at Yemin Orde. Nevertheless, she welcomed it as a test of her creativity and relished the freedom to do things her way, pursuing students and setting up individualized tutoring sessions.

“The ultimate reward is knowing that, despite the language barrier, I am forever a part of the Yemin Orde community and the lives of the children with whom I lived,” says Flamholz. “They are the most resilient, hardworking, hopeful people I know. My Ethiopian students taught me how to eat injiera (a traditional sourdough flatbread), how to shake my shoulders (traditional Ethiopian dancing), and how to appreciate how universal love is. I will be dedicated to Yemin Orde’s mission for the rest of my life.”

***

Hazel Bedford lived in a dump. And, her landlord would not do anything about it. When she was struggling with stomach cancer, all she wanted after coming home from radiation treatments was a warm shower. But, her apartment in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx often lacked both heat and hot water. The front door lock of the complex was broken, and anyone could walk in, any time of day or night. Bathrooms flooded, apartments tested positive for lead, and walls sported huge plaster holes. The six-story, 26-unit building had as many as 341 open violations at one time.

Enter Jessica Flamholz, ESL and housing organizer for New York Communities for Change (NYCC).  Flamholz was looking for a new challenge after her work on the Trivedi congressional campaign and decided to move from her hometown of Reading, PA, to New York City.  And, a challenge she got. “Here I was, with little experience and knowledge of housing law, in a state I wasn’t familiar with, and with very little guidance or support from my supervisors,” Flamholz recalls. “Such lack of support allowed me and my tenants to forge ahead as we saw fit and take initiative.”

They managed to secure considerable media coverage around their issues (as illustrated with Hazel Bedford, who appeared on NYC news broadcasts and in multiple newspaper articles) and garnered community support through press conferences, rallies, and community board meetings.

“I now understand so well what it takes to bring a community together in order to enact positive change,” Flamholz reflects.

Today, Flamholz has moved onto her latest adventure. In stark contrast to her NYCC job, which took her into some of the city’s most “dreaded” communities, she works as assistant to Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky of Park East Synagogue on the posh Upper East Side. But, while she may not be working for social change for a marginalized population, she finds a different kind of meaning and fulfillment at Park East. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Flamholz find that being part of a Jewish community fills an important need in her life and gives her the vital cultural and religious grounding that she was missing in the city.

***

For someone who cannot say enough good things about Pitt and her professors, Flamholz was initially “dragged kicking and screaming”—albeit figuratively—to the University her freshman year. She had had her heart set on a writing program at another university, but her parents insisted on Pitt (for the more agreeable price tag and what they saw as great access to diverse opportunities). The tides quickly turned. Flamholz got involved and saw the world open up around her.

“I was constantly surprised by the interconnectedness of everything I did and encountered,” says Flamholz. “It may sound hokey, but to me, the planets aligned. The classes I took—whether about ancient philosophy, Spanish civilization, Italian theatre, or the history of astronomy—were in perfect harmony with the music I sang, the clubs I joined, and each other.”

She mentions an “amazing” cast of professors that enriched her time at Pitt—Associate Professor Gonzalo Lamana of the Hispanic department and Associate Professors Francesca Savoia and Lina Insana and Professor Dennis Looney of the French and Italian department. Flamholz also notes how incredibly lucky she was to study abroad not just once, but twice (Chile and Sicily).

“Pitt dared me to make sense of the world by learning from the past and infusing that wisdom into how I treat and respect other people, opinions, and visions of the world,” says Flamholz.

When she looks at where she has been so far and where she is heading, Jessica Flamholz quotes cellist and virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma: “What all of us love is constant innovating because it makes us feel alive. Everyone wants to continue working, but we want to evolve into something else. What it is…we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Flamholz adds her own two cents: “I thrive on the uncertainty that my options are open and could take me anywhere.”

We can only wonder where Flamholz’s resume objective will take her next. A “passion for working with people toward social change” could take her across the country—or around the world.

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