OpenDor Media

🇦🇺 The Unpacked for Educators team are in Australia, facilitating impactful sessions with educators, students and the wider Jewish community. 🇦🇺 Avi Posen and Hona Dodge have been working their way through Melbourne and Sydney, introducing a new curriculum aimed at equipping Jewish secondary school students to confront anti-semitism and anti-Zionist sentiment they may encounter in university. The team has also been facilitating sessions for the younger grades, youth movements, and university students, and getting to know the vibrant Australian Jewish community. Many new relationships are being developed and hundreds of people are joining the UNPACKED family. Next stop: Perth!

Introducing the first episode of a new YouTube series from Unpacked: 🇮🇱 Israel 101🇮🇱 With generous support from the Weisfeld Family Charitable Foundation, our Unpacked division launched a new series on YouTube this week. Featuring monthly episodes about Israeli history, politics, and culture, this series will help young Jews build a stronger connection to Israel. In the first episode, host Yirmiyahu Danzig explores ancient biblical narratives, modern archaeological discoveries, and his own family history, to uncover the profound historical connection all Jews have with Israel. Watch now: https://bit.ly/4fbnkpv

In preparation for Season 7 of our Unpacking Israeli History podcast, we visited Israel last week! On Unpacking Israeli History, we explore historical events from a variety of angles and viewpoints, offering fresh perspectives on the country's complex past. In this spirit, Noam Weissman spent a few days in Israel meeting with and interviewing individuals with varying religions, beliefs, and opinions - all with the goal of learning about their unique experiences and perspectives. We're looking forward to incorporating these diverse insights into the upcoming season.

Exciting news! We're proud to announce our partnership with renowned Israeli journalist and analyst Haviv Gur to further our mission of strengthening young people's understanding of and connection to Israel and the Jewish people. As a Senior Educational Advisor, Haviv will work closely with our UNPACKED division on content related to Israeli politics, foreign affairs, and history. He will also feature as a presenter in a selection of upcoming videos across our YouTube and social media channels, and as a guest on our podcasts Wondering Jews with Mijal and Noam and Unpacking Israeli History. Listeners of Wondering Jews with Mijal and Noam have already enjoyed a special episode with Haviv that aired recently (link in the comments). In addition, Haviv joins the advisory board for a new OpenDor Media division focused on empowering independent and public schools to engage thoughtfully with the topics of Israel-Palestine, antisemitism, Jewish history, courageous conversations, and media literacy. More on that soon. “OpenDor Media is a miracle. Fast, smart, wide-reaching. If we didn’t have it, we’d have to now build it from scratch. The great task of this generation of Jews is to recover and reclaim our story. It is a journey Jews, in all their diversity, need to take together. It’s such an astonishing privilege to be able to be part of that work.” - Haviv Rettig Gur Read more about our partnership: https://lnkd.in/dJkqynQa

📣 Announcing a "Know Before You Go" curriculum by our Unpacked for Educators division📣 The transition to university can be challenging for many Jewish students, where they're often faced, for the first time, with disturbing anti-semitism and anti-Israel sentiment on campus. In response, Unpacked for Educators has developed a "Know Before You Go" curriculum aimed at empowering students with the knowledge to address these challenges on University campuses and strengthen their pride in the state of Israel. Designed for secondary students, particularly in years 11 and 12, this curriculum will begin to roll out in Australian schools this month. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dMgi4D6w

This week's episode of “Wondering Jews with Mijal and Noam” features special guest Chloe Valdary, Founder of Theory of Enchantment, a New York-based organization that has arisen as an alternative to the DEI model, and fights against racism and bigotry by teaching love. Mijal Bitton, Noam Weissman, and Chloé discuss the principles guiding Theory of Enchantment's work in approaching and resolving conflict in a respectful way, and explore how this approach can be applied to communication around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and antisemitism. https://lnkd.in/duPxADR3

We're thrilled to be partnering with the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC) to launch a new 10-part YouTube Series through our UNPACKED division with the goal of helping Jews develop a personal connection to their faith. We hope to achieve this by exploring topics that look beyond the “dos and don’ts” of #Judaism to understand the “why,” the #spiritual element that elevates, punctuates, and gives context to the “what” of our religion. This series will be featured on the Big Jewish Ideas channel on YouTube (link in the comments) while JEIC and our Unpacked for Educators (UED) team will be working closely with selected schools to incorporate the series into their respective curricula. Read more: https://lnkd.in/d3PcjhmR

This week marks 57 years since the Six-Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem - the outcomes of which continue to affect Israel's position in the region and the world to this day. Now, more than ever, it is crucial to revisit Israeli history in all its complexity. Dr Noam Weissman unpacks the six days that changed Israel forever in a special 3-part mini-series on #UnpackingIsraeliHistory. Listen now: https://lnkd.in/dCsXKSj5

Bonjour “On déballe!" UNPACKED has launched a French-language YouTube channel! In order to further our efforts of combatting misinformation and empowering more young people today, UNPACKED has launched a new French-language YouTube channel. “On déballe!”, which translates to “We unpack”, features popular videos from the UNPACKED English-language channel such as ‘The History of Ethiopian Jews’ and ‘The Dreyfus Affair’, translated into French and hosted by native French speakers. Like the English-Language channel, “On déballe! will provide nuanced, fact-based content on Jewish and Israel-related topics in French - the fifth most spoken language worldwide. “Our channel will not only educate French-speaking audiences on Israel and Jewish-related topics but also serve to combat antisemitism, a growing concern in France and around the globe,” said OpenDor Media’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Savage. “We believe that education is the key to safeguarding against misinformation, which leads to antisemitic sentiment.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/dDFeBC_N

Our latest episode of #WonderingJews with Mijal Bitton and Noam Weissman with special guest Haviv Rettig Gur is now live! This episode marks a milestone for the #podcast - it’s the first time that Noam and Mijal have hosted a guest to ‘wonder’ together with them about big topics in the Jewish world - and he did not disappoint! Tune in to hear Haviv, Mijal and Noam explore the misunderstood story of the Jews and #Israel from every angle. They discuss: 👉 How Jews misunderstand their own story in relation to Israel. 👉 What the Western world gets wrong about #Zionism. 👉 The misinterpretations and misunderstandings between Israelis and Palestinians about Zionism. 👉 The importance of understanding and teaching the historical narrative of both sides to foster empathy and dialogue. Get the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/dydmEabQ #WonderingWithHRG #Judaism #ThoughtLeadership #Unpacked