Jewish education has to start with texts - Sefaria brings them to us

A thorough Jewish education has to start with Judaism's fundamental texts.  The Sefaria project is bringing those texts to the public.

I came across Sefaria while looking for a translation of a mishna.  I found it quickly, and Sefaria has become my go to source for Hebrew/English materials.

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To learn more about Sefaria, read this interview with Rabbi Daniel Septimus. CEO of Sefaria, and his hopes for the future here.

Here are some outtakes of his interview on Jeducation World:

Sefaria was founded in 2013 by best-selling author Joshua Foer and former Google product manager Brett Lockspeiser in response to a unique problem and opportunity: the Jewish world was failing to take advantage of major technological developments that could yield unprecedented new opportunities for learning. Two years earlier, Josh had gone online looking for an English Talmud, and Google’s first two results included illegally pirated PDF’s and an anti-semetic website. Josh and Brett – old friends from their days as Bronfman Youth Fellows – set out to develop a product that would lower the barriers for engagement with Jewish texts, create interactive interfaces for novel Jewish conversation and commentary, and provide educators, scholars, and technologists with an open-source database of Torah literature to make new educational applications easier to develop. The center of this project would be a free digital library of Judaism’s great texts in the original language and in translation. Josh and Brett named the project Sefaria, a play on the Hebrew words for book (sefer) and library (sifria). 

 

Access to a free, intuitive, and multi-lingual site affords today’s learners and educators of all backgrounds and ages an unprecedented opportunity to engage with this tradition independently and on their own terms. When employed thoughtfully, the non-linear expansiveness of Sefaria’s library sparks the learner’s curiosity and empowers even those with minimal textual exposure to find works that speak to them and to explore Jewish texts in a choose-your-own-adventure style. The result is that all individuals can become active contributors to the great ongoing Torah conversation. 

Stephen M. Flatow

The Alisa Fund for Jewish Education accepts contributions. Checks may be mailed to: Alisa Flatow Memorial Fund Jewish Community Foundation of Greater MetroWest 901 Route 10 Whippany, NJ 07981