Yehuda Berlinger thinks that Wednesday's International Jewish Blogger's Conference was a failure because it failed to accomplish Nefesh b'Nefesh's 'agenda.'

In particular, there is no common conviction that Israeli bloggers are doing hasbara, or should be doing hasbara, or even what hasbara is. Among the three or four key speakers, and the eight panelists, there was little consensus that there was common ground for hasbara. Several of them denied doing it, some were completely against it, and barely any even addressed the question.

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Why? Because Nefesh B'Nefesh hosted the event. And they had a mistaken impression of what it is that bloggers do. In this, they were no more or less misunderstanding of blogging than the companies to which I applied for blogging positions.

Well my friend, you're right that Nefesh b'Nefesh has an agenda, but it's nothing so sinister as making us all into hasbara (public relations) geeks. In fact, their agenda is right out in the open. Nefesh b'Nefesh's agenda is promoting aliya. And that agenda was a spectacular success at Wednesday's conference for a very simple reason: All those people watching by webcast at home saw a group of Anglos that ranged from the totally secular to the ultra-Orthodox, from the guys in t-shirts and cut off jeans shorts to the ones in long black coats with black hats, from the ladies in - I won't go there - to those who had their elbows, knees and every strand of hair covered.

The message was real simple: No matter where you are on the political/religious spectrum there's a place for you here. There's someone in this room with whom you can identify. You can make aliya and have a social group here.

P.S. The guy with me in the picture at the top is Zeb Stubb, who runs JANGLO (thanks to Avi G.). The guy behind me on the left is really cool.

Picture courtesy of Jacob Richman.