by sarah [➚] · Sunday, July 31st, 2005
(This is a little something from the Camp Tawonga PR machine that I run in SF. It’s a little “Jewish Pressy” for even my tastes, but I thought it was a fun story about teens you might enjoy, or at least enjoy ridiculing me over. In any case, it’s all part of my brit Jewschool to post more often from SF. – Sarah)
The Israeli Knesset just voted 92 to 25 in favor of disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Bitter arguments were waged between MK’s from dovish and hawkish parties after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon addressed the boisterous assembly here in Groveland, California.
Is the Israeli government on vacation in the Sierras?
No, these MK’s are Camp Tawonga campers, 9th and 10th grade teens from the San Francisco Bay Area. They gathered tonight to act out the historic 2004 vote to withdraw security forces and support from the settlements in Gaza, relinquishing control of the territory containing 1.5 million Arabs and 8,500 Jewish settlers to the Palestinian Authority.
Like many of their non-Jewish peers back home, Tawonga campers don’t necessarily keep close tabs on dealings between Labor and Likud. They know that Israeli society has been embroiled in debate with the Palestinians for decades, and naturally, many of them have opinions they’ve inherited from CNN, NPR…or their feisty San Francisco parents.
Campers broke into cabin groups for a crash course in Israeli government, and took on the roles of 10 parties, from Labor to Likud, from Shas to Ale Yarok (“Green Leaf”).
They discussed the history of Israel, the sources of the settler movement, dovish and hawkish views of the Palestinian question, and the importance of security in the State of Israel. Five Israeli shlichim (messengers) circulated among the groups answering questions from an Israeli perspective.
Before the program began (after a tasty enchilada dinner) Camp Director Deborah Newbrun was eagerly anticipating tonight’s experiment with parliamentary politics at camp. She says Tawonga is stepping out onto the edge.
“No other camps out there are doing this,” Newbrun said. “Jewish summer camps all over the country do Israel education through informal activities like Israel Day parties, like Maccabee games, like teaching Hebrew words for this and that, but no one has taken on something intellectual like this lately.”
Campers supporting disengagement cheered on speakers they supported, and anti-disengagement forces wore orange headbands in protest. One unruly camper was busted trying to sneak a pinecone “grenade” into the Knesset meeting. An enraged settler (played outrageously against her own leftist Berkeley roots by Associate Director Ann Gonski) was thrown out of the Knesset for provoking the MK’s, and counselors dressed as Shin Bet officers tried to keep the disruptions at bay with mandatory bag searches and a phalanx around the Prime Minister.
“It’s so much easier to articulate intolerance than to carefully frame the reasons for peace and justice. It takes a lot more thought,” said Gonski, watching with concern as the more hawkish campers harassed the doves at the podium.
She was pleased at the defenses presented and, ultimately, heartened by the closing statements and the final vote.
“Those kids were on the hot seat, having to present thoughtful and articulate positions, and they did just that,” she said.
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, July 31st, 2005
Reuters reports,
A zoo in a Jewish settlement in Gaza has answered the call to evacuate ahead of Israel’s planned pullout.
Holding a newly-born tortoise, Israeli zookeeper Eli Moses said the animal had an advantage over the 9,000 settlers who will be removed from their homes in Gaza next month.
“He is lucky — he has a home on his back wherever he goes. What happens to us is not known,” he said.
Funny. I just saw Madagascar.
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, July 31st, 2005
The Jewish Journal reports,
Dov Charney, founder, CEO and president of American Apparel, has been hailed by many anti-sweatshop activists as a pioneer in the fair treatment of garment workers in Los Angeles, in an industry notorious for substandard working conditions and abuse. It’s a reputation, along with a quality product and a sexy image, that the 36-year-old, self-described “Jewish hustler†has parlayed into a company with sales expected to hit $250 million this year. But now, a competing, unflattering reputation is beginning to overtake his good press, as allegations of sexual harassment come to light.
[...]
Charney denies any wrongdoing. He labels the lawsuits as shakedowns that are attempts by disgruntled ex-employees to exploit his open personality. “The only victim here, unfortunately, is the accused,†he told The Journal.
Check the JewishJournal for the full story. (c/o RPD)
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, July 31st, 2005
Our calendar’s been a bit screwy, as has our server as of late, so I’ve been lax in stocking the calendar with upcoming events. We’re actually moving to a new server on Tuesday so once that’s all up and running, hopefully my work will be uninhibited. In any event, here’s what’s going on:
Tonight at 9PM at Matchless Bar (557 Manhattan Ave/Driggs, Williamsburg), is Hasid Meets Hipster, a musical mifgash between “trendy Brooklyn”‘s divergent cultural communities. This week’s installment features Rachel Lipson, Purple Organ, Yoku Kikuchi, the Wowz and Turner Cody.
This week at Hebrew U is the 14th Annual World Congress of Jewish Studies, in which “The latest innovations in the world of Jewish Studies will be presented in 5 fascinating days with more than a thousand lectures of the leading researches from Israel and from the world.” For more information, click here.
This weekend is the annual Queer Shabbaton in Amsterdam. “During this weekend we will focus on spirituality, history, politics and creativity. By means of workshops and discussions led by international authorities in various fields, we will interpret the rich and diverse traditions in which our ‘identities’ are rooted. Through close reading, we will discover and formulate discourses within Jewish tradition and history that enable us to question normalized presumptions about gender, sexuality and identity. How Jewish are these concepts of criticism, change and gender-play? Through these alternative discourses within Jewish tradition, we will also try to formulate a specific queer Jewish consciousness.” Guest speakers include Rabbi Elisa Klapheck, Zeek editor and Nehirim founder Jay Michaelson, Lawrence Schimmel, and Daniel Boyarin among others. For more info click here.
August 21st brings us the Yidstock festival, a full day of Orthodox-friendly Jewish rock, featuring Soul Farm, The Moshav Band, Yossi Piamenta, and, as you all know, my personal favorites, Blue Fringe and Beyond Eden. Order tickets online from Ticketweb.
The Burning Man festival is just under a month off, and “the Jewish burners” are rarin’ for the resurrection of The Black Rock City JCC — a Jewish encampment which offers Shabbat services and meals, and Jewish learning opportunities to Burning Man’s reluctantly-Jewish pagan hoardes. For more info about the encampment, or to get involved, join the Jewish Burners group on Yahoo.
August 29, Mimaamakim returns to J-town for an evening of English poetry and short fiction at T’mol Shilshom. Co-sponsored by Corner Prophets. More details coming soon.
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, July 31st, 2005
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, July 31st, 2005
When we wrote last week,
The Christian Broadcast Network is repeatedly airing a program starring former Sachnut (Jewish Agency for Israel) chief Sallai Meridor, Finance Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, along with the head of the JDC in Israel, Rabbi Yaakov Bleich of Kiev and Yechiel Eckstein, and old, sick Jews from the FSU. The co-stars are Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Pat Boone and a host of evangelicals telling their flocks that the elderly Jews of the FSU are targets of rabid antisemites who are, essentially, coming to kill them in their beds.
…the big question for some of us was “Who the hell is this Yechiel Eckstein character?” The good ol’ Times delivers the goods:
In the past 25 years, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein has traveled to China to liberate persecuted pastors, hiked through Ethiopia and Siberia in search of vulnerable Jews, advised prime ministers in Jerusalem and met with evangelical Republicans at the White House. His immediate plans include transporting an entire biblical lost tribe from northeastern India to the Holy Land and starting a Spanish-language ministry for the Pentecostals of Latin America. He has even talked about recording some sacred hymns with Debby Boone. And, as Eckstein himself might say, God only knows what he’ll do after that.
All this hyperactivity is financed by the contributions of evangelical Christians. In the last eight years alone, an estimated 400,000 born-again donors have sent Eckstein about a quarter of a billion dollars for Jewish causes of his personal choosing. No Jew since Jesus has commanded this kind of gentile following.
This success has, of course, bred detractors. Some of Eckstein’s fellow Orthodox rabbis would like to exile him for consorting with Christians. Eckstein is a registered Democrat, but there are liberal Jews who view his friendship with Red State evangelical conservatives like Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed and Gary Bauer as cultural and political treason. Even those who applaud Eckstein’s philanthropies are sometimes skeptical about what he calls his “ministry.” For Jews, who are used to seeing themselves as victims of bigotry, the saga of Yechiel Eckstein raises uncomfortable questions about who loves — and who hates — whom.
Full story.
by Mobius [➚] · Saturday, July 30th, 2005
j. reports,
“The right is correct; there is a huge spiritual crisis in America,†said the editor of Berkeley-based “Tikkun,†Rabbi Michael Lerner. “And the left doesn’t get it.â€
Republicans and their allies on the religious right have “done a good job†of articulating that crisis, Lerner said, but their analysis is “fundamentally flawed†because it’s based on demonizing “feminists, gays, liberals, African Americans.â€
Lerner made his comments before an opening-night crowd of 1,200 attendees at a four-day interfaith conference on spiritual activism.
An initiative, as several speakers put it, to “take back God†— and the White House — from the religious right was the principle behind the forum, held July 20-24 at the University of California at Berkeley.
The real crisis in the United States, according to Lerner, is generated by the “ethos of greed and materialism†that drives Western culture and impoverishes human relationships. And until the left and the Democratic Party understand that deep human hunger for meaning, the religious right will continue its ascendancy.
“We have not yet built a movement that speaks to those human needs, and until we do, the right has cornered the market,†he said.
This is a subject that’s been on my mind a lot lately, particularly after watching The Power of Nightmares, a documentary which discusses the impulses behind neoconservativism and radical Islam — both of which share this same concern.
Generally, the greatest tension between right and left, on the religious issue, is the right’s desire to impose religiosity on the left, and the right’s claim that the left wishes to impose secularity on them. For the right, permitting gay couples to wed or allowing women to have abortions is an imposition on them. They’re the ones being persecuted if their taxes pay for such things, let alone the price some believe they pay with their own souls by permitting such things to transpire in the world. If it dawns on them that they’re actually imposing on the other, by restricting their freedom and imposing their religious beliefs on them, they offer faith-based excuses for their ‘righteous’ intervention: “These people are heathens, what do they know?! I am obligated to save them from themselves!”
The left, on the other hand, desires a society in which people are free to believe and others are free not to. And so they are losing the battle against the imposing right, because — as one Jewschool reader recently put it — the left isn’t out to push its beliefs on the right. The left simply wants to live and let live. The problem with such liberal comfort — this “live and let live” credo — is that it results in apathy. (And I’m not talking about the radicals who are out taking the streets, I’m talking about your run-of-the-mill Democrats.) Without a faith, without a belief in a mission, without a will to change the world, they are powerless. This is because kavanah is the impulse which drives the world, and the left has no kavanah. They just want to “be” without “being” anything.
What is a religious left? What does it look like? Flaked out, pseudo-intellectual, new age hippies standing in a circle holding hands and singing? Or Rabbi Arik Ascherman leaping in the path of Israeli bulldozers as they move to demolish a Palestinian civilian home?
Religion is a Rubik’s cube you’re ready to peel the stickers off. Depending on how it’s taught and applied, it can be a great source of power and conviction. It could also be a mechanism of control and powerlessness. What’s lacking, as such, is not a religious left, but a religion which transcends the fallacies of the left and the right, and which upholds a greater truth.
This boils down to the “who owns Judaism” question. Does Torah mean squatting the casbah in Hebron with M16s? Does it mean awaiting Moshiach before we move to Israel? Who dictates the meaning of Torah? Does anyone dictate the meaning of Torah? Is there an answer somewhere inbetween? Is there a definitive answer?
Yes or no, what we need is a creative halakhic solution to the quandry of “who-knows-better-than who.” What we need is a definitive and valid legal position which says we’re free to think differently, and free to not believe if we so choose, knowing that these choices are ultimately between each of us and G-d.
Then we can have a conversation with the right about whether it’s legitimate or not to subvert democracy in order to impose your religious views on the rest of society.
Other than that, I don’t know what you mean by taking G-d back. I know rabbinical students who live in Ramallah and organize demonstrations against the wall cutting through Arab villages. G-d’s with whoever wants to be with G-d. You don’t need to take G-d away from people, you just need to give G-d to everyone. Make G-d accessible. G-d isn’t “someone” who tells you who to be. G-d challenges you to be the best you that you envision yourself being.
Which brings me back to my previous point, who does the left want to “be?” Therein lies the graver question. This is why I consider myself a post-leftist. Because I know what I want. What the left wants, I have no idea. The difference between the mainstream right and left at this point is cosmetic. Neoliberalism is part and parcel of the “greed and materialism” Lerner mentions, and that’s their common thread. You tackle that monstrosity and maybe then there’ll be a left to speak of. Until then…
by Mobius [➚] · Saturday, July 30th, 2005
Reuters reports,
Top U.S. Muslim scholars issued a “fatwa,” or religious edict, against terrorism on Thursday and called on Muslims to help authorities fight the scourge of militant violence.
The fatwa was part of efforts by U.S. Muslims to counter perceived links between Islam and terrorism and avert any negative backlash after this month’s bombings by suspected Islamic extremists in London and Egypt.
“Having our religious scholars side by side with our community leaders leaves no room for anybody to suggest that Islam and Muslims condone or support any forms or acts of terrorism,” said Esam Omeish, president of the Muslim American Society, one of the groups which announced the fatwa.
It’s not that I’m not appreciative of this very big step on the part of America’s Muslim community. But holy hell, the first WTC bombing was eight years ago, and 9/11 four, let alone Kenya, Yemen, and oh, I dunno, Israel, again and again and again. Why did it take until Sharm el-Sheikh to speak up?
by Mobius [➚] · Saturday, July 30th, 2005
Reuters reports,
Israel is rushing to complete a three-layer-deep barrier of fences and walls on its border with Gaza to keep Palestinian infiltrators out after it pulls out of the territory, military officials said on Thursday.
The army insists that, unlike Israel’s internationally condemned West Bank barrier, the new project will not cut into Palestinian land. But the Palestinian Authority said such Israeli measures could keep Gaza sealed up like a giant prison.
Full story. (c/o AC)
by Mobius [➚] · Saturday, July 30th, 2005
Slate reports,
Like Halkin, and like American adherents to the back-to-simplicity movement, these secular Israeli Sabbatarians want to save the Sabbath from consumerism. They also want to remove it from the exclusive control of Israel’s Orthodox rabbis. Ruth Gavison, a Hebrew University law professor who has been working with a prominent Orthodox rabbi to draft a proposal for a less stringent Sabbath, told me that devising a Sabbath that even the nonpious could enjoy was part of a larger effort to rescue Israeli society. From what? I asked. From the widening chasm between secular and religious Israelis, and also from those who no longer see a rationale for a Jewish state, she explained. What does the Sabbath have to do with the legitimacy of Israel? I asked, somewhat surprised. A viable Jewish state must have an authentically Jewish public culture, she replied.
At the legal level, Gavison’s idea is simple. She would codify permission for much of the noncommercial activity that already goes on and enforce the pause in commercial activity and industry already prescribed by law. Restaurants, concert halls, art galleries, and movie theaters would stay open—not just in cities and towns that have made special arrangements to do so, but throughout the country. Buses would run, which they do not do now. Malls would be closed.
Gavison’s vision of a unifying Jewish public culture is less clear. She herself isn’t sure what she means. Like many Israeli intellectuals, who model themselves on their European, not their American, counterparts, Gavison takes a high-minded approach to culture. She imagines bigger audiences for music, art, and theater; more meetings of affinity groups; more salons devoted to Jewish texts.
[...]
Underlying Gavison’s dream are the revived ideas of Ahad Ha’am, the late 19th-century Zionist who argued for a cultural, rather than political, Zionism—an Israel based on a positive Jewishness rather than on ethnic nationalism and anti-anti-Semitism. What he was calling for isn’t clear either, though anyone who has ever found himself on a synagogue mailing list will be familiar with his sociological aper?u on the Sabbath: “More than Israel has kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept Israel.”
Can a day of rest really strengthen the bonds of a nation, or is that just grandiloquence?
Full story. (c/o Eli V.)
by Mobius [➚] · Saturday, July 30th, 2005
I hope that this design is less loud for those of you who complained about the last version. I’ve also added a link to my e-mail prominently at the top of the sidebar.
Now to address some of the issues raised in response to my outburst of blog depression:
Jewschool has eight contributors in Israel, two in Atlanta, one in Massachusetts, one in Vermont, one in Baltimore, one in Kansas City, two in St. Louis, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, one in Berkeley, one in Miami, one in London, and nineteen in New York. Amongst this group we have secular and religious Jews, including varying degrees of religiosity from Reconstructionist to Orthodox, as well as Zionists, post-Zionists, and anti-Zionists.
I have tried, time and again, to diversify the posting here on Jewschool, by adding interesting folks from around the world and across the spectrum of Jewish belief, to the blogteam. The impulse for blogging, however, comes and goes for some people. Many of our contributors are, you might notice, people with more important things to do than keep Jewschool’s readers entertained. Others have been driven away by rank and vile commentors after their initial postings, and have yet to step back into the ring.
That being said, I am constantly trying to find qualified writers to contribute to the site, but it’s not easy to get commitments out of people. I’ve got six people who said they’d join the crew who still have yet to register their Blogger accounts months after accepting an invitation to blog. I’m happy to have new people join the Jewschool team, but they have to fit a few criteria: They have to be coherent, know some HTML, be linked up to the Jewish community in a meaningful way, and have something worthwhile to say. I hate to break it to you, but there aren’t that many people out there who fit that criteria. We currently have 30 on our staff — the cream of the crop as far as I’m concerned — and fewer than 10 post regularly.
But there’s another thing a lot of folks seem to be missing: Our content leans to the left for a reason. There are countless Jewish right-wing, pro-Israel, and pro-Hareidi blogs out there that have readership on par with Jewschool’s numbers. There are few — less than a dozen by my count — left-wing, liberal Jewish blogs like ours, with relative readership. If Jewschool isn’t balanced, as far as some of you are concerned, it’s because Jewschool provides counter-balance to the dominant voice of mainstream and institutional Judaism that infests practically every Jewish publication both on- and-offline. If your complaint is that Jewschool doesn’t provide enough right-wing views, read a right-wing blog. That’s what they’re there for. The dissenting perspective is what we’re here for. And frankly, it’s kind of a lonely place to be. Hence the need for Jewschool to take the angle it does.
As per the subject of dissent, a lot of folks seem to be upset with the fact that we have the nerve to be critical — critical of Israel, critical of Judaism, critical of the Jewish establishment, critical of Jews themselves. Well holy crap — someone has to speak up! The Jewish world is facing many issues few people are doing anything about, and I and many of Jewschool’s contributors, are not the type to stand idly by and watch as things devolve into more hegemony and inanity. If something’s troubling us, we’re not going to be cowed into silence because it might not be “good for the Jews” to make a stink about it. All public debate by Jews about Jewish issues is, ultimately, good for the Jews, as far as we’re concerned, and we’ll continue to facilitate those conversations as long as it takes for some progress to be made on those issues.
Also, I’ve got to say, enough with this “hipster elitist” catcalling nonsense. It’s true, many of the people who contribute to this site are the same people behind projects like Heeb, JDub, the Jewish Fashion Conspiracy, etc. These projects, and the people involved with them, are in many ways responsible for the new Jewish revival that’s been sweeping the U.S. for the last five years. Most of us know each other, are friendly with one another, and share similar interests and commitments. We’re happy to promote each other’s projects and have no qualms with using Jewschool to that effect. However, if you scroll through our archives, you’ll be hard-pressed to find much self-referrential, self-aggrandizing content. Further, no one here claims to be a tastemaker, as has been alleged. Can one not say that a band, which clearly sucks, sucks, without being told that they’re imposing their taste on others? Such contempt for our contributors reveals more about those holding it, than those its directed at.
Finally, Jewschool is, in its current manifestation, just a blog — which is, in some ways, a one-way street. But it’s not supposed to be. I’ve been hard at work for two years, developing ideas and software to accomodate the sum total vision of what Jewschool should be. I’ve had ups and downs with private investors, philanthropies, programmers, and all sorts of stumbling blocks that have kept this site from reaching its fullest potential. But it’s going to get there. And when it finally launches, I think a lot of you are going to be pleasantly surprised. Perhaps then it will finally click, and you’ll say, “Ahh, now I get it.” Whereas it seems that many of you do already, too many don’t. And I find that very sad and regrettable.
by Danya [➚] · Friday, July 29th, 2005
This post is gacked, word-for-word, from the blog of the excellent magazine Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture:
Israel’s parliament is in discussions to pass a bill requiring the country’s modeling agencies to monitor the weight and body-mass index of its fashion models. The catalyst for this bit of reform is one Adi Barkan, a fashion photographer and model agent who has found himself increasingly alarmed by the pervasiveness of anorexia and drug use in the industry; Barkan’s hope is that the bill will compel agencies to confront their role in promoting thinness by any means necessary, and also ensure that only healthy models get work.
The Guardian reports,
[Barkan] admits that anorexia can have a multitude of causes but is convinced that the fashion industry can have a major effect on it. “I think 50% of the problem can be dealt with by us. If the fashion stores, food companies and other consumers of model services refuse to employ unhealthy women, that will remove one part of the motivation to reduce weight.”
After more than two decades in the fashion industry, he points to a series of factors that have exacerbated the problem. Models have become celebrities, no longer two-dimensional images but characters to inspire young girls. Second, modelling used to be an option only for very tall women but when it moved from the catwalk on to television, the industry became accessible to shorter girls. Also, image consciousness is now overtaking girls at a younger age when their bodies and minds are ill-equipped to deal with the pressures of trying to be thin. “There was a time when girls became fashion conscious at 18, then 16. Now it’s nine or 10 in Israel. Girls are going straight from childhood to womanhood without any in between phase. If girls have an eating disorder before they are 16, it is even more damaging for their health.”
by Mobius [➚] · Friday, July 29th, 2005
For those of you reading Jewschool via RSS, you likely missed the launch earlier today of a new Jewschool feature, The Jewschool Interview. Check out our first two profiles on two Jewish rappers who couldn’t be more diametrically opposite: Matisyahu and Necro.
by Mobius [➚] · Friday, July 29th, 2005
Mimaamakim & Canonist get bent out of shape over David Kelsey’s piece on The Forward below. Dave fires back. Hillarity ensues.
by Danya [➚] · Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
There is a Craigslist Jerusalem and Craigslist Tel Aviv. I know that there are other community sites that have similar functions in both places already, but the addition of a little Craigslist never hurt nobody.
And think how much easier it’ll be for the closeted Hasidim to arrange their clandestine hookups now–who needs to prowl Independence Park at night when there’s Casual Encounters?
by Moishe Oofnik [➚] · Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
According to a Dahaf Institute poll, the Israeli public has lost faith in the Knesset:
According to the survey, commissioned by the Knesset TV channel and broadcast yesterday, 87 percent of those polled said the Knesset does not represent them or only nominally represents them.
Sixty-seven percent of the public believes the Knesset does not deal with social matters, and 62 percent said it deals too much with security matters.
I say we erect a federation of democratically elected soviets.
by Mobius [➚] · Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
Arutz Sheva reports,
“My 14-year-old daughter Chaya has spent the past three weeks of her summer vacation in jail,†Moshe Belogorodsky laments, “and now they want to take her away because her parents oppose expulsion?”
“She hasn’t murdered anyone. Nor did she steal anything, assault anyone or sell drugs. All she did was go to a demonstration in ‘the only democracy in the Middle East.’â€
Wednesday, Belogorodsky appeared in court once again as the public prosecutor attempted to have his daughter and her road-blocking friends placed in the custody of a family in an unnamed kibbutz until the end of their trials.
Belogorodsky described the accusations against his daughter: “Chaya decided to lend moral support to her friends who went to protest Ariel Sharon’s plan to expel Jews. What follows is a direct quote from the official indictment filed against Chaya. She is accused of standing on a sidewalk while her friends proceeded to block traffic. After her friends were arrested, a policewoman asked Chaya to leave the area. Chaya refused, saying that she wasn’t doing anything illegal, that she had every right to stand on ‘every inch of the Land of Israel.’ The policewoman, unimpressed, warned Chaya that if she didn’t leave immediately she will be arrested. To which Chaya replied: ‘So, shut up and arrest me then.’ That’s it. This is the case that the State of Israel has against Chaya.”
Taking a little girl from her parents and throwing her in a jail cell for telling a cop ‘where to stick it’ is a new low for the Sharon administration. Contact your congressperson today and demand they pressure the Israeli government to return Chayke to her parents! You can also find the e-mail addresses for each member of Knesset here.
by Mobius [➚] · Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
I know there are a lot of you out there. Web stats rarely lie. As do fan letters, t-shirt sales, and word-of-mouth. So I gotta wonder — with all you über-brilliant progressive super-Jews out there reading this site — why do you let the bigots, the haters, and the socially inept rule the comment threads? Why do you rarely pipe up?
I’ve been hard at work re-envisioning Jewschool and trying to get the funding necessary to really turn the site into a valuable tool for the progressive Jewish community. But you know what “the establishment” tells me? My audience doesn’t exist. We don’t have a community. We’re “too fringe.” And then they say “No money for you,” and send out e-mails to their constituents as to why Jewcy (of all G-d forsaken sites) is hip and cutting-edge.
The truth is, as long as the silent majority reading this site stays silent, y’all are just proving ‘em right. Thus, I’m calling on you now to prove them wrong. Step up. Speak up. And show us you care. Show us you’re out there. For G-d’s sake, give us some demographic data!
Jewschool takes a lot of work. There’s a time committment, a financial committment, and an emotional committment. And I’m not the only one putting in. We have a dozen regular contributors who are taking time out to keep this project going.
Please, show us your love. Speak up. Make yourself heard. Make yourself known. And make Jewschool yours. We’re counting on you.
Apart from getting more involved in the conversations on the site, we’d like you to get more involved in the direction of the site itself. Tell us what you like, tell us what you don’t like. Tell us where you see the line being crossed, tell us where the line isn’t be crossed enough. Tell us which issues are most important to you and which are irrelevant. Tell us what you’re looking for. B’li nader, we’ll do our best to accomodate.
Finally, if any of you are feeling charitable, please shoot me an e-mail and I’ll tell you what we have in the works and how your tzedakah can help make it happen. Serious inquiries only, please.
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