Happy New Year! If you're anything like me, you were probably hoping for a more peaceful entrance into 2009 for Israel and the Palestinians. But as Jews worldwide are grappling with the circumstances of the new "Gaza War," I felt that PT couldn't really avoid making a comment.

As you know, while our magazine does feature political writing, and our PresenTense fellows also engage in political work and discourse, the website is not usually involved in that dialogue. However, one thing I would like to focus on, in what I hope will be a short series of articles, is the way social media has become tactically necessary even during wartime.

PresenTense's Chicago node is growing strong, and I'm having a great time out here meeting the new folks getting involved. Tonight we went to a bar called Guthrie's Tavern for boardgames, and tomorrow we have two events that, if you're in Chicago, we'd love to see you at:

Speaker: Eduardo Shoval  

When Great Technology is not Enough!

Rishon L'Rishonim is a speaker series, which brings leaders of Israel
in business, hitech, Judaism, Jewish Culture, and the arts, to address
a broad community of young entrepreneurs, innovators, and aspiring
Jewish activists.

Sunday, Jan 4th, 7:30 pm

We're now completely immersed in the holiday season, and like many folks I'll be taking a few days off very soon. But to tide you over, I wanted to share a couple short articles I came across that are, if nothing else, a little food for thought.

hi all. this is melissa, the hub animator. i will be writing weekly posts, describing events and other worthwhile items at the Zion Hub, to give you a window into the magic and mystery that unfolds here. the format is stream of consciousness/free flow, which I hope will be more enjoyable (and somewhat cryptic/creative) than reading a boring paragraph.

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