Hamilton's Jewish community now has a state-of-the-art Web site that is the first of its kind in Canada.
The site - www.jewishhamilton.org - was launched Jan. 16 by Hamilton's UJA Federation using FedWeb, a system created by United Jewish Communities (UJC) in New York, the umbrella organization for 189 Jewish federations across North America.
FedWeb offers pre-designed templates that allow non-technical people in subscribing communities to customize and update their own Web sites. It also offers regularly updated subscription content, such as Jewish news from news agencies around the world.
Wendy Schneider, the editor of the Hamilton Jewish News community newspaper who co-ordinated UJA Federation of Hamilton's first foray onto the Internet, said FedWeb "is so wonderful for small federations like usŠ Unlike many sites that are never updated and only visited once, ours is alive and constantly renewed."
Depending on size, fund-raising capacity and features chosen from FedWeb's menu of options, each federation pays UJC a monthly fee for the tools to create and maintain a site.
Schneider said Hamilton pays $300 (Cdn) per month. She said FedWeb was chosen because it has no upfront costs, which can run into thousands of dollars for a Web designer, not including the cost of maintaining and updating a site.
Conceived at UJC's annual young leadership convention in March 2000, FedWeb was launched last April with an investment by UJC of $4 million (US) over four years. UJC's own Web site was the first to use the service, which has already won a design award from the Web Marketing Association, an American group that recognizes excellence in corporate Web sites.
So far 30 federations are online using the service and 20 more sites are expected to be launched by the spring
Other Canadian Jewish communities and organizations will soon be following Hamilton's lead.
By the end of 2002, UIA Federations Canada and local federations in Vancouver, London, Windsor, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal and Calgary will all have their own FedWeb-based sites, says Frank Simkevitz, a UIA Federation staffer who negotiated the Canadian federations' deals with FedWeb.
Although about 50 North American federations already had Web sites, most suffered from poor design and were little more than on-screen brochures, said JoAnn Abraham, director of UJC communications projects.
FedWeb is a cost-effective way to create dynamic and easily updated Web sites, as well as save money on mailings and newsletters and reach out to unaffiliated and Web-savvy Jews, Abraham said.
A 1990 UJC survey showed 33 per cent of American Jewish families relocate every five years and need access to a community. It

also found more than 70 per cent of U.S. Jews are not affiliated with a synagogue, and that young, unaffiliated Jews are actively online.
To meet these needs, FedWeb offers options for a site's navigation bar ranging from a community calendar and information on local agencies - features found on Hamilton's site - to a local Jewish yellow pages, which Hamilton doesn't have.
Like other FedWeb sites, Hamilton's offers daily late-breaking news, articles on Jewish life and links to other Jewish Web sites.
And FedWeb is constantly tweaking its design and adding features, Schneider said.
Her volunteer committee was "searching for someone to do our Web site when one of our board members heard about FedWeb. As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it and every other option paled by comparison," she said.
"Because we hadn't yet set up a site, we were in the best position to join up straight away."
Schneider was impressed with the help she had building Hamilton's site.
"We had so much help right from the beginning with technical support through a 1-800 number. Their response was so attentive.
"[Because] we were the first Canadian FedWeb site, the visitors' subscription section was not set up with Canadian provinces. I called the tech people, and within an hour, they had adapted it."
FedWeb also offered advice on generating revenue to pay for the site.
"They helped us set up sponsorships and we hope that eventually the site will pay for itself," Schneider said.
Currently a local sponsor, the Fowler Pearce Partnership, helps offset the site's monthly fee and a search is on for a real-estate company to sponsor the site's section on moving to Hamilton.
In addition to FedWeb's other advantages, being a link on the central UJC site is also a plus, Schneider said.
"Hamilton's Jewish community is looking to grow," said Schneider. "By being featured on the UJC site we hope people will hear about us and see Hamilton as an interesting alternative to a big city."
Gerry Fisher, executive director of Hamilton's UJA Federation, praised the committee responsible for launching the site. "This was a long time in coming and our volunteers did a good job," he said.
"The future of this community is directly linked to our ability to attract Jewish families to move here," said Fisher. "I have been contacted by several families wanting information about Hamilton and the Jewish community, and now 'jewishhamilton' provides us with a very good mechanism to advertise our wonderful quality of Jewish communal life."