When you say you’re ‘going to synagogue,’ you may think of the beautiful building that houses the sanctuary, religious school, and admin offices – an essential pillar of the community with a single mailing address. But what if synagogue was actually going to you?
That concept is what sparked Jeremy Silbert’s imagination at Beth El Congregation. He’s the Director of Marketing & Communications for this 1,500-family congregation on the north side of Baltimore.
“We’re always thinking about engagement and how to create meaningful connections,” Jeremy said. “We recognize that many in our community are seeking flexible and accessible ways to connect with Jewish life beyond our walls. Our goal is to meet people where they are and provide opportunities to engage in ways that feel relevant and meaningful to them.”
What began as a brainstorming session between Jeremy and Ben Wachstein, Executive Director at Beth El, quickly evolved into the launch of a new pilot strategy.
“We need to meet people where they are,” Jeremy said. “And that means bringing the synagogue home.”
In 2023, with a generous donation from Beth El Sisterhood to get started, Jeremy launched the Beth El Podcast Network with an episode of Havdalah Happy Hour, a bite-sized podcast reminiscent of sitting around a kitchen table with friends after Shabbat ends.
“It started out with a lot of early mornings and late nights,” Jeremy recalled. “Sometimes I’d get up at four or five in the morning to start editing before going to the office. I was recording, editing, and promoting it all myself. It’s very time-consuming.”
The feedback was just about instantaneous: the community loved it.
“I would get people coming up to talk to me about the podcast when I was walking around in the neighborhood with my kids or shopping at the grocery store,” Jeremy laughed. “Some people I’d never met in my life before, but the podcast sparked a connection. Now it happens to all of our podcast hosts!”
Within months, Havdalah Happy Hour became just one of a buffet of podcast options published by the Beth El Podcast Network. They added flagship productions Kvetch & Co., a panel of four moms diving into the joyful chaos of raising children, and The Israel Connection, an interview show offering a human perspective into Israel and Middle Eastern affairs. A new show just debuted this month: Morah to Talk About, a roundtable discussion show featuring Beth El’s early childhood education professionals.
The Israel Connection is one of their farthest-reaching productions with fans around the globe. Produced and hosted biweekly by Israeli immigrant Esti Zenati, Beth El’s Creative Content Manager, the show brings in guests to speak about politics, culture, and peoplehood.
“It really was born out of responding to our community post-October 7th,” Esti said. “We saw so many people, in our own community and on social media, who wanted more context about Israel and more tools for advocacy.”
Like Jeremy, Esti’s show started as a solo endeavor. She sourced guests, conducted interviews, edited, and promoted the show, all on top of her regular duties as Beth El’s graphic designer.
“I absolutely love it,” she said. “I never imagined I’d be part of a project like this.”
Esti said she loves to check out the podcast download metrics and spot all the different countries listeners are tuning in from. Even more than that, she finds real fulfillment in the feedback from her listeners.
“One comment really stayed with me,” Esti said. “A grandmother commented on one episode about how antisemitism is rising globally, but our podcast comforted her and reassured her that her grandchildren would be ok. That was so meaningful.”
The Beth El Podcast Network also publishes a steady stream of repurposed content from the synagogue. Sermons, parsha discussions, and guest speakers are recorded and offered for download. More recently, the congregation has started video-recording in addition to audio, so content can be further repurposed for social media.
“It’s truly, truly amazing to see the reach we get,” Jeremy said. “It’s not just our members listening. It’s also the wider community – and not just the Jewish community. We get notes from people whose very first interaction with Jewish life is through one of our podcasts. I can’t express how meaningful that is.”
These days, the Beth El Podcast Network draws more than 10,000 downloads annually with regular listeners as far-flung as Denmark, Germany, Korea, Japan, and of course, Israel.
The podcast network has also drawn the attention of other organizations who want to know the secret sauce for a flourishing content program.
“I really can’t emphasize enough, it’s about the big picture for your individual community,” Jeremy said. “For our community, just sending a weekly newsletter wasn’t working anymore. Our people were engaged and they craved even more engagement. So it wasn’t about podcasting… that was just the tool we used to bring Jewish life to our community, wherever they are.”
One of Beth El’s core mission pillars is “bringing God and kedusha (holiness) into our everyday and sacred moments.” The Beth El Podcast Network brings that vision to life, turning headphones into holy space and conversation into connection.
