Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs

Got Dot?

Jewish.com Web site joins the JN family.

DAVID SACHS
Copy Editor

T

he informational hub of
worldwide Jewry has just
shifted a little bit closer to
Detroit.
Jewish.com , a premier Jewish rally-
ing point on the World Wide Web, is
leaving its San Francisco home base to
set up shop side-by-side with the
Detroit Jewish. News.
Jewish Renaissance Media (JRM),
publisher of the Southfield-based
Jewish News, announced July 9 the
addition of the "Jewish-Dot-Com"
Internet service to its Jewish media
family. Other JRM media enterprises
also include Style (Oakland County's
Premier Lifestyle Magazine), JN

Online (the Detroit Jewish News
Web site), the Atlanta Jewish Times
and its Web site, and the Jewish
Renaissance Media news service.
sher M. Horwitz, Jewish News
publi
pul;lisher
and JRM president, said
is plan is to expand the JRM
media enterprise in Detroit to serv-
ice the entire American Jewish corn-
uniry.
"Jewish.com is one more piece in
a lofty puzzle we're trying to create,"
Horwitz said.
JRM was formed in February, 2000,
by philanthropist Michael Steinhardt
and Horwitz.
"To us, the World Wide Web is not
a passing fad. Through the acquisition
of Jewish.com , we expect the Web will
be a key part of any and all growth
opportunities we pursue."
Jewish.com's former owner, Jewish
Community Online, stated on the
Web site that it was established in
1995 with the philosophy "to serve all
Jews from the most observant to the
most secular. We are proud to be

inclusive."

The Web site, for instance, is an
abundant and diverse source for opin-
ion, international news, recipes and
piritual discussion.

"For readers of the Jewish News, it
rill enhance and broaden their overall
information experience," Horwitz said,
"Our hope is that we can rake the
best of community journalism and
information gathering, which is our
company's strength, and combine it
with all of the benefits of a major
Jewish Web portal."
A "portal" is a starting point for
searching the Internet, and Jewish.com
offers more than 7,000 links to other
Jewish Web sites.
A favorite of Jewish.com is its "Ask
the Rabbi" feature, where a team of 40
rabbis answers more than 100 ques-
tions daily. There are also reference
tools, including a translation of the
Torah. Also on the site are columnists,
dating services for Jewish singles and
an e-commerce
store for Jewish
items.
Interactive con-
versation opportu-
nities include chat
rooms for prayer,
healing, education,
Israel, Yiddish,
Hebrew, singles, sen-
iors, women and
family.
The site had been
run by Marc Klein
and Nora Contini,
the editor-publisher
and associate pub-
lisher, respectively, of
the Jewish Bulletin
Arthur Horwitz of Northern
California.
Outgoing owner
Klein said, "I have tremendous faith
that Jewish Renaissance Media will
demonstrate its commitment to the
Jewish community by finding new and
innovative approaches for making
Jewish.com the premier Jewish site on
the Web. JRM has the resources, the
talent and the foresight to bring this
about."
What does the acquisition mean for
the Detroit Jewish community?
"The potential is there for Detroit
to be one of the hotbeds of the Jewish
Web world," said Horwitz. "The tal-
ent and the resources will be right
here.
"It means that our current readers
will have a richer mix of resources at
their disposal." ❑

AMONG THE WORLD'S GREAT CONDUCTORS
It is said that world-class musical organizations are made, not born--bearing the
stamp of exacting, often charismatic conductors under whom they played. Such
was true of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and its founding musical director,
Russian-born Ossip Gabrilowitsch. His years on the podium of the concert hail
built for him by the city earned him the title of Detroit's premier musician. On a
personal note, he had married soprano Clara Clemens, the daughter of Mark Twain.
And he was but one of many gifted Jewish European colleagues coming to our
shores for the sake of music.

SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY
(1874-1951) b. Vyshny-Volochyok, Russia A famous
double-bass virtuoso while still in his twenties,
Koussevitzky had loftier ambitions after forming his
own orchestra in Moscow (1909). Following the
Russian Revolution he served as musical director of the
State Symphony Orchestra until resettling in the U.S. in
1920. Within four years he began his generation-long
relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
which he totally remolded. Few major conductors of his day commissioned and
premiered as many modem works by emerging composers as did he. George
Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Maurice Ravel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Walter Piston
were among those he championed. Koussevitzky, whose orchestral "sound" was
rhapsodic and emotionally intense, also founded the famed Berkshire Music
Festivals and Music Center in Tanglewood, MA.

BRUNO WALTER
(1876-1962) b. Lodz, Berlin, Germany Like most, if not
all conductors, he received early instrumental training—
as a piano prodigy from the time he was six, and as a
soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic at age twelve. He
took up the baton in 1894 at the Cologne Opera and
within several years befriended Gustav Mahler who
became his mentor. While spending a lifetime
introducing the towering symphonies of his master,
Walter also rose in prominence as a guest conductor throughout Europe and
America. Long identified with the New York Philharmonic after gaining residence
in this country (1939), he often performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and
Metropolitan Opera. Walter was also an articulate and prolific author of books
about music and spent his final years recording the works of Beethoven, Brahms
and Bruckner.

OTTO KLEMPERER
(1885-1973) b. Breslau, Germany He was yet another .
musician influenced during his fledgling years by the
brilliant and persuasive Gustav Mahler. For more than
two decades he conducted at German opera houses
whose doors were sometimes opened to him by Mahler.
His fame spread rapidly during the Twenties (a
respected critic later named him "The Last Of the
Titans"), when a falling accident caused a concussion
from whose symptoms he never fully recovered. But with immense courage, the
illness-plagued Klemperer also survived brain tumor surgery, intense depression,
severe accidental bums, yet persevered and succeeded. Conducting the Los
Angeles Philharmonic (1933-39) and the Budapest Opera (1947-50), he closed his
career with the reputation as one of the world's most respected conductors.

- Saul Stadtmauer

COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field & Harriet F. Sider, Chairpersons
Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org

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