Jewish Subcultures Online: Outreach, Dating, and Marginalized Communities ______
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JEWISH SUBCULTURES ONLINE: OUTREACH, DATING, AND MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES ____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, Fullerton ____________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in American Studies ____________________________________ By Rachel Sara Schiff Thesis Committee Approval: Professor Leila Zenderland, Chair Professor Terri Snyder, Department of American Studies Professor Carrie Lane, Department of American Studies Spring, 2016 ABSTRACT This thesis explores how Jewish individuals use and create communities online to enrich their Jewish identity. The Internet provides Jews who do not fit within their brick and mortar communities an outlet that gives them voice, power, and sometimes anonymity. They use these websites to balance their Jewish identities and other personal identities that may or may not fit within their local Jewish community. This research was conducted through analyzing a broad range of websites. The first chapter, the introduction, describes the Jewish American population as a whole as well as the history of the Internet. The second chapter, entitled “The Black Hats of the Internet,” discusses how the Orthodox community has used the Internet to create a modern approach to outreach. It focuses in particular on the extensive web materials created by Chabad and Aish Hatorah, which offer surprisingly modern twists on traditional texts. The third chapter is about Jewish online dating. It uses JDate and other secular websites to analyze how Jewish singles are using the Internet. This chapter also suggests that the use of the Internet may have an impact on reducing interfaith marriage. The fourth chapter examines marginalized communities, focusing on the following: Jewrotica; the Jewish LGBT community including those who are “OLGBT” (Orthodox LGBT); Punk Jews; and feminist Jews. The conclusion explores the impact of the Internet on the Jewish idea of “kehilla” (community). The use of the Internet has moved the Jewish community beyond brick and mortar buildings. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 Who is “Jewish”? .................................................................................................. 3 Communal Jewish Life in America in the Wake of the Holocaust ...................... 7 The History of the Computer ................................................................................ 12 Creating Jewish Communities on the Internet ...................................................... 14 2. THE BLACK HATS OF THE INTERNET ......................................................... 16 Chabad: History of the Movement........................................................................ 19 Education and Outreach Online: Chabad.org and Chabad.com ........................... 22 Chabad’s Visual and Auditory Media .................................................................. 27 Chabad’s Engagement .......................................................................................... 27 Aish Hatorah ......................................................................................................... 29 Aish: History of the Movement ............................................................................ 31 Outreach and Education through Online Texts..................................................... 31 Aish’s Visual and Auditory Media ....................................................................... 33 Aish’s Engagement ............................................................................................... 38 Chabad and Aish Together ................................................................................... 42 3. DIGITAL ATTRACTION IN A WORLD WIDE WEB ..................................... 45 Fear: A Result of Assimilation ............................................................................. 49 Online Dating: An Intervention ............................................................................ 54 Assessing the Results of Internet Dating .............................................................. 66 iii 4. ONLINE JEWISH SUBCULTURES .................................................................. 71 Jewrotica: Positioning Sexual Conversation in Orthodox Jewish Communities . 74 Punk Boots Find Jewish Roots ............................................................................. 84 Sharing a Bed with Jewish Traditions: LGBT Jewish Communities ................... 93 Voices that Carry: Jewish Feminism and Online Communities ........................... 100 Understanding Subcultures ................................................................................... 107 5. CONCLUSION: THE ONLINE JEWISH LANDSCAPE ................................... 109 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................... 118 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Table of Intermarriage ......................................................................................... 67 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Party Rock Anthem Lyrics and Parody ............................................................... 36 2. Logo from Jewrotica website ............................................................................ 79 3. Comparason of The Sex Pistols logo with Punk Torah podcast logo .................. 89 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge both Robin and Dan Schiff (my parents) for the encouragement they gave me to follow my religious curiosity and to pursue my graduate degree, and for continually reminding me that I must finish what I start. It goes without saying that my Jewish roots would not exist without them. My grandparents, Tzvi and Malca Schiff and Beatrice and David Danker, have all passed. Although they cannot read this, they were an important part of my discoveries and upbringing and for that I will never forget them. Brett Francis Poirier, your constant encouragement and “hounding” has allowed me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You are my rock. Jackie Menter allowed me to battle and bounce Jewish communal ideas and discussions off of her for the greater part of a decade. Natalie Wong, I thank you for being you always and for making sure I did not settle for an education that did not cater to my personal curiosity. I also thank Rabbi Drew Kaplan and Rabbi Yonah Bookstein for guiding my understanding of Torah and creating a local Jewish community I could attend. To my thesis advisors, Dr. Carrie Lane and Dr. Terri Snyder, I appreciate all of your assistance and suggestions. The knowledge you provided me would fill pages that I have yet to be able to write. Lastly, and most especially, thank you Dr. Leila Zenderland. Without your countless hours assisting me in writing and helping me with my vision, I would not have grown academically. In addition, you have helped me grow as a person. I still cannot believe one human being can edit for so long and with such stamina. I attribute my vii completion of the graduate program to your persistence. What seems humanly impossible for one woman to do, you have done. You are a female mensch in every sense of the word. viii 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION When one thinks about Judaism, the computer does not come to the forefront of one’s mind. It seems like an odd pairing. This oddity is actually a pairing that is reshaping the way the Jewish American population views community. The Internet is redefining community in the 21st century in ways never before possible. American Jews are using the Internet to connect to one another on various levels. While the Internet has become a global phenomenon, the American Jewish community is specifically finding its own ways to interact with technology in order to gain access to people and ideas beyond a local region. This thesis will explore how the Jewish community interacts with the Internet. This topic holds a particular fascination for me due to my own family history as well as my love for technology. My mother is from Brooklyn, New York. My father is from Haifa, Israel. They met at a Jewish singles dance in Norwalk, California on Christmas Eve. Glendora, where I lived and my parents still reside, is a small suburb of Los Angeles. During my formative years, it did not have an overwhelming mix of religions and races. Even today, only one percent of the population in Glendora is Jewish.1 Throughout my childhood, I lived with a sense of being the “other,” someone 1 "Glendora, California Religion." Sperling's Best Places. Accessed April 07, 2016. http://www.bestplaces.net/religion/city/california/glendora. 2 who did not fit in well with my Mormon and Catholic friends on a cultural or religious level. At the age of 16, I was using America Online (AOL) to communicate with other Jewish individuals in my age demographic. I saw it as an opportunity to communicate with other Jews. The computer allowed