Social networking sites began buzzing immediately after word spread of the
Oct. 5 death of Apple visionary Steve Jobs. Rabbis took time out of their busy preparations for Yom Kippur to post personal reflections on what effect Jobs’ contributions had on them.
Rabbi Andrew Pepperstone of Dewitt, N.Y., posted to his Facebook page, “Is Steve Jobs a hero? If someone who has vision, discipline, passion and love for what he does is a hero, then yes. It was not about the money or the fame for him. It was about changing the world in a million little ways that improved peoples’ lives. And his devices and other inventions have been a major breakthrough in helping people with disabilities communicate and employ the best that technology has to offer.”
Answering the question “Why Is Steve Jobs Important to Me?” Rabbi Eric Linder of Omaha, Neb. wrote, “In my rabbinate, I have tried to use technology to make Judaism relevant. For Rosh Hashanah we leveraged the power of social media to crowd source answers to the question, ‘What does the shofar call you to do?’ All of the technical stuff was done on Apple technology. And the project brought people closer together.”
Over the past three decades, the technological innovation that was inspired by Jobs’ vision had a significant effect on the Jewish community. One can hardly count the ways in which Jewish education and Jewish life have been positively affected by the products that Jobs dreamed of and made into a reality.
His iPods made Jewish music and Jewish learning more accessible. His computers brought graphic design to new levels for Jewish institutions like synagogues and day schools. His Facetime application on the iPhone allowed Jewish communities separated by continents to come together and communicate. Thousands of Jewish-themed applications from utilities to resources to games were created for the iPhone and iPad.
Jobs’ understanding of efficiency and connectivity led to the intuitive devices that have changed the way we work and connect with each other.
The Jewish high school that has its students learning Talmud and chemistry on the iPad owes a great deal to the work of Jobs. The father who created a slideshow of memories set to music using iMovie for his daughter’s wedding is indebted to the vision of Jobs. The young boy living in a remote area of the country who is preparing for his bar mitzvah by listening to a New York cantor’s podcast on his iTouch is grateful to Jobs.
Did the devotee of Zen Buddhism have a Jewish spark in him? Perhaps he did. There is no doubt that Jobs had a profound effect on the Jewish world. His dynamic legacy will continue to make the world better as we continue to plug in and connect with each other in just the way he envisioned and using the devices he helped design.
If the value of tikkun olam really means leaving your imprint on the world in a quest to make it a better place for all of us, then Jobs possessed that value a thousand-fold. n
Jason Miller is a Michigan-based entrepreneurial rabbi and technologist. He blogs at http://blog.rabbijason.com. This piece was distributed by JTA.