Surfing Toward Involvement

reasons other than the civil,
knowledgeable debate.
"I have been living in
Pocatello, Idaho, for 31
years, wrote Joan
Downing, who was born in
New York City 80 years
ago, in reply to a reporter's
e-mail query about the
group. "I wouldn't live any-
where else, but we don't
have much Jewish going on
around here. So I do get a
lot out of MLJ." Margaret
Klein, a Boston market
researcher, rabbinic student
and virtual community vet-
eran — she helped develop
an online community bring-
ing together
Boston and Haifa
teens — said that
a forum such as
MLJ "becomes a
community when
there's a life-cycle
crisis that partici-
pants share, when
they need to reach
out and touch
people — and
people respond."
She offered an
example from
MLJ: a women
wrote asking for
information on
Jewish healing for
her sick child, and
participants responded with warmth
and concern, not just information.
- Still, Klein said, there's always
something missing.
You can't get a
hug on the
Internet," she
said. "Both Jewish
organizations and
my high-tech
clients often don't
have realistic
expectations
about what virtual
communities have
to offer. They can
provide many of
the things com-
munity provide,
but not every-
thing." Mail-
Jewish (MJ) pro-
vides a similar
blend of informa-
tion, debate and community building
for Orthodox Jews; subscribe on the
Shamash Web site

Rabbi Yaakov Menken

successful real-life outreach program
in New Jersey, the program combines
online Jewish education with small
online chavurot designed to make the
learning stick — and foster ongoing
contacts between participants.
At the center is a Web site
(www.mishpacha.org ) offering a kind
of Judaism 101 — basic information
about Jewish teachings and tradition,
with an emphasis on showing how
Judaism relates to everyday life.
But the Web site is only the begin-
ning. Registered participants are sort-
ed into groups of 30 — virtual corn-
munities is the term they use — to
provide support as participants
embark on their spiritual and corn-
munal quests.
Officially, they "meet" online —
exchanging e-mails, chatting in more
structured settings — for three
months, with the help of a facilitator
provided by the project.
So far, five groups have gone
through program, according to direc-
tor Judy Beck, and most want to keep
meeting after the official end of the
program.
"People have told us it has
changed their lives," she said. "It's
given them the courage to go out into
the community and find out about
synagogues.
"People will discuss online their
hesitations about getting involved —
and others will provide encourage-
ment. Everything is discussed, from
conflict between spouses over depth
of observance to recipes."
That range of topics among people

9/3

1999

128 Detroit Jewish News

who get to know
each other
through regular
contact, she said,
is part of what
makes Mishpacha
a community and
not just another
cyber-blather site.
Mishpacha is a
virtual community
by design, Beck
said, but it is not
intended to serve
as an alternative to real Jewish institu-
tions.
"The goal is not to keep people
hooked to the computer, but to pro-
mote them to get into the communi-
ty that surrounds them," she said. "If
there is no community, we try to help
them create one."

Virtual Sampler
Many of the best examples of Jewish
virtual communities are the ones that
were not created for that purpose.
Subscribers to Mail-Liberal-
Judaism — a long-running discussion
and debate forum, primarily for
Reform and Conservative Jews but
with periodic input from Orthodox
subscribers — say the list has evolved
into a close-knit community of sub-
scribers who have learned to care for
each other even as they hotly debate
the controversial religious issues of
the day.
For many subscribers, MLJ
(vvww.pacificnet.ned faigin/MLJ),
has become a part of their lives for

–

(www.shamash.org).
TACHLIS, a list aimed at provid-
ing both information and support for
Jews who hope to make aliya, is simi-
larly regarded.
Many exchanges deal with the ,/,_\
mechanics of emigrating, according
to Roberta Bienenfeld, a participant
who has made aliya. "There are ques-
tions about cellular phones, commu-
nities to live in, how to clean your
toilet bowl and get rid of pigeons,"
she said in an e-mail interview.
A recent series of messages dealt
with ceiling fans.
But the information is only part of
the appeal of TACHLIS, she said.
"We get to know the personalities
behind the e-mail addresses; we pray
for the sick and offer mazel toy for
the simchot of aliya and babies born,"
Bienenfeld said. Participants recently
followed with concern the postings
from a Jewish family in Yugoslavia
who wanted to move to Israel; their
first posts, she said, came while
NATO bombs were falling around
them.
The family made it, and sharing
their travails were their new friendf,-/
on the TACHLIS list. These
friends, in turn, offered important
supp o rt
"And once a year we all meet —
the new and the old — and go on a
picnic on Sukkot," she said, referring
to the list members already in Israel.
"So a virtual community becomes
very unvirtual. "

.

Connecting Spiritually
Then there's Olam Katan, an Internet
mailing list for Jews who attend small
congregations or
live in small com-
munities. Olam
has about 400
subscribers.
Rabbi Steve
Forstein moder-
ates the list as a
volunteer; it's
published two or
three times a
week.
Forstein — who
lives in Portage,
Mich. and serves
as the leader of
small Reform syn-
agogues in
Kalamazoo and
Battle Creek —
shuns the term "virtual community,"
but he describes something that has
evolved in that direction.