G-dcast.com Animated Torah Lessons
Date: August, 2007. Place: Atlanta. “The Conversation“, an amazing gathering of professional and lay Jews.
My Ah-Ha Moment: Sarah Lefton showing a small crowd a new project she’s been working on: G-dcast. A short animated online video that captures the story, the lessons and the larger questions of the Torah portion. Wow. Fun, entertaining, insightful, thought provoking. Accessible. Really accessible. I was impressed.
Fast forward approximately one year. Sarah’s attracted funding, support and a lot of energy as she’s produced a series of G-dcast.com films, which launch today. The narrators include Lawrence Kushner, Esther Kustanowitz and many other hip, household names. Some episodes are straightforward storytelling, while other parshiot are told as country songs, hip-hop tracks or mystical discourses on the nature of the universe.
G-dcast’s goal is to raise basic Jewish literacy among youth and young adults in an accessible and fun way. In order to affect as wide an audience as possible, G-dcast is delivered online for free, and they offer a downloadable curriculum guide for each episode (great for teachers as well as parents). The series will also be available as a video podcast, so the cartoons can be watched and collected on ipods and mobile phones. Each episode offers embed code so you can easily add it to your web site or blog (see below). While Lefton and her colleagues imagine the animations targeted to a relatively youthful audience, I happen to think the wit, insightful nature and creative style will appeal to a very wide audience, both online and in a live gathering, such as a classroom. What do you think?
Check it out: G-dcast.com.
copyright 2008, g-dcast llc
I didn’t even realize that G-dcast’s target audience was teens.
In fact, I think they’ll go over better with adults who have a deeper understanding of the Torah stories and can therefore better appreciate the great humor in the videos.
I sent links of the first 3 videos to my Dad who loved them (and he just turned 80!)
Can’t wait for the rest of the videos.
Joel Katz
Religion and State in Israel
I have waiting for a site like this! The Chabad’s Itche Kadoozy site may have met it’s match when it makes learning Torah accessible and fun! Thanks for sharing the info.