Where in The World Is Shmuel Hoffman? Israel 2025 Edition

We're only halfway through the year, but it's been a whirlwind of travel and exciting projects at Hoffman Productions.

Earlier in the year, Shmuel was in Israel for a few projects for Aleeza Ben Shalom, Rabbi Benji, and Mayanot Yeshiva, and to participate in the Voice of The People conference.

The Voice of the People is an initiative created by Israel's President Isaac Herzog, with the goal of gathering influencers and diverse voices from the Jewish diaspora, and creating essentially a think tank and action team to help tackle some of today's Jewish issues.

With co-VOP members, including Yuval David, Sharon Vos, and Chama Mechtaly

with President Herzog

speaking at the conference

Filming at the site of the Nova Music Festival Massacre

As part of VOP's first cohort, Shmuel was chosen as one of 50 representatives from the US. He is on the committee tackling Jewish and non-Jewish relations; his knowledge of media and his background as a Jew from Germany have certainly helped in this role.

While he was in Israel, Shmuel extended his time there to film a few projects. He was happy to reconnect with Aleeza ben Shalom, star of Netflix's Jewish Matchmaking series, to work further on a film project.

Shmuel filming Aleeza in Pardes Chana

Aleeza's new book, Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A Love That Lasts, is out now on Amazon and can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Matchmaker-Find-Love-That-Lasts/dp/1454956143

On this same trip, Shmuel filmed a few projects for Rabbi Benji Levy. Shmuel and Margelit Hoffman created the concepts for these films, and together with Yaakov Lehman in Israel, produced and filmed these pieces.

In Jerusalem filming Rabbi Benji near the Kotel

Filming Rabbi Benji on the Tayelet

Filming on the Tayelet in Tel Aviv

Another project he worked on during his time there was for social media content for Mayanot Yeshiva in Jerusalem; a walkthrough of their new building for recruiting and fundraising purposes.

When Shmuel returned from Israel, he continued filming in NY, NJ, and the Midwest. Will tell you all about it in our next post.