Last Friday, on the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 tragedy, OneTable was honored to host and facilitate a virtual Shabbat gathering with community. Union | A Roundtable Shabbat brought together co-authors of Union: A Democrat, A Republican, and A Search for Common Ground, Jordan Blashek and Christopher Haugh, for an evening of reflection and sharing moderated by author of Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life — in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There). We invite you to watch the recording of our conversation below.

As we celebrated togetherness through Shabbat ritual, we also gathered to learn about the union that Jordan and Chris created while sharing meals with Americans across the country. It was an educational and engaging evening that will continue to remind us of the ways we can come together for shared reflection at the Shabbat dinner table.

Christopher Haugh is a writer from Kensington, California. After graduating with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley, Chris attended Oxford University and started speechwriting as an intern in the Obama White House. He went on to join the US Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff where he served as a speechwriter to the Secretary. In 2018, Chris graduated from Yale Law School where he was a Yale Journalism Scholar. Chris is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York.

Jordan Blashek is a businessman, military veteran, and writer from Los Angeles, California. After college, Jordan spent five years in the US Marine Corps as an infantry officer, serving two combat tours overseas. He holds degrees from Yale Law School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Princeton University. Jordan is based in New York, where he invests in entrepreneurial efforts to grow the American middle class as part of Schmidt Futures, a new philanthropic venture created by Eric and Wendy Schmidt.