Cross-posted to the Jewish Techs blog at The NY Jewish Week It’s the age old question: Is so-and-so Jewish or not? I’m not talking about the controversial “Who is a Jew” question that gets into matters of lineage. Rather, the dinner party question of whether a celebrity is Jewish or not. Occasionally I blog about…
In addition to writing the “Jewish Techs” blog for The NY Jewish Week, I am now writing a monthly technology column for the Detroit Jewish News titled “Jews in the Digital Age”. My first column (published this week) looked at how Facebook has affected the high school reunion. Have you noticed a difference (positive or…
In my last year of rabbinical school, I had an interesting conversation with a rabbi of a large congregation. He told me that he had put his foot down and refused to let his congregation create a synagogue-wide email LISTSERV. His rationale? This forum would be used by the membership to complain about the synagogue……
Cross-posted to the Jewish Techs blog at The New York Jewish Week Is Twitter a good medium for Judaism? Two articles were recently posted on the Web that took opposing viewpoints on this question. Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute and the director of the Engaging Israel Project, penned a critique titled “Judaism is…
There are certain things that we all read on the Web that we find unbelievable. Not “unbelievable” as in “amazing,” but events that simply cannot be believed. Some of these crazy things have actually occurred as reported, but many are simply hoaxes. Thank God for websites like Snopes.com to debunk these myths. Last week, my…
Cross-posted at the Jewish Techs blog (The Jewish Week) It’s not uncommon for tech savvy Jews in Cyberspace to develop online relationships with other Jews who frequent some of the same social networking sites and blogs. These relationships, however, often remain in Cyberspace. Sure, there are the occasional conferences and retreats in which techie Jews…
The whole media storm over the doctored photo of the National Security Team in the Situation Room (being briefed with the president and vice president on the Osama Bin Laden raid) has raised many questions and additional controversy. Yesterday, I took part in an ad hoc Facebook forum moderated by journalist Steven I. Weiss that…
Cross-posted to The Jewish Techs blog at The NY Jewish Week A big hat-tip to Failed Messiah (who gave a hat-tip to Critical Minyan) for breaking the news that an Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish newspaper, Der Tzitung, has determined that the photo of top U.S. leaders receiving an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden was too scandalous….
Here is my recent post on the “Jewish Techs” blog at the Jewish Week: Previously on the “Jewish Techs” blog, I discussed the technical halachic (Jewish legal) minutae surrounding the permissability of using the Amigo Shabbat Scooter from the Israeli-based Zomet Institute. The Shabbat Scooter is made by Michigan-based Amigo, founded by Allan Thieme, which…
Somehow, the rabbinic associations of both the Reform and Conservative movements decided to hold their conventions this week in our nation’s two most notorious cities of sin — New Orleans and Las Vegas respectively. I’m not attending either convention in person (does Twitter count?), but I have been following the speeches at the Rabbinical Assembly…