Wow! I haven’t updated here in a lonnnnng time! I have just been really busy with things over at JewsByChoice.org, which BTW has lots of interesting discussion taking place, so go and check it out. Anyhow this Monday I went before “da man” for my interview and was informed that I have indeed qualified for a  green card! Anyhow you can read more about it over on Tamara’s blog. 

Sufice it to say that that his huge wait which has lifted of both of our shoulders and it feels grate to have crossed the finished line on this part of the journey.

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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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Last week Tamara and I found ourselves taking a last-minute trip up to Washington State. We had to take care of some family business so I wouldn’t call it a real vacation but we did manage to squeeze in an extremely fun day trip to Seattle. I’m not going to go into great detail with this post because Tamara’s already beaten me to the punch and I might add done a great job. However I will say that being in Washington felt a lot like home and made me realize a couple of things. One is that what passes for green here in Southern California really is brown and it would seem, that the further north one goes, the deeper blue the sky becomes. Secondly, I truly miss clouds and the rain and I mean truly miss clouds and rain!

But seriously all things considered I think we had an excellent trip especially our time in Seattle, which was fun and surprisingly inexpensive. I think that keeping kosher actually really helped keep the cost down because we avoided restaurants opting instead to pack and carry our own kosher food. I suppose that what we did might be called urban picnicking and it was a blast. By the way Pepper Tofurky is freaking awesome!

Anyhow we were staying a little over an hour outside of Seattle and instead of driving into Seattle we decided to park the car and take a ferry. I think it was a smart move because both of us to really enjoyed the ride and we managed to snap some excellent pictures. There were a flock of seagulls that followed us all the way to Seattle. On the way back they were with us again and this time people were feeding them, which was a pretty amazing thing to watch. The birds spent more time gliding than flying and literally seemed to float over to people’s hands, where they elegantly plucked food from fingers and then just floated away.

If you’re interested in seeing more pictures from this trip you can do so by clicking here.

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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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