Building Jewish Identity @SXSW Festival With Chabad

For the social media and digital crowd, the annual South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW) festival held in Austin, Texas, has become a hot destination. Part trade-show, part gathering of the geeks and part social experiment, the annual week-long event enables the who’s-who in technology and the web to rub shoulders with the who’s-up-and-coming. It is also an opportunity for online personalities known best by their @names to meet one another face to face.

For developers and entrepreneurs, SXSW is the go-to spot for showcasing cutting-edge technologies, new products, and upcoming social media projects. Established tech firms, including Microsoft and Google, participate along with non-tech companies looking to hone their social media brand. The conference allows attendees to learn about new approaches to branding in a digital age and online business development.

According to Tamar Weinberg, Community Support and Advertising Manager for Mashable – a prominent social media and internet news site – SXSW is a chance to “to network with like minded social media and online marketing professionals.”

Conceived twenty-five years ago as a music festival, SXSW evolved over the past decade to include an interactive conference featuring launches of highly-anticipated new products. SXSW Interactive is credited for the successful launch of the popular social media site, Twitter.

Like the event itself, Chabad’s presence at SXSW evolved over a short lifetime. There has long been a sizeable Jewish demographic at SXSW. But it was not until last year when the festival featured its first panel on religion and the internet, Judaism 2.0 and a kosher barbecue arranged by lubavitch.com that the festival’s Jewish guests found events tailored to their specific interests.

Drawing inspiration from the universe of social media, Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone – Lubavitch.com’s Director of Social Media and the the host of the barbecue – did a little crowd sourcing to find out what might interest the Jewish conference attendees. There were many requests for a Shabbat experience.

Returning this year, Rabbi and Mrs. Lightstone heeded the call– with the assistance of Chabad-Lubavitch of Austin representatives Rabbis Yosef Levertov and Zev Johnson. The Shabbat dinner held in the Downtown conference area hosted a diverse guest list of that included local and visiting social media aficionados, Tech startup entrepreneurs and PR buffs, who lingered on well past the dinner for lively, informal schmoozing.

“SXSW allows us to take the digital community, bring it into the real world and forge permanent and real relationships. The Shabbat meal, with it’s communal singing and spirited discussions does the same.”

Others also picked up on the opportunity for face-to-face networking at the Shabbat meal. Alan Weinkrantz, who advises companies on how to establish their message and create visibility through emerging media channels notes that social networking is a natural outgrowth of Jewish identity. “Storytelling and building communities are in our DNA. These technologies have allowed us to overcome geographic boundaries.” Lubavitch.com’s social media initiative is a part of that picture, “providing greater tools and stronger glue for Jewish outreach.”

Despite the stress on digital connectivity so prevalent at the festival, attendees were attracted to the Shabbat meal, an opportunity to sit down with other Jewish participants, enjoying homemade challah with chicken and kugel, and engage in some old-fashioned conversation.

Describing the Shabbat experience as “phenomenal,” Weinkrantz enjoyed the “two hours to unplug from everything going on at SXSW.” A frequent traveler, Weinkrantz notes that at Chabad whether in “Texas, Chicago or anywhere in the world,” one can find a consistent message of “love and warmth.”