Resources on the Web
The Web contains an enormous amount of information about almost every aspect of Jewish life. Below are some links recommended by TBB members:
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The mother lode of Jewish mailing lists and online resources is www.shamash.org.
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Huge knowledge base of Torah learning: www.torah.org.
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For Boston area practical resources check out www.shalomboston.com.
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The main branches of American Judaism:
Reform: www.uahc.org (nice holiday calendar here)
Conservative: www.uscj.org
Reconstructionist: www.jrf.org
Orthodox: www.ou.org
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The best commentaries on the week's parshah are written by Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. To subscribe, email the request to dlp@JTSA.edu.
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You can't be online very long before hitting Aish ha-Torah at www.aish.com. Lots of interesting reading there, but a very conservative slant.
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Torah and Haftarot online with English, Hebrew, and Hebrew audio: www.bible.ort.org
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Stuck trying to sound out shalshelet or merchah chefulah? Ellie's Torah Trope Tutor (www.ellietorah.com) is a good resource, even though her voice sounds kind of tinny.
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Audio versions of many of the prayers in the siddur may be heard at www.sidduraudio.com. (The same site has recordings of the sung parts of the Passover Haggadah, too.)
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Ritualwell is a source for contemporary Jewish rituals, many of them oriented toward women. It also includes information on developing your own rituals.
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Judaism 101: Try www.jewfaq.org or www.shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/
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Everything kosher: www.kashrut.org
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What does the Talmud say about spamming? For rabbinical guidance on this and other matters, check out this site on Jewish ethics: www.besr.org/ethicist.
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Myjewishlearning.com is an umbrella site run by Hebrew College that features hundreds of short articles on holidays, life cycle events, Jewish history, etc. You can subscribe to a weekly email (community@myjewishlearning.com) for a number of commentaries ranging from Orthodox to non-denominational.
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For families, jewishfamily.com has great articles about the holidays. There are columns, recipes and more.
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Annoying but complete kids' pages: www.torahtots.org
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www.nextbook.org is a new web site about new and old Jewish books, with all kinds of links. It is run by Jonathan Rosen, who is a very bright and knowledgeable young man. They also send a weekly email: daily@nextbook.org
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Jewish History Sourcebook: www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jewishsbook.html
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Some very good lists of links:
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www.jewishworldreview.com has some very right-wing material politically, but they also feature some very nice religion pieces and commentary about holidays, etc.
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The Jewish Ethicist provides advice on everyday business and work dilemmas.
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For Israeli news, try www.haaretz.com and www.jpost.com. Closer to home, there's The Forward web site: www.forward.com.
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Some interesting things to see:
Online exhibit from the YIVO institute for Jewish Research www.yivo.org/exhibits/exhibits_fr.htm -
My favorite Jewish music store (visit the Listening Station): www.jewishmusic.com
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www.klezmershack.com for everything to do with Jewish music.
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Insanely large collection of Jewish jokes (and some good links): www.haruth.com/jhumorlink.htm
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www.pilotyid.com All kinds of Jewish-related software for Palm Pilots!
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Selected weblogs:
An Unsealed room - Allison Kaplan Sommer is an American who now lives in Israel, married an Israeli and has two kids. She formerly wrote for the Jerusalem Post and now writes freelance. www.Allisonkaplansommer.blogmosis.com/
Not a Fish is authored by Imshin (a pen name), a woman whose parents moved to Israel from England. She lives in Tel Aviv. www.imshin.blogspot.com/
Kesher Talk is a far-ranging blog put together mostly by Judith Weiss, who lives in NYC. She has a great running feature of "Jews in Odd Places" and "a Pintele Yid." She has a great collection of links on the side of her blog. www.hfienberg.com/kesher/
Tal G in Jerusalem was the first Israeli blog I ever read. www.talg.blogspot.com
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For kids:
JTS Kids' Corner: www.learn.jtsa.edu/topics/kids/
Jewish Kids Online: www.jewishkidsonline.com/
Tsivos Hashem Home Page: www.tzivos-hashem.org/
Nurit Refesh Funland: www.bus.ualberta.ca/yreshef/funland/funland.html
Books for Jewish Children: www.geocities.com/CollegePark/6174/jewish-children.htm
Jewish Children in Books: www.falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/muljewfict.htm
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For adults:
Navigating the Bible: www.bible.ort.org/
UAHC Lifelong Learning: www.uahc.org/educate/index.shtml
Distance Learning from JTS: www.learn.jtsa.edu/
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Miscellaneous sites:
The Source: Israel Info Access Magazine: www.israelinfoaccess.com/current/
Synagogue 2000: www.syn2000.org/
Maven Search Jewish Web Directory: www.maven.co.il/
Just Tzedakah - The Web Resource for Jewish Charities: www.just-tzedakah.org/
Jewish Resources in Boston: http://shamash.org/trb/jewish_boston.html
Hebrew Fonts: www.sil.org/computing/fonts/lang/Hebrew.html