Every once in a while, Danielle “Dani” Dermer will invite 20 friends and strangers into her home in Mount Washington and cook them a Shabbat meal.

Dermer, 30, has hosted almost a dozen of these Shabbat dinners utilizing a platform called OneTable, a national organization that helps young adults bring Shabbat into their homes.

With support from The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, the program provides menus, optional prayers or rituals, suggested conversation starters and even a stipend per attendee.

“You can think of us as the Airbnb of Shabbat,” said OneTable CEO Sarah Abramson.

Although OneTable is a nationwide program, The Associated’s Young Adult Division has been working to increase participation among young Jewish adults in Baltimore. Every other month, YAD recruits hosts, advertises the program and helps facilitate two Shabbat dinners.

“I think that Baltimore is a place where there is a desire for the community to be known as a place of flourishing Jewish life,” Abramson said. “You don’t have to move to D.C., you don’t have to move to New York … you can find your way with The Associated’s support in Baltimore itself, and I think that is incredibly important.”

Compared to larger cities such as Washington, D.C. or New York, Baltimore has fewer Shabbat dinners taking place every Friday on OneTable. Still, Abramson said, Baltimore stands out.

“In Baltimore, there is a desire for people to create Jewish life on their own terms and to have it mark their week every single Friday,” she said. “Baltimore actually stands out as a community where our goal, no matter how ambitious it is, never feels like enough because there’s a desire, there’s a demand, and there’s always room for people at these tables.”

For Dermer, the desire to host started when she was young.

“My mom, growing up, she’s just always been the person who hosts the Jewish holidays,” Dermer said. “We are a big gathering and hosting family. Even the smaller holidays like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, our extended family will get together and do something. … Really, I just feel that’s one of my core or root values, that I am a very big connector of people and really enjoy being around people.”

Part of the hosting for Dermer includes doing all the cooking. She starts her Shabbat dinner preparation with a shopping trip on Thursday evening. Then Friday, from noon until her guests arrive, she’s cooking.

“I like to ensure other people that if they’re coming and they have allergens or restrictions, I know exactly what’s going into their food and can make sure that it’s a safe experience for everybody,” she said. “It’s a really meaningful experience for me.”
Like Dermer, Shabbat with YAD host Jacob “Jake” Hiller-Spevack, 37, also cooks for his guests.

“I think Shabbat food tastes better,” he said. “That’s in part because of the intentionality that I am putting around the dinner and same to everybody else. There’s a group mentality to it.”

However, Hiller-Spevack didn’t jump into hosting a Shabbat dinner. He slowly became more involved with YAD through his friends and would attend Shabbat dinners through OneTable at other people’s homes. So, when he was asked to host a Shabbat with YAD at his home, he couldn’t say no.

“I’ve had the privilege of knowing a lot of friends in [the] young adult Jewish community here in Baltimore,” he said. “It was important for me, when I was hosting, to create a space for people to just come … to a group Shabbat dinner, whether or not they knew anyone there.”

For both Dermer and Hiller-Spevack, the dinners are about more than food or tradition. They are a way to build community in Baltimore.

“Through partnership with The Associated, over the last decade, OneTable has had 1,300 dinners in Baltimore. That’s been 3,700 unique people and 10,700 seats [at the table],” said Abramson. “What we are doing is helping people to think through, ‘what does it mean to lead my own Jewish life in a way that’s meaningful to me’ and we, at our organization, center that around Shabbat as easy, accessible, meaningful and able to be replicated, no matter where you are.”

mresnicow@midatlanticmedia.com