…and an important lesson in viral marketing!
Tribe: The iTunes Download So there I was, checking out JewTube to see how many people had viewed our new Jewlicious Free Trip to Israel Dancers video. Suddenly a familiar image appeared. Clicking on it, I watched the trailer for Tribe: The Film, a movie that utilizes the history of the Barbie Doll and its Jewish creator Ruth Handler to contemplate the nature of the Jewish experience. We’ve discussed this thought provoking short film before – we screened it at the first Jewlicious at the Beach conference where both Tiffany Shlain (director, Co-writer) and her husband Ken (yes. Ken.) Goldberg (co-writer) made an appearance and answered audience questions. We screened it to the participants on one of our Taglit-birthright israel trips which resulted in one of the most interesting group discussions we’ve ever had on a trip. We even recommended you purchase the film and the Discussion kit for Hanukah.

Well, now, according to the accompanying blurb on JewTube, Tribe: The Film is going to make its debut on iTunes on October 2nd. The 18 minute film will not take up a lot of space on your iPod and is sure to be both entertaining and thought provoking. I know, I know – a film about Jewish identity? You’re probably thinking “snooze fest” right? Well, you’d be wrong. Tiffany and Ken wrote a fantastic script that in typical Jewish fashion, leaves you with more questions than answers and this substance is augmented by the fabulous stylings of Gil Gershoni, the art director. So give some thought to downloading this film for yourself or offering it to a friend as a gift. Now here’s the clip which will be followed by a quick note on viral marketing:

I started this post discussing the Jewlicious Free Trip to Israel Dancers video. This video has been posted on both JewTube and YouTube. The YouTube video was linked to from Jewlicious and from various spots on Facebook, etc. while the JewTube video was there on its own. Yet, the JewTube video was viewed 607 times while the YouTube video was viewed only 469 times despite getting most of the support. Lesson learned? If you are using viral video to promote something Jewish, upload it to JewTube too! It’s the smart thing to do and I am sure Jeremy Kossen would appreciate it.

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About the author

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Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

7 Comments

  • Ivan and Abraham is probably the most provocative movie about the political and cultural identities of Jewish youth today made to date, that I have seen.

    I did like the graphic. its slick.

    a gut voch!

    – Eli

  • I watched this movie on my birthright israel trip and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Even if it was on CK’s laptop. I think I will send it to my sister as a gift. Tribe is a short film. It can’t cover every aspect of a generation’s struggles, but in talking about what it means to be a Jew in a modern society, you can’t help but touch upon every aspect of that struggle. Jewish identity is the common denominator to all of that.

  • Really Eli? The most unprovocative and bland film made on the subject? Look, it’s highly stylized and doesn’t really make any strong statements, but it does raise a lot of questions, don’t you think? And my Taglit-birthright israel trip participants found it engaging, so that’s a good thing, no?

    Do you have better movies to suggest? I’m serious. It’s hard getting young Jews to even think about these issues let alone discuss them. Oh and what about that graphic? The blue one with the iPod Barbie? Did you like that? I made that just for this post. You gotta have at least liked that?

  • I also screened that film to a group of NYC high school students at a summer program. My boss forced me to do it. I thought it was the most unprovocative and bland film about this generation’s Jewish struggles I’ve ever seen.