After studying architecture at Portland State University and classics at Reed College, 21-year-old Hebb started the firm Communitexture with fellow architect Mark Lakeman. Hebb, 39, is an unofficial expert on the dinner table. “And the fact is, if you go online to look for resources for Passover, you’re going to be pretty disappointed.” “The millennials and Gen Y and the generations that are to come tell their stories on their digital devices,” Hebb said. He imagines younger seder attendees playing the Heschel anecdote on their smartphones or streaming the Passover playlists on Spotify. Nevertheless, the goal is to inspire young Jews – and non-Jews – to take part in the unique millennia-old dinner ritual that Hebb says offers almost unparalleled opportunity to foster meaningful discussion. This initial year is a bit of an experiment, and Hebb says that all the site’s various media libraries will expand after this spring for the years to come. The site has also partnered with, an existing online repository of community-generated Haggadah materials, to provide further digital resources. Hebb’s latest project,, is a multimedia Passover resource – it contains Passover recipes (from well-known cooks like “Top Chef” contestant Spike Mendelsohn), recorded anecdotes about the holiday meant to play at the seder table (including one by Susannah Heschel on the night Martin Luther King, Jr., came to her Passover seder), holiday-appropriate playlists compiled by Jewish indie musicians, and more. However, those interests are what have led Michael Hebb, a former restaurateur and the founder of meal-related projects such as Death Over Dinner and Drugs Over Dinner, to adapt Passover to the digital age.
An appreciation for classics and architecture does not necessarily foster interest in the Passover seder.
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