Surfing Toward Involvement

JAMES D. BESSER
Special to the Jewish News

rnie Perlstein is like many Jewish cyber-
nauts who surf the Internet. The South
Florida lawyer looks for interesting
Jewish content and chats with friends
around the world via e-mail.
But Perlstein said he's found something more
important. The Net, he says, has ended his
decades of Jewish isolation. Now he has created
three new discussion forums to help others devel-
op so-called "virtual" communities that will lead
to a fuller Jewish involvement.
"I'm 47 years old and I've become kind of
obsessed with this," he confessed in a recent
interview. "I've been on a path to becoming a
serious cultural Jew, and the tremendous online
experiences I've had are a major part of that."
The e-mail forums target "confused Jews" and
cultural Jews who feel left out of a community
whose institutions revolve around spirituality and
observance (To subscribe, go to
vvww.onelist.com). Perlstein also set up Ganse
Mispocha to provide a comfortable meeting place
for secular and religious Jews; that, he said, will
serve as the launching pad for "a large number of
small pluralistic chavurot," which are informal
groups of people who come together to study and
share Jewish holidays.

A

Internet forums encourage

physically separated Jews

to link into virtual communities

for study and support.

Perlstein isn't alone in his enthusiasm for virtu-
al Jewish communities. Jews across the country
— indeed, around the world — are using the
Internet to restore some of the feelings of com-
munity that have been lost as geographical dis-
persion, assimilation and apathy erode traditional
institutions.
Some groups that began as simple e-mail dis-
cussion forums have evolved into caring, con-
cerned communities; Web-based education pro-
grams, responding to user demand, have started
providing the Jewish connectivity that's been
missing in the lives of so many.
"There's a tremendous thirst for Jewish knowl-
edge and community that has surprised a lot of
people," said Rabbi Yaakov Menken, founder and
director of Project Genesis, the largest Web-based
Jewish learning site (www.torah.org).
Menken said he sees that desire among
Genesis subscribers, although the online service is
aimed at straightforward education, not commu-
nity building.
"There are so many people saying don't have

9/3

1999

126 Detroit Jewish News