Reboot Launches New Website In Honor of 20th Anniversary
Originally published in The Jewish News of Northern California by Andrew Esensten
In honor of its 20th anniversary, Reboot, the Jewish arts and culture nonprofit known for its innovative programming and all-night Shavuot festival Dawn (which was held in San Francisco pre-pandemic), has rebooted its brand with a new logo and website.
Rebooting.com highlights the organization’s multimedia projects, events and holiday resources. Led by the Code and Theory agency, the redesign took 1½ years to complete and was funded by the L.A.-based Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, the S.F.-based Jim Joseph Foundation and the L.A.-based Righteous Persons Foundation, among others.
The new, animated logo better reflects the organization’s ongoing evolution, according to a press release.
David Katznelson, who just passed his five-year anniversary as Reboot’s CEO, told J. that the site will be updated regularly with free content such as articles, podcasts and videos exploring different facets of modern Jewish life. He expects the number of site visitors to increase from about 35,000 last year to 500,000 in 2021.
“We wanted a place where people would understand what we do, but we also wanted a place that was a destination in itself,” Katznelson said. “We’re standing on 20 years of amazing work, and being able to showcase it in a way that we’ve never done before is exciting.”
The new website currently features an online exhibit called “What Would You Bring?” that presents the stories of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe, the former USSR, Ethiopia and Iran through objects they brought with them. S.F.-based illustrator Lisa Brown, who was featured in J.’s “Talking With” in 2017, contributed artwork to the exhibit, which encourages visitors to think about what objects they would put in a suitcase to preserve their own family’s legacy if forced to flee home.
A music industry veteran, Katznelson said the site will have a robust audio hub, with Reboot podcasts and original compositions by avant-garde as well as more commercial musicians. For Passover 2021, Reboot released a new score to Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 silent classic “The Ten Commandments” by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips and Bay Area drummer Scott Amendola. Another updated score, for the 1915 German silent horror “The Golem,” is forthcoming.
Founded in 2001, Reboot has grown into a network of more than 600 artists, entrepreneurs and activists who have created a wide range of programs, including 10Q, a set of questions to reflect on during the High Holidays; Sukkah City, a Sukkah design competition; and “Saturday Night Seder,” a star-studded, virtual celebration of Passover hosted by actor Jason Alexander. Some 4 million people participated in the organization’s online programs during the past 18 months, according to a Reboot promotional video.
