When the pandemic shut down much of the world in 2020, everyone had to move online, and people were looking wherever they could to find ways to fill their free time and stay engaged with their communities.
For the Baltimore Zionist District, the creative rethinking of programming in a fully virtual world led to the creation of a weekly virtual tour series that highlighted important places, cultural institutions and history for the Jewish community.
And since the program’s inception that drew a handful of people on a Zoom call, it’s grown to an audience of hundreds, according to Caren Leven, executive director of BZD.
“Our first event was on a Tuesday at 11 a.m. in March [2020], with 22 people on our call. We didn’t expect it to become something as large as it has become, and we didn’t expect it to last for as long as it has, which is now more than five years. We just kept going every year, because it’s become very popular, not only amongst our BZD members in Baltimore, but [it is now] an international program,” Leven said.
She added that the Zoom calls now have anywhere from 300 to 700 people logging on to take the tours, which are held every week on Tuesdays at 11 a.m., except for any Tuesdays that are a Jewish or national holiday, making a total of 38 sessions this year.
Leven said that the people joining the tours aren’t limited to Baltimore residents, as they get people from Florida, New York, New Jersey, Canada and Israel signing up for the program and participating.
And for anyone who can’t make the live call, there are recordings sent out to the program members so they can watch the tour whenever they want until the next session.
The virtual tours can take on several formats, including a tour guide on site taking the audience around the selected area of study or PowerPoint presentations with photos and videos relating to the topic the group is covering.
“Every week is a different tour guide, every week is a different speaker, every week is a different educator. It could be a professor; it could be a special tour guide from another country. It really depends on what country [we’re touring or] what topic we’re doing this time,” Leven said.
BZD has an expanding network of speakers and “expert storytellers” who can guide the people in attendance through the topics the group is covering for the week.
Leven said that when the program was starting out they mostly did virtual tours of places in Israel, like the Old City and the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv.
As interest grew, they expanded to Israeli museums that held virtual tours, then got the participants involved through surveys to find out what topics or regions they wanted to see.
“From there, we started growing and doing more Jewish history around the world,” Leven said. “We’ve done things anywhere from Jewish Morocco to Jewish India to the Jews of Iraq. We’re doing a special summer session for our members on July 22, an on-location tour through Tel Aviv’s White City, exploring the impact site of an Iranian ballistic missile.”
Leven said that the tours typically take around 45 to 50 minutes to complete and participants can have a Q&A session with the tour guide at the end.
She added that people will often take notes during the tours and many have thoughtful questions for the guides after the sessions. The program has built connections.
“People have gone on tours with the guides that we’ve had on our call. We’ve connected so many people with different guides, and they’ve gone on actual tours with them in different countries,” Leven said.
Leven said that the sessions have been a way for people to become part of a community of like-minded individuals who are interested in Jewish history, culture, art and current events. She added that it’s a group of people meeting week after week and a familiarity builds over time seeing those same faces, even if they’re not meeting in person.
With the program finding success over the years, Leven said the tours give BZD an opportunity to provide an educational Jewish experience to the community and fulfill an important part of the organization’s mission.
“Our mission is really connecting the global Jewry to the State of Israel, but also to educate the community on Israel and Jewish history. It’s especially important in today’s day and age when the Diaspora needs to be educated on such topics as Israel, Zionism, Jewish history, where our people came from, how Jews are living outside of the United States and how Jews are living in Israel,” Leven said. “It’s very important that we as an organization take that role in educating not only our community but also people outside of the Baltimore Jewish community.”
