Meet William Daroff, the JFNA’s Twitterphile

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 Either check out my tweet: 

fundermentalist @daroff the JFNA’s crackberry head has a serious case of the twitters. http://bit.ly/dkvSPp

Or check out Ron Kampeas’ story on JTA about William Darrof’s Twitter addiction.

Writes Kampeas:

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rain pouring in Jerusalem, tears streaming down the faces of fans of Team USA, tremors shaking Chile — and always, always lunch at Eli’s.
You have entered the @Daroff tweet zone.

William Daroff, the Washington director of Jewish Federations of North America, has taken the organization that couldn’t get its initials straight and boiled it down to an engaging, entertaining and at times abrasive representation of the Jewish establishment in 140 characters or less.

Daroff’s career, always on an upswing, is now careening skyward.

Recent cuts at Jewish Federations mean that he is not only responsible for its redoubtable Washington lobby shop representing the combined needs of 157 federations, but also will be helping to direct its seminal rabbinical cabinet and its relief arm, and coordinate the alliance of 40 federations that come together to fund seven national groups (including JTA).

But Daroff is best known for boiling down that alphabet soup into tweets followed literally by thousands. He has 2,205 followers on Twitter and 2,314 Facebook friends.

A sample just from Sunday and Monday:

  • On a conference call with leaders of the #Jewish Federations of North America Rabbinic Cabinet

  • Palestinian Cabinet meets in Hebron, as means of protesting #Israel’s list of heritage sites http://bit.ly/a7FVj6 (@JPost)

  • RT @jbelmont: NBC says 25% of the men who’ve watched the Olympics have cried. As an American who’s lived in Canada, I just joined them.

  • Latest from Santiago #Chile: No damage to synagogues, damage to #Jewish cemetery walls, & broken windows at a community bldg.

  • RT @KevinFlowerCNN: tensions in Jerusalem over al-Aqsa simmering down — pouring rain has helped

The question some Daroff watchers, in the corridors of Jewish power and in other settings, are asking: Does the tweeting enhance or detract from the federations’ message?

Read the rest here.

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