I was privileged to participate in the First International Jewish Bloggers Convention, which was hosted by Nefesh b’Nefesh and took place in Jerusalem in August. The convention occurred just weeks after my aliyah, about which I have been writing in my own blog, Hurwitz Family Aliyah Scrapbook (http://hurwitz-aliyah-scrapbook.blogspot.com). I try to keep the blog interesting by combining musings about our aliyah adventure with digital scrapbook techniques.
The response to the convention, expected to be tiny, was anything but—200 people showed up in person and over a thousand (at last count) attended via the live webcast on the NBN website. The “meat ’n’ greet” deli supper felt much like a high school reunion—everyone looking around scanning each other’s name tags, faces occasionally lighting up with recognition and an exclaim of “I read you!”
Several of the evening’s speakers were actually American bloggers who arrived in Israel for the convention in a very interesting way: these high-profile bloggers were each matched up with a person or family on this week’s Nefesh b’Nefesh aliyah flight and will be blogging about their aliyah journeys in the near future.
The first half of the program consisted of a discussion among several panelists who are well-known in the Jewish blogosphere, about ways to increase a blog’s readership and promote ideas. Some of these ideas included adding your blog to Jewish blog aggregators, emailing blog posts to people whom you think will be interested in them (but within reason!), and including your blog URL in your email signature line. Other ways to find readers are to get more involved with the “blogger community” by creating a blogroll, which is a list of your favorite blogs that goes down the side of your own blog, and to comment one another’s posts, which gets your name out there and raises the chances that someone reading your friend’s blog might also read yours. The first panel was interrupted by a surprise speaker: former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu (only in Israel!), who spoke on the importance of blogging in today’s Jewish world and how it contributes to the future of Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people. To put a political leader in a room full of such wildly opinionated, not to mention ideologically varied, people that Jewish bloggers are, created quite a stir, but the moderators did their best to keep the focus on blogging and not politics. Nevertheless, Netanyahu was very down-to-earth, had a great sense of humor, and was a welcome addition to the night’s variety of speakers!
After a short comedy performance from popular blogger Frum Satire, a presentation and second set of panelists discussed the importance of creating positive branding of Israel though social networks such as blogs. With the technological advances of today, every Jew has the power to make a difference to the world using the three Ms—magnetize, motivate, and mobilize—through their blogs.
One comment from a panelist that really hit home was that we never know who is reading our blogs and what kind of impact we are having. We can only hope that through blogging we are sending a positive message to the world about Israel and Judaism, one that is not often presented in the news. Blogs represent all walks of life and all types of backgrounds—this is the real Israel, and it’s our job to get the picture of this real Israel out there. All in all it, was a fantastic and informative evening that is sure to give many in the Jewish blogosphere food for thought, and posts, for some time to come.
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