JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

JTA’s 100 Most Influential Jewish Twitterers

By Adam S. · May 1, 2009

Despite the recent media buzz, the jury is still out on Twitter's potential to endure as an integral player in the social media landscape. While it's rate of growth rivals that of Facebook, a Reuters article yesterday claimed that Twitter is marred by a higher attrition rate than other social networking sites. And for every happy new Twitterer, there are plenty of naysayers lying in the wings (pun intended).

Curious, JTA set out to determine which Jewish bloggers, institutions and other entities had successfully staked their claim in Twitter realty. While not the first to conduct a Jewish or Israel-related Twitter ranking, the selection criteria used for our "Top 100 Jewish Twitterers" are multi-faceted.

Data Collection: Beginning on Thursday, April 2, 2009, hundreds of Twitter accounts tweeting content of Jewish and/or Israel-related interest were identified and gathered. Data were collected at approximately 12:00PM EST on Tuesday, April 28, 2009. Any accounts with fewer than 50 followers, a ratio of friend:follower greater than 2:1, or that had not tweeted in the 20 days prior to Tuesday, April 28, 2009 were excluded from consideration. Also not counted in this study were people of exceptional celebrity status (e.g. Matisyahu, Lenny Kravitz) or masters of social media whose Jewish identity, while undeniable, is buried by the sheer volume of tweets per hour that they generate (eg. Leah Jones, Michael Hoffman & Avi Kaplan). Remaining accounts were divided into three categories: Top 50 individuals, Top 25 organizations, and Top 25 newswire services.

Rankings: In addition to number of followers and friends, JTA took into account the ratio of followers to friends. Also incorporated into the rankings were "influence" and "clout", descriptive analytics derived for each account from the analytics site Twitalyzer. Regrettably, there were a handful of Twitterers whose accounts turned back error messages rather than Twitalyzer results. Among these few cases, the most common cause of error was account inactivity lasting for seven days. There were, however, a few exceptions (of note: Heeb Magazine).

Note that a valid Twitter account is required to view most Twitter profiles.

50 Most Influential Jewish Individuals

1. Ahuvah Berger (ahoova) · Israel
   A savvy 2.0'nik very in touch with her Jewish "link"-age.
2. David Abitbol (jewlicious) · Israel
   Of Jewlicious fame, seems as if no microblogger has gone without @-ing his name.
3. Buber Zionist (buberzionist) · Alexandria, VA
   For someone whose name isn't readily available on his Twitter profile, his alias sure does pop up often.
4. Yitz Jordan, a.k.a. Y-Love (ylove) · New York, NY
   Tally another accolade for this techie by day, rapper by night; he was named to The Jewish Week's 36 under 36 this week.
5. Chaviva E. (kvetchingeditor) · Storrs, CT
   The woman behind the curtain at kvetchingeditor.com; We hope to see more link-dumping from her Twitter account in the future.
6. William Daroff (Tied for 5th) (daroff) · Washington, D.C.
   The UJC's Vice President of Public Policy serves up some of the richest Jewish content in the Twittersphere.
7. Hadassah Levy (hadassah_levy) · Israel
8. Orly Halpern (jerusalembureau) · Israel
9. Aliza Hausman (alizahausman) · New York, NY
10. Esther Kustanowitz (EstherK) · Los Angeles, CA
11. Uzi Smilovich (nanachtoronto) · Toronto, Ontario, Canada
12. JemPolitico (JemPolitico) · Columbus, OH
13. Dani Klein (yeahthatskosher) · New York, NY
14. Eric Seader (hebrewzzi) · New York, NY
15. Sammy Benoit (yidwithlid) · New York, NY
16. dejerusalem (dejerusalem) · Israel
17. Susanne Goldstone (susqhb) · New York, NY
18. Sara Schwimmer Marcus (popjudaica) · New York, NY
19. Tova Scherr (tova_s) · Israel
20. Daniel Sieradski (mobius1ski) · New York, NY
21. Miriam Schwab (miriamschwab) · Israel
22. Erez Safar (diwon) · New York, NY
23. Rafi Schutzer (KosherWineGuy) · San Diego, CA
24. Jennie Rivlin (ModernTribe_Jew) · Atlanta, GA
25. Ainav Derkson (ainav) · Israel
26. Dave Weinberg (weinberg81) · Washington, D.C.
27. Rabbi Rami Shapiro (rabbirami) · Murfreesboro, TN
28. Maya Norton (mayanorton) · Israel
29. Shai Tsur (shaister) · Israel
30. Heshy Fried (frumsatire) · Dallas, TX
31. Louis Green (louismgreen) · Oklahoma City, OK
32. Fly Fishing Rabbi (RabbiEE) · Ridgefield, CT
33. Ariel Beery (arielbeery) · Israel
34. Rebecca Markowitz (thebigfelafel) · Israel
35. Liz Davis (jewssip) · New York, NY
36. Jack Zaientz (teruah) · Ann Arbor, MI
37. Shoshana Yossef (jewnet) · Israel
38. Aaron Bisman (bizmonides) · New York, NY
39. Joann Betschart (Joann_Betschart) · Modesto, CA
40. "Aussie Dave" (israellycool) · Israel
41. Rabbi Hayim Herring (toolsforshuls) · Minneapolis, MN
42. Paige Dansinger (JewishArtMuseum) · Minneapolis, MN
43. Monica Goldenberg (MGoldenberg) · Washington, D.C.
44. Miriam Woelke (miriam_woelke) · Israel
45. Ezra Shanken (eshanken) · Denver, CO
46. "Eric" (israelsituation) · Denver, CO
47. Aharon Horwitz (aharonhorwitz) · Israel
48. Joshua Rubin (JoshuaRubin) · Denver, CO
49. Julie Leye Blum (sugarblum) · New York, NY
50. Ruth Warshenbrot (RuthieWa) · New York, NY

25 Most Influential Jewish Organizations

1. U.S. Holocaust Museum (HolocaustMuseum) · Washington, D.C.
   According to Twitalyzer's descriptive analysis, this museum is the most influential Jewish organization on Twitter.
2. Israeli Consulate (israelconsulate) · New York, NY
   Boasts the largest number of followers of all Jewish institutions considered.
3. 92nd Street Y (92Y) · New York, NY
   NY's best known home for Jewish cultural events has a lot of people keeping abreast of their activities in 140 or fewer characters.
4. mideastyouth.com (mideastyouth) · Middle East (founded in Qatar Bahrain)
   Neither Jewish nor Israeli in character, this project appears to be re-shaping discussion about Middle East among global youth.
5. 92Y Tribeca (92Ytribeca) · New York, NY
   Suspicious as it may seem, both 92Y and its sister venue in Tribeca are power-Twitterers, combining for over 3,000 followers at press time.
6. StandWithUs (StandWithUs) · New York, NY
7. Jewish Agency (JewishAgency) · New York, NY
8. Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (TheRAC) · Washington, D.C.
9. Magnes Museum (magnes) · Berkeley, CA
10. National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) · Washington, D.C.
11. JDate (jdate) · New York, NY
12. Jewish Women's Archive (JWAonline) · Brookline, MA
13. JStreet (jstreetdotorg) · Washington, D.C.
14. PresenTense (presentense) · Israel
15. JDub Records (jdubrecords) · New York, NY/Los Angeles, CA
16. United Jewish Communities (jewishevents) · Washington, D.C.
17. Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) · Canada
18. Jewish Family Servies of Colorado (JFS_Colo) · Denver, CO
19. Jewish Publication Society (jewishpub) · Philadelphia, PA
20. Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIASadvocacy) · Washington, D.C.
21. Gesher City Boston (geshercitybos) · Boston, MA
22. JewishTV Network (jewishtvnetwork) · Los Angeles, CA
23. Greater Miami Jewish Federation (JewishMiami) · Miami, FL
24. Sixth and I Historic Synagogue (sixthandi) · Washington, D.C.
25. Chabad.org (chabadorgnews) · New York, NY

25 Most Influential Jewish Newswires

1. Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) · Israel
   These self-described fighters of anti-Semitism and terrorism on the web have a massive following, to whom it delivers (mostly) streaming news.
2. JewishTweets (jewishtweets) · New York, NY
   From the National Jewish Outreach Program--the brains behind Shabbat Across America--comes a strikingly comprehensive Jewish content aggregator.
3. Haaretz (haaretzonline) · Israel
   The Israeli periodical maintains a strong presence on Twitter.
4. Yedioth Achronot/YNet Newsfeed (ynet_co_il) · Israel
   While not officially affiliated with YNet, this Hebrew RSS feed ranks high in terms of number followers and frequency of re-tweets.
5. The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem_Post) · Israel
   The English language periodical from Israel has a second Twitter account that ranks in the top 10 (see #8).
6. JTA (jtanews) · New York, NY
7. IsraelNewsNow (israelnewsnow) · California
8. Jerusalem Post (jerusalempost) · Israel
9. The Marker (Haaretz) (themarker) · Israel
10. Pletz.com (pletz) · Brazil
11. Jewish Breaking News (JBN) · New York, NY
12. igoogledisrael (igoogledisrael) · Israel
13. Israel21c (israel21c) · Israel
14. Ron Kampeas (kampeas) · Washington, D.C.
15. NY Jewish Week (NYJewishWeek) · New York, NY
16. The Fundermentalist (fundermentalist) · New York, NY
17. GoodNewsJews (GoodNewsJews) · (unknown)
18. Israel NewsWire (inwnews) · Chicago, IL
19. Jew Key News (jewkeynews) · New York, NY/Los Angeles, CA/Israel
20. The Jewish Chronicle (JewishChron) · London, England
21. IsraelTechNews (IsraelTechNews) · Israel
22. jew_news (jew_news) · (unknown)
23. World Jewish Daily (WrldJewishDaily) · Chicago,IL
24. Religion & State in Israel (religion_state) · Israel
25. Vos Iz Neias (vosiznies) · New York, NY

Of course, not every Jewish Twitterer made the list. Of those that did not, here are some honorable mentions:

Education: G-dcast (g_dcast) & MyJewishLearning.com (jewlearn) -- The cutting edge of Jewish educational content.

Lost tribe of Hillel: Cal State University Channel Islands Hillel (CSUCIHillel) -- With frequent updates about activities and even their recent elections, they've proven that the tweet is mightier than the pen.

Job opportunities: JewishJobs.com (Jewish_Jobs) -- An excellent job resource compiled by @weinberg81 (see #26).

Niche news: Kol Charidy (KolCharidy) -- The latest in twee-gregated news from the American Hareidi community. Dictionary of acronyms sold separately.

Transcending description: NaNacher (nanacher) -- Surprisingly frequent tweets comprising various permutations of the words "n na nach nachman meuman." I guess statistically, it'll be a while before this Twitterer runs out of material.