MODIYA

Over time, media has informed Judaism in many ways: it is found in the form of texts used to worship, has animated civil religion during celebrations for the State of Israel, and increasingly, has become the vehicle through which many partake in Judaism today, as people attend Jewish film festivals and Jewish concerts instead of synagogue. 

In order to study this phenomenon, a growing Working Group on Jews, Media and Religion created a project called MODIYA. Together, students, teachers and scholars—in an open source and collaborative manner—develop learning modules about religion and media and host the curricula online. Just as Google technology has become both a website and a way of life (“I Googled you”) or people blog and have a blog, similarly, MODIYA is both an online learning environment and a new method of collaborative research and teaching. 

With free access to information offered by sites like Google and Wikipedia, MODIYA is increasingly popular for its accessibility but also maintains an academic rigor that makes it interesting to scholars and amateurs alike. As its initial Pew Charitable Trust grant expires this year, MODIYA and its host at the Center for Religion and Media at NYU are in a time of transition. If you are interested in becoming a registered MODIYA user or supporting its curators, be in touch with bkg@nyu.edu.