Behind BlogCentral: 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:

David from Jerusalem suggested that blogs that do not update weekly, or monthly for that matter, should be dropped. In principle, this should be the M.O. However, in practice, it is not realistic. It is not easy maintaining a blog. I cannot stress this enough to people who offer to blog at JPost;  it is hard work and it is time-consuming. Some cannot commit to the time-line but their entries are usually highly-valued and so we wait with anticipation :) 

I go though the blogs weekly and know exactly who posted what and when. This is why every so often, a batch goes into the Past Blogs section where blogs go to their virtual resting place and where all their past entries can be accessed.

As for Moshe - I cannot bring back Lone Soldier, unfortunately, but I do have an army-related blog called Army Life which launched in July and has proved to be popular. The young man just finished his basic training and should be posting much more often.

Also, the Matchmaking blog I promised in a previous entry is in the works and will hopefully be launching soon.  New additions to BlogCentral are also in the works. Stay tuned for more news.

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. And, of course, we are still accepting submissions for Making Aliyah and Army Life. Send here.

Happy new year to all of you and G'mar Hatima Tova,

R.B.