Concurrent with the rise of the
baal teshuva movement in Israel in the 1970s, a small number of Orthodox outreach workers began frequenting the
Western Wall and inviting English-speaking, college-age students and travelers to experience a
Shabbat meal with a host family or to join a free tour of Jewish sites in the
Old City. These outreach workers included Rabbi Meir Schuster, Baruch Levine, and, beginning in 1982, Jeff Seidel. In the beginning, Seidel placed around 15 young people for Shabbat meals each week; as he expanded his list of local families willing to host drop-in guests for Shabbat meals, these numbers grew to about 150 per week in the early 2000s and have since averaged 100 per week. The Center offered free walking tours in the Jewish Quarter, archaeological tours, and religious and holiday classes. Seidel also compiled ''The Jewish Traveler's Resource Guide'', which lists similar Shabbat placement programs around the world. He also runs an online Worldwide Passover Hospitality project which pairs up students and young tourists with host families around the world for the
Passover Seder, As of 2017, Seidel publishes a weekly op-ed on the Israeli-based news website
The Times of Israel. His topics include Jewish continuity, Jewish outreach, current events, and anti-Semitism on college campuses. ==Personal life==