How it all Started
It started on a couch.
A couch in an orthodox synagogue, to be specific. Ariela, was sitting there, miserable, doing the thing she thought she was supposed to do — and hating every minute of it.
How do I actually want to spend my Shabbat?
Not like this. Not sitting around waiting for things to end. Not pretending. Not performing someone else's version of what being Jewish is supposed to look like.
That question changed everything. Not just about Shabbat — but about her entire approach to Judaism. To faith. To life.
WHAT WAS MISSING
Before The Shabbat Club, there was no place that felt like home.
There was belonging — but only if you became someone else first. There were synagogues — each with beautiful pieces of the puzzle. Good davening here. Good community there. Good nostalgia somewhere else.
But no single place where a woman could show up fully as herself and fully as a Jew. No space outside a synagogue where women could gather to do meaningful, joyful, creative Jewish things — with each other and with their kids.
She calls herself a "diasporic Jew" — not just in the diaspora from the land of Israel, but in a deeper way. Always wandering. Synagogue to synagogue. Searching for home.
The Shabbat Club is what she built when she stopped looking for it and started creating it.
HOW TWO BECAME A WE
Two years ago, at a child's birthday party, the founder mentioned her feelings about Shabbat to a woman named Alina.
Alina's response was immediate: "I'm in."
Her story was similar. She too was searching for a Shabbat that felt more in alignment with her own way of being.
From that moment, they were partners. They visited homes together. Talked about design. Made reels. Got massages. And built something that has surprised them both with how deeply it's impacted — not just the women who come — but each of them, personally.
WHAT THIS IS, REALLY
The Shabbat Club is a third space — not a synagogue, and not a home — where Jewish women of all affiliations can gather to connect with themselves and with their own unique version of Judaism.
It's a home for spiritual exploration. For creativity. For embodiment. For authenticity.
It's a place where a woman in a wig and a skirt can cry beside a woman in a crown and a onesie — and both of them feel seen.
It's a place where you don't need to sacrifice your authenticity when you step into your Jewish identity.
And it's growing. What started as a question on a couch is becoming a center for song, art, learning, and exploration — with a vision to inspire other cities to build something just like it.
THE IMPACT SO FAR
🎶 Song Circles bringing women of all backgrounds together in prayer and music
🌙 Kiddush Levana ceremonies restoring the Divine Feminine under the open sky
👨👩👧👦 Family Kabbalat Shabbat for families who want Friday night to feel alive
🎵 Makom Space — an after-school arts program backed by a $30,000 Federation grant,
THE VISION
In one year: Makom Space thriving, creative programming running regularly, led by all kinds of people, with women from all places showing up.
In five years: A bigger space. A bigger staff. A retail space. A center for learning, art, and exploration of the self through a Jewish lens. Song circles known throughout the northeast as a haven for women to pray and connect with the Divine. And a model that inspires other cities to build their own.
"Look at yourself through God's eyes — what do you see?"
Founder
House Manager
Tresurer
Web Designer
Megan Whitsett was born in Colorado and spent 3 years living on a farm in Idaho with her husband before moving to University Heights to explore a deep draw towards Judaism. She has spent the past couple years developing her skills in digital marketing and website design and is thrilled to use those skills to help bring the Shabbat Club to life. She is blessed to be a wife to her husband Josiah, and mother of three beautiful children.