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

continued on page 12

