1st Edition
Digital Judaism Jewish Negotiations with Digital Media and Culture
In this volume, contributors consider the ways that Jewish communities and users of new media negotiate their uses of digital technologies in light of issues related to religious identity, community and authority. Digital Judaism presents a broad analysis of how and why various Jewish groups negotiate with digital culture in particular ways, situating such observations within a wider discourse of how Jewish groups throughout history have utilized communication technologies to maintain their Jewish identities across time and space. Chapters address issues related to the negotiation of authority between online users and offline religious leaders and institutions not only within ultra-Orthodox communities, but also within the broader Jewish religious culture, taking into account how Jewish engagement with media in Israel and the diaspora raises a number of important issues related to Jewish community and identity. Featuring recent scholarship by leading and emerging scholars of Judaism and media, Digital Judaism is an invaluable resource for researchers in new media, religion and digital culture.
1. Introduction: Studying Jewish Engagement with Digital Media and Culture Heidi A. Campbell 2. The Jewish Communication Tradition and its Encounters with (the) New Media Menahem Blondheim 3. Appropriation & Innovation: Pop-up Communities: Facebook, Grassroots Jews and Offline Post-Denominational Judaism Nathan Abrams 4. Yoatzot Halacha: Ruling the Internet, One Question at a Time Michal Raucher 5. Sanctifying the Internet: Aish HaTorah’s use of the Internet for Digital Outreach Heidi A. Campbell and Wendi Bellar 6. Jewish Games for Learning: Renewing Heritage Traditions in the Digital Age Owen Gottlieb 7. Communicating Identity through Religious Internet Memes on "Tweeting Orthodoxies" Facebook Page Aya Yadlin-Segal 8. Resistance & Reconstruction: Legitimation of New Media and Community Building amongst Jewish Denominations in the USA Oren Golan 9. On Pomegranates and Etrogs: Internet Filters as Practices of Media Ambivalence among National Religious Jews in Israel Michele Rosenthal and Rivki Ribak 10. Pashkevilim in Campaigns Against New Media: What Can Pashkevillim Accomplish that Newspapers Cannot? Hananel Rosenburg and Tsuriel Rashi 11. The Israeli Rabbi and the Internet Yoel Cohen
Biography
Heidi A. Campbell is Associate Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University and Director of the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies. She is author of Exploring Religious Community Online (2005) and When Religion Meets New Media (2010) and editor of Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media World (2013).
‘Drawing on many of the most established scholars studying the impact of new media on the Jewish faith and tradition, this volume presents a detailed examination of both how and why different Jewish groups adapt, embrace, or reject, developing Internet technologies within their communities. Addressing the nuances of the social shaping of technology, this book significantly contributes to our understanding of the complex relationships between religious beliefs and practices and the fast paced developments of the online world.’ —Christopher Helland, Dalhousie University, Canada
