Judaism only a click away on Web

Religion goes high-tech. A rabbi in Israel makes it happen. So does his father, based in Merion.

By Kay Raftery
INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
Sept 7, 1999

MERION -- Jewish education is an ongoing discipline for a man such as Bert Zauderer, who studies the Talmud every day and once spent an entire week pondering the meaning of one sentence in that body of law and tradition.

So when his son, Rabbi Moshe Zauderer, began to muse about teaching classes in Judaism over the Internet, his father pounced on the idea -- though the rabbi was in Jerusalem and the father was in Merion.

Thus was the formation of Zichron Avos -- Jewish Interactive Studies Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of adult Jewish education. It came to life on computer screens a little more than a year ago.

So far, Bert Zauderer said proudly, more than 1,500 people have signed on for the Internet classes that are offered on the site. The sessions last from six to eight weeks, and they have included topics such as Foundations of Judaism; Bible Overview; Abraham the Patriarch; and this week, the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The Web site is free. And what makes it particularly attractive, Zauderer said, is that it's interactive. For Zauderer, who is constantly questioning and learning, this is a major plus.

He recalled when he got stuck on that sentence in the Talmud and could not decipher its meaning.

"I spent a week on that, and then I found out I couldn't understand it because I had put the comma in the wrong place," Zauderer said.

"Now, if I had been there with a rabbi, he would have pointed that out right away."

Education has to be based on communication, and that's what Jewish Interactive Studies provides, he said. "You can ask what's the big deal with the Internet and I can tell you," he said.

"When I was a boy, I remember my father listening to this rabbi every week giving lessons, but if there was something he didn't understand, he couldn't ask a question because the rabbi just kept talking.

"Now, if you have a question on the lesson, e-mail my son."

The classes are created by his son from his home. His father busies himself with trying to raise funds to keep the project alive.

Zauderer said it cost about $10,000 to set up each course on the site.

The whole family -- wife, Devorah, and their four other grown children -- are all involved in one way or another with the foundation.

Zichron Avos, Zauderer explained, means "in the memory of our fathers."

The title fits because the money to get the project off the ground was rooted in his family's past.

Zauderer, who runs an energy research and development company, was born in Vienna in 1937. Fleeing the Nazis, his family moved around Europe when he was a little boy, settling in Switzerland.

A few years ago, Zauderer was part of a group of survivors of the Holocaust who received reparation money from the Austrian government. That, plus the sale of some stock, seeded the Web site.

"I am a firm believer that nothing happens by chance," Zauderer said. "Even the bad things are part of a plan."

For his son the rabbi, who has lived in Jerusalem for 10 years, teaching on the Internet is a perfect extension of adult education.

Reached by e-mail, Rabbi Zauderer responded that his approach to teaching Judaism is based on the classical sources of Jewish knowledge: the Bible, the Talmud, and medieval sages such as Maimonides (12th and 13th centuries) and Nachmanides (13th century).

"Let the sources speak for themselves," Rabbi Zauderer wrote. "Let people see how Maimonides of the 13th century is speaking to us in the 20th century, in a relevant and engaging manner."

Feedback from students has been positive, the Zauderers said.

"We have a guy in Alaska who just signed on," Bert Zauderer said. "He must be a thousand miles from anywhere. And an 80-year-old man in Arizona told us that every time a new course comes on the site, he gathers a bunch of friends and they have a study circle."

In response to critics who regard this kind of teaching as not thorough enough, Rabbi Zauderer wrote that it is fulfilling a need for people who do not have the time to keep up with their education.

"The Internet, for all its fast-paced clicking," the rabbi wrote, "offers a convenient option for many people who are interested in serious study without having to tie themselves down to appointed times of study and classrooms."

To his father, sitting at the computer in his office at Merion, conversing with his son electronically while checking out the latest class and writing letters to potential donors, the Web site is simply a miracle -- and part of a greater plan.

Jewish Interactive Studies can be reached at http://www.jewishstudies.org/