We ‘Really’ Want Your Feedback - So Please Take a Minute
Ok, so we have been up and running for over six months now and we’d love some feedback from our readers. Yup, that’s right! We have some changes in the works but before we put anything into effect, we REALLY DO want to hear from the people who visit us. If you are a regular, great! If you are a lurker, please don’t be shy because we really do want to know what you think: JBC’s, friends of JBC’s, people in the middle of the conversion, people thinking about the conversion. Pretty much everyone is welcome to share their feedback with us.
So, if you have any ideas, don’t be shy! After all, if you don’t suggest it, it may never happen!
You don’t necessarily have to tell us how great we are but we do ask that you keep it polite, constructive and relevant to the questions below. Oh and please bear in mind our Vision/Mission Statement when sharing your feedback with us.
Thanks in advance,
The JBC.org Gang
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We want to take a minute to present some questions to you that might help us figure out how to improve our product at JBC.org. If you could take a few minutes, think about these questions, and then write a response to each, it would help out a lot.
1.) If JBC.org could be anything, what would you most like to see us become?
2.) What do you think we could do better at JBC.org?
3.) What do you think we offer Jews by choice and potential converts that they do not get in their own Jewish communities?
4.) What other thoughts do you have about how we’ve done our thing so far?
Thanks in advance for taking the time to help us with this!
I LOVE this website, absolutely love it.
I live in Texas and my rabbi converts a fair number of people from unusual backgrounds. For people who are not living in large Jewish centers of population and who want to convert, I think this site is invaluable. For people who are already Jewish and who don’t live in a population center, the site is also valuable. I don’t know how you’d do it, but if you grew, would there be a way for put people in touch with rabbis in their areas?
d
Just stumbled upon your site (referenced on another blog). I’m going to bookmark it. So far looks very interesting. I’m a born and raised Brooklynite and an Observant Jew in the truest sense of the word - always watching and searching…
I just like peeking at the site periodically to read the interesting articles. I’m 1 year into my Reform conversion. The internet played a large role in my conversion, even though I converted in a community with a large and concentrated Jewish community (and I worked in the Jewish community). I had been interested in conversion as a teenager, but as a college student, had put it aside. Finding so many other converts on the internet helped me realize it might still be an option for me. I am glad that a "space" like this exists on the internet with so many different perspectives. It is similar to the resources I initially found several years ago. I just like hearing peoples’ stories…
Hi Avi,I very much enjoy the blog, especially the comprehensive and pluralistic approach. I am a Conservadox ger living in the Upper West Side which really has its own style of Judaism where there is much go between of all sects of Judaism and a lot of de facto pluralism. Sometimes I forget what the Jewish experience is for gerim, and yehudim by birth outside of this idyllic bubble of Jewish life. Also, I would find your writing style succinct and compelling, even if I didn’t empathize and/or agree with the majority of what you say. Keep on fighting the good fight. Khag kasher ve sameakh.Kol tuv,Amitai
I like this site a lot; I think it’s definitely a great resource for those of us who are in the process of converting (like me), who do not have a community of other converts where they live.
One thing I would love to see more of is perspectives and postings from Jews-by-Choice who are closer to the Reconstructionist-Reform end of the spectrum. I feel like the Conservative and Orthodox side of the spectrum is very well-represented, and I really appreciate that. But I find myself wanting to hear more from other JBCs who are not bound by halacha and who are more what Rabbi Gershon Winkler would call "flexidox."
I would also love love love to hear more "conversion stories." Seeing and hearing from people post-conversion is really great. But as someone in the process of conversion, I crave others’ conversion stories as I go through it myself.
Also, as a woman of color, it would really be wonderful to see more people of color posting, whether or not they choose to talk about what it’s like being a JBC of color. Just seeing them there would be very affirming.
We all always crave reflections of ourselves, no? And I think it’s important.
This site, like I mentioned, gives me a community of other JBCs that I simply don’t have access to where I live. I live in the Bay Area and while I am surrounded by Jews and Jewish life and there are many congregations for me to choose from and be a part of, converts themselves don’t get a lot of airtime, so to speak.
I noticed that the How Do You Self-Identify? Poll is missing one important option. Observant. I and many other would simply consider ourself that. I would suppose that someone that keeps the 3 big one, Shabbat, Kosher and marital laws but without orthodox rituals would be simply observant.
What do you think?
Hi David I agree with you that many simply identify as observant but having said that a term like "observant" probably means different things to different people. I’m not poo-pooing the suggestion, however I wonder how useful a metric it would be. Actually, looking at the pole right now, I don’t think that your suggestion is any more vague than "I’m a Spiritual but Non-Denominational Jew," so it probably could have been included. I’m just not sure we should be including it this late in the game. We already have over 324 votes captured.
1.) If JBC.org could be anything, what would you most like to see us become? That’s a hard question. However, I think there is badly needed a nexus/common ground for converts from all branches and sects of Judaism. This site is the closest thing I’ve encountered to it that either isn’t being run by a group with some kind of agenda (ie, BE ORTHODOX!!!!) or doesn’t require a log in of some kind (there is a fantastic, I think, JBC support type community on Livejournal which I am a member of, but being a member of it sort of requires that one ALSO be a member of Livejournal…not ideal for creating a common ground).2.) What do you think we could do better at JBC.org? I think the sidebar to the right is really cluttered. It’s hard for me to find what I want on it due to information overload–it’s a lot of text over there. It would be easier for me to look at if it was lumped int o "personal J-Blogs" for example, which if I was looking for one I could click on to expand the topic, that way I could neatly see all the topics. Additionally, occasionally the comments section turns into "the bloggers talk to each other to the exclusion of other conversation". That occasionally discourages me, anyway, from commenting. That might very well be largely a function of the internet mores I’ve been acculturated with, but it does bother me: I don’t like to feel like I’m piping up unwantedly, or that I’m interjecting into a private conversation. Perhaps you could create a more private forum where you can talk to each other?
3.) What do you think we offer Jews by choice and potential converts that they do not get in their own Jewish communities? Converts are, I think, still fairly isolated in their own communities. I have no one I interact with in the flesh, so to speak, on a regular basis with who is 1. an adult under the age of thirty, who 2. isn’t married and 3. is a convert. There are people I interact with who meet two out of three, but not all three, and I know relatively few other converts personally. Most of the ones I know are not open to talking about conversion freely. For me, that’s been the great part of this site: I might not agree with everything on this site (and honestly, that’s fine, even a joy–I don’t really want to hear my own thoughts parroted back at me constantly, and I like to try and understand other views) but I can always see at least a little where it is coming from, and it’s coming from, often, a place I understand that few of the Jews I interact with do. A place where a sedar was something that was introduced as an adult, and where words we haven’t heard often get pronounced profoundly wrong (I thought gefilte was pronounced "jeef-leet" until about four months ago…), and where "our ancestors" means something more spiritual than literal (for the most part). My Jewish friends have told me they literally cannot imagine what it must be like to encounter these things for the first time–even if they were in no way religious as a child, it was part of their social environment. It was not part of mine, and that changes my perspective–but it’s a perspective I see here. It makes me feel less alone.
4.) What other thoughts do you have about how we’ve done our thing so far? I think you’re improving. I was uncertain of the tone initially, as it has occasionally struck me that sometimes this site devolves into people who are netfriends with each other talking amongst themselves, which in all frankness, does nothing for me except make me feel like I’ve eavesdropping or butting into a private conversation. Being raised a WASP with certain notions about politeness, that gives me hang-ups (it makes me feel impolite if I say something). However, I’ve had less of that impression of late as the site seems to have found it’s own tone. I stopped reading for a while (regularly anyway) and have lately come back, for whatever it’s worth…
I love your website and find it valuable. As you know I have you on my favs, thanks for the heads up. I made the change right away. Keep up the good work, and let me know if there is anything I can do to assist you.
Shalom,
Sandy
As one who has been less than observant in the recent past, I am stepping up to the plate more and more now that my son has arrived. He’s 18 months old. In the past I considered my behavior as something I was doing only for myself. Now I am a role model. Only I am a role model who skipped all those chapters on Jewish parenting! When I converted, I just focused on what I needed to know to be an adult female Jew in the larger context. Not as a MOM :) but now I am having to re-explore all the websites and books a second time for tidbits on things like "child friendly seders." HAHA.
So here are my answers to your questions:
1.) If JBC.org could be anything, what would you most like to see us become?
I feel pretty good about where you are right now. The market on raising Jewish kids is getting crowded in some respects! So I like that you focus more on those of us learning this process as adult outsiders and not as people raised in a Jewish home who are reconnecting. I think you are on the right track with your mission and vision.
2.) What do you think we could do better at JBC.org?
More diversity in your articles would be nice. Obviously you would have to find the authors to write said articles which could be a barrier to a wider array of subjects. Specifically I would welcome some references about converting children especially if you have been out of the loop ourself for a number of years or are new to the practice. I have found lots of content on raising Jewish children but only the same re-hashed content on converting adopted children. For example, I needed a true-to-life account of what the heck a Mikvah experience would be like with a wily wiggly 18 month old. I needed some advice and guidance. Some reassurance. Never found it and wrote my own posting on my blog afterwards in case someone ever needed the information. Also I would like to read more about family conversions, older child conversions and African-American/Black converts as my son is African-American.3.) What do you think we offer Jews by choice and potential converts that they do not get in their own Jewish communities?
Depends on the community. For myself, you offer a way for me to read timely articles on people with a common experience: moving from outsider to insider. My temple is really open and friendly with lots of converts and interfaith families but we don’t normally have heartfelt discussions about where we are "on the path" over oneg, ya know? So I get my fix of sisterhood/brotherhood through this site where people happily share their stories and where I can silently think about what their stories mean in the context of my daily life. I don’t have to embarrass myself by starting a conversation with others that no one else seems interested in having…
4.) What other thoughts do you have about how we’ve done our thing so far?
I like that you have introduced various medias. I like the organization of the site. As a Librarian/Archivist, I know how important layout, search functions, and organization can be to a learning site. Good job!