The man sitting on the train focusing intently on his iPhone might be playing a game, or he may be studying Talmud, Skyping with a partner in Israel or even teaching Hebrew.
Mobile technologies help people practice Judaism, said Barry Schwartz, CEO of Rusty Brick, a software company that has created more than 30 Jewish mobile apps. It is the future. Wherever you gothe airport, synagoguepeople are looking up information and praying.
Mobile technologies are augmenting traditional learning and how people fill their free time, said Rabbi Jack Kalla of Aish HaTorah, which has been at the forefront of digital Jewish outreach, for many years, with videos, podcasts and an extensive website. Aish recently released its first mobile app, which reproduces content from its website for mobile devices.
The Internet is where people are, and it is the means to reach people today. Jewish organizations across the spectrum are taking advantage of developing mobile and digital technologies to reach new people.
Its not going to be the new modelit already is the new model, said Rabbi Simcha Backman, director of Chabads AskMoses.com. This is the new way and we should embrace it.
Created to reach people who dont have access to rabbis, AskMoses offers live chats with scholars on its website. Earlier this year, the site began a text-messaging program. The website recently unveiled its first mobile app, part of a larger strategy to continue reaching people wherever they are.
Social media is a whole new world for Jews and Judaism. The options are limitless. The ArtScroll Schottenstein Talmud was recently released in an app for the iPhone and iPad. It allows users to get instant translations; highlight specific passages, and to jump quickly from one section to another.
This opens up the whole world of Jewish literature for the past 2,000 years, Rabbi Zlotowitz said, putting it literally at our fingertips. When youre able to actually interact with the words on the page, it changes how you understand what youre learning.
With technology advancing at a rapid pace, just what Jewish education will look like in 20 years, or even in five years, is unclear, but the Jewish world appears ready for the challenge.
All of these things are enabling us to realize our tradition and Judaism in ways that were simply unimaginable a few years ago, said Rabbi Backman. I dont know where its going, but its going to be phenomenal, he concluded.
