When it comes to Jewish parenting, one size does not fit all. No one knows this better than the team at Kveller.com .

This winter, the national parenting site launched a portal for Chicago families, with support from the Jewish United Fund. So, if you’re expecting a baby or just moved here and need a preschool, don’t panic. Celebrate: Kveller-“Jewish parenting headquarters for all things bris , breastfeeding, matzo balls, and more”-is here.

“You’ll find resources for mohels , caterers for your bris and preschools,” said Rachel Rapoport, PJ Library program director at JUF.

The partnership was a great fit from the start, because JUF sought new ways to serve young families and increase access to Jewish community resources online. “We are excited Chicago was chosen,” she said. “It was a natural partnership because of Kveller’s great reputation and authentic parenting voice. They look for communities like ours with strong young family outreach and engagement programs.”

JUF currently engages about 7,500 young families through its three major programs-jBaby Chicago, PJ Library, and JUF Right Start. A 2010 Jewish Population Study revealed the potential to reach a larger, untapped audience of about 16,000 Jewish families with young children in the Chicago area.

In 2015, Kveller secured a $25,000 grant from JUF’s Breakthrough Fund for a year to test its feasibility and plan a local portal in the Chicago market. Its analytical team already knew its national parenting site attracted an average of 33,000 visits and 46,000 page views from the Chicago area.

More than a year in the making, the Chicago portal is one of six local communities on Kveller.com, joining Baltimore, Detroit, Long Island, New York, and New Jersey. The site reflects a happy marriage between JUF’s family outreach and Kveller’s parenting content, a mix of advice, humor, inspiration, and local resources.

Part of Kveller’s recipe for success is the philosophy that there is no one way to parent Jewishly. The other part is its ability to offer diverse perspectives and provide relatable content catering to all kinds of readers, whether they are first-time parents, stay-at-home moms or interfaith families.

“We call it our ‘special sauce,’ said Jennifer Reich Modlinger, director of Partnerships
for Kveller.

Regardless of what flavor of Judaism you practice, chances are you’ll learn about everything from running a Seder to the best preschools in the city for children with special needs.

“We bring people together with no barriers, and we talk about universal topics, not just the Jewish topics,” she said. “Even the most observant Jew who guides every step of her life by the Torah is still going to talk about pregnancy, breastfeeding, and tantrums.”

Kveller Chicago’s content is relatable but also easy to find. Listing of preschools, synagogues and local events are organized for maximum impact and searchability. That means translating Jewish communal speak into parent-friendly keywords. So, “reaching out to area youth” becomes “kids” and “children,” while “early childhood center” becomes “preschool”.

Whatever Kveller’s magic formula is, it’s working. With an average of 1 million page views per month, Kveller has grown to be the largest community of people parenting online. From the more than 57,000 likes on Facebook and 9,000 followers on Twitter, signs of Kveller’s popularity are everywhere. The parenting site earned a Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in digital outreach and made it into the Slingshot’s Top 50 most innovative Jewish programs in North America.

Annette Gendler, Hyde Park mom, writer, and memoir instructor, appreciates Kveller’s innovation and said its new Chicago portal “can open doors where readers discover something new about Jewish culture and heritage and get ideas about how to incorporate it into their lives.”

That was Gendler’s objective when she wrote a January blog post titled “How My Kids and I Celebrate TuBishvat.” In that piece, Gendler whose three kids attend Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School, chronicled the adventures of the school’s Green Kindergarten class during a recent trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory. One highlight from the trip was an Israeli girl’s amazement that Sabra fruit from the supermarket actually grows on a cactus.

Gendler, who has penned articles for Chicago Parent , Northside Parents Network and Tablet magazine, adds: “What I really like about Kveller is that you can frame a secular activity like going to the Conservatory or apple picking in a Jewish way.”

Ready to discover something new about parenting Jewishly or want to make new connections? Let the kvells lead the way.

Jennifer Brody is a former associate editor at JUF News and a freelance writer living in Chicago.