We’ve been getting a lot of really interesting emails about our project OneShul recently. Most are amazing: people thanking the PunkTorah network of volunteers for making something like this happen.

On the flip side, we get these kinds of comments:

“There’s no such thing as online Jewish community.”

“You are trying to destroy physical communities.”

“There’s no way that any of this is even possible. It all violates Jewish law.”

To those who nay-say online community, I’d like to point you to three of the most brilliant minds in the world (thanks to the Ted Talks), all of whom agree that deconstructed online community is not only changing the world for the better, but also a natural extension of the human mind. Bottom line: the geniuses of the world support online community. So why resist?

The Internet enables intimacy between people (so much for that whole destroying-relationships-thing)

Technology creates tribes (and we’re members of The Tribe, no?)

Children can teach themselves (how will this effect bar mitzvah students?)