The ‘Sarah Palin Wig,’ based on the hairstyle of the Last Frontier State governor and GOP vice presidential candidate, is the latest head covering to go on sale at Sheitel.com, a Brooklyn wig shop and Web site for Orthodox Jewish women who maintain modesty by concealing their natural hair.
“One of our stylists thought it would make a good style, so we produced it,” said Boruch Shlanger, one of Sheitel.com’s owners, in an e-mail to The Shmooze. “It is very easy to maintain, and is a very classic look, yet fashion forward!”
Made of 100% human hair and available for $795 (marked down from $895), the wig is the first of its kind inspired by the otherwise ‘folliclely challenged’ Republican ticket - but it is not the only one influenced by a potential American president. ‘There had been requests for Hillary Clinton wigs in the past,’ wrote Shlanger, who temporarily produced Clinton sheitls, ‘but none recently.’
Our sacred scrolls must be written on parchment, if they are to be kosher - fit for ritual use. Parchment sometimes means a kind of paper, but in this context it means animal skin.
Parchment for sifrei kodesh, sacred scrolls, has to come from a kosher species of animal, but the animal does not have to have been dispatched by ritual slaughter. The kosher meat industry has its ethical problems, but the non-kosher meat industry, arguably even more so. To become kosher meat, an animal has to be reasonably healthy; to become a kosher mezuzah, the animal could have been most horribly maltreated.
But a mezuzah reminds me that I am living a Jewish life, and a big part of a Jewish life is respect for all life. It troubles me that my mezuzah - worse, my sefer Torah - should be tainted with such suffering.
In the world of kosher meat, these sentiments take the form of animals raised humanely by people who care, slaughtered carefully by people who care, sold to people who care. All these exist. The idea of humane treatment of animals and kosher meat has taken root.
The idea of humane treatment of animals and sacred scrolls has not.
We have the humanely-raised animals. We have the humanely-slaughtered animals - we can get both of these from the non-kosher world as well as the kosher world. As far as I know, we don’t have anyone who knows how to make kosher parchment who would be bothered to use only these skins. So we’d need that - or at least, someone who wouldn’t dismiss the idea as goyische nonsense. Then maybe we could make mezuzot - perhaps megillot and Torahs, with enough skins - that hadn’t suffered. If we had someone who knew how to make tefillin cases, we could make tefillin also.
I fear that’s a long way off, but I think I’m not the only one who would like it.
Jewish rioters being dispersed by water canons in the mixed city of Acre
Sparked by an incident between an Arab citizen of the city who was driving in the Jewish neighborhood, where he lives, and a group of Jewish teens. The teens assaulted the man, and I’m not exactly clear on how everything transpired, but it seems that a group of Arab rioters descended on the main commercial strip smashing windows. Jews continued to attack some Arab homes while police dispersed Arab rioters with tear guns and stun grenades. It seems that fresh riots were sparked the morning following the Holy Day and police continue to battle Jewish rioters, this time protecting Arab homes in Acre. This is all gathered from various articles easily found at haaretz.com and any other Israel media outlet of your personal choice.
Really? What a great way to walk away from the Day of Atonement. Remeber the whole “v’hir’shanu, zadnu, hamasnu” business? It seems the best reaction to a car driving with or without music on a day where Jews don’t drive, even secular Jews in Israel tend not to drive on Yom Kippur, is to ignore the car. If the man lived in the neighborhood as he said he did, he would eventually arrive home and turn off his car, no one harmed.
Events like this tend to have little to do with the situation at hand, in this case someone driving on Yom Kippur. Both sides erupted, clearly, from tension and rage that has been building and finally burst. The next PM has much racial tension to calm. One report quoted Israeli Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) saying “the incident had less to do with Yom Kippur than a deliberate ‘escalation of racist speech’ ahead of Israeli municipal elections next month.”
I can’t even gather my thoughts on this to make a comment. It just saddens me. I simply don’t understand how someone could chastise a non-Jew for driving on Yom Kippur and then continue to assault them, on Yom Kippur or any day! It’s simply beyond my capacity to comprehend.
According to the 2007 survey of American Jewish opinion conducted by the American Jewish Committee, the economy and opposition to the Iraq War were the most important issues for Jews when deciding whom to vote for. Israel was the deciding issue for 6 percent, tied with immigration reform. Would Jews vote for an anti-Israel candidate? No. But since no anti-Israel candidate has ever been a serious contender for the presidency, the question is moot.
But that does not stop certain single-issue pro-Israel organizations from sending the message that all we Jews care about is Israel, that we consider Israel’s interests identical to America’s. And that although it’s legitimate to oppose U.S. government policies, it’s wrong to oppose Israeli policies.
But that does not stop certain single-issue pro-Israel organizations from sending the message that all we Jews care about is Israel, that we consider Israel’s interests identical to America’s. And that although it’s legitimate to oppose U.S. government policies, it’s wrong to oppose Israeli policies.
Rosenberg goes on to point out the excessive pandering to Jews’ foreign policy as per Stewart and SNL’s reporting on reality. As Homer Simpson once said, while watching cable TV in his house (cable TV he was watching illegally): “It’s funny because it’s true.”
As we heard Jon Stewart say in early June: “Oh, I forgot! You can’t say anything remotely critical of Israel and still get elected president! …which is funny cause you know where you can criticize Israel? Uh, Israel…”
In the past year, I have seen many folks raising their voices to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel. In that vein, I want to echo loud and clear the concluding point (I took the liberty to add my choice of links for effect - I repeat they are not in the original piece):
One more thing. Most of us who do care deeply about Israel do not share the views of the right-wing Jewish organizations that claim to speak for us. The majority of us support negotiations, the two-state solution, and justice and security for Israelis and Palestinians. And we are not impressed with candidates who don’t.
This Shamir is voting Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine.
The new issue of New Voices is out, and this time, the magazine has turned its sights to that elephant in the room with the black hat.
New Voices Sept. 2008
I’m an unabashed New Voices fan, but I would have had to post about this issue anyway, because it hits on the issue of Jewish authenticity so squarely. Maybe there are folks out there who never felt that their own practices were inadequate or their form of Judaism somehow…not the real thing. I don’t know any of them, but maybe they’re out there. This issue may not be for them; everyone else, whether you’re on campus or know people on campus or care that someone’s giving money to Chabad instead of your Jewish cause, will probably be interested.
As Reform Rabbi Rick Jacobs points out, Jewish kids on campus are particularly at risk of deeming their own Jewish experiences and choices “inauthentic.” (Students, who may not have learned Jewish-communal-buzzword-ism yet, will probably identify this as that gut feeling that men in black hats, and not they themselves, are “real Jews.”) And almost worse, Jacobs suggests that some funders keep the money coming because they’re not really sure that this whole experiment with liberal Judaism is going to pan out. That’s a bold statement, and I hope NV gets responses from funders themselves, because I’m really interested in knowing to what extent that analysis is true, and what extent such actions are defensible. Chabad seems to have more money than they know what to do with, and, as Josh Nathan-Kazis points out in his editorial, the values of Chabad Lubovitch don’t really mesh with those of liberal donors–especially if it’s your daughter in the kitchen.
It’s not too late to grab a copy of New Voices (they fold to tallis-bag-size) as your extra-machzor reading, so go for it.
On this, day on which we will head into Yom Kippur, I wish everyone a fast in which they are able, as suggested by the rabbis, to fast in such a way that they can be as the angels: creatures who in denying their bodily need can become like those who have no bodily needs, and so are able to expend their efforts not in satisfying themselves and searching for a means to get enough energy to live another day, but who are servants of the Holy One, and whose efforts are in line with the exhortations of Isaiah (whose words cannot be matched by any speechwriter out there, and ought to simply be read, as they are, and understood in their simple meaning), will tell us tomorrow, that the purpose of our fast is
“…To let the oppressed go free;To break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry, And to take the wretched poor into your home; When you see the naked, to clothe him, And not to ignore your own kin.” and to take joy in the sabbath… a strange addition to the rest of the speech - why the sabbath? First because Isaiah wanted to be clear that he was not advocating that it was okay to abandon ritual practices simply because we know (or think we do) what those practices are supposed to teach: ritual leads us to proper behavior- ritual of all kinds (like the ritual of brushing teeth in the morning -one does it, because one is in the habit. We need to develop habits in order to do what is right, because in the lack of habits to do good, we fail to do it). But also because the sabbath in its observance is much like Yom Kippur, it is a day in which we in denying ourselves the objects of the every day and the activities of domination of the world, make ourselves a little higher than the animals whose needs we share.
We don’t all observe Yom Kippur the same way, but we should all be invested in the message of the day:
Stop and take stock of your way of being in the world.
Take notice of what is greater than you and your relationship to it.
You are not the center of the universe, your job here is not to serve yourself only; your responsibility is to care for others.
Pay attention to the way in which you live and how it affects others negatively, then fix it.
2 To be sure, they seek Me daily,
Eager to learn My ways.
Like a nation that does what is right,
That has not abandoned the laws of its God,
They ask Me for the right way,
They are eager for the nearness of God:
3 “Why, when we fasted, did You not see?
When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?”
Because on your fast day
You see to your business
And oppress all your laborers!
4 Because you fast in strife and contention,
And you strike with a wicked fist!
your fasting today is not such
As to make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast I desire,
A day for men to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast,
A day when the Lord is favorable?
6 No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock the fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.
7 It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe him,
And not to ignore your own kin.
…
9 Then, when you call, the Lord will answer;
When you cry, He will say: Here I am.
If you banish the yoke from your midst,
The menacing hand and evil speech,
10 And you offer your compassion to the hungry
And satisfy the famished creature —
The shall your light shine in darkness,
And your gloom shall be like noonday….
13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,
From pursuing your affairs on My holy day;
If call the sabbath “delight,”
The Lord’s holy day “honored”;
And if you honor it and go not your ways
Nor look to yours affairs, nor strike bargains —
14 Then you can seek the favor of the Lord.
I will set you astride the heights of the earth,
And let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob —
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
The Republican Jewish Coalition is running Obama-hates-Israel ads full steam to the tune of $1 million — and the Forward and other papers are carrying them without challenge, prompting Tikun Olam and J Street to protest.
The ads are running in Haaretz, The Forward, JTA and Jewish Week calling the candidate “anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian, hostile to America.”
Richard Silverstein over at Tikun Olam has an extensive exchange with David Drimer, Associate Publisher, and their PR firm (nu?) defending the ads. Well, not defending them, but certainly failing to explain why they’re not exercising any journalistic integrity. As Richard explains, blocking ads which lie isn’t censorship.
This is in light of FOX refusing Obama smear ads. And yet The Forward won’t?
The most irritating component to me is the photo of Rob Malley labeled “Pro-Palestinian.” Malley is one of the most eloquent and frequently consulted peacenik voices in the American Jewish community. More than partisan, these ads are libelous.
During the month of Elul, we read Psalm 27 twice daily to prepare for the Yomim Noraim. A co-worker was preparing a shiur for tonight on this psalm and he found something when googling: it’s been co-opted by Sarah Palin supporters. From PrayingforSarahPalin.com:
Sarah Palin is a Christian who said ‘yes’ when asked recently to serve her country. Since then, Gov. Palin asked my daughter Rosanne, who is part of her staff in Anchorage, for prayer, and so over the weekend Rosanne and I put together the attached ‘Psalm for Sarah for 66.’ It’s intercessory prayer using Psalm 27 for the 66 days between the date of Sarah’s accepting McCain’s offer and election day, Nov. 4; it’s not about who wins the election or about politics or your voting choice.
No, I’d say that praying for a specific candidate is about your politics and voting choice.
My co-worker and I discussed it briefly, and both agreed: we now feel a little… icky about continuing to recite this psalm.
So, G!d, when you hear us? Please don’t mistake our intentions. We’re not joining the RJC.
Thanks,
feygele
I am all for the use of Jews and Jewish holidays for humorous promotional purposes. This year I attempted this with my Rosh haShanah greeting.
Sometimes I even think it’s cool when Judaism, or a particular Jew, is used for commercial purposes - as Matisyahu is in the Kenneth Cole commercial.
In both of these cases Judaism is used as a way of communicating something important - like taking life and art seriously or the ability to laugh at ourselves once in a while.
I like Rush. I respect the fact that they’ve consistently made some really good music for many years. But I think VH1’s Rush special billed as “Rush haShanah” was completely off the mark.
If I made the Rosh - Rush pun in a shiur (class) I was giving I would be accused of not only having gone to the Rabbinical School of Incredibly Bad Puns for my Smicha (Rabbinic Degree) but of having flunked out.
There’s NOTHING clever about a pun that uses two words that sound alike but have nothing to do with each other. Example of a good pun: When you dream in colour, it’s a pigment of your imagination. Pigment which sounds like figment is clever because it relates to the subject of the statement. Rush has nothing whatsoever to do with the hebrew word Rosh (meaning head).
Was there some point to this that I’m oblivious to? Some redeeming factor? If I suggested that 7-11 should have a Slurpy sale called “Slush haShanah” - would anyone actually think it was a good marketing idea? Apparently Rolling Stone Magazine whose article referred to this as an “awesomely clever pun” would. This mischaracterization was no doubt what caused Mr. Mike Fink to comment (on the afore-linked article) that “rock and roll is not the only way the Jew destroyed Western civilization”. (No, Mr. Fink, it is NOT the only way - but it IS the most fun way don’t you fink?)
I know what you’re thinking right now. You are thinking two things. 1. “Dude, you ARE missing the point - the special aired ON Rosh haShanah; the date is the connection that makes the pun work.” and 2. “Lighten up - it was just a silly marketing ploy. It’s not like a case of wife or death (an expression sometimes used to punnily define a shotgun wedding).”
OK, you’re right, I’m taking a deep breath, smiling and relaxing and assuming the “final nun” position from Aleph-Bet Yoga. I suppose it could be cool to have a Ween show on Halloween called “Hallowed Ween” or a special performance on Broadway called “Rent on Lent” but neither of those Holidays claim to be the day when the entire world; Jews Christians, Muslims, non-believers and even Zoroastrians are all standing in Judgement before The Creator - something which I suspect may not have come across to viewers of the VH1 special…
So listen Mr./Mrs. VH1 marketing person whoever you might be; Zeit mir moichel (please forgive me) but let’s leave Rosh HaShanah puns to us Rabbis shall we? Your idea lacked geometry as it was pointless. You missed the true meaning of Rosh HaShana; it was just too pasteurized. You know what? I think you should consider switching careers and maybe writing a gossip column for a newspaper - a job more befitting someone with your great sense of rumor.
Some time ago, the Rabbis castigated Hoshea ben Elah (the last King of the Kingdom of Israel) for his corrupt practice of taking what should have been his personal responsibility and hanging it on the necks of the people (Seder Eliyahu Zuta 9) They didn’t look favorably on his moment of privatized gain and socialized loss, and yet somehow, we Americans seem to think that’s the way to go with regard to Wall Street. We can only assume the government will soon be applying that logic to the credit card debt debt of this country as well.
As long as the failures of Wall Street are being hung on our collective necks, its worth contempating what else we could have done with the $700 billion we apparently had lying under the couch cushions. From Duncan Green at From Poverty to Power, we learn that it:
Would clear the accumulated debt of the 49 poorest countries in the world ($375bn) twice over
· Is almost 5 times the annual amount of extra aid needed to achieve all the Millennium Development Goals on poverty, health, education etc ($150bn a year)
· Is about 7 years of current global aid levels ($104bn in 2007)
· Is enough to eradicate all world poverty for over two years (UNDP calculates it would take $300bn to get the entire world population over the $1 a day poverty line).
10. Pay $600 or more for one-time tickets to services in a glitzy synagogue where you never go any other time of year. Feel awkward when there’s a bowl for cash next to the bathroom attendant. Wonder why you can’t see the organ player or choir.
9. Attend a niggun-rich alternative service in a simple chapel of an old Conservative synagogue for only $125.
8. Work you ass off because you are a rabbi or struggling grad student - make thousands of dollars, but sacrifice your soul.
7. Be psyched that as a congress person with a Jewish sounding last name, you get a day off.
6. Attend free services:
- with Ohel Ayalah in Manhattan or Brooklyn
- at a church in the village or in Brooklyn
5. Gather with friends in an apartment for a mini lay-lead service and potluck dinner.
4. Bring apples and honey to a bar in Williamsburg.
3. Be a part of Jewish ritual theater with Storahtelling and Tribeca Hebrew on the 45th floor of 7 World Trade Center for New York’s Highest High Holidays.
2. Pay $10 to hear Sway Machinery’s multi-media performance Hidden Melodies Revealed.
1. Enjoy the holiday in your home community with family and friends. No tickets. No meshugas. Plenty of round challahs.
So, nu, Jewschoolers - how did you spend the holiday? Any of this apply to you? What are your plans for Yom Kippur?
The All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) has found a new home for its weekly prayer services in Reston in an unusual place, a Jewish synagogue.
The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation has agreed to rent its multi-purpose room to the Sterling mosque, which has operated a Reston “branch” for several years, in the early afternoon on Fridays.
“Many people [in the congregation] don’t know yet because I just wrote the newsletter article about it,” said synagogue president Hana Newcomb. She accepted an award from ADAMS on behalf of her congregation for its efforts in promoting interfaith dialogues and peace Sept. 27.
“The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation has opened its doors to our prayers,” said Rizwan Jaka, an ADAMS board member, during the ceremony.
The mosque also honored United Christian Parish, which has hosted its Friday prayer services in Reston for the past seven years. The parish sold one of its facilities and no longer has the extra space to share with ADAMS, said parish board moderator Kay Rodgers.
“We don’t have the space anymore but United Christian Parish is totally committed and dedicated to the interfaith experience we have,” said Rodgers.
Wow. Just wow. This is a beautiful and amazing show of interfaith relations and co-existence. The shul is a Reform congregation of near 500 families, the ADAMS Center serves 5000 families in seven communities in the DC area. What an amazing opportunity not only to embark on some very real and concrete interfaith work, but to also set an example of using the synagogue in the 21st century for applications that have a unique place in our era–this gives a whole new meaning to beit k’nesset (house of gathering).
Plus, in my minimal experience with Muslim-Jewish dialogue it is difficult to get down to discuss the intricacies and structure of our respective traditions because politics (i.e. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) loom so large. This seems like an incredible opportunity to engage in joint worship and study in ways that have probably not happened much between our communities in, at the very least, the last half-century.
According to Jewish law, we can pray in mosques (not the case with churches, according to tradition) and as far as I understand, Muslims can eat kosher meat (while kosher Jews cannot indulge in halal meat). The Rambam’s brother, David, would practice dhkir, an Islamic meditation on the Oneness of God with Muslims. If we could only put politics aside, we could connect deeply on a religious and spiritual level. The opportunities that have arisen between the All Dulles Area Muslim Society and the North Virginia Hebrew Congregation are endless and provide a great opportunity for the Jewish and Muslim communities of America (and perhaps beyond).
The Simon Weisenthal Center has announced an alternative energy menorah, which will be sent to all 50 governors and mayors of major cities. “The menorah features a crystal design with candleholders inscribed with the laser-cut symbols for biofuel, electric car, wind power, clean coal, nuclear, natural gas, solar power and hydro power.” The reason is, says the center, if the Maccabees fought for freedom from foreign occupiers, America is now struggling for freedom from foreign oil despots.
Which tickles my funny bone more: That the Simon Weisenthal Center thinks treehugging is central to the fight to preserve the Jews? (Jews specifically, they mean, not just Jews among all other creatures that need a healthy environment.) Or that it thinks it can accomplish this with a piece of glass? Or that existing Jewish environmental advocacy groups, say COEJL, have been more or less ineffective outside the Jewish community?
Or that they think you’ll want to buy it for $162 online here?
Gymnastics is my religion and the Olympics are my High Holiday. I know that it is strange to equate an Olympic sport with a major (or minor) world religion and I can already see my friends’ eyes rolling at what they perceive as yet another outburst of my gymnastics flavored irrationality. But after spending the better part of August in front of my television and the subsequent weeks reliving the competition on YouTube, I am not only convinced of gymnastics position among the world’s great faiths, but also of its usefulness to those about to celebrate those other High Holidays. Here’s a set of Olympic derived guidelines for the upcoming Days of Awe.
(But before I proceed, I need to address the naysayers who do not buy the basic premise- that gymnastics functions as a religion. Though no one split the Red Sea or handed tablets down from on high, there was revelation. At the 1976 Montreal Games child prophet, Nadia Comaneci scored the first- and now nonexistent- perfect 10 in Olympic competition. This act inspired millions of other acrobatically inclined children to try the same. My own baptism in a sea of loose foam blocks in a six foot deep pit came at the age of 7 though I continued to practice the Judaism of my forebears. Its rituals resemble popular religious ones. Gymnasts wrap injured joints in tape just as Jews bind their forearms in the leathers straps of the phylacteries. There are dietary rules more restrictive than the laws of kashrut. And an epically- or biblically- long Code of Points.)
This year there’s a wonderful Jewish-Muslim harmonic convergence: Rosh Hashanah and Eid (the final fast of Ramadan) fall on the same day. Though I read this morning in the NY Times that it’s causing a “monotheistic traffic jam” on the streets of the Old City, I still choose take this dual observance as a sign of additional holiness in our world. May we all be worthy of this double-blessing and do what we can to live up to it…
In honor of this day, I suggest giving to any number of worthy grassroots interfaith initiatives. Here are just a few of my favorites that you might want to consider supporting:
Sarah Palin is a Christian who said ‘yes’ when asked recently to serve her country. Since then, Gov. Palin asked my daughter Rosanne, who is part of her staff in Anchorage, for prayer, and so over the weekend Rosanne and I put together the attached ‘Psalm for Sarah for 66.’ It’s intercessory prayer using Psalm 27 for the 66 days between the date of Sarah’s accepting McCain’s offer and election day, Nov. 4; it’s not about who wins the election or about politics or your voting choice.
The Simon Weisenthal Center has announced an 
