A new home ‘Base’ for young Jewish adults in Logan Square

Do you identify as “just Jewish?” Do you feel disconnected from the Jewish community? Are you curious about Jewish liturgy, history, ritual, or tradition, but have been afraid to ask?

No matter where you come from, what you believe, or how familiar you are with Jewish traditions, Rav Moshe and Ariana Webber would love to meet you, invite you to their home for Shabbat dinner, and discuss whatever is Jewishly on your mind.

The Webbers, along with their toddler, Toviah Tzvi, are the latest team members to join the Base movement, a national Jewish initiative that’s part of Moishe House. Spread across the country–from Boston to Miami, from Ann Arbor and Denver to Los Angeles and the Bay Area–it seeks to tap into the interests of curious and questioning young Jewish adults. 

Base Chicago is supported by JUF and managed by Metro Chicago Hillel, a division of The Hillels of Illinois. Each outpost is co-led by a rabbi and their spouse or partner.

Charles Cohen, Executive Director of Metro Chicago Hillel, which oversees the four Chicago Base locations, explained that the initiative endeavors to demonstrate to participants “what a Jewish home looks like,” and added: “We are a deeply pluralistic organization–there is a recognition of the diversity of Chicago’s young Jews.”

The Webbers, who took up residence at Base Logan Square this past July, represent that richness of American Jewish life. While both hail from the Pacific Northwest, they have strikingly different back stories. Moshe, a native of Portland, Oregon, said that he grew up “in a Christian evangelical context” in which “there was not enough room for me to breathe.”

He found breathing room in Jewish texts, he said, and “fell in love with Shabbat” as a student at Linfield College (now University). Following conversion, he received a master’s degree at Yale Divinity School and ordination from Hebrew College, a pluralistic rabbinic school in suburban Boston. 

Ariana, who grew up in Salem, Oregon, “was super-involved in Hillel” during her undergraduate years at Boston University. After receiving her undergraduate degree in archaeology, she earned two master’s degrees: one in Bible, archaeology, and ancient cultures from the University of Sheffield in England; the other in museum studies from NYU. In addition to her duties at Base Logan Square, she works at Chicago’s Art Institute.

Since arriving in Chicago this past summer, the Webbers have hit the ground running. Their living space allows them to use one floor for Base Logan Square activities, and they have been busy creating Shabbat dinners, High Holiday meals, and learning experiences, and welcoming students from a variety of schools served by Metro Chicago Hillel, which include DePaul University, Loyola University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. They envision developing “a salon of Torah” study and, with Ariana’s background in art and museum studies, finding outlets for the creative expression of Judaism, such as “an open art space.”

Base Logan Square joins the Anna & Fred Doppelt Base Andersonville, Luba & Bernard Friedman Base Loop, and Silverstein Base Lincoln Park in forming the quartet of Chicago Bases. Cohen said that each Base “can engage 600 to 800” young Jews per year. One of its champions is 25-year-old Nina Svirinovska, who discovered it during her years at University of Illinois at Chicago. 

A native of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Svirinovska immigrated as a teen to United States with her Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. “I knew my whole life I was Jewish,” Svirinovska said, but it wasn’t until she participated in Base events that she connected her commitment to social justice issues to her Jewish values. 

“The most beautiful thing about [Base],” said Svirinovska, is that it allowed her to create Jewish relationships “in a very profound way.” 

Robert Nagler Miller is a journalist and editor who writes frequently about arts- and Jewish-related topics from his home in New York.