Nowadays, I read my news-and-views
mostly online. I still get a print newspaper delivered to my door every morning
– Haaretz in Hebrew (don't read too much into that!) but like you, I get most
of my news-and-views from social media, Internet viewspapers, and by visiting favorite
websites.
Beyond Israel, I find myself drawn
(sometimes like a moth to flame) to Facebook, Twitter, The NYT, WP, C-SPAN, PBS
Newshour, Politico, Roll Call, Real Clear Politics PEW, Drudge, gosh…I could go
on and on.
I'm always interested in discovering
genuinely fresh sources of "content" especially since so much of what
we read is regurgitated, curated, and aggregated.
In brainstorming about how I could
promote my book The Pater, my publicist suggested I check out Kveller. If nothing else, I tripped upon a great site.
It is, editor Molly Tolsky tells
me in an email, a website for women and parents who are raising kids through a
Jewish lens and looking to share, celebrate, and commiserate with like-minded
people. The site goes after readers from all different levels of observance and
experience, from "first-time parents, grandparents, interfaith parents,
queer parents, adoptive parents, and everything in between."
Kveller averages over 1 million
unique page views a month, she says.
People turn to Kveller for its personal
essays. "Our writers are relentlessly honest and unafraid to take on any
topic, whether light-hearted or taboo, as it relates to parenting, relationships,
careers, and so on," Tolsky says.
"We also feature an extensive
Jewish Baby Name finder, how-to guides for Jewish holidays and life-cycle rituals, recipes, an advice column called 'Dear Gefilte,' and exclusive blog
posts from Emmy-nominated Jewish actress and writer, Mayim Bialik, who stars on
CBS' The Big Bang Theory."
Kveller is named after the Yiddish
word, meaning to burst with pride (as over one's child... get it?), she prompts.
Kveller is part of 70 Faces Media, a
not-for-profit group which also runs the JTA.
II
I'M FOREVER asking people where they
turn for news-and-views.
When I posed this question to Shimon
Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre
for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada he wrote back:
"Elliot, there is no shortage of
excellent sites from which to glean important and insightful information
flowing from specifically Jewish perspectives. While my personal reading is
not, of course, limited to Jewish-specific sites, the ones that I review on a
regular basis include:
Commentary and Tablet magazines – both of
which provide very timely insights, albeit from different perspectives (the
former being more conservative and the latter more liberal). In addition,
Mosaic provides an excellent daily digest that I find very useful and the
Gatestone Institute has been producing some very strong and useful articles and
analysis that I have found very helpful."
British scholar Colin Shindler, emeritus
professor at the University of London and author of the just published The
Rise of the Israeli Right: From Odessa to Hebron tells me that he is "a great fan of
Harry’s Place http://hurryupharry.org/ which
focuses on the attitudes of the British and international Left towards Israel
and Zionism.
"It provides factual information which is often omitted
elsewhere. I also enjoy reading Jeffrey Goldberg’s website for his humour and
analysis of issues concerning the Jewish world. I appreciate Roger Cohen’s
insight, erudition and command of the English language in all his
writings."
Sally Berkovic, chief executive at
the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) in Europe is a voracious consumer of news
and views particularly as it relates to her work.
Shimon Cohen who runs the well-regarded THE PR OFFICEin London says he makes it a point to read Tablet, Forward and Jewish Journal. "I
read as much and as many as I can find and I have found these to be extensive
and authoritative. Then there's Failed Messiah which is to Jews what Fox News
is to the rest of the world."
So I asked Shmarya Rosenberg of FailedMessiah to tell me about his site.
During the "quiet summer time" he draws 200,000
visitors and about 1 million page views.
"I report on crime, corruption
and bad behavior, primarily in the haredi and Modern Orthodox/Zionist Orthodox
communities, but also on religion and state issues in Israel. I do it primarily
to expose the internal cover-ups related to these crimes and to provide some measure of protection and support for victims by doing so. As Justice Louis
Brandies said, sunshine is said to the best disinfectant."
III
OVER AT http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/
Rationalist Judaism, Natan Slifkin tells me a bit about his site: It is primarily
for people with a strong yeshiva education, a strong secular education, and
disturbed by much of what is taught in the Orthodox world.
The site is mostly a labor of love though sometimes he receives donations in response to offering monographs for download.
According to Slifkin: "It started primarily as an exploration of the rationalist approach to Judaism and how it differs from the mystical approach. This relates to everything from Torah/science issues to the size of a kezayis to the alleged merits of segulos to the role of Torah study. In the last few years I have also written a lot about haredi vs. non-haredi society, especially in Israel. This also relates to the non-rationalist divide, as I discuss on the site. So the site is an
unusual combination of scholarly writing and social commentary.
Sometimes these are intertwined. For example, when it comes to the issue of army service, there is a haredi claim that their Torah study protects. Many people disagree with this, but they don't actually debate its merits from a Torah perspective. On my website, I carefully analyzed this argument from several perspectives, including that of basis in traditional sources."
Slifkin
used to be very much part of haredi and still lives in a generally haredi
community. "This means that issues relating to haredim are very important
to me, and it also means that I have an insider's perspective on their worldview,
and are thus better qualified to critically evaluate it."
IV
LEAVE A COMMENT and let me know your favorite sources and sites – the more obscure or esoteric
the better!
And thank
you (loyal reader) for checking in on my blog over the past year.
Wishing
us all a year of health, creativity and peace (with security…of course!).
: - )
Elliot
4.
70 percent of Jewish
Israelis believe in God – obviously including the majority non-Orthodox
population
