HEADLINES
LOCAL Sharing Shabbat
in Greater Phoenix
just became
OneTable easier
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
A fter a serious accident sent Aleeza
Kaplan to recuperate in her parents’
house in San Diego, she felt completely
isolated, far from her home and friends
in Phoenix.

“I was lonely, I was sad and I was
hurting,” she told Jewish News.

When an old friend from Hillel reached
out and invited her to Shabbat dinner, she
quickly accepted, but giddiness turned to
confusion when she discovered it was like
no Shabbat she had been to before.

Instead of accepting the invitation by
text or phone call, she used a website,
OneTable.org. “There’s no way this is real,” she told
her friend. “What’s the catch? What’s
the agenda?”
She soon found out the “agenda”
was merely to share a Shabbat dinner
with a group of young adults. Whatever
happened next was up for grabs.

OneTable is a national nonprofit that
empowers young people in their 20s and
30s to find, share and enjoy Shabbat
dinners through its website.

Kaplan overcame any sense of
trepidation about using a website when
these Shabbatot became her entry into
San Diego’s Jewish community while
she was laid up at her folks’. She’s home
in Phoenix now, and as of Dec.5, she
is OneTable’s first Phoenix community
ambassador. In cities with a relatively large Jewish
young adult population, where there is
demand for something like OneTable,
the organization looks for people to
provide dedicated resources that keep it
independent of the national infrastructure,
said Ely Benhamo, OneTable’s director of
major gifts.

(Benhamo lives in Phoenix, where
she works remotely for the national
organization.) “If a community has its own page on
our platform and actual boots on the
ground, then we’re really able to grow
the community with more of a personal
touch,” she said.

Locals Joshua and Brittany Simon
committed to the creation of a Phoenix
hub for OneTable and agreed to raise the
money, which they did with the assistance
of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of
Greater Phoenix (CJP).

6 JANUARY 6, 2023
In her new par t-time position,
Kaplan will establish partnerships in the
community, review host applicants and all
Shabbat dinners posted to the platform in
Greater Phoenix. OneTable gives young
adult Jews — between the ages of 21 and
39 — money to host a Shabbat dinner
($300 if it’s open to the public; $100 if
it’s invitation only).

Additionally, Kaplan will ser ve as
support staff, a kind of “Shabbat coach,”
so to speak.

“She’ll be the connector, the coach,
the relationship builder,” Benhamo said.

“It’s all DIY. It’s all peer led. OneTable
doesn’t create the programs for them —
we just give them the tools and resources
to do that on their own.”
Madeline Dolgin first heard of
OneTable in college in New York,
and she attended a Shabbat dinner in
Phoenix using the national hub before the
pandemic. But it wasn’t until recently that
she saw its real value: a tool for creating
Jewish community.

Dolgin once worked at Hillel at
Arizona State University, where she had
easy access to a Jewish community on
campus. Once she left and transitioned
to more secular work, she investigated
ways to continue her involvement with
the Jewish community at large.

OneTable was appealing because of its
very low barrier for entry.

“You literally just sign up online and
register to be a host and they walk you
through the platform,” she said.

“The funding piece was huge because
I was still in my early career with a fairly
small salary and to be able to host Shabbat
dinner and host my friends — and afford
to pay for all of their food — was hard,”
she said.

And asking friends to pitch in? That was
just too awkward, she said.

When she and her husband joined
Congregation Kehillah in Cave Creek,
Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman asked for their
assistance in making young adults feel
more welcome.

In addition to a hiking club and
teaching Jewish education classes, the
couple has committed to hosting a
Shabbat dinner every month — OneTable
became a natural resource.

“Our Shabbat dinners are filled up with
Friends gather at Madeline Dolgin’s OneTable Shabbat dinner.

COURTESY OF MADELINE DOLGIN
Madeline Dolgin hosted a Shabbat dinner during Sukkot using OneTable.

COURTESY OF MADELINE DOLGIN
an age group we call “post-college, pre-
family,” Dolgin said.

For a young couple with no kids to send
to Hebrew school, the synagogue might
not seem the place to go for community.

However, people this age still want
something beyond just a social engagement
with other singles, Dolgin said.

“I have a lot of Jewish friends but they
all seemed very disparate, like they didn’t
have a central hub or place where they all
got together,” she said.

Her Shabbat dinners are now that
place. What’s more is that her friends are
becoming friends with one another and
when she is invited to any get together,
she sees many of the same faces from her
Shabbat table. That’s been gratifying to
JEWISH NEWS
watch over the last few months since she
made her commitment.

“Young adults haven’t been catered to as
well as maybe they could have. Hillel does a
really incredible job and then you graduate
and you think, ‘OK, what do I do now? And
what does my Jewish identity look like?’
We’re starting to create something where
those young adults can be introduced to the
greater Jewish community and feel a part of
it,” she said. JN
To learn more or sign up to host or attend a Shabbat
dinner, visit OneTable.org.

Jewish News is published by the Jewish
Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix, a
component of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy
of Greater Phoenix.

JEWISHAZ.COM



HEADLINES
LOCAL New JCRC fellow spotlights serious issues
like antisemitism with a touch of humor
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
Z illah al-Kahiya is already bringing a sense
of humor to her work with the Jewish
Community Relations Council of Greater
Phoenix (JCRC) as its latest communications
and public diplomacy fellow.

Twitter memes are one of her specialties.

On Dec. 16, she tweeted a meme she created
with four human heads showing four different
types of headaches: migraine, hypertension,
stress and hosting Chanukah Shabbat. Each
headache was illustrated with the affected
section of head colored in red — the Chanukah
Shabbat host’s head was completely red. The
tweet included Happy Chanukah and Jewish
identity hashtags and #ShineALight, which
highlights the rise in antisemitism.

“Zillah brings a fresh lens to our work,
especially with the use of humor and memes
to share the Jewish story,” said Paul Rockower,
JCRC’s executive director.

Humor is a useful tool for advocacy, al-Kahiya
said. While antisemitism is no laughing matter,
using humor to bring attention to it can disarm
people and get them to pay attention when
they otherwise might not.

“Jews are the funniest people alive but when
you go to large Jewish organizations, often
their outreach is just walls of text — no pictures,
no humor, no memes,” she said.

“But if you use a meme, it is repeatable
and spreadable and doesn’t require outside
intervention.” Al-Kahiya is “a terrific writer, with a real
desire to be part of the next generation of
Jewish leadership,” Rockower added.

Al-Kahiya started her career in technology,
but in 2019, she took a bit of a detour.

After volunteering with Colorado Rep.

Brianna Titone’s communications team, she
realized researching legislation and writing
communications for a legislator was something
she really enjoyed, though she ultimately
parted ways with Titone.

“I found out I really loved researching
bills, writing copy for town hall meetings and
learning how people were thinking about
voting,” she said.

Working in politics showed her firsthand
how difficult it is for disenfranchised groups
to navigate government red tape to access
certain types of assistance. She started a private
fundraising group to help marginalized people
develop skills, like self-defense.

She used social media to find instructors and
had a significant response from people eager to
help with training. The groups met in public
parks and learned some valuable skills, both for
unhoused people and those at risk of being
targeted by hate crimes. As a Jewish lesbian,
protecting minorities is a priority for al-Kahiya.

“If you can use social media in intelligent
ways, and if the local community is good, then
people step up because they genuinely want to
help,” she said.

In 2020, she moved from Colorado to
Louisiana and sought ways to involve herself
in Jewish community outreach. She studied
history and kept apprised of current events. She
looked for ways to be active in the community.

Scrolling for job opportunities on Indeed
and Jewish Jobs, she happened across a position
at JCRC. She was used to working remotely,
so the fact that she wouldn’t physically be in
Phoenix didn’t deter her, though she has visited
Arizona and thinks it’s a beautiful place.

She researched the JCRC and its mission and
knew it was the right fit. She was also impressed
by Rockower.

“I feel like I’m learning from someone who’s
doing what I’d like to do,” she said.

Al-Kahiyah also loves cooking, especially
spicy foods, and will be contributing entries
“Types of Headaches” meme from the Jewish
Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix’s
Twitter account.

COURTESY OF JCRC OF GREATER PHOENIX
to a food blog for JCRC. Her ancestry
is Moroccan and one special Chanukah
treat she’s currently making and will blog
about is sfenj, a fritter-like Moroccan
doughnut made from a sticky, unsweetened,
leavened dough and shaped like a plum.

She’s hopeful that this fellowship,
which is funded in part by the Center for
Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix,
will introduce her to interesting new people
and lead to other opportunities working in
Jewish community outreach. JN
Jewish News is published by the Jewish
Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix, a
component of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy
of Greater Phoenix.

Mazel Tov to the
Jewish News on 75 years!
480.699.1717 / info@phoenixcjp.org / phoenixcjp.org
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The Jewish Community Foundation and the
Jewish Federation have integrated to form the
Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix
JANUARY 6, 2023
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