“Dry Bones” and “Lazer Beams were the big winners in this year s Jewish and Israel Blog Awards. “Dry Bones,” started as a cartoon in 1973 by 69-year-old Yaakov Kirschen, a Brooklyn-born new immigrant to Israel, was named the Best Overall blog. It also won in the categories of Jewish humor, political/current events, Jewish culture and pro-Israel advocacy. The cartoon ran for years in the Jerusalem Post before Kirschen launched www.DryBonesBlog.com in August 2005, running new cartoons Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and repeats on Tuesdays and Thursdays. “Lazer Beams,” at http://lazerbrody.typepad.com, swept three of the four specialty awards, and seven of 11 awards in the Best Blog Posts category. It is the creation of Rabbi Lazer Brody, 58, who left Washington for Israel in 1970 and became a ba al teshuvah, or newly observant Jew, after serving in the 1982 Lebanese conflict. His blog draws heavily on the teachings of Rabbi Nahman of Breslav. The Jewish and Israel Blog Awards, www.jibawards.com, are the Jewish blogosphere s informal annual awards contest. Started in 2004, the contest is now managed by a committee of Jewish bloggers and depends entirely on online voting by the public. The aim of the contest is to heighten awareness of Jewish, Israeli and pro-Israel blogs.
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