downloadable at http://www.shefanetwork.org/shefajournal5770b.pdf
On February 4th Avi Hein, a professional expert on technology and a passionate Conservative/Masorti Jew living in Israel, shared with the ShefaNetwork a link to an online project entitled "Envisioning Jewish Peoplehood" (jpeoplehood.com). That post, along with a one from Avi Montigny, an administrator of JewsByChoice.org, sparked an online conversation that has ranged from theory to technology and back, all directed at re-inventing the USCJ website. In the spirit of the upcoming celebration of Purim, the posts all called out "Nafoch Hu! Change it!" (Avi Hein's posts, found on pages 6-9, 14-15 and 19-20 of the journal, are truly the core of this journal's suggestions for technological transformation.)
Avi's message was post #3022 on the Shefanetwork archive (groups.yahoo.com/group/shefa/messages). Within the eighteen days since his posting, more than forty responses were shared publicly, with a grassroots message crystallized by Rabbi David Kay: "SOMEBODY MUST HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO BUILD A WEBSITE FOR THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT WHICH IS ANALOGOUS TO THOSE PUT UP BY OTHER DENOMINATIONS. (message #3096)" Leadership of USCJ, some of which participate in the ShefaNetwork.org conversation, were already working on improving the website, and are planning on communicating about this in the coming month.
To that end, this special edition of the ShefaJournal, playfully entitled "Tech-Tonic", is a collection of the suggestions shared by Shefaniks regarding the importance of and universally felt need for the USCJ website to become something special. It is clear that, given the recent Shefa-bandwidth being saturated with so many qualified offers of help, there's a way to leverage all the strength and expertise being presented to transform the USCJ website into an appealing manifestation of Conservative Judaism's motto of "Tradition and Change."
ShefaNetwork's Tech-Tonic can be downloaded from http://www.shefanetwork.org/shefajournal5770b.pdf
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
-- www.netivotshalom.org
-- www.shefanetwork.org
-- menachemcreditor.org
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