Blogger Chas Newkey-Burden, a 37-year-old from Windsor, England, is a journalist and now an author. He writes a successful blog at www.OyVaGoy.com and has more than 10,000 direct followers on Twitter. He also blogs at various outlets including The Guardian newspaper and The CifWatch blog. He also has guest spots on BBC radio an average of five to six times a month, when he can discuss any subject he chooses. Although Newkey-Burden had been to Israel before, he told the Post on Tuesday that because this trip had been “so in-depth, it almost feels like my first time here.” Newkey-Burden added that one of his favorite experiences had been the group’s visit to the Kol Rina Synagogue in the capital’s Nahlaot neighborhood, which is known for its lively, spiritual services, a la Shlomo Carlebach. “It was really joyful, and very intense,” he said. But speaking of Tuesday’s experience viewing the West Bank security barrier outside Bethlehem, Newkey-Burden said that now he could “blog with more power.” “I already knew that 95 percent of the wall is in fact fence and not a wall,” he said. “But now I can say that I know that because I stood in front of it and saw it with my own eyes.” “Overall, this has taken my ability to write about Israel to a new level,” he added. “And I feel that now I can be more effective to help Israel.” Another bloggers on the trip is 24-year-old New Jersey native Ryan Mauro, who writes five times a week for NewsReal and has a personal Web site, WorldThreats.com. He writes mostly about national security and geopolitics, and is a frequent guest on talk radio. “I have devoted myself to human rights and fighting radical Islam and totalitarianism,” Ryan said. “What better place to hone my understanding than Israel, which faces daily existential threats from radical Islamic elements?” Also on the trip is Sun Jinyi, a 28-year-old from Beijing. Her blog is on Sina.com, the No. 1 bloggers’ Web site in China. Sun Jinyi updates her Sina blog every couple of days (http://blog.sina.com.cn/sunjinyi824). She also blogs nearly every day on RenRen, an extremely popular Chinese version of FaceBook, http://www.renren.com/profile.do?id=1827779336&_os_type=32. For more information on the program and daily updates see http://www.onceinalifetime.org.il/ and http://www.youtube.com/mytrip.

Foreign bloggers get crash course on all things Israel

StandWithUs hosts Web communicators to provide them with dose of local reality.

See more on