Elana Adler and Sara Zacky have joined JEWISHcolorado as Teen Engagement Coordinators. Adler came on board in January. This summer, she traveled to Europe with 30 teens on the Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour (IST). Zacky joined Jco in July. As August came to an end, they turned their attention to the many ways they will mentor and engage both Jewish and non-Jewish teens in the Jewish Student Connection (JSC) public school clubs.
Elana Adler
Elana Adler laughs when she calls herself an “extroverted extrovert” and says she is “honored” to have joined JEWISHcolorado’s staff as a Teen Engagement Coordinator.
“I transitioned from a highly independent role where I had the opportunity to lead and oversee an entire youth program, taking ownership of its day-to-day operations, programming, and impact, to a collaborative environment where I could bring that leadership experience to a great team,” she says. “JSC and IST are two already very strong programs, so we are building on a foundation that already exists.”
Adler grew up in the area around Aurora, Illinois. Her home synagogue is Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville, Illinois, where both her parents were Hebrew School teachers. She remembers her years at summer camp at Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute (OSRUI) in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, as the time where she discovered a love for Judaism and the Jewish community.
“What created joy for me at camp was celebrating Shabbat every week in a communal way with singing, dancing, and eating together family style,” she says. “Both the kids and the adults could not wait for Friday night.”
Camp also gave Adler her “first taste of Israel” through the many young Israeli adults, the mishlachat, who served as camp counselors. Her experience at camp inspired her to found a chapter of BBYO at Beth Shalom with her twin brother Jacob.
“We went to high school in Oswego, Illinois, where there are basically no other Jewish people,” she says. “I thought it was important to create a place that we could call home and bond with other Jewish teens our age.”
When it came time to attend college, Adler “fell in love” with CU Boulder where she was active in Chabad. She majored in Environmental Studies and worked at CU Boulder’s Village Center Greenhouse throughout college with an eye on working somewhere in the U.S in sustainable agriculture. Faced with a challenging post-COVID job market when she graduated, she pivoted and was awarded a three-year Union for Reform Judaism CLASP Fellowship which placed her at Congregation Har HaShem in Boulder and OSRUI during the summers.
At Har HaShem, she oversaw three youth groups, serving elementary, middle, and high school students, but she did not immediately think she would become a Jewish professional long-term. Then, October 7th happened, and she watched Israelis she considered friends and family suffering the consequences of the attack.
“There was so much worry and fear in my heart,” she says. “It became a pivotal moment in my career. The Jewish children in my community need a safe space, and I am the person who has the privilege of giving them that.”
Elana Adler (front right) with IST in Berlin
On her first trip to Israel in May of 2024, Adler says she “found that feeling of home.” When she joined JEWISHcolorado, she expected that her second trip to Israel would be with IST 2026. Instead, because of the war with Iran, she spent four weeks with IST in Europe getting to know the teens she will be mentoring when school starts through JSC.
“The teens on the trip were really magnificent human beings,” she says. “They connected to European history—even history that was horrific—and they tended to each other as they processed the experience.”
In her new role, Adler is excited to build on the meaningful impact she made within one congregation by expanding her reach and connecting with an even broader network of teens. She appreciates Jco for giving her the flexibility to practice as a more observant Jew. This self-confessed extrovert’s extrovert is ready for whatever the future will bring.
“I thought I was going to be a farmer, but I became a Jewish professional,” she says. “And I am exactly where I need to be.”
Sara Zacky
Much like her colleague Elana, Sara Zacky also loved going to Jewish camp in the summer. In her case, she spent eight years at Gindling Hilltop Camp, administered by Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Malibu, California.
“It was magical to be there with other Jewish kids,” she says. “Going to services on high holidays was never my favorite activity, but I loved services at camp. To me it was a home away from home.”
In late 2018, just as Zacky was looking forward to her first summer as a counselor, the camp burned in the Woolsey Fire. Campers were displaced from an ocean-front setting to a college campus.
“I learned that camp is more about the people than the place,” Zacky says. “There is something to be said about Jewish people being resilient and recovering from a situation like that.”
Zacky grew up in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles and attended an elementary school that was “at least 70 percent Jewish.” She is the second generation of her family to attend Adat Ari El Synagogue, where she went to preschool, Hebrew School, was confirmed, and was president of United Synagogue Youth when she was a senior in high school.
Sara Zacky (center) in Sacramento with a group of teens on an annual advocacy trip in partnership with the JCJ (Jewish Center for Justice).
She found Tulane University online and made up her mind, sight unseen, to apply for early decision admission. Her mother insisted they visit the school which only confirmed her belief that Tulane, with its large Jewish population and New Orleans location, was the right fit for her. She graduated with a BA in Art History and a BS in Anthropology and she completed an MA in Anthropology. Her goal was to work in museum education, but during college she became increasingly interested in Jewish education as an Assistant Educator for Youth and Teens and a Hebrew School Teacher at Touro Synagogue in New Orleans.
After October 7th, she often found herself uncomfortable when she heard fellow Tulane students spreading misinformation about Israel. Working at the synagogue, she found a safe place for herself and an opportunity to help Jewish young people.
“I wanted to offer teens the same experiences that I had growing up,” she says. “After October 7th, I felt like I was having an impact and wanted to continue being a part of that.”
Sara with her sisters and parents at camp on Shabbat.
After graduating in 2024, Zacky returned to Los Angeles to serve as Youth Engagement Coordinator at The Center for Youth Engagement of Wilshire Boulevard Temple. There, she she developed and ran teen programs and supervised more than 90 teen teaching assistants for the religious schools. This year, in search of adventure, she moved to Colorado where she began her new position as a Teen Engagement Coordinator in late July.
Zacky has not yet traveled to Israel—her birthright trip was canceled because of the war after October 7th. She is hopeful that next summer, IST will return to its usual itinerary of travel to Israel. She is also looking forward to the start of school this year and the return of JSC groups gathering at schools, a program that Zacky believes is “brilliant.”
“Meeting kids where they are is low barrier,” she says. “Anyone can come. Parents don’t have to drive them. It’s just lunch and hanging out!”
Zacky has already met some of the teens she will be working with this summer at teen leadership meetings.
“They are so excited, they want to be involved, and they have great ideas for activities,” she says. “It’s exciting to see them be so excited, and I am just feeding off their energy!”