How do we reach young Jews with a message they are ready to receive, in a place they’ll be able to hear it? That’s a question that has been on the minds of kiruv professionals since the beginning of kiruv.

A group of media people have been working on one way to do just that. It’s called Jake TV: a curated, cross-platform channel of the best Jewish video in the world, offered up on our own free iPhone and Android apps, Facebook and YouTube — the platforms young people know and love.  

Jake TV reaches out to the producers of great Jewish content — arts, learning, entertainment, and culture — and assembles their videos on our channel. All this content shares a few basic traits: it looks and feels like the video this audience is accustomed to watching, it delivers messages that help them connect to their heritage, and it encourages them to watch more.

We know that kiruv professionals are passionate about their work and have achieved great success. But programs, classrooms, or kiruv settings of any kind are limited to their location and schedules. Jake TV comes in at other times, extending inspiring Jewish messages to this audience even when they aren’t in “a learning environment.” 

In effect, we make everywhere a potential learning environment with a space of learning that is easily accessible and exciting to watch. 

Unlike every other attempt to aggregate Jewish video, Jake TV hand-picks its video to be engaging, thought-provoking, inclusive and inspiring, and of course, videos that have a production value. Our videos touch on every aspect of Jewish living: fundamental Torah ideas, stories, parsha, Israel, culture, music, and more. And it’s all accessible on every digital device in the world.

The Jake TV team is comprised of seasoned media pros who share a passion to help every Jew to learn more and grow in their connection to Torah. They’ve worked in mainstream video for decades — network TV, PBS, music video, commercials and documentary — so they know what appeals to modern audiences.

Jake TV is especially excited about our original content under development and in production. We are also interested in developing content with other organizations, for use in their own programs and to include on our channel.

The best way to see what’s going on is to download the app or visit JakeTV.tv and see what we have to offer. We think the kiruv community is going to be thrilled!

On a personal note, I want to use this opportunity to thank and congratulate Ner LeElef for their transformative work. When I started in education, I used Ner LeElef resources a lot — and I still use them. I wish you and all readers much hatzlachah in your work, with blessings and abundance.

Please reach out to me with any comments, suggestions, or questions at munger@jaketv.org. Thank you very much!

 

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Moshe Unger is an entrepreneur and founder of Jake TV.

 

 

 

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