Jewsome: JEWish SOcial MEdia

Last night, Twitter became ablaze out of nowhere with a topic called #jewishrapnames….

Kiddush Cudi
Daven The Dude
Schvitzmaster Mike
Oy Vey Da Jewman
Jerusalem The Damaja
Dr. Dreidel
Ludabris
Latke Flocka
The Ghetto Goys
The Cool Yids
Moses Def
The Lox…

A compilation of articles and links to material about Social Media and how Jewish organizations and communities are using it; prepared by Alan Abbey, Internet Director, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem.

Thanks to eJewish Philanthropy.

There was an event on the 18th at Beth Chayim Chadashim in Los Angeles featuring

Leah Jones, Esther Kustanowitz and Rabbi Rebecca Einstein Schorr are from different cities and diverse backgrounds. But the internet brought them together and social media strengthened their bonds with Jewish life, identity and community.

The events was “a breakfast conversation about building stronger Jewish community through online media.”

More info, with bios of participants is on Esther K’s site.

Build a Prayer provides an online community space where Jews of all ages and backgrounds can connect on a deeply personal level with prayer and Shabbat. With Build a Prayer, you can create and customize a Shabbat service in a fun and interactive way that is relevant to you and your community; and then share that service with your community.

Brought to you by BBYO and found via JPS blog.

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation will have a session on May 12 at noon covering the above topics. Here is the session’s description:

Communication tools are evolving very quickly. As a community-based organization, a synagogue has a great stake in communicating with its members and having its members communicate with each other. While most synagogues now have a list serve or two, should they be using Social Media tools to meet people’s new habits and communication desires? On one foot, the answer is “Yes, but…” There are many mine fields and learning curves to be negotiated – come to the call and learn more.

As advertised on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube.

In the first five days of February the Book of Life blog/podcast created a blog tour of the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s gold and silver medalists.They introduced 2-3 blogs every day, related to the winning authors or books.

The Jewish Exponent’s article on how congregations in Pennsylvania are using Facebook and Twitter. Unlinked examples are:

Main Line Reform Temple’s Facebook page

Congregation Beth Or’s Facebook page

Beth David Reform Congregation’s podcast

The preschool at Congregation Adath Jeshurun’s Facebook page

The Jewish Theological Seminary collected all its social media outlets one one annotated page. This includes links to their Facebook page, and Facebook Alumni-only group, weekly podcast, LinkedIn group, the library’s blog and the first year students’ blog, YouTube channel, Flickr account and RSS feed.

SXSW Interactive Festival next month in Austin, Texas will be

“covering areas of Judaism on the web, via social media and more. We’ll be discussing the halachos of speech online, how Web 2.0 affects Israel, and how we use Web 2.0 and social media and our Judaism collectively.”

The man who uses the fake name David Appletree because he fears for his safety (he won’t reveal his whereabouts for the same reason), said Facebook booted him in September, citing a company rule against using pseudonyms. But Appletree said the real reason is discrimination against his “JIDF,” for Jewish Internet Defense Force, page.”

If you are interested in Hebrew Education in a congregational school setting, you are invited to join “The Hebrew Project,” a national conversation to try and better define the goals and focus of Hebrew education in congregational settings. In order help better clarify goals of Hebrew language teaching, three Hebrew language educators have established a wikispace and are inviting anyone involved in congregational education to join in the conversation.

The Chicago Tribune’s article on online faith communities titled “in the social media spirit” features Oy!Chicago.com. Some excerpts:

Web sites such as Oy!Chicago.com, BlackandChristian.com and CatholicsComeHome.org offer blogs and other informational, spiritual and social resources designed to push faith practice higher on the priority list of their targeted audiences.

“We are trying to meet people where they already are, (in the) social media. We move the conversation to a place that’s comfortable for them,” said Stefanie Pervos, 25, Oy!Chicago’s blogger-in-chief and associate editor of JUF News.

There’s no question the online community has connected with its target, said Linda Haase, 49, JUF’s associate vice president of marketing communications. In 2009, the site had 29,614 visitors, a 50 percent increase over the year before. In addition, 800 have joined its Facebook group and nearly 500 follow on Twitter, said Haase, who lives in Skokie.

Jewish Ethics and the Internet: How the Internet is Changing Human Relationships (panel discussion)
When: Thurs. February 11, 6 PM
Where: Twitter Headquarters
795 Folsom Street suite #600, San Francisco

New social networking features will be added to JewishGen’s ViewMate feature from February 20….

When visitors view any image, they will see responses submitted — just as users of blogs and other social media sites see comments posted.

Anglo-Israeli women will hold a one-day conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, February 17, to discuss how Torah-observant people and organizations can use social media as a tool to build their businesses.

The Kishor Social Media Conference will feature expert speakers discussing religious and practical guidelines for the promotional use of cutting-edge online technologies, such as YouTube, Twitter, Google Docs, Flickr, LinkedIn and Facebook

As Orthodox society has become more conservative, the old ways of meeting—like co-ed dances or parties—have become much less common. Even weddings often have separate seating for single people, with all the single women on one side, single men on the other.

This separation is part of what led Susanne Goldstone to turn to online dating. A social media coordinator at the National Jewish Outreach Program, a Jewish educational nonprofit, Goldstone spends her days figuring out how to use sites like Facebook to market her organization’s adult education programs that teach Jews about traditional practices and faith. So for Goldstone, using the Web for dating was nothing new.

The Web site Goldstone used was SawYouAtSinai.com, a popular dating site where many members of the community in Washington Heights have profiles. Unlike secular dating Web sites, users are not permitted to browse through other profiles. One of the site’s matchmakers pick possible matches. If both parties approve she sets them up. It’s an electronic version of what matchmakers have been doing for ages….

Goldstone, always the social media junkie, twittered her wedding for the benefit of all her friends back in Washington Heights. She updated before the wedding: “into the dress we go!” Then during the wedding: “Susanne here. waiting for my grand entrance with my hubby!!! this wedding rules!” And at the reception: “just got done with the first schvitz dance. two more to go!”

An Israeli politician and pro-Israel advocates succeeded in reducing Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s social media presence, as Nasrallah’s fan page - which boasted about 9,000 supporters - was removed Monday from the social networking site Facebook.