My most brilliant blog friend, Esther, of MyUrbanKvetch.com, recently sent around a query for a new article about how blogging connects to one’s Jewishness. Asketh she:
How does your involvement in Jewish blogging (as a blog writer, reader or commenter) inform or expand your Jewish (or spiritual) identity?
Does it provide opportunities for you to become more connected to your Jewish (or spiritual) side, or does the anonymity of the internet create a certain sense of removal and/or disconnect?
To which I provided a long-winded response, in keeping with my often pedantic tone:
I think that blogging—which is, after all, commentary on our daily lives—holds a particular resonance with Jews, who have a long tradition of incisive examination of themselves and the world around them. It might even be said that the Talmudic Aggadata, with its reflections on folklore, history and everyday advice, was the ancestor of the modern day blog.
Blogging fills a need for many people— particularly those, like young adults, who crave such an outlet— to express their innermost thoughts, semi-anonymously, but with the opportunity for recognition and response from others, outside of their direct peer-circle. It provides an avenue to form “virtual” friendships, built on shared interests and ideas– which may lead to real-world friendship. This is especially important for Jewish individuals in much of the US, where fractionated communities have seen an ever-increasing decline in synagogue attendance and participation in “Jewish life.” Worriers among our people have wrung their hands over the prospect of “The Vanishing American Jew,” (both a 1964 Look magazine cover story, and a 1997 book by Alan Dershowitz), while evangelical Christian groups have seen it as an opportunity to proselytize for new converts.
See:
- “American Jews in the New Millenium”
- “Will Your Grandchildren be Jews?”
- 1980 report “Christian Witness to the Jewish People”
Jewish blogs (as well as Jewish Web sites, in general) allow a reconnection to other Members of the Tribe, with immediacy and intimacy unavailable before the Internet. On the local, more personal basis, blogs give people the ability to share ideas and news with a small (or potentially huge!) group of interested individuals, bypassing traditional media to speak directly to readers. English language blogs from Israel, for example, are a lifeline to forming a fuller picture of the “reality on the ground.” Some examples (chosen at random) include:
While blogs themselves won’t replace religious or social institutions, they can do much to enhance them. Blogs are already being used by campaigns, media and entertainment outlets as a way for fans and supporters to feel more connected to each other. In politics, blogging was an essential component of the presidential bid for now-Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean, who went on to start “BlogForAmerica.com”. Since then, the use of blogs has been adopted by political candidate of all stripes in local and national elections. As the Internet continues to grow to be the central resource for communication and discourse, the use of blogs, and other similar community-builders like podcasts and online forums, will only expand in influence. For individual Jews, who may have felt alone in a seemingly hostile world, this can only be A Good Thing.
Thanks to the lovely Ms. K for the impetus to write.
My pleasure to have inspired, in any small way, a foray into Jewish identity. One article’s done, the other yet to come…my only regret is that I can’t include your entire piece of brilliance. My readers will have to do with mere fragments, alas…