This year, JChats Season 2 is built around one idea: Choosing Joy. Not as a feeling you wait for. As something you practice — in conversation, in community, on purpose.
Dynamic conversations. Across a full year. Each one an invitation to come curious and leave more connected than you arrived.
Choosing Joy starts here.
Explore the dynamic lineup we have prepared for Season 2. Categorized by theme instead of dates so please mark your calendars for each program.
It always has — a seat for everyone, a story in every dish. This season opens the way Jewish life always has: together, and hungry for more than just the meal.
AUGUST 27, 2026 at 7:00pm
Israeli culinary storyteller & educator
The voice behind 1.5 million Jewish kitchens. Sivan brings the food culture of modern Israel into conversation with diaspora Jewish life — exploring how a recipe becomes a form of memory that survives everything. Location provided upon registration.
Watch Event Video Below
Presented in Partnership with Kitchen Conversations: A meaningful Jewish culinary programming thoughtfully designed to explore and share how identities and stories travel through food. To deepen our understanding of how food relates and intersects with us as a people, how we gather and how it represents history, joy, tradition, pain, survival, love and sacrifice—a thread that documents deep enriching stories.
Presenting Sponsor: The Lazear Family
OCTOBER 22, 2026 at 7:00pm
Niki Russ Federman & Josh Russ Tupper
Since 1914, Russ & Daughters has fed the Jewish soul of New York’s Lower East Side. A conversation with the fourth-generation owners about food, family, and Jewish continuity — with recipes from the famed appetizing shop. Location provided upon registration.
Presented in Partnership with Kitchen Conversations: A meaningful Jewish culinary programming thoughtfully designed to explore and share how identities and stories travel through food. To deepen our understanding of how food relates and intersects with us as a people, how we gather and how it represents history, joy, tradition, pain, survival, love and sacrifice—a thread that documents deep enriching stories.
We have always survived by telling our stories — at the table, on the page, on the screen. These are the moments that shape us.
NIGHT ONE · December 2, 2026 at 7:00pm
Adult Night: “Awaken Your Awesome”
How does Jewish wisdom empower us for greatness — even now? Disney storyteller Saul Blinkoff brings a night of resilience, identity, and purpose in a post-Oct. 7 world, exploring what it takes to find strength and meaning as a Jew today.
Recommended for ages 13+
Tickets: $25
NIGHT two · DECember 3, 2026 at 6:00pm
Family Night: “Awaken Your Awesome” + Drawing Workshop
A shorter, family-friendly take on Saul’s signature message — how Jewish wisdom helps us find our own greatness — followed by a hands-on drawing workshop with the Disney animator himself.
Recommended for ages 7+
Adults: $20
Kids: $5
Disney animator · speaker on faith, identity & creative life
Pocahontas. Mulan. Tarzan. Winnie the Pooh. Doc McStuffins. Saul has spent his career making stories that matter — and then living one. Equal parts comedy and meaning: a Hollywood career, a Jewish journey back home, and the discovery that the two were never as far apart as he thought. Location provided upon registration.
Choosing joy doesn’t mean looking away from what’s hard. It means carrying both — sometimes in the same conversation. Alongside our season of joy runs a thread of resilience, holding the weight honestly, because that weight is part of the story too.
OCTOBER 5, 2026 at 7:00pm
Senior Correspondent, The Jerusalem Post
Yonah Jeremy Bob has spent his career reporting from inside Israel’s most consequential moments—from its intelligence community and security establishment to its wars and political crossroads. He brings Columbus a ground-level perspective on a region shaping history, including insight into Israel’s upcoming elections and what these pivotal moments ask of all of us watching from afar. Location provided upon registration.
Watch Event Video Below
March 8, 2027
Between the Lines with Linda Kass
Columbus author Linda Kass joins us to discuss her new novel, World News from Waverley High, a coming-of-age story set in 1969 that follows a teenager awakening to a nation in upheaval. As the founder of Gramercy Books and the author of four works of historical fiction, Linda will also reflect on her path as a Jewish writer and bookseller, and on how she chooses joy in uncertain times.when it will be felt most. Justice, told here, is its own form of resilience. Location provided upon registration.
Tickets TBA | Includes dessert reception.
Gaynor Lecture – May 6,2027
Roberta Rosenthal Kwall is the Raymond Niro Law Professor at DePaul University College of Law, specializing in Jewish law and culture, author’s rights, and creativity theory. She is the author of Polarized: Why American Jews Are Divided and What To Do About It (Bloomsbury); Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World (Rowman & Littlefield); The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition (Oxford University Press); The Soul of Creativity: Forging a Moral Rights Law for the United States (Stanford University Press); and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Law. Her popular pieces have appeared in The Free Press, the Chicago Tribune, and many Jewish outlets. She lectures widely on American Judaism, and the intersection of Jewish law and culture. Follow her on X at @robertakwall. Impactful speaker brought in by the Rabbi Nathan & Sylvia Gaynor Memorial Fund
After The Siren – May 10,2027
The final conversation of Season 2 — built to send the community home with something to carry. Stay close. Details to come.
Why Support JChats? Your sponsorship brings powerful Jewish programming to life — helping to fund top-tier speakers, keep events accessible, and foster connection across our community.
Sponsorship Levels & Benefits Subject to Change
Visionary Thinker – $10,000
8 reserved seating tickets per event
Access to pre-event VIP receptions
Prominent name/logo recognition on stage, screen and website
Inspiration Builder – $5,000
6 reserved seating tickets per event
Access to pre-event VIP receptions
Name/logo recognition on stage, screen and website
Learning Leader – $2,500
4 reserved seating tickets per event
Access to pre-event VIP receptions
Recognition on screen and website
Community Connector – $1,000
2 tickets per event
Access to pre-event VIP receptions
Recognition on screen and website
Conversation Starter – $500
4 complimentary event tickets
Recognition on website
Questions? Contact Eva Golden at egolden@columbusjcc.org
2026-27 Sponsors
Visionary Thinker
The Lazear Family
Inspiration Builder
CAROL FOLKERTH FUND FOR JEWISH INSPIRATION
Greater Columbus Arts Council
Lenore Schottenstein & Community Jewish Arts Endowment Fund
Learning Leader
Carol & Jeff Folkerth
Jennie & Seth Cammeyer
Adrienne & Sidney Chafetz JCC Endowment Fund
Leslie and Kurt Malkoff
Matrix Psychological/Visualopathy
Brownie Points
The New Albany Company
Ginny & Mike Schlonsky
Carol & Rob Steiner
Community Connector
Sarah and Michael Blumenfeld
Rose Caplan Endowment Fund
Julie & Doug Cohen
Caroline & Evan Cohn
Melissa and Ronnie Conn
Sarah & Alex Gardner
Sally M & Wm L. Glick JCC Endowment Fund
Shelly & Barry Igdaloff
Clemy & Bob Keidan
Denise & Mike Klapper
Jacqueline & Mitchell Kon
Lewin/Madison/Tuckerman Families
Sunny & Mark Masser
Sarah & Rick Meizlish
Karen & Jon Meyer
Lisa Newmark and Arnie Good
Miriam and David Portman
Janice & Clayton Rhodes
Andrew O Smith and Lavea Brachman
Joan (z’l) & Jack (z’l) Wallick JCC Endowment Fund
Laura & Adam Weiser
Conversation Starter
Raymond and Pauline Kahn Cultural Arts Endowment
Debby and Ira Kane
Betty Klapper
Dana & Andy Lenobel
Rose Luttinger
Nancy Rosen
Betty & Charles Talis JCC Endowment Fund
Marcy and Mark Ungar
Updated as of 10/5/2026
