Like Chabad, Aish provides links to information about their schools and drop-in classes. The website has articles like “Nobituary” with a photo of Whoopi Goldberg, and the caption attached states, “One Jew’s creative way to help people quit smoking. Whoopi Goldberg is on board.” It also has “5 Strategies to Find Balance in Life,” explaining that things like the gym are not a guilty pleasure, but a religious issue that we as an American community need to address and can, through Torah. These articles show modern concerns can be answered with a religious lifestyle. No longer is their audience shamed by wanting to involve themselves in connecting what would seem like secular activities to religious activities. This all-encompassing acceptance of secular American culture makes Aish’s outreach effective. There is no substantial evidence to see if Aish’s movement is more effective than Chabad’s, but the more modern approach to the material does continue to set the difference in tone in these two online orthodox movements.
Rachel Schiff, “Jewish Subcultures Online: Outreach, Dating, and Marginalized Communities” (Master’s thesis, California State University, Fullerton, 2016), 39.