For those who remain skeptical about the Internet Revolution, we direct your attention to the 2007 General Assembly of United Jewish Communities/the Federations of North America, which took place in Nashville, Tenn., last month.
The lineup of speakers included a wide array of Jewish thinkers, teachers, leaders and tastemakers, ranging from the plenary's scholar-in-residence Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, of Yeshiva University, to writer/editor/consultant/blogger Esther Kustanowitz, whose speech at the GA is excerpted on this page.
Kustanowitz believes that Jews in particular have embraced the kind of social networking that the Internet allows. Her thesis is supported not only anecdotally (ask any 20-year-old) but also by a variety of facts having to do with the nature of Judaism itself.
Robin Treistman, an editor at the Knesset Web site, writes in a paper on Judaism and the Internet that from a Jewish point of view, "there is actually a very positive side to the Internet and its content."
"If there is a useful tool available that can help spread Torah Judaism to other Jews, then not only can one use it; one should use it," she writes. "Tens of thousands of Jewish Web sites covering a very wide range of topics and concerns have sprouted up on the Internet. To cite a few, one can find Web sites with Jewish articles and printed lectures on all levels - for one who is less versed in the texts to one who spent years in intensive Jewish study. Additionally, Jewish texts and their translations, list-servers providing Jewish courses via email, 'ask the rabbi,' the Jewish calendar, learning Hebrew, geography of Israel, statistics of the Jewish Diaspora, how to run a synagogue, matchmaking, Sabbath times around the world, are some topics available to any user, but directed at the worldwide Jewish community."
So the Jewish embrace of the Internet can, at its best, be both social and educational - a powerful combination.
And then there are the entertainment possibilities. If you visit Kustanowitz's own blog, for example, at estherkustanowitz.typepad.com, you'll find "8 Nights of Hanukkah, As Told by Jewish Celebrities," an animated romp that spoofs Jon Stewart and Dr. Ruth, among others. (We'll leave it to the YouTube posters to debate whether Madonna actually qualifies as a Jewish celebrity.)
As for the generation gap that Kustanowitz and others have noted, it may not be as wide as some think. Embracing the opportunities that any new technology presents, from the printing press to the telephone to the Internet, has less to do with age and more to do with attitude. In fact, we're willing to bet that a good number of the 1.5 million hits a month that our own Web site gets come from readers whose generation, in alphabetical terms, comes long before X or Y.
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