MAY 6 • 2021 | 11
The Montreal Connection
The Jlife partnership between the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit and Montreal’s Federation CJA evolved
from a visit that Scott Kaufman made to the Montreal federa-
tion several years ago. He was there for a presentation about
organizational and leadership transitions and mentioned Jlife
in his remarks.
A Montreal federation staff member was impressed with
the Jlife concept and asked him to meet with a local Jewish
donor — Sylvain Abitbol, a former co-president of the
Canadian Jewish Congress and former chair of the Montreal
federation, who is a telecommunications entrepreneur.
Abitbol was very interested in Jlife and Joel Segal, Montreal
federation’s first vice president, suggested that the two feder-
ations pool their resources — beginning a very fruitful collab-
oration. Initial funding is being provided by major foundations
from North America, including the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher
Foundation and the William Davidson Foundation, with addi-
tional donors in both the Detroit and Montreal areas.
One program that was presented to local teens by several
Detroit-area Jewish organizations was also offered to the
Montreal Jewish community at their request.
chief marketing officer, and Brian Siegel, executive director of the
Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
Full-time Jlife staff members include Julie Yaker, Jlife chief
happiness officer, and Zach Weisman, head of product for Jlife.
Yaker interacts directly with Jewish organizations in Detroit
and Montreal that want to use the platform to reach the Jewish
community and is managing Jlife’s introduction and ongoing
use. She describes Jlife as a platform to widen audiences and
connections that will “help Jewish people do more Jewish things.”
Weisman has been working on Jlife since its inception. A
Detroit native who lives in Los Angeles, Weisman was invited
to a Jlife brainstorming session when he was home for a visit.
A technology expert and veteran of several startup companies,
he is the “interface between development of the technology
and Federation, leading a team of technology developers and
designers working on the Jlife web app and website.”
SINGLE ACCESS POINT
With Jlife, Weisman says, “There will be one place to find all the
amazing events and programs in our Jewish communities.” Jlife
will be accessible at Jlife.app through desktop computers, IPad,
tablets, smart phones and other electronic devices.
“We want people to do more Jewish more often,” Kaufman
says.
Jlife has tested its technology for several events during the
past few months. One of the first Jlife curated components — a
family programs page — will launch in May. This page (not
to be confused with the JCC’s JFamily program) will offer a
compilation of Jewish activities and programs for children, teens
and families.
For a parent looking for a Jewish-themed activity for a
child, Jlife will save time and effort previously spent searching
multiple web and social media sites to find an appropriate event.
Everything is presented in an organized, easy-to-access manner.
Mikki Frank, director of the JCC’s JFamily program, says, “We
use Jlife as a registration platform for our various programs. This
includes our PJ Library play dates, our Jbaby prenatal program
and our JFamily parent education and music programs. We
find it to be seamless and very user-friendly. Parents are busy
and Jlife helps provide a one-stop shop for all Jewish family
programming.”
Frank adds that they are seeing increased attendance for
activities. “
As more groups use Jlife, I anticipate this growing
even more.”
Cohen, Federation’s chief marketing officer, says that “Our goal
is to engage more Jewish people. Jlife is a technology that will
support and amplify events and programs.”
USE BY SYNAGOGUES
Jlife has already been used successfully by a group of local
Conservative shuls, which collaborated with Jlife for Purim 2021.
“It was useful to have one website with all of the information
The family page on
the Jlife platform
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