Another Jewish Identity
The Jewish Community Council Web site offers
local teen-agers a new way to be Jewish.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
'le the Internet may
li
people om
from oppo-
link
site ends of the globe, the
Jewish Community
Council is hoping it will link young
Detroiters, too.
The JCCouncil has created a
Youth Computer Network, which
connects Jewish youngsters here
to almost all Jewish youth orga-
nizations the world over. But you
better have patience.
A New Way To Meet
Jewish singles, going the way of modern
technology, link up through America Online.
II
i. I'm LMCohn@aol.com .
Haven't I seen you some-
where before?
Probably in a Jewish
singles chat room.
On America Online alone,
the Jewish community section
provides a matchmaker option,
complete with chat rooms for
singles, from Reform to Ortho-
dox, never married to widowed,
straight and gay.
And it looks like people are
truly meeting online.
Just click on the "keyword"
button in the upper right cor
ner of the screen and type the
word "Jewish." Along with in
formation on kosher cooking
and holiday observance, the
Jewish community online page
offers singles a chance to con-
nect.
There are personal ads, with
0
The site's graphics are vivid, but
its server is slow. After signing on
via America Online, I spent an
hour accessing the site's different
options without seeing everything.
Now I know America Online
has been slower than usual late-
ly. So I tried directly accessing
some of the sites offered on the
Youth Computer Network. Mis-
sion (quickly) accomplished.
If I couldn't sit still through the
link-up, I can't help wondering
how a busy teen-ager will have the
patience to wait for a Web page.
Beverly Yost, the JCCouncil
community liaison, was surprised
to hear of the site's slow pace and
promised to look into the problem.
"The last time that I did it, I didn't
find that that was a problem," she
says.
Whether you use America On-
line or another Internet service to
access the Web, just dial
http//wwwjfmd.org . That ad-
dress takes you right to a picture
of a red Coca-Cola machine, with
the name of the popular soft drink
spelled in Hebrew.
It doesn't require coins to pick
a selection. Just click on the but-
and without photos scanned in.
There are young singles and
older ones, observant and less
so.
Most of the individuals who
take out personal ads lean to
the Reform side of Jewish ob-
servance. Almost all describe
themselves as "attractive" to
"very attractive" and, at least
on-screen, they have tons of
talkative energy.
The computerized personals
come from all over the country,
with two men and one woman
currently listed from Michigan.
AOL ads, sans photo, cost
$19 apiece, and those with a
picture run $25. Both types re-
quire a $5 charge for any
changes made to the ad after it
is posted.
But if you're not too keen on
the idea of selling yourself ro-
mantically, you can just talk.
No faces, no places — just
anonymous flirtations that are
oftentimes informative and al-
most always intriguing.
Click on singles chat, and
you'll find a bevy of available
topics: small town singles, best
lines from the other sex, clean
Jewish humor, broken hearts,
big/tall/beautifiil singles ... se-
riously.
Point the mouse to meeting
places, and you'll locate a fold-
er for Jewish singles in Michi-
gan and Indiana, a Great Tikes
option, a listing of events/infor-
mation.
Sadly, there's not much go-
ing on online in the greater De-
troit area. Mostly, singles seem
to be typing to each other from
the New York area, Chicago,
Los Angeles, San Francisco and
a bit from Washington, D.C.
Otherwise, s a bit here and
there but not much.
There are also folders for
each religious denomination,
college and graduate students,
"disabled/special populations,"
divorced Jews and by age as
well (50s, 40s, 30s, etc.). I
-- Lynne Meredith Cohn
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could end up at a site of Jewish
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