Jewcy is now officially the Web site that absolutely refuses to die! When JDub announced that it was going to wind down one of the questions was what was going to happen to Jewcy, it’s Jewish lifestyle online magazine. You might recall that Jewcy was started by theater mogul Jon Steingart as a way to promote a Jewish themed party night at his Ars Nova theater space in Hell’s Kitchen. Eventually Jewcy got into apparel, selling things like their famous Shalom Mother******* t-shirts and Jewcy thongs. In November 2006, under Senior Editor Tahl Rahz, Jewcy morphed into a Jewish online arts, culture and politics magazine, funded by Steingart, Michael Weiner and Michael Steinhardt. That arrangement lasted until February 2009 when all of Jewcy’s major backers pulled their money from the magazine … Continue Reading
Heeb Redesigns Website: JDub Folds. Coincidence?
excerpted from Heeb Redesigns Website: JDub Folds. Coincidence? on jewlicious.com: Last week Heeb Magazine unveiled their newly redesigned Web site. Shortly thereafter, fellow Natan Grant recipients JDub Records announced that they were winding down for “financial reasons”. Coincidence? I don’t know… What I do know is that the response has been almost… mournful. I mean that literally. My twitter stream is full of expressions of sadness and regret, the acronym “RIP” has been used more than once. The Jewish Press has written umpteen articles, mostly repeating what was written in the initial JDub press release. Beyond that the details have been fuzzy. Well, fuzzy and I can’t tell you because I’ve been sworn to secrecy. That having been said, the salient facts are that the … Continue Reading
Partnership 2000 Video Series
I think it’s fair to say that I have always promoted the notion that a strong Jewish identity is intrinsically tied to a strong connection to the land and people of Israel. One needn’t blindly support every single government action, one needn’t be totally uncritical and you don’t have to move here (though it would be nice if you did), but it’s important that you know us and love us the way we love you. Project 2000 is a program run by the Jewish Agency For Israel in conjunction with various Jewish Federations whereby said Federations twin their cities with a city or town in Israel. Twinning involves a process whereby visits are exchanged and projects are undertaken between the residents of the two cities. Sounds kind of cool right? Well, now you don’t have to take my word for it. The … Continue Reading
Jewlicious On the JTA’s Fundraising Letter
Excerpted from, Without a strong JTA, the storytelling will be left to bloggers, twitterers, and non-professionals. It is however true that we are not “professionals.” We do not get paid to blog. A professional news gathering organization like the JTA is and ought to be seen as an essential and important part of the Jewish community. But please, do not cast aspersions on bloggers’ capabilities. Successful bloggers are passionate about what they write about. They don’t cover a story because someone told them to - they cover it because they care. This adds an added dimension to Jewish Story telling that you often don’t get in traditional Jewish media. Furthermore, because bloggers aren’t professional, they are independent and are free to cover controversial stories that news gathering … Continue Reading
Save Passover
As many of you know, I live in Jerusalem close (very close) to the central market. My neighborhood is very eclectic and includes artists, students, young families, migrant workers and lower income households. I live a block away from both a soup kitchen AND a high end wine shop. This co-mingling of very different people is what makes the neighborhood so interesting. It helps explain why the market aka the Shuk aka Machaneh Yehuda is such an interesting place to visit in Jerusalem. Fridays are especially busy when folks from every socio-economic background run around preparing for the Sabbath, shoulder to shoulder with camera packing tourists and Taglit Birthright Israel participants. The mass of humanity is both colorful and touching. However, many in the neighborhood live here not out of some … Continue Reading
All Eyes On Me: Happy Birthday Israel!
Taglit Birthright Israel’s latest YouTube video is a fun-filled romp across the country in celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary on May 8th. Starring Tasha and Dishka, two Israelis from Ramle and early YouTube sensations with their Hey! clip (22 million views!), these two lip synch to the Carsitters “All Eyes on Me” as they make their way across Israel. The lead singer of the Carsitters is none other than Noa Margalit who I met at last year’s ROI120 Summit and this video was produced by Leah Stern, another ROI2007 alum and, well, me. The point of the video was to show an image of a fun and vibrant Israel - said image being more reflective of our daily reality than what one tends to see in the media. So now you know what I’ve been doing all of the last week - consorting with rock stars … Continue Reading
lsrael’s 60th Anniversary Commemorated by the JBlogosphere: 60Bloggers.com is Live!
Well, after many emails and endless phone calls and the crunching of many, many pixels, 60Bloggers.com is up. What’s that site all about? Well, May 8th is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel. You’ll notice lots of events happening in Israel and in communities around the world meant to commemorate this historic occasion. 60Bloggers.com is meant to do the same, but on the blogosphere. Consequently, we’ve put together a nice broad group of bloggers, some well-established, some relatively new, representing (I hope) ideological, religious and geographic diversity. Over the course of the next 60 days each will write one blog post on 60Bloggers.com where they will write something related to how they feel about Israel at this momentous juncture in time. We don’t plan … Continue Reading
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