Each program provides study materials and reading guides, while encouraging participants to chat with each other about the content — whether in synagogue discussion groups, over the phone or on the Internet.
Amit’s project started in July with Deuteronomy, while United Synagogue’s program kicks off Sunday Oct. 3 — Simchat Torah — with the Book of Joshua.
Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive director of the United Synagogue, said the daily approach gives people a manageable way to familiarize themselves with the Bible in its entirety, which includes the Torah, Prophets and Writings.
At the rate of 15 to 20 minutes per day, one can read the Bible in about 2-1/2 years, he said.
Amit’s project was spurred by a seminar in which educator Rivka Blau said: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if thousands of women all over the country could study and we gave them the means?”
“We want people to open up the Bible regularly and reacquaint themselves with it,” co-chair Brenda Felman said. “It shouldn’t be foreign.”
The project marks a change of pace for Amit, a 32,000-member organization that raises funds for a network of schools and social service programs in Israel.