CLAL Rabbinic Community On Line

Enhancing your Rabbinate with the Internet and the Web: A User's Guide for Congregational Rabbis

Has your congregation taken full advantage of the power of the Internet and Web? Have you? In order to help you to harness the power of the Internet and Web we have created this resource area to assist you. We have also created an egroup for those of you who would like to assist one another in meeting the challenges of wiring your rabbinates for the new century.

First, a reminder: A website can be much more than a billboard. It can be a hub of community life, an adjunct to your synagogue, a nexus for the local Jewish community, a supplement to your bet midrash. It can also serve as the vital nexus between your local Jewish community and the wider Jewish world. An email group (or e-group) can be an excellent and cost-effective way for you to stay in touch with your congregants. In a slightly different configuration, an egroup can become a medium in which community happens or a place in which learning takes place.

Join the cyber-congregation egroup by submitting your email address in the box below.

If you are proud of your own website and want to share it with your rabbinical colleagues, please let us know the site's web address and we will showcase it in the Best Practices Showcase.

To submit your site's address, send it to us at bestpractices@clal.org.

Creating a Website for you or for your Congregation

About Domain Names -- If you build a website and want people to be able to find it, you must register your domain name (e.g. mysynagogue.org). Most website hosting companies will do this for you or you can do it yourself. About.com has pulled together the relevant resources.

www.dotster.com -- If you want to do purchase your domain name for yourself, Dotster makes it easy and very affordable.

About Web Design -- about.com has pulled together all the resources you need to become (or hire) a savvy designer.

10 Principles of Good Website Design -- from about.com

About Search Engine Optimization -- Once you build it, you want to make sure that people can find it. This means that you will want to make sure you are registered by the search engines (e.g. google.com) that most people use to surf the web.

Finding a Host for your Website

About Web Hosting -- After you build it, you must find a web hosting company to host your site. Hosting comes in many shapes, sizes and costs (ranging from free to $$$). About.com has done a great job pulling together the relevant information.

www.tophosts.com -- a good place to begin when you are looking to find the right webhost

www.webservices.beliefnet.com -- they'll help you develop your site and post it for only $4.95 per month if you'll accept their ads (and for $14.95 per month without the ads)

Creating an on-line Newsletter

groups.yahoo.com -- Creating an egroup (or listserv) is a great way to distribute weekly newsletters, occasional "save the date" reminders, and divrei torah via email. Yahoo makes it easy to create these groups and lets you do so at no charge. (All you need to input are the email addresses of your congregants.) Once you are familiar with their service, you will see that you can also use it to host a community calendar, a document archive and a chat room.

If you want the egroup to function as a newsletter (a one-way mode of communication) you must make sure to click the appropriate box when completing the registration form. I include a replica of the key paragraph below:

Select moderation type

You can use our mailing list tool to send messages to your members. You may edit this later in your Settings. [Make sure to select "newsletter" from the choices below.]

Unmoderated - Members can post freely.
Moderated - You approve all messages.
Newsletters Only you can post messages.

Creating an on-line Discussion, Study or Book Group

groups.yahoo.com -- Creating an egroup (an email based discussion group) is a great way to form an on-line group that can serve any number of purposes. You might want to create a group for your Board, or create a group as an adjunct discussion medium for your ongoing education programs. In some communities egroups have been used to facilitate a Jewish Great Books program. In others egroups have served to help maintain a sense of connection with the community, and with each other, among the sons and daughters of the congregation who have gone off to college. Yahoo makes it easy to create these groups and lets you do so at no charge. (All you need to input are the email addresses of the group members.) Once you are familiar with their service, you will see that you can also use it to host a community calendar, a document archive and a chat room.

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