When Jewish.TV launched its online multimedia channel of Torah classes and lectures from around the world, few predicted the attachment the project would engender between viewers and its cadre of teachers, most of them Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries.
But in the years since the Jewish website Chabad.org gathered a few audio recordings into one place, the channel has taken off. Today, more than 15,000 audio and video selections make it possible for people of all stripes to learn about Torah, Jewish law and Chasidic thought from the comfort of their own homes and offices.
For Ian Taylor, a Chinese major at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., the service is a vital part of his continuing Jewish education.
“Whenever I have free time, I try to watch or listen to the online classes,” he said. “It’s nice to have the rabbi talking to you. It’s a much more personal experience, almost like real one-on-one study. And with an article, I have to email the rabbi to get a response, but a lot of times with these classes, I can get my question answered right away.”
According to Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, director of Chabad of Flamingo in Toronto and host of hundreds of offerings at Jewish.tv, classes such as his get “tremendous traffic” from all over the world.
“I think the response has been so positive because they make Torah relevant and they’re not done in a superficial way,” asserted Kaplan, who receives emails and calls from students as far away as Germany. “The classes give the depth of Torah in a way that’s [approachable]. In addition, they show the tremendous impact that Chabad.org has globally on the Jewish community.”
Jewish.TV’s roots can be seen in the first audio classes that Chabad.org developers compiled in the late 1990s. Videos exploring Jewish holiday customs soon followed, as did live broadcasts of worldwide events.
Live classes, however, have added a new dimension to the site’s offerings: the personal touch.
One of Kaplan’s students, Joan Pennington of Saluda, S.C., watches the rabbi’s dissection of the weekly Torah portion with upwards of 40 people from her community. After each lesson, they try to apply what they’ve learned to their daily lives.
“We have such a greater appreciation for the Torah and the Jewish people because of the classes,” related Pennington, who since the classes began has traveled to Israel several times. “The classes have really broadened our understanding.
“It’s really a gift to be able to learn this way, and the teachers are changing people’s lives and helping them find truth,” she continued. “You just know that these teachers care that everyone learns and should have access to the Torah.”
Toronto native Deborah Sheriton echoed the point and called Kaplan’s classes on women and the Kabbalah reaffirming and enlightening.
“I stumbled upon Rabbi Kaplan when I was doing some Internet searching. I wanted to find out more about what the real Jewish view on women is,” she explained. “He really gets at the root of the issues. He isn’t trying to be politically correct; he is just giving over information based on true principles. This is very unusual [for me]. He’s really doing a great service, because he’s presenting ideas that many people don’t necessarily understand.”
Rabbi Shais Taub, chief creative executive at Jewish.TV and a presenter himself, said that the central aim of the project is to enable anyone to have access to a quality learning experience.
“Wherever I’ve been, people come up to me and say, ‘I know you from the classes online,’ ” said Taub. “I get a lot of recognition for the classes, because the classes are providing tens of thousands of people the opportunity to come together through a computer and study.”
According to Taub, a Pittsburgh-based lecturer, the classes have even created a unique online community of students. For example, sometimes before he can answer a student’s question on an accompanying discussion forum, another one has already jumped in and provided the solution.
Pointing to this phenomenon, Rabbi Lazer Gurkov said that the technology has allowed an interactive experience more typically confined to a single classroom to be shared among a population of students of all ages, backgrounds and locations.
“Sometimes the comments blow my mind. This feedback is what motivates me to do more,” said Gurkov, who is based in London, Ontario. “I just wasn’t expecting such response and how deeply the classes touch people.”
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