ShulShopper in JPost
JPost covers the ShulShopper launch and asks, “But is it relevant to Israel?”
Although ShulShopper, which lacks Hebrew capability, plans to expand to Israel in the near future, Friday’s launching focused on North American Jewish communities.
Sieradski is doubtful that Israelis will go for ShulShopper.
“We are aiming for the Anglo community here, especially tourists and students who are in Israel for a limited period of time. But I have no expectations for the sabra community, though in theory ShulShopper can be a useful tool for every Jew.”
Sieradski, who has lived in Israel for three years, said that in comparison to the diverse spiritual options available in North America, Israel has a very uniform spiritual world.
“Most Israelis are either mainstream Orthodox or totally secular. The few Reform or Conservative shuls that exist are simply not growing. That’s the reality and people accept it.”
In contrast, Sieradski said that anglos who live or visit in Israel are receptive to various “indie-minyans” (independent prayer groups) that explore alternative prayer styles.
Eh… What I said was that a lot of factors, including rabbinic hegemony and a lack of state backing, have prevented non-Orthodox expressions of Judaism from growing. I also said that while I don’t have any expectations, I’m eager to see what happens when the site offers Hebrew language support and whether or not it finds an audience or has any impact.
In related news, ShulShopper was featured today on CSS Mania, a site which indexes cutting edge web design, and has been awarded a rating of 7 out of 10 by the site’s community thus far. The mention brought in over 3,000 page views!
We’re now up to 200 congregations and 200 registered users, and we haven’t even imported the congregational databases yet!
Question: what happens when you upload something from the congregational database, when an entry already exists on the system? Do we have two entries for the same shul? Will one have prominence over the other?
we’ll do our best to locate duplicates and reconcile the data between the two
I’ve added a minyan to ShulShopper, butI haven’t been able to:
-list a sunday shacharit time that is different from weekday time
-list different mincha/ maariv schedules for ST and DST
can shulshopper do that?
Israelis just don’t care. When they want their Judaism, they want it right. None of that touchy-feely American crap. Same thing in Europe and South America, save for those historically important conservative and reform shuls such as in Budapest.
“Most Israelis are either mainstream Orthodox or totally secular. The few Reform or Conservative shuls that exist are simply not growing. That’s the reality and people accept it.â€
Jerusalem isn’t all there is. Why not take a look at the rest of Israel?
IS there any way of registering minyans within a shul (e.g. library minyans or the like) or do they have to be listed separately?
“I haven’t been able to:
-list a sunday shacharit time that is different from weekday time”
The “Other” choice can be quite helpful here. I got around this by simply adding another davening under “Other” rather than “Shacharit” and entitling it “Shacharit (Sundays)” with the new time.
Jerusalem needs it. Is there a Shir Hadash and Shira Hadasha? ShulShopper could have solved that one for me not too long ago.
I’ve added a minyan to ShulShopper, butI haven’t been able to:
-list a sunday shacharit time that is different from weekday time
-list different mincha/ maariv schedules for ST and DST
there are no settings for standard time and daylight savings time.
as per sunday, you could, under weekdays, add an “other” service and specify Sundays – Shacharit.
Israelis just don’t care. When they want their Judaism, they want it right. None of that touchy-feely American crap.
right, that’s why bayit chadash was so successful. that’s why there’s no room to stand at shira chadasha or yakar’s carlebach minyan. because such things are so damned unpopular.
Same thing in Europe and South America, save for those historically important conservative and reform shuls such as in Budapest.
right, that’s why reform judaism began in europe… because people there aren’t into it.
i fucking hate orthodox chauvinists.
Jerusalem isn’t all there is. Why not take a look at the rest of Israel?
bz, there are about 45 masorti congregations and 24 reform congregations in israel total, while the number of orthodox congregations is so high i can’t even count them. david druce visited over 1000 orthodox congregations in jerusalem alone and said he didn’t even make a dent.
IS there any way of registering minyans within a shul (e.g. library minyans or the like) or do they have to be listed separately?
yes, you can specify under “services” a minyan, like late minyan, early minyan, etc.
Who can change a shul profile? Anyone?
Mobius said: right, that’s why bayit chadash was so successful. that’s why there’s no room to stand at shira chadasha or yakar’s carlebach minyan. because such things are so damned unpopular.
I don’t know much about Bayit Chadash, but those other minyanim are primarily attracting Anglo immigrants/kids of immigrants and visitors to Israel, not long-time native Israelis. By and large I don’t think Israelis are into *Jewish* touchy-feely stuff, although many seem plenty enamored of touchy-feeling stuff that emanates from non-Jewish sources.
I did just hear about a new Shira Chadasha-style minyan in Jerusalem that’s mostly native Israelis. Significantly, though, it was described as “Shira Chadasha without the singing. They’re in and out on Shabbat in an hour and 45 minutes.” Doesn’t sound very touchy-feely, though it does sound like a small step forward for egalitarianism.
Re: Reform Judaism starting in Europe, I don’t think that citing its geographic origins is so relevant to whether its popular today in Europe. Reform Judaism back then was (or at least its practitioners were) very different than it is now.
Mobius writes:
bz, there are about 45 masorti congregations and 24 reform congregations in israel total, while the number of orthodox congregations is so high i can’t even count them.
Obviously. But you said “The few Reform or Conservative shuls that exist are simply not growing”, and, well, they are.
i actually didn’t say that..it was a misquote
Then WTF! The JPost sucks! But we knew that. 🙁
mobius and benj– I DID try the “other” option; it kept on switching to generic weekday and erasing the sunday part, when I tried to save it. I tried several times, actuallly.
thoughts?
also, yeah, I noticed there are no settings for ST/DST. Since lots of shuls and minyanim do have different schedules for them, could it be put on the list of things to be added to a future version of ShulShopper?
As flattered as I am to be quoted in the Post, they really butchered what I said.
There are communities from Greece, Kurdistan, Indian, Georgia almost every conceivable place. There are different architectural styles.”
It’s India, not Indian. One Indian synagogue to be precise. Who’s proofreading over there? Btw, as I didn’t visit ALL thousand instutions of prayer, I just walked past them and gathered info from the plaques etc….the complete list of Reform/Conservative/Masorti institutions is online. I personally am Orthoprax but hope my numbers are mistaken and at any rate, see that different synagogues have different purposes. Many Reform/Conservative congregations have larger congregations then the typical Orthodox synagogue and more activities..
And finally, I only have 400 plus synagogues listed, as you can see on my blog.