New bloggers and readers' input

Dear readers,

We hope you've been enjoying the new additions to BlogCentral; there have been many in the last two months and we hope that they've kept things interesting.

First and foremost, we've welcomed Rosner's Domain by Shmuel Rosner who updates daily on a variety of topics to keep you guessing. He has a dedicated following and his posts are always well-written and informed.

We've also introduced The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a blog on global and Israeli economics and financial developments and trends by JPost columnist Pinchas Landau who decided to try his hand at blogging and whose posts have since been picked up by various business sites.

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News and features

Dear readers,

Apologies for not posting for a while. It has been a busy two months; we received many submissions for the Making Aliyah blog some of which have already been posted (Joshua and the walls of Ra'anana, Faking Aliyah), we welcomed our newest addition to BlogCentral Elana Sztokman who blogs at A Woman's Own about Judaism, feminism and Israel, we have been recruiting contributors for the Eye on Lebanon blog whose previous writer has ceased posting and whose title will shortly be changed to Eye on the Levant as the new writers will post about issues pertaining to Lebanon and Syria, and finally, we have added a new feature to the section called 'Rate this blog' which appears at the end of each entry and in which you can express your opinion of the entry by voting on the stars (Bad, Boring, OK, Good, Excellent).

Whew. Now let me respond to some readers:

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A call for blogs

Dear readers,

Do you have an interesting, weird or funny aliyah story? Maybe a combination of all these things? Perhaps you'd like to give some advice to people out there considering aliyah, or just relay any 'Dos' and 'Donts' according to your experiences?

If so, we'd love to hear about it. This is an open invitation to submit your stories for the Making Aliyah blog on JPost.com. Please send your entries to blogs@jpost.com, along with your name and a short blurb about you. Please specify which blog your are submitting for in the subject headline. Any pictures or videos are welcome.

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Aliyah and new recruits

What's coming up on JPost Blogs:

- A new blogger, Leah Hakimian, will soon join JPost BlogCentral. JPost Blogs will run a short interview with Leah so readers can get a glimpse into her matchmaking background and how she came to write the popular column Godsend about how couples meet and marry in the Jewish World. Stay tuned next week for the Q & A.

- Another new blog about life in the IDF will soon appear on JPost's pages. The blogger, originally from North America, will soon join the armed forces and his writing will focus around the experience of being a young new recruit in the Israeli army. This new blog is set to launch in August 2008.

As Aly and Yan have finished their stint on Making Aliyah, Jpost Blogs would like to invite its readers to submit their own aliyah stories. Pictures and always welcome. Please send submissions here.

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Matchmaking and Orthodox Feminism

What's new on JPost Blogs:

Coming up next:

- A fascinating blog on coupledom called Godsend: How couples meet and marry in the Jewish World by Leah Hakimian. Leah will blog about couples from all over the world; how they met, their courtship and how they got married. Her blog will address issues that are relevant to people of all generations including office romance, love in times of war, internet dating and the influence of technology on finding a mate, among many others. Stay tuned.

- An exciting, witty take on the seemingly unlikely world of both Orthodoxy and Feminism. Our blogger will write short but poignant pieces on how these two worlds mesh together and the sometimes hilarious situations that arise out of the contradictions between them. Coming up after Shavuot.

In other news, Aly and Yan from the blog Making Aliyah have finally made it to the Holy Land. Read their past entries to catch up and stay tuned for more from these two brave Brits.

I will soon open it up to readers who wish to contribute their own 'Making Aliyah' story. Please send such submissions here.  

Our newest blog

Our newest blog 'Making Aliyah' will be launched today. Aly and Yan are setting off from London today, part of the 7th JNF UK-Jerusalem car rally and making their way to Israel. They will arrive in Israel June 1st, but first they will send us their stories, observations, experiences, pictures and short videos they will be taking along the way. Click here to read more about them , where they are from and why they are making aliyah. I will be getting their first entry from the road later on today. Stay tuned.

In the future, once their journey to Israel is over and their life in Israel begins, I will open the blog up for contributors to write their own unique Aliyah stories. More details on this coming next month.

Welcome to JPost Blogs

Welcome to JPost Blogs

We are happy to present our new, more sophisticated "look"

and are still working hard to make the site as easy as possible to browse.

We've opened this section for readers' convenience; this is where you would get news on what's coming up (or down) in the blogs section, get updated on what blogs are being launched and have your say about what you would like to see in the future. 

So what's new?

• Search option in each blog that lets you search by date and keywords
• The number of comments now appear next to the byline
• Blog categories now have their own 'page' in which you can see the latest posts in a particular category
• 'Most Popular Posts' box so readers can have a snapshot of what's being read most frequently

What's coming up?

• An 'Archives' drop-down menu categorized by month and year for every blog.
• A 'Past Blogs' section where discontinued blogs go to rest.
• 'Recent Comments' box for quick viewing
• New Blog: In the spirit of Israel's 60th birth-day, a new blog will be started by two young gentlemen from the UK who are setting out from London in a '48 Rolls Royce and making their way to Israel to make Aliya. More details coming soon. Stay tuned.

Comments, suggestions, recommendations? Email here or add a comment at the bottom of the page.