TribeHerald began 2020 with a singular vision: to create a platform centered around Jewish diversity in a way that had never been done before: an online and offline mix consisting of a community center and online media content. Responding to the need for an outlet highlighting actions and content of Jews of Color, MaNishtana and I founded TribeHerald. I liquidated my retirement to provide seed funding, and we began to seek out the community space we had envisioned.
January and February saw us traveling the five boroughs of New York City, searching for the perfect venue. After meeting with synagogues, real estate agents, landlords, and building managers, we seemed to be making headway towards creating the first space centered around Jewish diversity.
Then, COVID-19 happened.
TribeHerald would launch its newsletter, Facebook presence, and, later, website, in the middle of a pandemic which continues to wreak havoc on countless lives and hobble economies worldwide. We concentrated our efforts on raising funding, beginning with crowdfunding and later, a Regulation D offering. With resources dwindling, we continued pressing on with creating content, platforming creators, and creating brand awareness with hundreds of thousands of Jews worldwide.
We enter 2021 with roughly a thousand diversity-minded members of the community on our (soon-to-be revived) newsletter mailing list, having created an immensely popular Orthodox Torah series for LGBTQ Jews, begun a slate of members-only content centered around Zoom meetings with forward-thinking rabbis of the community, and having touched thousands of lives through social media and web content.
We truly believe in the cause of Jewish diversity, and in centering voices that have been placed at the margins for too long. While 2020 brought circumstances that proved immensely challenging, we believe that the voices that we continue to give platform to will further demonstrate the invaluable asset TribeHerald is to the community and Jewish continuity.
TribeHerald is fiscally sponsored by Darkhei Rephua, a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible charitable organization, for our Winter 2020-2021 appeal, as we remain committed to our vision of Jewish diversity’s sacred spaces. Darkhei Rephua is focused on developing cultural infrastructure that supports healing communities. With your support, we believe that this collaboration can help redefine the minority Jewish experience in the Diaspora, while supplanting the traumas of the past with a holistic and sustainable future.
Please donate as generously as you can to the cause of Jewish diversity and inclusion. Help us chronicle the stories of the Jewish world and connect marginalized and often-ignored Jewish communities. Click here to make your tax-deductible donation.
