As American Jews attended last year’s Simchat Torah services, which fell on Oct. 8, news had already been rumbling through the pews and the communities about the terrorist attacks 7,000 miles away. Though the details at that time were still only just emerging, a day when Jews would ordinarily dance with joy to mark the start of a new journey through the Torah instead launched a year of mourning and fear.

One week after the massacres, philanthropist and investor Daniel Loeb spoke at an event in Los Angeles about antisemitism in Hollywood. As he concluded his talk, he handed out chumashim to attendees.

“That’s his thing,” Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff, associate rabbi at Manhattan’s Edmond J. Safra Synagogue, told eJewishPhilanthropy. After passing out the final book, “he turns around to me and says, ‘Let’s make this a national and international project.’”

On Sept. 19, Loeb, CEO of Third Point, a hedge fund that manages an estimated $14 billion, announced the Simchat Torah Challenge, a partnership with Sefaria, Chabad, Yeshiva University, UJA-Federation of New York, Tablet Magazine, Moishe House, Hillel International and other Jewish organizations. As a way to honor those murdered and kidnapped on Oct. 7, the challenge aims to have at least 10,000 Jews read the entire Torah starting on Simchat Torah 2024 and ending Simchat Torah 2025. By Oct. 2, nearly 8,000 people had signed up. One week later, more than 9,000. 

“The terrorists who targeted Israel last year chose to do it on the holiday of Simchat Torah, the joyous day on which we finish reading the Torah and begin anew,” Loeb said in a statement. “It is important for Jews to define ourselves by who we are, not by the fight against those who hate us. As we look to better understand ourselves and our story, as well as all look for strength and comfort, we turn to the book that holds our people together, giving us hope and expressing our values. This year, we hope to invite many more Jews into what is one of humanity’s oldest book clubs, and help them engage in learning the Torah, through one life-changing portion per week.”

Liel Leibovitz, editor at large for Tablet Magazine, told eJP that the goal is not to just hit the target of reaching 10,000 people — “if you have enough technological savvy, you can get 10,000 people to sign up for just about anything” — but to instead the idea is to “really make an impact on people’s lives.”

Loeb has encouraged other investors and people in general to join the program, describing it as the best way to respond to the Oct. 7 attacks and commemorate the victims. “What better way to pay tribute than to spend a year affirming our values and studying our foundational sacred text?” he wrote this week on X.

Leibovitz said that he hopes participants won’t see the challenge of getting through the weekly Torah portions as a solitary journey, but as something to do with family and friends. “I honestly don’t know any better thing that you could do to chase away the darkness and bring in the light,” he added.

Participants receive weekly newsletters that include parshah summaries, community updates, local events, and supplementary podcasts and videos. Everyone involved has access to Sefaria’s numerous translations and commentaries, as well as insight provided and curated by Tablet staff, Hajioff and other partners. UJA-Federation of New York is offering grants for up to $5,000 for participants to create study groups.

While people can use any chumash they prefer, early newsletter subscribers were offered free physical chumashim with commentary by the Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. After nearly 1,000 were claimed within five days, the organizers removed the link as they were running out of copies. There is a plan to offer a discounted version instead.

“Our work is really the easiest work in the world,” Leibovitz said. They get to collect insight from “very, very, very smart rabbis,” including Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Rabbi David Wolpe, Rabbi Zalman Lipskar and Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, as well as public personalities such as Israeli media figure Sivan Rahav-Meir.

The challenge fit perfectly within Sefaria’s mission to “bring Torah into the digital age,” Sara Wolkenfeld, chief learning officer at Sefaria, told eJP. “Our vision is a world where Torah is alive and resonant and is part of Jewish conversations everywhere. The vision piece is something that we can’t accomplish by ourselves.”

This initiative marks a milestone for Sefaria. For years, the organization has yearned to provide access to Chabad’s translation of the Torah, and the Simchat Torah Challenge is turning that into a reality. In addition,  Sefaria will now  provide access to the  translation on its main site. “Dan Loeb really served as a connector,” Wolkenfeld said.

There is no agenda to the challenge other than getting participants invested in Torah, Hajioff  said. “We describe it as the most joyful book club you’ll ever join.”

Journalist Wendy Rosenfield signed up for the challenge after hearing about it in a Facebook group for Jewish writers. “I’ve been falling away from the religion a little bit,” she told eJP. “I haven’t been going to synagogue, and I am looking for something in this challenge that will bring me back into the fold or give me a reason to reengage with my Jewishness.”

Other than for her bat mitzvah, she has never done in-depth Jewish text study. She plans to start a Facebook group with friends to discuss the readings. “I’d like to talk about it with my family,” she said laughing, referencing her two children, both in their 20s, who she speaks with daily. “I’m sure they can’t avoid it anyway.”

After Oct. 7, Rosenfeld found herself overwhelmed with “the politics of Jewishness or of Zionism,” and she hopes to “get back to what being Jewish really means, philosophically and spiritually.”