MERE RHETORIC'S NOT-TOO-EXTREME MAKEOVER: Take the tour.

Technorati Tag: JBlogosphere.

NEW BLOG FROM NY CONSULATE GENERAL OF ISRAEL: ISRAELPOLITIK. From the email I received from the Consulate:

Consulate General of Israel in NY Launches New Political Blog

In Israel's continuing efforts to create platforms to directly communicate with people throughout the world, the Consulate General of Israel has launched a new blog exclusively covering political issues in Israel and the Middle East. The new blog, www.israelpolitik.org complements the state of Israel's other blog www.isrealli.org which covers Israel's culture, arts, technology, people, nightlife, and just about everything else behind the headlines.

Israelpolitik serves as a vehicle to better communicate the State of Israel's message of hope and peace directly with the world. Please take some time to interact with the blog, send comments, and help spread the word to your family and friends.

The first 3 posts on the new blog are:

• Interview with Amb. Arye Mekel, Consul General of Israel in NY
• FM Livni: Intl Comm Must Demand PA Stop Missiles
• Video: Israeli City Sderot Under Fire

Technorati Tag: Israel and Blogging and JBlogosphere.

THE JBLOGOSPHERE--WHY IT MATTERS: From SerandEz:

Many people - including myself - have discussed and debated why the J-blogosphere matters, whether the positives outweigh the drawbacks, and so much else - but really, this is why it matters. The range, styles, emotions, opinions, feelings, and views on these posts are incredible. The topics, almost all having nothing to do with one another. And yet they are all up for "Best Overall Post" of the J-blogsophere, and deservingly so. This is what the J-blogosphere is - a compilation of posts, thoughts, opinions, emotions, rantings, pride, feelings, happiness, and heartbreak from people. Jewish people. People just like us, people nothing like us, people we know, people we'll never know. This is why the J-blogosphere exists, and this is why these "awards" exist - to show off some of our best stuff, to show what there is in this small but ever-growing sphere of ours, and hopefully, to make that many more people aware of what we have and we're doing.

Sof davar [the end of the matter], it is not so much the blogs themselves, but the posts which we write on them that truly matter.

Technorati Tag: JBlogosphere and JIBs.

A NOBLE EXPERIMENT: Irina at The Ignobe Experiment has suggestions for how blogs can combine their efforts

We have so many great blogs dedicated to debunking biased MSM reports, distorted Arab media, and CAIR's ugly propaganda. Unfortunately, their influence remains limited largely to the Jewish bloggers, who are already sympathetic to the cause, occasional sympathetic non-Jews, and anti-Zionist trolls, who are interested in flame wars, not dialogue. That is not the most productive or efficient use of their efforts. What WOULD be, though? I'm thinking of a few possible good uses for the amazing job all these people do for us.

Please take a look at her ideas and give some feedback.

Technorati Tag: Israel and JBlogosphere.

ARUTZ SHEVA ON THE JIBS: By the way, remember that the voting for the JIBS closes on May 16 at 10 pm US EDT.

Jewish Blog Awards Empower Alternative Voices

by Arutz-7 Staff

(IsraelNN.com) The Jewish and Israeli blogosphere – that is – the virtual world created by self-published web-logs, called blogs, has mushroomed in recent years and now has its own annual awards.

The blog phenomenon has changed the face of Israeli and Jewish media, as Federation-owned papers or Israeli news agencies influenced or run by the government no longer have a monopoly on information.

Critics note that blogs lack accountability, but the annual Jewish and Israeli Blog (JIBs) Awards at least allow blogs to be rated by blog-readers in accordance with their evaluation of their published material.

Israel National Radio interviewed “Akiva” from the Mystical Paths blog – the lead site operator of the 2007 JIB awards – who says the awards function to provide recognition for bloggers.

“Bloggers invest a lot of their time in their blogs,” he said. “For some people this is a passion. They spend hours a day writing and interacting with their readers to put up interesting stuff. A lot of that related to Israel, a lot of that relates to Judaism – from all perspectives. And they are very excited to say ‘Hey, someone thinks I’m doing something good – someone appreciates it.’”

Akiva says that while some bloggers receive much feedback through comments, others, with less interactive readership or without comments enabled, get their only feedback through the JIBs. “This is a chance for them to say ‘Someone out there thinks I’m doing something good.’”

The site operator says there have been many people contacting him in recent weeks complaining that they were not nominated. “There are lots of great blogs out there,” Akiva says, “but unfortunately, we didn’t pick ‘em. We asked people who they would like to vote for and had open nominations.”

Any reader, or even the bloggers themselves, were invited to submit nominations via the JIB web site. The nominations for each category were compiled, with multiple groups created in some categories to accommodate the sheer number of nominees. At the end of the preliminary voting, only the top blogs in each group in each category were advanced to the finals.

The number of Jewish and Israel-related blogs (in English) is around 1,200, Akiva says, “with 400 really active, with readers and everything.”

What is the secret to successful blogging? “It is about finding a niche where people want to hear what you have to say,” Akiva says. He concedes that blogs examining scandals in the Jewish world are some of the most popular “because everyone loves reading about problems,” but points out that most of the blogs that have reached the finals are about personal Jewish experiences and positive messages about Israel.

Technorati Tag: Blogging and JBlogosphere and JIBs.

SERANDEZ ON BLOGGING: Ezzie reflects on why he started and what he has gained as a result.

Feel free to compare notes.

Technorati Tag: Blogging and JBlogosphere.

TREPPENWITZ AND ALIYAH! STEP BY STEP ON GLOBAL VOICES: Covering reaction to the Winograd report, and the call for Olmert to resign, from across the JBlogosphere spectrum.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Olmert and Winograd Commission.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE JBLOGOSPHERE: Is the JBlogosphere maturing that quickly that already we can look over our shoulder and talk about its Golden Age? Teppenwitz recalls:

Back in the golden days of the Jblogosphere (IMHO late 2003 to early 2004), there were few enough of us writing that it was sort of inevitable that we would read and interact with bloggers that lived substantially different lives... and believed substantially different things. And because I made myself part of their world on a daily basis, many of these fine writers frequently came to see what was going on over here.

But with the exponential explosion of Jblogs, many readers (and writers) began to gravitate towards cliques of like-minded folks and adopted the habit of checking in on 'the others' only infrequently (if at all).

It doesn't much matter if you refer to that time as the JBlogosphere's Golden Age (or its infancy), the JBlogosphere is growing by leaps and bounds just like the Blogosphere itself.

To use a metaphor: maybe it's just that the honeymoon--that initial period of harmony and goodwill--is over.

Random Thoughts also mulls over the idea of The Golden Age of the JBlogosphere.

Technorati Tag: JBlogosphere.

ALIYAH AND 'LIFE IN ISRAEL' BLOGS: Here is a list from The Aliyah Blog, posted a few months ago--and take a look at what else The Aliyah Blog has to say.

• A Mother in Israel - The cutting edge (!) of homemaking and parenting in Israel and the observant Jewish community. By a mother of many, born in the US and now living in Israel. (MiI also just put up a list of her best aliyah-related posts)

• Aliyah! Step-by-Step: Making a Life in Israel - Aliyah on 17, August, 2005. Roadmap: What do you mean there’s no roadmap?! Hang on, we’re in for a bumpy ride! Ole!
  
  
• Almost Aliyah - Sharing our journey as we get closer to the big move…. (by David)
  
  
• Baka Diary
  
  
• Chayyei Sarah - An Orthodox Jewish thirty-something is living,playing, writing, and dating in Jerusalem.
  
  
• House of Joy - A nice Jewish girl from Long Island married to a Jewish doctor from Long Island…. Oh yeah, we are both “born again” religious fanatics living in Yesha also known as “The West Bank”.
  
  
• Israel Perspectives - Perspectives on the challenges confronting the Jewish People and State through the eyes of one who finds himself taking an active role in the compelling drama that is the life of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel
  
  
• JoeSettler - “A Blog about the Jewish State”
  
  
• Kumah - “The Neo-Zionist Uberblog”
  
  
• Life in Israel - A regular Joe with a Yeshiva background living in RBS
  
  
• lost in bec’s world - “i miss eretz israel. not a day goes by that i am not reminded–either by the way the light shines in that early morning where everything seems pink or in the afternoon where everything is bathed in an orange glow, or right before a storm when the sky turns dark, the world brightens, the colours are heightened and i know that i am almost there, and i hear the wisps and sighs of jerusalem calling, calling, and i can almost touch her”
  
  
• phishaliyah - If Phish got back together, would I still make aliyah?
  
  
• Planet Israel -To seek out a new life and civilization. To boldly go to…Planet Israel (from Evan)
  
  
• The Muqata - Wherever I am, I blog towards Eretz Yisrael
  
  
• Treppenwitz - The “wisdom of the stairs” by David Bogner. Some of what you’ll find here deals with the ’specialness’ and reality of everyday life here. Other stuff dances around the periphery of subjects like fatherhood, husbandry (hmmm…maybe that’s the wrong word), commuting, home improvement, and pet ownership.
  
  
• West Bank Mama - Here I try to share my views on Israel and life in general, from the perspective of a mother living in a very controversial part of the world. Orthodox Jews call it by its Biblical name, the Shomron (Samaria). Others call it the “west bank” referring to the west bank of the Jordon river. (Old archives here)

Technorati Tag: Israel and Aliyah and Blogs and JBlogosphere.

THE M-BLOGOSPHERE: So what's happening in the Muslim Blogosphere? According to a short article in The Economist:

THEY call themselves pyjamahideen. Instead of galloping off to fight holy wars, they stay at home, meaning, often as not, in their parents' houses, and clatter about computer keyboards. Their activity is not as explosive as the self-styled jihadists who trouble regimes in the region, and they come in all stripes, secular liberal as well as radical Islamist. But like Gulliver's Lilliputians, youthful denizens of the internet are chipping away at the overweening dominance of Arab governments.

Here is the rundown:

• Blogging in Egypt is supposedly developing into "a shaper of the political agenda"--despite Abdelkarim Suleiman being sentenced to to four years in jail.
  
  
• Bahrain is trying to get bloggers to register with the police (like lethal weapons?)
  
  
• Saudi Arabia blocks thousands of websites and issues quiet warnings
  
  
• Syria's most prominent web activist had to flee the country

JBloggers are far freer to criticize. By the same token, I suppose we are probably more likely to praise Israel than the M-Bloggers are to praise their own countries--Muslims seem more ready to praise the Islam and the Koran than extol the virtues of their country.

But does the oppression of the Muslim countries ironically provide a bigger target for bloggers and increase the possibility for them to bring change? Can JBloggers both defend Israel from her enemies and bring about change?

Update: Speaking of Bahrain, Secret Dubai Diary has the story of a blogger sued by a government minister and quotes UAE Publications Law and what it does not allow.
[Hat tip: Mr. Bagel]

Technorati Tag: Israel and JBlogosphere and Bloggers.

WE ARE LESS INFORMED NOW THAN 18 YEARS AGO: According to a report from the Pew Research Center.

Allahpundit writes:

Basically, you can’t make people get interested in the news if they’re not interested. And if Hollywood gossip is all they care about, that’s all the news they’ll seek out. Twas always thus. Now it’s just easier to find the news you want and avoid the rest. For those who are interested in hard news, world affairs and that sort of thing, it’s information overload.

Exit question: Does this mean that hard news blogging is a waste of time, or that there’s a huge audience out there just waiting to be found?

What implications would this have for JBloggers when it comes to Israel--are we only going to be preaching blogging to the choir? Is there an audience out there that we have not reached yet?

Technorati Tag: Israel and JBlogosphere.

BLOGGING IM DERECH ERETZ: Daniel Henninger,deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, addresses the rising concern about blogs and civility--particularly the proposed Bloggers Code of Conduct. It reminds me of King Arthur and the Round Table, which I suppose is part of the problem--it is an idea that evokes all that is good and noble, but ultimately depends on regular human beings and their foibles, as King Arthur himself discovered.

In the JBlogosphere, on the other hand, such issues conjure up images not of King Arthur but of the Chafetz Chaim, tz"l; not of a code of conduct but of the Laws of Loshon Hora--or at least they should. As tempting as Loshon Hora is when we talk to each other face to face, when we communicate virtually online, and can even avoid using our real name--how much greater are the temptations. How much the more so when attitude, wisecracks and worse are what seem to bring back our readers.

It's an enormous temptation.

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin relates:

The Chofetz Chaim was told that people might not want to learn the laws of speech because they feel they would anyway transgress them, one way or another. "I'm fully aware of that problem," said the Chofetz Chaim. "I have even spoken to R' Yisroel Salanter about it. He told me, 'It is worthwhile for someone to read your sefer on shemiras haloshon even if the only result will be a sigh when he completes it'" (Guard your Tongue, by Rabbi Pliskin, p.5).

As JBloggers, concerned with Loshon Hora and the potential for Chillul HaShem, we should not forget that sigh--and perhaps to pause a moment to consider--before sending our thoughts out into the Internet.

Technorati Tag: JBlogosphere and Blogging.

THE JBLOGOSPHERE CAN AFFORD TO DO NO LESS: Hugh Hewitt writes On The Building Up Of Good Blogs

...I do think that the center-right blogs are always eager to build up their center-right colleagues with talent because of a Reagan-like optimism about a growing blogosphere with room for thousands of talents, and of an underlying ethic of helpfulness which I have seen often among the better bloggers (though on the left as well as the right.) I also think you overestimate how much "help" was extended to the hard-working bloggers you mentioned. They got traffic the old-fashioned way: They earned it with interesting reporting and analysis. [Hat tip: Larwyn]

I think it fair to say that in general we are blogging not only because we have a talent for it and enjoy it but because of a desire to help Jews, Judaism and Israel. We cannot afford to overlook that unity of purpose and must act accordingly--if not by linking, at least by not allowing disagreements to flare up into something worse.

Technorati Tag: JBlogosphere.

THE JBLOGOSPHERE AND HASBARA: Israelity has a post about Ra’anan Gissin, Ariel Sharon's former spokesperson about how Hasbara should be done--and where blogs fit in.

There is more about how Gissin thinks Hasbara should be handled in this YNet.com article last year in November.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Ra’anan Gissin and Hasbara .

HAARETZ ON THE JBLOGOSPHERE. Before, during, and after the war with Hizbollah. (Hat Tip: Israelity)

Technorati Tag: Israel and JBlogosphere.

SO, YOU WANT LINKS?! Judeopundit has a number of links to interesting posts in the JBlogosphere. While you're there, take a look at Judeopundit's own posts--like the one on Jewish identity envy.

Technorati Tag: Jews.

Michael Freund on Israel and the Blogosphere

From the Jerusalem Post:

As archeologists continue to excavate the site of the Mughrabi Gate alongside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, it remains anybody's guess what they might just find underneath the mounds of soil, rock and debris.

But one item already unearthed by this dig should have us all deeply concerned, and that is the mainstream media's disgraceful habit of parroting Arab propaganda.

As one tool for addressing the problem:

In order to better counter the Arab propaganda machine, the Jewish state should actively reach out to its many supporters in cyberspace, and especially in the blogosphere, for help in disseminating the truth.

Freund suggests how to tap into the potential of the Blogosphere--and not just the JBlogosphere:

This can be accomplished by launching a concentrated and effective outreach effort aimed specifically at influential bloggers, who should be courted with the same resources and commitment as the mainstream press.

The government and Jewish groups should begin by organizing periodic fact-finding tours of Israel for key bloggers, giving them a chance to learn firsthand about the situation here in the region.

An annual conference of pro-Israel bloggers, attended by key Israeli statesmen and personalities, could help to galvanize what is already a burgeoning network of support for the Jewish state.

It is also crucial that Israeli spokesmen and leaders take the blogosphere into account when formulating their media strategies and messaging tactics, both by sending them relevant information and making sure to keep them in the loop.

SURE, mainstream entities such as CNN, the BBC and The New York Times will continue to dominate the news business for years to come. But the battle for public opinion is far from being a lost cause. Israel just needs to start thinking a little more creatively about how to wage the battle. By working with our allies in the blogosphere, Israel can begin to turn the tide in its favor and chip away at the falsehoods being spread by the press.

If we can't beat the media, let's circumvent it. Reaching out to bloggers seems like a good place to start.

One Jerusalem has taken steps by inviting bloggers to conference calls with Natan Sharansky, Bibi Netanyahu and others. One thing that I would like to see is resource material--especially video--made available for bloggers for reinforcing the impact of their posts.

The key is to see to what degree Israel follows up on Freund's suggestions.

Update: This is not the first time the idea has been raised about Israel looking towards blogs as a way of getting the word out and bypassing the MSM. Way back in October 2003, Israel actually held a conference about advocacy where the topic of blogs was raised and An Unsealed Room was there:

Pow-Wow at the Israeli Foreign Ministry

If blogging has been light over the past few days, it's because I've been in Jerusalem most of the time attending this:

The Foreign Minister is currently hosting a three-day seminar to coordinate public relations efforts with heads of three privately funded Israel advocacy groups.

Gideon Meir, the ministry's deputy director-general for Public Affairs, said that "taking into consideration that the public relations budget is continuously on the decline, the fact that groups have sprouted up to help Israel advocacy in the US, and provide services worth a great deal of money, is something very welcomed by the Israeli government."

Among those attending the seminar are Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi, head of the Israel Project, which conducts polling and focus group studies, helping the government craft its messages abroad, and Larry Weinberg from Israel 21C, a group that places stories about Israel dealing with matters other than the conflict in the media.

I am sad to report that the Israeli government officials I am meeting with have never even HEARD of a blog. Sort of kills the theories about the Israelis paying off people like Charles and Michael.

Seriously, I have been trying to make some of them understand that there are these amazing people out there called bloggers who are advocating for Israel for FREE on their own time -- and many of them aren't Jewish OR fundamentalist Christians.

Go over to An Unsealed Room's original post to read her other impressions.

Over 3 years later and Michael Freund has to reintroduce the idea.
Not a good sign.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Blogging and JBlogosphere.

The Inaugural Issue of JPix Is Up!

What is JPix?

Bagel Blogger explains the idea:

Simply put JPix is a carnival for Jews and their pictures, it doesn't necessarily have to be that 'joyous expression of art' which photography can capture, it doesn't have to be just about photos of Eretz Israel, though they are most welcome, its not even about communicating some deep spiritual meaning in a long photo essay, although that's alright too, its about two things.

You're Jewish and you have photos you want to share, wether they be family, historical, artful, funny, quirky its about sharing, so with out further ado, we now begin to look at what is in essence a virtual 'part of us'.

This issue of JPix is broken down into the following categories:

• Eretz Israel
• Sights, Out and About
• Family and Friends
• Occasions
• Art for Arts sake

Go take a look at photos from around the JBlogosphere.

Technorati Tag: Jpix 1 and Jpix and Jewish Photography and Jewish Photography Carnival and JPix CarnivalJ Pix Carnival and Jewish Art and Jewish Photos and Blogs and Jewish Photo Blogs and Jewish Photo Essays and Israel and Photos and Jewish Creativity and Jewish and Israel and JewishBagelBlogger and Bagel Blogger

Dore Gold Addresses The JBlogosphere

On Thursday, One Jerusalem hosted a conference call with Ambassador Dore Gold, author of
The Fight For Jerusalem.

Besides myself, the other bloggers taking part in the conference call were Boker Tov Boulder, Atlas Shrugs, Soccer Dad, Tel Chai Nation, Meryl Yourish, American Thinker, Muqata, Daled Amos.

Among the points Ambassador Gold made were:

• Jews were the majority population in Jerusalem as far back as 1863--according to the British Foreign office, there were 15,000 residents in Jerusalem, of whom 8,000 were Jews.
  
  
• Jihadism today is not based on a feeling of having grievances against the west; it is based on victory.
  
  
• Giving over Jerusalem to the Islamic forces will increase--not decrease--terrorism and empowers the enemies of the US, Israel, and the West, just as the defeat of Russia initially empowered bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Giving away Jerusalem will create a "Jihadi Tsunami."
  

You can listen to the audio of the call here.

Technorati Tags: Dore Gold and The Fight For Jerusalem and Jerusalem.

Life-Of-Rubin: Haveil Havlim #104--The ABC's of the JBlogosphere

This week, Life-of-Rubin hosts Haveil Havalim #104. This week's issue is presented in a little different format: alphabetically.

Think of it as the ABC's of the J-Blog community. It's also a great way to meet some of the bloggers by their actual names. Instead of just knowing them by their blogs.

Go on over and see what this past week of the JBlogosphere looks like.


Next week's issue of Haveil Havalim will be hosted by Soccer Dad at dhgerstman at hotmail dot com.

You can always submit one or two of your best Israel or Judaism related posts to dhgerstman at hotmail dot com.

If you'd like to host an upcoming edition you can e-mail Soccer Dad at the same address.

You can also submit entries to Haveil Havalim using either Conservative Cat's submission form or the submission form at BlogCarnival--where you can also find past posts and future hosts.

Listed at the Truth Laid Bear Ubercarnival.

Technorati Tags: Blog carnivals, haveil havalim, Israel, Judaism.