Rocket Attack in Ashkelon
Filed under Israel, News
posted by David Tayne on May 16 2008
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Perks of Blogging for Jewneric
Filed under Jewneric
Jewneric treats its bloggers really really well. You should blog for them.
For instance, I received a beautiful trip to MashBash TLV (the first international MashMeet!). It is going to be full with all the movers and shakers of the Israeli tech scene, and Jewneric just happens to be a media partner!
So I get to go, mingle, talk up Jewneric, and enjoy the beautiful June Tel Aviv weather.
MashBash TLV is just a party that Mashable decided to throw for 800 members of the Silicon Wadi, that hopes to encourage real-life social and business networking with a 3 hour open bar in the Tel Aviv port.
For those that don’t know, Mashable is the predominant voice in social networking news. Moreover, its readership is full of the most tech-savvy early adopters, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, influencers, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. Mashable is also popular with bloggers and members of social networking sites.
Sounds like a perfect media partner for Jewneric, whose readership includes many of the same sorts of individuals.
posted by Ezra Butler on May 15 2008
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Sports, Religion & The Catskills: Part 3
Filed under Halacha, Jewish History, Jewish Life, Jewish Perspective, Philosophy
In the past few articles, I’ve postulated that people who follow pro-sports do so to try to be part of a team. I’ve also postulated that people holding on to old Jewish culture (such as Yiddish, the Catskills or gefilte fish) as an essence of Judaism are living in the past. If anything I said in those two article offended your sensitivities, I suggest you rethink your priorities. If what I say below does not offend or disturb you or at least make you reflect heavily on who you are, I again suggest you rethink your priorities. I say that assuming that my readers belong to some theological group be it monotheistic, atheistic or polytheistic. Agnostics are either cop-outs or people who are on their journey.
The suffix of the word theology demands thought.1 Theos, for those readers who never wondered, is the Greek word for god. Thinking about god, gods or the lack of gods. This seems to be separate from claims of religion. Certainly only after you want to put your chips down on one god or group of gods would you want to follow the religion carried out in its (/their) name(s).
I am a firm believer that most of my readers do not believe in a god. I don’t believe my readers are atheists and I don’t believe my readers are agnostics. I believe my readers and the majority of people are lazy. I am going to skip the belief in a god and deal with the religion, which is what people tend to worship anyway.
A few thoughts to ponder for those of you who are offended: If you were not born into the religion which you subscribe, do you think you would have chosen it? For converts and those of you who lied and answered in the affirmative: If you were born into a society without your religion do you imagine you would have left your society in search of it?
posted by David Gertler on May 13 2008
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Taking My Mind for a Walk
Filed under Humor, Jewish Perspective, Philosophy, Torah
One day, Mayer, my chavruta wondered out loud about how a prophet could identify that a particular event he saw would happen in the future; after all, the information that he was accessing was most likely coming from a “place” beyond the boundaries of time.
His question began a stream of consciousness that led me to remember a question that had once occurred to me: Can a gilgul (reincarnated soul) go back in time? When your soul leaves your body, it is most likely beyond the boundaries of time. If that is so and it decides to come back in order to fix something it left undone, why do we assume it will come back during a time that is further along the linear timeline from it’s death? And if it can go back in time, some of the people we are in contact with could have souls from our relative future. My soul might be from the relative future.
This thought led me to think: What do I mean when I say ‘my soul?’ Who is this ‘I’ that possesses the soul? Aren’t I my soul?
Then I started thinking that my relationship with my past is the closest I will come to experiencing death. When I look back at my past, it appears static, done, as I imagine my life will look to me after I die.
posted by Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh on May 12 2008
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The Jewneric Leadership Series: Jules Polonetsky
Filed under Leadership Series
Jewneric recently had the opportunity to speak with Jules Polonetsky, Chief Privacy Officer at AOL and a prominent Jewish leader. We asked him a series of questions to help us better understand and appreciate their significant contributions to our community.
Jules serves as Chief Privacy Officer and Senior Vice President at AOL. Prior to joining AOL in 2002, Jules worked as DoubleClick’s Chief Privacy Officer. He has also served as the NYC Consumer Affairs Commissioner for Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as a Brooklyn state legislator and a congressional staffer. He is a VP of Potomac’s Beth Sholom Congregation and board member of the Washington Jewish Federation, the JCRC and the local AIPAC leadership council.
posted by Jewneric on May 11 2008
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What Would You Do For $1 Million?
Filed under Jewish Blog, Jewish History, Jewish Perspective, Jewneric, Web 2.0
I’ve been tagged in a meme post by Jason Unger and now have to keep the progress going. The trick is figuring out how to tailor this question to fit Jewneric’s theme.
The Original Question:
Jewneric’s Mission Statement is:
“Jewneric is a Jewish blog which brings together a global community of diverse personalities to create a new forum for the Jewish voice.”
Our theme (as told to prospective contributors):
Write about anything you want so long as it be Jewish somehow. Write about what you love, what you are passionate about, what you are an expert it, just keep it Jewish somehow.
continue reading…
posted by Dave Weinberg on May 9 2008
1 Comment | Permalink
Musings on Yom Ha’Atzmaut
Filed under Holidays, Israel, Jewish Perspective
It’s hard for me to imagine; my mother-in-law was born into a world in which Israel did not exist. For two entire years of her life, there was no Jewish homeland, no refuge. Then again, there was also no Jewish/Palestinian conflict, jihad, suicide bombings, or assassinations of a Jewish Prime Minister by another Jew. There was no war, thus no need for peace, no Oslo Accord, no Camp David meetings, no UN sanction threats or United States political pressure. Bleeding heart liberalism was not yet to sweep through the American and European landscapes and militant Islam had yet to mature. On the other hand, the soil of Poland was still soaked with Jewish blood, the rivers still clogged with Jewish ash and the world still confounded about what to do with us. The stakes for the Jews were higher everywhere else in the world, but British-controlled Palestine was quiet, and swampy, and relatively peaceful. My, how times have changed.
continue reading…
posted by Rina Deutsch on May 8 2008
4 Comments | Permalink
Google’s Holocaust Memorial Portal
Filed under Community, Jewish History, Tech, Web 2.0
I wish I had seen this last week. It’s good to see that Google is using its resources as one of the largest and most powerful information gateways to spread the word and strengthen awareness of the Holocaust in an age in which people have been using the power of the internet to spread lies and false accusations and plant the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the accuracy of the historical record on such a black mark on human history.
Official Google Blog: Tell the Tale: Holocaust Remembrance Day
You Tube’s Yad Vashem channel in Arabic
posted by Seth Jacobson on May 8 2008
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Israel Hits 60!
Filed under Announcement, Holidays, Israel, Jewish Life
Tonight, celebrations for the 60th birthday of the State of Israel commenced with a torch lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem and will continue tomorrow with many more celebrations amidst many more threats and warnings. Everywhere you look, from Facebook to MSNBC, there are comments relating to Israel. A Facebook event has been created requesting that everyone change their display pictures to one of the two provided, depicting either an Israeli flag or the official logo of the 60th Yom Haatzmaut. MSNBC reported today that Israel is the country outside of the US that is most invested in the NASDAQ, mainly due to their advanced technology.
No matter where you are, what you do, remember this day, remember Israel, and remember that no matter how much they push and attack us, we will never go away! אם ישראל חי!!! AM YISRAEL CHAI!!! LONG LIVE ISRAEL!!!
posted by Tiffany Sameyah on May 7 2008
2 Comments | Permalink
Sports, Religion & The Catskills: Part 2
Filed under Jewish History, Jewish Life
The Catskill Mountains and Other Jewish Past-Perfect Had-Beens
Some of the reasons that the average person follows pro-sports (according to what we discussed) included an internal need to be part of a club and societal pressures. This week we will get a little closer and offend people more fiercely by reminding people that in the good old days racism was accepted, smoking was encouraged and the word “depression” was still politically correct.
Not everything in our past is good. Even if something was good that doesn’t mean it should be kept part of the present. The Model-T Ford was a breakthrough in automotive technology, but it belongs in a museum, not on the highway. Similarly there are nostalgic aspects of Jewish culture which should be put in a museum.
continue reading…