Support a Vibrant Jewish Hub for Young Adults in Rochester

Hello!

We are Madeleine and Zach, a pair of young Jews who have been living in Rochester for the past several years. While we grew up in different Jewish traditions, we were able to connect through Judaism in variety of ways. Since meeting we have gone to Hillel events, participated in Jewish fellowships, attended conferences, visited museums, and overall experienced a wide array of Jewish culture, history, and tradition. It's been a gift to be able to connect to other Jews all over the country, and it's one we want to be able to share with our community in Rochester.

For over a year, we’ve been working on a program that would allow us to host events for the young Jewish community in Rochester. This is such an important goal for us because we feel spaces like these are lacking, not just in Rochester but all over the country. Young adults who are just starting to embark on their own lives find themselves wanting to feel connected to their Jewishness, but not knowing where or how to start. Synagogue feels like too serious of a step for many, but there doesn't seem to be any other space that arises to provide what so many are looking for. That's where we come in. We want to provide a place where people with a wide variety of Jewish experiences feel seen and fulfilled, whether that's through havdallah services, or just playing board games with people who share their background and culture.

Unfortunately, the funding from the organization we were working with fell through, and now we find ourselves in a bit of an unfortunate situation. But we don’t want to give up on our dreams of creating this space for the young Jewish community of Rochester, so we’re asking for your help.

You may be thinking to yourself - "What are they going to do with this money? What kind of events would I be funding here?" Well, good news - there are so many events we already have planned! Here is an offering of the types we hope to host:

- Shabbat dinners (normal ones and special themed ones, like rainbow Shabbat, Chinese food Shabbat, potluck Shabbat)

- Holiday events (Rosh Hashanah apple picking, Tu B’shevat ice cream sundae making, Haggadah reading)

- Jewish study (chevruta study about weekly parshas, write your own D’var, having local rabbis come lead workshops, attending services)

- Crafts (painting mezuzot, wax painting Shabbat candles, make your own tzedakah box)

- History and culture (Intro to Yiddish, Jewish communities outside of the US and Europe, inviting professors from the University of Rochester and RIT to give presentations)

- Food (Challah baking, kosher wine tasting, Passover-friendly desserts)

- Tikun Olam (volunteering at the Jewish senior living community, helping out at the Rochester Jewish Film Festival, cleaning up trash along the Genesee River)

- Social events (“Fiddler on the Roof” movie screening, board game nights, Jews with Brews trivia)

And hopefully many more!

We will be sending out a monthly newsletter with the events we were able to do from the previous month, along with write ups and pictures of all the events we’ve done, so you can see the impact your donations have! We will also be including a small form for anyone to offer suggestions for new events and activities, which is totally optional, but we would love to hear any and all ideas from you. Even if not, we hope the newsletter will allow all of our supporters to feel proud of the community they've helped us build.

We are looking to raise $5000 to be used over the next 10 months. Here is a quick breakdown of how the money would be spent.

$350 a month for rent = $3500 (this goes to subsidizing the cost of the house we're renting in order to be able to host large-scale programs, with a large living, dining, and kitchen space for events)

$100 a month for programming = $1000 (this would be used for buying ingredients, tickets to events, study materials paying for speakers, etc.)

$50 a month for non-program specific expenses = $500 (this money is for things like extra chairs, advertising, cleaning supplies, Judaica, etc.)

We know our goal is quite high, but anything you can give is so appreciated, as every little bit will give us more ability to begin to create the community we’ve dreamed of building.

Thanks for considering, and we hope you can support us!