Simchat Torah Challenge
After October 7, a movement to read the entire Torah in a year — and the website that rallied readers worldwide to do it.
Overview
On October 7, 2023 — the holiday of Simchat Torah — Hamas attacked Israel. A year later, investor and philanthropist Daniel Loeb answered it the way the holiday itself does: by returning to the Torah. The Simchat Torah Challenge invites Jews everywhere to read the entire Torah over one year, one weekly portion at a time, in memory of those killed and taken hostage. GS built the website that holds it all together — the home base for a global community reading in step, week after week.
The Challenge
Backed by the Margaret and Daniel Loeb Foundation and a coalition of major Jewish organizations, the Challenge needed a digital home that could carry a deeply emotional cause to a global, wildly diverse audience. The site had to:
- Welcome the whole spectrum. Speak to Jews of every background and level of observance — from lifelong learners to people just finding their way back.
- Deliver Torah every week, at scale. Publish each portion with clear, modern commentary and email it to a fast-growing list without a hitch.
- Lower the barrier to joining. Make signing up and keeping up feel effortless — "the world's oldest book club," as the site puts it.
- Hold a community together. Turn thousands of individual readers into one shared, year-long act of remembrance.
What We Built
GS built the site and has kept extending it ever since — engineered to make weekly Torah reliable, fast, and within reach.
- Weekly parsha, delivered. Each week's portion with approachable summaries, a downloadable PDF, and insights curated from across the Jewish world.
- Sign-up to inbox. A simple sign-up flow feeding a weekly newsletter, so participation runs on autopilot for the reader.
- A newsroom a small team can run. A Directus content system lets the organizers publish weekly content and seasonal campaigns themselves — no developer needed.
- Room to grow. New sections built out as the community expanded — Torah 101, a full portions archive, a blog, and a Sacks Scholars program.
Tech Stack
Next.jsReactDirectusMailchimpGoogle Cloud
The Impact
The Challenge found its audience almost immediately.
- Blew past its goal. Set out to sign up 10,000 readers before launch, and passed 11,000+.
- 38,000+ readers to date, and still climbing.
- Two dozen+ partner organizations contributing insight, from Sefaria, Chabad, and Yeshiva University to UJA-Federation, Tablet, Hillel International, BBYO, and the Rabbi Sacks Legacy.
- Two years on, still thriving. What launched as a one-year initiative now runs year-round as its own organization, still adding readers and partners.
GS has been the team behind the site through it all — launch, weekly content, new sections, and every seasonal push.
Your Build Plan Is WaitingYour Build Plan Is Waiting
Your Build Plan Is Waiting
Your Build Plan Is Waiting