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Jewish portals are a dime a dozen these days. Still, there's room for sites that try to offer something a little more.

Alas, jewishpeople.com — at www.jewishpeople.com — offers less. The interface is pretty, but that doesn't make up for a lack of content.

Portals, for the Net newbies out there, are all-purpose sites that seek to bring some order to the chaos of the World Wide Web. Jewishpeople.com offers a nice interface with lots of generic pictures, and a cute slogan: "A Website Even Your Mother Would Love."

Menu choices along the left frame offer a handful of categories: Jewish books, a Jewish calendar and links to news about Jewish life and Israel.

The Jewish news section is OK, but many other sites offer more. Ditto the Jewish books area; a "popular authors" section includes only nine writers.

There's an easy-to-use Jewish calendar, but plenty of other sites offer calendars that are just as good.

Portals are about information and links; this one is thin on both, and the pretty interface doesn't offset that deficiency.

Don't get Jewishpeople.com confused with the similarly named Jewishpeople.net — at www.jewishpeople.net — a kind of worldwide Jewish directory with tons of useful links, especially to foreign Jewish communities.

If it's a Jewish portal you're after, you still can't do much better than Maven — www.maven.co.il — one of the pioneer Jewish portals and still a leader in the field. Maven's listings are comprehensive, the site is easy to navigate, and you can sign up for free e-mail updates to keep you informed about new sites.

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Intermarriage and conversion remain favorite topics in Jewish cyberspace; so is the fight against missionaries who target Jews and those pesky "messianics."

Here's an attractive site that combines all of those themes in an attractive package with content that many will find useful.

The Two Roads, One Path site — www.tworoadsonepath.com — is a project of Jews for Judaism, a leading anti-missionary organization. But this site represents new ground for the group; its purpose is to gently ease intermarried couples into committing to a Jewish lifestyle, and to lay out some clear warnings about solutions to the religious dilemma that don't cut it.

After a pretty opening page, visitors get a choice: "I'm Jewish, my spouse is not," or the reverse.

Then, the site guides visitors through a series of short presentations designed to encourage the "soul searching" that the authors say is best done "in the early stages of a relationship. Everyone, including any future children, will thank you for making the effort."

The goal here is obvious — a committed Jewish life — but the persuasion is gentle and low key, without the threats and guilt that are dished up generously on so many other sites dealing with the topic.

This being a Jews for Judaism site, there is a lot of analysis of why Jesus isn't the Jewish Messiah, and why "Messianic Jews" and Jews for Jesus aren't real Jews.

There is also a glossary of Jewish terms, a modest collection of links and suggestions for additional reading.

One gripe: With some Web browsers, the menus are hard to read.

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JewishGen.Org has always been the place to go for information about the burgeoning field of Jewish genealogy. Its home page — www.jewishgen.org — offers general information about Jewish genealogy, resources for amateur and serious genealogists alike, a family finder database and discussion groups.

Less well known is the JewishGen Mall, which offers one-stop online shopping for all your genealogical shopping needs. To get there, go to jewishgen.org and click on The JewishGen Mall.

One section offers more than 700 books on Jewish history and genealogy. In another, you'll find a modest collection of computer software and CD-ROMs. There are genealogy programs, reference materials on CD and software to help you create a dazzling genealogical report.

The pluses: The legions of Jewish genealogists will be interested in the huge assortment of books and computer aides. A minus: The listings for most items include only the barest descriptions. If you come here expecting the kind of descriptions, reviews and buyers comments offered on amazon.com, you'll be sorely disappointed.

Still, it's a tremendous resource for serious genealogists and a pretty interesting place for the rest of us.

The writer is a Washington-based correspondent who has been writing about Jewish Web sites since the early 1990s. His columns alternate with those of Mark Mietkiewicz. Besser can be reached at [email protected]