Audience Definitions
Who Jewish Wisdom is for, what they're carrying, and how to meet them. Use this page with the style guide and the Core Marketing Messages whenever you write a brief or choose who a piece is for.
Three audiences, one way in
Across every audience, the most effective entry point is the self, not the tradition. Content that leads with a specific human need, meets a person in their current moment, and asks nothing about their background or beliefs travels furthest. That isn't a limit on ambition; it's how Jewish wisdom reaches people.
| Audience | Priority | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Free Agent Jews | Primary | Culturally Jewish, institutionally unattached, and tired of being asked which version of Jewish they're supposed to be. |
| Nearby Fellow Travelers | Secondary | Not Jewish, but close to Jewish life through someone they trust. |
| Horizon Fellow Travelers | Secondary, longer horizon | Not Jewish, with little Jewish connection, assembling a meaning-making practice from many traditions. |
| Jewish Community Builders | Tertiary, ecosystem | Leaders and educators who can carry the work to their own communities. |
Free Agent Jews
Culturally Jewish but institutionally unattached: the “Goldilocks” cohort. This one's too hot, this one's too cold.
Who they are
Often the product of a meaningful Jewish upbringing that didn't translate into adult practice, or a lifelong, loose relationship with Jewish identity. Many describe feeling “lonely Jewishly”: isolated in their desire for something real, despite being deeply connected people in other parts of their lives.
The barrier runs deeper than ambivalence. They're carrying active exhaustion with purity tests on all sides of the discourse around Jewish identity, and with the sense that any space calling itself Jewish will demand they declare a position on things they haven't worked out.
What they want
- Spirituality and community, but not through synagogue.
- A Jewish home they haven't found yet.
- To be known: to show up somewhere and have it noticed.
- Humor, authenticity, peer-led experience, and practical application.
- A spiritual guide, not a rabbi.
What moves them
Being matched with like-minded people, not on “Jewish” as a single axis, but on values, interests, and sensibility. The Re/Group concept, which used a short quiz to match people with a Shabbat retreat cohort, reached a $6 customer acquisition cost on Meta: the strongest signal of fit in the research. Gatherings and Find a Small Group exist for them.
What to avoid
- Gatekeeping, guilt, and “Judaism says.”
- Institutional authority.
- Programming that's “just with other Jews” but lacks specific meaning; tribal affinity alone isn't enough.
- Anything that ties Jewish identity to a political position.
Messages that reach them
Fellow Travelers
The secondary audience: non-Jewish adults open to Jewish wisdom as a framework for living. It holds two distinct groups that share a name but need different approaches. Content that leads with the self and human flourishing speaks to both; placements and targeting tell them apart.
What both want
- Practical wisdom, with no identity requirements or cultural gatekeeping.
- Jewish wisdom framed as a tool for living, the way meditation and yoga crossed over, not as a tribal inheritance.
- “Diasporic oneness”: wisdom that helps people find home amid displacement and uncertainty. It's the quality most likely to resonate with both groups.
What to avoid
- Insider-coded language and ethnic framing.
- Anything that quietly requires a Jewish background to understand or appreciate.
Nearby Fellow Travelers
Not Jewish, but close to Jewish life: a Jewish partner, close Jewish friends, or a community with a strong Jewish presence.
Who they are
They're curious because someone they trust has found something real here. They aren't seeking Jewish identity, but they're open to Jewish wisdom as part of how they live. This is the group the board has most in mind, and the one most reachable through the Hub and LKFLT's existing network. They tend to convert more efficiently than Horizon Fellow Travelers.
How to meet them
- Start with the relationship: someone you love has found something here, and you already share the instincts that make it meaningful.
- Frame the tradition as a gift, not a gate. Welcome has deep precedent: from the beginning, some people joined this story rather than inheriting it.
- Offer agency, not assigned identity. Some resist being told they belong, knowing not everyone would agree. “Something for you” can land better than “something you're part of.”
Messages that reach them
Horizon Fellow Travelers
Not Jewish, with little or no Jewish connection: spiritually curious, post-institutional, and drawing wisdom from many traditions.
Who they are
They're assembling a personal practice from many sources and seeking applicable wisdom from whatever tradition offers it, not a Jewish identity. They represent the broader, long-term opportunity, and reaching them means widening the top of the funnel without drawing resources away from Nearby Fellow Travelers.
How to meet them
- Lead entirely with the human need: rest, overwhelm, connection, meaning.
- Let Jewish provenance arrive second, as a tradition that figured this out long ago. No Hebrew or ritual language in the first impression.
- Make an offering, not a claim. Skip “roots” language; this wisdom is available to anyone willing to try it.
Messages that reach them
Jewish Community Builders
Jewish professionals and motivated laypeople already leading, teaching, or facilitating in their communities.
Who they are
Deeply committed to Jewish wisdom, but often under-resourced, isolated from peers, and short on infrastructure to grow their work. They're the most likely early advocates for Jewish Wisdom, and the most likely to bring its content to communities of Free Agent Jews.
What they want, and what to avoid
- Want: tools, content, training, and networks, not a new reason to care.
- Respond to: intellectual depth and collegial framing.
- Avoid: oversimplification, or anything that feels below their level.
One shared vocabulary
LKFLT's materials use several names for the same people. These are the terms we use internally, and how other sources' labels map to them. None of these labels appear in public copy.
| Source | Their term | Our term |
|---|---|---|
| Gemik (consulting firm) | Unlearners | Free Agent Jews |
| Jewish Wisdom Labs | Free Agent Jews | Free Agent Jews |
| 2024 Research Report | Free-Floaters | Free Agent Jews |
| 2024 Research Report | Engaged Spirituals | Jewish Community Builders |
| 2024 Research Report | Engaged Seculars | Fellow Travelers |
| LKFLT mission statement | Fellow Travelers | Fellow Travelers |