International Jewish Bloggers Conference Rigged To Favor Orthodox, Political Right

Ha'aretz has an exposé on the Nefesh B'Nefesh-sponsored International Jewish Bloggers Conference to be held this month in Jerusalem.

The list of favored blogs – i.e., those blogs whose publishers were personally invited and, in many cases, offered airline tickets or transportation and other inducements to attend – is made up…

… primarily of blogs that represent the political right and/or Orthodox Judaism.

Absent from the list appears to be blogs run by Orthodox skeptics, former Orthodox and ba'al teshuvas upset with the Orthodox world, blogs from the political left, the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, and more.

Treppenwitz, a right wing blogger, agrees there is bias – although he approves of it:

David Bogner, one of the panelists and author of Treppenwitz, a blog about the "specialness" of everyday life in Israel, might agree that the conference lineup is ideologically skewed, but is not bothered by that. "Who wants to go listen to some carefully hand-picked panel discussion where there are exactly equal numbers of right-wing, left-wing, girls, boys, religious, secular Sephardi, Ashkenazi - there's no end to that kind of madness," he said. "I have the sense the organizers of the conference were going for pro-Israel, pro-aliyah bloggers who also get lots of traffic. Unfortunately, that demographic seems to skew somewhat right-wing religious - just as the actual aliyah statistics do."…

He goes on to say there are "some" "excellent" left wing and secular bloggers participating. Of course, the key word is "some."

Ha'aretz did a brief email interview with me about the conference. He's the quote, as published today:

Shmarya Rosenberg, whose Failed Messiah blog is critical of Orthodox Judaism, also slammed the convention. "At first glance, the conference seems stacked in favor of Orthodox bloggers with right-wing political leanings," he told AngloFile. "I think what Nefesh B'Nefesh is doing is deceitful. A true Jewish bloggers' conference would be both open to all Jewish bloggers and far more balanced."

Although Failed Messiah was a finalist in the 2007 Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards and has been quoted in newspapers ranging from The Wall Street Journal to Haaretz and The Forward, Rosenberg was not contacted by Nefesh B'Nefesh about the conference.

I forgot to tell Ha'aretz that I used to live in Israel and that, in a previous life, I led an American national Jewish students group that heavily promoted aliya – all good reasons, I suppose, to exclude me.

I'm not the only blogger quoted who feels this way. LIsa Goldman, who writes the blog On The Face, which received a huge amount of media attention during the 2006 Lebanon War, is also upset with the conference.

Nefesh B'Nefesh, ever deceitful, spins a response:

Nefesh B'Nefesh denies any bias in its selection process. "The First International Jewish Bloggers Convention is open to the entire Jewish world," the group's director of communications, Yael Katsman, said yesterday. "All official bloggers are welcome and invited to join. We don't have a prerequisite - if you're Orthodox or not, if you are on the right or left-wing, it doesn't matter."

Katsman noted that a number of blogs whose authors are scheduled to participate in the panel discussions are "completely secular." The fact that all participants have to register is standard for international conferences and merely serves to ensure that only Jewish bloggers can participate, she added.

The problem is, Katsman tells only partial truths.

Nefesh B'Nefesh offered certain bloggers airline tickets to attend the conference, and sent personal invitations to them encouraging attendance.

Those favored bloggers are overwhelmingly Orthodox and politically right wing, and so is the makeup of its conference presenters.

Remember when being religious was synonymous with being truthful? That was a long time ago, wasn't it? Especially if religious is defined as Orthodox.

Jewish Bloggers To Gather In The Capitol.

Jewish bloggers to gather in capital - Haaretz - Israel News.pdf

Comments

[maven]

I'm not following the problem here. Why can't a private organization fund whomever it wants? It would be one thing if this was sponsored by the government, but this is no different than professional conferences- some people pay to attend, others are supported by grants, and others get their tabs picked up by the organizers. And its not like bloggers have a union or have organized in a manner formal enough to demand equal representation.
And is it only open to those who own blogs? What about people who contribute to blogs, or read them when they should be working (oops, gave myself away)?
Shouldn't Yochanan Lavie be invited due to his key participation on this site? :)

[Shmarya]

I'm not following the problem here. Why can't a private organization fund whomever it wants?

Sure it can.

The problem is claiming it to be representative and open, when, in truth, it is nothing of the kind.

I guess the longer one stays around Orthodoxy, the harder it is to notice ethical lapses.

As for YL or others attending – it's open, in the sense that you can pay your way in and sit in the audience.

[yidandahalf]

Let's crash it.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Maven: Thanks. I couldn't afford to fly to Postville right now, let alone Eretz (Getzel might say "What's the difference?" Just teasing, Getzel).

I think it's okay to have a right-wing bloggers convention if it's billed as such. To called it "Jewish" and then exclude non-Orthodox, or liberal voices, is disingenuous.

I myself am an anomoly, because politically I belong to the moderate right wing, but religiously I am on the left wing of traditional Judaism. There are more people like me than the establishment realizes, just as there politically liberal Orthodox Jews who are to the right of me in religion/hashkafah. The problem is, people are pegged into little boxes, and if you don't fit in to an established box, you are ignored or viewed as a crank.

[David Bar-Magen]

Shmarya: I strongly suspect that NBN is trying to present a more right-wing, optimistic face to Jewish bloggers to appease the elements amongst us who view the Jewish blogosphere as predominantly anti-Orthodox and a danger to the religious lifestyle.

Not that that's going to work. If the Internet is evil, after all, then everything about it is evil as well.

[Ariel Sokolovsky www.BostonChabad.com]

B"H
They sent me a personal invitation, but I doubt I'll attend.
As to your complaints on this issue Shmaryah I think you are overreacting.

[David N. Friedman]

There is no argument here and no apparent bias.

Persistent whining might be treatable but first one might want to show up for the help. NBN is obviously fair minded and nothing is rigged.

[reader]

Talk about constantly playing the victim.

[Shmarya]

Please.

What pathetic trolls you both are. You can't even make a fact-based argument.

[ck]

Awww yeah. You got me pegged there Shmarya. I am indeed the poster boy for Orthodox Judaism and all the folks that blog for Jewlicious are mere mouthpieces for the Eydah Haredit.

I thoroughly (to say the least) enjoyed your writing with respect to Rubashkins and other issues, but I'm afraid you kind of blew it here. You took a semantic issue and turned it into an act of malicious deceit. Not cool.

[Daniel Gustav Anderson]

ck:

I think Shmarya's reasoning is sound here. You claim he is transforming a "semantic issue" into "an act of malicious deceit."

(for the record, deceit IS a semantic issue, but we'll bracket that for now)

Demonstrate those claims. Show that the problem is a semantic issue, and show how Shmarya is distorting the matter. This is only fair, given that Shmarya is consistently accountable for the claims he makes on this blog, whether you agree with them or not.

[yidandahalf]

I clicked on ck's link and got to Jewlicious. It has hardly any comments. No one comments on that place. ck, what do you think you could do about that? Do you think you could do something about it? I mean could something be done? Jesus.

[Shlomo]

Are you complaining about the conference, or about not getting an invitation and a ticket. I am a big fan of this blog, but I think you are way off base on this one.

[R]

So they paid for some people. Is it about PR for bloggers?
Anyway, i think Mr [banned] Ariel is lying as he claims to have got in invite as it says it's only for jewish bloggers and didn't mention anything about new christians..sorry typo, i meant schneerson's.

[Shmarya]

Awww yeah. You got me pegged there Shmarya. I am indeed the poster boy for Orthodox Judaism and all the folks that blog for Jewlicious are mere mouthpieces for the Eydah Haredit.

I thoroughly (to say the least) enjoyed your writing with respect to Rubashkins and other issues, but I'm afraid you kind of blew it here. You took a semantic issue and turned it into an act of malicious deceit. Not cool.

Are you trying to say you planned the conference? That you have the list of favored bloggers in front of you and that it is balanced?

What is a semantic issue? The idea that NBN's purportedly balanced blogger conference is not really balanced and representative? That NBN just overreached a bit in choosing the name?

[steve]

Any Jewish blogger convention without UOJ and Shmarya is worthless.

[Lilit]

Your just butthurt cause your not invited

[Yochanan Lavie]

Your just butthurt cause your not invited

Posted by: Lilit | August 12, 2008 at 11:46 AM

What language is this? It resembles English, but makes no sense.

[ck]

yidandahalf: Dude, I have no idea. After 4 years, close to 4000 posts and 60,000 comments I am begining to get a little annoyed with the slow pace of comments and traffic on Jewlicious. I am open to any and all suggestions.

Daniel Gustav Anderson: You wrote that "I think Shmarya's reasoning is sound here. You claim he is transforming a "semantic issue" into "an act of malicious deceit.""

Allow me to be clearer. Had it been simply called the Nefesh B'Nefesh Jewish Bloggers Conference - I don't think there would have been an issue. This is just an event where NBN brings together a bunch of Jewish bloggers to discuss blogging in general and blogging about Israel. It's so not a big deal. Seriously. This is not the definitive conference honoring the very best and most powerful jbloggers in the world. It's just a 4 hour shmooze fest with some nosh. Which I won't be able to eat because I am vegetarian. Really? I should be the one kvetching.

[ck]

Oh and I would be remiss in not heaping praise on Lilit for her spectacular turn of phrase. The term "butthurt" while perhaps innaccurate in this case - I am pretty sure Shmarya's motivations had little to do with hurt feelings - is nonetheless fantastic. I'd ask you to join Jewlicious on the basis of that alone.

[maven]

Oh, its great to see ck here, I'm a big jewlicious fan, thanks for posting the portman-banhart video. I just wonder, was she the cause of his shabop shalom song? I figure I can ask important questions of this sort after the learned discussions of the colloquialism "butthurt" as a noun.

[ck]

maven: Thanks for the too kind words. Turns out Devandra Banhart is Jewish or something.

Yeah. I know right?

Sorry for going off topic Mr. Shmarya.

[yidandahalf]

ck, for now a name change and new graphics. new look for the storefront front for the time being is a good way to start. you should do well, you sound like a class act. regards, no time to comment or read much lately.

[Brian Kresge]

Jews in Green was invited to participate in this conference, but we had to decline for a variety of reasons, including that they didn't offer me free tickets.

That said, we're definitely not pro-Israel or pro-aliyah. While many participants on the site are pro-Israel individually, we tread carefully because of the shadows of Pollard and Kadish and dual-loyalty canards.

I am extremely curious as to why you and few key others were not invited.

[Jack]

I am extremely curious as to why you and few key others were not invited.

Who are the "key" others you are wondering about?