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Dec. 28, 2007
Keeping Jews together
New group tries to fill a niche for young adults.
FREEMAN PORITZ
When Kara Mintzberg, Eva Yekutieli and Rebecca Berman attended a University of British Columbia Hillel alumni reunion in March of this year, they had no idea the meeting would propel them into an entirely new initiative. Realizing that most of the other alumni at the meeting were nearly twice their age, the three young women, together with Lindi Cassel, decided to form a group for 20- and 30-somethings in the Vancouver Jewish community.
"We are a network of young Jewish professionals and students living, working and studying in and around greater Vancouver," said Hillel Young Jewish Urbanites (HYJU) co-founder Mintzberg. "Working at Hillel, I quickly realized that there were limited options for people my age. Hillel, as we knew it before, was sort of geared to undergrads and there were few things going on in synagogues for a 20-to-30-year-old crowd.... We just wanted to create a community for us that is nondenominational and pluralistic. We want people to meet, whether it is for business contacts or because you just moved here and don't have any friends, just to meet.
"Earlier this year, Pat Johnson and Eyal Lichtmann put on an alumni event at Hillel," she continued. "Out of everyone who showed up, there were only two people of Young Jewish Urbanite age. They were Eva Yekutieli and Rebecca Berman. When we saw who was in the room, I think we really realized that there's a group of alumni that came to this event because they were interested in reconnecting with something Jewish, but there wasn't really much in the city in terms of that."
"I love that the HYJU is really casual," said Yekutieli. "I love that people can just come and there's no pressure. We always get new people out.... We can get anywhere from 20-50 people at an event. We want others to get involved. We are always open to new ideas and new suggestions, different venues and what other people are interested in. I've really enjoyed the Shabbat dinners."
HYJU is not only about socializing and having fun, but also about contributing to the larger Jewish community. "One of the highlights of HYJU so far [has been] the Weinberg Chanukah gala," said Mintzberg. "We had about 60 residents of the Weinberg home and 17 volunteers. We set up the activity ballroom and served them [the residents] wine, latkes, cheese and crackers. The urbanites walked around with the trays serving and shmoozing and then they had supper in their dining hall, which we'd set up to look very fancy. Afterwards, we had entertainment in the activity ballroom, which was singing and dancing."
Shabbat dinners have also proven to be one of HYJU's staple events. They usually have catchy themes such as Indian or sushi.
"The response [to HYJU] has been very nice to see. We started with nothing and to see people's interest and involvement in the group is really nice in terms of Vancouver's Jewish community. It shows that people our age are looking to stay connected and that with the right things happening they'll do it without a second thought," Mintzberg observed.
Lichtmann, who is the executive director of Vancouver Hillel, strongly supports the HYJU group.
"You've got an age group of 18-to-30-year-olds in the community who have either gone to university and graduated and are now part of urban life, or they are individuals who never went to college or university who are of the same age group and no one was doing anything with them. Especially the graduates of Hillel were reaching out and still wanted to be involved, so we filled the void and we created the Hillel Young Jewish Urbanites for that purpose."
Membership to HYJU is free. For details on how to join, e-mail Mintzberg at [email protected].
Freeman Poritz is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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