Reboot Inc

Mission

Every generation must grapple with the questions of Jewish identity, community and meaning on its own terms.  Reboot exists to facilitate that process for this and future generations – providing the tools and methodologies to help ‘reboot’ inherited tradition and make it vital, resonant and meaningful in modern life.

Founded in 2002, Reboot engages and inspires young, Jewishly-unconnected cultural creatives, innovators and thought-leaders who, through their candid and introspective conversations and creativity, generate projects that impact both the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds. 

Programs

Reboot has been responsible for producing some of the most influential and innovative Jewish books, films, music, Web sites and large-scale public events of the past five years.

These projects include the National Day of Unplugging, Sukkah City, 10Q, Sabbath Manifesto, Beyond Bubbie, the DAWN Festival and the Idelsohn Society of Musical Preservation. 

Sukkah City is a project dedicated to reinventing the Jewish community’s relationship to the festival of Sukkot in general and the ritual of Sukkah building in particular. In 2010, Sukkah City established itself as the second most-entered architectural contest of all time (after the 9/11 Memorial), engaging over 270,000 people to attend an exhibition of the ten winning designs in Union Square, New York, gaining coverage in the New York Times, New York Magazine, and on NPR.  The New Yorker made the event one of the ten most important architectural happenings of the year. 

The Sabbath Manifesto is a fluid, community-generated guide to observing a more contemporary Sabbath.  In March 2010 and 2011, the National Day of Unplugging (NDU) and the Sabbath Manifesto inspired countless people, hundreds of bloggers, thousands of Twitter and Facebook denizens and the national media to shut down for a 25-hour period.  In that time, they were encouraged to reconnect with family or community and to talk openly about the value and imperative of a modern day of rest.   

Beyond Bubbie, is an interactive community cookbook and a place to share the stories and memories connected to its recipes. The Beyond Bubbie project will capture the spirit of that love, care, and community, by celebrating the overstuffed ideal of Bubbie’s timeless connection to Jewish food.  Part cultural anthology, part community cookbook, part culinary experiment, Beyond Bubbie will share the spirit of Jewish food’s warm embrace through the stories, photographs, and recipes that emanated from Bubbie’s kitchen.