The cohort is called Embark, which is a fitting title because the couples who participate are launching their Jewish journeys together.

Run by Mem Global, the organization that sets up Jewish experiences for people in their 20s and 30s, Embark is a program for interfaith and mixed-heritage couples who want Judaism to be part of their household. It is not a conversion class, though it shares qualities and lessons with one.

Participants meet for six sessions, a weekend retreat and a Shabbat dinner, according to memglobal.org. This fall, a new cohort will gather in West Philadelphia with Megan GoldMarche, a campus rabbi at Penn Hillel. GradHillel at Penn is a cosponsor of the program.

About five couples have signed up. The group can welcome as many as 12, according to a Mem Global news release.

The couples will “explore Jewish life together,” as the release put it. And this cohort will do that during the time of year when Jewish life is most active: the High Holidays.

The West Philly Embark group is going to meet from Sept. 14 to Nov. 2. Rosh Hashanah takes place from Sept. 11-13 this year.

“The holidays in particular are one of the most accessible ways to reach interfaith couples and their families,” GoldMarche said.

Like a Hebrew school class, conversion class or Talmud study, much of the Embark program will consist of people sitting together and having conversations. At the first session, participants will get to know each other.

They will explain their backgrounds, their relationships and the culture they are trying to establish within their households. Most of the participants are about to get engaged, about to get married or newlyweds. Many are close to moving in together.

Embark is not typically a program for people with kids, since they have already established households and less freedom to get out at night.

“You have to be in a place where you’re talking about your future comfortably,” GoldMarche said.

And those conversations can span topics.

While the first session will be introductory, the group will also cover High Holidays and Shabbat, money and tzedakah, Jewish values and how they impact decision-making. GoldMarche will host a Shabbat dinner for the group at the sukkah outside her home.

“We’ll dive into Shabbat and what it means, to build a practice of rest and make time for each other,” she said. “What might it look like to have a Shabbat practice they feel is accessible to them?”

For non-Jews or Jews who are unsure of how they want to practice, GoldMarche aims to show that Jewish life is “accessible.”

“They can live a rich Jewish life whether they convert or not,” the rabbi said.

“The goal is for the couple to be able to have a Jewish home together. I think we all know these days that you can have a Jewish home even if one person in the couple is not Jewish,” she added. “Most of the non-Jews in the cohorts are excited for Judaism to be a big part of their lives.”

GoldMarche has been running Embark cohorts in Philadelphia since the spring of 2023, and she tries to do about one a year. She helped start this West Philly group because she had a list of people who were interested.

The Jewish Federations of North America initially launched Embark in 2022 as a test program. Mem Global acquired it a year later and began to scale it, organizing “27 cohorts with 388 participants in 12 cities across the U.S.” in the years since the acquisition.

The initiative is a response to a growing need.

A 2021 Pew Research Center study found that, among Jewish people who got married before 1980, only 18% were intermarried. That number rose to 45% for Jews who tied the knot between 2000 and 2009 and 61% for Jews who got married after 2010.

The study estimated that 42% of married Jewish adults, spanning generations, had a non-Jewish spouse. The 61% rate for Jews who got married after 2010 also included Orthodox couples. Without Orthodox couples, the intermarriage rate rose to 72% among Jews who got married after 2010.

“More importantly than whether Jews marry Jews is whether we raise Jews. The people who are going to keep Judaism alive aren’t all going to be Jewish,” GoldMarche said.

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com