Jewish Social Networking Update 1 March 2010

8/14/2019 Jewish Social Networking Update 1 March 2010

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h a r t m a n o r g i l

A N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O

S O C I A L M E D I A

W I T H A J E W I S H A N G L E

S O U R C E / B A C K G R O U N D M A T E R I A L

U P D A T E 1 - M A R C H 2 0 1 0

A L A N D . A B B E Y

I N T E R N E T D I R E C T O RS H A L O M H A R T M A N I N S T I T U T E


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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

A R T I C L E S

J E W S A N D S O C I A L M E D I A

1. cu @ temple: Social media transforming the way synagogues, members connect2. Finding a voice in Facebook: Israeli NGOs are realizing the potential power of socialmedia such as Facebook and Twitter.

3. The (Sheikh Jarrah) revolution won't be televised... it'll be YouTubed4. Keeping the memory of Auschwitz alive in a digital world5. Turn the Future Into the Past6. The Social Sermon: An Innovative Approach to Community Building, Engagement and

Torah Study7. Rabbi Eric Yoffie: Toronto Biennial Sermon, excerpt regarding the Internet8. Meet the fastest tweet in the Jewish organizational world: William Daroff NEW!9. Young Adults Doing Religion on Their Own? Blame It on Politics10. A Synagogue's Unorthodox Revival: Rabbi's Aggressive Outreach Reverses a Traditional

Congregation's Decline

11. Inside The Jewish Internet Defense Force NEW!12. Haredim declare war on the Internet NEW!13. Additional articles (links only)

S O C I A L M E D I A

1. And the most engaging social network is2. Determining Your Social Network Needs: When it comes to social networking, is more

always better?3. 10 Reasons Why Every Nonprofit Must Have a Blog4. To Blog or Not to Blog5. The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now

6. Facebook may 'lock in' its Internet dominance7. How to Bring Facebook Fans to Your Nonprofit Blog NEW!8. Using Social Media in Your Nonprofit: Overcoming Objections NEW!9. Is the Right Person Doing Your Nonprofit's Social Media? NEW!10. The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word11. God joins Twitter, rewrites Bible12. 'Twitter Bible' Converts Scripture into Mini Messages

D A T A

1. The Internet in 2009 2. New Statistics on Internet, Social Media Use NEW!

L I N K S / R E S O U R C E S


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A R T I C L E S

cu @ temple: Social media transforming the way synagogues, members connect 1

Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati puts its prayers and blessings on YouTube so memberscan learn the melodies before a High Holy Day or Shabbat service.

By using Google documents, Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley has made it simple for members to sign up online at their convenience to read Torah, teach a Shabbat class or hostother members at their home for Shabbat.

Congregation Adath Israel in San Francisco updates its members about the status of its eruv an enclosure that enables Jews to carry items on Shabbat in a most contemporary way:via Twitter.

Within the past year, Bay Area synagogues, religious schools and other Jewish groups havebeen signing on to Facebook, blogs, Twitter and other social media, eager to learn how newtechnology can strengthen their organizations and improve their outreach.

Faith-based organizations have been the last to the social media party, said experts at theNonprofit Technology Network, a membership organization of nonprofit tech professionals.But lately, faith-based organizations have been jumping in with enthusiasm even the popehas a Facebook page that boasts nearly 80,000 fans.

Technology allows us to connect more deeply to each other, said Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Berkeleys Congregation Netivot Shalom, which uses Facebook, Twitter, Google Calendar and Ning to better connect its members.

Ning is a Palo Altobased Web site that allows people to join and create their own socialnetworks a personal Facebook of sorts.

Sixty-five Netivot Shalom members have signed up for the synagogues Ning site, where they

can view other members profiles, watch videos posted by the rabbi and read blog postsabout world and community news.

The synagogue also uses Google Calendar to embed a monthly calendar into the site. It listsminyan times, bnai mitzvah, fundraisers, funerals, classes, special events and even dates therabbi is out of town.

So many people lose themselves in the virtual world but we forget that the reason it existsin the first place is to get us to connect in the real world, Creditor said. Technology can be avery appealing invitation for a real experience.

Thats been the case for Margee Churchon, a program associate at the S.F.-based JewishCommunity Relations Council. She first participated in a young adult service at CongregationEmanu-El in San Francisco after hearing about it through a tweet on Twitter. She followsseveral Jewish Bay Area organizations on the site to find out about community events andShabbat candlelighting times.

Churchon has often gone to events as a result of what Ive seen on Twitter, she said.

For Gabby Volodarsky, program director at Temple Sinai in Oakland, Internet technology hashelped her rally support quickly for someone in need.

For instance, someone posted a note on the temples year-old Facebook page saying thatshe was praying for the speedy recovery of two new members. Volodarsky wrote backimmediately and found out that the couple, who didnt know many people in the congregationyet, had been in a car accident.


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Within an hour they got calls from all our clergy and me, Volodarsky said. I asked what our Caring Community could bring them. Because I saw that posting, I was able to reach out andmake them feel cared about. Now theyre among our most active members.

Sometimes these new media changes happen behind the scenes. Berkeleys CongregationBeth Israel created a wiki page on PBWorks.com, a San Mateobased online workspace for

businesses and nonprofits. The site allows any member of any of the synagoguescommittees to post notes from meetings and phone conversations.

Its a systemic change from the countless phone calls, e-mails and meetings it once requiredto plan a synagogue program, said Beth Israels Rabbi Yonatan Cohen.

We drastically expanded our Shabbat programming in 2007, but after a year, we were allburnt out, Cohen said. The question was: We have something great, now how do we make itsustainable?

The answer: the Web. The online organizational tools provided by PBWorks arecomplemented by the synagogues use of Google Docs and Google Calendar, which help theentire community get involved and network with one another.

The Internet is enabling the congregation to function, Cohen said.

That sentiment is echoed by Irwin Keller, spiritual leader at Ner Shalom in Cotati. TheYouTube videos he began making last year for the High Holy Days have since expanded toinclude daily blessings, Shabbat prayers and niguns [melodies] composed by congregants.

We created it for our local use, but because of the boundarylessness of the Internet, peoplehave watched our videos all over world and posted comments in all languages, Keller said.Thats not our mission, but it is lovely to have it out in the world where people can use it.

Yet the changes can be intimidating to leaders who are used to the old organizational models.Cohen, for instance, was scared by the idea of implementing Internet tools that he didnt know

how to use. But he quickly became comfortable with them, and once he saw how much theyhelped his congregation, he was fully on board.

Social media changes the way people look at their faith-based institutions, said Lisa Colton,founder and president of Darim Online, a Virginia-based nonprofit that helps Jewishorganizations get over their trepidation and understand new medias potential. Organizationsdont have a monopoly on organizing anymore. People can talk to each other directly.

When synagogues and religious schools first turn to new media, Colton said, they tend to usethem to perform typical tasks more efficiently. They send event invitations by e-mail instead of snail mail, saving time and the expense of postage stamps, or create a Web site that clergyand staff use as an online bulletin board. But its still one-way, top-down communication,Colton noted.

By delving deeper, she said, Jewish clergy, educators and others discover that these mediatools demand a different way of talking and listening, encouraging active participation andgrassroots involvement.

In February, Temple Beth Torah in Fremont will launch its first snapcast, a new platformdeveloped by G-Snap, a Web company led by a synagogue member.

The snapcast will allow the synagogue to broadcast a live video feed of its annual PurimSpiel, one of the synagogues most beloved events, while viewers in their family rooms andoffices or even on a BART train, watching on their cell phones can chat with oneanother, as well as the audience.

Well be creating a virtual community between those who are there and those who are notthere, said Richard Garcia, a synagogue member and technology consultant. The snapcast


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will allow those who cant make it a chance to participate. But at the end of the day, like anyother event, its best when youre there live.

Social media enables congregants to talk to each other as well as to clergy or staff. RabbiYossi Marcus of North Peninsula Chabad posts philosophical notes about Jewish values,ritual and holidays on his Facebook wall, and has had people emboldened by a Facebook

connection approach him on Shabbat.

I feel like Im coming up with new ideas all the time with how to use it, Marcus said. Of course, Facebook itself is evolving and coming up with new things all the time.

While the Internet hasnt changed how Marcus plans events or programs, it has changed theway he markets events, and also how he teaches.

It used to be that I could only sermonize to people once a year on Yom Kippur, but now I cando it daily or even hourly, he said.

But Marcus isnt the first Chabad rabbi to embrace new media. He recalls a story about theLubavitcher rebbe from the 1940s: Chabad had just come to North America, and one of the

first things the organization did was publish a monthly magazine for children.

The rebbe was the editor in chief. He instructed all of the writers and illustrators that hewanted the magazine to look as appealing as a Dick Tracy comic strip.

Here, you have a Chassidic rabbi steeped in mysticism and piety, but when it came toteaching Judaism, he knew that it had to be as engaging and as enticing as Dick Tracy,Marcus said. Even then the rebbe was a proponent of using the newest media. He saw thatthey could be used for a holy purpose. And thats absolutely still true today./u/40966


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Finding a voice in Facebook: Israeli NGOs are realizing the potential power of socialmedia such as Facebook and Twitter. 2

By RUTH EGLASHJerusalem Post19/01/2010

'We will demonstrate against the government decision to deport the children of migrantworkers after all. The demonstration will take place today, Tuesday, at 7:30 p.m. at the corner of Ben-Zion and King George St. We must show the ministers that their voters are againstdeportation of children!" - October 13, 2009 at 7:33 a.m.

Pay close attention to this announcement. Made by the nonprofit organization, Hot Line for Migrant Workers (HLMW), to protest the government's threatened deportation of foreignworkers' children, this rallying call brought together hundreds of migrants and human rightssupporters in exactly 12 hours.

The call was not made on the radio, nor was it published in the newspapers and it certainlydid not form the basis of hundreds of e-mails or phone calls to supporters, rather it is three

simple sentences placed by HLMW on the wildly popular social media Web site Facebook. Itwas a cry for help that reached thousands of people within minutes and it highlights theresonance that new Internet media have for hundreds of local NGOs.

Of course, this particular demonstration was just one of many that happened over the past sixmonths to protest Interior Minister Eli Yishai's plans to deport some 1,200 children of migrantworkers, but as the gatherings grew in size toward the end of last year, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was finally forced to weigh in on the debate. He agreed to allow thechildren to stay at least until the end of August to finish up the school year.

"We joined Facebook this past summer when the government launched its campaign to expelthe children of migrant workers," says Shevy Korzen, executive director of HLMW, anonpartisan, not for profit organization dedicated to promoting the rights of undocumented

migrant workers and refugees, as well as eliminating human trafficking.

"Events were moving at such a fast pace and even though we have a Web site it could not beupdated quickly enough," she says. "We wanted to organize demonstrations and gather upour supporters in only a few hours to speak out against the government's policies. Many of our supporters were already on Facebook, so it made sense to create a page, because thenwe did not have to waste time sending out a mass e-mails and worrying that people might notget the message in time."

She says that the NGO also tried utilizing micro-blogging tool Twitter to keep its supportersupdated but "that did not really catch on."

Instead, the organization focused on building up its following on Facebook and, in less thansix months, HLMW has accumulated some 1,127 "friends," keeping them updated almosthourly with links to news items from around the world, sparking discussions on thecontroversial topics important to the NGO and rallying its followers to take up the causes atongoing demonstrations.

"We are definitely seeing a much bigger turnout than in the past," notes Korzen, who saysHLMW staff takes it in turn to update the page throughout the day. "I have also begun tonotice that it is not just the same people showing up at our demonstrations like in the past.Because of Facebook our messages are also reaching those who had not previously beeninvolved in our battles.

"This past summer we did not spend a shekel on advertising for our protests. Newspaper advertising has become so expensive and the truth is that this is just much more effective."


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HLMW is just one of a growing number of nonprofit organizations that are taking advantage of the new wave of on-line media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other far-reachingsocial networks can reach hundreds, if not thousands, of people with one click, and nonprofitsbig and small are realizing they can send their messages out much more quickly and cheaplythen via traditional media outlets.

But while the benefits of touching thousands at a time are clear, experts warn that there is adownside too. With the centrality of the Internet in our daily lives, they say, the new socialmedia could give voice to organizations that are dangerous or have questionable ethics.

In addition, say those in the know, if organizations do not mobilize such sites correctly, thetransparency and the need for constant monitoring could cause serious damage to their reputations.

"THERE HAS been a huge trend in nonprofits using social media," comments Ruth Avidar,who is in the process of completing her doctorate in the field at the University of Haifa'sCenter for the Study of the Information Society.

"Since I started my dissertation four years ago, there has been a huge change, with

organizations starting to realize how powerful social media can be," she says, adding thatthese on-line tools allow nonprofits to better interact with their public.

Avidar's research, which quizzed hundreds of businesses and nonprofit organizations, foundthat while Internet use in the country's third sector is still fairly underdeveloped, NGOs thatare plugged in have been highly successful at reaching their target audiences and interactingwith supporters and potential supporters.

This on-line medium, she says, "gives a platform to all organizations, even those withoutmoney, so that they can reach out to people or funders who they might not have been able toget to in the past."

While that is certainly a bonus of on-line social media, Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center's Prof.

Tal Samuel Azran, an expert in new media, warns that giving a voice to smaller groups that inthe past might have been considered inconsequential or fringe is exactly one of the dangers.

"The Internet is much less predictable than the mainstream media," points out Azran, whoalso teaches at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "Organizations or movements that foundit difficult in the past to get their message into the mainstream have no problem reachingthousands of people on-line."

Azran highlights the recent controversy over B'Tselem's Video Camera Distribution Project,which handed out cameras to Palestinians to record perceived illegal acts perpetrated by IDFsoldiers. As the short clips were pasted on YouTube and other social media Web sites, theimages stirred the Western media's imagination and suddenly B'Tselem's message wasprojected much further than the confines of a small supportive community here. The group'smessage had reached a new audience.

"This not even post-modernism," says Azran. "This is an example of ultra-post-modernism; itis a totally new concept that is far outside the mainstream media that we are used to.

"Some organizations today only have a voice or presence on the Internet. While in the pastthe mainstream media might have labeled them as peripheral, today these organizations canreach everyone. Even a deviant has the chance to speak out on through the Internet."

"Social media allow all groups the chance to start up a real dialogue with people and sharewith them their goals," contends Avidar, highlighting that it is all part of free speech and atrend that should be embraced.

"It is up to the public to decide which groups speak to them and which do not. People are notstupid and now they can see these groups for themselves."


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IN ADDITION to the debate over free speech that comes with new Internet media, Royi Biller,CEO of the newly established Nonprofit Tech, a public benefit corporation that aims to assistNGOs in finding their place among the new technological order, says that Facebook, Twitter and other social media are not beneficial for all organizations; for some it can actually bedamaging.

"Take this example," points out Biller. "If a friend of mine joins Facebook but is not active andnever actually responds to me in that forum, it could hurt our relationship. The same is true for an organization. If an NGO joins [a social media site], then it needs to be prepared to createan ongoing dialogue with supporters. The Internet is dynamic and fast-moving; if anorganization cannot keep up with that, then a potential supporter or funder could feel very letdown."

Biller breaks the NGO world into two distinct groups - social rights organizations that havebeen very successful in harnessing social media and working them for the purpose of supportand spreading ideology, and charities that work in a more service-oriented capacity, such assoup kitchens or food aid distributors, who have a small staff and cannot commit to updatingtheir Facebook page or other such social media in a timely fashion.

"If I join the Facebook group of a certain organization and see that its last activity was sixmonths ago, I would be suspicious about what this organization was up to," he says. "It doesnot look good at all.

"I have had calls from some NGOs who are bitterly disappointed with Facebook. They weretold it would produce great results and they open a Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn accountexpecting to find funding, but they do not see any quick results. Soon they realize updating itis a full-time job and they just do not have the resources for that."

According to Biller, one of the solutions to this is via GuideStar Israel ( www.guidestar.org.il ),an on-line portal not yet active that will eventually list the activities of all nonprofitorganizations here and provide organizations a free forum to periodically update their

activities and post messages. A joint initiative by the Justice Ministry, Yad Hanadiv (theRothschild Foundation) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee-Israel,GuideStar is the central project of Nonprofit Tech and is based on similar sites in the US andUK.

In the meantime, local social rights organizations are waking up to the power of on-line mediaas a way of getting their agendas across.

"We often had a problem getting our messages in the mainstream media," comments DanaZimmerman, acting director of communications and publications for Amnesty International-Israel Section, explaining that Amnesty often focuses on global human rights issues notnecessarily affecting Israel or the region. "Now, with social media, there is suddenly a bigchange and it is much simpler and easier for us to reach a wide audience."

One example of this is last week's Flash Mob protest that the NGO organized to highlight theplight of Eritrean asylum seekers. Based on similar demonstrations worldwide, the organizersinvited protesters to lie on the ground in Tel Aviv's Kikar Dizengoff and remain frozen for several minutes, drawing the attention of passersby to their cause.

The event was posted on Amnesty's Facebook page for three weeks beforehand and theapplication also allowed organizers the freedom to embed a video clip of a similar protest atGrand Central Station in New York, which enhanced the explanation of exactly what wasbeing planned. Some 200 people showed up for the protest, which was covered by Webportal Walla! and is now featured on Amnesty's Facebook page.

"It is still difficult for us to assess if [social media] have had an impact on our work," admitsZimmerman. "However, they are a very useful tool allowing us to post relevant news itemsand information from other organizations who are working in the same field."


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Yael Edelist, spokeswoman for the Israel Women's Network, says the same is true for her organization. "When we started on Facebook a year ago, the goal was to reach out toyounger women who had not usually been our supporters. Now we use Facebook and Twitter to post news stories from the mainstream media, provide updates about changes inlegislation for women and to highlight our own events or those being organized by other

groups important to us.

"It was becoming very expensive to advertise in newspapers," she added, saying that theorganization does not feel it has lost out by choosing to advertise its events only on-line. "Webelieve in the power of this new media and plan to use them not only to reach the 400Facebook followers we already have but hopefully to reach many more thousands of people."

While Edelist's goals are admirable, University of Haifa professor Sheizaf Rafaeli, director of Center for the Study of the Information Society and head of the Graduate School of Management, believes that organizations must not become complacent or rely too heavily onthe social media. They need to keep thinking one step ahead, he urges.

"This year it's Facebook, last year it was Twitter, before that it was YouTube and MySpace.

Organizations need to make sure they are using the most appropriate tool to reach the mostpeople," he says. "NGOs need to keep ahead of the game if they really want to takeadvantage of this new reality."


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The (Sheikh Jarrah) revolution won't be televised... it'll be YouTubed 3

By Abe SeligJERUSALEM POSTJan. 25, 2010

Social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, along with a slew of blogs, areplaying an increasing role in the growing participation of young Israelis in protest rallies in theeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, activists and journalists familiar with thesituation there told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Activists and journalists both described a situation in which protesters were relying on theInternet to try and affect change on the ground and raise awareness of the arrests madeduring demonstrations in the neighborhood.

"It's all Facebook, e-mails and Twitter," said Didi Remez, a human rights activist, who hasbecome noticeably involved in the Sheikh Jarrah protests as of late. Remez was arrestedduring a protest there last Friday.

Remez also said that distant audiences, like American Jews, who might be deprived of Sheikh Jarrah coverage due to the mainstream media's lack of interest, were instead stayingabreast of the situation via social networking sites.

"The American media is for some reason refusing to cover this," he said. "Even though it'sbecoming a major issue in Israel. And still, despite that, there's a lot of awareness [of thisissue] among Jewish Americans, the reason being that they are increasingly connectedthrough Facebook, Twitter, blogs and so on."

"They're getting information on this without The New York Times ," Remez continued. "So,something that hasn't been covered at all by the [American] mainstream media, is still gettingcoverage through new media, and I think that's a statement about the decline of themainstream media and maybe a larger comment on the shift away from it."

Others echoed Remez's comments, but added that another advantage of social media was itsability to counter police statements about Sheikh Jarrah they said the mainstream media oftenparroted.

"This is an issue that the media hasn't really been covering, and when they have, they'vemostly relied on police statements that portrayed the protesters as a handful of extremeleftists or anarchists, which is simply not true," said Lisa Goldman, a Tel-Aviv based freelance

journalist who has used Facebook, Twitter and blogs to follow the Sheikh Jarrah protests.

"What the social media outlets have been able to provide is a direct source of information thatisn't filtered through the mainstream media," she said, adding that in this vein, the use of newmedia had been "absolutely crucial."

Additionally, Goldman added, social media outlets had also served as a tool to awaken themainstream Left to the goings-on in Sheikh Jarrah, including, but not limited to, the emergingissue of police behavior towards protesters there, which the Jerusalem Magistrate Court haseven censured - ruling last week that the arrests of 17 protesters during a rally two weeks agowas illegal.

"The silent Israeli Left is finally waking up," she said. "And it's a result of the way some youngpeople are using social media. It's been very effective in raising awareness among themoderate Left, who are seeing that the police are suppressing free speech."

Goldman also pointed to the participation in last Friday's rally of Prof. Moshe Halbertal, whohelped draft the IDF code of ethics and who has been active in disputing the United Nation'sGoldstone Report, as an example of figures who would certainly not be considered extreme,but who have joined the Sheikh Jarrah fray.


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Hagai El-Ad, the director of the Association for Human Rights in Israel and one of the 17protesters arrested two weeks ago, added that the use of new media to circumvent themainstream media, which, he said, was often "reluctant to cover hard issues, or blatantlyhostile," was spreading rapidly.

"However, it's not just new media [at play in Sheikh Jarrah]," he said. "I think there's a need to[step back] from the tactics being used there, and zoom in on the core issue, which is themoral outrage of Jerusalemite families being thrown out of their homes and living in tents inthe street. That's the essential injustice here, and I think it's a fuel of its own."

Yet El-Ad did concede that the use of new media was a driving force behind the success of the Sheikh Jarrah protest organizers.

"They are a courageous group of young people, who are functioning without any real budgetor resources," he said. "But they are cleverly online, and they've been able to translate thatinto real movement on the ground - it's not just a Facebook group that people add their names too."

"Yes, the mobilization happens online," El-Ad added, "but the end result is the most classicform of civil protest."


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Keeping the memory of Auschwitz alive in a digital world 4

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are playing a part in reaching out to young people onHolocaust Memorial Day but do they really have an impact?

By Mercedes Bunz

GuardianJanuary 27, 2010

On the Holocaust Memorial Day web page, you can light a virtual candle"On 27 January 1945, on Saturday, at around 9am the first Russian soldier from areconnaissance unit of the 100th Infantry Division appeared on the grounds of the prisoners'infirmary in Monowitz. The entire division arrived half an hour later," reads the status updateon Facebook of the Auschwitz memorial page . More than 50 people so far have clicked to saythey "like" this.

Holocaust Memorial Day marks the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau,and to keep the memory alive, more and more organisations are turning to social media.

In the UK, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is taking a new approach. While a memorialceremony will take place in London's Guildhall alongside hundreds of community eventsacross the UK, the trust has also adapted the act of rememberance for the digital world.

This year, the trust completely changed its website to make it easier for readers to bookmarkand share content via social media websites. It now runs a Twitter feed , a Facebook fan page and a YouTube page which features a video narrated by Daniel Radcliffe .

The use of digital engagement to keep such memories alive is becoming more and morecommon, but it is also controversial: it is claimed that it might just be a simple way for users toease their conscience. As digital critic Evgeny Morozov puts it, there is a danger that this formof activism makes you feel you are engaged when, for example, you join a "Feed Africa"group on Facebook, while you actually don't make a difference at all.

On the other hand, digital involvement is becoming increasingly important as the medialandscape changes. So this form of activism could be a way to raise interest and pull in users,especially young people.

"The act signifies a commitment to helping build a safer, inclusive society where thedifferences between us are respected," says the trust. Within a week, more than 20,000people have lit a candle on the website and thus gained more information about history andongoing events.


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"The majority of visitors to the Auschwitz memorial are students and other young people,"said Auschwitz museum official Pawel Sawicki when the Facebook page was launched . "Our mission is not only to teach them about the history, but to be responsible in the world of today.We should find every possible way to reach out, so why shouldn't we use the same tool inthat young people use to communicate?"


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Turn the Future Into the Past 5

JT Waldman JT | 12/21/2009

The Tagged Tanakh (TT) turns the future into the past by making Torah study front andcenter in the Jewish educational experience. The Tagged Tanakh takes the Old Testament

and places it in a contemporary format and context to suit the needs of current generations.

Using the TT, educators can build new curricula, conduct faster research, prepare Dvrei Torah , and help foster communities of practice around Jewish text.

For everyone else, the TT offers an easy and engaging way to learn Torah Lshma , learning just for the sake of it.

Previously on this blog , we noted that the Talmud dominated the intellectual discourse of Jewish thought for more than a millennium. However, both halakhah (Jewish Law) andhaggadah (Midrash) use biblical prooftexts to validate and ground their arguments. Thefoundations of Jewish scholarship, ethics, and imagination are found in the Tanakh.

Scholar Geoffrey Hartman says that, There is much to learn from a religious culture in whichthe creative energies went almost totally into commentary and the same basic method of reading was used for law ( Halakah ) and lore ( Hagadah ). Hartman goes on to say that, thereis an associative way of going from topic to topic that characterizes Jewish writing. With theTagged Tanakh, Hartmans theories can at last be put into practice by the entire Jewishcommunity , not just erudite scholars or learned rabbis.

The Tagged Tanakh was imagined as a vehicle to reconnect Jews and other interestedpeople to the multi-faceted richness of the Jewish Bible. It was conceived as a response tothe changing demographics and needs of the Jewish community. But its goals are quitesimpleget people back to the origin of Judaism, the place where it beganthe Torah.

Anyone familiar with my writing on the JPS Interactive blog knows that design thinking has

been at the forefront of my process from the beginning of this project. Roger Martin, the Deanof the Rotman School of Management has recently coined the phrase, Turn the future intothe past, for his new book, The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage . In a recent lecture given by Martin in NYC,(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKrC1nhwC5U&feature=player_embedded ) he explainsthe relationship between business and design and how the idea of turning the future into thepast is the core of this concept.

Jump to the 35 minute mark to get to the meatiest parts of the lecture. However, I encourageserious consideration of the points he raises at the 24 minute mark as well.


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The Social Sermon: An Innovative Approach to Community Building, Engagement andTorah Study 6

Social media, like other major communication revolutions before it (think: printing press) haveradically changed the way we learn, connect and organize. The impact on culture andbehavior is significant we have new ways to connect with our communities, find meaning,

express ourselves and engage. The new ease of organizing is fundamentally changing therole that organizations play for their constituents. This is great news for the Jewishcommunity, if we are able to take advantage of it.

We invite you to try a new approach to Torah study, community building, and perhaps evensermon writing in your congregation, The Social Sermon, an idea comes from acknowledgingthree things:

1. That many people cant get to the synagogue for a lunch or evening Torah studyclass, but that doesnt mean that they arent interested;

2. That people want the social experience of learning, not just passive reading or listening to a lecture, and that connection through learning enriches a local community; and

3. Social technologies can be a wonderful tool to enrich and augment Torah

learning in local communities.

Imagine a Saturday morning sermon thats the work of not only your rabbi, but you as well.Lets take it a step further: what if it werent just you and your rabbi, but also your fellowcongregants, young and old, those new to the community and the stalwarts of your city? Bythe time your rabbi delivers his Shabbat remarks, he or she could be drawing inspiration from,or even representing the discussion of, hundreds of his congregants!

What does The Social Sermon look like? At the beginning of the week a Rabbi posts aquestion on his or her blog, or on Twitter with a particular hashtag (e.g. #CBSSS for Congregation Beth Shalom Social Sermon), or as a Facebook post on the congregationsPage. The first post would describe a theme of the parasha, or link to some text, and at theend, pose a question.

As comments and responses start to be posted, the Rabbi then facilitates an ongoingconversation through the week responding regularly with insight, text, links, answers toquestions, and more questions to guide the discussion.

By the end of the week, several things will have happened:

New people are engaged in Torah study. Likely a portion of the online participants area demographic that doesnt often come to mid-day or evening adult education classes. (On-site classes adult and youth can also participate);

Participants will have formed new relationships through the online discussion,perhaps following each other on Twitter, friending each other on Facebook, etc. which leadsto ambient awareness , thus strengthening your community;

The Rabbi will have a better understand of what aspects of the parasha resonate withthe community, and be able to design a Shabbat sermon that is the most relevant for thecongregation, and will have ideas, quotes, context to make the sermon even more rich; and

More people may show up for Shabbat services, feeling more educated, connectedand like they have some ownership over the sermon that week.

And for those that missed the service, they could read it the next day when the rabbi posts thesermon back on the blog or web site, with a link on Twitter and/or Facebook.Interested? Use the SocialSermon tag on this blog to find posts about the Social Sermon, andfor case studies and guest posts from Rabbis and educators who are doing it. Follow#socialsermon on Twitter for updates, links to these blog posts, and to connect with otherswho are doing it. Join us on Facebook to be connected others who are doing Social Sermonsand get important news.


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Feel free to adapt the concept a confirmation class could do this throughout the weekbetween class meetings, a youth group could do it with their adviser or a parent facilitator.Please report back and let us know how its going, and what youre doing. Please let us knowif we can help you at any stage leave a comment here, or any other space mentionedabove.

Want more hand holding? Darim offers hourly consulting, and we are working withinterested Social Sermoners to find funding from a donor or Federation small grants programto work with a group of Rabbis in your local community. Holler if youd like more information.Ready, Set. Social Sermon!


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Toronto Biennial Sermon 7

by Rabbi Eric H. YoffieNovember 7, 2009

Excerpt:

That being so, what about the Internet? Will it undermine the synagogue? Some fear yesthat it will lure Jews away from the old ways of connecting that require us to be in the samephysical place. They fear that it will become a substitute for in-the-flesh contact, and that if people start getting their needs met in the virtual world, they will have no need for the realworld.

But this is not my view. True, you cant have a minyan or pay a shiva call online; onlineexperience is not the same as being there. Still, it can be a powerful adjunct. And studiesshow that heavy Internet use actually encourages users to meet more with other people.

Remember: from the time of Ezra, who rewrote the Bible in a new script, we Jews havealways adapted to our environment and taken advantage of the latest technologies. Toencode our conversations and sacred texts, we moved with ease from stone tablets toparchment to paper, and we will move with equal ease to the electronic word.

In fact, we should see the Web as one of the most wondrous developments of all time.

In the first place, our members do not have the time they once had. We are working more andsleeping less, and we cant get to the synagogue as much as we once did. Carving out anhour or two for a class or committee meeting is harder than ever. In this world, we need thebenefits that online community brings. In any case, lets not kid ourselves; our members arespending more and more of their time online, and we need to be there with them.

In the second place, the web does what Judaism has always aspired to do: it opens up thevast treasury of Jewish knowledge to everyone. Judaism is not a religion of elites; we are allexpected to learn and to know. The web provides access to Jewish learning on a scale thatwas unthinkable a decade ago.

And in the third place, the web potentially at least empowers our members anddemocratizes our synagogues. The synagogue is the grassroots address of the Jewish world,and the web gives us an instrument to involve and include Jews as never before. This isenormously exciting, and more than a little scary.

Are our synagogues doing great things in this area? Absolutely. Are we making the most of this potential? Not even close. Almost all our synagogues have email lists and websites; butthese are usually a way to present information rather than a means to engage their members.Even those congregations that have a blog rarely use it to generate conversation and foster connection.

But I believe that we are missing a critical opportunity. The Internet and cyberspace arechanging all the rules of Jewish interaction, and we need to be at the forefront of thesechanges. We need to create an online, Oral Torah of ongoing Jewish discourse, and invite inthe opinions of our members. We need to ask our members to share their personal storiesand Jewish memories which they love to do when given the chance. We need to encouragehotly debated, multi-voiced, civil discussions on synagogue and local issues, and on Israeland national issues.

The idea is not just to serve our members but to engage them. The idea is not only to informbut also to inspire and create community. The idea is to see the Web not as a bulletin boardfor announcements but as an act of communal collaboration.


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Please note: None of this makes temple leaders less important. Information is not knowledge.Our members will still want their rabbis and cantors, their educators and administrators tolisten and to lead.

Nonetheless, we need to be aware of what is happening in our world. We have talkedendlessly about how to attract young adults into our congregations. No one is certain how todo it. But if we are ever to succeed with these young Jews, we need to know who they are,where they are, and what they want. Having grown up in the digital world, theirs is a culture of interaction and enablement. They want to inquire, discuss, and argue. They are naturalcollaborators and community-builders. And they will not be attracted by authoritarian Judaism;they want a synagogue that is more bottom-up than top-down.

That being so, I believe with all my heart that the Judaism best able to reach them is ReformJudaism, and the synagogue best able to meet their needs is the Reform synagogue. Wemust become the address for technological experimentation for web streaming, virtualboard meetings, and a whole range of creative approaches that the innovators in our midstare already working on. To help our congregations begin this process, the Union hascollected some of the best ideas for your review and consideration.

But there is one particular idea that I hope every synagogue will think about immediately, andthat is a congregational blog not just an electronic temple bulletin, but a truly interactive,online forum. We need blogs because the era of one-way, passive information consumption isover. Our members, young and old, expect to talk back and have a conversation; they think interms of networks rather than hierarchies. And creating a blog is easy and free, and thetechnology is so simple that even I can understand it. The Union has produced a guide withsample posts, technical advice, and ideas on how to draw people in. The key is to assemble ateam of temple members who will agree not only to write for the blog but to read other postsand to comment. At the beginning, participants may be few, but if we address the real issuesin peoples lives, the numbers will grow.

If this is to work, it cannot be the job of the rabbi or the administrator. They may choose to join

in, but they have enough to do. Only if lay leaders take this on will a community come intobeing. As I said, if we ask our members to share their Jewish journeys, most will be flatteredand eager to respond. Lets exchange Jewish memories. Lets talk about why we come toservices or why we dont. Lets discuss the big issues of the Jewish world. And Presidentsand board members can test ideas and ask for feedback, on anything from dues andmembership to personal theology.

It is a rare business nowadays that doesnt have an online forum for customers to shareinsights, make observations, and post questions. Given the importance of our sacred work,shouldnt we be doing the same?

A word about the risks. A blog means you dont control everything. You must welcome honestand open conversation and give people the freedom to disagree, criticize, and complain.Once, as we see from the Talmud, Jews could be counted on to do this with civility. But today,blogging can be a shoot-from-the-hip medium. And if our blogs are taken over by thekvetchers and the whiners, by the grievance collectors and the supersensitive souls, we arelost. I suggest, therefore, a simple solution: every temple needs a volunteer moderator whowill review comments before they are posted. The Union will offer online training to preparethe volunteers for their work. And I recommend three rules to govern what will be posted andwhat will not: you need to sign your name; your comments will only be posted if they could beread from the bima on Erev Shabbat; and no one blogger will be permitted to dominate theconversation.

Our NFTYites do not agree with me here. They favor a wide open approach and feel thatthose who are petulant or nasty can quickly be brought around. But I believe that if online

conversation is to serve our sacred cause, tact and reflective judgment are essential.


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So yes, there are risks, but they are manageable; we will lose some control, but we will gainthe ability to hear and to learn, and to reach out in new directions. The greater risk by far isthat we will do nothing, and the digital generation will pass us by.

So lets take up the challenge of the online age. Let this Movement do what it has alwaysdone: welcome diversity, encourage community, and join ancient tradition with cutting-edgeculture. Let us create Torah, embrace Torah, and search out the unfolding word of God,wherever it may be found.

And by the way, this sermon will appear next week on the Unions blog, and I look forward toentering into discussion with you.

Alan Abbey Commentary

In a word or two, Rabbi Yoffie hits the mark here. He mentioned many of the things I mentioned in my presentation, including the need to engage in a conversation and to bewilling to give up some control. Well said.


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Meet the fastest tweet in the Jewish organizational world: William Daroff 8

By Ron Kampeas March 1, 2010

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Rain pouring in Jerusalem, tears streaming down the faces of fans of Team USA, tremors shaking Chile -- and always, always lunch at Eli's.

You have entered the @Daroff tweet zone.

William Daroff, the Washington director of Jewish Federations of North America, has takenthe organization that couldn't get its initials straight and boiled it down to an engaging,entertaining and at times abrasive representation of the Jewish establishment in 140characters or less.

Daroff's career, always on an upswing, is now careening skyward.

Recent cuts at Jewish Federations mean that he is not only responsible for its redoubtableWashington lobby shop representing the combined needs of 157 federations, but also will behelping to direct its seminal rabbinical cabinet and its relief arm, and coordinate the alliance of

40 federations that come together to fund seven national groups (including JTA).

But Daroff is best known for boiling down that alphabet soup into tweets followed literally bythousands. He has 2,205 followers on Twitter and 2,314 Facebook friends.

A sample just from Sunday and Monday:

* On a conference call with leaders of the #Jewish Federations of North America RabbinicCabinet* Palestinian Cabinet meets in Hebron, as means of protesting #Israel's list of heritage siteshttp://bit.ly/a7FVj6 (@JPost)* RT @jbelmont: NBC says 25% of the men who've watched the Olympics have cried. As anAmerican who's lived in Canada, I just joined them.

* Latest from Santiago #Chile: No damage to synagogues, damage to #Jewish cemeterywalls, & broken windows at a community bldg.* RT @KevinFlowerCNN: tensions in Jerusalem over al-Aqsa simmering down -- pouring rainhas helped

The question some Daroff watchers, in the corridors of Jewish power and in other settings,are asking: Does the tweeting enhance or detract from the federations' message?

"I see social networking and Facebook and Twitter as a new and novel way to communicatewith the world generally and with the Jewish community more specifically," Daroff, 41, toldJTA. "When it comes to communications, not everyone we want to communicate with readsthe JTA, Jewish newspapers or listens to rabbis and their sermons. It's incumbent upon us topush forward the relevance of what we do as professionals and as a Jewish community, tomeet people where they stand."

Some welcome the tweeting as necessary in an age of instantaneous information.

"I'd rather he tweeted too much than not enough because he often has vital information in histweets," said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who directs American Friends of Lubavitch. "For instance,yesterday with Chile -- I oftentimes learn about events and initiatives for the first time fromWilliam's tweets."

Others say the tweets reduce the complex back and forth of a conversation to anunrepresentative sound bite.

This tweet came out of Daroff's attendance at the annual plenum of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs in Dallas last week: "At #JCPA, @ADL_National's Abe Foxman calls@dailydish's Andrew Sullivan 'an example of someone who is educated & an anti-Semite.' "


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It infuriated Foxman.

"I give a speech of 22 minutes, there's a series of questions, and this is what makes thenews?" Foxman asked, referring to his talk on global anti-Semitism. "This is how he wants toget attention for the JCPA?"

Off the record, some government officials say Daroff's real-time tweeting makes themnervous.

"I know this is going to be tweeted, so it's on the record and I can't say anything useful," saidone official, who asked not to be identified. "The ability to have a candid conversation isminimal."

Daroff dismisses the concerns, saying he confines his tweets to what is already known. Hehas tweeted about attending White House meetings, which is a matter of record, but notabout the contents of the meeting, which is not.

"I wouldn't tweet anything I wouldn't tell a reporter," he said.

Other Jewish officials, off the record, say Daroff's tweets have veered into dangerous territory.They note a passionate back and forth with J Street last year over its reluctance at the time toendorse Iran sanctions. Daroff said J Street "stands with the mullahs."

J Street has since endorsed sanctions, and officials on both sides say they enjoy goodrelations.

Still, the exchange raised eyebrows.

"You can't self-promote to that degree and not become a target," said one official whootherwise thought Daroff was doing a good job.

Some friends say Daroff is addicted to his Blackberry. Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, toreDaroff's Blackberry from his hand and threw it into the audience during a panel at the JewishFederations' most recent general assembly, in November in Washington.

Friends say if they see him in a restaurant, they will tweet to get his attention. After hisBlackberry delivers the message, Daroff has been known to stand up to greet someone who'sbeen facing him across the room for half an hour.

Making himself heard has never been hard for Daroff. He was a longtime operative for theRepublican Party, starting with the late Jack Kemp's 1988 presidential bid and including along stint as the deputy director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Some people fretted in 2005 when Daroff was named to his current post. The Washingtonoffice of what was then known as the United Jewish Communities had just come through afractious period; Daroff's predecessor was forced out, partly because of inter-office tensions;and relations with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs office had degenerated into aperpetual turf war.

Did a nonpartisan lobbying body really need a partisan -- albeit one who was well liked, butwho also was not above the well-aimed partisan gibe, and was known for a spot-onimpression of Ira Forman, the executive director of the National Jewish Demorcatic Council?Daroff quickly reached out to Democrats, including Forman, and did his best to assure themthat he would not be a partisan.

"If he's overrerached at all, it's in reaching out to the left," said a Democrat appreciative of Daroff's effots, singling out health care, where Daroff has sided more with the Democrats.His readiness to take hits from either side soon made his case. Daroff received angry callsfrom buddies in the Bush White House about UJC plaints about budget cuts affecting


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entitlement programs and from Democrats on the Hill for defending tax exemptions. He wasresponsive when Democrats complained that a UJC e-mail newsletter featured profiles of Republicans in an election year; he stopped the profiles.

"In a situation that could have been very challenging because there were historicalinstitutional issues to be overcome and where he was coming from politically, he made some

people nervous," said Hadar Susskind, currently the policy director for J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, and then Daroff's counterpart at the JCPA. "He did an extraordinary job assomeone who had a professional partisan job, he did a very good job of putting aside andrepresenting federations and putting those interests first and foremost."

Daroff, dining last Friday at Eli's, the kosher Washington eatery he incessantly promotes onhis social networks (yes, he tweeted lunch with this reporter), is more modest.

"Look, when I was hired, there was a Republican in the White House and both houses" of Congress "were Republican." He had a year and a half, he says, to build up relations withrelatively powerless Democrats before they retook Congress in November 2006. By that timehe was known as the UJC guy, not the GOP guy.

Not that his former Republican credentials have hurt. At the RJC, he formed a friendship withHaley Barbour, then the chairman of the Republican National Committee. When the UJC'srelief arm was seeking partners in areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, Barbour, now governor of Mississippi, was able to help facilitate a successful venture in assisting mental healthfacilities.

His next big challenge is grappling with a Washington that is slashing earmarks. In the 1990s,earmarks -- the expenditures for home-state projects lawmakers inject into spending bills --were ballooning, and one of his predecessors, Diana Aviv, saw an opportunity. Through theearmarks, she helped create the Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities, the systemthat allows seniors to spend their twilight years near their communities.

The Washington office replicated that feat under subsequent directors with millions of dollars

set aside for enhancing security at nonprofits. Since its inception in 2005, the bulk has goneto Jewish organizations.

But budget cuts and a presidential campaign in which candidates competed to make"earmarks" synonymous with corruption have led to a crackdown. The domestic issues thatJews care about -- particularly government medical care for the elderly and poor -- may meansiding more forcefully with the Democrats.

Lobbying for earmarks was "lobbying lite," one congressional insider said, and the communityneeded to "go AIPAC" and get tough on the health care issue.

Daroff said he would not be dragged into partisan battles, and added that he was confidentearmarks were here to stay.

"The Jewish Federations have continued to be remarkably successful in garnering Member-Directed-Funding (we don't call them 'earmarks' anymore), even in this current budgetaryenvironment," he e-mailed in reply. "This is the case because our innovative initiatives areones that Members of Congress are proud to promote. They flourish with increasedtransparency and with bright lights cast upon them. We are not promoting weapons systemsthat the Pentagon doesn't want, but rather cutting-edge social service programs that helpmake life better for millions of Americans."

As for Daroff, it appears he's here to stay, too: He is rumored to be on the short list for thesoon-to-be-available post of CEO at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.

His response to the rumors was short, even by tweeting standards.

No comment.


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Young Adults Doing Religion on Their Own? Blame It on Politics 9 By Jeffrey Weiss02/25/10

Last week, the number-crunching folks at the Pew Center released a report titled " ReligionAmong the Millennials. " It's part of an ongoing analysis of the generation of young adults

between 18 and 29 years old.

This report was a meta-analysis of lots of surveys done over the past several years, some byPew and some not. Many of the results seemed pretty "duh" to me: Young people tend tolean left politically, be more open to change, more tolerant of differences than their elders. Ithas ever been thus, ain't it? As Plato kvetched more than 2,400 years ago:

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their moralsare decaying. What is to become of them?"

But two paragraphs in the report jumped out at me:

"Fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today. They also areless likely to be affiliated than their parents' and grandparents' generations were when theywere young. Fully one-in-four members of the Millennial generation -- so called because theywere born after 1980 and began to come of age around the year 2000 -- are unaffiliated withany particular faith. Indeed, Millennials are significantly more unaffiliated than GenerationXers were at a comparable point in their life cycle (20 percent in the late 1990s) and twice asunaffiliated as Baby Boomers were as young adults (13 percent in the late 1970s)."

So that seems different, evidence of secularization on the march. But then we have:

"Young adults' beliefs about life after death and the existence of heaven, hell and miraclesclosely resemble the beliefs of older people today. Though young adults pray less often thantheir elders do today, the number of young adults who say they pray every day rivals the

portion of young people who said the same in prior decades. And though belief in God islower among young adults than among older adults, Millennials say they believe in God withabsolute certainty at rates similar to those seen among Gen Xers a decade ago."

Which says to me that young adults are not losing faith, just unplugging from religiousinstitutions at a rate unprecedented in U.S. history.

(And I know that "mileage may vary" for individuals. There are lots of politically and religiouslyconservative and engaged Millennials -- they're just in smaller proportions than among their elders.)

That data got me thinking about Robert Putnam, the Harvard professor whose book "BowlingAlone" made a powerful case a decade ago that Americans were disengaging from allmanner of institutions -- from churches to social clubs to bowling leagues.

Putnam later reported that the trend had plateaued a bit after the Sept. 11 attacks, as manyAmericans sought social cohesion as a way to cope with the trauma. Maybe the surveyresults about Millennials were evidence the trends had resumed and even accelerated? Iwondered what Putnam was doing these days.

Imagine my surprise: He and Notre Dame professor David Campbell have co-authored abook scheduled for publication this fall titled "American Grace: How Religion Is ReshapingOur Civic and Political Lives."

So I pinged them, asking what they thought of the Pew report. The bad news: Campbellreplied that the book's publishers have asked that they not do media until closer to when thebook comes out. The good news: They've been talking about their analysis for a while.


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Putnam is the head of Harvard's Saguaro Seminar on civic engagement. The Social Capitalblog reported on a presentation that Putnam and Campbell made last year for the PewForum.

No surprise, then, that their data tracked what Pew reported last week:

"Young Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of 5-6 times thehistoric rate (30-40 percent have no religion today versus 5-10 percent a generationago)."

And now their explanation:

"But youth's religious disaffection is largely due to discomfort with religiosity havingbeen tied to conservative politics."

They are hardly the first social scientists to link conservative politics and disengagement withorganized religion. Back in 2002, Berkeley professors Michael Hout and Claude Fischer tookthe same line in the American Sociological Review:

"We seek to explain why American adults became increasingly likely to express no religiouspreference as the 1990s unfolded. Briefly summarized, we find that the increase was notconnected to a loss of religious piety, and that it was connected to politics . In the 1990smany people who had weak attachments to religion and either moderate or liberalpolitical views found themselves at odds with the conservative political agenda of theChristian Right and reacted by renouncing their weak attachment to organizedreligion."

But the entanglement of religion and politics is hardly a new American phenomenon. From theabolitionists to the temperance movement to the civil rights movement to the Vietnam eraprotests, people of powerful and visible faith were central to the battles -- on the right and onthe left.

So has the Religious Right of the past couple of decades been more offensive, somehow,than previous faith-and-politics combinations? Are the Millennials more susceptible than prior generations? And if so, why?

Putnam and Campbell have said they thought the trend was reversible, that religiousinstitutions with fewer political ties could engage in all-American entrepreneurship to swoop inand give the disaffected Millennials a religious home. But even high-profile religious leaderssuch as Saddleback's Rick Warren who have tried to stay out of the political swamp havefound themselves pulled in from time to time. And it's hard to believe that people of powerfulfaith will be able to resist applying the standards of that faith to the thorniest political issues of our time.

Maybe Putnam and Campbell will have all the answers in that book. We'll ping them again ina few months to find out.


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A Synagogue's Unorthodox Revival: Rabbi's Aggressive Outreach Reverses aTraditional Congregation's Decline 10

By LIANA B. BAKER

SAN FRANCISCOWhen Rabbi Josh Strulowitz set out to rebuild a rapidly shrinking Jewishcongregation, it seemed like a long shot.

Mr. Strulowitz leads Adath Israel, one of the few Modern Orthodox synagogues in the BayArea. In 2005, when the newly ordained rabbi arrived at Adath Israel, the 68 members of thesynagogue founded by Holocaust survivors had an average age of 70. Many of thecongregants' descendants had moved away or gravitated toward more liberal forms of Judaism, and the congregation was debating selling its building and moving to a storefrontlocation.

Today, thanks to an aggressive effort by Mr. Strulowitz, a 31-year-old rabbi, the synagoguehas more than tripled in size, and the congregation's average age is closer to 40. Many of the

new members came to Adath Israel through Mr. Strulowitz's unusual outreach efforts thatincluded Super Bowl parties, a Chanukah gathering with a keg for adults and luncheonseminars at the offices of area businesses.

His approach was on display recently at his synagogue in the Central Sunset neighborhood.As the prayer service wound down, the rabbi took the stage to plug a Super Bowl party thenext day. "The new high-def screen is off the hook," he said. "And there is going to be kosher fried chicken."

That struck a chord with Julie Higashi, a physician who switched to Adath Israel in 2007 froma Conservative Jewish synagogue. With Mr. Strulowitz's events, she says, "there is room for having fun." The next day, she joined about 50 people who watched the Super Bowl on thesynagogue's 110-inch screen.

Rabbi Josh Strulowitz launched a preschool across the street from his Modern Orthodoxsynagogue in San Francisco to attract more families to the dwindling congregation.

The Bay Area's roughly 450,000 Jews make up the third-biggest Jewish population in theU.S., behind New York and Los Angeles, according to a 2004 study sponsored by thenonprofit Jewish Community Federation. But only 3% describe themselves as ModernOrthodox, the strain of Judaism that combines traditional observance with modern lifecompared with 10% nationally, according to a 2001 study led by the nonprofit JewishFederations of North America.

Mr. Strulowitz and some other Jewish leaders felt that allowing the synagogue to fade away

would leave a hole in the city's Jewish life. The Modern Orthodox community helps topreserve a visible Jewish presence, they say, and lends strong support to Jewish institutionsand the practice of certain traditions.

"When you see men wearing kippot and Jewish shops, it makes an impression on people whoare not Orthodox and puts them in touch with the rhythms of Jewish life," says Jewishhistorian Fred Rosenbaum

But many Jews in the liberal Bay Area perceive Modern Orthodoxy as too rigid or devout.That is the case for Greg Lawrence, a 28-year-old member of a Jewish Renewal synagoguein Berkeley, which observes a less strict form of Judaism.

"When I think of Orthodox Judaism, it means all these laws that just don't really haveapplicable meaning for me," he said. "I certainly don't need [Orthodox Jews] to support me inany way."


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Rabbi Strulowitz recognizes the challenge he is up against. "It's an ambitious mission trying tobridge the gaps between the outside world and making the religionthe way it was practiced3,000 years agomore relevant," he says.

Indeed, some of Mr. Strulowitz's unusual methods haven't resonated with his congregationespecially with its older members. Birdie Klein, 79, an Adath Israel member for 40 years, sayssome of the rabbi's programming doesn't appeal to her, including a recent conference onJewish ethics and the Internet that was held at Twitter Inc.'s San Francisco headquarters,where one of the congregation's members is employed.

"Twitter. Shmitter. I didn't even ask what Twitter means," Ms. Klein says.

When Mr. Strulowitz began his outreach efforts, he sought advice from Modern Orthodoxrabbis in other cities who had had success attracting new members. By late 2005, he had puttogether a beginners' service for the High Holidays. Last fall, he opened a preschool acrossthe street from the synagogue to help bring in families.

Mr. Strulowitz also reached out to the area's business elite. In 2006, he started holding

Jewish study lunches at companies including venture-capital firm Blumberg Capital andFriedkin Realty Group.

Bruce Taragin, a partner at Blumberg Capital who invited Mr. Strulowitz to host lunches at hisoffice, says he has attended about half a dozen events. Mr. Taragin belongs to a ModernOrthodox synagogue in Oakland, but he says the rabbi has made him feel a "deeper andmeaningful connection" to San Francisco's Jewish community.

Still, says Mr. Taragin, the rabbi has his work cut out for him. "It's like he's an entrepreneur and the Jewish community is a start-up in the nascent stages," he says.


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Inside The Jewish Internet Defense Force 11

On July 27th someone hacked hacked into a Facebook group called, Israel Is Not ACountry!. Delist It From Facebook As A Country! Responsibility was claimed by the JewishInternet Defense Force .(JIDF) The JIDF posted the following statement on the group page:

This group was one of the most vile, antisemitic, pro-terrorist sites on the internet. Moreover,it was the most active hate group of all, heartily promoting hatred, murder, and genocide while

proliferating abominable propaganda paralleled only by the fables of Goebbels. While suchcontent clearly violates Facebooks own Terms of Use and Code of Conduct, provisions that users agree to abide when they register on the site, Facebook refused to take action. Despitethousands of user complaints over the course of eighteen months, Facebook allowed thisgroup and its ubiquitous antisemitic lies to flourish. Facebooks own negligence and abdication of responsibility gave us no option but to take matters in our own hands.

We wish to be clear we have no issues with legitimate political discourse so long as it iscontextual, comparative and truthful. However, when it comes to encouraging the murder of Jews and purposefully disseminating misinformation to demonize Jews and to delegitimize

Israel, there is a moral obligation to remove the platform of such repugnant hate-mongers.Unfortunately, we do not need to search too far back into history to realize that such evilshave a real cost in terms of human lives.

In addition to posting the above statement, the JIDF began deleting the names of all FortyEight Thousand members of the group. As of last check, there were just over TwentyThousand names still left on the list. The JIDF would not elaborate on how they have beenable to accomplish this on an on-going basis. There apparently has been no response fromFacebook to date.

In order to get some insight into the activities and motives of the JIDF with regards to Anti-Semitic and other types of hate speech in the social networking arena, I contacted the groupresponsible for the hack. A representative of the group agreed to be interviewed on thecondition of anonymity. He related that he has received multiple death threats arising out of his activities in the JIDF.

What is the origin of of the JIDF?

The JIDF started as a grassroots effort at the beginning in 2000. Many of us were in NYC during 9/11, so that had a major impact as well. It began as a mass email campaign. It eventually morphed onto Myspace during the war with Hezbollah in 2006 and protesting thedisengagement from Gush Katif/Gaza . Shortly thereafter, we evolved with the technology onto Facebook . Originally it started as just to share news and information about Israel and Jewish issues with a bit of commentary here and there. As we used Facebook, we noticed many of the issues began literally to stare us in the face. Anti-semitic and pro-Jihadist groups

were springing up everywhere.

Why JIDF?

The name JIDF is a recent development. We liked how it morphed Jewish with IDF especially in light of the contrast between the religious and secular world in Israel and theJewish world in general.

What are the short and long term goals of the JIDF?

One of our short term objectives is to expose Barack Obama and prevent him from winning the Presidential election. In the long term we hope to expose and fight antisemitism and pro-Jihadist trends on the web, including, but not limited to, the vast array of issues on Facebook,Google/Youtube, Google- Earth, and Wikipedia.


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What do you hope to expose about Barack Obama?

We hope to continue to highlight the issues surrounding his terrorist connections as well ashis racist and antisemitic church which has supported Hamas and The Reverend LouisFarrakhan.

What is the position of the JIDF on the Palestinian Question regarding disputes over occupied lands?

Palestinians should be transferred out of Israeli territories. They can live in any of the other many Arab states. We are against all land concessions to our enemies. We are against therelease of terrorist prisoners from Israeli prisons. We are against the arming and funding of our enemies and the negotiation with them. We are for morals, ethics and common sense and feel Israel must truly act as a light unto the nations in order for the world to be safe as wefeel Israel is truly on the front lines in the war in which Islam has declared upon us

What has the reaction been from the Jewish community here and abroad?

Since the Jewish people are so diverse, the reaction has been diverse from full support to full condemnation.

What about the Muslim Community?

99.9% of Muslims hate us. There have been 4 viable death threats. These threats are not just from non-Jewish Middle Eastern community, but Neo Nazis, etc.

Do you feel social networking groups have the right to question Israels right to existas legitimate social discourse?

Absolutely! Where they cross the line is when they spew hatred and promote violence,

murder and genocide. This is happening on Facebook despite 10s of thousands of complaints and reports.

Do you feel Facebook and other social networking sites are doing enough to monitor groups promoting hate speech?

Facebook has been negligent in this regard. As an organization it has completely abdicated its responsibility to its users. Youtube also needs to do more. They all have rules in place.They should draw the line when people are blatantly promoting hatred, violence, murder, and genocide. (as most of their own rules state) They need to be more efficient with their systemsto monitor and remove this type of user-generated content.

How do you respond to those who claim your group is engaging in the exact somerhetoric and conduct that it criticizes?

We disagree. We do not promote hatred, violence, murder or genocide. We do not promoteknown terrorist entities. We do not misinform. We do not lie nor make up lies. We do not call

people apes and pigs like many of the Muslims do. We do not advocate the destruction of countries or of people. The list goes on and on.

Did you break the law when you hacked the Facebook group?

We absolutely broke no laws doing what we did. In fact, we operate with the advice of legal counsel and within the confines of the law.

There seems little doubt that Social Media is the new battle ground for social activism. SocialMedia is not only the new face of social activism, it is a the new face of ethnic and religious


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hatred and intolerance on all sides. As social networking groups such a Facebook havesprung up and attracted substantial membership more and more groups taking extremepositions on one subject or another have become popular. Proving this point is the fact thatthe Israel Is Not a Country Facebook group had over forty thousand members at the time itwas hacked. Are social networking groups such as Facebook and Youtube doing enough tomonitor groups and content advocating extreme political and religous positions that attempt to

encourage or incite violence and hatred towards other groups? Are they simply encouraginglegitimate social discourse? Contrary to popular belief there is no right of free speech onsocial netowrking sites. They are for the most part private entities not covered by the FirstAmendment. The sites have to the right to censor and remove material they deemobjectionable. Where do we draw the line between incitement of hate and legitimate debateon religious, ethnic and political issues? Should ther even be a line? Many would argue thatthe JIDF encourages the same hateful rhetoric that it claims it fights against. Are theyattempting to squash legitimate debate? Are they also promoting hate and intolerance? Noone is safe. Let the discourse begin.


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Haredim declare war on the Internet 12

By JONATHAN ROSENBLUM05/03/2010

After the evening minyan on a recent trip to the United States, a 40-something man

beseeched me to write about a Web site called GuardYourEyes, which provides tools for those who have become pornography addicts through the Internet. He did not explicitly tellme he was one such addict, but the fervor with which he prayed suggested his personaltorment.

Every Orthodox rabbi in North America with whom I have spoken in recent years has his ownstories of homes destroyed by the Internet whether it be through chat rooms, or erotica Websites, or instant communications devices that make it easy to establish illicit relationships.Sins that once required the expenditure of energy and time, as well as the potential for humiliation if revealed, can now be done instantaneously in private, with little danger of detection. The Internet not only facilitates the ease with which one can act upon existingtemptations, it has the capacity to create previously undreamed of desires.

AWARE OF the devastation caused by the Internet, and determined to prevent it frombecoming completely entrenched, the leading haredi rabbis in Israel have declared war on it.A conference for haredi educators in Bnei Brak two weeks ago, attended by a rare cross-section of the most revered senior rabbinical figures in the haredi world, promulgated severaldecrees against home Internet use.

The baseline position was that no haredi family should have Internet in the house. If one or both of the parents need Internet in the house for business purposes, they must first installappropriate filters, preferably in combination with a server like Internet Rimon, which bothexcludes the most problematic Web sites e.g., pornography and gambling and has thecapacity to preview and censor material even within acceptable sites. The password for entryto Internet must be known only to the parent who needs it for business purposes. In addition,a rabbi must certify that there is a need for Internet. These provisions will be enforced by

requiring each child in haredi educational institutions to provide a form signed by the parentsthat they are in conformity with the above requirements.

Above all, these requirements are designed to convey an unambiguous message that Internetconstitutes a moral hazard that should be avoided and, even in cases of necessity,approached with the utmost caution and protections. So great is the danger that it outweighssuch considerations as convenience or even educational value. Only economic necessity,coupled with layers of protection, can justify its possession.

The haredi leadership seeks to repeat with respect to Internet what was done to television inAmerica in the 1960s and 70s: to make its possession a defining social marker of who iswithin the haredi community and who is not. Certainly Internet has already exacted a toll invictims far beyond that of television in that vastly more innocent period when it requiredprescience to forecast the degree to which it would degenerate.

Television, however, was nothing more than an entertainment medium not a necessity for modern life.

INTERNET IS something quite different. At the Bnei Brak gathering, Rabbi Aharon LeibSteinman, the most respected of the senior roshei yeshiva, admitted, If we would be able tototally ban the Internet, that would be fine. But we cant do that, since there are those whoneed the Internet .

Increasingly, Internet is the principal means of conducting many of the basic transactions of modern life, whether it be banking, checking bus schedules, finding a site that calculates theproper times for prayers on transatlantic flights, or just for shopping. In some cases it is only aconvenience one can live without the information or obtain it less efficiently. In others, the


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difference is primarily a matter of time, though the hours saved are no small matter for stressed haredi parents, who often must perform chores with several young children in tow.

At one major hi-tech company that operates separate facilities employing haredi women,visits to sites other than those needed for ones work are cause for dismissal. But the facilityretains two work stations where women can do some basic banking and other such functions

while on break or after work.

More important, Internet is essential for much modern employment. And at one level, it evenoffers unique potential benefits to the haredi world. An ever-increasing percentage of harediwomen and haredi men are being educated in computer-based fields. With the move of haredi women from teaching jobs within the haredi educational system (in which the jobmarket is saturated) to hi-tech come a host of new concerns about working in mixed workplaces. A number of companies have discovered that they can employ haredi women atrelatively low pay by providing sexually segregated work places and mother-flexible workschedules in or near haredi population centers.

Ideally, working by computer from home offers a possible solution to haredi concerns aboutmixed workplaces and the need for flexible hours, but that depends, of course, on having

Internet in the house. That is just one example of how the tension between competing harediideals may play out around Internet.

Given the centrality of Internet to modern life, the attempt to impose a ban (with exemptions)in the home might strike many as a futile attempt to turn back the clock. And that might wellbe true in the United States, for instance, where home Internet is nearly ubiquitous, even inharedi homes and where every handheld device has Internet connectivity. There theemphasis will likely be on damage control through Internet education, filters, increasedparental supervision.

But in Israel the haredi public has the market power to secure kosher cellphones, withoutInternet connectivity. And the haredi leadership, it turns out, might be more on target thanmost secular parents with respect to what is at stake.

Every study of parents perceptions of their childrens Internet use shows that parents aretotally clueless about both the quality and quantity of their childrens Internet use.

They have no idea how many of their children have shared personal information or agreed tomeet strangers over the Internet. And they are unaware of the degree to which their teenagers are living in a largely isolated, alternative reality about 55 hours a week for theaverage American teenager. Education officials in the United Kingdom are exploring ways tolimit time teens spend on game sites. While parents would like to think that their children arelocked in their rooms exploring the reaches of human knowledge on their personal computer,the greater likelihood is that they are at porn sites the use of which spikes in the afternoonhours when teens are home alone.

One of Judaisms six constant mitzvot is do not stray after your hearts and after your eyes...While haredi efforts to preserve the purity of the eyes may seem hopelessly quaint in our erotically charged society, haredi concerns about the dangers of Internet would be shared bymost parents if they had not thrown in the towel on guiding their children.


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Additional articles:

1. Facebook Profile For Holocaust Victim Brings History to Lifehttp://mashable.com/2010/02/04/facebook-profile-holocaust-victim/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

2. Small boy killed in Holocaust gets Facebook page _ attracting thousands of friendshttp://www.cltv.com/business/sns-ap-eu-holocaust-victim-facebook,0,7470453.story?page=1


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And the most engaging social network is 13

Pingdom

Some sites are utterly addictive. You return to them often, and when you do, you tend to staythere for a good while, visiting different pages, viewing interesting content. In a word, the site

is engaging.

But how do you measure it? How do you put a number on how engaging a site is?

That is exactly what we are going to do in this post, and we will be looking at social networksites, arguably the most engaging sites out there. Specifically, we will try to find out whichsocial network sites are the most engaging in terms of user activity.

The most engaging social network site is

Figuring out how engaging a site is can be tricky. We could look at the number of page viewsper visit, but that number alone doesnt really tell us much. We also need to take intoconsideration how often visitors come back to a site. After all, if we return frequently to a site

and also view many pages when we do, its likely that find the site engaging.

For the sake of argument, this article will measure how engaging a site is as the number of monthly page views per visitor (monthly visits per visitor * page views per visit). You could callit visitor activity level, but we prefer engagement level.

So, with the help of site data from Google and some number crunching, here is how engagingthe various social network sites are:

A few observations: These numbers are bound to be a bit unfair to Twitter. Many of its users rely heavily

on applications to access the site and dont necessarily spend much time on the site itself. Its interesting th

Jewish Social Networking Update 1 March 2010

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Transcript of Jewish Social Networking Update 1 March 2010