Letter from the CEO
Dear friend,
In 2025, more people than ever studied Jewish texts on Sefaria — including during our first-ever million-user month in October.
Even more inspiring: We saw not only more learners last year but also deeper learning. Sefaria users spent more time than ever studying texts, creating source sheets, and engaging with our educational resources. Sefaria is truly a vibrant hub of learning for Jews worldwide, across denomination, age, and background.
This impact was especially moving in a year marked by both hope and fear, healing and tragedy for the global Jewish community. As a professional team split between Israel and the US, Sefaria felt these dichotomies deeply. Our colleagues in Israel navigated reserve duty and sirens while we in the US watched the war from afar, against the backdrop of rising antisemitism and turmoil worldwide.
Today and always, the values of our textual tradition — which Sefaria makes accessible like never before — are grounding our communities in hope and humanity. And by building a Jewish library that is open to all, we are strengthening the timeless Jewish values of debate, chavruta, and Torah lishmah, learning for its own sake.
I am so grateful for the ongoing support of Sefaria’s institutional funders and individual donors. You enable Sefaria to serve as a positive force and bring Jewish texts into the digital age. Because of you, users of all backgrounds — first-time learners, advanced scholars, educators, rabbis, tech developers, and more — dive into our Library to study and teach the Torah that enriches our lives.
Growth and innovation defined Sefaria’s work in 2025. We launched a reimagined Topics interface, making it possible to explore Jewish texts by theme, idea, and author, and expanded our Library collection, including with works from the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and the Soncino Zohar. We deepened our efforts to engage learners and saw the number of subscribers to our Weekly Parashah Study Companion nearly double (from 14,600 to 27,500).
We also focused on adapting to the dramatic opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence brings to Jewish learning. We're on the cusp of a new digital age, and Sefaria was built for this moment: From our inception, our mission has been to leverage the latest technologies
to expand access to Jewish texts. Today we aim to use the best of AI to strengthen, not replace, direct engagement with Jewish texts. At the same time, we are establishing guardrails to protect the sacred integrity of our tradition within the evolving AI ecosystem. We closed the year by releasing two MCP servers, a critical step toward ensuring that users of AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude receive trusted Jewish content directly from Sefaria.
Our tradition reminds us that access is not an end in itself: It transforms learning. As the Talmud records, when Rabbi Elazar ben Azariyah became head of the study house of his day, he opened the doors and hundreds of students flooded in:
On that day they dismissed the guard at the [study hall] door and permission was granted to the students to enter…
On that day several benches were added to the study hall to accommodate the numerous students. Rabbi Yochanan said: Abba Yosef ben Dostai and the Rabbis disputed this matter. One said: Four hundred benches were added to the study hall. And one said: Seven hundred benches were added to the study hall.
— BERAKHOT 28A
This is Sefaria. We�ve thrown open the doors to the house of study — the beit midrash — and tens of thousands enter every day. Through this influx of learners, new ideas, scholarship, educational projects, conversations, and connections are flourishing.
Thank you for partnering with Sefaria in this vital work and for your confidence in our mission.
With immense gratitude,
Daniel Septimus Chief Executive Officer
By the Numbers 2025
860,000
Our Library
383 MILLION
Words in the Library
4.5 MILLION
Intertextual Links
93 MILLION
Words in Translation
659,000
Sheets Created
More Learners, Deeper Learning
When you open Sefaria on your phone or web browser, you enter into the world�s largest beit midrash, joining an average of over 860,000 other learners each month. Across homes, schools, synagogues, and time zones, hundreds of thousands of others are opening the same digital learning platform as you — sometimes even the same text. That’s the power of Sefaria in action.
SURVEY DATA FROM ROSOV CONSULTING SHOWS THAT USE OF SEFARIA INCREASES:
Learning Community Tradition Peoplehood
Motivation to study Jewish texts
Comfort in organized Jewish settings
Confidence taking on a Jewish tradition or ritual
Connection to the Jewish people
Between 2024 and 2025, engagement — and depth of learning — on Sefaria grew:
Highest number of users in a single month: 1,000,000+ in October 2025
User Stories
“As the Rabbi of a small congregation, I use Sefaria almost daily. Thank you for making Jewish learning accessible to me and my congregants.”
I love the daring scope
of
Sefaria. I love the ambition and excellence of what you have accomplished, and the desire and vision to keep expanding the wisdom of the Jewish people.
“I was able to find a Chabad and our Rabbi approached me to ask if I’d consider doing a weekly Kabbalat Shabbat service for a local nursing home. I’ve used the Sefaria app to research the Chumash and its multiple English commentaries to write a d’var Torah every week as part of the service for the past 18 months! It’s been a life source for me and gives me the opportunity to study anywhere or anytime!
Thank you for the incredible work you do. I am beyond amazed with the new chrome extension — loving the simplicity and ease of use. I have learned more Torah in days than in years since I added it. Kol HaKavod!
“L’shanah tovah to all of you at Sefaria. You’ve made it easy for me to study for free. I’m sure there are plenty of other low-income Jews in the same boat. I may not be able to hear the shofar in person, or afford one to blow myself, but you guys make it easy for me to study parsha, and understand the reasons why we do what we do.”
Weekly Parashah Study Companion
Reaching more than 27,475 readers weekly in 2025, Sefaria�s Weekly Parashah Study Companion brings learners directly to sources, context, commentaries, and thought-provoking questions on the parashah. The vast majority of readers self-report as benefitting from context and/or translation to navigate the Jewish library, which this series provides.
Timeless Topics
Building off of Sefaria�s new Topics interface (learn more on page 12), Timeless Topics is a learning series that, in 2025, delivered inspiring information about the Jewish library based on specific topics — including everything from leadership to beauty to candles — to more than 10,000 people weekly. As with the Weekly Parashah Study Companion, we aim to empower learners across the Jewish spectrum with direct access to Jewish sources.
“The aftermath of 10/7 shook me to the core. Since then, our family has grown deeply involved in shul, I daven daily and wrap tefillin, and of course study is a vital part of every day. To that end, Sefaria is truly a gift to the Jewish people. To have at hand all our sacred texts and seemingly endless commentary in a simple, easily navigable piece of software would be more than enough with a subscription fee. But the fact that it’s available free of charge confirms what our sages teach about study and tzedakah.”
— Timeless Topics subscriber
Collaborations
SIMCHAT TORAH CHALLENGE
Sefaria continued to collaborate with the Margaret and Daniel Loeb Foundation in 2025 to create the digital infrastructure for the Simchat Torah Challenge, an initiative that invites Jews the world over to study the weekly parashah in the wake of the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. We're honored to support this project, which reaffirms the timeless connection between the Jewish people and our shared textual heritage, for more than 38,000 participants to date.
A YEAR OF ZOHAR
Sefaria supported My Jewish Learning in launching a new weekly email series guiding readers through the Zohar, the foundational text of Jewish mysticism. Each email installment links directly to relevant sources and Topic pages on Sefaria. It now reaches more than learners, and we are excited to see it grow in 2026.
New Connections & Learning Horizons
Creating Tech & Torah Community
We hosted our first roundtable of Sefaria engineers and outside technologists using Sefaria�s data and API.
AI & Jewish Education: A Convening with Maimonides Fund
Sefaria Software Engineer Sarah Kreitman leading a Rosh Chodesh developer gathering in Jerusalem
Sefaria joined with Maimonides Fund — one of our core supporters — to gather a group of educators, learners, and institutions for a full-day exploration of the impact of AI on Jewish education.
Chief Learning Officer Sara Wolkenfeld in conversation with author and technologist Sam Arbesman
Retreat with the National Library of Israel
Sefaria is in the early stages of establishing a partnership with the National Library of Israel (NLI), with a goal of creating initiatives that will bring our respective textual collections together in digitally accessible and innovative ways. In September, staff from Sefaria and NLI gathered to explore the best ways we can strengthen each other �s missions. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress!
Sefaria and NLI staff retreat at NLI’s new building
A Meaningful Shavuot
Sefaria hosted Sinai in the Cloud, a global virtual learning experience, ahead of Shavuot. More than 1,600 participants from 15+ countries joined five text-based sessions led by these educators:
David Zvi Kalman Tech Scholar, Writer, Owner of Print-O-Craft Press
Eden Pearlstein Poetry Poet, Musician, Co-Founder of Ayin Press
Adina Allen Art Creative Director of Jewish Studio Project
Kenden Alfond Food Founder of Jewish Food Hero
Victoria Hanna Music World-Renowned Vocal Artist
Bridging Torah & Technology
Sefaria is bringing Torah into the digital age so that our textual heritage remains alive and vibrant for generations to come. From AI-focused innovation to supporting tech developers, we�re working on multiple fronts to ensure the Jewish community can benefit from new technologies to deepen learning.
Topics: A New Way to Learn on Sefaria
We launched a brand-new Topics homepage, an expanded collection of 5,000+ Topic pages, and an interface that increases accessibility by presenting sources with contextualizing information. Content from our Topics collection is featured in our new weekly Timeless Topics newsletter, which attracted more than 10,000 subscribers in its first nine months. More than 524,000 people have engaged with Sefaria’s new Topics landscape.
Tikvah Wiener • 2nd
Educational consultant
4m •
We love having students in Judaic Studies classes create Sefaria source sheets — it’s an alternative assessment that is authentic, creative and personalized. When we saw Sefaria introduce their Timeless Topics series, we were again inspired to use this approach: what if we had students create their own Timeless Topics series, based on their interests and passions? What a great way to assess the ability to use Torah texts and commentaries and to see what students find fascinating in their study of Torah!
Gratitude Rashi
Jonathan Sacks Weekly Torah Portions Yom Kippur
Connecting AI Assistants to Jewish Texts
If you have a paid ChatGPT or Claude account, you can now connect your AI assistant to our digital stacks or API. The Sefaria MCPs (Model Context Protocols) function like an adaptor cable, allowing AI tools to directly source information from Sefaria. When users with the Sefaria Texts MCP or Sefaria Developers MCP enabled add Sefaria as part of their query — for example, “Can you check Sefaria for a commentary explaining why Moses struck the rock in the desert?” — their AI system will prioritize searching the Library or developer resources for answers before looking elsewhere on the web.
“I just added the new MCP. Thanks so much for making this new tool available to the Sefaria community. Thanks also for the clear instructions. I am truly grateful for your efforts, wisdom, and your vision.”
“I just connected to the MCP for the first time — did something that usually takes me a couple of days to do manually in about 30 seconds using Claude. You guys are awesome!”
SEFARIA LIBRARY
SEFARIA MCP CHATGPT
Tech & Torah Summer Internship
In summer 2025, Sefaria welcomed three outstanding engineering interns, selected from a competitive pool of over 650 applicants. Based in Israel but working in connection with staff from across Sefaria�s international team, they gained hands-on experience while contributing to projects that will shape the future of Torah learning.
Ukrainian-born Margo Levin is pursuing a master �s degree in computer science at Hebrew University. At Sefaria, she built a tool that uses large language models (LLMs) to help learners more effectively find user-created Sheets of interest. You can now sort Sheets by the relevance of their content in addition to sorting by views or publication date.
Aleksandr Gomelskii Kramar balances family life with Torah study, coding, and military service. His summer project at Sefaria resulted in a feature that automatically scrolls to and highlights the exact passage in an extended commentary relating to the main text a user is viewing. This feature eliminates the frustration of hunting through lengthy texts to find the relevant passage.
Hershel Thomas, a computer science student at Reichman University, worked to build a tool to streamline quality testing for every Sefaria mobile app update. This tool partially replaces cumbersome manual testing with a self-running system that simulates a person using our apps and catches any errors that come up.
“Working at Sefaria taught me that engineering is a team sport. We all rely on one another to ensure that the ‘delivery system’ for Jewish wisdom never fails.
Throughout the course of my internship, my daily routine changed. Every morning, I found myself saying the beracha of la’asok b’divrei Torah with extra kavana. I realized that by ensuring our app is running smoothly, I am helping world Jewry interact with Torah. Every time I see someone using the app in the ‘wild,’ I feel a deep sense of pride. I’m helping to ensure that our history remains accessible, vibrant, and ready for the generations to come.”
– Hershel Thomas
Powered by Sefaria – 2025 Highlights
Sefaria�s open data and API enable anyone to build new tools for learning Torah. By the end of 2025, we saw more than 75 known Powered by Sefaria projects, and 200+ websites connecting to the Sefaria Library through our Linker API.
This Talmud Commentary Atlas charts the breadth, depth, and evolution of commentary within the Babylonian Talmud through interactive visualizations and statistical analysis.
Torah Heatmap, recently featured in eJewishPhilanthropy, uses Sefaria�s opensource data to visualize which verses of Torah are most featured in commentary.
GoTorah offers an AI study assistant for those looking to study the weekly Torah portion alongside classical commentary by the 11thcentury scholar Rashi.
DafBuddy integrates layouts that reflect the traditional structure of a Talmud page and offers an AI-powered study companion to help learners of all backgrounds study Talmud.
Growing Sefaria’s Library
In 2025, we expanded the Sefaria Library to more than 382 million words, including 93 million words in translation. We�ve made the vast majority of this content available under Creative Commons licenses so it �s free for use and reuse by everyone, forever.
Focus on Quality
Sefaria�s engineers work constantly to not only add new texts to the Library but also to maintain and improve the quality of our existing collection. Especially in the age of AI, when many large language models rely on Sefaria for authoritative Jewish sources, we recognize the critical importance of offering the highest-quality editions.
NOW FULLY VOCALIZED
Rashi�s commentary on the complete Tanakh
Yalkut Shimoni on Torah Ramban on Torah Bartenura on Mishnah
STANDARDIZATION OF THE JERUSALEM TALMUD
We completed a comprehensive proofread of the Jerusalem Talmud, ensuring accuracy and greater standardization of vowels and punctuation added in modern times to aid readability.
First page of the Jerusalem Talmud in its earliest printed edition (Bomberg Pressing, Venice, 1523); available on Sefaria.
Source: National Library of Israel
New Texts – Highlights
The Soncino Zohar, an English translation of Kabbalah�s foundational text
Hebrew translations of 12 books (many of them translated for the very first time) in the Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Collection (learn more on following page)
An English translation of the Musar classic Ohr Yisrael
Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective by Judith Plaskow
Commentaries from the Kehot Chumash , an in-depth collection based primarily on Rashi�s explanations of Torah passages
A Dictionary of the Talmud by Baruck Krupnik and Dr. A.M. Silbermann, a 20th-century reference work on the Talmud, Midrash, and Targum
An English translation by Yaacov David Shulman of the first notebook in Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook �s Shemoneh Kevatzim (Eight Notebooks)
Meiri on Psalms, a commentary on the book of Psalms by 14th-century rabbi Menachem Meiri, best known for his monumental Talmud commentary
“I just wanted to say thank you! These new additions to Sefaria are simply tremendous, exciting, and wonderfully generous… Now more than ever we need to connect and lean into our faith and tradition, and Sefaria makes it so easy to do so.”
The Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Collection
In 2025, we added more than 17 books by the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in both English and modern Hebrew, to his dedicated collection on Sefaria, including:
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Rabbi and member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom
Throughout his broad body of work, Rabbi Sacks demonstrated the relevance of our shared texts in contemporary life. We�re honored to bring that legacy online and maximize its impact and reach by building the Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Collection on Sefaria through our historic collaboration with Koren Jerusalem and The Rabbi Sacks Legacy
Word-by-Word
Word-by-Word is a writing fellowship that supports women in the development of original Torah scholarship. The program�s 20 fellows gathered for their final in-person retreat in summer 2025. Six participants have recently had their manuscripts accepted for publication. Already, Gila Fine�s The Madwoman in the Rabbi�s Attic, written under the auspices of this fellowship, has received a National Jewish Book Award.
Fellows at our summer 2025 Word-by-Word retreat
Finances
Sefaria�s spending in 2025 reflected the goals outlined in our 2023–2027 Strategic Plan, with key expenditures including investments in platform development, content expansion, user engagement, and organizational infrastructure. Our revenue for the year came from individual donations as well as foundation grants. In sum, we received $7.4 million in cash revenue and spent $7.8 million on Sefaria�s maintenance and expansion. We maintain healthy cash reserves for our work moving forward.
We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the individual supporters and grantmaking institutions who make Sefaria’s work possible. In a time of so many pressing global needs, we are grateful for every dollar donated in support of our mission.
To learn more about Sefaria�s financials, view our latest IRS Form 990 at sefaria.org/ways-to-give.
Fundraising
In 2025, more people than ever before chose to invest in Sefaria�s mission. Whether an individual gave $3.60, $3,600, $36,000, or even $360,000, every gift made a difference in Sefaria�s efforts to expand access to Jewish learning. Notably, we had our most successful High Holiday fundraising drive to date, raising $480,000 from 7,000 users, and grew our Sefaria Sustainers — our monthly donor community — by 25%.
With so many pulls on your resources and attention, every dollar given to Sefaria and your partnership in fulfilling our mission means more than it ever has before. We are so grateful.
Community Giving At a Glance
$1,348,000 raised from Sefaria users giving less than $1,000
$32.47 average transaction amount
11,564 total donors in 2025
$1.4M
$1.3M
$1.2M
$1.1M
$1M
$900K
4,535 first-time donors
2,541 Sefaria Sustainers (monthly donors)
129 Days of Learning sponsored
GROWTH IN DONATIONS FROM THE SEFARIA COMMUNITY (Gifts Under $1,000)
“I believe in Sefaria’s mission in making Torah and Jewish texts available to all. I hope that my humble contribution will assist Sefaria to continue carrying out this mission.”
Sefaria Sustainers
More than 670 Sefaria users became monthly donors in the leadup to Shavuot 2025. We offered these new Sustainers a custom tote bag to show off their love of Torah and commitment to supporting Jewish learning for all.
Sefaria Giving Circles
Sefaria is not funded by a single revenue stream but rather by incredible support from a variety of sources — from major Jewish foundations to everyday users of the Library. In 2024, we launched Giving Circles as our newest fundraising program, aimed at building a community of individuals deeply invested in the future of Jewish learning. In 2025, 45 new donors either increased their annual contributions or reached the $3,600 membership threshold for the first time. Thank you.
Friends of Sefaria gathered at several events throughout 2025.
Thank You to Our Supporters
Recognizing Lifetime Giving
FOUNDERS ($5,000,000+)
Jim Joseph Foundation
William Davidson Foundation
PARTNERS ($1,000,000–$4,999,999)
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family
Philanthropies
Crown Family Philanthropies
Maimonides Fund
PATRONS ($500,000–$999,999)
Joshua Kushner
The Koum Family Foundation
Koschitzky Family
Anonymous
Anonymous
Raanan and Nicole Agus
Anonymous
2025 Giving Circle Members
VISIONARIES ($100,000+)
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family
Philanthropies
Crown Family Philanthropies
Gary Claar and Lois Kohn-Claar
Jim Joseph Foundation
Joshua Kushner
Koschitzky Family
Maimonides Fund
The Gottesman Fund
The Koum Family Foundation
The Margaret and Daniel Loeb Foundation
TruBob Fund
William Davidson Foundation
Anonymous
BUILDERS ($36,000–$100,000)
Crane Family
Giti and Jack Bendheim
Kenden Alfond
Kolatch Family Foundation
Koyfman Family
Pamela and George Rohr
EXPLORERS ($18,000–$35,999)
Abigail Pogrebin
Alvin Segal Family Foundation
Esses Family
Jack and Doris Bistricer
Joshua and Dinah Foer
CREATORS ($10,000–$17,999)
Ariella and Michael Radwin
Daniel and Debbie Schwartz
Deborah Shapira and Barry Stern
Eric and Tamar Goldstein
Erica and Rob Schwartz
Felicia Herman and David Ben-Ur
Friend Family Philanthropic Fund
Igor Dvoretskyi
Jeff Feig and Emily Caslow
TRAILBLAZERS ($3,600–$9,999)
Ahava and Ephraim Leibtag
Ben Sanders
Botwinick-Wolfensohn Foundation
Carol Congedo
Christina and Akiva Katz
David Forst
Diane and Howard Zack
Eliahou Soucaris
Raanan and Nicole Agus
Robert M. Beren Family Foundation
Terri and Andrew Herenstein
The Zahava and Moshael Straus Family
Foundation
Anonymous
Samuel and Debra Moed
The Lucius N. Littauer Foundation
Zoffer Family Fund
Anonymous
John and Debra Westheimer
Michael and Devera Witkin
Nancy Ackerman
Shari and Nathan J. Lindenbaum
Stephen Axinn
The Clergy of Temple Israel
Tony Felzen
Zelda R. Stern
Anonymous
Emily Yoffe and John Mintz
Fabienne and Doug Silverman
Geoffrey and Orna Stern
Harry and Rebecca Ritter
Hilda and Yitz Applbaum
Jamie Steele
Jennifer Moses
Jessica Paul
TRAILBLAZERS ($3,600–$9,999) CONTINUED
John and Jennifer Stein
Joshua Goldberg
Kevin Waldman
Kogel Family Foundation
Lisa and Victor Kohn
Marc Waldor
Marilyn and Leon (z”l) Moed
Melissa Kushner and Jeremy Kaplan
Michael Hammer
Rabbis of Park Avenue Synagogue
Rachel and Rabbi Daniel Kraus
Rebecca and Mayer Schein
Regine and Jack Ashkenazie
Rena and Josh Kopelman
Rose Seoanes
Sara and Josh Herzberg
Stuart and Elizabeth Schnider
Suzy and Yono Reich
Weiss Family Foundation
Yitz and Adira Hier
Virginia Bayer and Robert Hirt
Zoe Jick Fertik
Anonymous
We are thankful to the following individuals and organizations for their generosity:
David Nimmer
Noah Leibowitz and Dechert LLP
Mark Cohen and Pearl Cohen LLP
To learn more about becoming a lead supporter, please contact Desiree Neissani, Development Officer, at desiree@sefaria.org. Donations to Sefaria are tax-deductible as allowed by law. CONTACT
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