World Wide - The Forward · 2017. 12. 11. · 20 Forward March 28, 2008 AdvertoriAl The WORLD WIDE JEWISH WEB advertorial did not involve the reporting or editorial staffs of the

20 Forward March 28, 2008

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The WORLD WIDE JEWISH WEB advertorial did not involve the reporting or editorial staffs of the Forward.

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By Maurice Sagalowitz

In the hours before the Sabbath arrives, there are five men in their 20s and 30s sitting in front of computers in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, scanning the Web sites of The Associated Press and Reuters for articles of Jewish interest. At the office of Vos Iz Neias, an English-language news blog run by members of assorted Orthodox Jewish communities in New York, the Internet is being used as a new communal discussion and debate forum, sidestepping the traditional Yiddish-, English- and Hebrew-language newspapers that have provided news for the ultra-Orthodox community here for decades.

World Wide Jewish Web:The Online UniverseJewish Communities Get Connected in Cyberspace

“The mainstream press here will only print that Spitzer resigned, not that he was involved with prostitution. We want to be the premier news source, and we provided accurate information about his resignation,” an editor at Vos Iz Neias said in a phone interview with the Forward. “We provide clean news. We do not engage in lashon harah [gossip]. We only print what is public information.” The editor declined to give his name, because use of the Internet is a sensitive topic in his community. With more than 1,000 unique visitors a

month, Vos Iz Neias is but one method of approaching the ways that the Internet has changed how the Jewish communities around the country talk among themselves, test communal boundaries and reinvigorate communal membership. “We will have a rabbi call us up and say, ‘I don’t know how to use the Internet, but I can fax you over a comment.’ They want to share with us, and we want to be the Drudge Report of the

Jewish community,” a senior editor at Vos Iz Neias remarked, referring to a popular news aggregation Web site best known for breaking the Monica Lewinsky scandal. However, with a profusion of Jewish

institutions creating ornate Web sites, and design firms being contracted to build Web sites for youth programs bent on retaining alumni throughout the Diaspora, questions arise about how effectively funds are being disbursed to encourage online entrepreneurs to build new Jewish infrastructure on the Net. For Yosef Israel Abramowitz, who pioneered some of the most visited Web sites in Jewish cyberspace, including MyJewishLearning.com, Jbooks.com, birthrightisrael.com and jewishfamily.com, the growth of the Jewish Internet evokes two fundamental questions: What sort of audience will Jewish Web sites reach, and how do we measure their effectiveness?“The highest traffic day on our Jewish

Internet sites was, interestingly, Yom Kippur.

I also think that the established Jewish community, whatever that is, rarely takes risks, rarely innovates but is comfortable tweaking. I didn’t want to tweak; I wanted to model for the community what could be done,” Abramowitz wrote in an e-mail from his home in Israel. “Two hundred and thirty million page views later, I think I can say that the experiment has been successful.” But for Dan Sieradski, director of digital

media at JTA and the creator of Jewschool.com, a lack of support for Internet-based Jewish projects from some philanthropies is based on an old-guard ignorance of the Internet and on unfair assessments of previous Jewish Web efforts. “Some funders just don’t get it,” Sieradski said, referring to a general lack of technological savvy. “Some funders won’t support any project on the Internet, because they’ve been unimpressed by the success of a Jewish site that was

Continued, page 21

Continued from page 20designed poorly. If your Web site doesn’t engender meaningful connections to Jewish life between individuals and Judaism, that’s a specific site’s issue. It’s not a matter of the entire Internet.”As a result, blogs and Jewish social-

networking sites being created in recent years have provided a forum for young people to engage in Jewish culture and identity outside of an institutional framework, highlighting a sense of protest that can be felt on such a Web site as Jewschool, which describes itself as “an ever-expanding network of Web sites, projects, and events which promote critical thought and provide engagement opportunities for disenfranchised Jews alienated — and bored to death — by the Jewish

mainstream.” In a similar vein, one can receive a new

type of Jewish education on the Web. “These days, if people have a question about Judaism, they’ll almost certainly go online before calling a rabbi or buying a book,” remarked Daniel Septimus, editor-in-chief of MyJewishLearning.com. “The question we as a community need to ask is, ‘What do we want them to find?’ I want people to find an open, pluralistic, intellectually rigorous Judaism with different entry points for engagement.”“People in previous generations use

the Internet in a professional, business sense — for example, for e-mail,” remarked Esther Kustanowitz, a 36-year-old editor and writer who created two blogs, JDatersAnonymous and My Urban Kvetch, and contributes

regularly to new Jewish publications. “Our generation is much more a DIY [do it yourself] generation…. As Jews, we have the idea of being the eternal stranger. If a person can walk into a foreign space and already have a sense a common experience from an online community, Jewish geography really works.” Kustanowitz’s efforts also highlight the

connection between a new, Internet-based Jewish community and the need to translate that community on the ground. By organizing public events around these communities, the director of Jewlicious, Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, collaborated with contributors David Abitbol and Kustanowitz, among others, to create the Jewlicious Festival, a weekend conference in Long Beach, Calif., that invites readers of Jewlicious.

com to celebrate Jewish life and culture and attend workshops and talks led by innovative Jewish leaders. The Jewlicious Festival brings together a diverse group of Jews whose common experience centers on the Web site, where topics range from Jewish environmental values to video clips of new Jewish musicians. Kustanowitz is also a senior editor

of PresenTense, a magazine that aims to invigorate Jewish culture in the Diaspora. The magazine encourages dialogue by pairing Jewish culture with new perspectives in technology, Zionism and entrepreneurship. The emergence of PresenTense is, according to Kustanowitz, a result of the Internet enabling diverse geographical communities and a wide range of interests to intertwine and contribute to

the magazine. “The new issue will focus on emerging communities. Currently, we have had PresenTense salons in New York, Toronto and Israel, in addition to other cities,” she said.Ultimately, the success and failures of

the Jewish Internet are still in motion. With foundations taking a renewed look at funding Web-based projects, the focus is on creating a superior product, much in the same way that any new Web site is designed. “I believe it’s better to create specific, Internet-based Jewish projects that create a small but committed group of people rather than large projects that measure their success by the number of hits they receive a month,” Sieradski said. “To create a new Jewish sect, so to speak, using the Internet. I believe there’s a value in that.”

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MODERNTRIBE.COMHELPS JEWS TAKE THEIRJUDAISM OUT OF THE CLOSET

ModernTribe.com offers hip and modern Judaic Jewelry, such as Polli Australia’s Tree of Life and Dove designs.

In Jennie Rivlin Roberts’s closet sits an ugly brass menorah and a tarnished set

of silver Shabbat candlesticks she keeps meaning to polish. “These ritual items were handed down by my parents, and though they are sentimental, they don’t fit my personal style,” she explains. Her

home has modern lines with loft-like ceil-ings, a design aesthetic growing ever more popular among younger urban dwellers.

Inspired by personal discontent with the lack of engaging choices at her local Ju-

daica, Rivlin Roberts created ModernTribe.com to offer alternatives to traditional Ju-daica with fresh, modern designs. The site features housewares, jewelry, and accesso-ries from young Israeli designers. Modern-Tribe.com also features a state of the art gift registry.

ModernTribe.com offers design-con-scious Jews gifts that celebrate age-

old traditions with modern style. From me-zuzahs to menorahs, Rivlin Roberts found products made in Israel, Europe, and America with a modern design aesthetic.

© S

UPE

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CK,

INC.

NEW WEB CONTENT

JBooks.com is a project of JFL Media (Jewish Family & Life) in Newton, MA.

C ultural Jews have their own long history of secular Passovercelebrations. Secular Culture & Ideas, an online magazine,

explores those traditions in our April issue, which includes writing onthe historical origins of the holiday, why universal freedom is integralto Judaism, and Passover innovations to include in your own Seder.

Also in this issue:■ Secular Jews share how they celebrate Passover■ An irreverent adaptation of Who Knows One?■ Moses as a modern agitator■ Food writing by Clara Silverstein

Visit www.JBooks.com/secularcultureSecular Culture & Ideas is sponsored by the Posen Foundation

Secular Culture & Ideas takes a sharp look at secular Jewish life, culture, and literature.

No Need to Feel Passed Over

No Need to Feel Passed Over

Frwrd_Posen_April.qxd:Layout 1 3/19/08 4:22 PM Page 1

A NewHome

forSecularJewish

Discussion

Apioneering online magazine of secular Jewish life, culture,

and literature, Secular Culture & Ideas is a lively resource for secu-lar Jews. It’s a place to find edgy, informed perspectives on Judaism in the modern secular era.

Since its debut last year, Secu-lar Culture & Ideas has featured articles and essays, book reviews and excerpts, think pieces and in-terviews. From Sephardic Jewry to secular Yiddish culture, Secu-lar Culture & Ideas takes a sharp, cosmopolitan look at secular Jew-ish life, examining the long tra-dition of secular Jewish thought from Baruch Spinoza to Sigmund Freud to Ernestine Rose.

In our upcoming Passover issue, look for essays on the historical origins of the holiday, Passover innovations for modern secular Jews, and why universal freedom is integral to Judaism. In one stand-out piece, Israeli scholar Rachel Elior writes “I have come to praise God, the handiwork of man,” and champions the idea of liberation embodied in the Exodus legend. In another piece, Professor Elliot Ratzman considers Moses within the context of 20th century po-litical activism. Food writer Clara Silverstein unveils lesser-known Passover food customs, and Rabbi Adam Chalom narrates the his-tory of the holiday and its secular evolution.

The Passover issue debuts on April 6th. In the meantime,

explore our site, which includes a video interview with Israeli novel-ist Amos Oz, interviews with A. B. Yehoshua and journalist Natalie Angier, and articles on the renais-sance of Yiddish culture, making Judaism modern, and playwright Jacob Gordin—“The Jewish Shakespeare.” Also read spo-ken word artist Vanessa Hidary’s poem from our issue on Sephardic and Mizrahi Secularisms.

Secular Culture & Ideasmay be found online at

www.Jbooks.com/secularculture.

The Center for CulturalJudaism’s home website iswww.culturaljudaism.org.

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