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I recently asked one of our daughters what she was most nervous about with our big move to NYC. Without hesitation, she said:

“Starting school and not knowing anyone.”

Then, just last week, I got a call from someone who said they were about to start grad school. They had just moved to a new city and asked if I could connect them to the local Jewish community before classes began.

Different ages, same fear, same need.

Making friends is hard, finding a new community is hard, and these days, finding your place anywhere feels about as rare as finding a parking spot in Manhattan that doesn’t require a second mortgage.

We’ve been here six weeks, and let’s just say the landing has been…bumpy. We still don’t have a permanent home and have been camping with my in-laws in Brooklyn, where our kids are in a kind of “suitcase limbo.” It’s hard to feel settled when your closet is a carry-on bag and you’re sleeping on a Sealy Posturepedic mattress (proper Brooklyn pronunciation: Pasta-pedic) from 1978.

And this is where my home life and my work life meet:

With the school year starting shortly, my job at JGO is ensuring that no Jewish grad student in North America ever feels like the new kid in the cafeteria holding a lunch tray and scanning the room in panic. At 156 grad campuses, we create spaces where grad students can walk in and instantly connect to Jewish community.

Right now, I’m not sleeping well knowing my own kids haven’t found their community yet. And truthfully, I also don’t sleep well knowing there are Jewish grad students out there who don’t have a Jewish community to connect to.

Because whether you’re nine years old on your first day of elementary school, or twenty-nine on your first day of grad school, everyone deserves a place to belong, a Jewish community they’re proud to be part of, and to never have to eat lunch alone.