Chabad Young Professionals Shabbaton Announces Headliners

The fourth Chabad Young Professionals Shabbaton is expected to draw hundreds of young Jews to Crown Heights for the weekend of January 13 – 15, Teves 20 – 22. They’re coming to find inspiration and education and take their place in a growing worldwide community of young Jewish professionals. And maybe, they’ll find their soulmate too.

A star-studded lineup of inspiring figures is set to headline the Shabbaton, which is billed as “CYP Encounter: Crown Heights.” Scholars in residence, Rabbi Simon and Rebbetzin Shaindy Jacobson aim to equip the young adult participants with Chassidic wisdom on dating and marriage. Billboard 100 singer and songwriter Alex Clare will travel from Jerusalem to entertain and uplift participants alongside fashion entrepreneur Joyce Azria.

Set in Chabad’s capital neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the event will give participants an exclusive insider’s look into observant Jewish life and the Chabad movement’s pulsating heart. This year the Encounter Shabbaton coincides with Shnas Hakhel. In an extra effort to gather and inspire young Jews for the year of gathering, Chabad Young Professionals’ Director, Rabbi Beryl Frankel, says this year’s Shabbaton ups the ante.

“We zeroed in on those experiences that make the Shabbaton meaningful for young professionals and built the Shabbaton around them,” Rabbi Frankel says. “First and foremost, it’s an immersive experience of Judaism, but it’s also wired to meet young professionals’ practical needs as they look to start a family and get ahead in business.”

One of those experiences is a Met@Chabad dating event, which utilizes Chabad Young Professionals’ AI-driven dating-for-marriage platform to help young Jews find a soulmate who shares their values. Then, in a first for CYP Encounter, a networking workshop entitled “Meet the Mogul” brings participants into contact with successful businesspeople.

So far, the Shabbaton’s coordinator Mendel Schwartz says the expanded program is producing an unprecedented buzz. “The event is still months away,” he says, “but hundreds of young professionals have signed up already, twice last year’s numbers.” Unlike in previous years when the Shabbaton catered to members of Chabad Young Professionals chapters, this year’s Encounter is welcoming dozens of Chabad on Campus graduate students and alums as well.

Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, Executive Director of Chabad Young Professionals’ umbrella organization Merkos 302, sees the Shabbaton as a catalyst for bolstering Jewish community life around the world. “We’ve seen numerous participants over the years return home fired-up about their Judaism and taking the initiative in their local community,” he says.

In a Hakhel year, the CYP Encounter Shabbaton plunges participants into Crown Heights’s Jewish life, but it also immerses young Jews in a worldwide community of Jews just like them. For any young Jewish professional, that’s a life-changing experience. “It’s a formative Jewish experience,” Rabbi Frankel says, “and it brings many young professionals one step closer to becoming leaders in future Jewish communities.”

To bring your community to the CYP Shabbaton, or for more information, email encounter@chabadyoung.com.