Franny Silverman is a coach and consultant who does racial justice work with various organizations. Her many connections at Kolot led her to take an educator position in the congregation’s learning program. At the orientation for teachers, she remembers hearing Kolot’s mission statement and being shocked at how aligned with her values the congregation was. Franny became more involved in Kolot’s education program and co-developed a curriculum for an arts based, social justice class. She later became the Director of Youth Education and integrated the antiracist work happening at Kolot at the time into the education program. Franny became the Director of Learning and Action, and during her leadership both the Queer and Trans and the Israel-Palestine working group’s were formed. She is Queer, a parent, and a theatre-maker. A lot of Franny’s work has been in facilitating conversations across differences including within the Jewish community on the topic of Israel-Palestine. She is proud of the growth, not just in numbers but in richness, that the education program experienced under her direction. Franny is also proud of the relationships she built at Kolot and the relationships she helped to foster between people. Three words she would use to describe herself are bird, heart, and connector.

In this interview, franny silverman discusses her journey as an educator at Kolot, starting with her surprise at how aligned her values were with the teaching program, leading her to work at the Children’s Learning Program as an educator and then leader for 7 years. She speaks to how her Jewish-ness identity is entwined with a pull of obligation to work towards equity and how connecting with the educators at Kolot, who “were the best”, aligned with this obligation. franny discusses how social justice work must include facing emotionally-charged topics face-on, and how this approach is central to Kolot’s Children’s Learning Program and the formations of the Israel/Palestine Working Group, Queer and Trans Working Group, and Race Working Group. She speaks to how Kolot has centered equitable processes in the rabbinic search and how change, loss, and expansion are connected in her time at Kolot. She celebrates many of the educators she worked with, describes the curriculum they taught students at her time there, and closes the interview with gratitude for the leadership of founding Rabbi Ellen Lippmann.

“Kolot is not one thing” franny speaks to the different types of people that make up the Kolot community.

“I hope that as the Kolot community grows and shifts that people can continue to retain the ability to look inward at a collective level” franny discusses Kolot’s work addressing topics face-on with the hope that this will continue as the congregation grows and changes.

“What’s unique is Kolot” franny silverman speaks to the quality of human that teaches at Kolot.

“There’s no such thing as being too young to teach about race or oppression or equality or equity or identity” franny discusses the Children’s Learning Program as a place where educators speak candidly, and appropriately, with children of all ages about identity, equity, and the world.