Your Portal to Everything Jewish

Today the online portals we have to “Everything Jewish” are Google and Chabad. Google is so big and unfiltered that searching for a specific Jewish resource can be as fulfilling as trying to find a proverbial needle in a haystack. Chabad, while more focused, often carries a perspective that many would rather not use as a primary source for Jewish life. The undeniable fact is that your synagogue’s website should become the portal for “Everything Jewish” for your congregation. There’s no doubt that this is a big undertaking, a major commitment, and not something you need to accomplish in the short-term -- but it is time that you create the vision and begin to set goals for transforming your website into the portal to “Everything Jewish” for your congregation.

With this as a goal you will be providing additional value to your membership by helping them integrate and associate their lives more fully with the life of the synagogue. Many Jewish questions arise in the course of everyday life, from the basic holiday questions to more in-depth Torah studies. The synagogue that moves toward being the portal for “Everything Jewish” and helping seekers address, explore, and answer these questions becomes more valuable and indispensable to all of its members. After all, as Rabbi Aaron Bisno of Congregation Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh reminds us, “Our congregations are voluntary membership organizations.”

Start with the basics by offering your members comprehensive information online about Torah, Holidays, Life Cycles and Israel. With these foundations in place, you will have a dynamic website that will be a win-win for everyone.