OUR COMMUNITY
U
ntil a few years ago, if you were
interested in a local Jewish hol-
iday celebration for families or
an adult class about Jewish history, you
might rely on mailings from a synagogue,
the Jewish Community Center (The
J-Detroit) or a time-consuming online
or phone search. But, for the past several
years, Jlive, an extensive online platform,
has helped thousands of Jewish Detroiters
connect with local Jewish organizations
and register for their programs and events.
Created in 2021, Jlive’s goal was to help
community members “do more Jewish”
— increase their participation in Jewish
life — and statistical data indicates the
platform is achieving this goal.
As of this summer, Jlive has had 20,000
individual registrants — people signing up
for an event or program. Approximately
75 local Jewish organizations, including
synagogues and temples, arts and cultural
organizations, and educational institu-
tions, have created at least one event on
Jlive to publicize their programs.
As a single, comprehensive resource,
Jlive facilitates individual participation
in Jewish programs, which, in turn,
strengthens Jewish organizations and bol-
sters overall community connections and
engagement.
According to Scott Kaufman, co-man-
aging partner of Jlive and former CEO
of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, more
than 250 new people create a
Jlive Detroit account, which
saves their information for
registrations and future noti-
fications, each month. Six
thousand individuals have
user accounts. This growth has
been achieved even without a
full-scale marketing campaign,
he notes. “The platform was designed to
be easy to use. The quality of the visuals
is very high. People like the design —
it’s very sophisticated,” says Kaufman.
Organizations and individuals are not
charged to participate.
During the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaufman says there was “hyper-participa-
tion with Zoom events” with a drop after-
ward. In 2022, 639 events were posted;
the number varies somewhat depending
upon the season. Individual users can
search events and ongoing programming
organized by four featured categories:
Jewish Holiday Events, Young Adults,
Family Events and Adult Learning and
Experiences. Users can also search by
individual Jewish organization.
“Jlive is on track to host 1,000 events in
Detroit with 25,000 registrants in 2023. The
number of Detroit events hosted and regis-
trants is growing at 150 percent
per year,
” says Zach Weisman,
Jlive’s head of product who has
been with the organization since
its inception.
Kaufman is pleased that Jlive
is fostering more collaboration
among Jewish organizations so
programming can reach more
people in an appealing, efficient way. Online
templates help organizations create their
program/event publicity, including registra-
tion information, on Jlive. This reduces staff
time previously spent preparing postcards
and invitations and also reduces printing
and mailing costs.
“In 2023, Jlive hosted a non-Federation
Detroit event that transacted nearly $40,000
on the platform in the form of ticket sales
and sponsorships,
” Weisman says.
One of the organizational users of Jlive is
the Jewish Community Relations Council/
American Jewish Committee (JCRC/AJC).
According to Sam Dubin, assistant direc-
tor/director of media relations for JCRC/
AJC, “We have found Jlive to be efficient
As of this summer, Jlive has had 20,000 individual registrants
— people signing up for an event or program.
Jlive Expands Jewish
Community Connections
Scott
Kaufman
SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
36 | NOVEMBER 23 • 2023
J
N
Zach
Weisman