Showing Up for LGBTQ+ Youth: Navigating Intersecting Identities In A Politicized World

With anti-oppressive pedagogy and a love of adventure as her modi operandi, Jaimie serves as Keshet's Director of Youth Programs. She brings a decade of creative curriculum design experience, an innovative spirit, crisis management skills, and boundless energy to this holy work of building a more just, affirming, and celebratory world for LGBTQ+ Jewish youth.

Prior to joining Keshet, Jaimie served as a Hillel campus professional for seven years (two at Muhlenberg College Hillel in PA, and five at Columbia/Barnard Hillel in NYC), creating and leading immersive experiences, reimagining Jewish tradition, and empowering students to seize ownership of their journeys and become leaders in their communities. She received her B.A. in political science and Jewish studies from the University of Florida, and her M.A. in experiential education and nonprofit professional leadership from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Throughout her career—and extending back to her teenage years—she has advocated for LGBTQ+ justice and inclusion, facilitating trainings at a variety of conferences, JCCs, and synagogues, and creating safe spaces for LGBTQ+ Russian-speaking Jewish teens in Brooklyn, NY.

She is a dedicated crisis counselor with The Trevor Project, can recommend a good taco place in just about every neighborhood of NYC, and lives in Manhattan with her wife and their dog, MishMish.

Amram (he/him) joined the Keshet team in 2017, where he works to make empowering, liberatory spaces for LGBTQ Jewish teens and young adults across the country. In 2017, he graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University, where he studied Jewish history and sociology. Prior to joining Keshet, he also spent three years writing for New Voices, an independent, online magazine created by and for Jewish college students, and was part of the Brandeis Precollege Programs community education team. He brings a passion for justice, Torah, writing, and the social sciences to his work as an educator and organizer. A New York native, Amram lives in upper Manhattan with his husband Jamie and their two cats, Perle and Herschel. He is currently pursuing a master’s in Jewish Professional Studies from the Spertus Institute. He likes to live his life with an unironic, unwavering love of cats, kale, coffee, and pop music.

Erica Hruby, M.A. is a Jewish educator with nearly 30-years of teaching, curriculum writing, and professional development experience in Jewish community, academic, and residential environments. Erica serves as Senior Manager, National Teen Education and Engagement at The Jewish Education Project. She is also the founder of Anchored Parenting, LLC where she serves as a parent educator and coach. Erica has an M.A. from Georgia School of Professional Psychology in Clinical Psychology with a focus on children and adolescents. She lives on the West Coast of Florida with her high school sweetheart with whom she shares two adult daughters.