Jewlicious was founded in 2004 by David Abitbol, a web designer who moved to Jerusalem from Park Slope, Brooklyn,[1] and Laya Millman, an American who had immigrated to Israel.

[2][3][4] Abitbol had previously done web design and publicity for clients including American Apparel, the Shalem Center, and StandWithUs, and during the site's early existence, he moved from Old Montreal, Canada to a Jerusalem apartment near Mahane Yehuda Market.

Jewlicious ran an internet radio station, which played artists like Israeli rapper Subliminal, and an online store at shmatas.com, which sold shirts with slogans like "I love Hashem" and "Challah hu Akbar".

[2][3] Abitbol and Millman organized the biannual Florida-based conference series "Jewlicious on the Beach", one of which featured a performance by Matisyahu and a lecture by Eytan Schwartz.

[7][8] The inaugural festival was a shabbaton held at Alpert Jewish Community Center in Long Beach, California, a partnership with the local Hillel House, and featured Eytan Schwartz, rock band the Makkkabees, and rap group Hip Hop Hoodíos.

[10][11][12] The year before, Megan Phelps-Roper, granddaughter of church founder Fred Phelps, had found Abitbol's name in a Jewish Telegraphic Agency article and messaged him on Twitter telling him to "repent".

[15] Abitbol responded in the comments sections of both posts, listing several female and non-Orthodox artists that had performed at the festival in the past and denying that kol isha was a factor in the selection process.

[16][17] As part of a 2012 fundraiser, Jewlicious.com offered several prizes to donors, among them a personal dinner date with Jewlicious bloggers Jessica Snapper and Michelle Esther Appelbaum, who would be flown out to meet the winner.

She further argued that "what is really gross and offensive is the implication that Jessica and I are likened prostitutes hired by a character in Mad Men to help seal a deal...This is despite the fact that the photos used were not at all provocative and both of us are college educated women possessed of, or seeking advanced degrees.