by JanetheWriter
A while back, several of my 20- and 30-something colleagues (who also happen to be friends) urged me to sign onto Facebook. And so I did. Today I'm a "Facebook monster," with more than 200 "friends," some of whom I haven't seen since high school or college, and have reconnected with only in recent weeks.  One, a member of a large family that lived up the street and went to the local Catholic school for many of our growing-up years, now lives in the Poconos.  In an email last week, she told me:  "I read your blog and felt like I was a DJF living in NYC!!"  Hmmm, sure we grew up in the same suburbia, but a DJF in NYC?  No, probably not so much...

Once I'd made the leap onto Facebook, it was just a short hop from there to Twitter, which, according to Wikipedia is "a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length."  While that may be a perfectly adequate description for a techno-whiz, to really understand what twitter is all about, watch this video.

OK, so now that you've gotten a feel for the basics, you may be wondering:  What does any of this have to do with being Jewish?  Actually, quite a bit....

For starters, the Union, the RAC and the URJ camps all use twitter.  Follow us on twitter and receive tweets about what's going on throughout the Reform Jewish world. Follow the RAC's tweets to get the latest news and updates on the Movement's social justice and advocacy endeavors - on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in North America. Or, check out the tweets from your favorite URJ camp; Camp Harlam Camp George Henry S. Jacobs Camp, Crane Lake Camp Joseph Eisner Camp Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, Camp Newman-Swig, Kutz Camp, Camp Coleman, Goldman Union Camp-Institute, Greene Family Camp, and Camp Kalsman.

In addition to the Reform Movement's tweets, the "Jewish twittersphere" ("Jtwittersphere" for short) is overflowing with organizations and individuals tweeting up a storm about everything Jewish from A to Z, from aleph to tav. In fact, there are so many Jewish tweeters out there, there's a Facebook group just for us. 

Here are a few shout-outs:

• At the end of December, the Israeli Consulate conducted a press conference on Twitter (possibly the first ever using this format).
  
  
• JewishTweets, sponsored by the National Jewish Outreach Program, bills itself as "Living Jewishly, one Tweet at a time." As one of JewishTweets' one thousand followers (a milestone achieved just last week), I learned -- on that same day last week -- that "Today in 1916, Louis Brandeis was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Jew to hold this position."
   
• From HebrewWordADay, I learned that the word for government is mem-sheh-lah.
   
• Also last week, GoodNewsJews informed me that Ben and Jerry introduced its newest kosher ice cream flavor: YES PECAN! and that Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies ARE Kosher.

The tweets go on and, like hula hoops and Frisbees from a bygone era, it seems that everyone's doing it: J Street, the New York Jewish Week, and the Jerusalem Post on the organizational side and, on the individual side: Esther K, Frume Sarah, Leah Jones, Imabima, and Gruven Reuven, among others.

If any of this twittering intrigues you, sign up, log in and get tweeting. See you in the Jtwittersphere!

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