ABOUT
Our Story
The Jewish Life Foundation was established to harness the power of media, education, and community engagement to strengthen Jewish life and foster greater understanding across communities.
Inspired by the vision of JLTV founder Phil Blazer ז"ל, the Foundation believes that Jewish stories, values, and experiences should be accessible to everyone, regardless of background, geography, or level of Jewish knowledge.
Over the years, the Foundation has expanded its work beyond broadcasting to include educational initiatives, cultural programming, documentary production, community engagement, and support for emerging nonprofit projects.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR FOUNDER
1944-2020
Phil grew-up in Burbank where his love of his Jewish faith and culture, especially Jewish humor; baseball and radio - took early root. His high school dream was to own his own television network, that dream found its greatest expression in Jewish Life TV.
Phil continued as a radio host for five decades while building a media empire that included a nationally syndicated television show, NAME, and a national newspaper, Israel Today. In 2006, when many of his peers were ready for retirement, Phil threw himself into starting a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week Jewish television network. JLTV was a boyhood dream come true.
Phil's passion for promoting all facets of Jewish life and culture, as well as his love of Israel, developed into an activism that sprang from his loyal radio audience. In 1973, incensed at an oil company's anti-Israel stance, Phil urged his listeners to cut up the company's credit cards. His listeners responded by the thousands, filling trash bag after trash bag, which Phil then deposited at the company's headquarters. The dramatic stunt made the CBS evening news with Walter Cronkite. He never looked back.
An inveterate risk taker, he helped smuggle a Torah into Leningrad under the noses of the KGB and organized the Skokie Skytrain to bring counter-protesters to confront neo-Nazis threatening the safety of Holocaust survivors in suburban Chicago. His proudest accomplishment was persuading the U.S. government to fly a secret mission to save 1,000 stranded and starving Ethiopian Jews from refugees camps in Sudan. Not all of Phil's activism involved such derring-do. He also established The Peace Force, volunteers who patrolled Los Angeles neighborhoods to protect Jewish seniors from anti-Semitic attacks. Phil was also instrumental in several states mandating Holocaust education in schools.
With a flair for show business and an innate understanding of what made a good story, he interviewed the people he found most interesting. He organized celebrity visits to Israel, acting as something between a media fixer and informal tour guide to such luminaries as Ben Kingsley, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Strauss, Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden.
First Yahrtzeit Tribute
Watch the special tribute to Phil Blazer
Rabbi Mark Blazer is the President of the Jewish Life Foundation (JLF). The Foundation’s mission is to promote Jewish culture; the majority of its educational programming airs on Jewish Life Television (JLTV). JLTV is the only national international TV network dedicated to uplifting and Jewish values programming.
He has served as the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Ami in Santa Clarita, California since 2000. A community leader for more than 25 years, he was the first clergy member on the scene after the North Valley Jewish Community shooting in August of 1999. An attack that the perpetrator called "a wakeup call to America to kill Jews.”
Mark is the founder of the Albert Einstein Academy (AEA), the first K-12 Hebrew Charter School in the western United States. Within three years of opening AEA was in the top 1% of high schools in California. It now has schools in California, Ohio and coming soon to Arizona.
Rabbi Blazer also serves as chaplain for the LA County Sheriff’s Department and has served as chaplain for the California Department of Corrections. For eight years he ministered as the only prison rabbi serving statewide across California.
Rabbi Blazer studied at Oxford University and is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego. He received his semichah (rabbinical ordination) from the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York. Mark and his wife, Tracy are the proud parents of Rachel, Dina and Shira.
He continues the legacy of his father Phil, the founder of JLTV.
Mission
To educate, engage, and connect people through media and community initiatives that promote Jewish culture, heritage, values, and understanding.
Vision
A world in which Jewish life is accessible, vibrant, and meaningful for all.
Our Impact
For nearly two decades, the Jewish Life Foundation has helped bring Jewish voices, ideas, and experiences to millions of viewers and participants. By leveraging the power of media and community engagement, we are helping ensure that Jewish stories continue to educate, inspire, and connect people across generations.
Our Values
Education – Encouraging lifelong learning and intellectual curiosity.
Connection – Building meaningful relationships within and beyond the Jewish community.
Peoplehood – Strengthening a sense of shared responsibility and belonging.
Respect – Fostering dialogue, understanding, and appreciation for diverse perspectives.
Innovation – Embracing new technologies and creative approaches to engagement.
Resilience – Supporting vibrant Jewish life in an ever-changing world.
Our Partners
JLTV, educational institutions, community organizations, foundations, and cultural partners.
Looking Forward
As the ways people learn, communicate, and build community continue to evolve, the Jewish Life Foundation remains committed to finding new and innovative ways to connect people with Jewish life. Through media, education, and partnership, we seek to strengthen communities, inspire curiosity, and help ensure a vibrant Jewish future for generations to come.
About JLTV
Jewish Life Television (JLTV) is a 24-hour, full-time TV network delivering entertaining Jewish–themed programming. The network was founded in 2007 by Phil Blazer, a longtime journalist, activist and producer of programming for the Jewish community. In the United States, JLTV is available in over 70 million households through DirecTV, Comcast, Spectrum and various regional cable systems, in addition to offering a live feed of its programming for free on the Internet.
JLTV's programming includes news, sports, lifestyle and entertainment programming such as films, documentaries, music, reviews, interviews and special events, such as programming from the Maccabiah Games and AIPAC Policy Conference. The network also carries a collection of classic general-interest television series with Jewish hosts or lead actors, including episodes of The Jack Benny Program, That Show with Joan Rivers, Candid Camera with Allen Funt, You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, The Soupy Sales Show, and the mid-20th century dramedy The Goldbergs.
