From Jewish Socialist 51 • March 2006

Online but off-message

Dissenting Jews are finding a direct way to broadcast their views without being censored. Clifford Singer reports from the Jewish blogosphere

The Jewish and Israel Blog Awards announced its winners on 7th February. Despite promising to 'showcase and increase awareness of the community's vast spectrum of bloggers', dissenting, left-wing or even moderately liberal sites were scarce among the nominees. This was perhaps unsurprising, since the awards were sponsored by the Jerusalem Post and the right-wing blog israellycool.com, but some progressive bloggers have taken to their keyboards to challenge the bias and the inclusion of anti-Arab hate sites.

Leading the charge is Richard Silverstein's prolific blog, Tikun Olam. He writes: 'Derek (Fattal, Jerusalem Post internet services director) can make the claim that it's a democratic selection process. But only because the nominees and those who nominate them are a self-selected group of hard-right pro-Israel bloggers.'

Contentious awards aside, blogs - online diaries and personal opinion websites - offer a way for dissenting Jews to communicate directly, bypassing community leaders and media outlets that often stifle their views. But the blogosphere throws up its own obstacles. Andrew Schamess had to rebuild his perceptive, humane blog, semitism.net (motto: 'Pro-Jewish. Pro-Arab. Pro-Peace.') in December following a series of hacking attempts.

Schamess is a practising Jew who mixes his political musings with a weekly portion of Torah. This comes as a jolt for anyone used to seeing arguments framed between 'secular left' and 'religious right', especially over Israel and Palestine. But he doesn't mince his words on Israel's occupation or on the revisionists painting Ariel Sharon as a man of peace. He writes: 'Sharon is one of the minor monsters of the last century - not a Hitler or a Stalin, but a ruthless militant nationalist in the style of Slobodan Milosevic and P W Botha. From the massacre of dozens of unarmed Jordanians in Qilya in 1953, to the bloody and useless engagement in Lebanon ... to the brutal seige of the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, Sharon has shown himself to be not a warrior, but a butcher.'

Rabbinical student Rachel Barenblat runs Velveteen Rabbi. Her defence of lesbian and gay rights - including gay marriage - caused a stir among some readers, with one quoting the Bible at her: 'With a male you are not to lie (after the manner of) lying with a woman, it is an abomination.' Her response, '(Re)Reading Leviticus 18:22', is typical of her measured but persuasive style, using references ranging from political science websites to a gay orthodox rabbi to challenge her correspondent's translation and literal readings of the Bible.

Barenblat's website has put her in touch with other radical 'godbloggers' and she is involved in preparing the Progressive Faith Blog Conference, due to take place in June 2006.

If any talk of religious observance sends you into a cold sweat, head over to Jewish Atheist, whose 'About Me' description puts his stance succinctly: '1) I used to be a Modern Orthodox Jew. 2) I am now an atheist. 3) I believe that Judaism has a lot of beauty and wisdom, but that it also causes harm.' Jewish Atheist covers topics from creationism and 'Intelligent Design' to the ethics of giving to faith-based charities. His writing is forceful but never sanctimonious, and he avoids the overbearing style of one of his influences, Richard Dawkins. This has encouraged lively but respectful debates on his 'comments' pages - in contrast to other contentious blogs which degenerate into slanging matches.

Jewish Atheist also talks of his own break with orthodoxy and the pressures he faced. He mourns the loss of a community 'which I have not yet been able to replicate outside of Orthodox Judaism' but celebrates his personal and intellectual freedom. He writes too of overcoming guilt: 'Eventually, I came to the realisation that even though my parents were clearly embarrassed by me, it was not my fault. I was being true to myself and I had gone out of my way not to hurt anyone unnecessarily. If my parents couldn't learn to accept me as I was, it was their failing, not mine. It still hurt, but it didn't make me feel guilty any more.'

Blogs are an ideal forum for such explorations and they can be liberating for readers isolated within their communities. Ba'al Tshuvas Anonymous offers a meeting point for Jews who have joined - and rejected - the kiruv movement, those 'outreach' organisations such as Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach that aim to convert secular Jews to orthodoxy.

Some contributors remain close to orthodox Judaism, others have abandoned it, but nearly all are scathing of the kiruv organisations, 'where the ends justify the means'. A common theme is that they hide a fundamentalist religious agenda behind hip graphics and a veneer of openness and tolerance. One contributor writes: 'The Kiruv Machines devour young searching Jews [who] are chewed up, blended, washed and bleached and then hung out to dry. The emphasis in places like this is changing your clothes, getting married and dropping out of society.'

Daniel Sieradski of Orthodox Anarchist - another Aish Ha'Torah escapee - continues to wrestle with his Jewish identity. Despite 'being the scion of several esteemed hasidic rabbis', his parents were only nominally orthodox and his family were driven out of their New Jersey community when he was 10 years old. Sieradski writes movingly and intimately of his experiences of growing up and the struggle to reconcile his religion with his social and political convictions.

Perhaps these dilemmas are preying on his mind, for he appears to be a man who never sleeps. Now living in Jerusalem where he organises hip-hop concerts with Israeli and Palestinian rappers through the Corner Prophets project, he also edits the collective blog Jew School and is a leading light in the Open Source Judaism Project, the newly launched Radical Torah website , and the forthcoming encyclopaedia of Jewish radical culture, Mazal Tov Cocktail - which deserves an award for its name alone.

Jew School has become a bastion of Jewish blogging, with 30 contributors and more than 50,000 readers per month, and is one of the few liberal sites nominated in the Jewish and Israel Blog Awards. Sieradski says the real problem isn't bias in the awards, but in the online Jewish community. He told Jewish Socialist: 'I get riled up because I have a hard time accepting that the Jewish community - which is primarily liberal and progressive - should appear to be so overrepresented by the religious right... The domination of the blogosphere by the Jewish right is a stain on our community and reflects poorly on us internally and externally.'

Some radical bloggers prefer to skip the spiritual angst and head straight to the action of Israel-Palestine (IP) blogging. Three sites that won't be receiving Jewish and Israel Blog Awards anytime soon are the intelligent and unashamedly anti-Zionist Jews Sans Frontieres, Antony Loewenstein and Anti-Zionist Notes.

Other IP bloggers have created the Israel-Palestine Forum, which brings together progressive Jewish bloggers and their Palestinian counterparts such as RafahPundits, with the aim of promoting dialogue and presenting a variety of pro-peace views in one forum.

Tikun Olam and semitism.net were among the founders, and there are several other well-informed blogs among the contributors, including Cal Tzedek, Aron's Israel Peace Weblog and Dennis Fox.

Another Israel-Palestine Forum contributor, Lawrence of Cyberia, has set a yardstick for IP blogs with her mix of witty writing with sharp analysis. A former GCHQ translator and analyst now living in the US, her site includes a bundle of useful maps and resources, and a series of self-penned in-depth biographies of leading Palestinian politicians. Her serious intent - footnotes abound - is tempered by headlines such as 'Olmert Hopes To Resume Talks; I Hope To Win Lottery', 'God Slams Partition Of Palestine; Favours One State Solution' and 'Does This Uzi Make My Ass Look Fat?'

If such sites inspire you to rise to Daniel Sieradski's challenge and start your own blog, take a look at Blogger and Typepad, two blog creation tools that will get you started without needing technical know-how. Blogger is free and Typepad is inexpensive so you have nothing to lose (except your free time). Just don't expect to win any prizes.

Please e-mail us with your reaction.

Jewish Socialists' Group member Charlie Pottins recently launched his excellent blog, RandomPottins.

Also by Clifford Singer: Playing with fire

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