ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Finding Your Jewish Voice: A Creative Writing Workshop
Hebrew College's Campus in Cyberspace is offering an on-line course titled, "Finding Your Jewish Voice: A Creative Writing Workshop," taught by prize-winning author, Dr. Seymour Simckes. This is an opportunity to participate in a dynamic learning community with "virtual classmates" from all over the world. The course is being conducted over a period of eight weeks, having begun March 10, 1997. Tuition is $100. The course generates 2 CEUs (Continuing Education Units) towards a Certificate of Jewish Studies which requires 36 CEUs.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to accommodate both beginners and advanced students interested in finding their Jewish voice as storytellers. The heart of the course is its focus on brief writing exercises that draw upon both remembered and invented events, document and fantasy, life experience and tradition. The goal of this workshop is to encourage spontaneous writing through time-limited exercises that serve to jump-start the imagination, helping students track what interests them, take risks, confront issues, shift focus, and juggle back and forth from inner to outer experience in convincing, lively prose. Class discussion of work submitted will be conducted in an atmosphere of trust and validation.
For a full course description and registration form click here, or write to nathan@ehrlich.org, or phone (617)278-4929.
Jewish Communities of the World
The Institute of the World Jewish Congress, in cooperation with Virtual Jerusalem, presents an upclose look at Jewish life in 120 countries around the World.
The "Jewish world" can be explored in several ways: 1. Explore by Continent/Region: Africa and the Sub-Saharan, Asia and Oceania, The Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Union,) Eastern Europe, Israel, Latin America, The Middle East and Northern Africa, North America/The Caribbean, and Western Europe 2. Explore by Alphabetic index 3. Explore a Random country link
JEWL: The Jewish Euro Web Link
A brand new Internet resource has been created to bring together European Jewish communities in cyberspace. From Amsterdam to Zagreb, the Jewish Euro Web Link, or JEWL, offers the most comprehensive list of links to Jewish websites in Europe, currently more than sixty individual sites in 18 countries, ranging from newspapers to student groups to communal bodies.
JEWL was developed by the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC) to provide a "virtual community centre" where European Jewry meets on the Internet. The ECJC plans to encourage those communities not yet connected to get on-line and join the cyber-community, improving networking and information exchange on both grassroots and organisational levels. "The global scale of the Internet can be utterly overwhelming," explains ECJC Executive Director Michael May. "With JEWL, we are creating a unique and user-friendly one-stop shop for Jewish Europe."
In addition to linking the communities, JEWL offers a wealth of information on the diverse projects and activities of the European Council. With 50 member organisations in 35 countries, the European Council co-ordinates a vibrant programme of seminars and encounters taking place across the continent and throughout the year. JEWL contains the latest information on all these events.
Finally, JEWL is a guide to some of the best and most useful Jewish resources available in cyberspace including pedagogical centres, museums, torah learning and youth work. JEWL's resource page brings together material of particular interest to Jewish educators from the enormous amount of Jewish content on the internet today.
Hosted by ORTnet of the World ORT Union in London, JEWL can be accessed at http://www.ort.org/ecjc
Teacher and Teacher Educators' Twinning Page
The National Teachers' Colleges Network (MACAM98) through its information services and 24 connected Colleges open many networking opportunities with teachers and teacher educators in Israel.
The MOFET Institute supports interpersonal, inter-institutional and international cooperation through cooperative partnerships among teachers.
Dr Fradle Friedenreich is the director of the project, "The Jewish People Today: Implications for Teacher Education." Teacher educators are invited to visit her project's page and to contact her if interested in getting in touch with other teacher educators.
This is an excellent opportunity to find teacher colleagues in Israel. The database, which can be searched or browsed, contains information about some three thousand teachers, teacher educators and future teachers who have e-mail accounts in the MACAM98 network. Any can then be contacted directly by e-mail.
The Web site manager is Esther Carciente, who can be contacted at esthers@jajz-ed.org.il.
Haaretz Daily Newspaper Web Site
For Hebrew readers, regularly updated news and information can now be retrieved at the Haaretz web-site. There are now selected materials in English, as well.
Inauguration of the Knesset Site
At the recently opened Web site of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, visitors will be able to sight-see the Knesseth virtually, to get current updates of its agenda, correspond electronically with Knesset members, and more: Israeli citizens now have access to all the information needed for full participation in the discussion of current affairs in the Israeli agenda.
The site was established under the guidance of a committee composed by two M.K.s from the coalition and two from the opposition. The site was set up by a professional team leaded by Erik Fischel, the chief information systems officer of the Knesseth.
The establishment of this site was an historic turning point in the involvement of the Israeli public and its elected representatives in the democratic process through the Internet. A parallel initiative of the Knesseth, is the establishment of the committee for the Israeli Information Highway, leaded by M.K. Michael Eitan. This committee is expected to report its policy guidelines to the government by March 1997 and is working closely with the National Committee on Information Technologies Infrastructures at the Ministry of Science led by Prof. Danny Dolev.
A special committee on Israel/Jewish Diaspora Networking was also set up among its subcommittees. The work of this committee is headed by Dr. David Biran, former chief scientist of the Ministry of Communications.
Henry Hollander, Bookseller: New Catalogue 7: Judaica, Now On-line
Henry Hollander, the San Francisco bookseller specializing in Judaica, antiquarian & scholarly books, and out-of-print book searches, has announced the on-line release of JUDAICA CATALOGUE SEVEN. The catalogue features over 300 books and pamphlets, 50 postcards and 100 pieces of sheet music. Most of the postcards can be viewed on-line and the many of the sheet music covers will be available shortly.
Hollander is currently working on Catalogue Eight, Yiddish Books, and Nine, Antiquarian Judaica.
He can be reached via e-mail at boychik@hollanderbooks.com
AT AMERICA ONLINE
CURRENT ART EXHIBITIONS
AOL has some new listings in the "Current Exhibitions" folder of the Arts and Culture area: George Segal's sculpture in L.A., a photo exhibit in Washington about the Jewish Community of Vienna, and a historical exhibition about women and tzedakah (also in Washington). See these listings and more on Jewish Art exhibits all over the country; keyword: JEWISH ART
JEWISH CHICAGO
AOL's sixth Digital City is Jewish Chicago. The area launched recently with loads of resource material on everything Jewish in Chicago. They also have stories from Chicago's only weekly Jewish newspaper, the Chicago Jewish News, and from the federation's monthly newspaper, the JUF News. They will be hosting two Jewish chats every week in the Chicago Digital City chat room.
Chicago joins AOL's other Jewish Digital City areas -- Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. They've been getting a lot of e-mail asking us when they'll be in New York and other major cities. AOL will be launching its Digital City areas throughout 1997 and 1998, and specific announcements will be forthcoming.
REFORM JUDAISM and THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
AOL's the newest additions to the newsstand is Reform Judaism, the official voice of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, interpreting world events and Jewish tradition from a Reform perspective, and covering developments within the Reform movement.
The Canadian Jewish News is Canada's largest circulation Jewish newspaper and covers news affecting the Jewish community in Canada, as well as throughout the world; keyword: JEWISH NEWS.