Updating links - Jewish blogs

(I wrote this last week but never finished updating the links. In the spirit of “just jump right in where you are”, I’m going to put up this post even though it doesn’t exactly match what I have on the right side of the page.)

I'm starting to update the links on the side of this page. I haven't been to most of these in a while, and was sorry to see that the Kallah Magazine blog is gone (or appears to be). Anyone know what happened to that one? She had a lot of good insights about the frum world as well as some humor.

As I do this, I'll write a little about the links I've selected.

I'm seperating my links into a few categories, starting with blogs that (tend to) focus on the frum world. As I mentioned, I don't tend to read many of these blogs regularly anymore, and it looks like some of them are no longer regularly updated. (RenReb and Krum haven't posted in quite a while.) Ask Shifra has become more about her personal experiences, but I think of her as part of the "J-Blog" world so I am leaving her there.

I'm moving DovBear up and Rabbi Maryles down on the list order. One of the only blogs I still read regularly, DovBear always has some fascinating information, and he is always open to response and guest posting. My husband has been one of his guest posters on several occassions, and corresponds with him sometimes.

Rabbi Maryles' blog was one of the first I started reading, and at that time I was thrilled to read someone with an outlook similar to my own. Unfortunately, his comments are pretty much hujacked by a small but vocal group of people and I don't feel that there is any purpose to joining in the discussion. Also, he tends to focus on what he perceives as the problems (most of which I agree) but I've come to disagree with his perspective on what the solutions are. He feels strongly that the future of yiddishkeit is only with the Charedim, and that therefore any solution has to start with them changing. Well, they're not going to change just because he wants them to, and in the meantime I feel the solution is more in becoming part of a strong Centrist community that makes the changes and doesn't worry about what the Charedim are doing. But I do continue to read his blog periodically, as he does discuss some current events that I am not aware of.

Wolfish Musings and Rabbi Student have both had some great stuff. The Wolf tends to be mor elight-hearted even when pointing out things that are negative. Rabbi Student's blog is more like articles, but some of his topics are very interesting. Of course, he is also important for becoming the publisher for Rabbi Slifkin (whose link I will need to look up and add here!)

Don't worry, I havne't forgotten about Orthonomics, it will get its own post tomorrow!

P.S. Right now I am just rearranging links that I already had listed - I will definitely be adding quite a bit over the next few weeks.