People are always asking me which Jewish blogs I read, either because they are looking for new sources of insight & entertainment, or perhaps because they have something they want to tell the Jewish world about and are curious about where their potential audience is looking.

Ten years ago, when blogging first became a noticeable phenomenon online, the best ways to find new blogs to read was by paying attention to where you favorite bloggers attributed their best stories, and by exploring those bloggers' "blog rolls," the lists of favorite blogs often seen in the margins of a blog.

Now, with the number of blogs on the web exponentially larger, blog rolls are often gigantic and intimidating, and many bloggers are forgetful when it comes to telling us where they first read about interesting stories.  Don't worry, I've got you covered.  If you're looking for some additional content beyond what we've got here on JewishBoston.com, here are my top five recommendations to start your exploration. My own preferences tend towards blogs with multiple authors, so that's what you'll find on the list. Maybe a future post will highlight some of the great individuals keeping blogs on Jewish topics. And now, the list:

1. Mixed Multitudes, the blog of MyJewishLearning.com, runs the gamut of topics from serious to funny, religious to secular, deeply personal to strictly informative. I don't read every post, but in the course of any given week, there's something to everyone.

2. Jewcy sometimes feels more like a web-magazine than a blog, in part due to their magazine-style homepage layout. Jewcy's voice skews sarcastic, but their posts are likely to introduce you to stuff you won't encountered elsewhere from fashion and culture to religion and politics.

3. Jewschool is a left-leaning blog bringing a progressive voice to the conversation, with an emphasis on Israel, Jewish text, and the goings on of the Jewish institutional world. (Jewschool was my home on the web before joining JewishBoston.com!)

4. Jewlicious began as a right-leaning answer (some might say antidote) to Jewschool but quickly developed its own vibe. You can count on them for another look at Israel (often from the inside) as well as a healthy dose of Jewish music.

5. Haveil Havalim: The Jewish Blog Carnival isn't itself a blog, but rather a weekly blog post highlighting interesting stories from around the Jewish Blogosphere. Each week, this is hosted by a different participating blog. You can always find the link from the Blog Carnival's own page.  Here's a link to this week's post. We'll be hosting it later in the month, so watch this space for details.

Remember, these are my recommendations to start your exploration. There are lots of other great blogs out there, including several sponsored by some outstanding Jewish organizations such as Jewish Women's Archive, Jewish Funds for Social Justice, Interfaithfamily.com, and the Reform Movement. But perhaps I'll talk more about them in a future post.

Do you have favorite Jewish blogs that aren't listed here?  Let us know in the comments!