In the aftermath of the 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, Josh Kleiman found himself navigating two realities: deep grief and relentless logistics.
Kleiman, who lives in Boston, lost several family members in the disaster, including his dad, grandmother, stepmother, stepbrother and uncle. In the days that followed, he and his family had to plan funerals, coordinate shivah arrangements, contact loved ones and manage an endless stream of updates — all while grappling with immense shock and loss.
Kleiman grew up in Puerto Rico and moved to Florida as a teenager. Champlain Towers was his family’s special gathering place. His grandmother and father both lived there, and the building became a hub for holidays and Shabbat dinners.
“It was essentially my home, my family’s home and the place that would root us in our traditions,” he said.
When the building collapsed, Kleiman received multiple missed calls from family before learning that something terrible had happened. He traveled to Florida to join relatives waiting for news. Initially, the family hoped their loved ones would be found alive. As days passed, those hopes faded.
Eventually, officials confirmed that several members of his family had been found among the victims. What followed was a blur of grief, funeral planning and communal support.
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“This was a numbing, surreal experience, but I had to plan the funeral and the shivah. It’s a lot of logistics to manage while you’re going through all this grief, but it has to get done. And I really do think the shivah process was something that helped me tremendously — being surrounded by friends, family, loved ones. It made me realize that I wasn’t alone throughout the process.”
Kleiman began to envision a tool that could centralize draining logistical tasks while shoring up this essential emotional support for others. The result was Sitting Shivah, a free online platform designed to help mourning families organize information, coordinate support and stay connected with their communities during periods of grief.
Families and congregations use Sitting Shivah to:
- Share funeral and shivah information, including dates, locations and Zoom links
- Coordinate meal trains and minyan coverage
- Allow friends and family to easily send meals, food baskets and other support
- Share memories, photos and tributes
Families create a personalized page dedicated to a loved one. The page can include biographical information, photographs, funeral and memorial details, burial information, Zoom links and shivah schedules. Because observances often span multiple days and locations, the platform allows organizers to provide detailed scheduling information in one place.
Additional features help communities coordinate support. Families can share dietary preferences, recommend local restaurants or caterers, track minyan attendance, provide addresses for mourners who live in different locations and coordinate meal trains.
“My mom likes to joke that we had enough babka to feed us for a lifetime after that. Everybody brings the same thing. People can coordinate better,” Kleiman said.
The platform also includes tools for sending updates when plans change, helping grieving families avoid the draining process of contacting dozens of people individually.
Sitting Shivah officially launched several months ago. Along the way, Kleiman sought feedback from rabbis, funeral homes and members of Jewish communities he knew personally.
Some features evolved directly from those conversations. For instance, the site’s minyan RSVP function emerged after community members suggested a way to help families ensure prayer services would have enough participants.
Kleiman also built much of the platform himself. Drawing on his consulting background, he mapped out the process families experience after a death and used emerging AI-assisted web development tools to help turn those ideas into a functioning website.
Now, he sees Sitting Shivah as a way to honor the memory of the family members he lost in Surfside while helping others navigate grief.
“It’s a way to honor my dad and my grandmother and my uncle’s legacy,” he said.
Ultimately, Kleiman hopes the platform does more than simplify logistics. He wants it to strengthen the sense of community that helped sustain his own family during an extraordinary period of loss.
“I think that’s the most important thing,” he said. “I just want to make it as easy as possible for people to feel that sense of community.”
Learn more at sittingshivah.com.