One night in Los Angeles, a young couple showed up to dinner with a baby finally asleep and an exam waiting Monday morning.
They had every reason to stay home. Instead, they walked into a restaurant after Shabbat and exhaled.
Graduate school pushes students to their limits. Marriage does too. So does rent. So do newborns who do not care about board exams. Campus life rarely makes space for all of that at once.
As Co-Directors of JLIC West Young Professionals, Dr. Rod and Dr. Najibi built that space intentionally. They created a three-part series for graduate students and young professionals who refused to choose between academic excellence and strong families.
The first two evenings focused on young couples trying to stay connected while schedules pulled them in opposite directions. One husband admitted, “Most of our conversations are about who is picking up what.” A wife nodded across the table. Others laughed quietly in recognition. No one needed a long explanation.
The Najibis invited respected experts in psychology and relationship health, but the tone never felt clinical. Couples discussed how to argue without tearing each other down. They mapped out realistic ways to divide responsibilities during peak stress. They talked about protecting shalom bayit when both partners felt stretched thin. Pens moved. Questions came fast. The room felt honest.
The third gathering centered on the transition into parenthood, couples who had recently welcomed their first child, and others who were thinking about what that chapter might look like for them. The energy shifted. A few participants checked their phones between sessions. Someone mentioned calculating childcare costs during a night feeding. The questions felt urgent. How do we keep growing professionally without losing ourselves at home. How do we stay present when everything feels important at once.”
Experts in psychology and child development addressed those tensions directly. No one offered easy formulas. The message felt steady and clear: strong careers and strong families both require deliberate investment.
Each evening unfolded as a Melave Malka held at a local restaurant. That detail mattered more than it sounded. People stayed. Conversations continued in smaller clusters after the formal discussion ended. Couples exchanged numbers. Plans formed for coffee meetups and shared babysitting.
Attendance increased with each installment. Students began asking what topic would come next. The demand did not come from marketing. It came from relief.
Dr. Rod and Dr. Najibi did not set out to run a program. They set out to feed people and give them somewhere to sit down. The series grew because graduate students kept showing up, and kept bringing friends who were quietly struggling with the same things. That is usually how you know something is working.
Reach out to any of our Directors to learn more about JLIC and to support our programming.
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