On October 6, NowGen and the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville hosted a High Holiday Hangout for young families at The Monkey’s Treehouse in Brentwood.
The program was led by Federation board member Ori Hart, who has been organizing events for young families over the last two years based on her own experience as a young parent.
“NowGen was a great way for me to meet people when I moved to Nashville in my late 20s, but as my family grew, I didn’t have a great avenue to meet other Jewish families,” Hart said. “We decided to expand NowGen to include a young family component to support other Jewish families new to the area or who are looking for connection in the community.”
Previous events included a post-Passover pizza party at Hart’s home in Brentwood as well as a Sukkot event at a park pavilion with snacks and balloon animals. This event marked peak attendance for Hart’s programs with over 30 families in attendance.
“Standing in the middle of [the Monkey’s Treehouse] surrounded by chatting parents and children playing was such a special moment for me,” Hart said. “[It] felt like the culmination of a lot of work and effort filling a need in the community.”
For some of these families, this was their first Federation sponsored event, and they are looking forward to future events. Even for the families who are already engaged in other ways, they agreed that events like this help them stay connected and meet other people in the community.
“We felt a strong sense of community, and our kids had a blast with friends old and new,” Emily Smachetti said. “We enjoyed the opportunity to get to know other parents and families in our community and will be looking forward to future events!”
“It was a wonderful event,” Randee Inman said. “[It was] so nice to have a low key event in the mornings for the younger kiddos. My kids really enjoyed it!”
Hart plans to continue organizing these programs as she thinks that young family programming is crucial to Federation’s work building a warm and welcoming Jewish community.
“A lot of Jewish people moving to Nashville have young kids and are looking for connection but might not have joined a synagogue yet or the kids are too young for Sunday school,” Hart said. “This is a great way to engage Jewish families in the broader Jewish community so they feel welcome.”
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