A Different Startup
We are a technology science-passionate startup who sells the Singing Torah special needs solution for Cantors who teach Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah students.
Inclusion is important to us, including of the financial kind, we have set up Kehilat B’nei HaTanakh (KBH”T) as 501 (c) (3) non-profit. KBH”T accepts your non-profit donations for use in sponsoring licenses of the software for those who cannot afford it. Donors can direct their donations to provide the Singing Torah software to specific congregations and synagogues.
Tax-deductible donations are a major source of revenue to continue Singing Torah’s mission. Synagogue payments to access and use this valuable service are another source of revenue.
Donations support startup costs including improvements to Singing Torah’s capabilities and user interface, marketing, business development, and support for both students and educators as they use the system for a more engaging Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience in the United States.
Annual Support Levels — Donate and Become
$99 Sponsor Special Needs Child. Donate today to help subsidize a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah child with special needs who cannot afford help.
Do you want to help ten children become a minyan?
$999 Sponsor Minyan of Special Needs Children. Donate today to help subsidize ten Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah children with special needs who cannot afford help.
Support Singing Torah and grow a long-term connection with Judaism
Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah students learn to chant Hebrew Bible verses. On Shabbat, they read the Torah (Five Books of Moses from the Hebrew Bible) and read the Haftorah in a Synagogue such as Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox.
The Shabbat Torah reading and the Shabbat Haftorah reading are performed in a singing voice based on an ancient tradition in which Hebrew Bible cantillation symbols, known as Torah Trope and Haftorah Trope. The Tropes are the musical notations that together with the text determine how the verses are chanted.
But, during the Torah reading in front of a Jewish congregation in Synagogue, Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah students read directly from a Torah Scroll, which does not have vowel markers or cantillation symbols to help with Hebrew Biblical verse pronunciation and intonation.
For many centuries, Jewish traditions and Hebrew learning have been passed down generation-to-generation, human-to-human. That will not go away with Singing Torah, just the opposite; Singing Torah complements how teachers enable Bar/Bat Mitzvah students to learn at their own pace and place. Singing Torah also accommodates many different learning styles such as dyslexia, which require special education approaches. Singing Torah provides significant support to:
- Teach Jewish ritual songs
- Connect teachers with students even in the absence of face-to-face learning.
- Support independent Jewish learning.
- Provide a foundation at an early age to encourage interest in Judaism into adulthood.
Synagogues deploying Singing Torah teach Hebrew Bible more effectively, strengthening Jewish identity and communal values with less clergy effort and more parental satisfaction. We help kids learn for Bar/Bat Mitzvah with their cantor/tutor/rabbi by providing innovative software and curriculum on computer. Our educator-centric model takes the voice of any cantor or rabbi and automatically synchronizes their chanting to the underlying Hebrew Bible text, using techniques in speech recognition of cantillated Biblical Hebrew. We transliterated the entire Hebrew Bible to improve orthographic accuracy and pronounceability. Our system is scalable to serve North American Jews.
Every $ donation covers our full cost of supporting a child and their cantor through the Bar/Bat Mitzvah process, even if the child has special needs.
Your donation in any amount enables us to provide our system at reduced rates to synagogues and their communities and will subsidize families who require further financial assistance.
