Project Overview
We are looking for volunteer support in expanding the audience for our nonprofit's podcast content through targeted media outreach and PR tactics.
Judaism Unbound is a digitally driven, radically open center for education serving as a catalyst for an entirely new era of Judaism. We empower regular Jews who are disenchanted with or disconnected from mainstream Judaism to develop new ways of living Jewishly. Our audience includes not just those who identify as Jewish but many people who are interested in learning more about Jewish ritual, practice and wisdom. We do this through the Judaism Unbound podcast, which has been downloaded over 2 million times in its 8 years of existence, through online classes in our "UnYeshiva" and through holiday and other special programming.
We are launching a new podcast series, Tales from the Unbound. The first multi-episode installment will tell the story of a group of ethnically Jewish men in a Washington State prison who had little or no experience of Jewish practice. Inspired in part by the JU podcast, and with the support of the prison chaplain, began to engage deeply with their Judaism. Two of the group decided they wanted to undergo a conversion ceremony, but could not find any Rabbis who would take them through the conversion process. After they reached out to us, our Executive Director Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp agreed to take them through their conversion journey and ultimately performed a conversion ceremony in the prison.
We are searching for someone to help us publicize the new podcast and reach wider audiences.
We believe this wonderful story is a significant opportunity to increase our profile within a much broader part of the North American Jewish landscape and attract new funding and partnerships. We are hoping to have coverage in Jewish media and beyond. We have contacts at a few of the larger players in the space and could approach them on our own, but we have no expertise in creating a compelling pitch, and we also need someone to help us identify other media organizations who might be interested in this story.
We are close to finalizing the 6 episodes of the podcast and plan to have the episodes in our main podcast feed and also in a new feed. We are working on a plan to promote the podcast across all of our channels. Our current goal is to launch the podcast in early June.
Nonprofit Overview
The mission of Judaism Unbound is to give all Jews the confidence to take ownership of Jewish traditions, to be unafraid to experiment with and re-imagine Jewish practices, and to take an active role in shaping a Jewish future with like-minded others in which Judaism’s ancient wisdom is a force for building a better world.
We envision a Jewish future that is unbound from certain structures and institutions that have defined Judaism in the past. By unbundling and remixing these traditions, we can develop a form of Judaism that sustains and fulfills people intellectually, morally, and spiritually--a form of Judaism that provides individuals and small groups with the tools to create their own spiritual practices; a form of Judaism that can be practiced anywhere, anytime, and that is open and accessible to Jews of all backgrounds, as well as to non-Jews who may have an affinity for what they know of Judaism and would like to explore further.
Judaism Unbound exists to create a movement of re-imagination that will be better suited to the near future, and that might last for centuries. We will do this by providing inspiring content, bringing Jews together online and in person for collaborative experimentation and easy, low-cost access to high-quality Jewish education.