In early March of 2020, as one Jewish event after another was suddenly being cancelled due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the team behind the Judaism Unbound podcast realized that we were about to experience months in which not one in-person Jewish event would take place. And many events that would have been in person—ranging from synagogue services to large conferences—would have to migrate to the digital landscape to which we migrated some years ago. And we knew that physical distancing would bring loneliness and a sense of social isolation for many people.

We also saw that this situation created an opportunity for many Jews, and non-Jews, to connect to Jewish experiences that they might have been intimidated to join in person. And it created many other opportunities: to find commonality and community across distance; to create experiences for others; to re-think elements of Jewish life that may not have been working so well before but that had inertia.

We thought that we could help by creating a port of entry into live Jewish events in cyberspace - international airport or as the Grand Central Station serving the new land of online Judaism.