West SaiiideFurther to my previous article, it looks like the Jewish Week is going to be a hosting a lecture titled “Is the Internet Good for the Jews? Online Community, Blogging and Ethics.” The press release describes the event as follows:

How far can a virtual Jewish community go in replacing a real Jewish community? Are voyeurism, rudeness and other online pitfalls antithetical to Jewish values? Which Jewish blogs are most influential? How can the Jewish community make better use of the Internet to promote its causes?

This discussion will feature Gary Rosenblatt of the Jewish Week, Jewcy.com’s managing editor Izzy Grinspan, author Rabbi Joshua Hammerman (Temple Beth El, Stamford CT), and Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz’s chief U.S. correspondent.

It promises to be a rollicking good time as a panel made up of old media people and one Jewcy editor pontificate on the Jewish blogosphere. Me? I’ll be in New York and wouldn’t miss this for the world. I will be bringing my gang along and yes, feel free to expect some West Side Story type shenanigans. Too bad Mr. Imbecile lives in Seattle otherwise I am certain he would have been invited to speak given that he’s the Jewish blogosphere’s leading expert on victimization, civility and whining.

But in all seriousness, this is an important issue. How do we reconcile prohibitions against Lashon Harah and what we do on blogs every day? Are online communities an adequate replacement for real world communities and what does this mean within a Jewish context?

The lecture is slated to take place on Feb 6th at the Jewish Community Project, 146 Duane St., SOHO, New York, NY at 7:30 pm. Free admission, reservations strongly recommended.
RSVP to [email protected].

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About the author

ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

15 Comments

  • Please let them know that that if it wasn’t for blogging I’d having nothing Jewish to do on Shabbos.

  • Has ‘imbecile’ become a new favourite term of yours? 😉

  • May we some day have a year where a significant event occurs or a piece of technology is invented and NO ONE asks themselves and others ‘is that good for the jews’?

    What kind of self centred bastards are we that we can’t go more than 10 posts without asking it implicitly or explicitly?

  • “Please let them know that that if it wasn’t for blogging I’d having nothing Jewish to do on Shabbos.”

    Bwahahaha! Yes, ditto!

    CK–does “West Side Story” antics mean that you and your gang are going to put on some stylin’ dance routines? Maybe wearing ninja costumes?

    Gila

  • Oh, and ck, how come we never manage to be in NYC at the same time?

  • froylein: It seems I’ve been in NYC a lot of late. The reason why we never manage to be there at the same time it seems to me is because you have yet to leave Dusseldorf!

    gila: gettin’ my ninja costume ready as we speak…

  • I usually fly from Frankfurt as my fav airline flies from there. I’ll probably be in NYC during my next break in March.

  • So who said I won’t be in NYC in March? The Jewlicious Festival will be from Feb 29 to March 2nd, I am hanging bit on the West coast and then off to NYC in March. Look for me on the street, I’ll be wearing a ninja costume and a necklace made out of shrunken anarchist heads!

  • If I go there, it’ll be somewhere around 20th March. I think I might be able to recognize you going by that description. Unless someone’s trying to imitate you, then I might end up confused.

  • Too bad, I’ll be on tour with Subliminal, so I’ll have to “miss” this event. I trust there’ll be a recap.

  • West Side Story type shenanigans? Does this mean we’re going to have a dance-off? Because I was a Jet in the 8th grade play, so I can totally out-snap the lot of you.

    Kidding. I’m genuinely psyched that you guys are coming, and excited to hear what you all have to say.

  • Izzy Grinspan? On Jewlicious???

    *swoon*

    I’ll probably be too tongue tied to say anything. As it is I can barely type let alone engage in witty repartée.

    But yeah. Dance off. That’s exactly what I had in mind…

  • So, what WAS said last night; or were you guys to busy with Bernstein nostalgia?