Jewish - Themed Websites by Arnold Berger

 
  Abba Hillel Silver

In 1998 I started a page of links to web pages about my former rabbi, when a search on "Abba Hillel Silver" found only 400 "hits" on a much smaller internet. (A similar search today will find about 54,000 pages!) The only website on the life and work of Cleveland's most notable Jewish citizen, it has grown to 40 pages and has achieved #1 ranking on Google.

In 2006, to create a broader platform, I moved these pages to start www.ClevelandJewishHistory.net

  Cleveland Jewish History

In late 2006 my Abba Hillel Silver pages became ClevelandJewishHistory.net which is now more than 440 pages and still growing. It features sections on Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver (see above), Louis Rosenblum's memoir of his involvement in the Soviet Jewry movement, and Rabbi Israel Porath. It also hosts Nate Arnold's tours of old Jewish Cleveland, and more. More than 40 others have contributed pages to this website..

  Jewish Currents

The web version of a more than 60 year old Jewish magazine, from 2005-2008 the magazine of the national Workmens Circle organization.

Created the site in January 2003 and was its webmaster for six years.

  Knesseth Israel Temple

The small website for the Reconstructionist congregation in Wooster Ohio. 2002 - 2008

  Council Gardens

The first website for Council Gardens, located in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Founded almost 60 years ago by the Council of Jewish Women, it is a non-profit Senior Independent Living Community. Created site in 2009, maintained it for four years.

  Kol HaLev

In November 1998 I took over the four page website of the Reconstructionist Havurah of Cleveland, now Kol HaLev, steadily building the area's largest "shul" website, rich in photos of past events, community information and policies, plus pages in support of its programs. A private section for members and a congregational email, now found in many sites, were started in 1999 and 2000.  In 2008 another member took over the site.

  Kol Israel Foundation

In May 2011, finding that Kol Israel's  Cleveland holocaust memorial was not on the web, I created a page on the memorial, This was soon followed by creating a small website for them. Kol Israel's leaders took down my website. As of June 2016 it has a one page website.

  Remembering Luboml

Luboml (Libivne) Poland, a shtetl lost in the Holocaust, was remembered in an exhibit of photos and artifacts, said to be the most traveled exhibit of its type. I created the website in 2001 as a gift and have expanded it with the support of the Ziegelman Foundation.

  Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland

In 2004 I redesigned and expanded this website and a few months later turned it back to the Society. As of June 2016, they still use this site.

  Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

In October 1999 the Reconstructionist movement had only a small website hosted, like many Jewish sites at the time, at Shamash, the Jewish web consortium. In nearly four years I took the site from about 40 pages to nearly 400, through two redesigns, and to its own www.jrf.org domain and a new web host.

In June 2003 the JRF took the site back. They now run it internally, having converted it to a Drupal-based content management system.

  Modern Jewish Thinkers

In 2002 I created this website for Professor Alan Levenson of the Siegal College of Judaic Studies. It has been off-line since 2004.

  Jewish Scene radio broadcasts

For more than 21 years (1978-2000) one-hour The Jewish Scene radio broadcasts were heard on Sundays. They are now archived at the Western Reserve Historical Society. Lois Katovsky (a co-producer of the show) and I started a website in January 2011 to help preserve memories of those award-winning broadcasts and to stimulate efforts to make some of them available to a new generation of listeners.
 

  Aaron Garber Library

In July 2013, with the closing of Siegal College and the deletion of its website, the Aaron Garber Library lost its web presence. These pages were created as a gift to restore that presence.

 

Why is it a "big deal" to rank #1 or #2 on Google ?

There are two ways to earn a high rank on a Google search. First, your pages must have a lot of content about the topic, say Abba Hillel Silver. Second,  Google regards "inbound links" as important. When other websites, especially busy sites, link to your website when they mention this subject (again Abba Hillel Silver in this example), that raises your rank.

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