Zschool Alum Jasmine Tarkoff ’21 Leads Multi-Faith Effort for Affordable Housing

This December, Jasmine Tarkoff ’21 will be among those leading a ribbon-cutting in Northern California to introduce an innovative concept in affordable housing: cottage communities on land owned by religious institutions. Hope Solutions, a non-profit homeless services provider, and Grace Presbyterian Church of Walnut Creek, will welcome six formerly unhoused seniors into their new community. “Hope Village is the first-of-its-kind cottage community on faith-owned land in our county, and I couldn’t be prouder of the collaborations that made it possible,” Tarkoff said.

Tarkoff, a Consultant for Strategic Initiatives at Hope Solutions and Co-Convener of the Multi-faith ACTION Coalition, says the opening of Hope Village Walnut Creek at Grace Presbyterian Church represents a major step in the fight against the housing affordability crisis and homelessness in her community. The initiative, which stemmed from her Capstone project at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management, is also an expression of her most deeply-held values – principles she honed at the Zschool.

“In the Zschool, we teach the importance of values-driven, relevant and impactful leadership,” says Zschool Director Rabbi Shirley Idelson, Ph.D., “and Jasmine offers a shining example of this.” Tarkoff demonstrated the immediate applicability of her Zschool training in addressing an urgent communal need, Idelson says, with the implementation of her Capstone project after she earned her Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and Innovation (MSOLI) degree in 2021.

Before coming to the Zschool, Tarkoff had a career in technology, and then made the shift to the non-profit sector. She also served as President of Temple Isaiah in Lafayette, California, and it was during that time that she recognized the profound impact Jewish values can have on decision making, organizational dynamics and interactions. “After my presidency, I realized that what I really wanted to do was to delve deeper into nonprofit leadership grounded in Judaism and Jewish values.”

The Zschool’s approach is pluralistic, and Tarkoff says she found a welcoming environment in the MSOLI program. “I grew up in a multi-faith family. My father is an Indian Muslim and my mother was a Christian. I was not born Jewish. I am a proud Jew by choice. And I think another thing that made me unique was that I was definitely on the ‘older side’ of Zschool population and already had a couple of decades of career under my belt.”

“One of the things I really loved about the Zschool was that there was a lot of diversity,” Tarkoff adds, saying she soon found that “it was very clear that we all had something to learn from each other and we were really encouraged to draw upon each other’s strengths, skills and life experiences. So that made for a very rich learning environment.”

For her thesis, Tarkoff examined “The Influences, Barriers, and Opportunities to Engage Clergy in Social Justice Advocacy,” working with Sarah Bunin Benor, Ph.D., Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies, and Director of HUC-JIR’s Jewish Language Project. Her Capstone project, advised by then Zschool Director Erik Ludwig, Ph.D., focused on leveraging unused faith institution-owned land to build Tiny Homes (or micro-communities) as a way to quickly and affordably address the homelessness crisis. “It was really through my Capstone project that I developed a concept around building affordable cottage communities on faith-owned land,” she says.

Tarkoff immediately put that concept into action after graduation, signing on as a consultant with Hope Solutions. She says the organization was grappling with “a real shortfall of housing for their clients, and I was keen to apply the findings of my Capstone project around leveraging the unused land of churches, synagogues, and mosques.”

Applying her entrepreneurial skills strengthened through the Zschool curriculum, Tarkoff found a receptive audience among leaders from different local religious organizations, who she says were “seeing a lot of decline in membership and enthusiasm around faith institutions,” and were, as a result, often sitting on unused property. “These leaders were open to thinking of new ways to put their faith into action,” Tarkoff says.

Another unusual part of Tarkoff’s path was taking the Zschool’s teachings on Jewish leadership and applying them in a multi-faith context. “While synagogues are candidates for building cottage communities, the most immediate opportunity was with churches looking to revitalize their mission and leverage their assets in new ways,” she says.

Tarkoff’s model also included the use of manufactured and factory-built homes, which she says are less expensive and quicker to build. “You can simultaneously build the units in a factory while you’re doing the work to prepare the site, which means you can bring housing online more quickly and more cost effectively.” In keeping with this principle, the homes for the Grace Presbyterian project were built in a factory in Dublin, while crews worked simultaneously to prepare the church site in Walnut Creek.

Tarkoff is also working to advance policy changes that will make it easier for other jurisdictions in California to replicate the model and repurpose parcels of land for affordable housing development. “I also got involved in chairing a capital campaign, because one of the other huge barriers to affordable housing is the lack of funding,” she says. She emphasizes that representatives of other faith groups have joined the local Jewish community as “very generous donors,” and she says that’s precisely the kind of work she wants to do in the world – especially at what she calls a “critical juncture.”

“The Jewish community must navigate a profound obligation to safeguard the Jewish people and to support Israel and remain committed to the wellbeing of the broader community and the world at large, Tarkoff says. “It’s very important to me as a Jew to be doing things to proactively support the Jewish community. And I also believe it’s very important for us as Jewish leaders to step outside the Jewish community and continue to be beacons of hope. This is achieved by working in a multi-faith context where we are transcending differences in the pursuit of justice and continuing to lift up our passions and commitments around the obligation to Tikkun Olam. That’s a philosophy that I really developed at the Zschool.”

Tarkoff says the Zschool also taught her “how to approach each project with a ‘lean startup’ methodology to fail fast, when necessary, and pivot to find new ways to get the projects done. I find myself leveraging much of the learning from this program, and it grounds me in frameworks and tools that I can use to lead through the vast and complex barriers to providing more affordable housing.”

“I look forward to others adopting the model of this cottage community initiative – which, while not solving the entire affordable housing problem, is a great start to putting Tikkun Olam into action,” Tarkoff says. “At a time when it feels like so much can divide us, this initiative has given hope to the impact we can have collectively when we work together.”

Tarkoff says that, while her Zschool journey is unique, it nonetheless highlights a potential path for other Zschool graduates looking to apply their learnings and skills in a broader, multi-faith context. “Leading with a Jewish heart and Jewish values is good for everyone, not just the Jewish Community, and my hope is that others will pursue careers that can straddle different communities’ needs in the future.”