Deputy CEO

T’ruah is seeking a full-time Deputy CEO who will work in partnership with the CEO to advance T’ruah’s strategic vision, ensure that T’ruah’s policies and programming advance our strategy, guide sustainable growth, support the growth of a values-driven staff culture, lead key interdepartmental processes, address organizational challenges and opportunities, and represent the organization in public forums and key partnerships.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned leader, a strategic thinker, and an expert manager of people and processes, who has a strong knowledge of the Jewish community and is aligned with T’ruah’s values and policies, and ready to help the organization grow and thrive.

Who We Are

T’ruah brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.

To learn more about our work, visit www.truah.org or find us @truahrabbis on social media.

What You’ll Do

The Deputy CEO reports to the CEO and is responsible for the following:

• Strategic Planning, Goal Setting & Organizational Performance
  • Long-term Strategy Development and Implementation
    • Ensure that T’ruah’s programs and policies reflect our current strategic priorities and theory of change.
    • Facilitate annual organization-wide planning and goal setting.
    • Lead the organization’s next strategic planning process in 2025 or 2026.
    • Oversee a regular review and adjustment of strategic priorities to respond to changes in the external environment.
    • Oversee rollout of strategies, policies, and programs.
    • Provide regular updates to CEO, Leadership Team, and Board of Directors regarding progress toward strategic priorities and goals.
  • Aligning Goals with Strategy
    • Facilitate annual departmental goal setting processes, and ensure that each department is setting, tracking, and meeting clear and measurable objectives that advance the organization’s strategic priorities.
    • Collaborate with leadership to ensure departmental goals are consistent with the organization’s overarching mission and vision.
    • Monitor progress toward goals, and lead regular check in meetings to ensure progress toward goals.
    • Implement planning tools and processes and ensure compliance across the organization.
  • Measuring Impact
    • Implement and lead evaluation tools and processes to ensure the effectiveness of our work.
  • Workforce Planning
    • Assess current and future personnel needs to support programmatic growth and achievement of strategic priorities.
    • Implement succession planning and leadership development programs to build a robust talent pipeline for critical roles.
• People/Culture
  • Employee Engagement & Well-being
    • Foster a staff culture that reflects T’ruah’s values, and that supports staff in feeling valued, successful, and proud of their work.
    • Facilitate team building, relationships, and strong internal communication through leading staff meetings, staff education programs, and an annual retreat.
    • Lead the onboarding process for new staff and the offboarding process for departing staff.
    • Manage annual and quarterly staff engagement surveys and lead action based on results.
    • Develop programs/initiatives to recognize, reward, and retain employees.
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • Spearhead the ongoing development of T’ruah's DEI strategy, ensuring it aligns with the organization's overall mission and values.
    • Develop measurable DEI goals, including specific initiatives that address systemic barriers and foster a more inclusive work environment.
    • Facilitate regular DEI training and education programs to ensure all staff, at all levels, are equipped to contribute to an inclusive culture.
    • Collaborate with external consultants or experts when needed to ensure that the DEI strategy remains dynamic and incorporates best practices.
    • Foster an inclusive work culture
    • Build a culture of inclusion where all staff feel valued, respected, and empowered to bring their full selves to work.
    • Address microaggressions, discrimination, or any behaviors that undermine the organization’s DEI values, ensuring a transparent and supportive grievance process.
    • Lead initiatives that promote dialogue and understanding across differences, such as facilitated discussions, affinity groups, or intersectional learning opportunities.
    • Establish a system for measuring and reporting on the progress of DEI initiatives, including regular feedback loops with staff to assess the effectiveness of these efforts.
    • Co-chair the joint board-staff DEI Committee, cultivating the voices of staff and board members in making recommendations for furthering T’ruah’s DEI strategy.
  • Talent Development
    • Identify and implement staff learning opportunities, including opportunities to learn more about T’ruah’s work, our policies, and our field; and to develop specific knowledge and skills that will help staff grow as leaders
    • Support the leadership development of managers, including helping supervisors gain the skills they need to succeed, and supporting managers in addressing specific challenges
    • Provide or identify training, workshops, and courses to build skills and knowledge
    • Help employees map out their trajectories within the organization
    • Ensure that performance management systems promote employee development and accountability
  • Internal Communication & Transparency
    • Foster open communication and transparency
    • Lead internal communication strategies that ensure all staff are informed and aligned with the organization’s goals
    • Implement a communication strategy that ensures all staff understand how their roles contribute to strategic objectives.
• Cross-departmental alignment
  • Create systems for interdepartmental collaboration to ensure smooth execution of organizational goals
  • Organize regular check-ins between department heads to resolve conflicts and streamline processes across teams
  • Assume project management responsibility for special cross-departmental initiatives, as necessary
  • Serve as a resource for department heads, providing necessary guidance on strategy, team management, and performance.
• Board partnerships
  • Work with CEO, board members, and other staff to prepare for board meetings
  • Work closely with board members as needed, including on strategic planning
  • Serve as the staff liaison to one or more board committees
• Representing T’ruah externally
• Serve as a public face of the organization in key forums, including coalition meetings, conferences, and with external partners
• Facilitate and manage strategic partnerships with other organizations in the Jewish and human rights spaces

You will collaborate closely with many colleagues in addition to the CEO, including the Chief Programs Officer, Chief Communications Officer, Chief Development Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Senior Director of Campaigns and Organizing, and Director of Learning.

Supervision responsibilities to be determined.

Who You Are & Keys to Success

To be successful in this job, you will be or have:

• Experience in strategic planning, goal setting, evaluation, and project management
  • You have led strategic planning and goal setting processes, have experience in evaluation, and are ready to guide T’ruah to the next stage of our organizational growth.
  • You have a successful track record of taking a concept from idea to fruition. You have experience and enjoy leading a group of staff and/or volunteers to accomplish a common goal.
• Strong emotional intelligence and experience managing people and culture
  • You have experience managing people and departments, are able to work with people with multiple perspectives and experiences, have strong active listening skills, and bring vision and experience to establishing and maintaining a strong staff culture.
  • You have a demonstrated track record of building authentic relationships. You demonstrate appropriate use of self in professional contexts and elicit similar vulnerability in others. You put relationship before task without dropping the larger vision and goals. You demonstrate integrity, acting in line with your, and the organization’s, values.
• Knowledge of Jewish communal sector and understanding of the needs of rabbis
  • You have experience working in the Jewish community and understand the breadth of opinions, perspectives, and strategies that various organizations and leaders bring. You can relate to people coming from a variety of perspectives, and working in different milieus. You have direct professional and/or personal experience in Jewish institutions and understand the role of rabbis, as well as the pressures on them and the opportunities they have.
• Racial diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) values
  • Knowledge and familiarity with DEI principles. Recognizes ways that race and other identities intersect in the work, both with communities we serve and with fellow colleagues. Willingness to talk about identities such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, ability, or gender in plain, specific terms. Understands the historical context for racial inequity and its present-day implications.
  • Self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Able to reflect on and describe the impact of one’s own identities—and those of others—in a given situation, decision, or process. Demonstrates awareness of growing edges. Able to hear, reflect, act on, and learn from feedback re: identity and equity.
• Alignment with T’ruah’s values
  • You are aligned with T’ruah’s mission, campaigns, and positions and feel comfortable representing these publicly. You share our commitment to human rights, including to the safety and dignity of both Israelis and Palestinians. You support a political solution that ends the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and that resolves the status of Jerusalem and its residents; and the future of Israel as a Jewish democratic state side-by-side with a State of Palestine.

The following educational degrees are a plus, but are not required:

• Rabbinic or cantorial ordination
• Master of Public Administration
• Master of Business Administration
• Master of Nonprofit Management
• Master of Social Work with a focus on community leadership or human rights
• Master's in Jewish Studies or Jewish Communal Service

Systemic inequities in hiring have caused many women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. If you don’t have all of the qualifications listed above but are extremely organized, passionate about our mission, and believe you have applicable and transferable skills from other industries or experiences, we encourage you to apply for this job. We’d love to hear from you. In your cover letter, be sure to explicitly highlight how your experience, skills, and personal qualities have set you up to succeed in the role.

What Else You Should Know

Status

This position is full-time.

Salary

This position is in T’ruah’s $105,000 - $150,000 salary band. We set salary within this band through a collaborative process using a standard rubric based on years of experience.

Location

You will ideally reside in the New York area and be available for in-person meetings in our office approximately once a week. We will also consider candidates living outside of New York, ideally between Boston and DC, with availability for occasional in-person meetings on the East Coast.

Travel

All staff are expected to attend a semi-yearly team-building retreat, and to attend our annual fundraising gala. There may also be travel for conferences, meetings, and other events.

Benefits include:

• T’ruah pays for 100% of the employee’s premium and 50% of one dependent’s premium on our recommended medical insurance plan
• Employer-covered basic life and AD&D insurance valued at $10,000
• Optional benefit plans available at employee expense: dental, vision, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, supplemental life insurance, and supplemental AD&D insurance
• Automatic employer contributions of an amount equal to 3% of your salary to your 403(b) retirement account beginning one year after the date of hire - whether or not you make elective deferral contributions
• 15 vacation days a year in your first year of employment, increasing to 20 days a year at the start of your second year of employment
• 34 holidays a year, which includes Jewish and most Federal holidays, Summer Fridays, and a floating holiday
• Paid leave of up to 12 weeks for the birth or adoption of a child

Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)

T’ruah is committed to DEI at every level of our organization, including our Board of Directors. For the past several years we have been actively working on becoming an antiracist organization. We recently published a set of organizational values reflecting this commitment.

Equal opportunity employer

T’ruah isn’t just an equal opportunity employer. We are actively seeking to build a diverse and inclusive team with a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. T’ruah does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, personal appearance, family responsibility, political affiliation or any other status protected by applicable law. Women, transgender people, veterans and people of color are encouraged to apply.

Compliance with eligibility verification law

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.

Our Timeline

Applications will be accepted, and interviews will be conducted, on a rolling basis. Our ideal start date for this position is as soon as possible.

How to Apply

Submit the form on this page. Your cover letter will be used as a writing sample. No phone calls, please.