by Cole Krawitz · Sunday, April 30th, 2006
As tomorrow, May 1, marks the National Day of Action–“a day without immigrants”, a national boycott to demonstrate the economic impact of immigrants in this country, immigrant rights groups are calling for support through various methods, including boycotting work, school and shopping to show support for immigrant rights. In this call, it is important for us to take stock of Jewish immigrants who are directly impacted.
Mik Moore at jspot gives us a glimpse of the impact, or more so the lack of information on the impact on Russian Jewish immigrants:
I have not seen any polling of the Russian Jewish community on the question of illegal immigration (my guess is that it is split on possible solutions), but I would hope that any future Russian Jewish elected would keep in mind these observations from 2004 by Natalie Shapiro, publisher and editor of Russian Bazaar newspaper.
The problem of illegal immigrants is difficult and requires a solution, and it is good that President Bush has taken the first step. I support his project. It is wrong to distinguish people simply on the basis of how and in what way they arrived to America. In America there are now many illegal Russian-speaking Jews, including people from Israel. They want to work, but businesspeople cannot hire them. Even I had to turn away undocumented work applicants; it is very unpleasant to have to issue such a severe sentence, to take on the role of a judge. Newspapers always need specialists, as do many other business … I empathize with “undocumented people” and I am always glad if I can help them legalize their status.
In the past week, over 1,100 undocumented workers in at least 26 states have been arrested by police working under the direction of the Homeland Security Department in an attempt to intimidate immigrant communities and frighten folks from participating in the growing Immigrant’s Rights Movement. Some say it’s also tactic by the Bush administration to demonstrate that they are still “serious about enforcement” while pushing for “guest worker” programs to boost their economic profit.
Suffice to say, it’s time for us to take stock. Commemorate May 1 in honor of our ancestor’s past, and Jewish immigrants’ current day struggles and futures in this nation along with all immigrants.
by Mobius · Sunday, April 30th, 2006
WaPo reports,
The number of terrorist attacks worldwide increased nearly fourfold in 2005 to 11,111, with strikes in Iraq accounting for 30 percent of the total, according to statistics released by U.S. counterterrorism officials yesterday.
[...]
Unlike those of previous years, the 2005 report included a “strategic assessment” of the war on terrorism, which concluded that while “al-Qaeda is not the organization it was four years ago,” the group was “adaptive and resilient . . . and important members of its core cadre remained alive and were adjusting to our operational tempo.”
Man, I’m sure glad we sacrified our civil liberties on the alter of safety. Who knows where’d we be if we hadn’t!
by Mobius · Sunday, April 30th, 2006
he percentage of younger American Jews identifying as Orthodox is on the rise. Additionally, non-Orthodox Jews, ages 18 to 39, who marry Jews and have children are highly likely to be Jewishly engaged. These are some of the conclusions of a pioneering American Jewish Committee study, which paints a complex portrait of the 1.5 million younger Jews, ages 18 to 39, who comprise 29 percent of the U.S. Jewish population and likely will reshape the characteristics of the American Jewish community.
“Understanding the Jewish community of tomorrow is imperative if present-day Jewish organizations are to remain relevant,” said Ambassador Alfred Moses, Chair of AJC’s Centennial Committee.
[...]
“Young Jewish adults are likely to be somewhat less Jewishly identified than older American Jews,” said Jack Ukeles, president of Ukeles Associates. “But much more striking is the extent to which younger Jews are expressing their Jewishness in ways that are quite different from the ways of connecting of their predecessors, and thus are less involved with Jewish institutions that are part of the traditional communal structure.”
Read the full press release here.
by EV · Friday, April 28th, 2006
This is a few days old, but it’s too juicy to pass up. Hella Winston, author of Unchosen : The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels, reminisces about a Seder with a former Hasid who compared the liberation from Egyptian bondage to his own liberation from Orthodox Judaism. Yeah, baby!
It reminds me of a story told of my own grandfather, who started each Seder with the declaration, “We used to be slaves and now we are free. And as free people, we are able to do what we want.” Then he would produce a tray of freshly baked bread, devour the first piece and distribute the rest to his guests. The Seder had begun.
Winston’s essay is slightly less antinomian. Instead, it grapples with the conflicting emotions that can arise after leaving the fold, and questions whether Jewish institutional involvement is a worthy barometer of Jewish identity.
Strictly Orthodox Jews are taught that their Judaism is the only “authentic” Judaism — all other interpretations of the religion are characterized, at best, as rationalizations for laziness and worthy of little more than derision; intellectual and philosophical challenges to Orthodoxy are dismissed out of hand. Because of this, I have found, many who reject the values of their former communities are still unable to shed the belief that there is no other way to practice Judaism. From their perspective, celebrating a Jewish holiday when you are no longer “religious” makes absolutely no sense.
… Still, as ambivalent as former Orthodox Jews are about their religion, their hard-earned freedom obviously comes with a great price: a profound sense of loss, often felt with particular potency during the holidays. None of this is to say that everyone who leaves a strictly religious community wants nothing more to do with Judaism — just think of Moishe’s Seder. For those who are uncomfortable — if not outright unwelcome — in their families’ homes, having an alternative community can be invaluable and the chance to experience a way of being Jewish reflective of their values, a revelation.
Indeed, that Moishe, the Deutsches and all their friends celebrated Passover together attests to something that many in the institutional Jewish world fail to grasp — namely, that formal affiliation with a synagogue or movement is not always the best measure of a person’s Jewish identity. Often wary of institutions in general, many who leave strict Orthodoxy are unlikely to rush into anything “formally” Jewish. But while people like Moishe might be happily stepping down as the ostensible “defenders of the faith,” they are not in any way abandoning their Jewish identities. Instead, they are refashioning them, forging their own Jewish path, freely, together with others who have shared the same experience.
What could be more in the spirit of Passover — and of Judaism — than that?
Full essay.
by Benyamin · Friday, April 28th, 2006
by David Kelsey · Thursday, April 27th, 2006
One of the many great pleasures of New York City is the accessibility of great live music, sometimes in unassuming places. Pianos, of course, is hardly unassuming. It is a hipster stronghold on the Lower East Side. But don’t hold that against them. Named after the physics term, catstate, for when two opposing elements can exist on the same plane, this is a smart and serious band. More concentrated on practicing, perfecting, and recording their original finely crafted compositions, they only gig about once a month.
This one will be a treat, and signals an impressive rise during the past year since the band’s public debut at Detour.
In Cat State’s music is disconcerting, but built largely on simple motifs. But it gets complicated – entangled, almost menacing, though never harsh or dissonant– because of how Michael Lawson (Guitars, Percussion, Programming) weaves, layers, and loops them together.
More »
by Mordy · Thursday, April 27th, 2006
Joshua Foer wrote an article in Slate about Ms. Kaavya Viswanathan’s newest explanation of plagarism. Apparently, she claimed in today’s New York Times, she has a photographic memory.
Right, of course. She was writing, and she got confused between the picture in her head of McCafferty’s book, and her own. It’s completely understandable. Though, to be honest, wouldn’t this be a proof for the charges of plagarism? I mean, if she really had a photographic memory — wouldn’t she remember who wrote which? “No, I mean, I have selective photographic memory.”
So Foer goes through a number of other famous photographic memory cases. One of them: The Talmudic pin test. Anyone who went to a certain kind of Yeshiva (the kind that calls all academic subjects ‘English classes’ may qualify), knows about the pin test. You basically take a copy of the Talmud and push a pin through the cover. The testee passes by calling out every word on every page that the pin went through.
Foer isn’t impressed:
According to a paper published in 1917 in the journal Psychological Review, psychologist George Stratton tested the Shass Pollaks by sticking a pin through various tractates of the Talmud. They responded by telling him exactly which words the pin passed through on every page. In fact, the Shass Pollaks probably didn’t possess photographic memory so much as heroic perseverance. If the average person decided he was going to dedicate his entire life to memorizing 5,422 pages of text, he’d probably also be pretty good at it. It’s an impressive feat of single-mindedness, not of memory.
Or they are all just robots. Yeah. That’s it. They’re computers wrapped in black jackets and Borsalinos.
by Mobius · Thursday, April 27th, 2006
The JTA reports,
With intermarriage rampant, synagogue membership among young Jews on the decline and a general sense that younger Jews are less connected to Judaism, Jewish communal leaders are on the lookout for ways to get the younger generation to connect and to engage in a conversation about Jewish identity, community and meaning.
Some of these young people, and, increasingly, some of their elders, say that the way to their hearts — and minds and pocketbooks — is through artistic and cultural exchange: Jewish music, books, movies and art.
But along with the explosion of Jewish arts come many questions. At its recent conference in Denver, the Jewish Funders Network offered several panels and discussions on the place of arts and culture in today’s Jewish milieu. At the conference and beyond, Jewish thinkers are asking whether the arts should be viewed as a gateway to further Jewish involvement or are valuable as a destination in and of themselves.
Full story.
by Mobius · Thursday, April 27th, 2006
The JTA reports,
The president of the Reform movement brought a message of tolerance for gays to the university founded by televangelist Rev. Jerry Falwell.
Delivering the weekly convocation Wednesday at Liberty University, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, got a warm response when he said Reform Jews and evangelical Christians had much in common on Israel, on the “moral crisis in America” and on combating religious persecution abroad.
However, he pointed out differences on issues such as abortion and gay rights.
“Gay Americans pose no threat to their friends, neighbors or coworkers. When two people make a lifelong commitment to each other, we believe it is wrong to deny them the legal guarantees that protect them and their children and benefit the broader society,” he said to murmurs, hisses and scattered boos among several thousands students in attendance at the Lynchburg, Va., university.
Falwell admonished the students afterward, saying, “Nobody ever booed me in a synagogue when I said things opposite to what they believed.”
by shamirpower · Thursday, April 27th, 2006
Check out the Sandmonkey’s blog for his (informal) thoughts on the terrorist attack in Sinai that took place last week. He uses too much sarcasm for me to quote him out of context, but it’s worth a read. (c/o Dry Bones Blog)
by Benyamin · Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
by Cole Krawitz · Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
I’d be remiss in not cross-posting this from jspot
Kudos to Public Citizen and United for Fair Economy who today exposed one of the biggest con jobs in recent history: the campaign by a handful of the country’s wealthiest individuals to persuade Congress to repeal the estate tax. Currently, only those who leave estates greater than $2 million, or $4 million for couples, must pay the tax. In 2006, it is estimated that 0.27% of all estates in the U.S. will pay estate tax, meaning 99.73% of Americans can pass 100% of their estates to heirs tax free.
In a joint press conference earlier today, both organizations outlined how18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the estate tax, a move that would collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.
From Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen:
We’re talking about enormously powerful and wealthy people – billionaires and mega-millionaires. They include the makers of Gallo wine and Campbell’s soup; the founders of world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, and the family behind the giant candymaker, Mars…The families have hidden behind trade associations and lobbyists to make their pitch. They have paid for misleading, fear-inducing ads. They have poured tens of millions of dollars into their efforts, essentially buying what they want in Washington since 1998. They have pumped nearly $28 million into political campaigns to ensure doors open for them and their lobbyists, and collectively, they and their businesses have spent $27 million lobbying Washington officials on a variety of issues, including estate tax repeal.
More »
by Rooftopper Rav · Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
The ever-fabulous JA just sent out this email about a rabbi friend in rural America. Please listen and then go vote!
Hi friends,
I would love for you to take a minute and go to Babaganewz to support something small but important. My friend L serves [a tiny rural town] where Jews are an extremely rare breed. When a nativity scene was put up in the public square last Christmas, L wrote a letter to the local newspaper about the importance of separation of church and state. In response, there was a huge public outcry in support of the nativity scene and against L.
Her religious school has entered a Jewish hip-hop contest on the theme of achdut [unity], and their rap, telling the true story of what happened [...] last Christmas, is now a national finalist. Please go to Babaganewz and listen to Song F, then vote for it!
(I also happened to think it is by far the best entry.) For kids in a place [this town] who have literally no connection to any other Jews, winning a contest like this would really mean a lot, and could potentially go a long way towards keeping them connected to the Jewish people in the long term, along with helping them to see their rabbi as a role model in celebrating Jewish identity and uniqueness in small town America.
Thanks, and enjoy.
by Ari · Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
I am sorry to report on the death of Jane Jacobs, a woman whose influence on my own life was profound, but not nearly so profound as the revolution in urban planning that followed her 1961 book, “Death and Life of Great American Cities.” She followed that with a life of activism and additional writing.
In the late 1950s/early 1960s, Jacobs also led a coalition that stopped Robert Moses’ plans to run freeways through Washington Square NYC. It is one of the few areas that he did not succeed in turning to concrete wasteland.
In 1967, after a demonstration at the Pentagon, and with her own children approaching draft age, she and her husband picked up and moved to Toronto where she immediately became known for stopping yet another freeway (the proposed Spadina Freeway) from destroying downtown neighborhoods. The city ultimately honored her with a conference on her work which included everything from an exhibit of her drawings at the Art Gallery of Ontario to an actual celebration of new urban planning (or anti-planning).
I met her in person at a Flying Bulgars concert in Toronto a decade ago and treasure that short meeting. She was everyone’s dream of a wonderful Jewish grandmother, although she, herself, considered herself a more general atheist. When I discovered her writing a couple of years later, I was most blown away by how much of what she wrote about good physical city planning applied directly to the online community work that I had done over the preceding two decades.
Goodbye, Jane, and thanks for the insights and activism. A better role model would be hard to find. Her memory will certainly be a blessing.
More complete obituaries can be found on the Toronto Star, or at the Planet Netizen (great community planning) site.
by Ruby K · Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
After reminding Cole that this Administration cares very little about anything, let alone honoring groups of people that made this country what it is, I got another reminder myself. Turns out May is not only Asian American Heritage Month, but also Labor History Month (as declared by President Clinton in 1995).
Check out this cool resource on some of the important events in labor history that went down in may.
Also, the NY Labor History Association puts out a cool poster calendar each year that lists the great events scheduled in NY for this May. I hear that if you want a calendar, but aren’t a member, you can call and leave your name and mailing address with George Altomare, Vice-President, NYLHA—(212)-598-7772 .
Hmmm, now WHY would chucklenutz not want people to know about Labor History Month? Is it because unions stand for everything he opposes? Is it because unions, at their best, empower working people to stand up for themselves and their families? Is it because they are one of the last hurdles to his corporate pals completely dominating the American landscape?
You can cover up the Labor History and Asian American celebrations all you like with phony gestures aiming to raise capital for your “divine strike” on June 2nd. For everyone who’s ever had to work in a sweatshop, we’ll keep fighting.
by Cole Krawitz · Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
Today AlterNet is profiling award-winning journalist (and Jew) Sasha Abramsky’s latest book called Conned: How Millions Went to Prison and Lost the Vote. Here’s a taste of the interview:
CK: People of color rightfully critique a primarily white political and activist establishment, including many progressives and liberals, as being all too comfortable with the high incarceration rates of people of color in this country, and the resulting disfranchisement from housing, jobs and voting that has disproportionately harmed communities of color. How do you think “Conned” might help to change this so that the systemic problems with, and those created by, our criminal justice system are better understood?
SA: “Conned” demonstrates how “criminal justice” cannot be understood as a hermetically sealed issue. Instead, the policies and practices that have so dramatically enlarged the number of people convicted of felonies in America, and the number of people sentenced to spend parts of their lives behind bars, need to be understood as part of a larger societal transformation.
In an era of mass incarceration, progressives need to be looking for linkages, seeking to explore ways in which society responds to poverty and to social disorder. At the moment, our society has made a series of choices that means we devote an increasing number of dollars to funding punishment-based institutions. At the same time, we dramatically underfund community drug rehabilitation programs, community mental health services, job training programs and the like. Not surprisingly, given these priorities, prisons have come to be first-tier response mechanisms for a host of deep-rooted social problems.
Now, obviously, most everyone wants to live in a peaceful society, one not driven by crime and violence. The question is how best to achieve that. I’d hope that “Conned” opens up the debate here: Does simply locking up ever larger numbers of people best serve this goal? Does an over-reliance on incarceration come with a host of other, largely hidden costs? In the arena of voting rights, my book explores these costs. It looks at how society as a whole is now being impacted by out-of-whack sentencing policies and by the overlap of criminal justice institutions with the voting rights of citizens.
I’d hope that readers of my book come away with a better understanding of the ways in which current incarceration policies produce a host of dysfunctional societal outcomes.
Check out the full article, and an excerpt of Conned.
These are critical issues for us to look at before elections, not just in the thick of it–and as we quickly move into the 2006 primary election season.
[Update]: For more information about how the nation’s prisoners are used as “phantom” populations to redraw state legislative boundaries and re-apportion political representatives and power accordingly go here. For more information about re-enfranchisement of people who were formerly incarcerated visit here and here.
by The Town Crier · Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
In order accomodate Jewish astronauts, NASA is tackling those tough jewish space related questions, like when exactly is the right time to daven mincha on a space station, when to keep the sabbath on the space station and of course, which direction to face while praying. Rabbi Leonard Nemoy has suggested kashering the food replicator.
[Ed.'s Note] See Jews in space.
by The Town Crier · Monday, April 24th, 2006
If I may, I would like to follow up on an idea expressed earlier by David Kelsey about Yom Hashoa.
We are an ancient civilization. We remain a vibrant one in some sectors, but we are risking our identity by insisting on a death camp culture, or a reaction to our death camp culture. Liberal and secular youth with nominal Jewish identities and education are not at risk at forgetting the Holocaust.
True, they are not at risk at forgetting, but they most definitely are at risk of not telling their children. The challenge of “holocaustism” is not necessarily wearing it on the sleeve as some modern jewish activists do, (akin to invoking the recently abolished slavery in by some black communal leaders) but imparting that firsthand knowlege over to their children and grandchildren. The idea is to be able to spawn future generations that will be equally unable to forget.
I’d like to offer this video perspective on the concept of a “Holocaust Remembrance Day” presented by one of the most brilliant Jewish leaders of our time. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who is also well respected (by both religious and non-religious) expresses the significance of consistent remembering - and why holocaust education is so important. A basic working knowlege of modern hebrew is required, and you must watch the entire clip to understand. The man has an incredible way of driving home his point.
äøá éùøàì îàéø ìàå, øáä äøàùé ùì éùøàì ìùòáø, äéä áï ùðúééí ëùôøöä äîìçîä. îäâèå áôåìéï äåà äåòáø ìîçðä äøéëåæ áåëðååàìã ùí äöìéç ìùøåã, éçã òí àçéå, òã ìáåàí ùì äçééìéí äàîøé÷ðéí áàôøéì 1945. äåà øåàä áäòáøú äùåàä ìãåø äöòéø çùéáåú òìéåðä åúåîê ðìäá áîñòåú áðé äðåòø ìôåìéï: “äéùøàìéí ùðñòå îùí çæøå éåúø éäåãéíåäéäåãéí ùðñòå ìùí çæøå éåúø éùøàìéí”.
Dowload the full video here.
