Elana Molotsky, 30, moved to Baltimore looking for connection.
She grew up right outside of Philadelphia, in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. She attended Cornell University, majoring in biology, and competed on the varsity gymnastics team. She earned her PhD in neuroscience at Philly’s Thomas Jefferson University and, after graduating in 2022, moved to Baltimore to work at Johns Hopkins as a post-doctoral research fellow.
That’s where she made the connection she sought. Molotsky currently leads a young adult volunteer team through the Jewish Connection Network called “Knit and Nosh,” which is funded by Repair the World, a Jewish service movement based in New York.
Molotsky lives in Upper Fells Point and enjoys walking around Patterson Park with her dog, Latke.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing.
I grew up in a reform synagogue in Cherry Hill, New Jersey named M’kor Shalom. I went to Hebrew school from first grade through 12th grade and I was in BBYO in high school.
One of my favorite things that I did as part of my Jewish upbringing, I actually competed at the Maccabi games in Israel in 2009 and 2013 in gymnastics. So that was super cool.
[In college] I was in Sigma Delta Tau, it was founded at Cornell as a sorority for Jewish women because they weren’t allowed in other sororities. So, I always thought that was cool. And then I kind of waned in my early adulthood, I would say. But then when I moved to Baltimore, I didn’t know anybody, and I didn’t really know how to make friends outside of work. And so I was like, ‘Okay, well, if I go to a Chabad event, at least I know we’ll have one thing in common.’
What made you decide to volunteer with the Jewish connection network?
Alli [Berger, Assistant Director, Jewish Experiences at JCN] is one of my best friends, and she noticed that I like to do a lot of crafts. I like to paint, I like to knit, I like to make little bracelets. I’m always doing some sort of craft. She had said to me that there was this knitting group, but it was mostly like bubbies. And I was like, ‘Well, I don’t mind, I love bubbies’ and she [said], ‘Well, we’re actually looking to start like a young knitting group’ and she said, ‘I’d love for you to be the volunteer leader for it.’”
I started helping her plan it, and we brought in some other people, and so now me and another woman … we run the Knit and Nosh group, which knits hats and scarves for the people experiencing homelessness in the Baltimore community and it’s been really great cultivating this group of young people just doing a craft together — which sounds so simple, but it’s really a lost thing I think nowadays, especially for young adults. And to do it with a purpose that it’s going to go to someone in need, has also been really great.
Is there another influence or inspiration that makes you want to volunteer?
I’m a neuroscientist, so whenever I’m feeling out of sorts, I look to the literature about what we can do to feel better. And so much of the literature about human evolution and the ways our brains are developed is through community and helping others and building our community in a way that lifts everybody up.
I think that it’s very interesting that the scientific way that we’ve come to understand the brain, and the sociology of it, is already very intertwined into Judaism and how one of the main tenets of Judaism is building community and giving back and doing both of those at the same time.
I’ve gotten more involved with the volunteer opportunities and I have just realized how much richer my life and my community is, other than the fact that it’s just good to give back to the community that you are a part of. I grew up very, very privileged and very lucky to be blessed with such a great family and a great community and have the resources that I need. And I think inherently, that makes me want to make sure that other people are receiving that.
