Reboot Ideas
For 19 years, Reboot has been gathering some of the best and brightest change-agents for off-the-record conversations about Jewish identity and meaning, and has seen first-hand the power of imagination and uncensored dialogue to translate and transform the big issues of our time. As the stakes rise, we will amplify these vital ideas, bring in wider perspectives and carve new futuristic pathways for wandering Jews and the world we live in. In response to COVID-19, we will be creating a series of public digital programs that will showcase and amplify these ideas.
Reboot Ideas
The world is an ever-complicated place and will be even more complicated in the coming years. For 20 years, Reboot has been gathering and catalyzing some of the best and brightest change-agents for off-the-record conversations about Jewish identity and meaning, and has seen first-hand the power of imagination and uncensored dialogue to translate and transform the big issues of our time. As the stakes rise, we will amplify these vital ideas and bring in wider perspectives to identify and carve new pathways for wandering Jews and the world we live in. In response to COVID-19, we will be creating a series of public digital programs that will showcase and amplify these conversations and ideas. We plan to expand this to public gatherings when public health and safety allows.
Our Latest Conversations
The Ten Commandments: A Film Rescored
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
For Passover 2021, Reboot released a modern-day score to Cecil B. Demille's 1923 classic silent film The Ten Commandments with Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), Steven Drozd (Flaming Lips) and Scott Amendola.
Berlin, Drozd and Amendola created a momentous new score for the Exodus tale, musically following Moses out of Egypt and into the Dessert where he receives the Ten Commandments. They gathered together with Reboot CEO, David Katznelson, for a brilliant conversation facilitated by filmmaker Liz Nord.
Reboot Ideas Presents: Behind the Scenes with Creators of Saturday Night Seder
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Rooted in tradition but rewritten to include comedy, music, and sketches, Saturday Night Seder was a grassroots effort put together in just over two weeks at the start of the pandemic by a small team working remotely around the country.
In a time of confinement and uncertainty, a rag-tag team of Jews and non-Jewish Passover enthusiasts felt it was more important than ever to channel creative energies and gather community to reinterpret the timeless story of liberation and renewal while raising money for those on the front lines enduring — and fighting — an actual plague.
REBOOT IDEAS PRESENTS: PLASTOVER
January 31, 2021
Reboot recently hostedJonathan Bines, social change consultant Jessy Tolkan and Plastic Pollution Coalition CEO and Co-Founder Dianna Cohen for a conversation that leverages Passover's power of symbology and transformation to use plastic to spark a sustained climate intervention. This conversation kicked off our Plastover project, a commitment to eliminating single-use plastics during Passover this year! This conversation is a part of The Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest
New PRojects
Give Light 2020
This Hanukkah, enjoy gifts of imagination from Reboot’s culture creators. We will offer quick bits of things to read, watch and hear - along with recommendations of places to give.
We asked our community to share the music, art and ideas giving them light right now. Each day, we will share those gifts with you in hopes you find your own light and pass it along.
8 nights. 8 sparks of Imagination. 8 places that need your light.
Joy of Quarantine
Jena Friedman isn’t a chef. In fact, she’s barely a cook. And she’s not great at following instructions. Which can get tricky, because most recipes have instructions. But trapped at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the touring comedian found that her mind wandered to the darkest places.
With desperate times calling for desperate measures, the stand up comic, writer and filmmaker turned to the one necessary and time-consuming distraction - cooking. Her new video series, the Joy of Quarantine, captures the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Late Show with David Letterman alum as she attempts to concoct dishes of her Eastern European Jewish roots with a pinch of acerbity.
Dispatches from Quarantine:
Welcome to Dispatches from Quarantine, a new digital series from Silver Screen Studios, where we simply ask you to call your older loved ones, check in, record them (with some prompted questions from us) and we will edit the footage and share as part of an online series.
Watch Episode 3 with Carl Reiner and stay tuned for more!
Three New Podcasts!
This year we’ve rolled out a handful of new podcasts created by some of the most talented comedians, writers, rabbis and producers around. Learn more, take a listen and subscribe today!
SEASON 2 OF
IN QUARANTINE
Get a sneak peek with two inspiring conversations on topics of the moment. In one episode, Steve speaks with Jacob Soboroff, author and award-winning NBC News and MSNBC correspondent, to discuss his new book on child-separation immigration policy. In another episode, Steve speaks with Rebooter and New York Times best-selling author Adam Mansbach along with playwright and break beat poet Idris Goodwin about their new video inspired by Frederick Douglass's best-known speech and read by Daveed Diggs.
Highlights
Dwelling in a Time of Plagues
October 2-9, 2020
In celebration of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Reboot and Holocaust Museum LA will mark the moment with a weeklong free public art exhibit in Pan Pacific Park beginning Friday, October 2.
The Ushpizin of the Silver Screen is a reinvention of the traditional Sukkah as an old-time Hollywood era movie house, projecting stories on screens to commemorate this time under quarantine and to give a voice to our elders.
HIGHER HOLIDAYS
September 18-28
An epic global celebration to ring in the Jewish New Year with Reboot and Hillel International. Special guests included Broadway performers, Hollywood screenwriters and more! Check our on-demand library for all of the videos from Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur, Yizkor and Neilah.
Anti-Semantics: Sifting Through Whiteness and Jewish Identities
AUGUST 18, 2020
A fascinating discussion with authors Adam Mansbach and Kevin Coval on the challenging intersection between white and Jewish identities and the importance of navigating our own biases, assumptions and expectations. For those who missed it: watch, listen and share here.
DAWN
DAWN is Reboot’s all-night interpretation of the magical and mighty holiday of Shavuot. Gathering digitally, we will spend the night immersed in music, comedy, food, learning and conversation - all presented by some of the greatest artists, rabbis and thinkers of our generation. Choosing personal adventures through a digital festival experience, we will unpack the mysteries of the Jewish calendar’s best-kept secret.
We will be sharing highlights and sessions from DAWN in the weeks to come. Stay tuned!
Saturday Night Seder!
A streaming Passover Seder to benefit the CDC Foundation’s Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund
In partnership with StoryCourse, we gathered some of our favorite performers, musicians, and religious scholars around the digital table to share stories, songs, and support the CDC Foundation’s Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund. The stacked lineup included: Dan Levy, Ilana Glazer, Nick Kroll, Idina Menzel, Ben Platt and many, many more.
Dayenu, already!
Learn More: saturdaynightseder.com
Reboot Ideas: The Interplay of Science and Ritual in a Time of Flux
MAY 14, 2020
Over the eons, our relationship to science and ritual has been inextricably linked to our understanding of our place in the universe. Join Emmy Award-winning writer, director, producer Ann Druyan and her daughter, author Sasha Sagan, in conversation with Boing Boing co-founder David Pescovitz to talk about emerging philosophies that can provide hope as we struggle to adjust to our new normal on Earth.
Reboot Ideas: Technology in a time of Covid-19 (and Beyond) with Laurie Segall and Aza Raskin
APRIL 14, 2020
Hear from acclaimed tech correspondent Laurie Segall and internet visionary Aza Raskin, as they unpack the present paradox of our unprecedented technological enslavement and forecast its implications on the future. Segall, a veteran tech correspondent who has interviewed tech leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook joined Raskin, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and named FastCompany’s Master of Design to examine the power of technological connection to enslave or liberate us. What does next year in Jerusalem mean?
Liberation Through Music
APRIL 12, 2020
A special Passover live music event featuring: Nicki Bluhm, Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi All-Stars), Jeremiah Lockwood (The Sway Machinery) & Zack Rogue (Rogue Wave). The four came together to record this moving version of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” that fits so perfectly in this moment
Reboot Ideas: Rabbi Sharon Brous & Dr. David Agus
MARCH 27, 2020
Reboot Ideas hosted Rabbi Sharon Brous (founding Rabbi of IKAR and Reboot faculty member) and Dr. David Agus (USC’s Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine) for an impassioned conversation that explored the spiritual and scientific dynamics of our current moment.
We are grateful to all of our generous supporters, in particular:
Suzanne Felson • Chris Larsen Fund • Laura Lauder • Rebecca & Nathan Milikowsky Family Foundation