Evan Rabin

I am a Evan Rabin, a young Jewish professional, born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where I currently live with my wife Stacey, baby daughter Maya and dog Max. While all of my grandparents were born in New York, I have Ashkenazi roots, with my great grandparents hailing from Belarus and Lithuania.

I grew up going as a reform Jew, having my bar mitzvah at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. From then until college, I rarely attended synagogue and only celebrated the ‘major holidays. In August, 2008 I participated in an Oranim Birthright trip, which lit my passion for Yiddishkeit and Israel. A few months later I attended Brandeis University and joined events at Chabad of Brandeis. Since graduating in June 2021, I have grown in Judaism through several organizations including JICNY in New York.

On one hand, it seems like it was yesterday that I met the world famous Steve Eisenberg at the Israeli American Council Conference in Washington DC in September 2016; however a lot has happened since then! Unlike most JICNY community members, most of my family is in and around Manhattan. However, without Steve and JICNY, I did not have places to go to meals for Shabbat and holiday meals each week.

I have met countless friends, business colleagues, and mentors through JICNY in New York, Miami and as far as Dubai. The night after Steve’s Dubai trip in May 2022, my wife and I met up for engagement mocktails (alcohol is a rarity in the UAE!) with Jodi Samuels, so we got to spend our engagement in Dubai with JICNY!