The previous Temple web site very ably served members and visitors for nearly five years under the strong and dedicated stewardship of Ed Grossman.  However it was time for a renovation. The aim is mainly to make the site more useful to our members and staff, but we also want to attract visitors interested in finding a synagogue. As part of the process, we tried to make the web site more attractive in appearance and easier to use. At the same time we believe it will help Micah’s staff and board to more effectively communicate with each other and with the congregation.  

David Diskin launched the project in April 2004 after discussions between him and Gary Dickelman, Temple Micah’s computer and network maven.

We are using a web site design and management strategy called content management.  Content management systems store individual pieces of content as well as style sheets in a data base and the database is used to generate the web pages.   The database enables several things:

• Content (web pages, calendar events, news articles, etc.) can be created, edited and published by different people using only a web browser from anywhere they are connected to the Internet.  Examples: the education director, the office staff, and the Vine editors.

• Members logging onto the system with a password can see “private” content such as Rabbi Zemel's sermons, the religious school calendar or copies of the Vine in pdf form.

• We can assign start and expiration dates for any web page, event, news story, etc.  The start date tells the system when to start displaying the item on the site and the expiration date indicates when to stop displaying it.  All this is done automatically with no manual intervention.  This eliminates the problem of outdated content.

• Web pages are dynamically generated from the database, enabling fast and timely updates and additions

• The database can provide consistency by generating and updating information not only for web pages, but eventually we hope for e-mail, the Vine and service sheet information.