When her daughter was 3 years old, Abigail Tananbaum, who lives in Southern California, discovered a new way to pass down Jewish tradition. “My dad recorded himself reciting the Ma Nishtanah for Passover, and she memorized it based on that,” she said.

Tananbaum is chief marketing officer of VoiceGift, where she works alongside her father, Geoffrey Stern, on a line of audio-chip devices that allow consumers to capture and replay messages and stories in birthday cards, gift tags and even built into ring boxes for proposals.

Have a favorite matzah ball soup recipe you want to “gift” to family members? VoiceGift allows you to program a recipe box or book with grandma, for instance, narrating the steps of a recipe. Another product is the PLAY remote control that lets a user push different buttons to hear narrated personal stories—or a blessing read by a grandparent, such as the one programmed by the Connecticut-based Stern for his granddaughter.

Stern has spent decades as a business-to-business producer of audio components for a range of outlets, including Build-A-Bear Workshop, where he is the exclusive supplier of the sound chips that children press into their stuffed animals to hear music, messages or effects.

But it wasn’t until the Covid pandemic—when he heard from assisted-living facilities desperate to connect their residents, many unable to use internet-enabled technology, with loved ones—that he recognized the need for lower-tech, voice-chip-enabled merchandise.

“They wanted to hear the voices of their grandkids, and vice versa,” said Stern, who also serves as president of PEF Israel Endowment Funds, a 103-year-old organization that collects and distributes monies to Israeli charities.

“We speak of a tradition built on oral memory,” Stern said. “Hearing your mother’s voice saying the Shema—that’s not just a ritual, it’s an inheritance.” 

Amy Klein is the author of The Trying Game: How to Get Pregnant and Get Through Fertility Without Losing Your Mind.