16 | MARCH 7 • 2024 
J
N

W

hether you are a 
Jewish professional 
or lay leader 
in a Jewish organization 
or have millennial kids 
or grandkids who you are 
looking to understand and 
engage in Jewish personal 
and communal life, you will 
benefit from the lived lessons 
and practical tools shared by 
Rabbi Dan Horwitz in his 
first book Just Jewish: How to 
Engage Millennials and Build a 
Vibrant Jewish Future. 
On Sunday, March 10, 
Rabbi Horwitz is 
returning to his 
alma mater, Hillel 
Day School, for 
the first major 
launch event of 
his book and 
to be part of a 
panel with Rabbis 
Paul Yedwab and 
Jeff Stombaugh, 
facilitated by 
Jessica Katz. The 
panel will explore 
what successful 
and transferable 
practices, learned 
through The 
Well, worked well 
in other Jewish 
organizational 
settings, including 
large legacy 
organizations such as Jewish 
Community Centers.

HOW IT STARTED
The Well, imagined and 
founded by Horwitz, 
launched in June 2015. 
The mission of The Well is 
summarized today as “to 
create and foster an accessible, 
inclusive, relationship-driven 
community for young adults 
and families with young 
children that uses Jewish 
wisdom and ritual to help 

community members flourish 
as human beings.”
Horwitz first pitched 
the concept of such an 
organization in 2012, but the 
timing was not right. Yet, the 
seed was planted, and the idea 
stuck.
In 2014, Yedwab of Temple 
Israel followed up with 

Horwitz. Yedwab was working 
through a concept he had 
in mind for engaging young 
Jewish adults and realized 
much of what he sought to do 
overlapped with what Horwitz 
proposed several years before. 
He reconnected with Horwitz 
and connected him to the 
donor needed to launch The 

Well. It is no surprise Yedwab 
is lovingly known as the 
“grandfather of The Well” 
and was tapped to write the 
foreword for Horwitz’s book.
In the foreword, Yedwab 
reflects on the genius, for both 
The Well and Temple Israel, 
of presenting The Well as its 
own entity. He writes, “Since 
The Well is independently 
branded, people often ask me 
what Temple Israel gets out of 
the arrangement. The answer 
is absolutely nothing, unless 
you count markedly raising 
the level of Jewish involvement 
for thousands of young Jews 
in our area in the belief that a 
‘rising tide raises all ships.’” 
He further explains, “If we 
can fill those years between 
college graduation and 
nursery or religious school 
registration for their children 
with meaningful Jewish 
experiences, Temple Israel will 
be the beneficiary along with 
all the other congregations 
and Jewish institutions in the 
area.” 
This is the essence of why it 
is imperative to bring young 
Jewish people into living more 
Jewishly and being part of a 
broader Jewish community. 

HORWITZ’S JOURNEY
In the roughly eight years 
since the founding of The 
Well, Horwitz has held four 
leadership positions at four 
different Jewish organizations 
in three different states. 
Which is the exact whirlwind 
the universe prescribed to 
write his book.
In 2015, Horwitz had fully 
entrenched himself and his 
“Bucket List” team (The 
Well’s volunteer board) in 
looking all over the world for 
best practices in millennial 
engagement and community 

Rabbi Dan Horwitz returns to his 
alma mater, Hillel Day School, to 
launch book on how to engage 
millennials. 

 Just Jewish 
 Book Signing

Rabbi Paul 
Yedwab

Jessica 
Katz

Rabbi Jeff 
Stombaugh

YEVGENIYA GAZMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

Rabbi Dan 
Horwitz

