We know that the internet has changed the world in so many ways. And we often recommend the use of various internet sites for specialized marketing, especially in our work with young people and on college campuses. We also recommend that organizations place pictures on their websites of people they hope to attract and of those who are already engaged. It is important for potential participants to see themselves in the organization or program to which they are being invited. This approach was confirmed in a recent article in The Jewish Week.

This article reports on how students are using the Facebook in interesting ways:

“Janice Hussein,” for example, “is a junior at Brandeis University, and the daughter of Indian and Jewish parents, and until she started using Facebook, she didn’t know there were many other Jews of a similar ethnicity….So Hussain this semester launched a group called ‘Asian and Jewish,’ inviting a handful of people at Brandeis who were of Asian and Jewish descent. Before she knew it the group reached 90 members from various campuses.”

While not addressed in this article, we know that other campuses have groups such as the Half Jew Crew that organically emerged at Brown University a few years ago.

Our friend at Hillel International, Simon Amiel, notes “what seems to be coming up over and over again [is that Facebooks] is a place for students that are from a mixed-parentage family.” Facebook—and other sites like it—have truly become the face of the new American Jewish community.