The three C’s

When Josh Hare moved to Chicago a few years ago, he was eager to create a community for himself. His job was remote, and he sought a place outside his home office where he could have “water cooler moments,” opportunities to bounce ideas off colleagues and connect with other professionals on issues of mutual concern.

While he could have gone to a local coffee shop, the 28-year-old said, “you sometimes can’t find a seat or an outlet,” and the atmosphere is often frenetic and distracting. As for social engagement, he added, it’s just not cool to turn to your coffeehouse neighbor and ask, “So, what are you working on?”

When Hare, Senior Manager of Cohort Learning at Hillel International, learned about SketchPad, a Jewish coworking space in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood, he was both “curious” and “intrigued.” After checking it out during one of its free community working days, he was thrilled to discover a Jewish hub abuzz with intellectual vitality and ripe for collaboration and creativity.

At SketchPad’s 10,000-square-foot space, Hare and other young professionals can work side-by-side in a large communal space or meet in one of the conference rooms to plan programs for their organizations, host events, and find solutions to challenges affecting them and cohorts at other Jewish groups.

Coworkers can also broaden their networks. It is enriching, Hare noted, to meet staff from other organizations that use SketchPad, including SVARA, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, and Avodah, and learn that “we have shared interests and missions.”

Such common denominators often lead to exciting initiatives and, at the very least, the sharing of vital information.

SketchPad regular David Korenthal, 37, Midwest Regional Director of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, has connected with peers from other Jewish organizations to launch a pilot program whose aim is to increase the diversity of campers from Jewish and interfaith families. And Kayla Reisman, 32, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s PJ Library Outreach Officer, was able to provide helpful data to another SketchPad user working on issues of Jewish camp affordability.

This high level of cooperation of SketchPad users-who run the gamut of religious observance, from secular to Modern Orthodox-is fulfilling one of the key objectives of SketchPad’s founder and first director, Irene Lehrer Sandalow, who established the nonprofit cooperative in 2017.

Sandalow, now the Executive Director of the Institute for Jewish Enrichment in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, said that she was interested in “changing the narrative about nonprofits competing with each other” for finite resources. Seeing so many thriving Jewish nonprofits working together in one space is corroborating evidence, she said, that cooperation is critical to every group’s success.

What makes SketchPad successful is the strength of its leadership. They praise the current Executive Director Katie Rich, whom many see as a modern-day shadchan, or matchmaker, who connects like-minded people and groups together for the greater good.

Jewish communal professional and entrepreneur Alex Jakubowski, who has been with SketchPad since its inception and serves as Treasurer of its Executive Committee, pointed to Rich’s ability to bring seemingly disparate organizations together to solve problems. She is an expert, the 33-year-old said, at “making uncommon connections common.”

Beyond being in the business of getting business done, SketchPad, which receives support from Crown Family Philanthropies, Michael Reese Health Trust, JUF, and other donors, provides a multitude of cultural and learning opportunities, including food demos, book talks, and lectures.

“People are looking for community in lots of different ways,” said SketchPad Board Member Lisa Rosenkranz, and SketchPad is giving young Jewish professionals, whether they’re working in the Jewish community or not, a chance to participate Jewishly, no matter their beliefs.

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