last night, i attended the 1st ever international jewish bloggers convention in jerusalem. it was a very well attended event. 200 - 250 people filled the capacity of the hall + an additional 1400 peaked the online webcast participation. there was also a live chat room moderated by two individuals during the convention that had between 50 and 100 people joining in that way. that's a lot of jblogging!

the keynote speaker, along with a panel of well-known bloggers in the jblogosphere, was introduced as an up-and-coming blogger, who doesn't quite have the exposure yet that he's looking for, but heading in the right direction, former prime minister, bibi netanyahu. bibi spoke for a very long time, and while he's an excellent speaker and touched upon several important issues, his address made the rest of the panel very rushed. in a nut shell, he emphasized the need for everyone to have an accurate understanding of israel's history in order to properly represent it while blogging.

after some good meats and eats, there was a stand-up comedy bit by jblogger, FrumSatire, a recent college grad from NY. he was one of a handful of bloggers flown in by NBN to blog the latest group aliyah flight and let all you jews know about the experience. i don't know how many were on the flight, but here are a few recaps of theirs:
the next speaker spoke about branding israel, also a fellow efratian, zahavi apfelbaum from the foreign ministry and she spoke about a focus group taken in USA that was absolutely fascinating. maybe i'll blog about that later.

after another panel discussion with some newcomers and some veterans, it was time to wrap things up. overall, it was a successful event, especially for the first time! props to NBN and steve from webads (who also lives upstairs from me!) for hosting the event and i hope to see more like that in the future.
Posted by
4

View comments

  1. I posted pictures of the event at:
    http://www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/jerusalem/2008/jer173.htm

    and on Facebook at:
    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48349&id=553691548

    Have a good day,
    Jacob

    ReplyDelete

  2. Nice meeting you at the end of the night...go Cubs!

    ReplyDelete

  3. I love those little 'snap shots' previews. awesome!
    i was there as well and i really enjoyed it. You can see what I wrote about it at Movin' On Up!

    ReplyDelete

  4. Maybe if you weren't from Efrat, you'd see Zavi's presentation for what it was.
    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2008/08/rebranding-changing-israels-image.html
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/6#2986

    I do agree that it was Steve's night.

    It's interesting to read everyone's different reactions.

    ReplyDelete

after today's riveting speech on the middle east, we can only stand to question...
3

the title to this post was borrowed from a recent book, "my jesus year", written by a guy malka went to school with. well, this past weekend was our "jesus shabbos".

a neighbor of ours is involved in a foundation that builds bomb shelters in sderot and kiryat shemona and the like. several of his donors are evangelical (zionist) christians from the US.
2

after a long hiatus from blogging, i had to step in and put down my thoughts:

when i was about 19, i remember viewing some sort of film, showing the propoganda that nazi germany employed leading up to the holocaust. the main features that i remember was the film showing nasty pictures of jews picking their noses and scratching themselves and looking overall wretched. and in between these shots, the nazi film showed infestations of rats, bugs, and other vermin.
1

well, everybody. it's november, so you know what that means. national blog posting month, an initiative to get out a blog post every day of the month. there's this great blogosphere out there and people are even following memes like the above, but for some reason, i just can't hack it. almost the whole month of november has come and gone and i haven't banged out even one post.
1

as many of you know, i began working in jerusalem twice a week. after over 8 years of traveling to tel aviv, i received approval to shift my work-week and schedule meetings so that i can have a normal commute at least twice a week. so far, the transition has been great. that special corporate buzz word, "work/life balance" has finally come into moderate proportions.

the reception i've had hasn't been wonderful. most of the people there pay no attention to me.

ahhh, kiddush.

last friday night, i told the kids how significant it was that we were reciting that week's parsha over our cup of wine on friday night. yes, we say it at night. we say it during the day, even if it's simply a "borei pri hagafen". a very central part of our observance / celebration of shabbat and chagim. i have the privledge of being the first one to add content to the kiddush wikipedia page.

Welcome everyone to our home. Thank You to our friends and neighbors for joining us in this simcha and for those who have helped us with the kids and bringing meals, etc. A special thank you to my parents who have left their lives (and other grandchildren) back in the U.S. for a full month so that they could be here with us for this occasion and to assist us in pre- and post- delivery.
2

a few months ago, we hosted a family that had recently made Aliyah for a Shabbat meal. we were discussing with this family their "klita" (absorption) into israeli life and society. for a sundry of reasons, the husband and wife were both suffering from varying levels of cognitive dissonance about their decision to make Aliyah. on one hand, they knew it was the "right" thing to do, while at the same time, just could not be happy.

ok, call me a tardy blogger. i can't quite keep up with the pace of the news! it's already a week or two old, but how can i let helen thomas come and go without putting in my two agurot?

her apologies are rather meaningless. her thoughts are out there. who knows how many other people think the same way but are not stupid enough to say it out loud, especially not on camera!?

but, if you listen to her comments, there is an element of truth to it.

on thursday, i had to leave the house early to catch a meeting first thing in the morning. before i left though, i wanted to catch the last 5 minutes of the stanley cup finals. since the blackhawks couldn't hold the lead in the last 5 minutes of regulation,  i had to settle for checking the result through my iphone while on the jerusalem-tel aviv highway. it would have been nice to enjoy watching a major chicago sports team bring home a championship.
About Me
About Me
My Photo
Efrat, Israel
this blog has mainly been kept internal for the first couple of years. just some random thoughts or articles that spoke to me. i might just go public...
Blog Archive
Blog Archive
Subscribe
Subscribe
My BlogRoll
My BlogRoll
Sites I Frequently Visit
Sites I Frequently Visit
Loading