A Word from ChiTribe Co-Founder Sam Getz-Sheftel
5 Months ago, after ending a relationship, I found myself once again wishing that Chicago’s Jewish community was more like the community I became so used to when I lived in Washington DC. Specifically, I missed all the great opportunity for engagement and to create meaningful connections to others. It was at this time that I began hacking on a website that could aggregate Jewish events for Chicago similar to what GatherDC does for Washington DC.
Over the course of the past 5 months, this little side project has blossomed into a full-blown organization ChiTribe.org, a modern website that automatically aggregates events from +30 organizations. It has been incredible to see the idea take off and I am extremely excited to see what is to come next.
I’d like to thank the incredible ChiTribe team specifically my co-founder Rebecca Schwab who immediately recognized the potential of this idea, and without whom ChiTribe would have never been possible.
As well as Mo Goltz for his fantastic vision and incredible design work, Becky Adelberg for her insight into the Chicago Jewish community, Kayla Manilow for her help organizing our efforts, Shaily Hakimian for all her work forming our social media presence and unmatched her enthusiasm, and Josh GIbbs for leading up our new content development.
A huge thanks also goes out to Rachel Gildiner and Jackie Zais and the entire GatherDC organization and there Open Doors Fellowship where I learned many of the ideas that inspired the effort to build ChiTribe.
I’m looking forward the celebrating at the ChiTribe Launch Party this Wednesday at Trophy Room and to all the great work in connecting the Chicago Jewish community that is sure to come from the ChiTribe team.
Stay tuned 
BIO
Sam Getz Sheftel is the Co-Founder and creator of ChiTribe.org. Sam approaches building community with intentionality and a tactful technological approach to optimizing finding Jewish life. After moving back to Chicago from Washington DC, he missed the great opportunity for engagement and to create meaningful connections with others. He also found the transition into Chicago challenging and wanted to make it easier for his peers. Sam set out to create a central calendar for Chicago that could aggregate Jewish events for Chicago and over the course of the past year, this side project has blossomed into a full-blown organization. Sam is now the acting Board President and an integral part of the ChiTribe vision and development. For fun, Sam loves hosting Shabbat dinners, spending time with his family and adorable nieces, and dad jokes.
