What is Sugia

Sugia – A new media platform on contemporary issues, using active discourse, harnessing the collective wisdom of Jews and non-Jews around the world.

Mission statement

Sugia fosters vibrant dialogue about the burning ethical and existential issues of our time. It is a new media platform for Jews worldwide to meet and think together.

Ancient texts come to life through their interaction with modern film, art and literature, in an interactive, user-generated experience.

Sugia involves Jews of all walks of life—from the unaffiliated to the religious—inviting them be part of a dynamic conversation facilitated by prominent, thinkers, community leaders, and artists, of our time.

Our project is inspired by the Talmudic tradition of mahloket, a unique invention of our ancestors, who created a mode of constructive debate which bridges rather than builds walls between us.

Our work and Vision

Sugia is a global Jewish organization based in Jerusalem, meets the challenges of the Internet Generation by creating an online forum for a Jewish response to contemporary issues. Using Jewish and non-Jewish texts, new-media and pop culture, these issues are debated within Batei Midrash (learning and discussion groups).

While the Sugia's infrastructure is inspired by the unique methodology of Talmudic reasoning, our target audience does not have to be familiar with the Talmud. On the contrary, they might have never even heard of it! The platform and content of Sugia is designed to be inviting and accessible to a wide spectrum of users.

Our ambitious goal is to create a "network of networks" of Jewish communities who will connect and discuss with one another, bridging gaps of geography and ideology and eventually creating a Wiki-like version of the collective wisdom of contemporary Judaism.

Sugia will create a dynamic global Jewish discourse that gives rise to a Wiki-like response to the great questions of our time.

Each Beit Midrash operates autonomously, taping into the wisdom created by the other  community of BtMds .

Like the Wiki model, Sugia staff will, be sparse and economically efficient . Its task would be a resource training and support center upgrading and maintaining the platform.

we are engaging prominent sages who will not only brand Sugia but will participate in central BM that will distill the best sugyot developed around the network creating a wiki-like “contemporary Talmud”. We believe that this will serve not only Jews in search of meaningful identity, but can become a gift that Judaism offers to the whole world.

Sugia's innovations are threefold:

1. New Media "Prosumers"
Many Jewish Internet sites use the web as a platform for posting unidirectional material. Although there are some discussion-oriented forums, Sugia realizes the full interactive, user-generated potential of new media, integrating and editing active discussion with written, image, audio, and video material. Sugia empowers participants to choose issues relevant to their lives and to actively create their own sugiot. They become engaged "prosumers": consumers and producers of content. Here Sugia can complement Keva by extending an online platform to their face to face groups enriching their cultural and issues-based learning.

2. A fusion of resources
Sugia elicits a wide variety of "texts” – including films, art with classical and
contemporary texts – and brings them into dialogue with one another. It enables free movement from Jewish sources to Seinfeld and Shakespeare, and the ability to create an interaction between them.
This fusion of texts sets Sugia apart from other resources. For example, we have agreed with Sefaria to tap their database of classical Jewish texts as one of our resources for our multimedia sugyot.

3. A pluralistic meeting point
A major element Sugia taken from Talmudic reasoning is the dispute (machloket). It does not shy away from conflict. On the contrary, the multiplicity of voices at the heart of Sugia, transforms rigid positions into respectful productive and reflective dialogue.