Daniel Wiseman is presently in Israel studying Judaism for a year at Yeshivat Darche Noam / Shapell’s in Jerusalem. He recently completed his undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in sociology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He has a passion for Judaism (of the traditional sort), art and design, social and cultural study, and technology. He dabbles in graphic design, video production, photography, web design, as well as traditional artistic mediums. He is slowly trying to learn 3D CGI animation and programming using Python (though he admits that both these goals may take a while) and has recently become interested in personal finance and investing. He is a Mac user and is a big fan of the platform, though he tries not to be religious about his computing. He is also interested in open source technologies and methodologies.

His academic interests include demography and sociology, especially dealing with Jewish communal issues, urban geography and how public spaces are used in a social context (”spatial sociology”?), enlightenment and post-enlightenment thought and its impact on the development of non-halakhic Judaism, the history and philosophy of science, as well as education, and marketing and branding (especially the approach of Al Ries)  and of course, Jewish thought and law. He is a fan of the journal Tradition and of the theological essays of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (notably The Lonely Man of Faith). His politics vary by issue.

He’ll read anything by Ken Follett or Daniel Silva, and enjoys action, drama, and sci-fi films and television.

For the last almost four years, while studying at UBC, Daniel Wiseman has worked as the media director at Northwest NCSY, the Northwest regional office of the Jewish youth outreach organization NCSY, the youth arm of the Orthodox Union, located in Congregation Schara Tzedeck, the shul that he loves. He has also been involved with other aspects of Jewish communal life in Vancouver.

This is his first attempt at a blog.