The Cloud of Symbols

Constructing Digital Judaism(s) in the Ecology of Virtuality; My doctoral dissertation combines humanities, social science, and technical disciplines to demonstrate that digital media enables new possibilities in Jewish life and lived religion that have been overlooked by Jewish Studies scholarship to date. This Digital Judaism combines elements of Jewish tradition with the capabilities to create, modify, and transform digital objects in novel ways. It builds on the American Jewish history of self-creation and the use of media, and has been greatly accelerated in response to the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021. The Internet as a form of media functions as an amplifier of human capabilities and Jewish possibilities that can be integrated into Jewish life. This creates the contemporary online-offline media ecology to which I apply the theoretical concept of “virtuality.” Virtuality extends and builds upon Heidi Campbell’s religious-social shaping of technology (RSST), Michael Satlow’s “maps” for defining a Judaism, Uzi Rebhun’s study of symbolic Judaism, Ananda Mitra and Rae Lynn Schwatrz’s concept of online/offline cybernetic space, and Jack Wertheimer’s remix concept. I examine the following aspects of Digital Judaism in the ecology of virtuality: peoplehood, Jewish learning, rabbinical training, and the move online by synagogues during the pandemic and beyond. These are followed by extrapolations from the current new media situation, and recommendations for implementation of emerging technologies and for further study.