18 | DECEMBER 17 • 2020 COURTESY OF THE WELL “You don’t have to have the right things, you don’t have to know all the words to be Jewish, ” he says. “You can create meaningful Jewish experienc- es with the things you have around you.” This is the kind of messaging that Yedwab believes will reso- nate with young Jewish adults who may see traditional mem- bership as too old-fashioned or too regimented. He views The Well as “a feeder system” for eventual synagogue mem- bership: a chance to convince Jewish young adults that there is value in gathering some- where as a Jewish community and encourage them to explore traditional membership once they start raising families. Though The Well is “a proj- ect of” Temple Israel, the two take pains to distance from each other in most of their branding — they don’t refer to The Well’s participants as “members,” and they don’t want anyone to get the impres- sion it is a synagogue or affili- ated with any specific one. Though Yedwab expects that Temple Israel would “get our fair share” of The Well’s grad- uates, he says the program is intended to lift all Detroit-area congregations. “We hope every congregation grows, 10 years or 15 years down the line, because there was a Well to keep those Jews interested in Judaism.” An eye on membership is also why Yedwab gives The Well two stipulations about their programming: no High Holiday services and no bar mitzvahs. Those, he says, are the domain of formal con- gregations. Everything else, though, is fair game. That’s no problem for The Well, which under Horwitz built its model around nontra- ditional ways to “do Jewish.” The program’s core model is “shared interest groups,” in which a group of people can come together with The Well’s guidance over just about any passion, so long as they can find a way to incorporate Judaism into it. Shared interest groups were designed to reinvent the concept of a chavurah, a small group of like-minded Jews, and can include anything from bagel-making to one of Stombaugh’s passions, mix- ology. But they’re all really a means to an end to “do Jewish.” Meyerson said The Well treats the interest itself as “the mechanism that gets certain people in a room togeth- er, where then the interest becomes spending time with each other and learning about each other.” The Well also hosts some traditional worship services. Stombaugh has organized events including a virtual “Friendsgiving Shabbat” and an in-person “Tiny Tashlich” for Rosh Hashanah. There is a monthly “Tot Shabbat” ser- vice geared toward families of young children who are not yet school-age. In a sign that young families will continue to play a crucial role in The Well, the organi- zation recently hired Marni Katz as its new family educa- tor. Yedwab says he hopes to add an outreach director once fundraising comes through. Previously, The Well shared office space with the Jewish News in Southfield, but that ended with Horwitz’s departure and the staff currently has no formal office space. CHANUKAH IN A BOX Of course, like every other organization built on in-person interaction, The Well has strug- gled to continue connecting its participants due to COVID-19. “Here, I hired this amazing cheverman (a Yiddish term for an active, social leader). And he’s stuck not being able to do what he does best, which is drawing people to him, ” Yedwab said. Stombaugh and Meyerson have done what they can to keep The Well’s communal spirit going. When the weather was warmer, Stombaugh held Shabbats and other small gath- erings in his backyard. For Chanukah this year, they made and distributed “Chanukah in a Box,” packages containing goodies and activ- ities to keep folks busy for all eight nights, with a social com- ponent, as well. Among them: a set of Bananagrams for a virtual tournament of the word game, and a kit for making suf- ganiyot (with Stombaugh and Belsky hosting a virtual cook- ing demo in their kitchen). The Well’s team hand- delivered many of the boxes to the community them- selves. Meyerson says they are exploring a similar model for Passover. At the core of The Well’s strategy is working to count- er the perception of a larger generational anxiety about the future of Detroit’s Jewish community, as synagogue membership declines and mainstream Jewish institu- tions struggle to engage young adults in the post-college demographic. But Stombaugh says this isn’t a new concern. “The Jewish people are always worried about the next generation of Jewish people,” he said. “ And so it’s on us, the Jewish community, to educate and curate and be present for and relate and translate this tradition to the next genera- tion, as we have always done.” And the building is just get- ting started. continued from page 16 IN THE JEWS D ON THE COVER The Well held a “Paint the Torah” event in Detroit for Simchat Torah.