20 Years of Stories: Meet Juliet and Chris
When Juliet and Chris started their graduate degrees at the University of Denver, neither expected love to be on the syllabus. Still, that’s exactly what they found – and on the very first day. Despite having different specialties (international human rights for Juliet; international development for Chris) the pair shared an intro course, and their connection was instantaneous. Class turned into Indian food which turned into long hours of conversation…and, says Juliet, “we’ve been together ever since.”
Chris was a Denver native, while Juliet had grown up in New York. Judaism was always “really important” in her upbringing, she reflects, with fond memories of her bat mitzvah and attending religious school on the weekends. Chris muses that “if I grew up anything, it was Protestant,” but doesn’t feel very attached to that as an identity.
During their Master’s program, the couple briefly lived in Geneva, Switzerland, and Chris also spent a summer living in Israel on goat farm. When they settled back in Denver for work, though, Juliet knew right away that she wanted to explore the city’s opportunities for Jewish life. “Entering this next chapter of adulthood,” she explains, “that’s been really important for me: to find connections, find Jewish community.”
As if on cue, the text arrived from one of their friends: “It was like, “hey, Base Denver is doing this interfaith couples’ cohort. You’re an interfaith couple. You guys should totally check it out!”
“It was as simple as that,” Juliet says. “We knew, pretty much immediately, that it was something we wanted to do.”
Before they started the program, Chris had thought it would be guided conversations between himself and Juliet: “Do you want kids? How are we going to raise them? How does faith play in? That sort of thing,” he says. Instead, they were blown away by how communal it was: “I didn’t expect there to be so many people that we would get along with so amazingly!” says Chris, beaming.
They found themselves sharing stories and experiences with everybody in the cohort, creating bonds that blossomed into a whole new community. “It felt like camp, in the best way,” says Juliet. “A word that kept coming up was tender. The level of comfort we all felt with each other and that family feeling came really fast. I wouldn’t have thought we would come out of it with such a strong community.”
Embark, which joined the Mem Global umbrella in 2024, is all about creating these connections: helping interfaith couples to discover a local community that they might never have known existed. Alongside six learning sessions and Shabbat dinner, each cohort includes one weekend retreat, which, Juliet and Chris agree, really was like Embark summer camp.
“I haven’t felt that calm, golden energy from really anything else,” Juliet says about the retreat, which took place in the Rocky Mountains. “It was the most beautiful weekend….none of us wanted to leave.”
Juliet and Chris are overflowing with praise for Rabbi Dave Yedid and his husband Daniel, who led their cohort. Like many Mem Global programs, Embark is a unique opportunity for young adults to build personal relationships with a rabbi, diving into conversations, getting to know their family, and joining them for Shabbat dinners. Juliet and Chris were struck by what a difference those personal touches made.
“I didn’t think we would become such good friends!” exclaims Juliet. “I thought it would be more authoritative or up-down,” she gestures with her hands, illustrating her point, “but it really was such a horizontal, power-sharing relationship.”
“We’re just so, so grateful for them,” adds Chris warmly. “It’s great to continue being close to them, even though the Embark cohort is over.”
Embark didn’t just bring them closer with people who were in the program, either. For one session, everyone was instructed to bring an item or story from their heritage to share. “It was such a sweet opportunity to ask my grandparents about their parents,” says Chris. There were many stories he had never heard before: “apparently, we have a Revolutionary War drummer on my grandma’s side; I have Canadian roots I didn’t know about; some Dutch woodworkers…”
But the important thing wasn’t really the stories themselves — it was just talking to his grandparents about them. “They just opened up,” he recalls, with obvious emotion. “They were so sweet, and Juliet recorded them, so now we have that forever.”
“Now it’s something that we’re asking our friends!” Juliet added, smiling. “Like, where does your family come from? We want to know about your grandparents and your great-grandparents and what they did.”
With new confidence from Embark, they’ve started sharing Jewish traditions with Chris’s family: a mini-Seder for Passover; a Shabbat dinner. “His family is incredible and they’ve always been very supportive of us having these traditions,” Juliet explains, “but I really want them to understand Judaism and find the beauty in it.”
Chris agrees, adding, “It’s been really nice to bring these conversations from Embark, and now have them, not just with us as a couple, but also our families.”
They’ve been amazed by the program’s impact on them, which has lasted long beyond the six sessions themselves. “I mean, Embark cost, what, $180?” Chris says, turning to Juliet. “It was the best use of that money we could ever have spent. We learned so much, made lifelong friends out of it…”
Juliet nods in agreement. “I wish we could do it again!”
If you want to support more journeys like Juliet and Chris’s, consider giving to one of our 20 Ways to Give! Created in honor of Mem Global’s 20th anniversary, these are 20 meaningful opportunities to support the programs that make a difference for Jewish young adults around the world, including sponsoring an Embark cohort.