If you walk around the JCC Denver (the J) with your infant, be prepared to hear loving babbles and see scrunched, concerned eyebrows – and no, these gestures are not from your little one. Just through our doors there are hundreds of bubbes that you have never met before. They want to help you with your diaper bag. They may offer to put your baby’s fallen sock back on their foot. Why? The essence of the JCC Denver is nestled in community ties, investment in our youngest members, and supporting one another through life’s transitional moments. In short, the JCC is the modern shtetl.  

 Shtetls in Eastern Europe were characterized by echad, oneness in Hebrew. They were grounded in the knowledge that we are stronger when together. Just like a shtetl, the JCC takes oneness to heart by investing in the wellbeing of families through minute, everyday interactions as well as intentional family programming. 

 Jewish Baby University (JBU) is a prenatal program in partnership with HCA HealthONE Rose Hospital for expecting families to learn about Jewish traditions and engage in Prepared Childbirth classes. Although the program only includes eight meetings, the goal is to create a community of Jewish families who will support each other as they experience similar lifecycle and developmental milestones. As shared by JBU alumni, Leslie Weber, “[my cohort] continued to help and support me and my family from the minor to the major life events. The moms still talk almost every day. Though the topics have changed, the bond has only grown stronger. It takes a village to raise kids, and this is the tribe I am so grateful to have!” JBU, which began twenty-five years ago in Denver, continues to foster lifelong friendships between parents and children alike. The cohort-style program reminds us of a simpler time: where children are raised alongside peers who feel more like cousins by neighbors who feel more like aunts and uncles.  

 The relationships that are planted as seeds in JBU sprout and flourish through free support programs and resources at the J, including Baby Café in partnership with the Michaud Family and the Baby Supply Pantry. Baby Café is a free feeding and support program for parents and their babies. The JCC Denver Baby Café has been serving between ten and twenty-five families each week for five and a half years, providing emotional and communal support to one another with the assistance of a feeding specialist. After Baby Café, moms meander into the Baby Supply Pantry, located off the main lobby, to donate and shop for baby and postpartum items at no cost. The circle of oneness continues through the passing down of previously loved items. 

 An asset and perhaps the occasional nudnik (pest in Yiddish), this feeling of homeliness and familial comfortability stems from the shared knowledge that children are our hope for a more thoughtful world; we live the values of the shtetl by recognizing that parenthood is a journey that is meant to be walked amongst community; and together we support one another through every life stage as one JCC family.