by Mobius · Monday, June 30th, 2003
a doctoral candidate to oxford has been rejected by a university official for being israeli.
in an e-mail to the student, prof. andre wilkie writes,
“Thank you for contacting me, but I don’t think this would work. I have a huge problem with the way that the Israelis take the moral high ground from their appalling treatment in the Holocaust, and then inflict gross human rights abuses on the Palestinians because they [the Palestinians] wish to live in their own country.
“I am sure that you are perfectly nice at a personal level, but no way would I take on somebody who had served in the Israeli army. As you may be aware, I am not the only UK scientist with these views but I’m sure you will find another lab if you look around.”
has the academic boycott of israel gone too far, encouraging the same sort of discrimination these activists claim to be against? or is this a case of the new “acceptable” anti-semitism?
by shamirpower · Friday, June 27th, 2003
Last week’s Forward reports about Matthue Roth, a “post-straight” Orthodox performance poet who warns that “some of these poems may be inappropriate for children and halachic prudes.” Roth has performed with Dave Eggers in San Francisco, with legendary guitarist Carlos Santana at a benefit for Chabad and as a featured poet in the Def Poetry Jam on Broadway.
**I was psyched to see that the article was written by Jay Michealson, editor of the hip Zeek Magazine, who taught at this month’s Hadar Shavuot retreat and will be teaching about Embodied Judaism this summer at Elat Chayyim.
by shamirpower · Wednesday, June 25th, 2003
Sick of explaining to goyim why the Jewish holidays hardly ever fall on the same date from year to year? Looking for evidence to blame the brits for enforcing the Gregorian calandar on our country? The JCAL-Jewish Calendar Software company provides a clearly outlined History and Rules of the Jewish Calendar. Other resources include looking up a Gregorian date for looking up yahrzeits, birthdays, and anniversaries, Torah readings, Shabbat candle lighting times, or to simply convert any date, you can use the automatic Hebrew Date Converter. Finally, if you would like to download a shareware Jewish calendar for your use, check out Calendar Maven’s Hebrew Calendar.
by Mobius · Wednesday, June 25th, 2003
exodus author leon uris has died, at age 78, from kidney failure.
by Mobius · Tuesday, June 24th, 2003
by grubness · Tuesday, June 24th, 2003
Actually his sister is Chabadnick. This was snapped at his nephews wedding in Crown Heights last night. A Jewschool exclusive!
by Shred · Tuesday, June 24th, 2003
As cute as this might seem to some of you on the surface, my inclination is to believe that nonsense like this is taking things a bit too far. I mean, at what point do we cease to honor our traditions and instead begin to cheapen them through caricature? Do jokes like this Bark Mitzvah and 50 Shekel help bring us closer to our identities as Jews, or do they merely serve to marginalize our identification to the point where we begin to perpetuate our own stereotypes?
by Benyamin · Tuesday, June 24th, 2003
HBO’s popular Sex and the City is back for its final season and it seems Judaism plays part of a major storyline. Picking up where it left off last season, classic WASP Charlotte York is dating her self-deprecating Jewish attorney Harry Goldenblatt. (Hey, where’s the stereotype police when you need them?). In the season’s first episode, the following banter ensues after Harry, who will only marry a Jewish woman, orders pork at a restaurant:
“I’m not kosher,” Harry tries to explain. “I’m conservative.”
“I’m conservative, too!” Charlotte reminds him.
“Yeah, well,” says Harry, “MY conservative doesn’t have anything to do with wearing pearls.”
However, the best line of the night came when Harry said that one of the reasons he wants to marry a Jewess is because his mother suffered in the Holocaust. Charlotte’s response? “Well, now I can’t say anything because you brought up the Holocaust. This is not the first time Charlotte has been interested in a Yid. In the series’ first season, she had a brief affair with a Chassidic artist from Brooklyn. And inside sources tell us that next week’s episode will feature Charlotte consulting rabbis about conversion.
Hmmm, even with Charlotte’s possible conversion, it appears New York’s Jewish population is shrinking. Go figure.
by Mobius · Monday, June 23rd, 2003
Allow me to set the scene.
I am twelve years old and in my bedroom. My dad has just opened the door. What he sees is me with a knife in my hand and blood coming out of my leg. In the air, falling all around me, are bits and pieces of a disemboweled teddy bear.
How I got here has something to do with being Jewish.
“the fray” by derek powazek
by Mobius · Sunday, June 22nd, 2003
I saw this cat Mattisyahu perform at the Rainbow Family Jerusalem Camp benefit at Opaline earlier this month. He blew me away—a tall chasidishe kid who chants Torah verse in a Rastaman patois, and is actually good to boot! He ain’t just a novelty act, he’s the real deal. I dubbed (no pun intended) him the Rudeboy Rebbe. Don’t miss the chance to see him perform live. He’ll mek yu retink yu roots.
by shamirpower · Thursday, June 19th, 2003
Are you a Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew? Catholics and Protestestants contest who is more like the Jews; some support Israel, some Palestine. This dwindled population of Jews is opting to stay out of the way.
by shamirpower · Thursday, June 19th, 2003
Looking for a summer reading list with books on Jewish topics? Look no further.
Nextbook, a project of Keren Keshet - The Rainbow Foundation. Though the website’s reading list program is quite good, their extensive reviews, suggestions by subject, links to other Jewish resources, and general user-friendliness make the site worthwhile.
The New York Jewish Week, who has also reviewd Nextbook, reccomends the following sites as well:
The one-man-site MyJewishBooks.com includes reviews of new titles, information about author appearances, a book club, lists of book award winners, a message board, purchase links and a featured book every two weeks.
The National Yiddish Book Center highlights a monthly book selected from their list of the 100 best Jewish books, with excerpts and essays; they also sell print-on-demand copies of Yiddish books.
Jewishbookmall.com includes books listed by many topics along with introductory text, providing links to many other sites, as does the bi-lingual resource Hareshima.com, a list of Jewish and Israeli sites.
(c/o AJL,’s HaSafran)
by Mobius · Wednesday, June 18th, 2003
The Arabs are qualifying for eternity by doing what they’ve determined to be God’s work, which is to make war on those who, ignoring or questioning His authority, are undermining His plan for the planet. And Israel, dropped in the Arab’s midst, its diverse culture implicitly challenging the validity of Arab beliefs, provides the Arabs with the infidel they need to carry out their mission. For Arabs, it’s not about killing Jews, per se. Jews are simply a fortuitously placed means to a purchase on heaven.
robert levin offers some interesting commentary on the israeli-palestinian conflict.
by Mobius · Wednesday, June 18th, 2003
check out rushkoff’s cover story in the new york press …especially you, steven i. it deals nicely with your unfounded accusation of conspiracy theory.
by shamirpower · Monday, June 16th, 2003
After a recent snubbing of international leaders of the Reform movement at a gathering organized by the local Hebrew Union College board of governors, this morning’s Ha’aretz reports about the reaction of liberal Jewish communities to Uri Lupolianski’s newly elected office.
Critics in this article include Anat Hoffman, Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman of the Reform synagogue Kol HaNeshama, Rabbi Professor David Golinkin, President of the Conservative Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies, Gilad Kariv, IRAC Director of Public Affairs, and Alice Shalvi, Chair of the Schechter Institute’s Executive Committee.
Hoffman said: “The election of Jerusalem’s first Haredi mayor provided a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. “On one hand, Lupolianski has a chance to prove that what we as Jews have in common is greater than our differences; that regardless of technicalities, those who identify themselves as Jews can feel welcome in Jerusalem. On the other hand, this could turn out to be final proof that the Orthodox politicians serve one part of the people and one part only.”
(c/o Ha’aretz)
by shamirpower · Wednesday, June 11th, 2003
Earlier last week in Rishon Lezion, near Tel Aviv, construction began on the world’s first open-air shtetl theme park. Can a Disneyfied shtetl accurately portray the complex realities of that vanished world?
Project director and noted Holocaust historian Yaffa Eliach, commented: “The shtetl represents the greatness of Jewish life.” Eliach is a Holocaust suvivor who emigrated to Israel in 1946, later moving to New York and getting her PhD from City College in New York and later teaching at Brooklyn College. Eliach also founded the first Center for Holocaust Studies in the US, the precursor to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, located in Battery Park City in downtown Manhattan.
(c/o The Forward)
by Benyamin · Tuesday, June 10th, 2003
It looks like Madonna may have a new pew partner at her next Kabbalah class. MSNBC reports that actress Demi Moore (Ghost, Indecent Proposal, Disclosure) thinks Kabbalah (the ancient Jewish study of mysticism) is all the rave. According to a “source”, the site reports that Moore was trying to spread the good word about Kabbalah recently to those on the set of her new film, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. “She was singing the praises of [Kabbalah] to anyone who would listen — and some who wouldn’t,” says the source. “She was encouraging people to take classes and read up on it.”
I have just one question: How come none of these women showed up to our high school Talmud class?
by Mobius · Monday, June 9th, 2003
so i wrote this cover story for jewsweek about the uja yanking their interview with rushkoff just after it went online… and when i got to work today i found a voicemail from jason gitlin, their webmaster or whatever, who conducted the interview and whom i know loosely through the uja’s web users group (which i sat on the steering committee of for a brief while). he was displeased that i hadn’t contacted him about the story, for whatever reason he assumed made sense, and asked the in the future i contact him if such an issue arises. frankly i’d forgotten i knew anyone there, specifically in the web department. not like it would’ve helped, “gee, do you have a quote? oh, i have to talk to your marketing and communications director? oh, she has no idea why it got yanked? oh i’ll get a call back about it later? oh, i missed my deadline?” fuck that.
that being said, it appears that the uja has now reposted the article to their front page. gotta love the p.r. recovery tactics.
