Shalom TV is new Jewish video-on-demand channel
By Cindy Mindell

STAMFORD-"People are shocked when they realize that there is no Jewish TV channel in America," says Rabbi Mark S. Golub, longtime Jewish educator and educational media maven. "And the reality is that there should be a place where people interested in learning more about Jewish traditions and life and the land of Israel can get information about the Jewish experience."
Welcome to Shalom TV, the first Jewish video-on-demand television channel in the country, and 5,700 years in the making.
A mainstream cultural Jewish channel, Shalom TV will offer a wide and vibrant array of programming, from Jewish learning to Israeli news and commentary to films and cultural performances. 
"We chose the name 'Shalom' because of its meaning: wholeness, inclusion, and as a way to embrace the entire Jewish community," Golub says. "Shalom TV is not the organ of any specific Jewish movement or organization, but it's about mainstream American Jewry, Klal Yisrael. In addition, the Shalom extends beyond the Jewish community, to those who are not Jewish but who want to learn about Jewish tradition and the Holy Land."
Spiritual leader of Chavurat Deevray Torah in Greenwich and Chavurat Aytz Chayim in Stamford, Golub was recently named president and CEO of the new channel.
But he's no stranger to the world of Jewish media; in fact, he is a pioneer. Golub is the creator and host of "L'Chayim," one of the first Jewish public affairs radio programs for a mass Jewish audience. Since its start in 1979, the program hasn't missed a single Sunday broadcast. 
That same year, Rabbi Golub created Jewish Education in Media, Inc. (JEM). The non-profit foundation produces media materials for a popular audience designed to deepen Jewish understanding and strengthen Jewish identity and commitment, and to explain the Jewish tradition to those of non-Jewish faiths.
Next came the Russian Television Network of America, the first Russian-language TV channel in the U.S., which Golub created in the early 1990s for Jewish emigrants from the former Soviet Union. 
To realize Shalom TV, Golub teams up with "a whole company comprised of TV professional and Jewish professionals dedicated to Jewish life and tradition and the well-being of Israel," Golub says.
While the rabbi is the educator and entrepreneur behind Shalom TV, the effort would not have gained as much ground without Bradford N. Hammer and David Brugnone. Hammer, who created Pennsylvania's C-SPAN channel, the most successful state model in the country, helped introduce Shalom TV to cable systems and Jewish organizations across the U.S. He also came up with the Shalom TV name and logo. Hammer will serve as vice president and chief operating officer.
Brugnone, a 30-year veteran of the cable TV industry, worked for Showtime Networks and Fox Cable Networks, and is an expert in affiliate sales. He will serve as Vice President of Affiliate Sales. 
Shalom TV launches on August 30 in the greater Philadelphia area, then becomes available nationwide through Comcast after the High Holidays. For one monthly fee, a viewer will have access to 50 hours of programming at all times, with new programming introduced on a weekly basis. The channel will become live, or streaming, sometime in 2007, allowing live news broadcasts from Israel and phone call-in programming, Golub says.
Golub plans a wide range of Jewish programming to appeal to all ages and all branches of Judaism.
"Shalom TV seeks to serve the average Jewish household which has some degree of Jewish identity and some commitment to Israel," Golub says. "Its most important contribution will be to let Israel and Israelis speak for themselves in American media, and to enhance Jews' awareness about Israel's politics and culture. Shalom TV will simply let people know what's going on."

For more information, visit www.shalomtv.org