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TAY-SACHS &
CANAVAN Grad Network Initiative Supports Shabbat & CANAVAN
SCREENING we don’t really have that so
SCREENING L O CAL
SELAH MAYA ZIGHELBOIM | JE STAFF
SOON AFTER THE Tree of
Life*Or L’Simcha shooting,
Lyssia Katan and a dozen of
her friends gathered around
a Shabbat dinner of challah,
stuffed grape leaves and chicken
to honor the 11 victims.

Katan organized the din-
ner with support from the
Jewish Graduate Student
Network’s Shabbat Across
Philly Initiative, which helped
her cover the costs.

Inspired by similar pro-
grams aimed at undergraduate
students at Hillels across the
country, the Shabbat Across
Philly Initiative provides sup-
port for graduate students and
young professionals interested
in hosting their own Shabbat
dinners. This support can
include answering questions
about how to do certain bless-
ings, connecting participants
to resources in the commu-
nity and reimbursing food and
plasticware costs for $7 per
person for up to 10 people.

“It’s very difficult to come
together for a Shabbat dinner,”
said Katan, a Drexel University
alum and a young professional
working in construction mate-
rials. “Many people are far
from their families. On cam-
pus at least, I know several of
my friends were in AEPi. We
would always go to Chabad or
Hillel for Shabbat, but since
much and everybody’s spread
out, it was really nice to have
everybody back together for a
Shabbat and just hang out and
reminisce on how it was.”
The initiative had a “soft
launch” around the High
Holidays, said Tslil Shtulsaft,
executive director of Hillels in
Philadelphia and the Graduate
Student Network.

“We are supporting and
empowering all of these grad-
uate students and young pro-
fessionals that perhaps have
never taken a leadership role in
their lives in an organization,”
Shtulsaft said. “And now, they
are responsible for hosting a
Shabbat Jewish experience.”
When the initiative first
launched, a handful of people
participated. After the shooting,
interest surged as young adults
like Katan were inspired to put
on Shabbat dinners of their own.

“We were hearing over and
over that people wanted to do
something,” Shtulsaft said.

“They just weren’t sure what to
do. Some of them went to syn-
agogue the following Saturday.

Some of them maybe partic-
ipated in Shabbat dinners if
they knew of any.”
The Grad Network sent out
information about the initiative
through email and social media,
and dozens of people in the com-
munity decided to participate.

Since then, the number of par-
ticipants has tapered, but Program
Director Mallory Kovit said that
CALL (215) 887-0877
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■ Screening for other
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Nat’l Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases
Association of Delaware Valley
A Shabbat dinner supported by the Shabbat Across Philly Initiative
Photo provided
as the new semester starts there’s
been an increase in interest.

“We’re not able to engage all
grad students every Friday night
and certainly they’re not able
to come every Friday night to
an event that we would hold,”
Kovit said. “We want more people
to experience Shabbat in their
homes and feel that community.”
To participate, graduate
students or young profession-
als should fill out an online
questionnaire, available on the
organization’s website.

The Grad Network asks
hosts to send a list of the attend-
ees’ names and email addresses
dinner, if you’re going to invite
your friends to your house for
anything, any dinner, why not
have it be Shabbat?”
The Grad Network has
wanted to launch a program like
this for some time to reach more
people, Shtulsaft said. He esti-
mates that between 80 and 85
percent of those who’ve attended
Shabbat Across Philly din-
ners have not previously been
involved in the Grad Network.

In June, an anonymous
donor made the initiative pos-
sible by providing a gift cov-
ering the full expenses of the
initiative for a year.

“We’re in this era of peo-
ple not necessarily connect-
ing with traditional Judaism,”
Shtulsaft said, “so we want to
provide an opportunity for
them to experience Judaism on
their own terms.” l
so they can track who is com-
ing to the events. These people
do not, Kovit said, get added to
an email blast list.

The Grad Network also asks
participants to take a photo of
their Shabbat and share it on
social media with the hashtag
#ShabbatAcrossPhilly. If partic-
ipants are shomer Shabbat, they
can take a photo of Shabbat
preparation, Kovit said.

“Shabbat is not as hard as it
might seem,” Kovit said. “There
is preparation needed, but it can
really be something that if you
decide on a Monday or Tuesday szighelboim@jewishexponent.com;
that you’re going to have Shabbat 215-832-0729
JFRE Members Focus on Security, Future Projects
L O CAL
JED WEISBERGER | JE STAFF
FOLLOWING THE OPEN-
ING of the revamped $7 mil-
lion Philadelphia Holocaust
Memorial Plaza in October,
the Jewish Federation Real
Estate Group (JFRE) is turning
its focus in 2019 to another
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM area of interest — security.

“We’re assessing what our
synagogues and schools need,”
said JFRE Executive Committee
Chairman Michael Markman,
president of BET Investments.

“We’ve already gotten several
requests. As JFRE goes on, we’ve
been able to raise more and
more money for projects like
this. We want to make sure all
our synagogues are protected,
especially after what happened
in Pittsburgh. It give us satis-
faction to be able to help in an
important area.”
Decisions about the proj-
ects to pursue are made by the
entire Executive Committee.

“We have no fixed procedure
See JFRE, Page 22
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