Sh’ma Gathers Around a Virtual Jewish Table

Hosting first-ever online tisch, fostering connection through new media
Sunday, March 25th, 2012 at 8PM EST/5PM PST

There has never been a “Jewish table” quite like this.

Sh’ma, a print and online journal of Jewish ideas, is inviting participants from around the world to join its first ever “virtual tisch” – fostering Jewish learning, connection and conversation in a unique community event.

“Sh’ma has been committed to promoting conversation and pushing the boundaries of Jewish thought since its founding 42 years ago,” said Editor in Chief Susan Berrin. “This event pushes those boundaries even further – for the first time taking the Jewish table out of the dining room and creating a sacred virtual space.”

Please join us on Sunday, March 25 at 8 PM EST/5 PM PST for this community “tisch” (Yiddish for “table”), which will feature Rabbi David Ingber, Storahtelling founder Amichai Lau Lavie, Reb Mimi Feigelson, singer Renna Khuner-Haber, community activist and teacher Karen Erlichman, and many others on a live webcast.

Participants will enter the tisch through our website, shma.com, which will provide easy instructions on how to send in questions and comments.

“For the last year, Sh’ma has been running an ethics column examining the uses and implications of technology through a Jewish lens,” said Online Director Robert J. Saferstein. “This tisch is a culmination of those explorations and will broaden the conversation begun in our most recent print journal.”

“What is so remarkable is that we will quite literally join together at a table that doesn’t physically exist. While the harmonies of our voices will live solely in the virtual ether, the sense of community we create will be anything but virtual. By using this technology, it is our goal to introduce people to the idea of the tisch – traditionally a rebbe’s Shabbat gathering – as an accessible, modern tool for Jewish learning.”

The March issue of Sh’ma, “At the Jewish Table,” features a bevy of contributors commenting on the Jewish table: what we eat, who sits with us, and what we learn.