Sinai and Synapses – an organization that bridges the worlds of religion and science, and incubated at Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, is proud to announce the grant “Deepening Jewish Education in the Digital Age,” a project focusing on the ways in which new digital tools can deepen values and virtues in the Jewish community. The grant provides financial support and connections with communities, schools, camps, or synagogues looking to initiate projects exploring the role of digital tools in Jewish education, and to create educational resources, such as lesson plans, curricula, family education programs. This project is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, as well as other individual donors.
When it comes to technology and society, many responses have been either overreactions – with apocalyptic predictions or utopian visions – or under-reactions, which ignore seismic shifts in the ways we use technologies. This is in part because it is difficult to change behaviors, institutions and societies. As both a particular faith and a part of a larger society, Judaism’s relationship to technology requires a multi-pronged approach, especially surrounding the new digital landscape in which Jewish youth will be living.
Building off an existing group of academics, educators and technologists, selected communities will be developing action-oriented research. Jewish leaders will be able to better understand and apply new technological and digital tools, and technologists will be able to understand opportunities and challenges for using their work, especially in the Jewish community and their youth. The focus is specifically on those values that Judaism has long celebrated, that can be enhanced through digital tools, and that are at the forefront of many of our lives today: curiosity, building community, self-control and patience, and humility.
Communities Awarded in 2025
Applications came from thirteen states and seven countries for the first round of the grant. These communities’ projects will help the Jewish community navigate new waters on subjects ranging from the use of LLMs, to new ways of studying texts, to what Shabbat may look like for teenagers in Israel.
“Schools, educators, rabbis and students are constantly grappling with new advances in technology, and yet the questions they are exploring are ones that Judaism has focused on for millennia,” says Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman, Founding Director of Sinai and Synapses and lead on this initiative. “How do we connect with others? What is the relationship between ‘learning’ and ‘studying’? How does language impact our actions? The interest, excitement and thoughtfulness we saw through these applications show how much hunger there is in the Jewish educational space to help young people see how Judaism can help them become more equipped to live in our digital world.”
The selected communities, leaders and projects are:
- Control + Shift, Bronx, New York (Rabbi Avi Bloom)
- “Control+Shift: Educational Technology”
- Central Reform Congregation, St. Louis, Missouri (Rabbi Daniel Bogard)
- “Strange New Tools: Torah for the Next Generation”
- Alexander Muss High School in Israel, Hod HaSharon, Israel (Lisa Biton)
- “Rebooting Shabbat: Helping Teens Find Joy and Presence Offline At Muss”
- The Lefell School, Hartsdale, New York (Sarah Weissman)
- “Farm Togethers vs. LeFarm: Cultivating Jewish Values in the Digital Age”
- URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy, Byfield, Massachusetts (Rabbi Dan Medwin)
- “Digital Mensches Initiative”
- Scheck Hillel Community School, Miami, Florida (Rabbi Avi Greene)
- “The Mitzvah Workshop: From Text to Tech”
- Beth David Reform Congregation, Gladwyne, Pennsylvania (Rabbi Elisa Koppel)
- “The Torah of Tech”
- Jewish Educational Services – The Associated Jewish Federation, Baltimore, Maryland (Rabbi Aaron Levitt)
- “AI & Middot: Cultivating Jewish Values in the Digital Age”
“These projects collectively exhibit a growing enthusiasm for thinking critically about technology in Jewish education spaces,” said Dr. David Zvi Kalman, senior advisor for technology at Sinai and Synapses, and co-lead on this project. “With the aid of this fellowship, we hope to see the emergence of a new field of Jewish thought that is desperately needed at this moment.”
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, president of Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, notes that “It is remarkably exciting and actually quite important to invest in those who fearlessly warmly embrace the synergy between emergent technology and sacred tradition, especially when that intersection causes so many other religious leaders fear and even despair.”
The winning recipients will receive funding for their projects, as well as regular guidance and support by participating in a regular working group of rabbis, educators, academics and technologists. They will be producing podcasts, developing curricula for schools and summer camps, and working with other rabbis and Jewish thinkers to deepen the conversation surrounding Judaism and technology.