Rabbi Henoch and Sarah Rosenfeld build community with Chabad Young Professionals
'The success is wrapped in each individual encounter'
Rabbi Henoch and Sarah Rosenfeld noticed a gap. They decided to fill it.
Across the community there was a phase, “post-college, pre-family life, where people were just falling through the cracks and not really getting connected,” Henoch Rosenfeld said.
As students, young adults could meet and celebrate their Judaism on campus; once that period ended, however, there was a hole, Sarah Rosenfeld said.
“What we sought to do was to fill that void,” Henoch Rosenfeld told the Chronicle.
Nearly six years ago, the Rosenfelds created Chabad Young Professionals. Based in Squirrel Hill, the organization offers Shabbat morning services, classes and social events.
Its mission stems from a teaching of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson: “Find every single Jew where they are and help them grow on their pace, to embrace Judaism on their level, step by step, mitzvah by mitzvah,” Henoch Rosenfeld said.
Doing so requires both communal and individual attention.
The Rosenfelds pointed to curated Friday night meals as an example.
Meetups aren’t just arbitrary get-togethers, Sarah Rosenfeld said. Sometimes the goal is introducing certain couples; other times it’s about getting “a bunch of single guys, single girls around the table together.” No surprise, she continued, “We obviously want Jews to meet Jews, get married and have Jewish babies.”
Uniting Jews fosters a Jewish future, Henoch Rosenfeld said. Chabad Young Professionals is a place for people to come and “naturally build community together, do Jewish life together. Because when they do Jewish life together, organically, Jewish life is going to grow.”
The Rosenfelds have a dream of seeing thousands of young Jewish professionals partner up and grow old raising Jewish families. Still, the co-founders of Chabad Young Professionals are reluctant to call themselves shadchans (marriage brokers).
Years ago, matchmaking was more organic, Henoch Rosenfeld said. “Jews hung around other Jewish people at community events, community functions. They met other Jewish people and they were able to connect with each other. When you have 25- or 26-year-olds that aren’t hanging around other Jewish functions, and they’re not meeting other Jewish people, how are they going to marry other Jewish people?”
The difficulty of finding a Jewish spouse has been long lamented. The Talmud states that matching people together is as difficult as splitting the Red Sea.
As nice as it is creating new Jewish households, the purpose of Chabad Young Professionals is different, Sarah Rosenfeld said. “The success is not if they marry Jewish, or if their kids go to Jewish Day School, or if they donate X amount to this Jewish fund. The success is wrapped in each individual encounter.”
“Every single time we meet someone and give them an opportunity to do another Jewish thing, that’s a win for us,” Henoch Rosenfeld said. “What happens tomorrow with that individual person? We hope they have more opportunities to engage and be part of the Jewish community.”
The Rosenfelds point to their efforts as proof of success. Since founding Chabad Young Professionals, the organization has engaged with 1,000 young adults.
“Each mitzvah [people] do together, each mitzvah they do with us or with a friend, each added contribution to the Jewish community that they get involved in, that is a success for us,” Henoch Rosenfeld said.
Little by little, Chabad Young Professionals will continue to follow a path promoted by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Henoch Rosenfeld explained.
“In Hasidic philosophy, the Rebbe really ingrained in us an idea,” he said. “Every individual mitzvah has infinite divine power, and it lasts forever.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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