I grew up in a Jewish household with two Jewish parents and four Jewish grandparents, but I didn’t really know what it meant to be Jewish until I went to Israel for the first time. I’ve been back many times since then and left my job in the tech sector to run B’nai B’rith International’s digital strategy and online conversation.
I recently returned to B’nai B’rith, America’s oldest Jewish humanitarian and human rights organization, to launch the Zero.Dot.Two Initiative (#0dot2) ahead of its 175th anniversary to ask the question, “what does it mean to be Jewish” to today’s Jewish influencers.
This project looks to discuss ideas around Jewish identity, to educate social media users about Judaism as a proactive way to combat anti-Semitism and to promote the Jewish connection to the State of Israel through the voices of many online influencers.
With approximately 14.4 million Jewish individuals alive today, we represent 0.2% of global citizens.
We are releasing a short 2 – 5 minute video a week on social media – with a focus on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube – and we are promoting these videos to expand their reach to a wider audience. That is where you come in…
Your contribution to the campaign will go directly to budgeting additional videos to be recorded and to increase their promotion on social media – where they have already been watched over 34,000 times. With your help, we can continue to expand this program beyond our 175th anniversary.
As a sampling of the participants who have already recorded videos in this conversation include:
- U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
- U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Ben Cardin
- Former-U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
- U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel
- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
- Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz
- Brandeis University Professor and Historian Dr. Jonathan Sarna
- American University Professor and Historian Dr. Pamela S. Nadell
- Rabbi Shira Stutman of Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in DC
- Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt of Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Maryland
- Hasbara Fellowships Founder and Executive Director Rabbi Elliot Mathias
- Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) Executive Director Andy Borans
- and more.
Let us know who else we should approach to record; or if you are a Jewish influencer, contact me and we can look at getting your video included in the series or post the video on your own Facebook or Twitter accounts with the #0dot2 hashtag.
