In Face To Face this week, Steve Lindy talks to Esther Kustanowitz, popular New York blogger who attended a "Nefesh B''Nefesh" International Jewish Bloggers Conference in Jerusalem this week.

Newscaster: In Face To Face this week, Steve Lindy talks to Esther Kustanowitz, popular New York blogger who attended a "Nefesh B''Nefesh" International Jewish Bloggers Conference in Jerusalem this week .
Esther Kustanowitz: My name is Ester Kustanowitz, and I''m from the United States, I was in New York for the last several years, and I''m a blogger and writer. I have found blogging to be a wonderful home for my writing, and it''s really enabled me to meet people all over the world, including largely in Israel. I have become friendly with people who I would not have otherwise met through the world of blogging and social media. And I''m happy to be in Israel, actually for the second time this summer .
Steve Lindy: You attended the Nefesh B''Nefesh International Jewish Bloggers Conference in Israel this week .
Esther Kustanowitz: Yes, I was at the International Jewish Bloggers Convention, and I was happy to be providing some of the international flavor, because there were a lot of bloggers there who worked from Israel, and a few people who were from other places in terms of the in person attendee. But I understand about 1,000 people participated by watching online, which is amazing, and we had about 250 people in the room. So it''s a lot of people who are interested in the world of Jewish blogging .
Steve Lindy: Now, among those attending was Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud opposition .
Esther Kustanowitz: That''s correct, he showed up in the middle of the panel that I was conducting about how to take your blog to the next level in terms of readership, and we had gotten through a couple of the panelists, and then Mr. Netanyahu showed up and he joined our panel כאילו, a little bit, and he spoke to the crowd and they had lots of questions for him. And then, after he had to leave, then we resumed our panel .
Steve Lindy: Tell me a little bit about your blog, "My Urban Kvetch ".
Esther Kustanowitz: OK, "My Urban Kvetch" is my personal blog, and it''s where I blog about a lot of different things. Anyone who looks at the site will see that Israel is a major component of what I write about in the site, Jewish life in general in the United States mostly, because that''s my experience, but when I come to Israel I see a lot of blogging about Israel, and I also blog a lot about popular culture, often the intersection between Jewish life and popular culture, or at least between my Jewish life and popular culture. I also run a blog called "J-daters anonymous", which is about dating related issues .
Steve Lindy: What made you go into blogging, do you consider yourself a journalist ?
Esther Kustanowitz: I consider myself a writer, and I always have first and foremost the designation of journalist, I never really am free, and in my heart of hearts, I really feel like writing is the skill and talents that means the most to me. And I feel like I can use it in a number of contexts. I started freelancing several years ago, and a friend of mine who was very involved in the tech world introduced me to the world of blogging , and said that it was something I should pursue, but since it wasn''t money baring, and I was a freelancer trying to make a living, I was dismissive of her initially, and said no, I can''t put my content online for free, there''s no point. And 4.5 years later, I do see the point, I actually saw the point clearly, soon after that I started blogging at "My Urban Kvetch", and then I spun off to "J-daters anonymous" as an opportunity to isolate the stuff that I was writing about single life. But I think it''s been really amazing for me in terms of my career, in terms of having clients get to know me before they actually hire me, and it''s been a really terrific opportunity to promote my writing to a crowd that goes beyond my immediate circle of knowledge .
Steve Lindy: But you actually do cover events, for example, the last CAGE Conference in America .
Esther Kustanowitz: Yes, I went to my second CAGE Conference, the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, but at that conference I was not there really so much to cover it, I was there as a presenter. And I presented on issues regarding technology in a Jewish education. So unfortunately I had some airline troubles getting there, which everybody can read about on my blog as well, I managed to make it there for one of the classes I was supposed to teach, called "People of the blog", which was about Jewish blogging, and how educators can learn about this world if they use blogging in their formal and informal educational context, seize it as a way to engage students of all ages, that was the basic premise of the class. We had a really good group of people, all of whom were at different levels of technology knowledge, and they were all really interested and seeing it as a tool .
Steve Lindy: That conference took place in Vermont, but you came to Israel this week on a Nefesh B''Nefesh flight that also brought 214 new immigrants. How was that ?
Esther Kustanowitz: It was amazing. I''ve been to Israel many times before, but the opportunity to go on a plane that was designated for people who are making their lives in Israel, who were actually born in other places, in North America mostly, and have decided that what they wanted to do is spend their lives working, living, breathing in the Jewish state. There was really an enthusiasm on board this El-Al flight that I have not seen on the other flights, not to say that all the Birthright groups and there are Christian tourists and everybody else who comes to Israel and is happy to be here, they clearly are, and when we arrived there is applause, but the applause when we landed had been gory and time was really like non I''d heard before .
Steve Lindy: Let me ask you finally, would you consider making Aliyah yourself ?
Esther Kustanowitz: When people ask me if I live here, I always say עוד לא, not yet. I think that this is some place that I could see myself, but there are other things that I want to do first, and for me a major concern is the fact that most of my family is in the United States and not just in the United States, but on the east coast. So it would mean leaving them behind, and I''m not sure I''m ready to do that. So it''s something that I think about, but I also don''t think about it, if you can understand. I think it''s a barrier for a lot of people who might otherwise consider moving here, I think that having your family around you is a blessing, and I want to have family here as well, but it''s not the same thing. And one of the things that I love so much about Israel is Hebrew, and being in a Hebrew environment a lot is really one of the personal highlights for me. Whenever I''m here I try to speak Hebrew whenever possible, and be around Israelis, and there''s just so much to appreciate, even within the small elements of the Hebrew language .