Noah Gainsburg credits Etz Chaim—particularly our Realities metaverse program for young professionals—with helping him start his Jewish journey. Although Noah celebrated Jewish holidays with his family, he didn’t have many Jewish friends and wasn’t engaged in Jewish life until he discovered Etz Chaim a year ago.
When Noah first saw an Instagram ad for Realities, he didn’t realize it was a local program. He enjoyed learning about the relevance of Judaism to his everyday life through discussions and role-playing activities, and it was a pleasant surprise for him to discover that the friendly Jewish peers he met through the program all lived a short drive away. “Immediately, I dove in headfirst,” Noah recalls. Shabbat became the highlight of his week, and he started spending more time with his new Jewish friends, both online and off. For example, he attended an Israel Independence Day event with his Etz Chaim friends that he describes as “life changing.”
“I really appreciated how readily I was accepted by Etz Chaim,” Noah says. “Everyone was so warm and welcoming from day one.” Noah hopes to stay involved in the future, and would like to visit Israel someday with his Etz Chaim friends.
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