By Dan Bloom
http://jewishblogniks.blogspot.com

According to Los Angeles blogger Cathy Seipp, there are over 8 million blogs in ''the naked blogospheric city," and hers is one of them.

Google the term "Jewish blogs" into a search window and up will come hundreds, thousands, of blogs and websites maintained by Jews of all stripes and affiliations, from leftwing pundits to rightwing conservatives, from Orthodox dreamers to Reform-minded political and social reformers.

Yes, the Jewish blogosphere is alive and kicking, and 24/7/365, you can log onto the Internet anywhere in the world — ''Jewish geography'' has gone global — and read, commune and converse (by email) with Jewish bloggers in almost every time zone on Earth.

Welcome to the new world of Jewish blogging, made possible by advances in Internet technology and a popular trend to connect with friends,  relatives and even unglimpsed, unknown readers online.

Robert Avrech and the Seraphic Secret— http://www.seraphicpress.com

For Los Angeles screenwriter Robert Avrech, his blog called Seraphic Secret is a way to keep alive the memory of his son Ariel, who died in his early 20s from  pulmonary fibrosis. Avrech, who has written the Hollywood screenplays for several top movies in recent years, is an
Orthodox Jew with consersative political views and an interest in Chinese cinema.

Avrech, in his 50s, notes on his blog: "My wife Karen and I receive, on a daily basis, many beautiful and deeply moving letters. The internet and e-mail have once again made us a nation of letter-writers and for this we are enriched and elevated. For a long time, our generation thought that writing letters was something people did back  in the 'olden days.' But now, e-mail being so common, and so easy to use, people are again investing energy and time into words sent out  into cyber space, ultimately binding people together in ways never before imagined. Strangers are now intimate friends. Karen and I, because of this blog, have moved from an abyss of terrible isolation into a womb of caring friends, most of whom we would not recognize in
a face-to-face encounter."

Blogging is Avrech's part-time hobby, as it is for most people, but it has become an important part of his life as a Jew in America, too.

Among Avrech's best-known films is the classic thriller Body Double/ His script for the timeless Hasidic fable, A Stranger Among Us'' was an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival.
Avrech also won the Best Screenplay Emmy Award for his adaptation of the young adult classic The Devil's Arithmetic. Author of  The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden, a novel he wrote in 2004 in memory of his son, is slated to become a motion picture, too, according to
his website.

Catherine Seipp—Cathy's Space— http://cathyseipp.journalspace.com

For National Public Radio (NPR) commentator and blogger Catherine Seipp in Los Angeles, keeping a daily blog —what she calls "an online notebook" — has become a compulsion. Many of her ideas about politics and the media, she said in a recent radio commentary, have made their
way into cyberspace.

For Seipp, who writes for several national publications for a living, a blog embodies the fun, stress-free side of writing, she told NPR listeners, adding: ''Blogging connects me with all kinds of people around the world who lead lives entirely different from mine. Blogging isn't really writing, even though it is, it's just fooling around jotting down thoughts and what I think of as an online notebook. My blog about my right wing views, media, conversations I've had with friends and family, editors around the country who have ticked me off."

Seipp says she normally updates her blog on weekdays, five days a week, taking time off from her Internet diary on weekends. And while Jewishness isn't really a big part of her blog, it's a theme that seeps through, between the lines.

Jerusalem life with Chayyei Sarah— http://chayyeisarah.blogspot.com

"Chayyei Sarah" is the name of a popular blog in the Jewish blogosphere — what some pundits have referred to as "Jewish blogography"— and it's run by a woman named Sarah who lives in
Israel. The heading of her blog states that it is written by "an Orthodox Jewish thirty-something ... living, playing, writing and dating in Jerusalem."

Her blog has received over 70,000 hits since starting up in February 2004, and it regularly gets read online by viewers on several continents across the globe.

"Mazal tov!" was the headline of a recent entry on the Chayyei Sarah site, which was followed by this note: "To my dear old college friend,  Roseanne Benjamin, and her husband, Daniel Modell, on the birth of a little boy, Asher Isaiah. This is their first baby. Congratulations, guys, and may you be blessed with some opportunities to sleep. Can't wait to meet little Asher the next time I find myself in New York."

Like most bloggers, Chayyei Sarah has an email address and gives it out freely on her website, so that friends, acquaintances and even strangers can write to her. So popular has her blog become that Sarah was asked by a U.S. newspaper to write a news article about Jewish bloggers. 

Toronto's  Pearlies of Wisdom — http://wwwpearliesofwisdom.blogspot.com

For Toronto Pearl, who runs a blog called Pearlies of Wisdom, her path to blogging followed a route that many others have taken.

In an email interview from her office in Toronto, she explained: "I'd been reading a blog or two regularly for a couple of months, and then one day I began to think, 'Maybe I should try one too. After all, I'd kept a written journal for  years. This is just an online journal.' And so Pearlies of Wisdom was born."

When asked how her Jewish identity plays in her blog life, Toronto Pearl replied: "Like everything in my life, my Jewishness plays a substantial role— even in blogging. I've listed my blog with Jrants.com, which lists Jewish blogs, and I tend to read Jewish blogs on the Internet the most and like to add my comments on other Jewish blogs, too. In my own  writing on the blog, I touch on many Jewish aspects of life, such as Shabbat, Jewish day schools, Jewish holidays, customs, and Jewish marriage concepts, among other issues. This is who I am, and thus, is  reflected in my blog writing."

So just who are her main readers? "I think my main readers are Jewish Americans, many of them religious Jews, as well, Toronto Pearl says. "I know I have some Canadians and
American-Israelis reading my blog as well. My readers, that I know of, are in California, the American midwest, Israel, Toronto, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Texas, New York, Michigan, all over!
Most of my posts deal with me and my life, not about the world at large, which rules out politics and most current events. I think my readers range from teens to men and women in their fifties and perhaps beyond. Everyone is welcome, of course!"

When asked about her frequency of blogging, Toronto Pearl, who is a married mother and who works as an editor for a major publishing firm, noted:

"I generally post daily, or every second day. Blogging can be somewhat addictive and  you're almost afraid to miss a day of posts. Some people expect to read your words every day and get disappointed when there is nothing from you, just as I get disappointed when there is nothing from them on a particular day."

"For me, blogging is a writing exercise that opens the mind, gets the creative juices flowing and spits out some good stream-of-consciousness writing for me," she continues. "I have made
some wonderful offline blogging/online friends as a result — we share common interests, have wonderful online e-mail friendships, are helping each other with advice and information. It's amazing world, this blogging world."

Why do people blog? Why do Jews blog? What's blogging all about?

To really understand the phenomenon of modern blogging, it's best to plug into the Internet yourself, do some random surfing and search engine browsing, and then call up those blogs you want to read and ... start  reading. From A Simple Jew to Jewish Blogography, from House of Joy to Five Years Later, from On the Face to Expat Egghead, from My Urban Kvetch to Help Me Bubby, from Jerusalem Revealed to This Normal Life and a hundred thousand other blogsites, you will be amazed, surprised, educated, nonplussed, exasperated, thrilled and filled with naches.

Most of important of all, you will have your global Jewish consciousness raised to a level you never imagined possible.

Log on, blog on and read on. It's a never ending Jewish story.
 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact the author of this article at: danbloom@gmail.com