Masada College in Australia just signed up for NINE Torah Live presentations: Kashrus, Blessings, Success, Mezuzah, Charity, Chanukah, Wealth, Sukkot, and Anger.

Lisa Cohen (Head of Kodesh) and Ryan Basserabie (Teacher) pictured above skyped with Rabbi Roth at midnight their time (!) to see samples of the Torah Live material.

“We want a program that will grab our students and this will grab them! It’s a real winner,” said Mrs Cohen. “We are excited to be first school in Australia to benefit from this amazing program.”

To find out about bringing the Torah Live to your school, write to info@torahlive.com

Curious to know how many people have benefited from the Torah Live presentations, I created a “Torah Live global tracker.” So far over 650 presentations have been given in over 100 cities worldwide (Berlin, Munich, Honolulu, Moscow, Cape Town, Sydney, Johannesburg, Melbourne Efrat, Jerusalem, Kfar Saba, Quebe, Toronto, Miami, Las Vegas….)

You can see the list of schools and organizations here (PDF). Many organizations signed up to use the Purim material but since it was shareware, I’m still not clear if they did or not, so if you think you should be (or not be!) on the list, please write to me at d.roth@torahlive.com

With gratitude to the Almighty, it gives me great pleasure to share with you the exciting news that Michael and Bettina Bradfield are sponsoring a multimedia Torah Live presentation in memory of Susi and Fred Bradfield on the topic of leadership.

Michael requested that we conduct market research to determine that there would be demand for such a presentation. The results of our research are posted above: NCSY (Birthright),UJIA, TRIBE, Meor, National Jewish Outreach Program, Aish, SEED, JLE, Maimonidies, and other major educational organizations all recommending the project.

Thank you Conrad Morris for the kind introduction.

If you have good ideas or sources on this topic, please e-mail me at d.roth@torahlive.com

Click the document below for full size version.

Nicky Newfield of South Africa, founder of Jewish Interactive with her husband Jonathan on a Skype call with Rabbi Roth. “We are excited to collaborate with Torah Live,” said Nicky, “as we are both passionate about making Torah alive using the 21st century technology.”

I took the kids to Yad Eliezer to pack food packages for people in need. As you see from the pictures we all had a really great time and can’t wait to do it again.This got me thinking….

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to make a presentation on the mitzvah of chesed and loving your fellow Jew? We need it now more than ever!

It could include video interviews with people who have excelled in this field, as well as inspiring stories, fascinating sources, and ideas of how we can all do more.

Our team of highly talented animators, 3d artists, cinematographers, special effects artists, and script writers have a track record of producing original and very creative material.

Of course we need funds to make this happen and so I am turning to you for help. The cost of a Torah Live presentation is £18,000. You can see what other people have pledged and keep a tab of our fund raising thermometer here. Minimum pledge is $100.

The Sages tell us that those who cause others to do kindness are greater in some ways than those who do kindness themselves. Your contribution will inspire the 50,000 people who have benefited from our material to do more kindness.

Please let me know how much you can pledge towards this important project by clicking here or using the donate buttons on this page.

Warm regards,
Dan Roth
Founder, Torah Live

Join the growing team of partners in building a new Torah Live presentation on this most important and relevant of topics, Kindness. Send an email with your pledge commitment, or donate now here.

Current Total: £1,421

Our thanks to:

Graham Calvert – £500

Dan Roth – £500

YK Sofer Blog - $360

Issamar Ginzberg – $100

Yossie Weiss – $100

Goldberg Intl CPA Firm – $100

(Updated 12.02.12 | 11:00pm)

For the detail oriented folks, here’s the exact cost breakdown for creating this groundbreaking multimedia experience:

Multimedia Work

Cameraman – £737

Video Editing – £798

3D Modeling and Animations – £1,290

Flash Programming – £1,352

Graphic Design – £1,475

Sub-total – £5,652

Research and Development

Research – £1,690

Script Writing – £1,821

Sub-total – £3,511

Allocation of Fixed Expenses

Project Manager, Public Relations, Marketing Director, Secretary, Transportation, Telephone, Misc £8,486

Total per presentation – £17,649

The Financial Times praised him. Magazines called him ‘revolutionary.’ The BBC aired a 30 minute documentary about him. The Prime Minister invited him to dinner…

 But to me he was, and always will be – Zeide.

With gratitude to the Almighty, it gives me great pleasure to share with you the exciting news that the Schreiber Charitable Trust is sponsoring a multimedia Torah Live presentation in memory Mr. Chaim Schreiber – my late grandfather.

As the newspaper quotes below attest to (a small sampling from the scores of articles that appeared about him in the media), my grandfather was a master of treating workers properly. He had absolute trust in his 8,500 workers and the feeling was reciprocated. “I’ll be sick when he goes,”  said one hard-bitten union negotiator, “but they tell me his grandfather lived to 110, so there’s hope for us yet!’ Not exactly the usual tribute from an employee to his boss!

“The latest Schreiber scheme is one in which workers get extra pay when they have holidays. ‘He said we need more money to spend then,’ said a union official.

- Electrical & Trading, April 1979 

“It’s called the sick committee and it’s certainly Schreiber’s oddest innovation. It meets every Wednesday morning and it alone decides who will get sick pay and who won’t…”

- The Risk Business, BBC, October 1981

“In 1970 clocking-in was abolished. It was the kind of policing system that was highly unsatisfactory in Schreiber’s eyes. Apart from anything else it is, to him, a control that implies mistrust. ‘Now time keeping is better than ever before,’ says production director Fred Noyes.”

- Business Administration, May 1973

“When he decided in 1971 to make Schreiber public, he wanted all employees to become shareholders, and therefore partners in the company. But the government ruled that the share scheme he had developed would be considered a backhanded pay increase during a pay freeze. They said he could go ahead with the flotation but not with the share-scheme. As the banker explained, ‘A very small matter, a small detail- the flotation will be going through but you won’t be able to apply the share-scheme for your employees’.

But to Zeide this was the ultimate deal breaker: “If there are no shares for my employees there is no flotation.” He cancelled the whole thing. They were flabbergasted at how progressive he was, they couldn’t believe he wouldn’t go public because of employee benefits.

Source: Chaim Schreiber’s Way by Avital Schreiber Levy. (Thank you Avital!)

The presentation will be called, The Jewish Contribution to Industrial Relations, and will deal with such subjects as: paying workers on time, strikes, fixing executives salaries and other employer employee related issues.

The presentation will also include a short biographical video about his life legacy.

A big thank you to Mrs. Sara Schreiber (my grandmother), Ms. Judy Schreiber, (my mother), Graham and Ruthie Morris and David and Ruthie Schreiber (my uncles and aunts) for commissioning the project.

To dedicate a Torah Live presentation in memory of a loved one and leave your mark on the Jewish world, write to: sponsorthefuture@torahlive.com

Exciting news from New York! YU’s MTA high school is licensing several Torah Live presentations. Rabbi Michael Taubes, Principal, found Torah Live’s material to be “exciting and very professional. Today we need to find new teaching methods to get kids to learn”.

Students, parents and teachers – want to see Torah Live in your school? Let us know in the comments below.

Yes, that’s Torah Live in Russian! Torah Live materials have now spread to the former Soviet Union, with teachers using the material to teach a new generation of Jews thirsty to learn more about the Torah that their grandparents were forcefully detached from.

Mrs. Sara Katz from Moscow wrote:

I work for Torah mi-Tzion in Russia in the field of outreach with students and women. I was very impressed by the videos of Torah Live. I think that’s exactly the way of working with people who yearn to have Torah presented to them by means of modern technology.

Mrs. Katz and her husband have licensed 3 presentations (Mezuzah, Brachot, and Kashrut) and are already considering more. Besides being our first Russian presenter, Mrs. Katz is also Torah Live’s first woman speaker. Welcome on board!

If you know anyone that wants to sponsor the translation of Torah Live material into Russian, give us a holler in the comments below, or email to info@torahlive.com.

I am delighted to share with you the thrilling news that Stuart and Stephanie Ronson are sponsoring Torah Live’s Shabbat presentation. The presentation will be an introductory class, covering the importance of honoring and celebrating this holy day, as well as the basic laws of Shabbat – candles, kiddush, challa.

Stuart and Stephanie are the first to have the honor of dedicating one of Torah Live’s 18 upcoming presentations. To to learn more about sponsoring a presentation and other partnership opportunities, write to sponsorthefuture@torahlive.com.

     To date, Torah Live has produced 10 presentations, which have been given at over 180 venues in more than 50 cities worldwide (New York, Atlanta, London, Munich, Sydney, Johannesburg, Jerusalem) to both secular and religious audiences.

     Based on the overwhelming demand for our work, Torah Live intends to create 18 unique and interactive presentations over the coming two years for a broad range of audiences. These dynamic presentations will be used in 40 seminaries and yeshivot in Israel, 300 schools in America, England,South Africa, Israel and Australia by many of the 3,700 rabbis and kiruv professionals who are currently serving worldwide, and will inspire tens of thousands of Jews from various backgrounds.

     Torah Live believes that the communication revolution we are experiencing today is a Divine gift – a powerful tool to achieve unmatched levels of clarity in complex concepts. Join the revolution – to learn more about sponsoring a presentation and other partnership opportunities, write to sponsorthefuture@torahlive.com.

List of Future Presentations:

Businessmen and Professionals
Employee Employer Relationships [Reserved]
Advertising & Honesty
Laws of Loans and Interest

Youth at Risk
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Leadership Qualities [Reserved]
The Making of a Hero: Character Development

Outreach
Living Other Peoples Lives: Overcoming Jealousy
Wisdom of the Hebrew Alpha Bet
The Temple Mount: Past and Present
Jewish Life Cycle: From Cradle to Grave

Seminaries and Yeshivot
Land of Israel: Intrinsic Holiness
Shabbat: Finding Meaning in the Day of Rest [Reserved]
Putting the Holy Back into Holiday: Yom Tov
Higher Living: Emunah and Bitachon

Schools
Judging others Favorably
Spiritual Graduation: Bar & Bat Mitzvah
The King’s Knights: Kiddush Hashem
Ashkenazim and Sephardim: Understating the Roots

Artscroll is now distributing Torah Live products in USA and has sent an e-mail featuring our mezuzah DVD  to their 40,000+ customers. Lehmann’s is our official distributors for Europe, and Feldheim, Shankis, Mannys, Galpaz are taking care of Jerusalem. With God’s help, we hope to have enough Torah Live presentations to line the entire wall. To find out about stocking our products, write to info@torahlive.com.

Rabbi Ginsbury reports that Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks was “blown away” by the Torah Live material. The Chief Rabbi invited Rabbi Roth to his office to show his staff what Torah Live has managed to accomplish and would like to work with Torah Live to create a video for Yom Kippur that would be sent to the nation. We are honored to be able to work with the Chief Rabbi. Hodu L’HaShem Ki Tov!

While in England, Rabbi Roth met with Rabbi Andrew Davis, Head of JS at Yavneh College and discussed working together to create a series on kashrus. Check out the pictures below – Yavneh College students are equipped with the finest in educational technology that has been integrated into their curriculum, with each student having an online database of their work enabling them to connect with their teachers and continue learning beyond the school walls, come rain, snow or shine.

Rabbi Roth and Andrew Davis

Rabbi Mordechai Ginsbury of P’eir, the United Synagogue’s department for Rabbinic skills enhancement, sat down for a chat with Rabbi Roth and discussed the possibility of a partnership to create an innovative P’eir/Torah Live pavilion. The idea is to have a Torah Live laptop, projector, and sound system that rabbis would book for an evening.

Rabbi Simon

Torah Live is privileged to expand its team of presenters with the recent addition of  the talented Rabbi Rashi Simon, Founder and Director of Kesher, an outreach organization in Finchley, who licensed the mezuza presentation this past week. Rabbi Simon says “We are looking forward to utilising the lucid and informative—not to mention hi tech—educational material expertly assembled by Rabbi Roth and his team at Torah Live.”

A generous anonymous donor from London kindly contributed $5,000 towards marketing Torah Live’s products. Thank you!

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski gave generously of his time to review several presentations. Of Torah Live, he said, “Using the state of the art technology, it has made working on the traits necessary for spiritual growth accessible to young and old, in a way that is educationally unprecedented.”  For a video of his encouragement and words of blessing, click here.

Torah Live is pleased and privileged to announce that Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits Shlit”a has accepted the position of President of Torah Live. To view a video message from Rabbi Berkovits, click here.

Conference held at the Ramada, Jerusalem

Principles of major high schools in America shown sampling of Torah Live presentations at Torah U’Mesorah convention. “This is the future of chinuch,” said one principle.

Click here to view Rabbi Shea Ryback’s enthusiastic words of thanks and encouragement.