Brandeis Shliach’s New Startup

By COLlive reporter

Shabbos dinners at the Chabad House at Brandeis University in Massachusetts started becoming overwhelming for the Shliach Rabbi Peretz Chein and his wife Chanie, as well as their students.

“The first 20 minutes of each Shabbos dinner was spent helping everyone find a seat, and with many more students arriving than those who RSVPed, and more tables would need to be set up in a second, lower level of the Chabad House,” he told COLlive.com.

“As for the students, they would begin to arrive 45 minutes before dinner to save a seat for themselves and their friends. This was stressful for them, and also made those who came later uncomfortable.”

Realizing a solution needed to be found, Rabbi Chein decided to give it a shot on Craigslist. Rabbi Chein posted that he is looking for someone to build a web application that allows guests to ‘visit’ the Chabad House online, reserve a spot at a table, and choose with whom they will dine.

Within a few days numerous responses poured in, offering to do the project within the allocated budget and time frame required by Rabbi Chein, but with little more details.

When Ilan Levy‘s response arrived, it caught Rabbi Chein’s attention.

It was much more costly and detailed than the other offers. Intrigued by the contrast of his cost, Rabbi Chein asked Ilan to convince him to use his services.

Levy explained, “Unlike others who are offering to build the basic functionality, I will build a real modular application with strong foundations easily adaptable to your evolving needs.”

Impressed with the answer and Levy’s resume (close to 20 years of web application development resulting in numerous unique and successful projects), Chein decided to offer him the job.

“Ilan is also Jewish, which meant he would be sensitive to the uniqueness of a Chabad House,” the Shliach explained.

Within 2 months the first prototype of the reservation system was complete and students began using it. Immediately, a difference in the Shabbos dinners was felt.

Rebecca Blady, a junior at Brandeis, says, “At Brandeis, where the Chabad House is one of the most popular Friday night destinations, the new system has pretty much become essential.”

She said that “aside from organizing the massive crowd that comes to participate in Shabbat dinner, the reservation system brings Shabbat into the mindset of the entire campus days in advance.

“It gets students excited not only about Shabbat but also about the unique social experience of Friday night at Chabad. It’s amazing to see how this online tool has extended Shabbat into the regular weekday of so many ordinary college students!”

Shortly afterwards, Ilan Levy suggested to Rabbi Chein to take the reservation system to the next level by integrating social networking and utility tools.

“This would enable guests to create personal profiles, learn about and communicate with each other, post personal blogs, photos and work together on wikis, related to the event,” Levy said.

Together they established RSmeP.com, which would take events beyond the time and space they occur in, expanding it into the weeks leading up to it and the months following after, in a simple and user-friendly interface.

At a Kinus of Campus Shluchim and again at the International Kinus Hashluchim, Chein shared R.S.me.P with his fellow Shluchim.

In the meantime, Ilan was in New Orleans, presenting it at the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America. The response was very encouraging and they decided to push forward.

Now, after months of perfecting R.S.me.P., it is being launched, making it available to Shluchim to use for their Pesach seders for free.

Levy and Rabbi Chein are currently working on new features, such as High Holiday seating and classroom organization and sharing, where students will not only reserve the class they choose but network with other participants and work jointly on class related projects.

This new form of Contextual Social Networking will revolutionize how events are organized and experienced.

To learn more about R.S.me.P. visit, RSmeP.com.

VIDEO: How RSmeP works