About The Second International Jewish Bloggers Convention

I gave some of my impressions on me-ander, but this is going to be different, since the blogs are different.

First of all "seconds" after unusually successful "firsts" are extremely difficult to pull off. Expectations are way up, and the excitement level is always much lower.

The first international jblogger convention was last August, so more of us were on vacation.  Yesterday, I arrived late after teaching.  That meant that I missed the workshops.  I was also much more tired.  It's funny, but what got me at first was the darkness of the Beit Avichai building verses the light I remember from the Nefesh B'Nefesh offices.

But more for the program.
Twitter was promoted, but Twoozer was ignored.  My me-ander article has links.  The panels were disproportionately Left and secular to the largely religious Right audience of JBloggers.  That's insulting.  Ironically, it reminds me of the Likud, which gets most of its support/votes from the religiously tradional/religious and Right, though its policies when in power are extremely Left.

Benji Lovitt's stand-up was great, but Orit Arfa was in a sense funnier.  I had to control myself from laughing when looking at my fellow bloggers as she spoke.  The grimaces and shock over her admittedly self-centered use of the media and podium were a sight to behold.  We were anthropologists observing another species.

Most Jewish bloggers, as Ron Dermer very elegantly admitted, blog to serve the interests of the State of Israel and the Jewish People.  Jameel's request for official press credentials was one of the best comments I heard.  Please add my name to the list.

The first panel, if I remember correctly, was asked something about Jewish unity, and it gave a very unsatisfying answer, probably due to the fact that it was mostly secular, from chutz l'Aretz (abroad) with one chareidi.  My reply to that question is pretty simple.  In the world of the audience, mostly traditional, Torah observant and Israeli Right, we are seeing  a unification of the Jewish People as our children and neighbors' children are marrying different "eidot," Jewish communities, like Ashkenaz with Yemenite with Sephard with Tunisian etc.  The children of these marriages unite Jews of all different backgrounds.

I hope that this doesn't sound like just some complaints.  That's not my intention.  G-d willing, I'll post more and with my own pictures when I have the time.  The organizers did a fantastically professional job and the venue was very comfortable, and yes, the food was delicious!