J-blogosphere is the name that some members of the Jewish blogging community use to refer to themselves. Blogs with a Jewish focus are called J-blogs. The name "J-blogosphere" was coined by Steven I. Weiss when he was the leader of "Protocols," a now defunct group J-blog, and one of the first notable Jewish blogs. Variations on the term were employed there as early as August 2003, and the first use of "J-blogosphere" appears to have been made in February 2004.
A blog is generally accepted as a "J-blog", or part of the "J-blogosphere", if the blogger is Jewish and discusses Jewish political, religious, or personal themes. There is no way of knowing exactly how many J-blogs there are, although several have come together to create a Jewish pod on BlogAds.
The "Jewish and Israel Blog Awards" are the J-blogosphere's informal annual award contest. The aim of the contest is to direct new readers towards Jewish, Israeli, and pro-Israel blogs. The JIBs begin with nominations in January and then a semifinal and final round. Good-natured rivalry and campaigning are associated with this event.
The contest was first run in 2004.[1] In 2005 the Jerusalem Post took over hosting duties.[2]
In 2006, Israel Forum was invited to host the JIB awards and instead established a new blogging award named The People's Choice Awards. This resulted in the cancellation of the JIBs and The People's Choice Awards running in its place.[3]
In 2007, a group of Jewish bloggers formed a committee to run the awards and launched JibAwards.com as the awards site.
There have been no Jewish Blog Awards since 2008.
"Haveil Havalim" is a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. The name, taken from Ecclesiastes 1:2, is generally translated "vanity of vanities". There have been more than 330 editions of Haveil Havelim, and more than 30 different bloggers have hosted.