All JBloggers are not the same

I very much enjoy reading A Simple Jew, and it's one of the few blogs that I visit on a regular basis. This morning I stumbled upon this post at A Simple Jew, Used Properly, which is a link to an article on Yeshiva World by Rabbi Avi Shafran provocatively entitled Blogistan. Rabbi Shafran sums up Jblogs as anonymous as well as obnoxious, with personal opinion-diaries which display utter disregard for essential Torah ideals like the requirement to shun lashon hora and hotzo’as shem ra; to show honor for Torah and respect for Torah scholars. The Rabbi also includes that there is the lack of basic fairness and truth in these Jewish blogs.

I can't help but feel impugned by the good Rabbi's article. I will agree that some Jblogs out there have offended even me with their petty, sometimes embarrassing entries about one's husband or one's child or one's friend or one's rabbi or, even a fellow JBlogger. No less have I been stunned at some posts by Jbloggers who argue about the veracity of Torah and who raise other maybe not-so-profound Jewish issues that I would never publish pubically myself.

But for a Jblogger like myself, who uses the blogging medium to advance the knowledge base of the legitimacy and sovereignty of Israel, I resent the association. The title itself, Blogistan, is offensive, since most "-istan" countries are Judeophobic and share the single goal to commit genocide against the Jew.

I would like to see another rabbi rise in the Jewish community - a rabbi like Rav Meir Kahane, blessed be his memory - who would be brave and inspiring to all JBloggers, and who would encourage JBloggers like me that have had the courage to identify the fact that Muslims have been killing Jews since the early 1900's when there was no occupation. If JBloggers like me are reviled in our own Jcommunity, then our martyrdom served no purpose in Hitler's Germany. It taught the world nothing— except that Jews are weak, and that it's easy and safe to abuse us.

I would like to see a welcome mat from the frum community to bloggers like me - I am Jewish and female - who have devoted most of our spare time, to defend the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel, instead of impugning us and lumping Jbloggers like me into a pile of lashon hora sinners. And I will add, that after four years of blogging, I have noticed a decline in the support from my fellow JBloggers of late. On the other hand, however, I have noticed an increase in links from heavy-hitter political websites. I can't explain the disparity; I rally against the dangers of radical Islam and self-loathing Jews in government like Olmert. I don't rally against other Jews unless they are detrimental to Israel's existence, however I think that many Jews find the subject of Israel and its survival painful, or worse, many Jews could care less about their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters who were thrown out of Gush Katif, or their fellow Jews who live in a state of constant fear in Sderot while Muslim barbarians lob katyusha and qassam rockets at them hourly.

Abandoning ones fellow Jew, especially those who live in Israel, I think, is worse than anything; I am talking Jews who abandon their fellow Jews who are under seige in Israel - and I look forward to the day when a rabbi will email me and thank me for not forgetting Jerusalem, with the immortal words of David, "If I forget you O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning....". Now that will be an article that I look forward to reading.