ELI Talks began in 2012 at the North American Jewish Day School Conference as a production of The AVI CHAI Foundation. However, while initiated by the Foundation, ELI Talks are intended to be a product of those who create them, who share them, who converse around them and who are inspired by them. ELI produced short video talks modeled on the popular TED Talks with the central themes of Jewish religious engagement, Jewish literacy, and/or Jewish identity (E-L-I).
Today, ELI still produces those same videos, but has grown to be a platform for inspired Jewish ideas, including videos, Moth-style short stories of today’s Jews, podcasts, curricula and source sheets, and live events. ELI Talks cultivates role models; raises up examples of Judaism’s relevance to the big and small issues of our lives; and transmits inspired Jewish ideas to people everywhere through a curated digital media canon that speaks directly to the hearts and the minds of viewers. Trained speakers from diverse Jewish backgrounds on a singular platform share how they have thought through and found inspiration for modern lives and created a bridge across the religious and demographic spectrums of Judaism.
To date, 188 ELI talks have been delivered and viewed over 2 million times.
www.elitalks.org
AVI CHAI concluded its general grant making on December 31, 2019.