Arts & enter ain e at

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Diavolo

Fri., Jan. 31 at 8 pm

golden circle $40
adult $35 • stu./sr.cit. $31

A Heartland Arts Fund Program supported
by the National Endowment for the Arts
and Michigan Council for Arts and
Cultural Affairs

Sponsored by Metrotimes

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section of jta.org.
Jewish Renaissance Media, parent
company of the Detroit Jewish News and
Atlanta Jewish Times, also owns
Jewish.com , billed as "a Web site for all
things Jewish."
Among the features of Jewish.com are
an extensive store with more than 5,000
items; Torah and 'Ask a Rabbi" sec-
tions; a personalized financial services
section allowing users to track the stock
market or individual stocks; discussion
forums and chat capability; a personal-
ized news section with content from the
New York Times and other publications;
and much more.

Sun., Jan. 26 at 3 pm

adult $25 • stu./sr.cit. $22

Sponsored by Storage USA

Ticket Office 586.286.2222
www.MacombCenter.com

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With the Web jammed with Jewish sites
of every persuasion,
MyJewishLearning.com needs to create
its own identity.
Rabbi David Eliezrie, a
Chabad spokesman who
serves on the Internet corn-
mittee for another major reli-
gious site, Chabad.org, said
MyJewishLearning.com faces
major hurdles.
"This is an admirable step,
bringing Jewish learning to a
broader Jewish audience," he
C'
said. "But the real challenge
will be generating traffic."
The Chabad site, which
mainly relies on private
donations, considers itself the
largest Jewish learning site
online, claiming about 22,000 users
daily who learn from original source
texts and commentary.
Despite the competition, Bronfman
believes the importance of powering a
digital Jewish "renaissance" outweighs
potential pitfalls.
"What can possibly be at risk,
except money?" he asked.
The founders contend that
MyJewishLearning.com is unique
because it will offer an unprecedented
range of information about Judaism
and the Jewish world, from the most
basic Shabbat blessing to the most
cryptic kabbalistic commentary.
The site also will feature original
content on religion, history, culture
and education; will allow users to
explore areas to whatever depth they
determine; and will include tools to
personalize areas with favorite links
and commentary.
The site also will feature quizzes
and discussion groups and will allow
users within Jewish organizations their

tional content.
Reflecting the site's wide target audi-
ence are such founding partners as the
B'nai B'rith Youth Organization; the
women's group Hadassah; Hillel: The
Foundation for Jewish Campus Life;
the Jewish Community Centers of
North America; and STAR, or
Synagogues: Transformation and
Renewal.
Heading the content team will be
Michael Kress, who edited the respect-
ed religious news site BeliefNet.com .
Bronfman grew convinced of the
need for such a broad Jewish site when
a friend asked him a basic question
about Chanukah and he couldn't easily
find the answer online.
So he and Abramowitz decided to
bring Judaism to the online masses.
Abramowitz says the site will have
unprecedented "scope"
some 2,000
articles by the end of the year, ranging
from traditional to pluralistic voices,

—

Despite the competition,
Bronfman believes the
importance of powering
a digital Jewish
renaissance" outweighs
potential pitfalls.

Dinner or Lunch

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

a

own "space" to create tailored educa-

VENTURE from page 79

reflecting a democratic information flow.
This is a site "for the Jewish people
and by the Jewish people," he said.
He called the site "an important
model for how to get things done in
Jewish life," since it presents an
unusual "bricks and clicks" partner-
ship, joining big funders, his own
multimedia concern and many Jewish
organizations.
MyJewishLearning.com "may look
and feel like a Web site, but this is a
sweeping educational initiative that
uses the power of technology to bring
the richness and power of Jewish
thought and text to millions of Jewish
people," Abramowitz said.
Whether that's hyperbole or not,
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, director of
Project Genesis-Torah.org, says the
ability of MyJewishLearning.com to
attract such "unheard-of" funding rev-
olutionizes online Jewish study.
"This raises the bar for the rest of
us," he said. "It says that this kind of
funding is achievable." O