10. ShulShopper for Facebook
Over the last couple of days we’ve looked at two tools, a Jewish Book Builder and a Jewish Liturgical Music Database, that would facilitate the needs of individuals and communities interested in creating for themselves more personalized prayer experiences.
Continuing on this theme of empowered Judaism, today we’re going to look at a Web application that helps people find a synagogue or independent minyan suited to their personal needs and interests, or to create a new minyan should one meeting their needs not exist in their area.
Whether you’re a once-a-weeker or three times-a-dayer, prayer plays a significant role in the life of even the most mildly observant Jew. But connecting to prayer can be exceptionally difficult. You need to feel the words (hence the call for the Jewish Book Builder), you need to feel the music (hence the call for Niggun Please), and you need to feel in sync with the people around you.
ShulShopper, a site I created and launched in 2006, is a tool which lets users explore synagogues and independent congregations in their communities and abroad so that they can find the right congregation for their needs, whether at home or on the road.
All of ShulShopper’s content is user generated — the members of the site’s user community populate the database with details about the congregations in their areas. Users also rate and review congregations, giving other ShulShoppers insight that might help spare them an uncomfortable experience.
(As a side note, both MinyanMaps and GoDaven bear mentioning. The sites are in some ways similar to ShulShopper, but do not include non-Orthodox congregations, as detailed information, nor a forum for user feedback.)
ShulShopper provides a fully-searchable index of congregations, along with in-depth profiles for each congregation that can be edited, rated, and reviewed by site visitors. Type in your city or Zip and ShulShopper will display an overview of all the congregations in your area. You can refine your search results by distance, denomination, age, gender roles, the presence or lack of mechitza (divider), and so on. View a congregation’s profile and see directions, denominational and organizational affiliations, a staff directory, a schedule of prayer services, user reviews and much more.
Sadly, due to a lack of funding interest, development on ShulShopper stalled within months of its launch. Without financing for ongoing maintenance the site eventually went down and stayed offline for nearly a year. I recently sank a boatload of money into the site to repair many of the issues that had taken it offline, and I’m pleased to say it’s back online, albeit in an imperfect state. However, without further support, I will not be able to resolve all of the outstanding issues, nor shall I be able to proceed with phase two of ShulShopper’s development: Facebook integration.
The missing piece to the equation — what will really make the project take-off, I believe — is a full-scale integration with Facebook. ShulShopper could be ported to a Facebook app, not just enabling direct access through Facebook to its search functionality, but also enabling users to search for others in the region with similar tastes and needs as their own.
Currently, ShulShopper lets users refine their search results to identify movements, denominations, gender roles, gender division, LGBT friendliness, interfaith friendliness and so on. With Facebook integration, users could save profiles of their individual preferences and search for others in their region with similar preferences. They could even identify which congregations others with similar preferences attend, and approach individuals who specify that they are unaffiliated about starting a new congregation together.
The Yeshiva University Commentator called ShulShopper “the biggest revolution in the Jewish community since the internet was erected." And maybe that’s saying too much. But when combined with the power of Facebook, ShulShopper has the potential to give Jews more direct access to meaningful prayer experiences and to reinvigorate America’s congregations, which could benefit from a little more healthy discourse and competition.
Tomorrow, taking ShulShopper to its logical conclusion…
