Meet The YouTube Chossid

David Smith traveled around the world, has seen many things.

But he never saw the Rebbe.

“We celebrated the holidays, my mother bentched licht,” Smith says. “We had an identity, we knew who we were – but it was a secular lifestyle.

“My mother would say in Yiddish, ‘You’re a Jew! You should be practicing Judaism!'”

And then one day, he says, he “met” the Rebbe, via YouTube.

Watch David’s emotional story:

Tens of thousands have been touched by the work of JEM – Jewish Educational Media in the past 20 years.

During the past 20 years, JEM has gathered, catalogued, preserved, restored and organized thousands of hours of video and audio, and hundreds of thousands of photos that make up the recorded legacy of the Rebbe’s life and teachings, making them available to the world.

Now, they are seeking to raise $1 million dollars for their crucial work.

Click here to join the 1,400 people who have already donated to JEM now! All donations will be quadrupled for 24 hours. Click here to join, it’s all or nothing in the next 4 hours!

“Interest in watching the Rebbe’s talks is growing steadily,” says Rabbi Elkanah Shmotkin, executive director of JEM, “and the demand for content featuring the Rebbe on social media has grown tremendously.

“We project that our videos will be viewed more than 8.5 million times this coming year on Chabad.org, Facebook and YouTube alone. Between the DVDs, social media, mobile app and the web, we’re on track for more than 20 million views in the next 12 months,” he says.

The increased demand for the production of social media content is straining the budget, projected to reach $3.2 million this year (only 30 percent of which is covered by sales), of the organization whose operations are already humming at full capacity.

To raise funds crucial to the growth of this integral organization, donors have stepped up who will match donations 3 times made in the next 24 hours.

Join the “JEM Leap Campaign” now! All donations will be quadrupled for 24 hours. Click here to join, it’s all or nothing in the next 4 hours!