Website Review: www.YoYenta.com
by Iris Ruth Pastor
“Let My People Know” Contributor

Jessica Leigh Lebos

Who isn’t always looking for novel ways to introduce themselves?

When I came across the website YoYenta.com and accessed the behind the scenes yenta, I was quite taken with one of her self-descriptive phrases: amateur social scientist. Seems to cover a lot of ground though I’m not sure exactly what the term connotes but the following would probably qualify: fond of voyeuristically cataloging how others lead their lives, enthralled with why people marry the people they do, interested in other people’s parenting styles, still trying to figure out why certain people dress the way they do. I much prefer the label “amateur social scientist” than yenta or busy body.

What’s the purpose?

As the moniker suggests, jumping into everybody’s business is what it is all about. Yo yenta.com, aka Jessica Leigh Lebos, says her aim with her blog “is to break down stereotypes about Jews in general and Jewish mothers in particular” while also throwing in such gossipy tidbits likes the fact that she changes her hair color frequently. She thinks of herself as “the Jewish mother from the edge.” See what you think.

Is it worth the double click?

It’s quite a ride – her blog links to other blogs with tantalizing titles: that black lesbian Jew, Orieyenta, Homeshuling, Jewbiquitous, go fug yourself. Her link on wedding planners sounded kind of mundane and anti-climatic, but I clicked on it all the same and was led to the site Chosson Kallah, which turned out to be chock full of Jewish wedding planning advice.

She seems to blog about 10 to 12 times per month in a casual, breezy style, using the very exclamatory word “sheesh” quite often. In December, she wrote that being a Jew at Christmas time is kind of fabulous because you can do basically whatever you want and there are no expectations. You can even drive the kids around so they can see the Christmas yard displays, even though, she says, her parents think that is a shanda. With this yenta’s attitude, I think that’s only the beginning of her issues with her parents.