Joy of joys
Mazal tov to Jewsweek editor Benyamin Cohen and his lovely bride-to-be, Elizabeth Palnau, on their engagement.
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Sweet event coming up…
Feast of the Leviathan: From Chassidic Reggae to Avant-Garde Psalms. Celebration of Jewish Art organized by the Mima’amakim Journal, featuring published poets and writers, as well as Mattissyahu (King of Chassidic Reggae) and The Seth Nadel Band (Jewish Folk Rockers), drum circle and open mic. October 13th, 7 pm at Makor, 35 W 67th Street, $12 (complimentary copy of the journal included). This event is part of the Second Annual Daniel Pearl Music Day network. For more info email feast@mimaamakim.org.
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May your genres blend easily
Saw a sticker in the subway for these guys tonight…
“Juez is self described as breakbeat klezmer jazz; they draw on klezmer modes in a unique exploration of jazz and progressive rock rhythms with influences ranging from Yemenite to hip hop. While their compositions are experimental, their sound isn’t inaccessibly dissonant. It is this formulaic blending of styles that gives this group such a wide appeal.”
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Israel Mourns Johnny Cash
From the Israeli Consulate in NY:
The State of Israel would like to express its condolences to the family of the late Johnny Cash, an American icon and true friend of Israel.In 1968, Johnny Cash produced “The Holy Land,” an album about his travels in Israel.
He returned in 1973 to film a documentary about the life of Jesus called “The Gospel Road” with his wife, June Carter Cash.
A frequent guest, Johnny Cash was loved by Israelis and his music will live on in the pubs, cafes and hearts of a grateful nation.
Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, who visited Israel on many occasions, are shown here at Ben Gurion Airport in the company of El Al officials.
Shout it cross the mountain shout it cross the sea
We have been delivered Israel is free
Come to the Wailing Wall…
Bring the lost ones homeward lead them to this shore
The city gates are open heaven’s blessing o’er
Come to the Wailing Wall…
–”Come to the Wailing Wall” by Johnny Cash
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Escape from the ghetto
Two teenage Chasidishe girls from Boro Park enjoyed one hell of an adventure trying to flee the shtetel and make for the Southwest. A manhunt ensued ending in the girls’ eventual return to Brooklyn. “We’re okay,” one told the police, “we just don’t want to live in the community. We don’t want to live in those rules anymore.”
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Son of a Bush!
Dubya’s senior advisor, Karl Rove, is the grandson of Birchenau’s engineer. Incidentally, Schwarzenegger’s father was Nazi SS as well.
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Top 10 Ways You Know You’re A Jewish Hipster
10. You live in Williamsburg but feel closer to the Bedford hipsters than your Chassidish brothers.
9. The only time you talk about Shabbat is when you are explaining to your friends why you can’t go to the Friday night Sigur Ros concert.
8. You wear Tzitzit to add to your urban hipster look.
7. You have over 34 friends on friendster, not one of which has ever heard of frumster.
6. You find it impossible to agree on a restaurant to meet all of your kosher/vegetarian/vegan and fruitarian needs.
5. You think 9 to 5 is a good time to daven mincha. (that is 4:51pm).
4. You watched “Trembling Before G-d” because John Zorn did the soundtrack.
3. You know that the Knitting Factory is a good spot to catch free jazz and not the place your bubbie spent most of her time fantasizing about while making you a kippa.
2. Even when discussing contemporary mussar books (which you try to avoid like the plague) you use it as an excuse to show off your vast knowledge of obscure literature.
1. You have 3 books on your night table; Italo Calvino, Dave Eggers and Zevachim.
(c/o bangitout)
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Jews for Jihad
“Cuz we belong beneath the sea.”
If our taste were any poorer, we’d have to go on food stamps.
A Jewschool Original!
Click here to order now!*
*Not for the satire imparied.
This and more great gear in The Jewschool Sto’
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Arafat Greatest Threat to Mideast Peace
Repost from Jakeneck.com
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will resign from office if his government doesn’t start backing him up, he says, rather than deferring power to Yasser Arafat and his Fatah faction. The Palestinian Parliament has responded by saying, “Leave us out of this!”
Abbas, who is seen by moderates as Palestine’s best chance for peace, has been consistently undermined by Arafat since he took office 100 days ago, with Arafat most recently taking control of Palestinian military forces, and going as so far as to call Abbas a traitor for merely meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
In the meantime, Arafat has declared the road map “dead,” blaming Israel for killing it with its attacks on Islamic militants. The attacks came after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem which killed 20 Israeli civillians. Israel retaliated by going after the head of Hamas, the militant faction which claimed responsibility for the attack, effectively ending the cease-fire called by Islamic militant groups two months prior. Since the cease-fire (or “hudna”) had been declared, however, five Israeli civilians had been killed and 28 others injured in a spate of over 180 Palestinian-led attacks.
Hudna has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history: The prophet Mohammad struck a legendary, ten-year hudna with the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca in the seventh century. Over the following two years, Mohammad rearmed and took advantage of a minor Quraysh infraction to break the hudna and launch the full conquest of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.When Yassir Arafat infamously invoked Mohammad’s hudna in 1994 to describe his own Oslo commitments “on the road to Jerusalem,” the implication was clear. As Mideast expert Daniel Pipes explained, Arafat was asserting to his Islamic brethren that he will, “when his circumstances change for the better, take advantage of some technicality to tear up existing accords and launch a military assault on Israel.” Indeed, this is precisely what occurred in Sept. 2000 when Arafat & Co. launched a terror assault upon Israeli citizens.
As suspected, Palestinian militants used this hudna as an opportunity to regroup, and to improve their long-range weapons capabilities.
So, uh, Yasser, who was it that killed the road map there buddy? Huh? Huh?
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Well it’s about fookin’ time!
The UJC will finally be releasing the results of National Jewish Population Survey of 2000-01. The report’s release had been postponed twice, at least, in order to review its methods.
The contention had been made that the books have been cooked to keep the dollars pouring in to the Jewish non-profits. The supposition is that by over-stating the decline in the Jewish population, philanthropists might feel more inclined to contribute finances to “save their dying people.” However, an alternate study found over 600,000 more Jews in America than the UJC estimates, though there has been some debate over that study’s math as well.
The UJC’s survey should be available on their website sometime next week.
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Two-Tone Digs Jew Tones
The Special’s Terry Hall shares his love of Jewish music with The Telegraph. (c/o Kesher Talk)
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Bris’d to be Wild
You’ve heard about Chabad San Fran’s hog-riding Rebbe, Yossi Langer and his Mitzvah Bike, sure. But a Jewish biker gang?! Say hello to Hillel’s Angels.
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How NOT to Identify with Your Judaism
Street magician David Blaine has raised some curious eyebrows with his new tattoo—the number of an Auschwitz survivor on his arm.
Blaine tells Ian Spiegelman in today’s Page Six, “I was in Paris reading [Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz] and he mentions his number. The second I read that, I was so moved that I ran into a tattoo place to get it.” Oy. Is there a Yiddish word for the act of shaking one’s head, other than gevalt?
“It’s the most amazing book I ever read,” said Blaine. “He told the story in a very truthful, unbiased way.” Yuh huh.
For his next act, Blaine intends to suspend himself in a glass box over the River Thames for 44 days without any sustenance but water. Maybe he’s just going for that “authentic” Holocaust look.
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“You can play with my dreidel…”
You’d probably think you’d heard it all, with rappers like Remedy rhyming about the Holocaust, trumpeteers like Frank London infusing acid jazz with klezmer, and chosids like Mattisyahu chanting dancehall reggae. You’d say to yourself, just how far could the limits of Jewish music be stretched? How “out there” could it get?
Well, how about Mexican & Puerto Rican Jews doing a Latin hip hop rendition of “Hava Nagila?” Is that “far out” enough for ya?
The notion itself is frightening, as though some mad scientist knocked over a bunch of beakers in his lab and this “thing” arose from a mixture of elements never intended to meet. It’s an odd curiosity, like a carnival freak you just have to catch a glimpse of no matter how terrified you may be. It’s like a Klansman’s worst nightmare: Kike spics playing nigger music! It just wasn’t supposed to happen! It’s like, it’s like—okay, it’s not that intense. But it’s still good…
Yes friends, The Hip Hop Hoodíos combine the musical stylings of veteran Latin musicians Federico Fong, Josué Noriega, El Gato Escoces & Abraham Velez, into a mixture of humor-induced hip hop, rock, Latino & Sephardic music, most often compared to the Beastie Boys and Tenacious D (to the Hoodíos dismay) but which I find somewhat more reminiscent of Beck’s B-side material, or perhaps of a Latin Paul Barman. Their debut EP, Raza Hoodía, is both inventive and playful, featuring five radio-length cuts including the aforementioned “Havana Nagila” (probably the hottest track on the album), the quintessential title cut, a Latin Chanukah tribute, “Ocho Kandelikas,” and a bilingual rhyme-style that moves seamlessly between English & Espanõl.
While the beats are fresh and their lyrics exceptionally funny (thus making for an overall enjoyable listen), I have to admit, I was a little offended by the Hoodíos constant reprisal of Jewish stereotypes. Two cuts, “Dicks & Noses” and “Kike on the Mic,” are just a little too self-loathing for my taste. It’s one thing to have a sense of humor and poke fun at yourself and another to build an act around it. It’s like, ‘Okay, I get it… You’re Latino Jewish MCs. You have a sense of humor about yourselves, great. Now rhyme about something else.’
Don’t let that dissuade you, though—it’s only two tracks out of five, and I’m sure they’ve got a slew above and beyond the number on this release. While Raza Hoodía may be a little gimmicky, I except great things from these guys, as they continue to explore their Latin Jewish roots and hopefully find some interesting sampling fodder in the traditional Sephardic and Ladino music of the medieval era, a genre still mostly untouched by modern musicians. These guys are definitely a good argument for a Rennaisance in the genre.
The Hip Hop Hoodíos will be appearing at Joe’s Pub this coming Saturday, and again at BAM in November.
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Antisemitism & Leftist Media
Meryl Yourish quite effectively demonstrates anti-Israel bias at the BBC, I find antisemitism in Adbusters, and The Jewish Press pegs Pacifica.
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