Like the bell on Wall Street blaring off to the start of a chaotic day, my e-mail inbox hits the ground running at the sound of my alarm. Aside from the numerous Facebook notifications about who-said-what-to-who, I make sure to open UF Hillel’s weekly newsletter.
Communication in the 21 Century.
Filled with the inside scoop about events happening each week from free Krav Maga classes to Café Ivrit, UF Hillel has everything from a Facebook to a website to a mass e-newsletter and, you guessed it, a Twitter. So I’ve started to wonder if this is a good direction we’re going in. Relying on the Internet to get our message across that as much as the world changes, we still yearn to strengthen a national Jewish community. But why not just spread our message by word of mouth? Be seen at Shul or at the bagel bakery down the street? To keep it simple and power off our computers. Let me start by saying that I hadn’t thought of this topic until I read Yoram Samets’s article on eJewishPhilanthropy.com cleverly named: “Purposeful and Passionate: Synagogue in the Age of Facebook.”
Samets’ writes “Synagogues have the same opportunity of using technology to build a bridge between the synagogue experience and today’s culture. Technology needs to be an outward-looking tool for greater connectedness for the community.” This quote struck me as peculiar because I had never thought of technology as enhancing Judaism.
Further into his article, he stresses the importance of the four P’s that will have to happen for Judaism to make a strong impact in modern day American culture.
Purpose – the higher goal, the higher calling that resonates;
Passion – in any movement it takes firebrands to influence;
People – those we want to join with us;
Projects – purposeful doing brings people together.
By applying all four of these principles, the Internet can be the most effective tool when it comes to connecting every Jew, practicing or not, with the Jewish community. Perhaps tweeting with purpose, status updating religiously and e-newslettering every Jew isn’t such a bad idea. Not to ask them for monetary donations or to harass them, but to remind them that as a Jewish community we grow with the times to maintain a feeling of belonging.
