jlearn2.0

Beth Odets (Second Life name; Beth Brown, real life name) is the creator of the Second Life synagogue, Temple Beit Israel. Beth recently reflected on the background of the Jewish neighborhood and how it began:

I did not start out to create the neighborhood. It started with the Synagogue, which was really an artistic rendering (back then there wasn’t anyone around… I had no idea the phenomenon that would occur with the growth of the place). I attribute the success of my area to the fact that it grew slowly, with no motive but to provide a *Jewish Environment*.

The Jewish community on SL holds regularly scheduled activities include a weekly Torah Talk on Thursdays, 11am SL time/Pacific Time, and a marathon “Shabbat around the world candle lighting” on Fridays over the course of twelve hours as sundown moves from Israel to the West Coast of the United State. Candle lighting times on Fridays are held 7am SLT-Israel, 10am Europe time, 3pm US Eastern Time, 5pm US Central Time, 7pm SL time-US Pacific Time.

Holiday festivities are also celebrated online. The community held a Purim carnival and mini-seders in commemoration of Passover. Other events include musical performances and social gatherings. Beth estimates that participants are equally divided among Europeans, Israelis, North Americans, and others.

Beth emphasizes that Jewish activities in Second Life are not intended to take the place of real life observance. Rather, the programs are designed to bring together Jews from around the world and to create a sense of Jewish community online.

For more about Beth’s work, see Kafka Schabel’s interview with Beth on his blog, Kafka’s SL World, “Virtual Sanctuary,” an article from the Forward by Julian Voloj, and ekzept’s article on the Second Life Synagogue.