PunkTorah Receives $50,000 For Digital Media Platform, The G-d Project

Atlanta, GA — March 14, 2011 – PunkTorah, the 501(c)(3) Jewish non-profit dedicated to independent Jewish spirituality, culture, learning and debate has received $50,000 from the Jewish New Media Fund for its ground breaking campaign The G-d Project.

The G-d Project is a social network dedicated to G-d and Judaism inspired by Ted Talks and This American Life. The G-d Project puts G-d back into the Jewish conversation by utilizing three key tools:

Microdocumentaries – Short films showcasing unique Jewish personalities around the USA including the infamous and unknown, rabbis and lay people, scholars and those without formal Jewish education, children and adults, LGBT and straights, Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, secular and everyone in between. These interviews are filmed across America in diverse Jewish communities with the assistance of the local Jewish communal infrastructure. The G-d Project has already begun filming in Atlanta and Chicago.

Social Media Platform – Films are linked together through a Kabbalah-inspired social network tagging system that reveals the common spiritual and social values amongst the participants in The G-d Project. Each video will have a dedicated discussion board generating online chavrutah as well as connection to larger social media streams such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, making G-d go viral.

Video Upload Feature – The G-d Project will additionally feature a video upload portal where the greater online Jewish community will be invited to submit their own G-d Project videos, further expanding the interactivity of the dialogue and incorporating the entire Jewish community worldwide.

The G-d Project was inspired by the work that PunkTorah has done with OneShul.org, the world’s only online, independent minyan with interactive, lay led prayer and holiday services. PunkTorah saw the need to create more avenues for diverse, faith based expressions online as well as increasing connectivity for Jews around the world who want to talk about spirituality outside of the synagogue context. The goal is to raise intergenerational spiritual literacy as well as remove the taboo that many Jews feel about discussing issues of faith.

To bring The G-d Project to your city, click here! Or click here to find out how to submit your own video!