Well it’s kind of hard for me to believe but JewsByChoice.org has been up and running for over a month now and it’s been a blast! We have a really awesome group of people blogging some great stuff that has generated some intelligent discussion. I for one am extremely pleased with everything. We are now well over 21,000 words and have (as of today) 29 posts and181 comments which in my opinion is very impressive considering none of us are superstar Jews. In terms of visits we hit well over close to 1400 in our first month and I expect are going to break the 1500 mark either later today or tomorrow (but remember no blogging on Shabbos! LOL). Sure this might be small potatoes compared to some of the other big blogs but it’s far beyond what I expected in our first month and as I previously mentioned I’m extremely happy about it.

Just in case some of you haven’t figured out what the blog is all about based on the name, here’s a snippet from our about page.

JewsByChoice.org (launched October 2007) is a grassroots, peer run, group blog focused on providing Jews by Choice (as well as other interested parties) with opportunities for exploring, discussing and engaging with Jewish Identity, Tradition and Culture.

If you haven’t visited yet please take a couple minutes and check out the blog because there is certainly interesting stuff going on there. Also if you’re a fan of this blog (even just a little bit of a fan) please add JewsByChoice.org to your blogroll and consider doing a post letting your readers know about us. We are really are building a great community over there and want to include as many people as possible, so any help in spreading the word is greatly appreciated.

Also I have a technical problem and I’m wondering if anyone reading this might be able to help. I have tried to add JewsByChoice.org to Jrants several times now and although I can register it doesn’t seem to be adding me. I don’t think it’s a question of being censored/screened off of the site. I just think that there’s a glitch either on their end or something to do with our RSS feed. I don’t know how to get a hold of the Jrants people so I’m hoping someone reading this can help. If that’s you please feel free to send an e-mail via the contact page.

Anyhow I know some of you are too lazy to check out the blog and so I’ve decided to bring some of the blog to you. Below is a round up list of what’s been going on over on the JewsByChoice.org blog. Just click on any link that sounds interesting and you’ll be magically teleported over to that post.

Be well
Avi aka Tikkunger

And again please consider helping to spread the word about this project.

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JBC.org Post Round Up!

November 2007 (2)

• 01: No Pain, No Gain: Becoming a Jew and Personal Loss (2)
• 01: Ethics In Kashrut & The Greening of Sacred Space (5)

October 2007 (26)

• 30: My Little Shul – Part 2 (1)
• 30: Reflections on Joining The Tribe (7)
• 29: Reform Magazine - The Outreach Revolution (7)
• 28: Jewish Reading (4)
• 26: The Community that said “NO” to Converts. (3)
• 25: Jewish Ritual on the Rise in America (7)
• 25: The Book of Ruth: Why Converts are Essential to Judaism (6)
• 24: Yankel’s Book Club (6)
• 21: Why I Am Not a Reform Jew - Even if I Get the Magazine… (28)
• 21: My Little Shul - Part 1 (22)
• 21: The Hidden Jews by Choice of Mizoram India (6)
• 20: Lekh L’kha! — Some Torah Comments from Chavi, the Amateur Torah Scholar (13)
• 19: Shabbat Shalom & Check out the New Digs! (2)
• 19: Rabbi Nina Mizrahi on Abraham and Spiritual Intelligence (6)
• 17: Unravelling the Scrolls (3)
• 15: Another Woman’s Perspective… (2)
• 14: How I Stopped Being a Jew for 49 Minutes this Shabbos (12)
• 12: Shabbat Shalom!!! (1)
• 12: Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan and welcoming new members (4)
• 11: What’s in a Name? … for a Jew. (14)
• 11: Big Tent Judaism - There’s Room For everyone! (3)
• 10: Jews by Birth…by Choice…One thing We do Have in Common (1)
• 08: High Holiday Reflections - Tashlich (3)
• 06: Ani Yehudi - I am a Jew (8)
• 04: How I re-became a Jew (3)
• 03: How I Became a Jew (2)

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For those of you wondering why it’s been so quiet on the TikkunGer blog it’s because a lot has been going on in my neck of the woods.

First there was the high holidays and then there was getting married (yup we got married) and then there’s the fact that I’ve been putting a lot of time and energy to a new group blog project entitled Jewsbychoice.org

I meant to blog about the high holidays and getting married but to be honest both events had me too tired to string together anything coherent and so it just never happened.

As for JewsByChoice.Org most of my recent available blogging time and energy has gone into kick starting that baby.  We only launched the first week of October and it’s still early in the game but we’re already generating great posts and conversation.  If you like the type of Jewish blogging I’ve been here, I highly recommend checking out this new blog. Also if you wouldn’t mind adding us to your blog roll would be happy to reciprocate, just let us know via e-mail. Lastly if you’re in the mood to do a mitzvah (which some readers already have) please consider doing a quick post on your own blog letting your own readers, know all about our new project.

The new blog does mean that I’m going to be Jewing things down here a little bit but only because I will be Jewing things up over at Jewsbychoice.org

Posting here will probably be light for the next couple of months but TikkunGer.com is far from dead and in fact I’m hoping to do some remodeling here in January.  You know freshen up the little bit as well as change the focus of content to better reflect my many varied interests. You know stuff like spirituality, politics, green issues, movies, books and whatever else strikes my fancy at any given moment in time.

Anyhow, that’s about it for now.

Oh and again please do consider updating your blogroll, feed subscriptions and bookmarks to include Jewsbychoice.org.

Be well

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A friend from Canada sent me a link to this video in an email today and I thought it was rather beautiful and worth sharing.

So enjoy!

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So last night, a little after 10 PM, I received an e-mail from one of my instructors with a mark for the final assignment I submitted as part of my HSRV 433 course. This 26 page paper titled “Jewish Civilization 2.0 - Fostering Jewish Identity Through Online Social Networking, Cultural and Educational Opportunities“ was worth 50% of my final grade and it received a mark of 90 or an A+, which I’m extremely pleased with. Math isn’t my strong suit and I haven’t calculated everything but unless I’m horribly off in my calculations, that last mark means I’ve passed the course with an A+ and that isn’t shabby at all. Essentially this was a part of a fourth year research project which is meant to be tied into two other fourth-year courses which when combined winds up basically being what most of you in America would call a “thesis project”. Basically the way these courses work is that the first course HSRV 433 has students pick a topic of interest and do a three-step research project on it. Then in HSRV 455 the student uses that research to develop some sort of project proposal which builds on or addresses some question raised by the previously completed research. Then finally in HSRV 477 the student is actually to apply/run the project he has developed. I’m not sure how great a job I’ve done explaining things but for those of you who are confused or want to know more feel free to click on the course links above.

I’m not sure whether or not I’m going to post my entire research paper online but now that it’s completed, marked and returned. I guess I’m comfortable enough to post the introduction for those of you who might be curious.

Anyhow here it is (the intro).

The American Jewish 20-40 year-old population is still in many ways one of the most underserved within the broader Jewish community. Because of this, this demographic is most likely to be at a higher risk of disengaging from their Jewish communities and sense of Jewish identity. Of significance is how this demographic has begun turning to the Internet as a tool (often even as a preferred choice) for expressing, understanding, cultivating and engaging their individual and collective senses of Jewish identity. Although there has been a considerable amount of research conducted in the areas of Jewish identity and culture, to date, there unfortunately exists little research on how the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies are being used (or might be used in the future) to address the unique needs of this Jewish demographic.

In order to help address this existing research deficit, the emphasis of this paper will be on discussing how emerging Internet and Web 2.0 technologies are currently being used by this demographic. Additionally, how these technologies might better be used in the future as important strategies for addressing the needs facing this segment of the Jewish population. These needs include new modes of informal engagement over traditional forms of affiliation, and an overall sense of connectedness to Jewish identity.

I will begin by briefly summarizing the data which I have previously collected and analyzed for earlier assignments in this course, all of which are topics relating to current trends within my research demographic. These trends include: Jewish Self-Concept, Community and Institutional affiliation, as well as cultural and religious engagement.

In addition, part of this discussion will include basic information on what the Web 2.0 is as well as several examples of how these technologies are currently being used to address some of the challenges facing the 20-40 year old Jewish population. I will focus specifically on the Web 2.0 and its role in facilitating Social Networking and Self-Directed Learning Opportunities. To conclude, I will provide recommendations on how these technologies might further be used to provide this segment of the Jewish population with improved formal and informal Social Networking and Learning Opportunities.

As usual polite yet constructive feedback is always welcome.

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This morning I received an email from a guy over at the Awakened Heart Project (AHP) telling me about their new website. I decided to check it out and WOW, I am impressed with what I saw. It’s basically an online resource with the stated aim of enhancing peoples understanding and experience of Jewish meditation and prayer.

Here is a blurb from their about page.

The mission of Awakened Heart Project is to promote the use of Jewish contemplative techniques that foster the development of a heart of wisdom and compassion. Cultivating an awakened heart leads to acting in the world with loving-kindness towards all beings recognizing them as manifestations of the Holy One of Being.

The AHP provides opportunities for a focused effort at refining contemplative Jewish practices, such as meditation and prayer, as well as creating opportunities for intensive practice.

Also here is some of what the site offers, as listed on their welcome page.

• • Regularly updated podcasts
  • Essays and articles on Jewish meditation
  • Jewish meditation events calendar
  • Meditation and contemplative Jewish resources

I haven’t spent a whole bunch of time going through these resources yet but they do look good. So I’m sure to be, a frequent visitor to this site. If your interested in the contemplative side of Judaism this site is a must see. If you don’t know anything about contemplative Judaism but are curious, this site will get you up to speed in no time, so check it out.

Technorati tags: Contemplative Judaism, Online Judaism, Jewish Meditation, The Awakened Heart Project, Jewish Audio

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About a week ago I stumbled across this great resource called “The Better World Shopper” at some little independent bookstore (I think we were in Pasadena). Unfortunately I didn’t buy a copy for myself and have since then,vowed not to buy another book until October, because I have be spending too much and not reading enough as of late. Hum, maybe Tamara wants to buy us a copy?  

Anyhow its a tiny little book not much bigger than a Bencher is, so it’s very portable and IMO just as handy. It basically provides consumers with a graded list (click on the image above for the grading rubric) of a wide variety of products from over 1000 companies.

Here is a description of the books (& sites) basic goal.

BETTER WORLD SHOPPER is a site dedicated to providing people with a comprehensive, up-to-date, reliable account of the social and environmental responsibility of every company on the planet AND making it available in practical forms that individuals can use in their everyday lives. Coming out of more than 5 years of intensive research, this work is based on a comprehensive database of over 1000 companies and utilizes 25+ reliable sources of data to cover everything from the environment to human rights, community development to animal protection.

According to the Authors the problem can be summed up as the following.

Money is power. And wherever large amounts of money collect, so also new centers of power form. The latest historical manifestation of this is the modern corporation.

Make no mistake, these new power centers are not democracies. We don’t vote for the CEO’s or their policies (unless we are: rich enough to be significant shareholders, informed enough to know what’s going one, and compassionate enough to care about more than just personal profit), yet our destinies are increasingly in their hands.

The Better World Shopper goes on to break this problem down into five key issues.  

HUMAN RIGHTS: sweatshops, 3rd world community exploitation, international health issues, divestment, child labor, code of conduct.

THE ENVIRONMENT: global warming, rainforest destruction, pollution, recycling, renewable energy, greenwashing, toxic waste, eco-innovations, illegal dumping, sustainable farming.

ANIMAL PROTECTION: factory farming, animal testing, humane treatment, wild animal habitat.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: family farms, local business support, volunteer efforts, sustainable growth, philanthropic donations, nonprofit alliances, establishing foundations.

SOCIAL JUSTICE: fair wages, fatalities, union busting efforts, health & safety records, discrimination based on: race, gender, age, ability, religion, sexuality, ethnicity.

What’s nice is that the Better World Shopper doesn’t just identify problems it also proposes solutions.

As these power centers shift, we must shift our own voices if we wish to be heard. As citizens, on average, we might vote once ever 4 years, if at all. As consumers, we vote every single day with the purest form of power…money.
The average American family spends around $18,000 each year on goods and services. Think of it as casting 18,000 votes every year for the kind of world you want to live in. Use this site to take back your power.

Sound Interesting? Well if so, how about watching a video lecture featuring (among others) Dr. Ellis Jones, who is one of the brains behind the book discuss as he discusses a variety of topics related to the guide and social responsibility. I am watching/listening to it know as I write this post and its pretty damn good. So check it out!

I suppose to sum things up, I would say that this is a great guide and a worthy addition to any eco-Kosher toolkit. Essentially the underlying premise behind all of it is “informed Choice” and that’s something I (and suspect many of you) can get behind.

As always feel free to share you thoughts.

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I got up at 6 this morning and watched all three amazing parts of this series and I (of course) highly recommend them!

Oh and BTW Winston is practicing Jew and Scientist, which makes this series all the more interesting to watch IMO.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to do a proper post but I will mention that Winston at one point in part 3, interviews Richard Dawkins and IMO does a great job of keeping him in check.

Anyhow enjoy and if you do watch feel free to share your thoughts on the subject.

From the BBC Press Release:

Robert Winston presents The Story of God

Professor Robert Winston presents a definitive three-part documentary series on the history of mankind’s quest to understand the nature of God.

The Story of God is an epic journey across continents, cultures and eras exploring religious beliefs from their earliest incarnations, through the development of today’s major world faiths and the status of religious faith in a scientific age.

Read the rest of the press release here

The Story of God part 1 of 3

The Story of God part 2 of 3

The Story of God part 3 of 3

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Well I’ve been here for almost 2 months now and I’d say things are going extremely well. That’s saying a lot because I?m not a guy who usually transitions into new situations all that great but all things considered I can’t complain. Yes indeed things are going smoother than I could have ever imagined possible. That’s not to say that there haven’t been bumps along the way Just that there have been few and those that did happen have been minor at best.

I managed to finish a summary report for the first part of my thesis project (albeit a couple of weeks late) and that’s taken a huge amount of pressure off of me.

Tamara and I are having a lot of fun and getting along very well in my opinion. We’ve had the opportunity to do a little bit of traveling and spend some time with her parents which has been nice. We’ve also managed to do a pretty good job of keeping off of each other’s toes, which is not always the easiest thing to do with new couples.

Los Angeles is an incredible city and there’s a lot for us to do and to my pleasant surprise there are lots of very cool things to do for little or no cost at all. We’ve been going on a lot of walks and completed our first rural mountain hike.

Jewishly we are doing a lot of socializing which is great for me because my last few months in Ottawa were spent acting like a Jewish hermit. We’ve been attending a few synagogues regularly as part of our “Shul Shopping” and I believe we have pretty much figured out where it is that we will be joining and that?s VBS. Having said that there are a few other places like IKAR and Knesset Israel where I’m sure will be spending a fair amount of time as well but it looks like we will be calling VBS home.

In terms of daily observance I think we?re doing an excellent job of keeping kosher both in and out of the home and that’s something I’m/we are both really proud of. Although (holy crap I just realized I’ve been keeping kosher at home for about a year now, wow time flies) I was initially very reluctant about taking on Kashrut Observance, I absolutely love it as a spiritual discipline and couldn’t imagine giving it up. Having said that, although Tamara is the one who pushed me in to the kosher thing. I think it’s been harder for her to adjust to keeping kosher out of the house than it has been for me but I’ve got to admit she’s really leaned into it and doing extremely well.

Also we have set ourselves up with one of those fancy hand washing cups and have been washing our hands and reciting blessings/prayers in the morning and although it can be difficult to remember what gets done when, I’m finding it very spiritually rewarding. I think we’re both hoping to gradually introduce more and more of this kind of observance into our daily life but we want to do it in a sustainable fashion, without making ourselves feel overloaded. One thing I know Tamara really is attracted to, is reciting blessings at meals, so we’ve started working on that. As of yet we haven’t been all that successful in this department but were making small steps and it’s getting easier.

As for Shabbat were far from being Shomer Shabbos but I think we’ve both come a long way in a short amount of time. Friday nights we try to have arrangements either to eat at someone’s house (preferably walking distance) or have guests over. If nothing is going on then we just keep it simple but do nonetheless light candles do Kiddush and Hamotzi. If we are just staying home I’ve committed to turning off my computer and staying off of the telephone. A lot of this stuff has been initiated by me but I’m trying not to be a bully about it, so I have also done some compromising. For example Friday nights if nothing is going on then we keep open the option of watching an “in the spirit of Shabbat Oneg” DVD and that’s ok. I myself turn off my computer and won’t watch any television other than the DVD if that’s what we’re doing. Ideally I would like to be a little more Shomer Shabbos in this regard but Tamara has made huge compromises so I’m willing to hold back on this one, until she’s ready to go a little deeper, that’s if she’s willing to go a little deeper. As for Saturday’s were doing very good. No television, no computer, no telephone, no movies, no buying, no radio and no car unless it’s driving to shul (which is acceptable according to conservative Halacha, which is our current measuring stick) and then it?s just to and fro with no radio. So that means driving when we go to VBS or Ikar but if it’s Knesset Israel then we walk about 25 minutes. I really do enjoy walking to shul on Saturday morning but both of us prefer the services at VBS so were still working it all out. However besides that we do not get into the car and I must admit I love it.

Also in the spirit of full disclosure and this is something I’m not exactly proud of because it feels like cheating, even though it was my idea. For the summer we’ve set fixed times for beginning and ending Shabbos, so we’re going from 6:30 PM Fridays to 6:30 PM Saturdays. Even though I realize that this is cheating I also realize that we’re doing much more than a lot of other Jews we know. More importantly we realize that our observance isn’t fixed or static and we both have a committed goal of deepening our connection and practice so it doesn’t feel like we’re being lazy. If anything, I guess the way we see it is where learning to crawl before we walk.

Tamara and I are even doing some formal Jewish studying. We’re both registered for something called “Everyday Holiness” which is an intro to Mussar course, something I’m sure I’ll be blogging a lot about in the coming weeks and months. Were also trying to do Saturday Torah study when we attend shul, which I forgot to mention we’ve committed to doing a minimum of twice a month. We’ve actually been going more but we thought we should put in a minimum just in case we get lazy but to be honest I’m the one who has a hard time with Saturday Shabbat services and not Tamara. I’m used to attending a Reform synagogue back home where there’s a lot of English now that everywhere we go have conservative style services I’m having a very hard time. Which although can be painful is good because it’s taught me that I really need to lean into my Hebrew learning a lot more. We are also attending a Thursday night Torah study series at VBS which is sure to be excellent. Then come October we will be doing the UJ Marriage Preparation course which I’ve already blogged about. I was thinking about starting an adult bar mitzvah course offered at VBS in September but I’ve decided that we just have too much going on. I do want to do an adult bar mitzvah but I think I’m going to wait until after we’ve gotten married so that means sometime next year I guess.

Wow, this post has gotten HUGE and although I haven’t managed to get through everything I wanted to, I think I’m going to wrap up here but try to follow up with another post covering our Jewishness for two’ishness probably sometime next week. There are a few other things I want to get to this week both in terms of blogging and real-world stuff.

Anyhow that’s it for now and as always if you were able to make it through this long-winded post please feel free to share your thoughts and comments because I love to get the feedback.

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This morning I woke up at the ung-dly hour of 5 something AM and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I decided to see if there was anything new and interesting to watch online and that’s when I came across this.

They do not believe in peace talks. They do not want to share the land. They are well armed and are carrying out increasingly violent attacks, even targeting innocent civilians. They are members of Israel’s militant far right, and they are threatening to become Israel’s next big problem.

Read more about this documentary on the PBS webpage.

I’m far from being the most informed person when it comes to the many complicated nuances involved in the Israeli/Palestinian situation. However I just don’t understand how the extremists in this video can see themselves as being any different than Palestinian extremists. Murder is murder and misappropriation of G-D is insanely wrong regardless of whether you call him Allah or Hashem. Don’t get me wrong I think that much of what is done at the hands of Palestinian extremists is horrible but watching this documentary it’s clear that the bullshit flows both ways.

Anyhow I was disturbed by this documentary but it was very informative and I highly recommend checking it out.

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

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I just stumbled across this on Youtube and thought its was kind of cool, so I’m sharing it here. I don’t know when it originally aired but like I said, I thought it was kind of cool.  

Enjoy!

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