J. goes to the Crunchies!

The Crunchies are almost upon us - and j. (namely, me) will be there to witness them. The Crunchie Awards - sponsored by TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat and recognizing "compelling startups, Internet and technology innovations" - will be given out in a festive ceremony at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco this Friday night.

Why am I going?  Well, it's a night to fete some of Silicon Valley's hippest and brightest, and you wouldn't believe (okay, maybe you would believe) how many of them are Jewish.

The scene at last year's Crunchies (photo courtesy of nandorfejer)

This year's Jewish noms include:

-Yossi Vardi for best angel (for those not fluent in VC-speak, an angel investor is a wealthy individual who invests heavily in a startup). Vardi is Israeli and was the first investor in ICQ, one of the first instant messaging programs, which was founded by the Israeli company Mirabilis and later purchased by AOL. He has numerous awards and accomplishments to his name, including Israel's Prime Minister Award.

-Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder and CEO of Yelp, for Founder of the Year. Yelp is also up for best Internet application.

-Josh Silverman, CEO of Skype, for CEO of the Year.

-Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, for CEO of the Year. Salesforce is also up for best enterprise (Chatter).

-Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media, for CEO of the Year.

-Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, for CEO of the Year. Zynga is also up for best social app (Farmville) and best overall startup or product of 2009.

At least four of the six CEO of the Year noms are Jewish - an interesting achievement. Who will win? We'll find out Friday night at the Crunchies!

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