A Gift Strengthening Community

Adath is deeply grateful to an anonymous family for donating $250,000 to expand our innovative engagement model with young families as well as young adults through Makom. It provides startup capital and builds on the success of relationships that are growing inside and outside the walls of the synagogue.

A bunch of dads meet up for conversation and community with their young kids. Jewish and Muslim families visit each other’s houses of worship through Love Your Neighbor. Twenty and thirty-year-olds pack a community room in downtown Minneapolis to share Shabbat services and dinner with Makom after a long week of work. A panel of Jewish leaders with PJ Cares addresses the value of community service and the cost of childcare is provided to make the evening accessible for all parents. Community members open their homes for Backyard Shabbat to enjoy long summer afternoons over games, nosh, and learning. 
 
For Ella Meyerson, her moments of connection were life changing in her path to Judaism. “I began attending Makom’s Third Fridays even though I wasn’t Jewish. I felt welcomed right away to the services and potluck dinners. It’s where I met my fiance. Makom provided the opportunity to engage Jewishly with him in a supportive setting. We grew together in our comfort level with practicing Judaism. This spring I converted. The Adath clergy will be officiating at our wedding next fall. ”
 
"The model of many synagogues, where staff produce a program and congregants consume it, may be adequate to compete in the short term but not in any way visionary to build community,” said Rabbi Aaron Weininger. “We want young adults and young families to co-create a community that is spiritually alive and personally relevant. This gift, and others that are inspired by it, enables our vision to keep growing.”