On Thursday night a group of people with nothing in common besides the facts that they live in Israel, blog and speak English got together for the first time - and really enjoyed themselves. "On the face" of it (heh) one would think that we weren't destined to get along so well: we hold widely varying political opinions and come from diverse backgrounds; we are not all Jewish; we live different lifestyles; we come from several different countries; and decades divide the youngest from the oldest among us. But as it turned out, our few commonalities were more important than our many differences.

I confess that I went out of pure curiosity, and with no expectations, and I don't think I was alone in my attitude. I met people whose company I would probably not seek in my everyday life, and was reminded once again of how rewarding it is to be put into a situation that forces me to look beyond the surface and see people for who they really are.

It wasn't possible to talk to everyone, of course, and anyways I'm not much of a table-hopper, but based on the enthusiastic response to our first get-together I'm sure we'll make an opportunity to meet again soon.

The warm and charming Adrian has posted a list of all the participants. The absence of some bloggers (Hi, Ashley! Hey, Bert!) was noted with regret. Guys, please come next time. Ashley - there was beer, lots of beer.

I would never have started writing "on the face" if not for the gentle but insistent nudging of my lovely and talented sister Adina, who is the family Web guru. Thanks, babe, for the push - I'm fascinated by this new style of community building, and delighted to be a part of it.

By the way, I finally figured out how to download haloscan for comments (very not difficult - big surprise; but why did it delete all the previous comments? :( ). So ck, please feel free to feed my ego on a regular basis with your much-appreciated feedback. If my planned trip to TO (November, probably) comes through, we must meet up.

Next step: how to post a blogroll. Probably not difficult...