jewisharticles@...gmail.com

I have decided to initiate what I hope might turn into something fun and productive:

NoSpamjewisharticles*@*gmail*.*comNoSpam

Let me explain. Gmail offers an inbox with a whopping 2 gb of storage space. I have a lof of sundry articles in .pdf and .doc format about all sorts of Jewish topics: Talmud, Jewish history, seforim, Judaic studies, articles etc. I know a lot of people have similar collections which they've accumulated.

If we pool our resources together this email address can serve as a great database of great articles and essays, similar to web sites like seforimonline.org or hebrewbooks.org.

So I have set up this account jewisharticles@gmail.com. The password will be sent to anyone who is interested. You have only to You have only to email me to ask for the password. I will add interesting articles as soon as I can. The only condition I ask of anyone who is interested in joining is that they too add something. Be a contributor and not just a consumer. Add anything. There is no religious litmus test, no "That's not interesting" litmus test. It need only be Jewish themed and of interest to you.

How to add files to this email address? Well, I think the best way is to use the firefox browser and download the Gspace extension. Once downloaded, you can access Gspace under the tools menu and use it as a regular FTP client. You will need to know the user name (jewisharticles, obviously) and the password, which I will email upon request. Of course you can also send files via normal email.

One more thing: so that we all know what is going on, I ask that we adopt some sort of uniform system for labeling files. For example, suppose I wished to add the following (which will actually be the first file I add): the critical review of the Jastrow dictionary by R. Salomon Alter Halpern which appread in Hamoreh (which I received from Menachem Butler originally). It is presently titled "Jastrow_Pamphlet_by_Salomon_Alter_Halpern" but I might want to note that the name of the article is "Some Facts About Marcus Jastrow's Dictionary." So I renamed the file "Some_Facts_About_Marcus_Jastrows_Aramaic_English
_Dictionary_Salomon_Alter_Halpern_1970." This gives more info and will be better once many files are added and it searching by keyword becomes the only viable option. Thus, anyone who searched for "Aramaic" or "dictionary" will be able to download this file.

This is only the beginning, I intend to add more. Just make sure to add relevent keywords and perhaps the title to your file's name.

And finally, this will be an honor system project since obviously a malicious person can do all sorts of things. I will trust and hope that a circle of people comitted to spreading knowledge and sharing will develop.