Rules for Jewish chain emails

Is anyone else as fed up as I am with email chain letters sent around by well-meaning but poorly-informed friends and colleagues in the Jewish community?

Today alone I've received my third or fourth copy of Ehud Olmert's stirring "speech" -- one he never gave. As the original link points out, it is what columnist Ben Caspit would like the PM to say, that is, "the text for a speech by the Prime Minister that would explain to the world exactly what we’re fighting for."

Another email going around, one which breathlessly reports on antisemitc attacks in France that took place four years ago, claims to be based on the Lekarev Report(*). The site won't display archived newsletter issues, so I have no idea whether the age of the "news" is the fault of the chainmail forwarders or of the newsletter authors. Snopes.com dates much of the letter's text to no later than May 2002. It was circulating as new back in November 2005, and now it's making the rounds again. Even Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis has fallen for it.


So, here is my easy two-step guide to forwarding interesting Jewish emails. Before you send, make sure you can answer "yes" to all of the following three sets of questions. If you can't answer yes to all of them, please don't forward the email!

(1) Is it timely and accurate? Have I done due diligence to verify the authenticity, timeliness, and accuracy of this email and the claims made in it?
(2) Is it worth imposing on my friend or family member's inbox? Really? Am I sure?
(3) Is it a day of the week that doesn't end in the letter "y"?




(*) The author of the Lekarev Report, by the way, appears to be one Barbara Richmond aka Leah Rafaeli, who seems to be the widow of a Baptist pastor, "a former Catholic nun turned Messianic Jew after discovering that her natural father was supposedly Jewish", and now an Orthodox Jew (hence the new name). Perhaps her research and reporting is excellent ...but I guess I'd take it with a grain of salt.