If you’re an avid web browser always looking for the coolest stuff online, reading today’s column may take hours. So make sure you’re in a comfortable chair, and get yourself a glass of water.
I asked our 5 Things Advisory Group to send me a list of their favorite Jewish websites. I had such a good time exploring the sites they sent in. Every one is a resource or tool that every Jewish teacher should know about. They’ve done the work, and you get to reap the benefits. Enjoy!
1. Our 5 things colleague Peter Stark put a tremendous amount of work into this collection of weblinks on the CAJE website. You will find dozens and dozens of fine Jewish resources. Topics include: study the Parsha, distance learning, holidays, Jewish and General education, Hebrew, Holocaust, Israel, Zionism, News and Magazines.
http://www.caje.org/explore/fs_links.html
2. It’s Israel’s 60th birthday!
Susan Edelstein suggests several websites.
This one has a “tour of Israel.”
http://www.aboutisrael.co.il/heb/freepage.php?id=997
The website below describes the gates of Jerusalem.
http://www.crystalinks.com/jerusalemgates.html
And, this one is a good site for posters:
http://www.israeliposters.co.il/
3. Sandi Intraub wrote that her favorite website is:
http://milon.morfix.co.il/Default.aspx
This is an online Hebrew/English dictionary – You can type English words and get the word/spelling in Hebrew or type in Hebrew and get the definition in English.
4. Sharon Halper sent the following:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jewishsbook.html
http://www.mechon-mamre.org
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm
http://www.myjewishlearning.com
http://www.hebcal.com
http://www.weijima.com/annefrank.html
http://www.webshas.org/
5. Mike Fixler discovered a podcast that has a web site to go with it, called the “Book of Life”.
http://www.jewishbooks.blogspot.com/
It’s done by Heidi Estrin and boasts entertaining and fascinating “radio-like programs.
Mike also listens to a weekly podcast called “Israelisms.”
It’s by a couple, Charley and Carol Warady, from Israel and is in Engish. They both made aliyah a number of years ago. He’s a stand-up comic and she’s a nurse in Hadassah hospital. They talk about Israeli politics and news. They argue and rant and really keep one up-to-date on life in Israel.
6. Idie Benjamin sent her favorite website. Idie says it’s free if you register and pretty easy to navigate. Orthodox educators are generously sharing their ideas and their materials.
7. Julie Katz wrote that her all time favorite web site for prepping Torah classes is the on-line Strong’s Concordance. Not a Jewish site per se, but sooo valuable:
http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html
8. Ira Wise suggests Mordechai Torczyner’s WebShas – Intelligent Topical Index to the Talmud Introductory Page
http://www.webshas.org/main.htm
The site provides an online subject guide for finding relevant Talmud citations
Now, am I the last person to discover this wonderful site from the Association of Jewish Libraries? Choose a Jewish value, click, and – bingo – a selection of books that focus on that value. I love it.
http://www.ajljewishvalues.org/notable.htm
Next time we’ll do secular websites for Jewish teachers.
With thanks to Peter, Susan, Sandi, Sharon, Mike, Idie, Julie and Ira.