The Reality of the Virtual: Looking for Jewish Leadership Online

8/8/2019 The Reality of the Virtual: Looking for Jewish Leadership Online

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The Reality of the Virtual: Looking for Jewish Leadership Online

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The Reality of theVirtual:

Looking for Jewish

Leadership Online

Ari Y Kelman

UC Davis

Research for this ar7cle was conducted under the

auspices of the Avi Chai Founda7on's project on

young Jewish leaders directed by Jack Wertheimer.


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Introduc7on1

In September, 2009, MASA, a partnership between the Jewish Agency and American

communal organizaHons that provides a gateway to long term Israel programs, launched a PR

campaign on Israeli television and the internet. A central feature of the $800,000 effort was a

commercial, shot with a vague MTV aestheHc, that featured mockedup missing persons posters

of American Jews. The adverHsements female narrator urged her Israeli audience to connect

their American acquaintances with MASA in order to encourage them to travel to Israel and

save the more than 50% of diaspora youth [who] assimilate and are lost to us. 2

Though intended for an Israeli audience, the adverHsement quickly caught the aXenHon

of Jewish bloggers and journalists in the United States, many of whom objected vociferously to

the commercial and the implicaHons of its message. Most expressed a sense of outrage at the


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1 The author would like to extend his deep graHtude and appreciaHon for the insight and assistance of the following

people: Steven M. Cohen, Sarah Bunin Benor, Shaul Kelner, Sylvia Barack Fishman, and Jack Wertheimer, who are

some of the finest collaborators, thinkers, colleagues and friends that Ive had the pleasure to work with. At

various points Riv Ellen Prell, Jack Ukeles and J. Shawn Landres provided valuable insight into some of the issues

discussed here. Ted Sasson and Charles Kadushin offered vital criHcism and assistance at exactly the right Hmes,and without their help, this would have been a much impoverished project and a significantly less interesHng

paper. Robert Swirsky wrote the custom script used to gather the data for this project and he also mapped the

networks that appear here. Without Robert, this project could never have happened, and Im deeply grateful to

him for his help, paHence, curiosity and interest in the project. Finally, I want to express my graHtude to the Avi

Chai FoundaHon who helped usher an idea into a research project and a research project into this paper.

2 The 35second commercial is sHll available online at [accessed

December 10, 2009]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPYGdgIxIe4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPYGdgIxIe4


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Second, it highlights the power of the internet as a new forum for debate and

conversaHon about contemporary Jewish issues. The vitality of this new forum means that the

very ways in which we share and encounter informaHon are changing. PosHng a television

commercial to YouTube does not change the content, but it does change the size and scope of

the audience while also fostering new ways for people to shape the meaning of that content.

The MASA incident clearly illustrated this, as the adverHsement quickly turned into debates

about Jewish idenHty and the relaHonship between Israeli and American Jews. The chorus of

voices raised in objecHon to the MASA commercial resulted in a shortterm change in the

organizaHons media strategy, but more importantly, the incident showed that the established,

mainstream Jewish organizaHons no longer have sole propriety over either the content of

communal Jewish debate, nor do they control the venues in which those debates take place.

Third, the MASA incident revealed the diversity of Jewish voices eager to parHcipate in

communal discussion. From the le and the right, the religious and the secular, from

established newspapers to singleauthored blogs, the MASA commercial generated responses

from almost every imaginable corner of the Jewish world. One could read the variety of

responses as indicaHve of the fragmentaHon of the Jewish people. AlternaHvely, one could

understand it as a reflecHon of diversity within a single, unifying conversaHon. Either way, it is

clear that the internet enabled a great diversity of parHcipants from a variety of Jewish

communiHes to join the debate without having to channel their parHcipaHon through

established communal organizaHons, news sources, or congregaHons.

Episodes like this one are as mythical as they are myriad in the literature about the

internet. Both journalists and scholars have argued that the internet will radically reshape the

commercial marketplace, alter how we regard knowledge and educaHon, challenge our


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of Jewish life, the virtual sector is an increasingly important venue for Jews at all stages on the

broad spectrum of what we might call engagement. In one light, the internet might be most

important for those Jews who are least connected offline, as it becomes a first portal for

informaHon about holidays, history, or local Jewish life. AlternaHvely, it might address the

needs of Jews deeply enmeshed in Jewish life, who are looking for news or services that address

their parHcular needs and interests, as well. For some, it might be a portal into Jewish life,

while others might use it to voice opinions that might not be acceptable within own Hghtlyknit

communiHes. As the parHcular moHvaHons of individual users indicate, internet use depends

on offline realiHes. Studying the Jewish virtual sector, then, can illuminate aspects of Jewish life

more broadly and it holds some important lessons about new arHculaHon of community,

influence, informaHon and leadership.

Understood as an integral sphere of Jewish life, the internet becomes an illuminaHng

case study for the changing dynamics of the American Jewish community. The internet has

made informaHon far more accessible, it has enabled new venues for communal debate,

discussion and engagement, and it has expanded the chorus of voices in the Jewish communal

conversaHon. The organizaHons and insHtuHons of the organized Jewish world, built primarily

in the thick of the 20th century, have found themselves working in a world where

communicaHon is much more mulHfarious, and in which informaHon (and the curaHon of that

informaHon) plays an everincreasingly important role. Jewish organizaHons are discovering

what record companies, television networks, adverHsers and PR firms are all learning: the old

broadcast model does not work as well as it used to. As a result, the ways in which

organizaHons imagine and engage their audiences have to change, as well. Just claiming to be

the central address no longer packs the punch it once did, especially because we can measure


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whether or not a parHcular websites address actually is central with a given network (Spoiler

Alert: JewishfederaHons.org is not the central address of the Jewish community. Not by a

long shot).

Online, the centrality of a url can be measured, in part, by documenHng its relaHonships

to other sites. The more sites with which it is connected, the more central the site. Consider an

offline analog. Jewish insHtuHons like synagogues, museums, and federaHons are typically

housed in freestanding buildings, whose relaHonship to one another is not always clear. One

can belong to one or more organizaHons and have liXle or no contact with others, even within

ones local Jewish community.

The internet is similarly built out of relaHvely freestanding sites, but by contrast, it is

fueled by the relaHonships between sites. We call these relaHonships links. A site with no links

will, in all likelihood, not aXract a whole lot of traffic because people navigate the internet by

following links between sites. Without links, the internet would be almost impossible to

navigate and quite cumbersome to use. Links turn freestanding websites into a network.

Usually, the more links a website has, the more it benefits from those links as the links drive

traffic to the site. Links make concrete relaHonships that can be quite murky offline, and they

represent some concrete ways in which sites interact and direct visitors. Mapping and

measuring those links will provide some important insights into the dynamics of community

organizaHon, leadership and influence within the Jewish virtual sector.


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To be sure, much research and popular wisdom have shown that technology is

dominated by young people.7 So, one could conclude that the significance of sites like

Myjewishliearning and Jewcy ought not to be a surprise, and that their prominence in these

measures shows liXle more than the fact that young people remain more adept at using the

internet than their older counterparts. This is true, but it remains only part of the overall story.

Equally as important is the fact that the internet is no t going to recede or disappear; in all

likelihood it will conHnue to play a significant role in our lives, our culture and communiHes.

Although it currently favors the young, its importance is not an effect of age; the current

generaHon of people in their 20s and 30s will not age out of using the internet, and the

following generaHon will not necessarily supersede the current one in this regard. Therefore,

the internet is crucial for examining current communal dynamics that are likely to inform the

future, because of the prevalence of young people in shaping it.

This paper takes a systemaHc look at the Jewish virtual sector, as comprised primarily by

blogs and websites. Approaching the websites as nodes in a network, we will assess the

significance of each, and the role it plays in the overall network. Using the tools of social

network analysis, we will produce a different set of measurements of communal influence and

engagement than more tradiHonal explicaHons could.8 With these measurements as a kind of

baseline, we will map the relaHonships between websites, creaHng a detailed depicHon of


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7 The Pew Research Centers Internet and American Life Project rouHnely releases data about the gaps(generaHonal, class, race, region and otherwise) in internet use. The most recent data sHll shows a significant lag in

people aged 65 and older, when compared to their younger counterparts, although it also shows that 79% of all

adults 18 years old and older are online.

8 Im thinking here of the American Jewish CommiXees 2008 Primer on The American Jewish Community, which is,

essenHally, a field guide to establishment Jewish organizaHons. Jerome Chanes,A Primer on the American Jewish

Community(AJC, 2008) Available online
http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843137&ct=1044883http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843137&ct=1044883http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843137&ct=1044883http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843137&ct=1044883


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Jewish communal relaHons within the Jewish virtual sector. First, we will apply this analysis to

the 148 most popular Jewish websites. Then we will recalculate and recalibrate our

measurements to account for nearly 300 Jewish blogs. Finally, we will turn our aXenHon to two

local communiHes, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in an effort to account for differences of scale

in the virtual sector.

Methodology and Social Network Analysis

Insofar as this paper is concerned first and foremost with relaHonships between blogs

and websites across the Jewish virtual sector, it does not focus on the content of parHcular sites,

nor will it focus on audience size, beyond some basic consideraHons. It is not an examinaHon of

best pracHces, nor foes it explore how to opHmize search engine capabiliHes or generate

adverHsing revenue. Similarly, it does not focus on facebook, myspace or twiXer, as they

represent social networking pla|orms which operate by a whole host of other rules and logics

that fall beyond the scope of this paper.9 Instead, this paper examines the dynamics that shape

the Jewish virtual sector as a way to highlight the emergence of new loci of influence and

leadership within discussions and performances of Jewish communal life.

For the purposes of this project, I define a Jewish website or a Jewish blog as any site

that regularly contains overt Jewish content, targets a Jewish audience, and selfidenHfies as


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9 Facebook, MySpace and TwiXer are all certainly interesHng, and they are part of the overall online landscape of

influence, communicaHon and social networking. owever, they do not operate online in ways similar to other

websites, and while they do play important roles in sharing links and so on, as unique technological pla|orms, they

fall outside the purview of this paper, though I welcome new research on those phenomena.


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Jewish. More broadly considered, Jewish websites and blogs engage in a larger, evolving

conversaHon about Jewish issues. According to this definiHon, websites like aaretz, Jdate, and

Jewlicious all count as Jewish websites, but the wikipedia entry on Jews does not. Neither is

Jewwatch, an anHsemiHc site dedicated to tracking Jews and their influence (both real and

ficHonal). For the purposes of this study, Shamash, the selfproclaimed Jewish search engine

is a Jewish website, but Google, even though it can find the most sites with informaHon about

Jews, is not.10

I disHnguish between websites and blogs, so a word about that disHncHon is important

here, too. Included in the study of websites are those that either represent or have come to

represent either an offline organizaHon or collecHve editorial perspecHve. In some cases, these

insHtuHons have walls, buildings and a professional staff. This includes the websites of the

Orthodox Union and the AnHDefamaHon League, as well as that of JDub Records or the Union

for Reform Judaism. These websites serve largely as portals for connecHng an organizaHon with

its audience or membership, and they are important sites for distribuHng informaHon or

engaging in online debate. News outlets like JTA and aaretz are included here, as well, and

although they oen have blogs embedded in their websites, I treat them as elements of the

larger website, not as standalone blogs. I also include in this category the handful of group

authored blogs like Jewschool, Jewlicious and Jcarrot. Although they may have begun as

individual or groupauthored blogs and typically do not pay their writers for content, they

maintain a robust and regular presence, which makes them funcHon much like online magazines

or newspapers with which they are in conversaHon (and compeHHon). Thus, the operaHonal


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10 A note on nomenclature: When referring to websites, I will be excluding the .com or .org suffixes throughout the

body of this paper, for the sake of readability. A full list of all websites included in this study, complete with their

suffixes, is included in Appendix A and Appendix B.


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definiHon is that a website represents an enHty of some kind, even when that enHty is a loosely

organized editorial board.

Blogs, by contrast, are soloauthored websites that reflect or represent the voice of a

single author, and in the study that follows, I treat them as a different category than websites

because they represent a different kind of relaHonship between an individual and his or her

Jewish community. They are cheap to maintain, because of free blogging pla|orms like blogger

or wordpress, and although some blogs sell adverHsing and generate a liXle income, most do

not. Typically, blogs have much smaller audiences than websites and most do not reach more

than a few people (This does not necessarily mean that they are not influenHal if read by the

right 5 people, a blog with only 5 readers could be quite powerful). Because of their small

readerships, blogs are more interesHng in their aggregate impact on the overall network than

they are on account of their individual content. As we will see below, accounHng for blogs

within the larger social network of Jewish websites reorients the enHre map of the virtual sector

and illuminates a different dimension of how influence is exerted across the enHre Jewish online

world.

In point of fact, the disHncHons between blogs and websites are parHally illusory, but

only partly. Both JTA and the Forward have embedded blogs in their websites, and bloggers use

Facebook and TwiXer for both personal and professional purposes. Indeed, one of the

remarkable aspects of the virtual sector is the flexibility and interpenetraHon of communicaHon

streams, and the fact that anyone can employ a blog, a TwiXer account or a website for any

purpose. Yet their differences are important and they inform the measures we use to quanHfy

the significance or influence of a parHcular website or blog.


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Within the industry that has developed around calculaHng the significance of websites,

there is general agreement that popularity (as measured by total number of visitors) and links

in (links from other websites) are two of the most important measures of a sites significance.

Because of the way the internet works, it is difficult to imagine either a site with high traffic and

low links or a site with low traffic and a high number of links. More influenHal sites aXract large

numbers of visitors, but perhaps more importantly, they are also connected to other sites. Links

both direct traffic and serve as indicators of reliable content, much like references in an

academic paper or a news source. According to one orecited saying links are the currency of

the internet.11

Therefore, we focused on how websites and blogs connect to one another and facilitate

exchanges of informaHon and audience. Audience measurement services cannot calculate what

percentage of visitors are Jewish, so the difference in traffic between aaretz (which aXracted

over 300,000 unique visitors in January, 2010) and Myjewishlearning (which drew only 81,000

during that same month) indicates general popularity, but not necessarily definiHve popularity

among Jewish visitors.12 Insofar as we are examining the internet as a venue for Jewish

communal engagement, turning our aXenHon to relaHonships among Jewish websites instead

of looking plainly at popularity will produce a richer picture of the dynamics of community that

are being acted out online.


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11 This aphorism is repeated countless Hmes around the net as a pithy summary of how sites interact. One of the

best explanaHons Ive read recently belongs to Pete Cashmore, the editor and founder of the social networking site

Mashable.com. The definiHon is embedded in an arHcle he wrote for CNN.com explaining his objecHons to the

New York Times announcement of a feeforservice model for accessing its online content. See Cashmore Why

the NYTimes.com Fee is a Step Back. Posted January 21, 2010 [accessed February 8, 2010]

12 [accessed February 5, 2010]
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/21/cashmore.times.payment/index.htmlhttp://www.compete.com/http://www.compete.com/http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/21/cashmore.times.payment/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/21/cashmore.times.payment/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/21/cashmore.times.payment/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/21/cashmore.times.payment/index.html


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In calculaHng links, then, we counted only mutual links, which indicate the strongest

possible connecHon between two sites. The presence of a mutual link, in which site A links to

site B, and site B links back, indicates a reciprocal relaHonship between two sites in which each

thinks of the other as reliable or worthy of linking to. If site A links to site B, but site B does not

link back, then this indicates a weaker relaHonship than if that link is reciprocated. Any site can

embed a nearly infinite number of links out (links to other sites) with a minimum of effort.

owever, the presence of large lists of links do not indicate much beyond the industriousness of

the creator of the list. Trying to account for the sheer number of links out or links in would

have produced a preponderance of interesHng data, but it would not have shed a whole lot of

light on the ways in which the dynamics between Jewish websites help us to understand those

of Jewish communal life more broadly considered.

We collected data on 148 websites and 257 blogs betweenMay and November of 2009,

using a combinaHon of readilyavailable online services and and customauthored script. In

terms of audience, we found the 99 most popular Jewish websites, according to traffic, and the

49 most popular Jewish websites that aXracted audiences between the ages of 21 and 35. We

determined both popularity and demographics through an aggregate analysis of exisHng

rankings from four wellknown sources: SEOmoz.com, Compete.com, Google pagerank, and

Alexa.com. Although each of the four sources provided different assessments of a sites

significance, they all basically agreed on which sites comprised the top 99. To asses the top 49

sites that catered to audiences between the ages of 21 and 35, we examined reports by

Compete.com, Alexa.com, and SEOmoz.com, each of which provided a breakdown of audience

by age. The calculaHon of age is, at best, approximate, and obviously there is a great deal of

crossover between which people visit which sites.


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This baseline measurement of popularity generated the list of 148 websites which

comprise the primary data set of the analysis that follows [see Appendix A for the list of 99

sites, and Appendix B for the list of 49]. We followed this with a deeper analysis of each sites

links, extending five pages deep within each site. This provided us with a profile of each site

and idenHfied mutual links between each site and the other 147.

In this way, we created a kind of closed network, because we counted only mutual

links among the primary set of 148 sites. Although this kind of assessment goes against much

convenHonal wisdom when people talk about the power of the internet (that it can connect

disparate communiHes and opinions), we found it necessary to do so in order to focus on the

parHcular dynamics among Jewish websites. The map of the Jewish virtual sector produced

here depicts a closed community when, in truth, the network is far more porous.

In addiHon to the list of 148 websites, we generated the list of 257 blogs by following the

lisHngs included on two major Jewish blog aggregators: Jrants and Jewishblogging. Of the over

800 blogs listed on the aggregators, we included only those that had been updated within three

months of our invesHgaHon.13 We also pursued a snowball sampling method, following links

from within the blogs themselves to other blogs. Because the majority of blogs have very small

readerships, the measurement for inclusion could not be traffic, so we included all of the acHve

Jewish blogs we found. Part of the story here is the prevalence of blogs (parHcularly among the

Orthodox), so their sheer number is, itself, of significance. Moreover, they are not easily

categorized according to topic or viewpoint, and they are not exclusively the domain of either


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13 Jewish blogs, like other blogs have a very low survival rate. The vast majority of blogs have a lifespan of less than

one month. Because they are free to maintain, they are rarely taken down, and most are simply abandoned by

their authors aer a few posts.


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the old or the young. Thus, they represent a powerful and unique forum for expression and

potenHal organizing that is only made possible because of the internet.

Once we generated these two lists, we began a detailed and systemaHc social network

analysis of the relaHonships between these sites, in an effort to beXer understand the

relaHonships that emerge, and how they inform our understanding of influence, Jewish

leadership and the Jewish virtual sector.

An Overview of the Jewish Virtual Sector

From the outset, two items bear repeaHng. First, our primary data set for this project is

nota comprehensive ranking of popular websites from top to boXom. Traffic only maXers as a

baseline for inclusion here. It is not the ulHmate measurement of a sites significance. Second,

the internet is dynamic, which means that links are constantly updated, added, deleted and

changed. The data presented here provide a snapshot of the Jewish virtual sector during 2009.

The analysis that follows is instrucHve but not definiHve, and if we were to analyze this same set

of sites in a year or two, the data might reveal an enHrely different set of relaHonships. Thus,

the trends and relaHonships observed and discussed here should be understood within the

larger framework of the broader, welldocumented changes that are reshaping Jewish

communiHes at the outset of the 21st century. Indeed, the relaHvely independent virtual

sector is only relavelyindependent, and it is sHll tethered to conversaHons in the public and

private sectors, as well.

Before we begin our indepth examinaHon of the relaHonships between the sites in the

Jewish virtual sector, we should sketch out its general contours and provide a basic map. This

overview will provide some essenHal informaHon that will guide our deeper discussion about


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significance of informaHon online. The prevalence of reference sites indicates that even at this

most basic level of analysis, the Jewish virtual sector reflects a broad desire for informaHon

from a variety of sources that compete with establishment organizaHons for the aXenHon of

audiences.

The second notable aspect of the affinity area breakdown is the presence of sites that

cater to the interests and needs of Orthodox Jews. In fact, the percentage of such sites is even

larger than the 11% calculated here because daHng sites like Frumster or Sawyouatsinai are

counted as singles sites, above even though they cater to more observant Jews. Likewise, the

majority of the commerce sites also likely serve a predominantly Orthodox audience. What

emerges from this assessment, then, is the growing prominence of the internet in Orthodox life.

Far from technophobic, we see here (and we will see again, below), that Orthodox Jews are

acHvely involved in the Jewish virtual sector and as such play a disproporHonately large role not

only in Jewish expression online, but in the overall shape of the network of Jewish websites.

The third finding speaks directly to quesHons of leadership and influence. TradiHonal

news outlets and group blogs or online magazines account for equivalent percentages of the

total. More importantly than their parallel presence, however, is the fact that the blogs/

magazines Hlt heavily toward a younger demographic. This is not to say that blogs are as

popular or powerful as tradiHonal news outlets; generally speaking, the two most popular

Jewish websites by far belong to the Jerusalem Postand Haaretz (with Jdate holding steady in

third place). owever, the prominence and popularity of blogs/magazines among younger

readers indicate that younger visitors are likely to be visiHng them instead of or in addiHon to

tradiHonal news sources. Thus, these blogs and magazines not only represent an opening up of

alternaHve sources of informaHon, but they do so by aXracHng younger audiences.


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Moreover, the prevalence of blogs and online magazines that cater to a younger

audience suggests that among younger Jews, blogs and online magazines are among the most

popular vehicles for mass expression and communicaHon. The blogs/magazines represent a

variety of voices and perspecHves. Some focus on humor, others on popular culture, and sHll

others on providing alternaHve news or commentary within the Jewish community. Some of

the blogs/magazines see themselves as a kind of freeform oped addendum to tradiHonal news

sources either through alternaHve reporHng or through parody and humor. Most offer a liXle of

everything. Significantly, over the past few years, they have also played a significant role in

breaking and exploring some important news stories including the MASA incident, the

Rubashkins scandal and revelaHons of sexual misconduct at Brooklyn yeshivot.

Clay Shirkey, in his book Here Comes Everybodyexplains that the low cost of starHng and

maintaining a website (as opposed to the relaHvely high start up costs for a newspaper or print

magazine), has made it possible for anyone to seek an audience online. 14 Within the Jewish

virtual sector, this situaHon has created an environment where a handful of groupauthored

blogs have successfully moved into important posiHons within the world of Jewish informaHon

sharing, and have become valuable sites for news, culture, and community on their own merit

(consider Jewlicious, which began as a blog and now hosts a large annual fesHval of Jewish

culture in Southern California). The rise of blogs and magazines with younger editorial boards

and younger audiences than tradiHonal news outlets reinforces the prominent ways in which

the Jewish virtual sector is changing the structure of Jewish communiHes by altering not only


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14 Clay Shirkey, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizaons (Penguin, 2009)


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what counts as news, but by engaging an audiences that might otherwise not find their way to

more tradiHonal news sites.

CounHng websites provides some introductory data, but in order to understand them as

a network, we must map them in relaHon to one another. To do this, we will need to move from

a list to a sociogram, or a graphic representaHon of the network that is capable of accounHng

for each site in relaHon to every other site and idenHfying which sites are linked to one another

and which are not. Sociograms map networks of relaHonships, with each ego or node in the

network represented by a dot, and each relaHonship, mutual link, or edge represented by a

line. In our map, each node will represent a website, and each edge represents the mutual

links they share.

Using an energyrepulsion algorithm, we generated a map that highlights two aspects of

the Jewish virtual sector. First, the size of a node indicates the number of mutual links it

possesses; the larger the node, the more mutual links it has. Second, the locaHon of the node

within the sociogram indicates the presence of common links among neighboring sites. We

generated this sociogram using the FruchtermanReingold physics model algorithm, which

operates according to the following principle: Imagine a general force that is trying to move

each of the nodes in figure away from each of the others, as in models of the expanding

universe following the Big Bang. But, a secondary force (like a spring) is acHng between nodes

that share links in common, which works to counteract the general force pushing them all apart.

The dynamic tension between the general force of repulsion among all nodes and the specific

force of aXracHon among parHcular nodes eventually serves to create an equilibrium in the

network as a whole.


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In order to understand the figures that follow, it is important to remember that specific

pairs of linked nodes cannot reach equilibrium on their own within a complex network because

of the other forces working upon them. Instead, they only reach equilibrium through a

clustering of linked nodes, whose mutually aXracHve forces work in combinaHon to stabilize the

network as a whole. Thus, sites that share a lot of common links appear close to one another

on the map, even if they may not share a mutual link (note: In order to present the enHre

sociogram here, the names of the sites must be reproduced so small as to make them

impossible to read. Not to worry, they will be discussed and presented again in greater detail,

shortly).


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Figure 2: Sociogram of the Jewish Virtual Sector


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A few general observaHons. First, the network is fairly small and very wellconnected.

The longest distance between two sites is only 4 links, and the average distance between two

sites is 1.93 links. That means that it is possible to traverse the enHre network in only four

clicks, and that most sites are less than two clicks away from most other sites. By the six

degrees of separaHon rule of thumb, the Jewish virtual sector is quite densely populated and

easily traversed. AddiHonally, this measurement does not include linked adverHsements that

one site might purchase on another. So, for example, though Chabad might adverHse on

Jewlicious, and thus allow visitors to click through directly from the laXer to the former, this

measure does not account for such opHons. This means that if we account for the prevalence of

adverHsements for other Jewish websites, the network is likely even more easily traversed than

the current measures suggest.

Second, the largest node, indicaHng the site with the most links in the network, belongs

to Myjewishlearning, a transdenominaHonal resource for informaHon about Jewish life,

sponsored by a number of foundaHons and philanthropies. Three qualiHes of Myjewishlearning

are important to the present discussion. First, it is a reference site, meaning that it does not

represent a communal organizaHon, nor does it have consHtuents, as such. Second, aXracts a

significant audience of Jews between 21 and 35, and it is the second most popular site for Jews

in this demographic, behind Jdate. Third, Myjewishlearning only exists online. It does not have

a paperbased distribuHon system or a membershipbased organizaHonal structure, nor does it

rely on events or programs. Its young editorial staff and youthful approach to materials,

subjects, and presentaHon has made it one of the most welllinked and heavily trafficked sites in

the network.


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The other large nodes represent Shamash, a Jewish search engine, the

Jewishvirtuallibrary, which is supported by the AmericanIsraeli CooperaHve Enterprise and

claims to be the most comprehensive online Jewish encyclopedia in the word, and the

Israelnewsagency, an Israeli online news source. Like Myjewishlearning, none of these have

offline components and they all trade in informaHon, in one way or another. AddiHonally, these

sites are also clustered closely together in the sociogram, indicaHng that they share a lot of links

in common, even if they are not necessarily linked to one another. The locaHon of these four

almost equallysized and similarly posiHoned nodes within network indicates that the

disappearance of any one of these nodes would not impact the overall stability o r cohesion of

the network all that much, as each of the others plays a similar role in the network as a whole.

From the standpoint of overall health of the network, measured by the chance that a

network could be crippled should a single node disappear, it appears to be relaHvely healthy.

ealthier networks are characterized not by the presence of a single, strongly linked node, but

by the presence of many nodes, which distribute power throughout the network.15 This

network does not have a single, dominant, central node, although it does feature a few that

claim significantly more links than the rest. This is a healthy quality in social networks because

it shows that the network will not collapse or be significantly handicapped if a single node

disappears. Although some sites play more influenHal roles than others, the network, overall,

benefits from the moreorless even distribuHon of links throughout it. By this measure, the

Jewish virtual sector appears to be rather healthy and capable of responding to shis within the

network.


23

15 The distribuHon of links around a network as the sign of a healthy network is welldocumented. See Albert

Laszlo Barbasi, Linked(Plume, 2003); Mark Buchanan, Nexus (Norton, 2003); Duncan WaXs, Small Worlds

(Princeton University Press ,2003).


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ealthy as the network appears to be, it is worth noHng the central importance of

reference sites in the network. The four sites discussed above play a powerful role in organizing

the network. By sharing a large number of links with other sites, these four sites appear as

trusted references and they, in turn, reciprocate. More importantly, because links provide

visitors with a virtual roadmap for traversing the network, these sites are more likely than many

others to turn up when people explore the Jewish virtual sector. In this way, they exert far more

influence over the Jewish virtual sector than any communal insHtuHon, any tradiHonal news

source, or any representaHon of a religious body or community. Online, informaHon plays a key

role in convening community and it indicates that both visitors and other sites are seeking

reliable sources of informaHon about Jewish life.

Accoun7ng for Links (Not Just Coun7ng Links)

This becomes even more apparent when we measure how certain sites facilitate the

movement of visitors through the network. In other words, it is possible for a node in a

network to have a lot of links but not play a parHcularly acHve brokering role between other

nodes. So, we want to measure not only how many links a node has, but how many

relaHonships it enables. In the language of social network analysis, this is called betweenness

centrality, which describes the capacity to broker contacts among other actors to extract

service charges and to isolate actors or prevent contacts.16 In other words, betweenness is

not a gross measurement of the number of links, but it is an aXempt to account for the acHve

parHcipaHon of a parHcular node within the overall network.


24

16 This definiHon of betweenness is provided in the online version of Robert A annemanand Mark Riddles

Introducon to Social Network Methods. The specific quote is from this page [accessed February 5, 2010]


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This measurement is important because of how people typically traverse the net by

clicking through one site to the next. If links are the currency of the internet and people click

through sites to move from one to the next, a site with high betweenness centrality plays a

valuable role in facilitaHng movement through the overall network. The results of these

calculaHons are presented in Table 1, which presents the top 10 sites with the highest

betweenness centrality scores. To keep this in perspecHve, these measurements do not capture

actual clickthroughs of website visitors, but instead, they calculate the number of possible

relaHonships that this node helps to broker.

Table 1: Betweenness Centrality

Rank Betweenness

Centrality

Site Name

1 1317.231 Myjewishlearning.com

2 328.1 Shamash.org

3 302.784 Jewishvirtuallibrary.org

4 237.196 Jpost.com

5 231.13 Jewcy.com

6 167.507 Urj.org

7 163.053 IsraelnaHonalnews.com

8 161.52 Israelnewsagency.com

9 152.396 eadcoveringsbydevorah.com

10 137.067 Juf.org

The four sites represented by the large nodes in the first sociogram are all represented

here, but Myjewishlearning has a betweenness centrality score of approximately four Hmes as

large as Shamash. Myjewishlearning is far more acHve in brokering relaHonships and direcHng


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traffic than its closest counterparts. In fact, JPost, Jewcy, and URJ (the website of the Union for

Reform Judaism) all outscore IsraelnaHonalnews, indicaHng that while it claims a significant

number of links, it actually plays a rather marginal role in the overall network.

Although Jpost may have more traffic than Myjewishlearning, the laXer occupies a more

central role in the Jewish virtual sector than the former and can be said to exert more influence

over the network. Correlated with its younger audience, Myjewishlearning emerges as a

powerful and influenHal website both within the Jewish virtual sector, and within the more

general audience of Jewish internet users because it is so wellconnected to other sites. As

such, Myjewishlearning occupies a prominent and powerful locaHon from which it can influence

the circulaHon of both informaHon and visitors across and through the Jewish virtual sector. It is

just one example of an endeavor that is leveraging the internet to supersede the ability of more

tradiHonal outlets to influence visitors and shape Jewish experiences online.

Perhaps even more importantly for the larger discussion of leadership and communal

structures online, Jewcy has a higher degree of betweenness centrality than every other

established news source except Jpost. Even with a much smaller audience than its more

established compeHtors, Jewcy is nearly as successful as Jpost at brokering relaHonships within

the Jewish virtual sector and thus exerts even greater influence within the network. Jewcys

high betweenness centrality means that it is both strongly embedded within the network and

that it exerts influence over the experience of visitors to it.

Taken together, Myjewishlearning and Jewcy, which have editorial staffs largely between

the ages of 21 and 40, and which cater to an audience from that same demographic, are

leveraging the internet to become powerful players in the Jewish virtual sector. The influence

they exert may or may not translate to sheer numbers of unique visitors, but it certainly


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evidences that they are among the most significant websites in the online Jewish world,

outpacing tradiHonal news sources and establishment Jewish organizaHons. The

correspondence of youth and technology here indicate some of the ways in which the internet

is enabling new loci of influence and leadership to emerge.

Again, betweenness centrality does not calculate how visitors actually move from site to

site, but rather it measures the relaHve value of each node within the network in terms of their

ability to let visitors move from site to site. Taking stock of these ten sites reveals the clear

significance of informaHonbrokering sites, which account for seven of the ten sites on the list.

Clearly, Jewish people and websites share a desire for reliable informaHon and they rely on

these reference sites to provide corroboraHng data or longer explanaHons of aspects of Jewish

history, culture, and poliHcs. These sites play a key role in the ways in which Jewish internet

users from all backgrounds engage with informaHon about Jewish life and learn how to be

Jewish.

As important as informaHon is in the shape of Jewish communiHes online, Jewish

communal organizaHons appear significantly less important and are represented here by only

two websites, represenHng the URJ and the JUF (Jewish United Fund/Jewish FederaHon of

Metropolitan Chicago). The relaHve weak showing of communal organizaHons illustrates a great

disparity between their ability to convene community online and off. Compared to news and

reference sources, establishment communal organizaHons hold very weak posiHons within the

Jewish virtual sector and thus lack the investment in online networks from which to either

influence or lead. CalculaHng betweenness centrality reveals the Jewish virtual sectors

emphasis on informaHon and highlights the emergence of new loci of leadership and influence.


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Yet, measuring betweenness only tells us how many short paths a parHcular node sits

on. It does not tell us if those paths connect otherwise important sites. If a site connects other

sites that are unpopular, then we might say that even though it has high betweenness centrality,

it is less significant than a site that connects other sites with greater presHge. When we

account not only for betweenness but for the presHge of the sites to which each node connects

(according to what social network analysis calls the Bonacich centrality measure), we find slight

adjustments in the boXom four of the top ten. JTA appears and eadcoveringsbydevorah

disappears, but liXle else changes.

Table 2: Bonacich Centrality Measure

Rank Bonacich

Centrality Measure

Site Name

1 88 Myjewishlearning.com

2 61 Shamash.org

3 59 Jewishvirtuallibrary.org

4 50 Jpost.com

5 49 Jewcy.com

6 49 Israelnewsagency.com

7 45 Forward.com

8 43 Urj.org

9 39 Juf.org

10 38 Jta.org

Viewed through the lens of betweenness, we find a few sites with younger audiences

and editorial staffs asserHng a significant amount of influence by virtue of their ability to


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leverage their posiHon within the Jewish virtual sector and compete with established news

outlets for influence not only over the structure of Jewish conversaHons, but over its content, as

well. The ability of a site like Myjewishlearning or Jewcy to leverage its posiHon in the network

and amplify certain voices within the broader Jewish community makes them both significant

and influenHal, and it evidences the ways in which the Jewish virtual sector reveals new

paXerns in community organizing and leadership. ParHcularly when we take into account the

very real possibility that many visitors to these two sites are younger and thus rather unlikely to

belong to synagogues or JCCs, these sites are posiHoned to exert significant influence not only

within the network online, but among their visitors, as well, visitors who live largely outside the

Jewish insHtuHonal world.17

aving mapped the Jewish virtual sector, we can see an image of American Jewish

leadership begin to come into focus. It is an image that includes outlets and individuals who

have not, historically, been close to centers of Jewish communal power. It is an image that

emphasizes the importance of informaHon in the ongoing conversaHons about Jewish

communiHes and Jewish life. It is an image that features younger Jews who not only direct the

flow of informaHon but generate it, as well. Finally, it is an image that runs counter to the more

convenHonal image of The Jewish Community as represented primarily by establishment

organizaHons.18 What emerges is a very densely connected network of websites, the most


29

17 The literature on Jews ages 2040 is now fairly substanHal. For some examples, see Steven M. Cohen and Ari Y

Kelman, Uncoupled: How our Singles are Reshaping Jewish Engagement. (ACBP, 2008). See also Pearl Beck, Ron

Miller and Jack Ukeles. Young Jewish Adults in the United States Today(AJC, 2006); Leonard Saxe. Tourists,

Travelers, and Cizens: Jewish Engagement of Young Adults in Four Centers of North American Jewish Life .

(Steinhardt Social Research InsHtute. 2009).

18Jerome Chanes,A Primer on the American Jewish Community(AJC, 2008) Available online
http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843137&ct=1044883http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843137&ct=1044883http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843137&ct=1044883http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843137&ct=1044883


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valuable of which, from the perspecHve of social network analysis, are not establishment

communal organizaHons but rather sites that trade primarily in informaHon.

Given the prominence of informaHon over communal service organizaHons online, it is

clear that the internet is not simply a reflecHon of Jewish life offline. Instead, it is a relaHvely

independent sphere of Jewish communal engagement and involvement. The preceding analysis

revealed the growth and development of a network of Jewish websites in which younger voices

compete and oen outperform tradiHonal organizaHons, where newer voices occupy central

posiHons within the overall landscape of Jewish websites, and where influence manifests in the

ability to contribute to and shape the direcHon of Jewish communal conversaHon.

Neighborhood Networks

aving laid out this overview of the network and its emerging loci of influence, we will

now turn our aXenHon to the ways in which the network is organized. Therefore, it is

instrucHve here to return to a brief discussion of the algorithms employed to produce the

sociogram in order to reveal further insights into the nodes, the links between them, and what

they tell us about the Jewish virtual sector. Because the FruchtermanReingold algorithm uses

the existence of common links to create equilibrium among all nodes in the sociogram, it

necessarily produces certain groupings or clusters of websites, according to the presence of

common links. In order to emphasize the appearance of clustering, we employed another


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algorithm which produced an even more denselyconnected map featuring two, not terribly

disHnct clusters [See Figure 3].19

Figure 3: Network Map With Clustering

This remapping reveals two clusters: one, in the upper lehand corner, that caters largely to

the Orthodox, and another, spanning the middle, that does not. This clustering reenforces the


31

19 To produce this sociogram, we used the LinLog energy model.


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earlier finding about the significance of Orthodox Jews in the Jewish virtual sector, while also

reflecHng offline social disHncHons between Orthodox and nonOrthodox Jews. owever, the

proximity of the two clusters suggests that these differences are more easily transgressed online

than off.

The other cluster, comprised of the rest of the sites (with a few farflung excepHons)

amass to comprise a large, densely connected cluster with JWA (The Jewish Womens Archive)

sing just to the right of the main cluster and Jewishagency just to the le. Slight openings

emerge between the large mass in the middle and the two clusters immediately below it, but

they are so closely located to the main cluster that it hardly qualifies as independent. 20

The failure of the clustering algorithm produce significant disHncHons reenforces the

earlier observaHon that the Jewish virtual sector is relaHvely small and wellconnected. So, in

order to observe any clustering at all, we must return to Figure 2 and take a closer look at the

emergence of a few subtle but nevertheless significant groupings. Strictly speaking, these are

not clusters, so instead, I will refer to them as neighborhood networks, a term that suggests

some similariHes between the sites but is not held to the same mathemaHcal standard as

clustering.

Figure 4 presents the overall map again, highlighHng clusters that will be discussed

below. Reading the map for neighborhood networks, we find five relaHvely disHnct clusters,

highlighHng the emergence of common links and thus, common interests.


32

20 This paXern of clustering reproduced when run through two different algorithms.


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Figure 4: Neighborhood Networks within the Jewish Online Network


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At the center of the Figure are the four large nodes represenHng the Reference SecHon.

The large, relaHvely dispersed cluster across the top of the sociogram consHtutes the Orthodox

Archipelago. On the far right sit two clusters that comprise the StartUp Sector, both of which

primarily include sites by and for Jews between the ages of 21 and 40. The upper cluster

includes three sites that are acHvely engaged in a Zionist conversaHon, while the lower cluster

features sites for which Israel features among a broader array of other issues. Below those

clusters lies the Establishment Bloc, which includes most of the sites belonging to communal

service organizaHons.

Not surprisingly, the center of the sociogram features the largest and therefore best

connected node, discussed earlier [Figure 5].

Figure 5: The Reference Sec7on


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It is worth noHng that within the Reference SecHon, Shamash sits slightly further toward

the top of the sociogram, which suggests that it shares slightly more links with those sites that

fall within the broadly dispersed neighborhood network of sites that cater primarily to Orthodox

communiHes. [Figure 6] The relaHve posiHon of Shamash with respect to the Orthodox

Archipelago suggests that it shares more links with sites that serve a more religiously observant

audience and who might be less inclined to use one of the more popular search engines. Less

religiously observant users might not even know that Shamash exists.

Figure 6: The Orthodox Archipelago


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These sites, which include news sources alongside daHng sites, reference sites, and commercial

portals, all evidence strong expressions of Jewish religious life. Thus, the sites tend to link with

one another, as visitors who would be interested in Vosizneias, a news service dedicated to

meeHng the demanding needs of the Orthodox Jewish community, might also be interested in

Oukosher, or any of the number of Orthodox daHng sites. The Orthodox Archipelago is not,

however, exclusively Orthodox, and it includes a balance of sites of interest to Jews of all ages.

In fact, a handful of sites in this region, including FrumsaHre and Bangitout, which are both

informed by an insiders perspecHve on the religious world, are wriXen by and cater to younger

Jews. In terms of the overall shape and relaHons of the Jewish virtual sector, this large

neighborhood network indicates that the internet has become an important aspect of

contemporary Orthodox Jewish life (an observaHon that will become even more apparent when

we look at blogs, below).

In terms of influence, the sheer number of sites that cater to the needs and interests of

Orthodox Jews is worth our aXenHon. Although there is not a single site that dominates the

Orthodox Archipelago, collecHvely, they represent a significant presence within the Jewish

online network, and they draw on pracHcally every one of the nine affinity areas. The diversity

of these sites reveals a fairly robust array of choices for Orthodox Jews as they engage in a

shared conversaHon about contemporary Jewish life.

As will become clearer, below, the internet has become an important site for the

expression and exploraHon of Jewish life for Orthodox Jews. Because Orthodox Jews tend to be

deeply embedded in Jewish social networks offline, the preponderance of online sources that

cater to Orthodox Jews makes sense; people most interested in Jewish issues are more likely to

seek out Jewish websites. The Orthodox Archipelago is made of sites like eadcoveringsby


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The Establishment Bloc includes leading cultural and educaHonal organizaHons like the 92nd

Street Y and illel, as well as the sites of important communal organizaHons like the American

Jewish CommiXee (AJC) and the website of the United Jewish CommuniHes (UJC, now

JewishfederaHons). Unlike the diversity of nodes that comprise the Orthodox Archipelago, the

Establishment Bloc is consHtuted primarily by educaHonal and communal service organizaHons.

The generally small size of the nodes in the Establishment Bloc indicate that these sites do not

share many mutual links with other sites in the network. owever, the emergence of this

neighborhood network indicates that the sites represented here likely do share similar links

with one another, which means that the establishment organizaHons are, in some measure,

talking to one another but they are failing to establish sustaining mutual relaHonships with

other sites.

In other words, the emergence of this neighborhood network reveals high bonding

social capital (as in the case of Nextbook (now Tabletmag), which appears close to the 92Y

because they oen cosponsor programs), but weak bridging social capital as they are generally

not successful in establishing mutual links with sites across the larger network.21 Again, since

this study emphasizes the presence of mutual links, a site might provide lists of links as a

reference, but unless those links are reciprocated, they do not consHtute strong relaHonships

and thus would not enter into our calculaHons. The Establishment Bloc reveals the failure of

most communal organizaHons to establish the mutual links necessary for them to connect with


38

21 Robert Putnam. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community(Putnam, 2001)


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other websites and either contribute to or influence Jewish conversaHons and relaHonships in

this arena.

By way of comparison, if MyJewishLearning were to be deleted, it would impact but not

cripple the overall network, but if UJC (now JewishFederaHons.org) were to be deleted, it would

have almost no impact at all because it does not occupy a central place within the network. As

the internet conHnues to shape the structure and content of Jewish life, it enables the

emergence of new loci of leadership and challenges establishment organizaHons to develop

new strategies for being more influenHal online.

By contrast, the final neighborhood network, the Startup Sector, consists of two

different clusters, which are both comprised of sites that largely cater to and are oen authored

by Jews between the ages of 21 and 40. Neither of the sites in these two subneighborhoods

has proven parHcualrly adept at leveraging its role in the network, either, although they do tend

to be beXer connected than their establishment counterparts. The primary disHncHon between

the two subneighborhoods corresponds to the centrality of Israel in each organizaHon. The

first subneighborhood includes sites that foreground a connecHon to Israel, while the second

subneighborhood addresses Israel alongside a host of other contemporary Jewish issues.

The first subneighborhood consists of three nodes represenHng very different enHHes,

though each represents an viewpoint in a shared conversaHon about Israel and Zionism.


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Figure 8: The Startup Sector (Part 1)

These three organizaHons one longstanding insHtuHon and two others established within the

past 10 years represent three different approaches to contemporary conversaHons about

Zionism. Jewlicious began as a blog and now hosts annual Jewish cultural fesHvals, Presentense

is an incubator for Jewish social entrepreneurs and the Jewishagency oversees MASA and

coordinates thousands of Israel trips for young Americans annually. Of these three, two are run

by younger Jews but all three sites appeal to an audience aged 40 and younger. AddiHonally, all

three of these organizaHons arHculate a strong Zionist sensibility and a connecHon to Israel, and

thus end up sharing many similar links which correspond to the emergence of this

neighborhood network.

By contrast, the other subneighborhood in the Startup Sector includes many non

establishment organizaHons for whom Israel and Zionism are not primary concerns. [Figure 9]


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Figure 9: The Startup Sector (Part 2)

The sites included here generally cater to younger audiences and represent a variety of efforts

to reinvigorate Jewish culture, primarily for American Jews. Both BirthrighHsrael and

Roicommunity serve Jews roughly between the ages of 1835. Likewise, Jdubrecords and

eebmagazine both cater to a similar audiences of young Jews who are seeking alternaHve

routes of connecHon to Jewish life, culture, and community.

BirthrighHsrael, much like Jewishagency, centers around trips to Israel, but unlike its

counterpart, Birthrighisrael does not necessarily advocate for aliya (emmigraHon to Israel), nor

does it raise money for Israeli causes. In this way, BirthrighHsrael is more dedicated to

deepening connecHons between American Jews and Israel, not with helping American Jews


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become Israelis, which differenHates it from Jewishagency and parHally explains its appearance

in this neighborhood network. As is the case with their neighboring cluster, what accounts for

the parHcular grouping is less a maXer of explicit poliHcs and more a maXer of shared

sensibility and audience, as evidenced by the links they share in common.

In terms of leadership, the emergence of this neighborhood network within the larger

virtual sector suggests that these sites are playing a role in culHvaHng a disHnctly youthful

Jewish presence with an emphasis on American Jews. And, like their counterparts in the

Establishment Bloc, they are beXer at culHvaHng a conversaHon among themselves than they

are at leveraging mutual links across the network. Nevertheless, the presence of this

neighborhood illustrates that younger Jewish writers and organizers are involved in larger

Jewish conversaHons, even as their bonding social capital holds them together.

Before concluding this discussion of the neighborhood networks that comprise the

Jewish virtual sector, it is important to highlight the presence of a grouping that does not

properly qualify as a cluster or a neighborhood, but is significant nevertheless, within this larger

analysis. Falling just to the right of the reference sites and running from toptoboXom within

the map is a line of news and magazine sites, including nodes represenHng the Jerusalem Post,

Haaretz, the Forward, the Los Angeles Jewish Journaland Jewcy. Insofar as news sites are

consistently among the most highly trafficked sites in the Jewish virtual sector, they represent

influenHal sources of informaHon. The presence of Jewcy among these other news sources, all

of which have significant offline followings, reinforces the contenHon that the internet has

opened up opportuniHes for engagement in public discourse in ways that significantly weaken

the posiHons of tradiHonal media outlets. Certainly, Jewcys relaHvely large number of links,

high betweenness score, and presence in the stretch of nodes belonging to tradiHonal news


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sources indicates that the news arena is making room for voices and audiences that would have

likely been excluded from the conversaHon prior to the advent of the internet.

The internet is changing the structure and content of Jewish communal life in some

significant ways, and examining Jewish websites as a network helps to highlight precisely how.

First, we find a more level playing field between new and old, establishment and non

establishment organizaHons. The MASA example is but a small one of how an establishment

organizaHon changed its communicaHons strategy in response to a vocal chorus of criHcism.

But the fact that some of the most influenHal sites in the network do not represent offline

organizaHons and the most powerful offline organizaHons tend to take less influenHal posiHons

within the Jewish virtual sector indicate that the Jewish virtual sector is revealing a new array of

dynamics of Jewish life. The prominence of Myjewishlearning, the emergence of Jewcy, the

sheer size of the Orthodox Archipelago and the relaHve marginality of the UJC (now

JewishfederaHons) illustrate that any conversaHon about the Jewish community must begin to

account for these new virtual realiHes.

Second, we have observed the prominence of informaHon and the influence wielded by

sites that broker informaHon. Whether news or reference sources, we found that sites that

focus on informaHon are among the best connected and most valuable to the overall network.

Insofar as the web excels at making informaHon widely and readily accessible, it should come as

no surprise that the Jewish virtual sector follows this paXern. owever, what is striking here is

that these sites both provide informaHon to their visitors and shape the ways in which people

navigate between and among Jewish websites. In this way, the reference sites inform the

experience of their visitors by both providing informaHon and by direcHng the ways in which


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people traverse the network. InformaHon, then, is more than mere facts; it literally shapes how

people engage in Jewish life online and off.

Third, the sociogram reveals that the majority of establishment organizaHons exert only

a modest force upon the overall network. Significant neither in terms of centrality or

betweenness, the majority of these nodes, represenHng the majority of establishment

organizaHons, comprise a rather marginal presence online. Though wellfunded and quite

powerful in the public sector, these organizaHons are failing to meet most Jews where they

virtually are and show only modest success at establishing relaHonships with other websites. In

this way, they are neither acHvely contribuHng to nor directly shaping the online dimension of

Jewish life.

As a venue for invesHgaHng the exerHon of leadership in Jewish communal maXers, the

network of Jewish websites reveals some emerging dynamics in the structure of American

Jewry. InformaHon plays a crucial role in the network, and sites that are emerging as facilitators

of informaHon are beXer posiHoned to lead and influence the network. The leading sites in this

conversaHon do not come from establishment organizaHons, and the Orthodox represent a

significant minority of Jewish websites in general. As a representaHon of the American Jewish

community, the online network captures a very different image in which there is no central

address, and within which leadership and influence are more diffuse, derive from a greater

diversity of sources and, ulHmately, take very different forms than they have in the past.


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Accoun7ng for Blogs

Expanding the Jewish virtual sector to include blogs, the picture becomes both clearer

and murkier. The network described above accounts for 148 of the most popular Jewish

websites. AccounHng for some 279 addiHonal blogs will reveal some more significant trends

with respect to quesHons of community, innovaHon and influence online. Blogging technology

has made entering the Jewish communal conversaHon easy and nearly free; Jewcy, Jewschool,

and Jewlicious all began as blogs authored by one person or small groups of people, and each

has since grown into a significant source of informaHon for younger Jews. Moreover,

Blogging pla|orms like Wordpress or Blogger provide all of the hosHng, searchengine

placement, and widgets that one could need in order to create a fairly robust and

comprehensive webpresence without having to learn one line of programming code. Indeed,

blogs are so easy to start and so many blogs are created that something like 95% of all blogs are

essenHally abandoned.22

Most blogs come stocked with a readymade funcHon called a blogroll, where you can

easily post links (again, with no programming skills required) to other blogs. Blogger protocol

also holds that if blog A links to blog B, then blog B ought to return the favor and link back.

This changes the nature the network of blogs because they add so many mutually linked sites

into the formula without necessarily increasing the number of visitors in significant ways.

Nevertheless, as an oen unfiltered, varied and popular vehicle for personal expression, blogs

represent the voices of individuals who are moHvated enough to put their own thoughts online

for anyone to read. SHll more importantly, they are not just independent journals, but linked to


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22 Douglas Quenqua. Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest New York Times June 5, 2009. [accessed September 4, 2009]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html?_r=1http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html?_r=1http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html?_r=1http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html?_r=1


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other blogs, they become a loosely affiliated cacophony of voices. Moreover, because of the

comments feature and the protocol that bloggers respond to comments le for them, blogs

are more than virtual soapboxes (although they are that, too), but they are oen opportuniHes

for connecHon and conversaHon within a larger social network.

Indeed, what is so interesHng about blogs and why they are included here is not that

they aXract very large audiences. Rather, in terms of social network analysis, blogs are useful

because they rely so heavily on mutual links, on comments, and on the contribuHons of

individuals, not organizaHons. For this reason, blogs represent a crucial aspect of the Jewish

online network not because they exemplify leadership in any tradiHonal sense nor because any

one blog has the ear of the right readers, but because they represent a network of

individuals. Traffic, again, is less important than the presence and value of links between sites

because those links represent relaHonships and those relaHonships comprise and traverse a

broad and varied populaHon of Jews. In other words, for this paper, blogs are more interesHng

in aggregate than individually.

Although it would be impossible to categorize most blogs because of their varied

content, what becomes clear aer surveying nearly 800 Jewish blogs (some defunct, some

acHve), is that many many writers either idenHfy as Orthodox Jews or indicate that they were

raised in Orthodox families. Some idenHfy themselves as having le that community, while

others regularly post lengthy exegeses about torah porHons or poliHcs, the lives of single people

looking for partners or the daily lives of young mothers. Given the sheer dominance of

Orthodox bloggers over nonorthodox bloggers in this arena, it appears that for Orthodox Jews,

blogging has become both a popular past Hme and a powerful vehicle for expressing dissent or


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differenHaHon within that community, and their presence shadows the large dispersed network

of websites that cater to those same communiHes.

There are any number of reasons for the preponderance of Orthodox blogs. One might

be that a nonOrthodox Jewish blogger might not idenHfy her blog as Jewish and post about

any number of issues, only some of which might be easily idenHfied as Jewish. IdenHfying ones

blog as Jewish, indeed, orients it and its readership toward conversaHons that deal, primarily,

with Jewish issues. So, Orthodox bloggers, given their relaHvely deep investment in Jewish

issues might be more prepared than their nonOrthodox counterparts, to engage primarily in

those conversaHons. In other words, this project might idenHfy more Orthodox bloggers

because more Orthodox bloggers idenHfy themselves and their blogs as Jewish.

Another reason might be that blogs provide an outlet for sharing stories and informaHon

outside the grasp of tradiHonal communal authority. For those quesHoning their relaHonship to

Orthodoxy or, the web might provide a safer space for doing so than within their synagogues,

families, or schools. Similarly, those who have le the Orthodox world may use blogs as a way

to remain in contact with friends and family, but from a distance. Finally, within the orthodox

world, blogs might provide venues for discussing issues of concern that would be difficult to

raise within Orthodox communiHes.23

Nevertheless, the sheer number of Orthodox blogs is worth noHng and accounHng for

them all dramaHcally shis the overall map of the Jewish online network. Figure 10 presents

the overall network, mapped out according to the same algorithm used to produce the previous

sociogram, so as to emphasize the pull of common links. In order to highlight a few important


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23 These are speculaHons as to the preponderance of Orthodox bloggers and addiHonal research into the writers

and their blogs would be necessary to properly account for this phenomenon.


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dynamics, we have omiXed the names of the sites represented here. 24 Blogs are represented in

light green and the websites appear in purple.

Figure 10: Blogs and Websites


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24 To include the names of all of the websites and blogs would have made the map enHrely unreadable.


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Overall, accounHng for blogs increases to 6 the greatest number of links between nodes

(it had been 4, when calculated for websites), and it increases the average distance between

nodes to 2.622 links (it had been 1.93). Thus, the presence of 279 addiHonal websites expands

the bounds of the Jewish virtual sector, but only slightly, maintaining its earlier characterizaHon

as a fairly wellconnected, easily traversed network.

The sociogram, even without the names of the sites, shows clearly that despite the

pronounced number of Jewish blogs and the sizable links accrued by a handful of blogs, the

map divides fairly neatly in half with the majority of websites on one side and blogs on the

other. Most blogs, while plenHful and certainly capable of generaHng lots of links, do not

generally garner the reciprocal aXenHon of Jewish websites, which limits their ability to exert

influence over the network as a whole.

Therefore, what makes blogs interesHng in this context is not their individual readerships

as much as it is their aggregate relaHonships, and this is made evident by how they reconfigure

the Jewish virtual sector as a whole. In order to highlight precisely how they do this, we will

take a closer look at the core of the sociogram to highlight some interesHng shis in the balance

of power within the network. Figure 11 is a closeup view of center of Figure 10 that captures

the contact zone between blogs and websites and features only a handful of site names (for

legibilitys sake).


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Figure 11: Core of Blogs Websites Sociogram

We find some of the usual suspects, including MyJewishLearning and Jewishvirtuallibrary (both

located in the upper righthand quadrant of this closeup). But we also find the websites


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FrumsaHre, Frumster, Aish, IsraelnaHonalnews, and Jewcy, each of whom relocate to the center

of the sociogram because of the links they share with both websites and blogs. The majority of

these are sites with younger audiences and, with the excepHon of Aish, and IsraelnaHonalnews,

a younger editorial voice, as well. The blogs that emerge in this encounter represent a variety

of viewpoints, but significantly, the majority represented here are wriXen by Orthodox Jews,

which might parHally explain why and how they emerge as strongly as they do in this

reconfiguraHon of the Jewish virtual sector.

AccounHng for blogs reveals a significant shi in the sociogram. Orthodox bloggers and

sites that cater to younger audiences emerge as both the most central to the network and as

the most highlyconnected sites. Nextbook (now Tabletmag), basically did not change sizes

once we account for blogs although it moved closer to the center of the network because of the

similariHes of the links that it shares with those of other blogs and websites. Likewise, Jewcy

expanded and relocated, dwarfing IsraelnaHonalnews and emerging as a central source of

connecHon within this expanded Jewish virtual sector. Meanwhile, nodes represenHng few

other sites, like FrumsaHre, expand dramaHcally and emerge as parHcularly influenHal in the

overall network.

The shis evidenced here toward the young and the Orthodox indicate new loci of

power in Jewish life online. An outlet like Jewcy or Jewlicious (accidentally appearing in green

here) might be more prepared to share links with an Orthodox blog than aaretz or the UJC

(now JewishfederaHons) would be. This difference in approach to sharing and building links

between websites and blogs boosts the prominence of those more willing to share links, while

those unwilling to do so diminish their own influence over the Jewish virtual sector as a whole.


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CalculaHng for betweenness centrality affirms this trend. Table 3 lists the ten blogs and

websites with the highest betweenness centrality.

Table 3: Betweenness Centrality for Blogs and Websites25

Rank Betweenness Centrality Site Name

1 117 Myjewishlearning.com

2 112 CjhereHc.blogspot.com

3 101 FrumsaHre.net

4 100 Jpost.com

5 91 Jewcy.com

6 89 Forward.com

7 88 Jewishvirtuallibrary.org

8 85 Jewishjournal.com

9 77 agmk.blogspot.com

10 76 aaretz.com

AccounHng for blogs considerably alters the Jewish virtual landscape as it favors those

who are willing to share links broadly. Myjewishlearning and Jewishvirtuallibrary retain their

strong posiHons within the network, as do Jewcy, Jpost and aaretz. Yet, we also see the

emergence of two singleauthored blogs and one website, FrumsaHre, that is, essenHally a blog,

as well. Thus, we see three blogs emerge among the most significant nodes in the network and

the virtual dominance of informaHonsharing sites in the network as a whole. In terms of


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25 CalculaHng for Bonacich Power reproduced this list almost exactly. The only change was that in the new

calculaHon, aaretz drops off and is replaced by JTA. Otherwise, the rankings remain exactly the same.


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brokering links, sites that trade in informaHon play a crucial role in the experience of Jewish

internet users who are drawn to the network of Jewish websites.

Perhaps the most notable development in this recalculaHon is the extraordinary

prominence of FrumsaHre, the website of one eshy Fried, which apparently receives no

funding beyond what it makes in adverHsing (which, according to Mr. Fried, is not

Documents

The Reality of the Virtual: Looking for Jewish Leadership Online