Tuesday, August 7, 2007

The email that gives Jews the 'Heebie Jeebies'

An anti-Semitic Web site is first on Google when you search for 'Jew,' and alarmist e-mail about the phenom is making the rounds again.

Two people here at JewishJournal.com got the email last week and both asked me what was up. I told them not to worry, it was old news, not to get the Heebie Jeebies.

The Heebie Jeebies -- 1932 -- the Boswell Sisters

But it was new to them, so I thought some of you guys might want to learn more as well.

Here's some background from the Anti-Defamation League and the response from Google.

The gist: We know about it, and we're working on it, please stand by.

The hate site everyone writes about is only the tip of the iceberg. The Web is filled with everything imaginable (both good and bad), and some things unimaginable. Sometimes it seems to me there are people (robots?) who do nothing but post hate and propaganda to message boards all day long, all week.

The hate on the venerable Yahoo! News message boards caused Y! (disclosure: I once worked there) to close down their message boards entirely.

The videos I see every night when I comb YouTube (search for "Jew") are a cesspool of bigotry.

What to do?

I can't speak for everyone else at JewishJournal.com, but my response is to "represent!"

That's the reason I started our JewishJournal.com YouTube Channel. Positive, fun, interesting videos. Rabbis, rockers, rebels. No hate. No anti-anything. Just the wild wonderful world of Jews, Judios, and Yahudim.

Tell your friends.

-- Dennis Wilen

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