Up next in 10
Caren's guest, Aliza Kline, CEO and founder of OneTable shares her inspiration in beginning this transformative nonprofit ten years ago. Never imagining the world today, OneTable is redefining the Jewish tradition of Friday night Shabbat dinner. Aliza is committed to securing the intersection of tradition, community, and technology, bringing people together now, more than ever. The impact of OneTable and how it is transforming the way people connect and celebrate is profoundly inspiring. Tune in and discover how OneTable is creating a sense of belonging and warmth in a world that craves connection.
#onetable #shabbatdinner #jewishtraditions
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[Music]
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hello everyone Karen Glasser here and
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welcome to life Uncorked aging like a
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fine wine and I am here with Alisa Klein
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she's the founder and CEO of one table
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welcome to the show how are you this
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morning I'm great Karen thanks for
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having me thank you for joining us today
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this whole program is spotlighting
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people that are doing extraordinary
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things in the next chapter of their life
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so let's just start out with your story
0:31
and how did you end up where you are
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right now in your life tell us a little
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bit about yourself um I am a Jewish kid
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who grew up in Colorado Springs Colorado
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which is right at the base of Pikes Peak
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Mountain it's a very beautiful place
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it's a super odd place to grow up as a
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Jewish kid but I am uh the the child of
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a um Rabbi a congregational Rabbi and
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also a dancer and and so having an
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artist as a parent and a Biblical
1:03
scholar and religious leader as a parent
1:05
had a profound impact um it's really
1:07
this interesting mix of um some
1:10
scholarship and uh rootedness in history
1:15
with creativity tell us a little bit
1:17
about one table what is it sure one
1:20
table is a um online platform like
1:24
Airbnb so the way Airbnb works is that
1:27
you have hosts who create a profile they
1:30
open up their home to people who can
1:32
visit you can rent a room a bed or the
1:34
whole house H and then you have a guest
1:36
profile who says I would love to um you
1:39
know I'm traveling to Madrid and I want
1:41
to stay in a beautiful home um we took
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the same concept of a host profile on a
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guest profile but we applied it to
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Shabbat dinner so it's called the social
1:49
dining platform so we have now about
1:52
20,000 people who are hosts these are
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volunteers who are willing to open up
1:57
their home uh live out the value of
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hospitality and invite people in
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specifically for Friday night Shabbat
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dinner uh we started specifically with
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young adults in their 20s and 30s and
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are now expanding to people in their
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midlife and starting their next chapter
2:12
um and we also support college students
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multiple different populations but the
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whole idea is uh to help people go
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online to go offline I love that and
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it's Community right it's all about
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creating that community that I think in
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this world that we're living in right
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now more than NE ever we need this right
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if you look at um people's sense of
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belonging and social connection
2:36
throughout the week uh it es and flows
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and when you get to Friday night you
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have two possibilities one is the time
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to feel the most connected because you
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have a ritual that brings people
2:47
together and the other is a time to feel
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the most socially isolated in other
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words if you do not have plans on a
2:52
Friday night regardless of your life
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stage you might feel profoundly isolated
2:57
uh or lonely um where as if you do if
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there is an invitation you know there is
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a place that you could go or the tools
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that you have to gather with others um
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we have research that shows that leads
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to remarkably higher senses of social
3:11
connection so the fact that it happens
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Shabbat Friday night happens you know
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it's once a week there's always an
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opportunity to be aware of of who who is
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in your life and what those blessings
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are and then if you are looking to meet
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new people how to make that as easy as
3:26
humanly possible with a reason to gather
3:29
that bigger than just let's get together
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is actually rooted in this ancient
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tradition which can be very compelling
3:35
so since one table started back in
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2014 we've hosted about 125,000 dinners
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we're roughly at a quarter million uh
3:44
young adults who have participated um
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and we're in the early stages now of
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growing um to expand to other population
3:51
so it's you know there are 30 college
3:53
campuses that are powered by one table
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now uh and uh nent communities starting
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to grow people in their next chapter are
4:00
starting to invite each other through
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the same resources so what keeps you
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going I mean this is I have to believe
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is a lot of hard work if this is not you
4:08
just show up in the morning and Li d da
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what motivates you to keep doing
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this um I did not know anything about
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technology when I started this job I
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knew a lot about Shabbat and a lot about
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Community um but nothing about how you
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actually build a you know a social
4:25
dining platform and what what does it
4:27
mean to understand that so there's an an
4:29
enormous learning curve for me which is
4:30
just fascinating learning something new
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is always energizing I'm very kind of
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interested in um behavioral economics
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the way people make decisions what
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motivates somebody to um be inspired and
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to do something and then actually have
4:45
the tools to to uh follow through right
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A lot of people have gym memberships
4:49
that that sit unused right um and
4:53
shabbats there every week we've got
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synagogues community centers all kinds
4:56
of people but they're often empty and
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it's not because people don't want to do
4:59
it what what gets in the way and so that
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to me is fascinating so the more I can
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understand the way people behave um and
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what are the barriers between them and
5:09
com and being in fulfilling
5:11
relationships for example and understand
5:13
that that's exciting to me the world is
5:15
a fraking mess polarization is I can't
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imagine it could be any higher but it is
5:21
and it's in it is within our American
5:23
society the global Society between um
5:26
Israel and the rest of the world within
5:27
our within our community uh and within
5:30
families um and I am really driven to
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see what it looks like to keep people at
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the table uh in a in a literal as well
5:39
as figurative way and that is incredibly
5:41
motivating to me I mean we always like
5:44
to ask our guests you know how do you
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want to be remembered and I think you've
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just answered that in in what you just
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said I believe you said you want to be
5:53
remembered as the person who brought
5:55
people together yeah and kept them there
5:58
right so there are so many pressures to
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keep people
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apart
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uh and that is to me terrifying it
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somewhat an existential threat I think
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there's tremendous value in the ritual
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practice of coming together uh with a
6:16
regular Cadence there's a humility built
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into that practice that I think people
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are very hungry for but don't always
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feel like it is for them or they have a
6:25
sense of belonging and that's really
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been my life's work as to um sen of
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course is a seat for you at the table I
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just think what you're doing is just as
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I like freaking awesome I I really and
6:37
the fact that um you know it started in
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2014 here we are in 2024 and we went
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through you know a crazy three four
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years um did you actually do virtual
6:49
shabbats look the the the the impact of
6:51
of the pandemic was absolutely profound
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there was a huge increase in people
6:55
trying to think about homebased Jewish
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practice at higher levels than we had
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seen historically before we saw um we
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used to do about 200 dinners on a weekly
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basis it went up to 400 dinners now
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we're close to Six to 700 dinners on a
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weekly basis but really um within two
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months of the pandemic we doubled in
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terms of participation um we saw a lot
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of people um making virtual Shabbat
7:18
dinners absolutely using Zoom especially
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to bring together people from multiple
7:22
Generations I'm sure you may have
7:24
participated in some of those um and
7:26
some of that was incredibly valuable and
7:28
Powerful some was terribly awkward um
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and as soon as honestly as soon as uh
7:33
our primary population of young adults
7:35
as soon as they could gather in person
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again they did
7:39
however they had gotten so used to uh
7:42
very intimate dinners two people four
7:45
people five people um that it took about
7:48
a year and a half to rebuild the muscle
7:50
memory of going back up to six people
7:52
eight people 10 people before the
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pandemic our average was about 12 to 14
7:57
young people would sort of pack into
7:59
their homes and it really um altered the
8:02
way they were connecting people just
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didn't feel safe Gathering um and didn't
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really have the muscle memory of how to
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have uh what does it mean to cook for 12
8:10
people like they had just sort of
8:12
forgotten that and it's over time it has
8:14
been rebuilt now the average is about
8:16
eight people at a dinner which if you're
8:18
curious is actually the ideal size of a
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dinner party um you put your put your
8:22
you put your most robust person the
8:24
biggest conversationalist right in the
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middle of the table right um but there's
8:28
that's enough where everybody meet
8:29
somebody new and also really engage in
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meaningful conversation well this is
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awesome I have one last question for you
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and that's what's next for Lisa and one
8:38
table what's next for you so in in the
8:41
immediate future for 2024 um I really do
8:44
think that there is a necessity for this
8:47
focus on staying within in dialogue with
8:49
people even within our own team where
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people are across the board in terms of
8:53
their own political connections and um
8:57
the way they are associating identifying
8:59
as
8:59
as a Jewish right now specifically um
9:02
and so we've done some real structured
9:03
resources and conversational tools I'd
9:05
like to bring that way Beyond um so that
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people can have the the invitation to be
9:11
at the table and then the resources and
9:12
tools in order to do that um look I
9:15
think you know we I'd like us to be
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reaching well over 100,000 people per
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calendar year um we're also taking our
9:21
technology and wh labeling it that means
9:24
um other organizations can say I would
9:26
like to do uh kind of DIY dinners for my
9:30
population whether it's a congregation
9:32
in uh in Arizona or it's young adults
9:35
who've who've lost a person in their
9:36
family um or retirees in Palm Springs um
9:41
so that is a whole new product line for
9:43
us is like really bringing that up to
9:44
the world as a person uh I'm very lucky
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to still have my parents who are in
9:50
their late 80s and I have uh children
9:53
who are off to college and so I feel
9:55
like I'm very much in between and really
9:57
wanting to spend as much um time with
10:00
all of them as I possibly can uh and as
10:03
I think about what you know what may be
10:05
next for me it's really um making sure
10:08
that I have the time to be as present as
10:10
I possibly can uh with the people that I
10:13
love thank you thank you thank you Alisa
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for joining us today we've been talking
10:18
to Alisa Klein she's the CEO founder of
10:21
one table if you want more information
10:24
make sure that you check it out on their
10:26
website get together. one .org thank you
10:30
for joining us thank all of you for
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joining us we know that you have a
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choice as to how to spend your time you
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chose to spend it today with Alisa and I
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go out give somebody an awesome day and
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we'll see you next time goodbye
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[Music]
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everyone
#Religion & Belief