10 | MAY 6 • 2021 

E

very week, dozens of local Jewish congregations and 
organizations present a wide array of classes, lectures, 
religious and holiday observances, children’s activities, 
fundraisers and social events.
Most are online due to the pandemic, but opportunities for 
Jewish connection and enrichment abound.
However, it’s not always easy to discover what is available and 
find out how to participate.
Jlife — a new initiative from Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit — will make it much simpler to connect 
and “do Jewish.” 
Scott Kaufman, former CEO of the Detroit Federation, said 
that the need for a better way to connect occurred 
to him a few years ago when several acquaintances 
saw photos of a prior Federation event on social 
media. They told him they wished they had known 
about it in advance so they could have attended. 
Kaufman began to think about a way to offset this 
“disconnect.”
He started research into a new potential 
Jewish community connector by inviting 40 Detroit Jewish 
organizations to meet and discuss their common problems and 
potential solutions. Thirty-nine attended and many identified 
the same needs for reaching their audiences and providing 
successful programming.

The favorable participation rate and their many common needs 
convinced him that there was a basis to build a joint technology 
platform. (A technology platform is a computer/software 
connection point designed for specific uses — i.e. EventBrite is a 
platform for event information and registration.) After consulting 
with technology experts, Kaufman and others decided that 
building a custom platform — to be named Jlife — would work 
better even though it would take longer and cost more.

JOINT EFFORT
Creating the Jlife platform became a joint effort between the 
Detroit Federation and its Montreal counterpart, Federation 
CJA. In this effort, a group of Federation staff members, 
contractors and volunteers from Detroit, Montreal, Los Angeles, 
and Israel have been working on Jlife development for several 
years. Leadership includes Kaufman, Ted Cohen, Federation’s 

“WE’RE TRYING TO BUILD AN
EASY BUTTON FOR JEWISH LIFE.”

— SCOTT KAUFMAN

Scott 
Kaufman

Life:

Jlife platform will transform Jewish
community connections.

SHARI S. COHEN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

JFMD

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

