Dead Negah Storage
“An Israeli archaeologist has found what he says are the oldest remains of a leprosy victim to be uncovered in the Middle East, buried in a biblical valley whose name became a synonym for Hell.”
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A Five-Star Year
George Robinson offers a round-up of this year’s best Jewish music for The Jewish Week.
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It’s a bird, it’s a plane!
Generation J catches up with Alan Oirich, creator of The Jewish Hero Corps, a series of comic books depicting Jewish superheroes such as Magen David, Menorah Man, and Matzah Woman. Good grie—er, I mean, oy gevalt!
Oirich will be displaying his work as part of an upcoming exhibit and series of events at the JCC in Manhattan, co-sponsored by the New York Comic Book Museum, entitled, People of the Comic Book: Superheroes and Jewish Culture. The exhibit will feature rare comic books depicting superheroes engaging their Jewish hertiage, such as Sandman, The Golem, The Seraph, and The Thing, as well as events which discuss the place of superheroes in Jewish lore, including a special screening of the Sundance award-winning film American Splendor. Definitely an event not to be missed!
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Gay Palestinians seek refuge in Israel
“Tricked out in drag or the tight, modish attire of Western urban youth, dozens of gay Palestinian runaways eke out a dangerous living on Israel’s streets. For these gay men, life in the seedy parts of central Israel is far better than the virtual death sentences they fled in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
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New Age New Year
“While the masses flock to urban nightspots, those in the know will celebrate ‘Sylvester’ or New Year’s eve, at dozens of alternative theme parties throughout the country, ranging from peace meditations to a three-day rave at a secret desert location.
“It appears that today’s young Israelis – especially those who have traveled in the Far East – crave more than hedonistic, smoke-filled discotheques can offer, and ‘meditation parties’ are gaining in popularity. Although many are commercial enterprises, you won’t find them advertised in the mainstream media; those who know about them are just supposed to know.”
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Selling Out My Birthright
Alex Halperin discusses the darkside of the birthright israel experience in New Voices.
Also in New Voices this month, a ring-side play by play of the Neuwirth/Seidler-Feller rubmle.
Shlomo: Ladies and gents, stepping into the fray from the red corner we have hawkish pro-Israel activist and free-lance journalist Rachel “Talons of Steel” Neuwirth.
Menachem: She doesn’t look happy. And, yes, she’s challenging him. She’s taken the Dove-inator aside!
Shlomo: We’ve got a live one here folks. Neuwirth just hit Seidler-Feller with the claim that Nusseibeh told Saddam Hussein to launch Scud missiles at Israeli cities.
Menachem: A devastating rhetorical blow!
Shlomo: Don’t count the rabid rebbe out yet. Whoa, this thing’s really getting heated.
Menachem: Folks, it’s difficult to tell from our angle. But it looks like the rabbi just grabbed Neuwirth’s arm while she said he was “worse than a kapo.”
Shlomo: Hard to say which came first.
Well, it’s kinda funny.
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Settlers Lead Israeli Organics Production
Arutz Sheva reports:
Jewish farmers in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) are producing much of Israel’s organic fruits, vegetables, eggs and dairy products. Left wing activists, however, are trying to pressure distributors to launch a boycott.
More on this, from the Leftist position, in Ha’aretz.
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Happy Birfday Jewschool
Yesterday was Jewschool’s 1st birfday. Werd up. It’s been a long and interesting year: sold some t-shirts, had a few laughs, and pissed off an assload of right-vingers. Sounds like just about what I had in mind when I started the site.
Props to Steven I. Weiss, Benyamin Cohen, Leslie Bunder, Jay Michaelson, and Douglas Rushkoff for help making Jewschool the best blog it can be, as well as to Anagraztov, John Brown and The Town Crier for their numerous contributions throughout the course of the year. A special thank you also goes to Ocean Guy, who was kind enough to throw some cash our way during our server crisis. And finally, thank you to our visitors, for your continued support. It wouldn’t be worth it without you.
Don’t forget: We’re still looking for more contributors, so if you’re interested in writing for Jewschool, drop me a line.
See you in ‘04!
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Temptation, Art is Thy Name
Yiddish-language posters which incite resentment towards Williamsburg’s hipster/artist community have been cropping up in the neighborhood’s Chasidishe areas as of late. The posters read, “It took eight seconds for the twin towers to collapse. How long will it take Williamsburg? Chas v’sholom, haya lo siyeh. It should not happen, G-d forbid.”
The goal of the posters is to apply pressure to Chasidishe landlords to stop charging top-dollar rents to trustfund kids and thus gentrifying the fuck out of the neighborhood, making it less affordable and less “modest” for Chasidishe residents, an issue recently addressed in The Yiddish Forward.
Pssst… Hey Chosid, guess what. You may own the buildings, but you don’t own the ghetto.
(c/o Gawker via Darieus; Yiddish translation c/o my mom & Grubness; article via Protocols comments)
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Fence-building Anarchists
“You won’t see groups like ‘Anarchists Against the Wall’ protesting in Ramallah or Gaza in opposition to suicide bombings against Israel, either because they support terrorism, or because the PA would never permit such a protest. [...] The complaint of the Palestinians and their fellow travelers generally boils down to ‘it all started when he hit me back.’ Want to help the Palestinians? Tell them to stop attacking Israel, and the record shows that Israel will quickly reciprocate by easing its onerous security measures. It is Palestinian terrorism that is building the fence, with the help of its supposed friends.”
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Uh…
Why is she my #1 match on JDate? Awww man…
[Update] I shit you not. The Jewess is loose! If the profile gets yanked, click here.
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Seidler-Feller to Take Anger Managment Course
UCLA Hillel director Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller has agreed to take a three-day anger management course after assaulting a right-wing journalist in an on-campus incident this October, and has been placed on administrative leave from his position.
Rachel Neuwirth (the journalist in question) is, of course, still trying to milk the experience for all its worth, saying “I can’t get over this. I relive this all the time. I never in my life thought a rabbi would behave in such a violent manner.” Get over yourself sister, he’s a rabbi, not a saint!
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Quick Humor
A Jewish guy in a London hotel calls the operator and asks, in broken English with a heavy Lithuanian-Yiddish accent, for the number 266419.
A few minutes later there is a knock on the door to his hotel room. As he opens the door he sees two beautiful and sexy girls who ask him, “Are you the guy who ordered two shikses for one night?”
(c/o Moses Aaron)
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Israeli IMC Under Fire
IMC Israel is in hot water with the Israeli government for its open newswire, and the potential for its abuse that lay therein.
The Indymedia Israel website provides a free and open stage for surfers on the Internet. Approximately three weeks ago, a surfer outside of Israel published a caricature in the open publishing zone of the website, in which the Israeli Prime Minister is portrayed passionately kissing the leader of Nazi Germany. Subsequent to this, the Attorney General of Israel ordered the opening of an investigation against the website’s administrators, for incitement and insulting a public figure.Today, attorney Avner Pinchuk of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) sent a letter to the Israel Attorney General demanding an immediate end to the investigation. Attorney Pinchuk claims that the moment the police realized the site’s operators did not publish the publication, it was illegitimate to harass them with an investigation. Worse than this, the police investigators are attempting to ‘convince’ the site’s operators to commit themselves to continual censorship over all publications in the open publishing zone of the site. By doing this, the investigators deviate from their authority in an attempt to impose on the Israeli Internet arena, norms which are against both the law and the position of most professionals working in the field, in Israel and abroad—including a special committee of the Israel Ministry of Justice.
Granted, I’ve always had mixed feelings about IMC—particularly the open newswire, because there is no editorial staff overseeing which material gets posted—it’s strictly an open forum. Unfortunately, under these circumstances, posts of a substandard and even subintellectual nature tend to pile up, choking the newswire with garbage, and they are usually only removed after numerous requests from site visitors. Thus, while it has its good intentions, the open publishing model invoked by IMC gives rise to a fair amount of banal idiocy, beyond the usual armchair idealgoues stumping for long-deceased political philosophies. Rather, blatant ignorance, misinformation, glaring factual innaccuracies, and, sadly, racist drivel, rule the newswires of many a local IMC, earning the site the nickname Nazimedia, as was bestowed upon it by the starbats at LGF. Frankly, I’ve always thought a ranking system that would allow visitors to eliminate posts via a hot-or-not-style [NSFW] voting process would be a useful addition to the site. But no such luck. Thus is the cost of free speech: everyone is entitled.
Regardless of the “downside” to open publishing, however, I don’t think IMC’s volunteer staff should be persecuted because some asshole posted an inappropriate picture, just as I shouldn’t be liable for what a visitor to any of my websites posts to the comments field. This, I fear, is just part of Israel’s campaign of repression against anti-occupation elements within Israeli society. It’s shameful, really, and does not coincide with the values of a true democracy. The suppression of free speech is incongruous with the notion of a free society.
But enough soap boxing for now…I’m a busy man today.
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A Minor Problem, Overblown
If both sides agree on anything, it’s that the definition of “anti-Semitism” has been manipulated for political ends. Leftists accuse ardent Zionists of inflating the definition to include — and discredit — critics of Israel. Zionists accuse the left of deflating the definition to apologize for covert prejudice against Jews.
It’s a sterile dispute. Even in this age of intellectual property, no one owns the word. But the definitional sparring does have its missteps and dangers.
Trent University professor Michael Neumann, author of what is plainly the most acerbic essay in the Counterpunch anthology The Politics of Antisemitism, offers The LA Times yet another refutation to claims of rising antisemitism.
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Whois or Whowas?
In a clever attempt at anonymity (or a doubtful Jewish “same name”) the domain name jewishwomenwatching.com seems to be registered in the name of Adah Isaacs Menken a long deceased Jewish poet, actress and rich man eater. (c/o Doctor J)
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Stick It to Ol’ Joseph Smif
If you’re as outraged as I am about the Mormon’s posthumous and non-consensual baptism of deceased Jews (including thousands of Holocaust victims), by all means, please let them know. Just try n’ be tactful.
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Kosher Chinese — In China
The Chinese government went kosher for the first time ever, to accomodate Israeli President Moseh Katsav during his visit to Beijing that included the opening of the Israeli Embassy in China. Not only did they prepare kosher state dinners, but, “in a first for the Grand Hotel in China, Chabad of Beijing saw to it that President Katzav would have traditional Shabbat services with a minyan–both for Friday night and Shabbat morning services, and a proper Shabbat dinner with candle-lighting and Kiddush.”
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