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Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
S habbat doesn’t always look like a quiet dinner with candle
lighting and prayers over wine and bread. Sometimes, it looks
like a Free Britney dance party to raise awareness of pop star
Britney Spears’ conservatorship; other times, it looks like mural
painting in West Philadelphia.

These unconventional evenings aren’t just pipe dreams of young
Jews; they’re events that have materialized as a way for a generation
who have shied away from becoming synagogue members to live
Jewishly. They’re also ideas that OneTable Philadelphia Field Manager
Emma Chasen has helped support through the organization, which
provides funding to young Jews looking to foster community
through Shabbat dinners.

Chasen, 30, has even hosted an esoteric Shabbat in her Manayunk
home through OneTable, gathering Mason jars and essential oils and
10 DECEMBER 1, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
encouraging guests to create fragrant
potions to bring home with them.

“You can explore your Judaism; you
can contemplate on different kinds of
philosophical — or even more mun-
dane — questions that are coming up
in your life over community over a
dinner table,” Chasen said. “You can
incorporate rituals that have been used
historically, and/or you can make up
your own ones that feel really mean-
ingful to you.”
In December, Chasen will leave
OneTable in pursuit of her graduate
studies at Jefferson University, where
she is receiving her master’s degree in
medical cannabis science and business.

But having moved to Philly with her
fiancee only a year ago, she said she
wouldn’t have been able to find her
bearings in the new city so easily with-
out OneTable.

“That expansiveness allowed me to
be able to show up in a way that still felt
really authentic to me, and it was such a
beautiful feeling of belonging that I had
not felt at any kind of institutionalized
Jewish space,” she said.

Chasen grew up in a secular Jewish
household in Long Island, New York,
where she celebrated the major Jewish
holidays, but did not receive a formal
Jewish education or become bat mitz-
vah in a synagogue.

“I always felt like I was kind of
being an imposter,” Chasen said of her
Judaism. Her relationship with Judaism began
to change when she read a book about
divine feminine mystique traditions,
which contained a chapter about
Shabbat. She absorbed the book while
on an eight-day cruise without internet
or cellphone service, a prolonged “tech
Shabbat,” she called it.

After the cruise, Chasen approached
another secular Jewish friend about
starting a Shabbat practice. Her
friend pointed her in the direction of
OneTable. When Chasen joined OneTable in
October 2021, the organization was
just starting to flourish in Philadelphia,
gaining enough traction, as well as a
grant from the Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia, to create and fill
the role of a field manager in the city
after five or so years of building interest.

Having moved to the city on Oct.

1, the job became an opportunity for
Chasen to learn Philadelphia’s commu-
nity, something she has been in pursuit
of in every city she’s called home.

After graduating from Brown
University with a bachelor’s degree in
medicinal plant research and ethno-
botany, Chasen moved to Portland,
Oregon, with an interest in attending
naturopathic school, right before the
state’s adult-use marijuana sales.

She worked at a dispensary and
“loved talking to people” and using her
undergraduate degree to help patrons
and patients navigate medical mari-
juana. Chasen became general man-
ager and later director of education for
the business before leaving to become a
consultant and to work to open a hand-
ful of dispensaries in Portland.

The opportunity at OneTable allowed
Chasen to relocate and live in a more
affordable city to continue her educa-
tion, but leaving her Portland commu-
nity behind was painful for her. Looking
for an outlet for her creative energy and
quest for homemaking, Chasen trans-
formed her Manayunk row home into
the Philly Fun House, painting the walls
with bright, flowing patterns and deco-
rating the space with an amalgamation
of textured furniture and decor. She and
her fiancee rent the space out for photo
shoots and feature it on TikTok.

“It’s part of a scar, if you will, of a
time when I felt really depressed and
alone, but to see what I could create out
of that — the beauty and the lightness
and the color — I feel really proud,”
she said.

Just as Chasen has created a person-
alized version of her home, she believes
she’s done the same with her time
at OneTable, guiding the organization
with her flair and goals for communi-
ty-building. She hopes her successor
will do the same.

“The way that I’ve grown the hub and
managed the field and the community
might be completely different from the
next person who comes in,” Chasen
said. "But I think that’s a really cool
aspect of it because then it can grow in
so many different, equally wonderful
ways.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Emma Chasen
Emma Chasen



nation / world
Hispanic MLB Players Visit Israel to Promote Christian-Jewish
Relations Three Hispanic Major League Baseball players were recently brought to Israel for
a week by the Philos Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promotes
Christian relations with Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, JTA.org
reported. The athletes — Nelson Cruz, former Phillies second basemen Cesar Hernandez
and Jeimer Candelario, all Major League Baseball players in the United States
— were surprised by what they learned at lunch, too. For instance, they had not
known of the existence of Black Jews, including the thousands of Ethiopians
living in Israel.

The players and their significant others toured Christian sites in Jerusalem and
the Galilee and ran a baseball clinic for Jewish and non-Jewish youth in Raanana.

The visit also aimed to “proactively” combat antisemitism, Philos Project
Director of Hispanic Affairs Jesse Rojo said, “to show our baseball players that
they can make a difference, not wait for someone to come out with an antisemitic
tweet to do something.”
Israelis Are Gaining Weight and Smoking More,
New Report Finds
Israel is in the midst of a national obesity epidemic, Israeli health care workers
are warning, jns.org reported.

“We’re in the midst of a global epidemic that has reached Israel — the obesity
epidemic,” said Dr. Dan Oyero, a specialist in family medicine and an obesity
doctor at Maccabi Health Services, according to Ynet.

“Obesity is a chronic, multi-systemic disease that must be treated professionally
since it leads to many illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease and mental and
emotional problems,” he said.

According to a National Program for Quality Indicators report released on
Nov. 22, both obesity and smoking are rising in Israel.

“The data shows that the epidemic is weakening among the overall population,
but we know that those in a low socio-economic group are more exposed to it,”
Oyero said.

The data regarding Israelis’ cigarette consumption also is concerning.

Approximately 20.1% of Israelis aged 16 to 74 smoke, up from 19.6% in 2019.

“In recent years, we’re seeing an increase in smokers in the overall population
and also among teenagers,” said Professor Yossi Azouri, an expert in family med-
icine at Maccabi Health Services, according to the report.

Birthright Israel to Scale Back Again, Slashes Free Trips by Up
to a Third
Birthright Israel is drastically cutting back on the number of free trips it plans
to offer to Jewish young adults, scaling back its operations by up to a third, the
organization announced on Nov. 21, according to JTA.org.

The cuts come amid what the organization said is a mix of financial pressures,
chiefly inflation and heightened travel expenses in a post-COVID world. It plans
to make added appeals to its top donors but still expects to heavily reduce its
Israel trips in 2023 to as few as 23,500 participants, down from 35,000 this year
and 45,000 annually pre-pandemic.

“The significant cost increases of our program mean that we will not be able
to accommodate as many applicants in the coming years,” Birthright CEO Gidi
Mark said in a statement.

However, Birthright’s own fundraising has not been affected. A Birthright
spokesperson told JTA that the organization expects its funding to increase from
2022 to 2023, but that the growth won’t be enough to compensate for the rise in
expenses and inflation.

Earlier this year Birthright said it would lower the maximum participation age
to 26, after five years of allowing Jews aged 27 to 32 to enroll. The group’s lead-
ership said at the time that the increased age limit was backfiring by convincing
younger Jews to keep delaying their trips. JE
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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