Special to WJW

From a small group can come big things.

At least that's the hope of those organizing a D.C. chapter of the University of Michigan Association of Jewish Alumni, which held its first official planning meeting Sunday afternoon.

Within a short time, the four alumnae in attendance had brainstormed enough possible meeting ideas to fill a one-year calendar and seemed eager to get moving on all of the activities. Their intent is to combine their love for their alma mater with their commitment to Judaism, add a bit of job networking, throw in some charity work in the community and end up with lifelong friendships and an active group that will meet monthly.

UMAJA began in June 2008 in partnership with both the university's Alumni Association and Hillel. It joins a growing list of Michigan alumni affiliate organizations, including the African American Alumni Council, the Hispanic Alumni Council and the Gay and Lesbian Alumni Society.

These individual associations are "an additional way for U-M alumni to connect with one another based on a specific interest or identity," explained Allison Sheren, national director of UMAJA, which recently established Jewish chapters in New York, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as in Washington, D.C. So far, the local chapter has had a few small meetings, including mostly happy hours.

Earlier e-mails and various announcements on Michigan-related Web sites have shown that there is a strong interest for a Jewish chapter of alumni, said Naomi Karp, who along with Emily Benovitz, is co-chairing the new group. Both live in the District.

Already there are 95 people on their list. "There is definitely an interest in this," Karp said.

Karp, who sported a Michigan alumni T-shirt, graduated in spring 2008 with a degree in sociology and Hebrew and Jewish cultural studies. Benovitz graduated in December with a degree in political science. The two hadn't known each other while in college.

On Sunday, they spent time chatting with fellow alumnae Lisa Yanoff-Ron of Silver Spring, class of 1995, and Alana Kuhn, a District resident and 2007 graduate.

For Rosh Hashanah, they plan to find families to host recent graduates for a home-cooked holiday meal. They threw around such ideas as spending the day at a museum or professional sporting event, having Jewish or Israeli cooking classes, art projects to create anything from a seder plate to kiddush cups, going on a hayride and taking a walking tour of Jewish things in Washington, D.C.

"We want to connect alumni in any way possible," said Karp, noting that close to 20 percent of Michigan's 40,000-student body is Jewish.

Unlike the larger alumni group, the UMAJA will "establish relationships between current and future University of Michigan Jewish alumni" while enhancing "the ways in which people identify Jewishly," according to its mission statement.

The group's four guiding principles are leadership, Jewish identity, social action and mentorship.

Sheren said that colleges with Jewish alumni groups are few and far between. To her knowledge, Michigan and the University of Southern California are the only two.

She said UMAJA was unusual in that it was opening regional charters while USC has just a national membership.

Now that the alumnae foursome has a notebook of event ideas, the next step, Karp said, is to set up dates for some of these programs and to begin working on plans for Rosh Hashanah. She hoped to hold a "fun meeting" fairly soon to find more people willing to help get the chapter off the ground.