Lanesborough News: Time Praises Local Woman's Blog
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"Barenblat is a poet at heart, and her musings on religion, Judaism and faith in a technological world alone are worth the price of admission (which is free, of course, but still)," states Time.
Barenblat has a bachelor's degree from Williams College and a master of fine arts from Bennington (Vt.) College. Her major interest is poetry and she has written three chapbooks of poetry. She is founder and former executive director of Inkberry and has written for several local newspapers. She continues to write freelance for a number of publications.
She is studying to be a rabbi in a course of study given by Aleph.org.
The uniqueness of this program is that there are only two one-week get-togethers (i.e., classes) each year. The rest of the work is by the Internet or by phone. Barenblat is about halfway through the course and guesses that it will be about three years before she is ordained.
Aleph is part of the Jewish Renewal Movement. It is transdenominational, that is, its members are drawn from Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist congregations. It's aim is to rejuvenate mainstreem Judiasm, which it believes has become moribund, by the inclusion of music, poetry and mysticism. It also draws some of its ideas from other religions.
Barenblat started her blog at the suggestion of her husband, Ethan Zimmerman, in 2003, at a time when she had completed writing a book but had discarded it. She posts to her blog four to five times a week.
She also usually posts a poem a week and a mini-sermon of the Torah portion of the week. Before her inclusion in Time's Best 25 Blogs, her blog recorded about 200 hits a day. Since her blog was selected, it gets an average of 800 hits a day.
Information provided by Lanesborough Concerned Citizens Newsletter. To receive the weekly newsletter with more Lanesborough news, e-mail ahartheimer@yahoo.com.
