Hannah Evans: How does GatherDC work? 

Alexandra Tureau Meyer: We have a trained team of professional engagers who are out there on the ground meeting with young adults one-on-one over coffee, which is a conduit to relationship building. We know it’s not all about coffee, but they’re meeting in those third spaces to really get to know people. They form deep and meaningful relationships, build the trust and authenticity that allows us to get to know someone, their Jewish journey, where they’re coming from, where they’re going. Through that, our engagement team can help get them connected to people, places, spaces, and resources where they can find Jewish community.  

For about 20% of the people that we connect with though, they can’t or they’re not yet ready to connect to other organizations and spaces. They’re still seeking, digging deep, and figuring out who they are as a Jewish adult. For those individuals, we create our own experiences. Those can be learning cohorts, fellowships, retreats, or holiday experiences that are really unique to the specific needs of those individuals. Of course, we can’t ignore the digital space when working with young people. We really see the digital space as a way to remove information barriers and up the level of transparency around information in the community. So we have a team of people who run a community calendar, a weekly newsletter, and all the other digital platforms we pull together that really can reduce the barrier to finding information. 

HE: What is Gather DC’s philosophy on connecting with young people? 

ATM: We have a methodology called relationship-based engagement, which is a systemic and systematic methodology that centers people at the heart of everything that is happening. It is all about building trust, being authentic, and creating spaces for belonging.…We meet people where they’re at physically, emotionally, and Jewishly. And so, relationship building[means] we’ve reduced the barrier to someone’s travel time and where they’re going. Young adults are the first to say, ‘Hi, I’m busy. Like, I can’t meet.’ So how do we just make it easy for them to say yes to a conversation? We’re the ones who travel across town. We’ll meet in the coffee shop that you like best. Whatever that is, we want to reduce that barrier.  

The second piece is that…relationship-based engagement is not entering a conversation with an agenda. We care about Jewish life. We want people to have meaningful Jewish identities and plug into our community. But ultimately that one-on-one meeting cannot be about an agenda of what’s out there, getting you connected, etc. It has to be about the person. And so, we’re going to meet you where you are emotionally on that day, which means it might be talking about Jewish life, but honestly, maybe your boss just yelled at you, or maybe you just went through a really hard breakup. We really need to acknowledge where people are coming from emotionally and build that trust before we can get to any sort of agenda.  

And then, lastly [from a Jewish perspective], part of not coming in with an agenda is knowing that young adults are coming from a really broad spectrum of life. One of the things about GatherDC is that we don’t promote one form of Judaism over another. We don’t promote one political philosophy over another. We really engage individuals who have a wide background in Jewish life, so we need to be able to meet people where they are, whether they have some Jewish exposure, no Jewish exposure, whether they’ve been to Jewish day school or not. We want to use language and words that reflect [their] experience and don’t push anyone into a particular Jewish pathway or box or way of life. All of those things really center an individual and make it about building a relationship and being on a journey together.

Hear more about GatherDC and the work they’re doing to build Jewish community for young people in this 30-minute conversation.