This week, I discovered that two Jewish blogs were no more: Protocols and Reb Lazer’s Shtibble. While both were concerned with Jewish content, you could not find two more different blogs.
In my mind, Protocols was nothing more than a glorified Jewish gossip blog. While important Jewish issues were covered, it was hardly the place for getting any new or deep insights. This was particularly the case in latter times.
To be fair to my readers, I have to disclose that my dislike for Protocols did border on personal, although I was never a big fan of the blog. Earlier this year, my father-in-law had a radio show. His ambition led him to ruffle a few feathers at the station, which caused him to be dismissed in very unsavoury circumstances. It upset my family greatly at the time, and prompted me to blog about it, leading to the station receiving complaints, and my father-in-law being reinstated (he has since left voluntarily). At the time, I wanted to generate more publicity about this “scandal”, and emailed Protocols, asking for assistance in publicising it. Protocols did blog about it…but then sided with the station. I felt (and still do) that this was completely unnecessary. If Protocols disagreed with me, then they should not have blogged about the incident at all, especially since they knew that the whole point of my email was to get support. Blogging about it, and then siding with the station, meant that the point of the post was to provide some gossip and defame my father-in-law.
But something good did come out of Protocols. I am, of course, talking about Miriam Shaviv’s blog (Bloghead), which is always a great source of interesting information concerning the Jewish world.
I was alerted to the demise of Reb Lazer’s blog today, when I read this on Hasidic Gentile. For those of you not familiar with Reb Lazer, he is a former “commando” who found G-d and became a Rabbi and spiritual counselor. I enjoyed reading his blog, in which readers would write to him about various problems, in the hope of some good advice. Reb Lazer never disappointed, and always answered with wisdom, patience, and never a trace of condescension.
The good news is that Reb Lazer has not completely left us. He will be guest posting, from time to time, on Hasidic Gentile. In fact, here is his first guest post.
