Meet Sepi Djavaheri, Director, Community Mobilizers at the UJA Federation of New York. Having fled the Iranian revolution at an early age with her family, landing in Germany and eventually the U.S., Sepi has channeled her Jewish faith and the experience of being “other” into a focus on building connection and community to combat the social isolation and loneliness that so many in our communities experience.

A couple of weeks ago, I was having breakfast in a hotel lobby in Omaha, NE, when I noticed an older man hovering over a table where a dad and his two young children were seated. The older man, who had clearly just met this family, chatted with them while they ate their breakfast. After a while, it started to feel awkward, at least to me as an eavesdropper. It felt like the man had overstayed this encounter with strangers, that he hung around too long while the family was just trying to enjoy their morning. And then I remembered an event we co-hosted in September on Faith Communities Fighting Isolation and stopped to think: Maybe this man was lonely.

Meet Rev. Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes, Inaugural Director of the Technology, Innovation & Digital Engagement Lab (TIDEL) Fellowship at Union Theological Seminary, as well as pastor, author, public theologian, coach, brand strategist, and more. Faith, leadership, and innovation have been threads through Dr. Gabby’s numerous and impressive endeavors, and continue to guide her in her latest role supporting faith sector leaders to creatively use technology to help address critical challenges.

If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the upcoming U.S. Presidential election, she will make history not just as the first woman, Black woman, and South Asian president but also as the person with the most religiously diverse background to ever hold the role.

Earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report about an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the U.S. Since Robert Putnam published his highly-acclaimed and widely-read book Bowling Alone in 2000, we've all been aware of the fraying social fabric in our country and the decline of organizations like faith communities that build social capital. The situation has now reached crisis proportions. With so many people crying out for community and connection, why are faith communities, which have fostered community and connection for centuries and millennia, failing to meet the demand?

Meet Abigale Haug, who we are thrilled to introduce as innoFaith’s new Communications Manager. We are grateful to have Abbie’s passion, skill, and beautiful spirit supporting the innoFaith mission. Originally from Minnesota, Abbie just moved from Washington, DC, to Somerville, Massachusetts, where she is working on a Masters of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity.

Meet Rabbi Esther Lederman, Director of Congregational Innovation & Leadership at the Union for Reform Judaism. As a former congregational rabbi herself, Esther helps Jewish communities re-imagine their congregational life so they can adapt and thrive in an era of significant change and contribute to creating a better world.

We are thrilled to announce the In[HEIR]itance Project as the winner of the innoFaith award, given as part of Soularize Live in October 2021. The In[HEIR]itance Project—co-founded by Jon Adam Ross, Chantal Pavageaux, and Ariel Warmflash—uses participatory artmaking as a way to lower barriers to relationship. They build bridges in communities, create space for difficult conversations, and open pathways for change in one of the most creative models we’ve seen for interfaith engagement toward social impact.

In April, we hosted a conversation with Henry De Sio, Stephen Lewis, and Rabbi Elan Babchuck about how people and communities of faith can lead in a world of explosive change. One thread that emerged in the conversation was the question of how faith institutions think about success in a changing world. As Elan explained, “The old way has an old set of KPIs [Key Performance Indicators]: budgets, butts [in seats], and and buildings. This puts us in the entertainment industry, not the transformation industry.” So let’s start imagining a different framework, one that helps us position our leadership to bring transformation to an increasingly complex world. What would that look like?