At 30, Jonathan Shahar is a Temple University Beasley School of Law graduate, an attorney at Raju LLP and a Philadelphia resident. He worked his way through Penn State University for his undergraduate degree, more than two years as an analyst at BlackTree Healthcare Consulting and then law school.
So now, he’s arrived.
Yet despite working more than 40 hours a week, he wants to do more once he’s off hours. As Shahar put it, he does not just desire to go home each night and watch Netflix. (Though he does enjoy “a good binge” from time to time, he said.)
Instead, he wants to join the boards of local community organizations. And now, the Jewish Philadelphian is going to represent his faith on the board of directors of Interfaith Philadelphia.
The nonprofit organization tries to create opportunities for people from different religions to interact, according to interfaithphiladelphia.org. Its goal is to foster mutual understanding. Shahar is one of five new board members and the only one from the Jewish community.
“These individuals will make a significant contribution to our organization with their expertise from across the public, private and nonprofit sectors,” said Abby Stamelman Hocky, the executive director of Interfaith Philadelphia.
Shahar graduated from Temple Law in 2021 and got his job with Raju in May 2022. Later that year, he started participating in the Philadelphia Bar Association’s board observer program.
The bar association helps young lawyers join boards at local organizations without having the power to act. That helps them understand whether they might like to become part of those boards in the future.
And when Shahar met with board and staff members, he recognized that, “These people are driven toward the mission of creating commonality and community among different faiths in the city.” He also enjoyed attending the various services of different faiths.
“It was cool to get that exposure,” he said. “Getting to see the ways people expressed their own faith has been a driving force here.”
The experience reminded him that “we have so much more in common than we do the things that divide us,” he said. It motivated him to join the board.
“Critical conversations. I want to help people have conversations,” he said. “Recognizing that there are differences but those don’t have to lead to conflict. They can be appreciated and noted.
“Absent those critical conversations, we end up in silos and on islands,” Shahar added.
The young lawyer’s father immigrated to the United States from Israel in the late 1980s. Then he married Shahar’s mother, an American Jew. When Shahar was growing up, the family belonged to the Congregations of Shaare Shamayim in Northeast Philadelphia. Shahar celebrated his bar mitzvah there.
During summers from age nine to 19, he went to Habonim Dror Camp Galil in Ottsville, Bucks County. Shahar credited his Jewish camping experience with imbuing him with Zionist and social justice values. The camp had Tikkun Olam Day twice a summer. It helped the Jewish Relief Agency with efforts to aid low-income Philadelphians. It also organized park clean-ups.
“It really built in that social justice, do good for the community, build for yourself and others a world that is kind and loving and communal. And doing so in an activist way,” Shahar said. “Here are the steps I’m going to take. Starting those kinds of conversations from the age of nine is incredibly valuable.”
At Penn State, Shahar joined the board of Hillel and became president of the Jewish AEPi fraternity. Then at Temple, he became president of the Jewish Law Society.
“I’ve been involved in Jewish organizations at various levels,” he said.
As an adult though, he is not yet a member of a synagogue. But he wants to build the same kind of Jewish life that he appreciated growing up.
His family kept kosher. His friends knew that he couldn’t come out on Friday night until Shabbat dinner was over. Grandparents, aunts and uncles joined the family for the meal.
Shabbat dinners and Passover seders were also open. Friends could come, too.
“Having those moments for family and community to bring everybody together. And also rituals. They keep us connected to things,” Shahar said. “It’s the things that keep me grounded.”
