The Goal of Good Shabbos Nebraska

This week at 10am is the world premier of Good Shabbos Nebraska (GSN), America's favorite Shabbos morning Talk show.

The headliner this week is America's Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.  Shmuley has an incredible following in Omaha and many people are excited that they will have a chance to hear him in person at Beth Israel this week.

But there are also many people who expressed interest in coming this week who are attracted to the novelty of the talk show format of Good Shabbos Nebraska.

I have even been contacted by other shuls throughout the country who are interested in throwing away their own pulpits and swapping them for a talk show of their own.

People have asked me what is the goal of GSN..

As I have written in an earlier post, Omaha's Jewish community does not have a culture of Synagogue attendance.  Since my article, the Pew research center has released a study about American Jews and the future looks bleak.

I know that hundreds of people are going to come this Shabbos to hear Shmuley.  (We are probably going to have to cut off the crowd if it exceeds 350 - so come early to ensure a seat!)

But my target audience is not the "one and done crowd".  I am hoping to catch a pool of 75 to 100 Omaha Jews who see the program and say, "this was fun.  This is something that I would come to again in the future."  I don't expect that they will come every week, but if 100 people decided that they will come once a month, or when they see an interesting speaker advertised on the GSN Facebook page - even if that speaker is not an international celebrity - that would be a great victory for Jewish Omaha.