by shamirpower · Saturday, February 16th, 2008
Attention Jewschool readers: Jewschool is looking for a new Tech Director. Be part of a unique team of Jewish bloggers by bringing it all together with wordpress. This is a volunteer position that could also be our designer, or could supervise a designer. Below is a basic list of qualifications. Interested applicants should email letter of intent and any questions to editor-at-jewschool-dot-com by Sunday, March 2.
-expertise in html/css
-basic working knowledge of php, mysql and javascript
-ability to manipulate and/or create wordpress themes
-basic linux server administration skills (specifically the ability to
-install and update software, create email accounts, monitor bandwidth
usage, etc.)
-photoshop experience preferred
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
Since we’ve now completed another year, it’s time for our annual, highly idiosyncratic, completely unscientific, best–of round up. Happy (secular) new year from all of us here at Jewschool! More »
by biz · Monday, December 10th, 2007
CK at Jewlicious has decided to hold a poll. We’ve all been blessed with a glorious opportunity: “to decide who you feel is more Jewy, good for the Jews, cool or Jewlicious.”
While not condoning what really seems to be a simple popularity contest, if its going to happen, Jewschool’s founder Mobius should be getting your votes. So point your mouse over there and do it!
by BZ · Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
Dan “Mobius” Sieradski, founder of Jewschool, gave this speech yesterday at the GA.
Yet it is my belief that the next big Jewish idea will not be hatched inside a board room. It will not be the result of a research study. It will not come from within an institution at all. Rather, the next big Jewish idea will be the work of a young, independently minded individual seeking to address the needs of his or her own self or his or her own immediate community.
But the next big Jewish idea will not meet institutional funding guidelines — or at least, that’s what the rejection letters will say. It will be for any number of reasons: The project is too local; too global; too narrow; too ambitious; the subject too political; the creators too eccentric. Perhaps they’re more creatively-minded than business-minded and are thus bad at writing grants. Maybe they’re too young, or too idealistic.
And sometimes the grantmaker themselves are so disconnected from the realities of what the Jewish public needs — like the funders who don’t even have a computer on their desks — that you’re done before you’ve even started. Sometimes funders just don’t get it; or they do get it and they feel threatened by it. They’re afraid to give up too much control. They want safer bets.
Read on.
by masthead · Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
Started in December 2002 as a way to get the word out about cool events and lefty Israel news, Jewschool is now bigger and better than any of its founders ever could have dreamed. Originally a side project of Daniel J. Sieradski, a.k.a. “Mobius,” Jewschool quickly became home to a group of young Jews who were just learning about the blogosphere. Only later did we become an influential part of the larger network of the first generation of “J-bloggers” (Jewish bloggers).
Today we are a diverse group of reporters, reviewers, and ranters bringing you—our tens of thousands of readers—news, views, religion, and cultural criticism from the progressive sector of the Jewish world. Along the way, we not-infrequently scoop the mainstream Jewish press. The Times of London has called us the third most influential religion blog in the world and New Voices awarded us Best Blog of 2006. Over the years we’ve also won numerous accolades from the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards and shout-outs from the established secular and Jewish press. And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, who can forget the “True Jewschool” incident? Most importantly, Jewschool dares to do what others cannot: It pries Judaism from the grip of the Jewish establishment and serves it up to the public with the insistence, “This belongs to all of us.”
None of this would have been possible without Mobius’ vision, leadership, sweat, tears, and love. For nearly five years, Mobius has lived and breathed Jewschool. Now, confident about Jewschool’s place in the Jewish universe, Mobius has decided to move on to a new position as Director of New Media at JTA. Mazal tov! Today will be Mobius’ final day as editor in chief and blogger of Jewschool. You can keep up with him at his personal blog, Orthodox Anarchist.
As for us, Jewschool as you know and love it will continue to rock and roil the Jewish world. As of today Jewschool’s leadership will pass to a four-member core team drawn from our current editorial staff. During a brief transition period, all of us on the editorial staff will be working hard on exciting plans to expand our circle of contributors, increase our coverage, and continually refine our vision in order to bring you the best in Jewish blogging.
We invite you to leave congratulations to Mobius and wishes for the future either in the comment section of this post or in Mobius’ final post.
Media inquiries and submissions should be sent to editor – at – jewschool – dot – com.
by Mobius · Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
[Moses] hurled the tablets from his hands.
Why did Moses break the tablets? And what did breaking them accomplish? Early readers asserted that Moses’ action agreed with the Divine intent, and that G-d acknowledged this to Moses, saying “More power to you that you broke them” [Talmud Shabbat 87a]. But we know the Sages also said that breaking an object in anger is tantamount to idol worship; and if they said such a thing with respect to breaking an ordinary object, how much more so would it be the case with tablets “inscribed by G-d’s finger”?
I see the answer to the questions I have posed to be inherent in the statement of the early Sages that when Moses broke the tablets, the writing peeled off of them and the letters became ethereal. Whoever said that said quite a bit. For in creating the golden calf, our ancestors demonstrated that they had not yet reached a refined stage of faith, inasmuch as they could not imagine G-d as an elusive One who sees but cannot be seen. They rather chose a god which they could see and whose physicality they could touch.
When Moses saw this, and knew that he was descending the mountain with two tablets in his hands — tablets that were physical and that contained a sensible script — he feared lest the physicality of the tablets and the writing would give affirmation to the people’s views and would validate their error. And thus, Moses shattered the tablets, to teach the Israelites not only that G-d has no physicality, but also that G-d’s Torah cannot be embodied, and is not in need of tablets, but rather is alive with an independent endurance like G-d’s word and spirit.
–Arnold Ehrlich, Mikra Ki-feshuto on Exodus 32:19
Who owns Judaism? Who has the power to interpret and apply Jewish law? Who determines what gets into and left out of the canon? Who determines what is and is not Jewish? Who is Jewish? Who speaks with the voice of the Jewish people? Who represents our community? Who determines policy? Who steers the Jewish future? Who controls our collective destiny?
In the 4¾ years I have served as publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewschool, these are the questions that I have asked, time and time again. You might say it was my syllabus. Jewschool was my classroom; the Internet, my campus.
Not many people realize that I’m a college dropout. They’d be surprised to know that Jewschool has been, for me, the equivalent of getting a homeschool education in Jewish studies. Indeed, many of you have been my teachers and classmates. Others perhaps schoolyard bullies. (Yes, I’ve been a bully too.) And maybe I was a teacher somewhere in there as well. Maybe. I’m more prone to believe that the informality of my education stands glaringly evident. Sure, my time in Jerusalem helped (thank you Jay Michaelson and the Dorot Foundation). But perhaps nothing helped as much as you folks holding my feet to the fire and constantly showing me what a dick I am.
The hype aside, the truth is that I started Jewschool just for the hell of it. I never imagined that years later I’d be standing in front of an audience at the UJA Federation talking about Jewish Internet culture, or that I’d be getting shout outs in the NY Times, or that people would recognize me on the streets in Brooklyn and Jerusalem as a “celebrity blogger.” I never thought this gig would get me chicks (yes, yes, curdle at my insensitivity), or that it would get me paid. (Though it did.) I knew it would get me into trouble. That much seemed certain. And my, oh my… I was on the money there.
Really, all I had was a sense of purpose, and even at that, one that remains miserably undefined to this very day. Theologically speaking, I guess that’s the way I like things: Formless yet always in the process of taking shape. Practically speaking, no grant-making organization in its right mind would take a bet on that horse. “Please lend your financial support to my process of becoming.” Ahem, no.
And what of that becoming? I have, at one point or another, assumed every imaginable position, argued from every conceivable angle, and owned the role of devil’s advocate. I have proffered some of the most infuriating, provocative, futile, contorted, and sophistic statements ever committed to a MySQL database. And I have made an ass of myself more times than I care to recall. But damn it, I got people talking.
I also unwittingly built a refuge. By creating a space for the freakim to congregate, I created an opportunity for disparate, disenfranchised Jews to come together like Voltron. I am often told by readers who I run into, or who contact me online, that I have either lent articulation to their beliefs or provided them with a sense of validation and community. Their praise helps me to believe I did something right, even if I’m not sure what I did, or what I’m doing still.
Nonetheless, the opportunities that Jewschool has brought me, the relationships it has enabled, the knowledge it has imparted — these are the greatest gifts I could have ever hoped to receive.
The greatest gift I could hope to have given?
Who owns Judaism?
It’s like the old Zen kōan, “Who is the master who makes the grass green?”
The answer is “You.”
If I’ve accomplished anything meritorious in my tenure, I hope it has been imparting that knowledge to at least one person.
***
Az, nu? Why all the reminiscing? The hemming and hawing? The self-congratulatory trope?
This is my last post as publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewschool.
I have officially resigned effective as of, well… Right now.
And tomorrow is a brand new day.
(Click that link for further details about my departure from Jewschool and what it means for me professionally and for Jewschool itself. Much love to the Jewschool editorial board for Jewin’ It Yourselves; and wistfully pouty-faced goodbyes to all.)
Since December 2002: 12,552 posts. 38,959 comments. 78 contributors. 5 servers. 1 hell of a ride.
by BZ · Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
It’s midnight and I’m here at the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute, in a room with Shamirpower, Yehudit Brachah, Kung Fu Jew, Last Trumpet, Ruby K, ZT, and the Rooftopper Rav, all talking about Jewschool. We miss you!
by Mobius · Sunday, July 15th, 2007
Libby Purves, the religion columnist for the Times of London, has named Jewschool one of the 30 most influential religion blogs online. Check out the whole list here.
by Josh Frankel · Sunday, July 8th, 2007
What happens when a reporter from Haaretz decides that American Jewish culture is being replaced by the internet, and that ROI 120 is a conference designed to advance that project? You get a horrible, rambling article, with a really bad title that mentions some great people. But, really bad title. I mean, who on Earth would think that an article on the American Jewish internet would hide behind this link?
Anyway, once you get there, you’ll find an article that begins with JewTube, gives our very own Sarah and Chosen Couture props, slides along the bay to Tomer Altman and Oy Bay, before wrapping up with a big hand to Jewschool for representing the serious side of the Jewnet.
by shamirpower · Monday, July 2nd, 2007
We’re just returning from the beautiful simcha of Last Trumpet’s wedding at DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA. After a brief sunshower, we enjoyed amazing food and danced to the funky rhythms of SoulFarm.
In this picture: Ruby K, Feygele, Last Trumpet, Shamir Power, and MH.
Have fun in Amsterdam, and then Israel!
by aaronf · Thursday, June 21st, 2007
While in Israel with the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour, fellow comic Ray Hanania and I visited the west bank town of Ramallah. This guy honors his coreligionists as Machsom Watch and B’Tselem honors ours.
by YehuditBrachah · Monday, May 21st, 2007
“Indulge your creative side with GesherCity as we present Jewish art and media from New York City blended with Boston’s local scene” the postcard ad says. It’s a GesherCity Boston event on June 12 called HaMisiba (”the Party”), framing itself as a night of hip young Jew scene, at Phoenix Landing in Cambridge. I’m kind of irked. Don’t we have enough Jewish hip things going on in Boston that we don’t need to import it from New York?
I’m third generation Jewish Bostonian. Born and raised in the land of baked beans and frappes, Patriot’s day and the packie, the T and the Sawx, and I love that dirty water. Boston’s Jewish community is vibrant and even innovative. The Combined Jewish Philanthropies is a thriving arm of the federation that single-handedly created the position of synagogue educator by making community education a funding priority. Kosher restaurants, synagogues of every kind throughout the Boston area, young Jews and old Jews, indie minyans and enormous centuries old stained-glass structures — Boston’s a place in which you can make a Jewish life without a struggle.
Now, it may have to do with the Red Sox-Yankees battle of good over evil (and we will prevail, Ruby K, check those standings!), or it may be the smog, or it may be stubborn pride mixed with thinly veiled jealousy, but I really hate it when people act like the only thing cool and Jewish going on in America is in New York City. True, a huge number of American Jews live in New York City, and I think I still don’t fully understand the Jewyness of the place even after having visited it countless times, but still: we’ve got our own thang over here. And so do they in San Fran, Hotlanta, D.C., Miami, Philly, not to mention L.A. Why do we always have to be looking over our shoulder at what New York is doing? Do we really have to import Jewish culture from New York in order to be cutting edge?
And yet… as I write this from an apartment in Jerusalem, approaching my first Shavuot at the Kotel, I do know that it feels like the center of the universe here sometimes. Many times. Maybe because it is the center to my Diaspora. And I know that sometimes sheer quantity of people makes innovation happen, and although we are robust, we in the Hub of the Universe (that’s Beantown for those not in the know) don’t have the several million Jews crammed into one place to birth some of the stuff happening down in New York or happening here in Israel.
Maybe the difference is how we consider our Diasporas? What we consider their centers to be? For many Jews whose families come from New York or who grew up in New York, New York is the obvious Jerusalem to their Ann Arbor, or Washington, or even Boston. As someone who appreciates Israel but has no intention of making aliyah, who values both center and Diaspora equally and defines her role in the Jewish world as being completely tied up in the Diaspora, I submit that when we start appreciating and highlighting the unique contributions of all our many Diaspora communities, both can only become richer.
Oh yeah, and this GesherCity event, HaMisiba? It looks pretty cool. Check it out. Jewschool may show up to wow the crowd, stay tuned.
by Mobius · Sunday, May 20th, 2007
I’ve moved back to America, drawing to a close three years of living in Jerusalem. I’m now sitting in my parents’ house in Teaneck, and after Shavuous will be moving out to Isabella Freedman for three months to do an internship at Elat Chayyim. Following that, I haven’t yet decided what to do with my life. I’m thinking about applying to start a Moishe House up in Ithaca. Other than that, if someone has a job offer in NY that pays well enough for me to live in Brooklyn, holler.
by Mobius · Friday, April 27th, 2007
JVoices was hacked yesterday and its entire database wiped out by a hacker posing, believe it or not, as Harley from Jewbiquitous, another Jewish weblog.
Unfortunately, restoring the site from our webhoster’s backup cost us $125, and I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for rent these days. Please consider making a donation to help us cover the cost of this procedure.
[Update] Great news! It actually looks to me like this was a software glitch and not a hack at all…
Call me silly, but I forgot that I’d moved over to a new database setup yesterday (a one-click modification via Media Temple’s control panel, and one so simple I’d forgot I’d even done it) and am guessing that the data didn’t properly migrate. According to Harley at Jewbiquitous, she visited JVoices and landed at the Wordpress installation screen (which is what you sometimes get when the database becomes corrupted) and put in her data, thus giving me the impression that someone had come in, wiped out the data, and put her information in instead.
In other words, there was no hack, there was no malicious anything, and I think I may be able to get Media Temple to cover the expense whereas it was technically a fault in their software.
If this proves to be the case, and they cover the cost of the restore procedure (which will otherwise set me back $125 I don’t have) I will refund everyone’s donations.
Otherwise, this is great news, frankly, because I was rather perplexed as to how someone would have gained access to JVoices database and wiped out its content. I was worried that someone had gained administrative access to my entire database server and was sweating when the next attack would come. Now I know that this is not the situation.
Thank G-d for small blessings.
If anyone wants their money back on principle, knowing that this unexpected glitch was not a result of malicious behavior, please let me know, and I will be happy to return your generous donation. And I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone who contributed — it was really generous and honorable of you, and I thank you for your support.
by Rooftopper Rav · Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
Who’s heading south (or north) to the National Havurah Committee (NHC) Chesapeake Retreat this Shabbat? Jewschool will represent. So far we’ve got BZ, Ruby K, Shamirpower, ZT, and yours truly. Who else is in?
There’ll be awesome classes, davening to blow the roof off, hikes, song sessions, a Jewish book swap, organic farming lessons, Talmud study, yoga, and a post-Shabbat klezmer jam. And it’s supposed to be 70 degrees on Saturday. What more could a funky Jew(ess) want?
by Mobius · Thursday, April 5th, 2007
And by that I mean, send us your Jewishly themed background images to be featured on Jewschool. Upload your hi-res images to Flickr or some other photosharing service and e-mail us the URL. If we choose your photo, it will become the background image on Jewschool for a full week, and announced in a post that will feature a blurb about anything you’d like to tell us about.
For best composition, images should be of a darker nature (and by that I mean lower lighting), the main object should be to the right of the frame (so it doesn’t get completely covered up by the blog posts), and the document itself should be large enough that it doesn’t look like ass when cropped to 1440×800.
Artists and pro-photographers are welcome to submit images to be featured along with a post profiling you and your work. Jewish participants needn’t be doing Jewishly-themed work, though non-Jewish participants ought to make submissions meaningfully connect to Jewish subjects.
Fire up yer iPhoto and holla.
by Mobius · Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
Jason Maoz at the Jewish Press has an interesting strategy for making his blog relevant — picking fights with me. I suppose he figures if he pisses me off often enough that I’ll keep driving traffic to his dinky little weblog and increase the Jewish Press’ share of the jblog market. So I’m gonna throw him his last bone here just to make a salient and long overdue point.
Call it my Al Gore moment — an unsettling moment of hubris if you must. But the sheer fact of the matter is that the Jewish Press now has a weblog because of me and everyone else’s other favorite blogger they love to hate, Steven I. Weiss.
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