by The Town Crier · Tuesday, May 31st, 2005
In 1995, Yona Malina - the son of survivors who fled from the Nazis - had barely been living in Israel for a year. The young Czechoslovakian immigrant was barely 28 years of age when while rediscovering his Jewish roots, he suddenly became paralyzed from the neck down, as a result of severe spinal injuries sustained from the explosion of a suicide bomber on the bus he was riding to the Hebrew University campus on Mt. Scopus. Maimed, scarred, and unable to breathe on his own, but living and suffering for ten years with his condition, Yona Malina has died at the ripe old age of 38, another victim of Arab Terror.
Not to be political, but his story of paralysis and respirator questions, are reminiscent of a few recent hot button topics in American media and politics.
by Mobius · Monday, May 30th, 2005
Mazal tov, mazal tov from all of us at Jewschool to JDub Records founder and director Aaron Bisman and his lovely kallah, Amanda Pogany, on the occasion of their wedding today in Rockleigh, NJ. It was a remarkable event (it’s actually still winding down at this very moment), and in attendance was a veritable “who’s who” amongst New York Jews. Here’s a glimpse of the magnificent action:
Seated next to Aaron Bisman and his father during the tisch,
Rabbi Daniel Landes invites Amichai Lau Lavie to address the crowd.
Rabbi Andy Bachman speaks before the bedekkin.
Matisyahu sings to Aaron and Amanda beneath the chuppah.
Gettin’ down shtetl style.
Frank London & The Klezmatics were the musical entertainment.
I’m sad to say this is the best photo I was able to snap of the lovely couple.
While Amanda looks gorgeous, I seem to have captured Aaron at an inopportune moment.
And last but not least, put yourself there with this 15mb Quicktime clip, capturing the prototypical moment of moments which screams “Jewish wedding par excellence.” (And get a load of who’s hoisting Aaron up into the air.)
A brocha they should have a beautiful future filled with light and love, health and happiness, and endless naches. Umayn!
by Benyamin · Monday, May 30th, 2005
Mark Oppenheimer, the author who recently gave us a brief history of the television bar mitzvah, has just published a book about the Jewish rite of passage ceremony across America. One of the notions the book puts forth is that 12 and 13 year olds cannot intellectually grasp the importance of actually “coming of age.” In fact, more than one critic of the book suggests that we do away with the age requirement for bar/bat mitzvahs altogether.
For more, including how one convert doesn’t feel so bad that he missed the opportunity for an immense shmorgasbord and a plethora of pinched cheeks, read this “Bye, bye Bar Mitzvah” post.
by The Town Crier · Monday, May 30th, 2005
Today is the 28th birthday of Israeli MIa Guy Hever. On August 17, 1997 Guy left his base in the Golan and vanished. He was reportedly last seen waiting for a lift at Kazabia Intersection, traveling east, not far away from the Syrian border.
In other news, not too many people seem to give a darn. Free Pollard now!
by Kalman Rushdie · Sunday, May 29th, 2005
British academics responsible for last month’s Association of University Teachers (AUT) academic boycott against Israel vowed to continue their anti-Israel struggle despite the union’s decision to reverse the boycott in favor of building bridges between Israeli and Palestinian academics.
Sue Blackwell, who championed the original boycott motion, refused to accept defeat in the AUT vote, claiming “a very well-organized, well-funded pro-Israel lobby” pressured AUT members to reverse their votes.
She also said future action against Israel would be easier because the “genie was out of the bottle”. “This is the start not the end as far as the boycott campaign is concerned,” she said. “We have put this issue firmly on the map and we have shown that people in British academia do care about what is happening in the occupied territories.”
Steven Rose, who called for a general European academic boycott against Israel in 2002, also promised to continue pushing for sanctions against Israel, comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany.
“I regard Israeli academics as shameful and silent, just as ordinary decent Germans were silent their Jewish colleagues were kicked out of universities,” he said. “Of course, many German academics disapproved, but they were silent. And British academics continued to deal normally with them. Do you not see the parallels? We have no right to treat Israel as if it were a normal state.”
Members of the AUT disagreed, voting by a two-thirds majority to cancel the boycott.
by Jake Marmer · Thursday, May 26th, 2005
Ladies and Golems, I want to do a quick plug for a show coming up on June 5, here in New York. It’s called Telos vs. Tahlis: Identity Crises and Metaphysics a-la Carte. Featuring: the Mima’amakim Poets, Juez (jazz-klezmer breakbeat band), Sway Machinery (ashkenazi punk blues). Special Guests: Vanessa “Hebrew Mamita” Hidary (HBO’s Def Jam); Aaron Hamburger, author of the acclaimed “View From Stalin’s Head” (Random House); Matthue Roth, author of “NeverMind the Goldbergs” (Scholastic Press), and more! Check www.mimaamakim.org for music clips, poetry samples, photos and additional info. Also, to get the general idea of the gig, see Def Midrash Jam, last year’s mima’amakim show at Bowery.
by Danya · Tuesday, May 24th, 2005
The Los Angeles Board of Rabbis and a new L.A.-based organization, Jewish World Watch, are calling for a minor fast this Thursday to bring attention to the situation in Sudan. Their press release explains,
According to Jewish tradition, fasting is a means of expressing alarm. It is used to focus attention; it rouses one to prayer and action. Therefore – Thursday May 26 is declared a “Sun-up to Sun-down” – FAST DAY for Darfur. To bring attention to the calamity unfolding before our eyes the genocide taking place at this very moment.
For more information, and for the addresses of three shuls in L.A. that will be having special services as part of this event, check here.
by Joshua · Tuesday, May 24th, 2005
This is a vision of the future Arab state as set out by a $2m study by one of America’s most prestigious think-tanks.
It’s a futuristic concept as stunning as it is implausible, under present conditions. A Palestinian businessman on the way to a meeting in Cairo steps on to a train at a clean, modern rail station in the northern West Bank city of Jenin - no longer ravaged by bloody conflict but peacefully booming with private-sector office and apartment construction.
Full Story.
by shamirpower · Monday, May 23rd, 2005
Despite the first ever UJA GBLT Mission that was originally scheduled to coincide with this August’s World Pride and other acts of unity around the event, WorldPride is now officially postponed to August 6-12, 2006.
Below are excerpts from last week’s email from WorldPride’s North American Chair, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York.
Dear Colleague,
By now, you may have heard that a decision was made to reschedule Jerusalem WorldPride due to the fact that its events would have coincided with the dates of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza. This decision was made by the
Board of Jerusalem Open House , host of WorldPride…I fully support this decision.
As a steadfast supporter of WorldPride and a person of faith, I ask that you remain aware that the bigots and zealots who have opposed and continue to oppose this gathering through lies, innuendoes and smear tactics, might feel “energized” by its rescheduling.
Also, be aware, that, while the complex political and social issues raised by the Gaza pullout and the solidarity we feel with the people of Israel at this time of uncertainty were our only motivation for the date change, those facts might be misrepresented by those blinded by hatred and intolerance.
Your support, now more than ever, is crucial to WorldPride and to getting the message across, loud and clear, that WorldPride will happen and will be the most successful example of tolerance, love and interfaith solidarity in one of mankind’s holiest locations. I also ask you to invite as many of your colleagues as possible to sign the clergy letter of support that you signed. We now have over 1000 members of the clergy from around the world as co-signers. You can view this list on our website at www.cbst.org.
I urge Jewschool readers who support this event to encourage clergy to sign this letter.
by The Town Crier · Saturday, May 21st, 2005
Israeli actress Chana Laslau won best actress award at Cannes Film Festival, for her role in Amos Gitai’s film “Free Zone.”
I dedicated this prize to my mother and all living Holocaust survivors, and to the casualties on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Laslau said after being awarded the prize.
Full story.
by Mobius · Friday, May 20th, 2005
Slate reports,
The “bash mitzvah,” as New York once dubbed it, is alive and unwell as a peculiarly American form of excess. As a teenager in the 1980s, I attended parties where DJs spun REO Speedwagon and kids skulked around the edges of the dance floor near a life-size cardboard cutout of the bar mitzvah boy. That sort of awkwardness now seems quaint. (Have a look at Bar Mitzvah Disco and you’ll see what I mean.) At today’s faux adult parties, as Mark Oppenheimer reports in Thirteen and a Day, his tour of the American bar mitzvah, kids rub up against older “party motivators” and gamble away monopoly money at blackjack tables. Dropping off your son or daughter at such an affair, you could be forgiven for wondering if it isn’t time for the bar mitzvah to go.
Full story.
by Mobius · Friday, May 20th, 2005
The NY Observer reports,
[I]n the spring of 2002, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg and State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver needed a natty spot to negotiate what would become one of the signature deals of the Mayor’s term—the legislation that gave him control of the city’s public schools—the two power machers did something different.
Taking a sharp turn at Park Avenue and 49th Street, they headed to a steakhouse called the Prime Grill and hammered out an agreement over kosher steak and fries.
“I believe this was the key meal when they came to an understanding about the Mayor taking control,” said a source familiar with the t?te-?-t?te. “It was a three-hour lunch, 1 to 4 p.m.—just the two of them.”
And they have hardly been the only high-powered hamishers to strike a deal under the Prime Grill’s rabbinic seal of approval. Since it was launched in late 1999, the Prime Grill has become the center of a new kind of diaspora power dining—a sort of lunch-time machers’ minion where Jewish heavyweights like Ron Perelman and Larry Silverstein kibitz, hondle and, yes, break bread.
Full story.
by Ari Frumsky · Friday, May 20th, 2005
Announcing the “wear your heart on your sleeve” campaign at the Salute to Israel parade in New York City on June 6th. There will be about 100,000 people at the parade. This project’s goal is to see if we can better enable those attending to identify and help each other, perhaps creating one of the largest events of chesed!
Visit ParadeOfHearts.org for details.
by The Town Crier · Thursday, May 19th, 2005
A UCLA student purchased a second hand Quran online from an Amazon reseller which had a handwritten scribbles inside containing anti-Islamic hate messages, proanity and the message “Death to all Muslims!”
by sarah · Wednesday, May 18th, 2005
I was in Sephora this weekend picking out lip plumpers or something and came upon this wall of 22 different Kabbalah candles, thougtfully packaged with a red string.
Look, I know this topic is beaten to death and I look forward to your onslaught of comments telling me “this is so 5764,” but I just have to remark on how the label on this particular brand of Kabbalah Candle goes on and on about “meditating on the Hebrew letters” bringing you inner peace, etc, but then DOESN’T EVEN INCLUDE ANY LETTERS anywhere on the packaging. I even opened up the package to look for the mystical letters inside and there was nothing there, either. WTF?
Kabbalah Candles at Sephora.com
by Benyamin · Wednesday, May 18th, 2005
Ever since the publication of his controversial 1999 book Kosher Sex, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has been criticized as nothing more than a media whore, constantly clamoring for the public’s attention and the shine of the spotlight. His detractors claim that the prolific author is only exploiting whatever is on the pop culture radar for his own professional benefit as a cable news pundit. And, in my humble opinion, that’s a good thing.
While other spiritual leaders have been writing about how to achieve peace in the Middle East, Shmuley has written about Madonna’s ridiculous fascination with Kabbalah. While other rabbis have pontificated about lofty topics like why bad things happen to good people, Shmuley has pontificated on Britney Spear’s influence on teenage girls. And while some pundits deal with ho-hum topics like the war in Iraq, Shmuley has kept us entertained with his off-the-cuff remarks about the Academy Awards.
Shmuley, to his credit, is a man of the people. He’s a rabbi who finds a way to make a connection with the latest in celebrity gossip. In other words, he’s a rabbi that speaks to us on our level, not from an ivory tower. He’s a rabbi that unabashedly, and with open arms, embraces the best and worst of pop culture. Janet Jackson. Kinsey. Santa Claus. Michael Moore. Joe Millionaire. Whatever … and that’s what makes him an enjoyable read.
So it was with great pleasure (and I don’t mean that in the sexual sense) that I read a copy of his latest book, controversially (what else?) titled Hating Women: America’s Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex. In it, he discusses Gwen Stefani, Victoria’s Secret, and (surprisingly) Greta Van Susteren. He discusses his now infamous spiritual smackdown with Jewish Playboy playmate Lindsay Vuolo. And, of course, he discusses Madonna, Britney, and Janet.
As well, and as always, Shmuley is wildly and welcomingly unafraid to talk about topics most rabbis wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot lulav. Just read through chapters titled “The Portrayal of Women as the Walking Male Orgasm” and “Becoming Lesbians to Get Away from Men”.
Turn on the TV today and you’ll see Shmuley all over it. He’s experiencing a relevancy renaissance as a Michael Jackson expert, wisely exploiting his past relationship with the king of pop for his own benefit. I wouldn’t expect anything else from Shmuley. And that’s a good thing.
Cross-posted from TribeWrite.
by Mobius · Wednesday, May 18th, 2005
Enjoy Liquid Generation’s latest Flash treat, Whose Boobs? — Kabbalah edition [NSFF].
by Mobius · Wednesday, May 18th, 2005
