For many members of the Jewish community, the months after the events of Oct. 7 have been lonely ones. This has led some Jewish people to want to become more involved with others in their religious community, but people may not know where to begin when it comes to engaging in Jewish learning and connecting with others.
The Associated’s Braided Candle initiative hosts events every month on the seventh to raise awareness for the victims of the attack and the hostages still in Gaza. But in the time since then, the initiative has grown and now has several smaller outgrowths, including the Partners Baltimore initiative. This events series brings together interested community members to socialize with each other, and to engage in the teachings of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
Initially, Partners Baltimore was only supposed to be a one-time event, but it became so popular that it became a regular program.
“We would allow people to hear each other’s opinions and learn from one another,” said Linda A. Hurwitz, co-chair of the Initiative for Strengthening Jewish Unity and former Associated board chair. “It was so well-received that we decided to start doing it monthly as an opportunity to learn, to continue to be united and to continue to do something after Oct. 7.”
Partners Baltimore events are fairly simple in format. After a bit of socializing, participants are assigned a partner to study the session’s teaching with. Each session focuses on a different subject, with past events having been focused on antisemitism, Israel and the idea of the chosen people.
The eponymous partners are assigned in advance in order to introduce people who may not know each other, and so that people who come to the events alone do not have to worry about finding someone they know to discuss the session’s materials with.
“No one has to worry that they’re going to walk into the room and not know anyone or not have a partner,” explained Linda Elman, chair of the Jewish Life lead team for The Associated. “The partners are prepared ahead of time. You know where you’re going to sit, and we’re expecting people to sit and learn together, one on one. They read the booklets, and discussion ensues from that. We’ve had some great friendships.”
Elman and Hurwitz are the organizers of Partners Baltimore, along with NCSY Baltimore District Director Rabbi Benyamin Moss.
One of the new friendships formed through the initiative was even featured in the Associated article “Building Bridges and Sharing Traditions: A Tale of Friendship,” which interviewed participants Dori Chait and Phaygi Yoggev. Chait is Reform and Yoggev is Orthodox, and the two did not often mingle with each other’s respective denominations, but being paired up at a Partners Baltimore event helped them form a lasting bond.
“There’s this misconception that if you’re not Orthodox, you’re not a ‘real Jew,’ and that kind of thinking creates unnecessary divides. In speaking with Phaygi, it became clear that we’re more alike than different,” Chait wrote for The Associated’s website. “Yes, we may look different or practice Judaism differently, but at the end of the day, at our core, we’re both Jewish and love our religion.”
Partners Baltimore events have been a big success, sometimes drawing in hundreds of people.
“Rabbi Moss has been getting calls from all over the country, from communities that want to model and copy what we’ve done,” Elman said. “They would like to recreate what we have created here in Baltimore, because it has been so amazing.”
And while the opportunity to learn from Rabbi Sacks’ teachings has interested many people, the biggest draw is the social nature of these events. While other Braided Candle events have brought people together in solidarity due to their shared loss on Oct. 7, Partners Baltimore events build relationships by encouraging an open dialogue about the different ways people interpret Jewish teachings.
“Since Oct. 7, we need to gather. We need to unite,” Hurwitz added. “We need to hear what we have in common, and we need to talk about our differences with the understanding that we are so much stronger together, and so much more vibrant, when we are listening and learning from each other.”
