Spotlight: Rebecca and Daniel

Meet Rebecca and Daniel — NYC transplants who found their way to Connecticut, discovered Urban Dor through a Facebook ad, and now have a Jewish community where they feel at home.

Urban Dor: When did you first hear about Urban Dor and what was your first event?

Dan and I had just moved to Connecticut from Washington Heights (NYC) and were looking for a Jewish community to plug into. I actually found Urban Dor through one of your Facebook ad campaigns, believe it or not. Our first event was the Summer Schmooze last year, which we really enjoyed and was the starting point for many great experiences with you guys.

Urban Dor: What do you both like most about being part of the Greater Hartford Jewish community?

The kindness and generosity of the people, hands down. The West Hartford Jewish community has so many of the best parts of what makes a Jewish community work. It's robust without being overwhelming, and welcoming without being insular. That balance is rare, and it's why we willingly get on I-91 for you. That's not nothing!

Urban Dor: Rebecca - You grew up in Brooklyn in a very observant Jewish community. How has your Jewish identity evolved over time, and how have Jewish 20s & 30s programs helped shape your sense of community, connection, and identity?

I am, and always will be, a proud Jewish woman. I have a Jewish soul, and I live it and breathe it every day. I grew up very observant, first in Far Rockaway and then Midwood, and that upbringing gave me deep, ingrained textual knowledge. That grounding was a huge part of my development. But I just don't think of my Judaism as one lane I have to stay in anymore. For me, the best version of a spiritual life pulls from every corner of the Jewish world. The religious world gave me that foundation. The secular world has its own serious intellectual tradition, and I'm not willing to give that up either.

So what I keep asking, for myself and honestly for all of us, is how do we bridge those corners into something that feels like one thing. I'm working on that with my husband, who grew up in a completely different kind of Jewish home than I did. Building a life together has meant holding two versions of Jewish life in the same house and finding what's true in both.

That's why the 20s and 30s programming matters. These are spaces where the different corners of the Jewish world actually end up in the same place. Nobody's checking your credentials at the door. Someone raised in a yeshiva and someone who found their way back later in life are sitting at the same meal, and both of them belong there. My journey has been going headlong into connection, and I've found a real partner in that with Urban Dor.

Urban Dor: Dan - With your background in media strategy and communications, how do you see opportunities for young Jewish adult communities across Connecticut to collaborate, strengthen engagement, and build a more vibrant Jewish scene for the next generation?

I think the biggest opportunity is treating Connecticut as one connected scene rather than a bunch of separate pockets. No single community here has the density of NYC, Miami, or LA, but put Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield County together and you've got real critical mass. Each one brings something different too: West Hartford has the institutional depth, New Haven has the young energy around Yale, Fairfield County has the NYC transplants. A shared events calendar, cross-promotion, and a few co-hosted events a year would go a long way.

The other piece is storytelling, and honestly, as Jews this shouldn't be a stretch for us. We've been telling stories to hold communities together for a few thousand years. It works in both directions: stories build community, and community gives you more stories to tell. Urban Dor gets this. That's why a spotlight like this one works: someone reads about a couple who showed up not knowing anyone, and suddenly showing up feels doable.

Connecticut has a genuinely good story to tell here. So much of the Jewish 20s and 30s narrative is about the big cities, but there's a whole generation choosing places like this, building full Jewish lives outside the obvious zip codes. That story is sitting right here, and nobody's telling it at full volume yet.

Deploying it doesn't take much. You don't need a content team; you need a habit, and the best part is the community can be the content team. Crowdsource it: ask members to share how they found their way here, let people submit photos from events. The ad that brought us in worked because it felt like a community, not a campaign. Do that consistently across every group in the state and it compounds.

Urban Dor: When you both catch a day off, what do you love doing together in Connecticut?

We love the beach in our area of Milford, which has quite a large shoreline. We'll take a day in New Haven, or just grill in our backyard and hang out with the local wildlife, the bunnies, the birds, and hopefully not the bears that have actually been spotted around here recently (probably no big deal to you West Hartford folks). We also like to hike East Rock Park, which is just a short trip from us.

Urban Dor: If people want to connect with you or learn more about what you're doing, what's the best way to reach you?

We're happy to connect with anyone in the community. People can find us on LinkedIn or Facebook.

---

Urban Dor's next event is the Jewish New Year Celebration at Beth El Temple in West Hartford on Tuesday, Sept 1st 2026. Tickets and details here.

Whether you’re from Greater Hartford, New Haven, Springfield, Boston, NYC or beyond, come experience the warmth and energy of the Greater Hartford Jewish community with Urban Dor.