What Color Conveys

Studies have shown that color is has greater influence than anything you might say.  Or put another way, the right colors increase the effectiveness of your message.  In 2011, with the world in total chaos, the colors that you use for your website are more important than ever.  Color provides your viewers with a specific interpretation of your values.  Color sets the overview of who you are.

The overall use of color is an opportunity to reflect your values, here is a chart which matches colors to values:

White: balance, honesty, simplicity, serenity, thrift
Black: affluence, attitude, cool, prestige, subversion
Blue: health, prevention, responsibility, serenity, wellness
Red: comfort, identity, indulgence, moxie, personalization
Purple: courage, curiosity, nonconformity, spirituality, status
Green: balance, freshness, legacy, vitality, youth
Brown: comfort, environmentalism, security, trust
Orange: ambition, collaboration, energy, relationship, sharing
Yellow: happiness, passion, style, vitality

The opportunity for your website is to use color that reinforces your values, while using spot color to cue action items.

The Digital Gap: Jewish Household and Educational Technology Use

by David Behrman

We’ve learned from Garrison Keillor that in the town of Lake Wobegon 90 percent of the children are above average.  How great for them.  But when we apply technology to education, the Jewish community is on the wrong side of the tracks: the rest of the world is far ahead of us. Far more than half of us are below average.

A recent Behrman House survey of the parents of religious school students revealed that almost all have high-speed internet access, and three-quarters use it for at least some secular educational purpose.  On the other hand, even the most successful Hebrew training software is adopted in fewer than 40 percent of the schools where it could be used; the digital content of religious education overall is even lower.

How can this be?  Has our identity as “the people of the book” blinded us to the advantages of technology?  But that can’t be—we revel in the percentage of Nobel Prizes we’ve achieved. And we compete—successfully—throughout the secular world.  Do we think that technology doesn’t advance our purposes?  That can’t be it either—we know that our children learn, make friends, form communities, and affiliate with like-minded people using technological tools that weren’t even dreamed of when we were their age.
Despite this, we check our technology—our innovation—at the door when it comes to educating our children in our religion and heritage.  And it comes at a cost.

The cost is the compromise of Jewish religious education, in two ways: Most obviously, we fail to use many powerful tools and technologies.  Online video, blogs and posting software, smart phones, games, and more—are all ways to engage children and to provide meaningful and enduring experiences, not to mention connections with the rest of the Jewish community.

Equally importantly we send a message: that the latest technologies—the ones our kids find so compelling—aren’t right for the Jewish world.  Either they’re irrelevant, we say by ignoring them, or the enterprise of Judaism isn’t important enough for us to use them.  Neither one is true, of course, but that’s what we say, every time we send out a sloppy black-and-white photocopy instead of a full color brochure, every time we fail to send our kids to the web for the kind of learning we want them to have.

So what to do?  First we need to understand why it’s happening—why technological innovation within the Jewish community has lagged.  Why there’s a Digital Gap.   Then we must close the gap.

How?  We’re working on ways.  Join me in the discussion.

David Behrman is President and Publisher of Behrman House, which has pioneered the use of online Hebrew instruction in the religious school environment. This Fall Behrman House released its Online Learning Center to further bring digital instruction to the educational community.

A Chanukah Challenge

By Rabbi Herbert N. Schwartz
Guest Blogger

What makes Chanukah different this year from other years?

While Chanukah differentiates us from the larger community, it is also usually in accord with the religious culture of the larger community. This year, with Chanukah starting more than two weeks before Christmas, what we usually call the “Festival of Lights” and the “Festival of Freedom” can also remind us of the “Dignity of Difference.” These words are also the title of the book by Jonathan Sacks, and are his way of making a “forceful plea for tolerance in an age of extremism.”

He goes on to emphasize the thesis that “if we are to save ourselves from mutual destruction,” we must recognize that “fundamentalism, like imperialism, is the attempt to impose a single way of life on a plural world.” 

Typically, Chanukah gives us Jews an opportunity to celebrate our uniqueness and honor the Maccabees who fought to observe their covenant with God. However, cherishing the freedom to be who we are needs not exclude the possibility that other peoples, cultures, and faiths that have also had to find their own relationship with God.

Might this not be a good time to learn about other faiths and their struggles to be who they are?

There are some people who would say that the State of Israel stands between two eras: the tribal cultures and local deities of the ancient world and the more universal cultures of the Greeks and Romans. From the perspective of the latter, particularity was viewed as a source of conflict, whereas universality was seen as the realm of truth, justice, and peace. In his book, Sacks attacks this thinking, arguing that universality is an inadequate response to tribalism, that “it leads to the belief--superficially compelling but quite false—that there is only one truth about the essentials of the human condition, and it holds for all peoples and all times. If am right, you are wrong. If what I believe is the truth, than your belief, that differs from mine, must be an error from which you must be converted, cured and saved.”

Might this not be a good time to talk about what is gained (and lost) by having multiple faiths and cultures and Nation states?

How else might we celebrate our dignity of difference this Chanukah?

• Look back in our own history and see other times when Jews refused to let go of Judaism
• Ask community members to tell one another what gives them most pride in being Jewish
• Designate a public area in the synagogue where congregants can write down what matters most about being Jewish today
• Consider how we all benefit from learning about each other’s differences even as we celebrate our particularities
  
  

Finally, let’s use the eight days of Chanukah this year as a time of revisiting what we want to make ourselves as well. What do we hope for? Aspire to? What are we willing to work for? There is so much “talk” that rarely happens during Chanukah. With two weeks separating the Festival of Freedom from the Christmas holiday, isn’t this the year for it?

What is Pinterest

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.    

You can have your synagogue start a Pinterest of its own.  Today, being Black Friday, we'd like to share one of our Jvillage Pinterest boards, this one dedicated to Hanukkah:

Our Happy Hanukkah Board

Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy your holiday.

Innovation in Education Requires Risk

Generating Innovation within Jewish Education Demands a Tolerance for Risk

by David Waksberg

The children of Israel are poised to enter the Promised Land. After generations of slavery in Egypt and then a sojourn through desert wilderness, one would think the bar wouldn't be all that high for Canaan to look good. And indeed, twelve scouts return from a 40 day “feasibility study” and report a land flowing with milk and honey.
Yet the scouts also report risks – powerful giants already inhabiting the land. Most of the scouts and their “clients” are risk-averse. They consider returning to Egypt rather than risk the unknown. Only Caleb and Joshua are bullish – their optimism is rewarded with the threat of a stoning.

The story in Shelach Lecha resonates for anyone in the business of innovation. Any new venture has rewards and risks. When the rewards are obvious and the risks trivial – no great courage or faith are required. The greater the potential risk, the more difficult the decision to proceed. It is easier to say no, easier to stick with the status quo.
For our communities to succeed and thrive, we need more Joshuas and Calebs. How can we cultivate that kind of courage among Jewish leaders?

Fruitful innovation involves the will and capacity to experiment and take risks. Risk-taking involves failure. Investing in innovation involves investing in risk, and with it, tolerance for failure. Working to improve Jewish education is no exception. If we are to realize gains in the field – engaging more students in meaningful learning and building the next generation of Jewish leaders – we need to invest in risk, understanding we will occasionally fail. Indeed, with strong leadership, vision, knowledge management, and communication, we can often learn as much from failure as from success.

Despite growing interest in “venture philanthropy,” much Jewish philanthropy discourages risk-taking and contributes to risk-averse behavior among Jewish leaders. If we want to encourage innovation in Jewish education, there are some strategies philanthropists and central agencies can follow.

How Can We Invest in Experimentation?

• Fund groups as well as projects. We have witnessed a growing trend in which philanthropic dollars flow more to projects than to institutions. This is understandable – it is the program’s outcomes, not the institution executing it, that compel the funding. The flaw in this strategy is that it inhibits agility, creativity, and the flexibility to make dynamic decisions – all important contributors to successful innovators. For example, as a CEO of a multi-million dollar agency, almost all my funding is tied to specific projects (often with three-year funding cycles). If an idea comes up, if a need emerges – our ability to respond to that need, to seize that idea or opportunity, is limited. Whether it is a startup or an established institution, if there is confidence in the people, it behooves us to invest in their ability to make good decisions.
  
  
• Support infrastructure. Support systems, administration and marketing rarely attract philanthropic dollars and are often underfunded. While understandable, if taken in the extreme, it contributes to scenarios in which institutions are incapable of succeeding because the scaffolding required to support an innovative endeavor has been starved and the project itself is ill-equipped to succeed on its own. Supervision/coaching/mentoring, outcome-oriented planning and evaluation, and marketing/communications are sound practices and innovation-friendly support beams that help organizations manage and mitigate risk.
  
  
• Embrace failure. Of course we want to make smart bets, but don’t punish risk-takers if every bet doesn’t pan out. An innovation-friendly funding environment encourages reasonable risks (that occasionally fail) and practices that enable practitioners and funders to learn from those failures.
  
  
• Give innovation time to succeed. In the non-profit world, sustainability is a key indicator of success. However, in contrast with the private sector, it is not the only or even the most salient indicator of success. While the seeding approach does indeed cultivate innovation, this model should be examined carefully as many innovations may require more than three years before they are sustainable without institutional philanthropic support. And some great ideas will always require community support – that in itself does not make them unsustainable. This is especially important in education, where it may take several years before we truly understand innovation’s payoff.
  
  

In San Francisco, we embarked on several new innovative initiatives in Jewish education; fortunately, we were blessed with visionary “venture” funders. Promoting innovation in part-time Jewish education, the Partnership for Effective Learning and Innovative Education (PELIE) has partnered with us and other communities – seeding local efforts with matching funding and expertise. PELIE is no pushover – they push us to optimize success, but they encourage risks and tolerate “good” mistakes, so long as they are in the service of innovation and we learn from them.

Other funders, including the Jim Joseph Foundation, the SF-based Jewish Community Federation, the Koret Foundation and the Goldman Fund have similarly embraced a venture approach, enabling educators to “re-imagine” approaches to Israel education and inclusion.

Philanthropists and central agencies can be partners who nurture innovation in Jewish education. Educators must navigate the risks of innovation. Central agencies (BJEs) can provide expertise and philanthropists can provide resources. Both can help manage risk.

If we want to cultivate the spirit of Joshua and Caleb in Jewish education, we need to nurture and reward that intrepid spirit that lies at the heart of innovation.

David Waksberg is the executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Education in San Francisco.
This article originally appeared on June 24, 2011 on eJewish Philanthropy. Reprinted with permission.

Board Responsibility

Boards are a critical pillar of your synagogue's future, at the very center of your community’s success. Active Board members are the leaders that will get you to tomorrow. Yet most Boards do not see that one of their key tasks is to recruit qualified candidates. Most synagogues are struggling with the same issues-- issues that keep them in the weeds.

There is no doubt we have come a long way. I recall my first synagogue board meeting almost twenty years ago, and the issue of the day was deciding who should have keys to the shul. I thought I had entered another universe. Over the past twenty years, the focus of Boards has changed, but by and large they are still mired in the details of keys instead of focusing on the bigger blueprint they need to create for the future.

Synagogue communities need to take responsibility for the way they look at leadership in their communities. Yes, the rabbi, the executive director, and the educator are all key positions of potential leadership. And they work for your Board.  

Most communities are just thankful that someone is stepping up to be on the Board at all. Yet few members of the community are connecting the dots by realizing that with Board membership come responsibilities for setting the course for the future.  

Where is your synagogue's course set for?  If you are not sure, maybe it is time to get involved and be part of a Board with a strategic compass pointing towards the future.

by Yoram Samets

Boomers in the Digital Age

If yours is like most synagogues, many of the active members are in the Boomer age segment. And did you know that the gap in digital usage between teens and Boomers is shrinking? In other words, your Boomer members are using all the digital tools--just like your teen members. In fact, Facebook now ranks as the 3rd most popular website among internet users ages 65 and up.
The following technology-related Boomer facts come courtesy of Jeffrey Cole, of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

- Social networks are of great value to Boomers, their primary use being both educational and the sharing of information. A synagogue should consider being a great portal to all things Jewish and Israel-related for these members. Teens, on the other hand, use social networks as a way to hang out with other teens.

- Boomers are the biggest users of email, while teens are texting. Are you emails linked to your website? Are you writing emails that create interest for readers to link to your website?

- Boomers spend more money than any other group--and they make their purchases online. This is a great opportunity to open shopping to your members. But just having an online marketplace does not guarantee it will work for your synagogue. Find a member with a retail background and see if they would be interested in opening and managing an online store for you. With a member's commitment and focus on merchandising and promoting, your synagogue could earn substantial revenue from hosting an online Jewish “mall.”

- Boomers are still the heaviest users of print. And as newspapers and magazines get displaced, synagogues have an opportunity to get boomers to get their Jews news and information from you on their tablets.

- While teens spend most of their time on Facebook, Boomers are reaching out to a wider and more varied network. They read something they are interested in and will look up the subject online to learn more. The more you can cater to the Boomer members’ content needs, the more they will value your site and being a member of the congregation.

How are you creating new value for your Boomer members online?

Ask “Who is a Jew?” Rather Than “What is a Jew?”

Over the past several decades, or actually the past several centuries, Jewish leadership has been in a constant push-pull struggle around the issue of “Who is a Jew.” I am in no position to define this for anyone but myself, but each day, as I study and learn, my answer to this ongoing question assumes different dimensions.

The context for this question is less important than the content, or “What is a Jew?” And, the content needs to be in passionate support of purpose.

For Jewish organizations, especially synagogues, ambivalence is the battle we are fighting, and in many cases losing. Congregational and organizational memberships have fluctuated dramatically, but in the end we have seen a continued decline in participation and membership.

Jewish organizations and synagogues have always had active membership outreach. We have seen them move from personal and social outreach efforts to organized marketing efforts. Synagogues and others have been forced to seek new members much like Proctor & Gamble searches for new customers.

Today, synagogues are still playing catch-up in the marketing game. And as synagogues and many other Jewish organizations put more and more effort into marketing, attempting to emulate successful products and services we see everyday, it is important to remember that most marketing efforts fail. Increasing membership outreach efforts is critical, but not necessarily a guarantor for success.

There are two examples of organizational growth that I believe explain or at least indicate what we need to be doing for greater success in our local and national efforts. In many ways, Chabad and AIPAC have replicable outreach, retention and growth strategies (at least from the outside looking in)--and at the core of their successes are their purposes.

Each of these organizations has one very clear purpose, one that enables professional staffs and members to be aligned. Success for an organization starts with a clear purpose, one that needs to be reinforced everyday with defined and sustainable content, information, learning, and programming, and one that resonates in the hearts of all of its members.

Compare AIPAC to ADL, or Chabad to the Conservative movement. Clear, heartfelt purpose (AIPAC, Chabad) compared to heartfelt purpose confusion (ADL, Conservative movement.)

Imagine if these were retail stores and you were walking by their windows. It is as if one is the department store and one is the specialty store. If you were looking for that special item, which store would you enter?

What is your organization’s purpose? And is everything the organization does in alignment to reinforce that purpose? Until you have clarity of purpose from one end of your organization through the other, much of your membership outreach efforts will be wasteful.

“Who is a Jew?” is an argument that will never end. But declare what your Jewish purpose is, and then lead and support your organization to success through it.

Rebuilding the Temple

A New York Times article from December 2, 2010, Small-City Congregations Try to Preserve Rituals of Jewish Life, has spurred conversations about the future of small Jewish communities, and it stirred deep memories in me.

I came to America from Israel as a young boy.  My family settled in a small upstate New York community and we were one of 75 Jewish families there.  

Over the past five decades I have witnessed the end of Jewish community life in this town, and in many of the smaller communities throughout the Northeast.  

And so while I appreciate the need to be proactively planning for the end of a community, I believe our focus needs to be on enhancing the passionate core within our existing communities, to avoid the further passing of others.

The danger for all of us is not seeing that what is happening in Loredo, Texas is also happening in Boston and every other community in America. We who care about Jewish community must be much more intentional about its future.  

In general terms, being Jewish has shifted from a religion to a culture during the past 100 years.  And at a time when there are fewer Jews in America as a percentage of the overall population, our Jewish culture continues to assimilate into and merge with the American culture.  That is a bleak trend for Jewish community and continuity.

The freedom we have come to love and expect in America is creating a new Jewish world of the future.  The model with which we have been operating for the past 50 years needs to dramatically shift to lead us into new times.  

Today we live in an overly segmented Jewish America. There are multiple Orthodox denominations, for example, and then the rest of us are also severely segmented by organized movements – Conservative, Reform, Humanistic, Reconstructionist, Renewal, etc.  

To be a thriving Jewish community of the future we need to remove the labels and be Jews. Our young people are living through an American Jewish lens, not the segmented lens embraced by movement leaders.

The thriving Jewish communities are those that embrace, celebrate, honor and include our differences.  I haven’t been in a Reform synagogue that isn’t embracing more tradition. I haven’t been in a Conservative synagogue that isn’t embracing less tradition.  As Jewish survivalists, we must understand the need for change.  

One of the key Jewish influences, holder of the culture, educator of our people, is Google. It is the temple of the future.  

Google provides us with the biggest window into Judaism. And so the imperative on the local level is for our Jewish organizations to become the portal for their members’ Jewish perspective.  Google informs our Judaism, but it does not create community.  

At the local level we must fully create community, collaboration, connection, and communication.  These are the “4 C’s” for the future of American Judaism.  

The New York Times article is a warning to us all.  Is this about tomorrow?  There are endless efforts by leaders of national Jewish organizations to think and act for the future of the American Jew.  Yet the solutions lie at the local level.  

Our local leaders need to embrace the new normal, the world of bricks and mortar combined with the online world. We can no longer be bystanders while the biggest shift to our culture takes place.

by Yoram Samets, CEO Jvillage Network

Synagogue Shopping

Shopping for a synagogue is no different than shopping for the best restaurant in town, or shopping for that new vest.  We “shop” for a synagogue when we are new to an area and/or when we are looking for information and resources about holidays, religious school, life cycle events, etc. Synagogue shopping happens everyday. And even once they have chosen a synagogue, members continue to “shop” when they visit your synagogue’s website. Does your site affirm their decision to have joined? Is it engaging? Does it provide members a diverse array of opportunities to increase their involvement?

Here is an interesting exercise for you or your website committee: go synagogue shopping.  If you are on the West coast, go to Google and search for synagogues in Hartford, Connecticut. If you live in the great middle of our country, check out a handful of synagogues in the Boston area. And if you are on the Eastern shores, head for Phoenix or Los Angeles.

Pay close attention to the aesthetics and the content of each synagogue website you “visit.” Which elements are most and least compelling? Compiling and comparing responses among other members of your community can help you better orient your website towards the discerning shopper.  

For more information on how to market your synagogue, listen to all four podcasts of marketing professional Jonathan Schreiber’s seminar, Market Yourself to Success: The Synagogue Shopping Cycle.

Shabbat Attendance is Not One of the Ten Commandments

When we ask synagogue leadership why Shabbat attendance is low, or why holiday attendance is low (outside the two major holidays of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur), we always hear the same.  In a nut shell: the problem is out there, not in here. Shabbat morning services compete with soccer practice, symphony practice, sleeping practice, or shopping practice. In essence, the ”out there problem” is that many Jews value these things more than attending services. As synagogue leaders, we need to focus on increasing the value of services and the benefits of coming to a synagogue. In a chaotic world, many Jews are looking for connectedness, spiritual well-being, and more family time. Synagogue and services have many elements that could help members meet these needs - but first we need to provide the kinds of information, learning, and benefits that members can grow with. 

This may not an easy journey--but it is possible.

Shabbat is the central holy day for Jews, and we need to pay more attention to increasing its meaning, value and benefits to our members. We no longer live in a world where what the Rabbis tell us to do.  Participating in Shabbat needs to come from creating a valuable service to your community. If Shabbat does not benefit your member, the member will not show up.

The first suggestion I would make is that rabbis have to stop thinking that Shabbat is one of the ten commandments. Consider having your rabbi(s) and appropriate community leadership set up a one-year task group to focus on increasing participation, and experiment to find out what will work best for your community.  

Here are some basic ideas:

• conduct an on-line survey to learn more about your congregants wants and needs for Shabbat services
• define the key benefits to participation in general, i.e. “What is in it for me?”
• define the key benefits of each upcoming Shabbat or holiday service, i.e. don’t assume your members know what Sukkot means, or what to do on Sukkot
• create at least monthly special Shabbats for various segments of the congregation, especially religious school participation and families with young children
• don’t be afraid to hold two different services simultaneously, combining afterwards for a community Shabbat lunch
  
  

These ideas are not new.  And yet we get so in the weeds about our religious services that we forget to look around us and see all the Jews we are leaving out. You may already be doing more than you realize to promote connectedness, participation, and member engagement with Shabbat and other holidays. Just remember: you need to communicate the benefits in order to see increased meaning and participation.  

What are you currently doing to make Shabbat services feel inviting and relevant to broader segments of your congregation?

Communicating Shabbat Shalom

As we continue our discussion of engaging communities more fully in the richness and relevance of Shabbat, one of the most important things to examine is how we communicate with members. We need to successfully convey the purpose of attending services, to take attendance out of the realm of the “should” and into the realm of meaning.

For example, we can be more specific in how we share the benefits of an upcoming Shabbat service. Imagine the impact of communicating differently in your weekly bulletin by telling your members what to expect besides the service itself:  

• participate with the community in honoring the educator of the year, or
• learn about the current Israeli peace efforts, or
• discuss what this week’s Torah portion teaches us about loving relationships, or
• find the quiet inside ourselves after a hectic week.
  
  

Successful communication means that you are touching congregants multiple times with the same message. Research has shown that it takes 17 repetitions of the same message before people pay attention. Let’s assume that we have greater connectedness with our members to start with, so we’ll shoot instead for 3-5 points of connection, all conveying a similar message.

Connection Point 1:

• Your website: Make sure that your home page leads with upcoming events and links to a page which provides the details and the benefits of said events. This section of your website should be rich in information and content and filled with links for further information and study.

  Connection Point 2:

• The Rabbi’s blog: It is important that the current post relates somehow to the coming week’s service. The blog should also link to the website page featuring the service.

  Connection Point 3:

• The Rabbi’s Thursday tweet: Be sure to link both the Rabbi’s blog and your website on the Thursday preceding the service.

  Connection Point 4:

• Weekly enews or snail news: These should lead with the upcoming services (including Shabbat) and provide the overriding reasons (benefits) for participating.

  Connection Point 5:

• Your religious school: Every week you are providing information to parents and working to make connections between parents, their children and school. Broaden that communication to include the upcoming Shabbat and think about what you are sending home as educational material for parents.
  
  

Most importantly, don’t forget to sing and wish everybody Shabbat Shalom!

Time to Connect

These days, it is not unusual to hear a wireless device go off during a service, despite the fact that congregants are asked to turn off all wireless devices. And while we might feel momentarily annoyed, the truth is that the Jewish organized community also stands to benefit from integrating how plugged-in most of us are into veritable member engagement.  How can we do that?

Over and over what I hear is that we are ready to engage, but there is not enough time to be connecting online. The truth is, there is always enough time. For a real connection and honest member engagement to occur, what Jewish organizations need are:

• content (what you want to be saying and sharing)
• an organized way to share the content and
• a timely response to follow-up with your members about the content
  
  

Sharing information has evolved from being the sole responsibility of a rabbi or the front office receptionist to becoming a shared responsibility that involves every staff member and committee within your organization. A synagogue communication or outreach committee can develop a year-long communication strategy and calendar, but everyone needs to participate in implementing and carrying it through in order for it to successfully engage more members.

Content should come from various sources, and implementation through a variety of communication tools and media should be directed through the Committee. Most importantly, the growth of our Jewish organizations requires volunteers to step forward.  We should be able to reasonably expect plenty of community members who are willing to take on the task of helping to share content online.

Our members are connected online. Why not turn this fact into an asset by asking them to help the organization reach out to other members? The time is now. The people are there. Just like anything else, the first step to turning connectivity into connectedness is quite simply to ask.

Tips for Effective Rabbi Blogs (Hint: There’s No Secret)

To say that there are five secrets to effective blogging for rabbis would be no more accurate than to claim that there are five secrets to effectively understanding the Torah. In order to blog effectively, rabbis simply need to move past any lingering techno-phobia or preconceptions about blogging. In other words, there is no secret.

There are, however, so tips and reminders that may be helpful as you begin to blog: 

• A rabbi’s blog is today’s way of beginning a conversation and creating more member engagement.  
  
  
• A rabbi’s blog could be a weekly sharing of the weekly Torah portion and the rabbi’s reflection on its meaning to us today.
  
  
• A rabbi’s blog could be used to link up congregants with other Jewish communities online.
  
  
• A rabbi’s blog could convey a spiritual message, a community message, a leadership message, and/or an educational message.
  
  
• A rabbi’s blog needs to be regularly updated and consistently written.
  
  
• A rabbi’s blog needs to be featured in the e-newsletter, the website, and in all the written materials from the synagogue.
  
  

When it comes to rabbis blogging, let’s no longer refer to “secrets,” as if there is a special formula for success. Let’s just ask ourselves: How can a blog serve as a vehicle for the messages and meaning your community needs and wants to hear from the rabbi?