by BZ [➚] · Saturday, May 27th, 2006
It’s the new month of Sivan! As far as I know, this is the only Rosh Chodesh with its own niggun, written on this date 7 years ago.
It’s a very auspicious month. On this date thousands of years ago (and/or in ahistorical time):
In the third month after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day, they entered the wilderness of Sinai. Having journeyed from Rephidim, they entered the wilderness of Sinai and encamped in the wilderness. Israel encamped there in front of the mountain.
(Exodus 19:1-2)
And so it begins.
by Mobius [➚] · Friday, May 26th, 2006
Dear Friends,
This letter was written by Reb Zalman last week.
He has now sent it to the Forward , and is sharing it with the ALEPH community. Please, if you want to respond, do so to the ALEPH office only, not to Reb Zalman.
Blessings and Shabbat Shalom.
Susan (on behalf of the ALEPH Board)
I’m getting pulled from all sides to make statements that I’m unprepared to make.
What I can say at this time is that I’m in mourning, in some form of Shiv’ah, I’m grieving like one bereaved for an ideal that I held in my mind of a genius, though erratic, but ultimately at the service of the values he claimed for himself. This image has been shattered.
I’m also devastated by what see as my gullibility, to be taken in by a brilliance that had a dark center. And this way I am chiding myself, although that is too mild a word for the feelings that I have, for having been an unwitting accessory to his depredations.
It goes without saying that I withdraw my support of the Smikhah he obtained from me by deceiving me concerning his past unethical behavior. It is null and void.
In searching my conscience I find that I was influenced by the fact that my daughter had attended one of his seminars then called Torah Light or some such name, an event that turned her from a worldly secular person to one who is deeply committed to a beautiful Judaism.
I’m praying for clarity and discernment.
What is yet to happen beyond all the tempests, beyond quarantining him, a surgically separating ourselves from him, is not yet clear to me. So please allow me my process of grieving, praying and learning more about the devastation he caused before you ask me to make any other statement.
by Jewfork [➚] · Friday, May 26th, 2006
Jewfork is an “often-as-we-can” feature wherein an anonymous agent snarkily reviews Jewish music in the vein of Pitchfork Media.
Chutzpah (Eponymous)
No stars
“OY! Kids today!/What do they know from this Ebonics?” This whole thing’s a joke — right? This is a lyric from the self-proclaimed “worlds first ever hip-hop Jewish super group.” Ironic that you are emulating…oh nevermind — it doesn’t even matter, because this record is terrible. Generic beats combined with inane rhyme schemes and lyrics like “Talkin’ about the phat cash/We’re gonna’ put our nose in” make me want to revoke your license to ill. Did anyone at JMG tell you that to be a “super group” you all have to be famous and talented? Puke.
Etan G South Side of the Synagogue
What do you do after Shlock Rock? I’ll tell you one thing you don’t do Etan G — don’t refer to your alleged audience as “brothers and sisters,” pretend to be a Baptist preacher, or use the word “hizouse.” Actually, all of these activities should be strictly avoided unless you are a real life black preacher or Snoop. With that off my chest, there are some terribly catchy moments where G doesn’t attempt to fit 8 extra words into each line such as the newfangled version of Shlock Rock’s “Yo Yo Yo Yarmulke” now “Yo Yo 2000/5760.” But man — what’s up with “Recognize the Miracles” and “Elevate”? I believe G actually plagiarized a rhyme I wrote in my 4th grade Hebrew school class with “It’s okay to be cool/Totally rule/But don’t be a fool.” Don’t worry though buddy — I won’t sue you. I’m not interested in trying to take your hizouse or Hizonda away. See what I mean?
Blood of Abraham Eyedollartree
The Los Angeles-based duo of Benyad and Mazik should be the new model. Luscious bass sounds, thoughtful beats, and cross-cultural dialogue all come together on this brilliant record. “Only The Wise” offers a youth empowerment anthem worthy of placement next to those that Kanye and Matisyahu have created. The wail and groove of “Rosetta Stone” warns us to take things at face value. The production help of Black Eyed Pea Will.I.Am doesn’t hurt either — piano bits, keyboard blips, guitar lines, and back-up vocals that fit together like pipes and faucet and equal — yup, you guessed it — flow. Add Kool Keith and conscious lyrics to the mix and you have the whole kitchen sink.
by Mobius [➚] · Friday, May 26th, 2006
My sister L’via wrote an op-ed in this week’s Jewish Press, which, responding to the recent Kolko controversy, presents a laundry list of concerns from Orthodox parents about how their money’s being spent and who’s being allowed to teach their children.
Our main concern relates to accountability. Our greatest fear is that the subsidies and grants will be handed out to eager and often desperate institutions but that the money will not be used to its maximum benefit.
Who is holding the yeshivos accountable for what they do with the money? If government and private funds are going to be allocated to the schools, then someone needs to mind the store. The schools have been operating on their own for many years, and some have been doing an exemplary job under impossible conditions. There is, however, room for improvement and it is time that the monies allocated for our children’s education come with strings. Lots of strings.
Continue reading…
by Balaam's Donkey [➚] · Friday, May 26th, 2006
Join Storahtelling to find out how!
After an eternity of not posting, Mobius got me to promise at least once a week, and I will strive for this, but now I am both extremely proud and slightly ashamed for my return to Jewschool to be stinking of self-promotion.
But here’s the deal: Storahtelling is having its first ever StorahLAB Summer Training Institute for Jewish educators working in congregational settings, among others. I will avoid details here in the post and send you to the site for the Institute by telling you to click here if you want to learn more.
This is going to be an amazing program for any educator who wants to help their students develop a meaningful and relevant relationship to our sacred texts while bringing the performing arts into the Hebrew school classroom. So if you’re not working in the field, do a Jewschooler a kindness and pass this on to anyone you know who is. They will thank you for it someday.
How can I be so sure about this? Because I’m planning it. Donkey out!
by Mobius [➚] · Friday, May 26th, 2006
by Bradford [➚] · Friday, May 26th, 2006
We know. We know. The Da Vinci Code is a movie about the Catholic Church and pagan worship of the sacred feminine and all that mysterious jazz. But we thought there might be some Jewish audience with an interest, so we dragged ourselves to the press screening and came back with a review along with the excerpted factoids from our upcoming issue.
You can read it all here, and answer the question we couldn’t quite figure out. Is there a Jewish connection to the underlying issues raised by the film (and novel)? What say ye, people?
There’s the obvious issue of feminine influence in the religious tradition. This film has its sacred feminine. Judaism has Spock taking photos of naked women. But still we thought, there must be more. Conspiracies, secret societies. Why do Christians get to have all the fun, so I’m personally turning to you. What (beyond the ridiculously obvious) connections are there between Dan Brown’s pulp thriller and our own little Jewish world?
by Mobius [➚] · Friday, May 26th, 2006
Got together wif der crew last night @ the Bronfman Centuh to shoot the shizzle, clear up some stylistic issues, and to discuss future projects and initiatives. Then we got drunk. More photos
here and
hizzahere.
by The Town Crier [➚] · Thursday, May 25th, 2006
Now this could get interesting…
USAJewish.com is looking for survivors of Vicki Polin who would want to be interviewed by a journalist and have their story published. If you are interested, please contact Yori Yanover for more information.
2. USAJewish.com asks that whenever an article comes out regarding Vicki Polin you alert us, including a link on the page it was found.
3. USAJewish.com asks that you write letters to editors requesting accountability in the portrayal Vicki Polin and the Awareness Center. Please forward your letters to USAJewish.com and send a note giving us permission to publish your letter on our blog.
Vicki Polin is the most favorite Jewish author of both White Power and Muslim bloggers.
by deitybox [➚] · Thursday, May 25th, 2006
Not very impressive, no real condemnation. The lashon hara bit seems unproductive, and to say that “the first thing that must happen after the revelation of sexual abuse and/or abuse of power by clergy is full and honest disclosure to the community of the facts” is just hypocritical.
But don’t take my word for it:
Rabbi Mordechai Gafni: a formal announcement
Dear members of the Elat Chayyim community
I am very saddened to share with you a situation about which I have recently learned.
Mordechai Gafni, a talented rabbi who has taught at Elat Chayyim and in many other places, has been accused of sexual misconduct by women within his spiritual community in Israel, several of whom have filed complaints with the police. He has not denied the allegations. These are serious offenses because although these relationships were apparently consensual, there is no place for relations like this between a rabbi and his students or between an employer and his employees.
Some of you may have studied with Mordechai Gafni, or participated in other events with him. For others he might be a complete stranger, and this letter may be irrelevant.
I am writing to you because experts who deal with abuse of power indicate that the first thing that must happen after the revelation of sexual abuse and/or abuse of power by clergy is full and honest disclosure to the community of the facts, as accurately as they are known.
It is in this spirit that I am passing on to you the information that I received from Israel, and informing you that Mordechai Gafni will no longer teach at Elat Chayyim. Those who have registered for his classes have been notified, and may either choose another workshop or receive a refund.
The Program Committee of Elat Chayyim had, in anticipation of our move to Isabella Freedman, begun to review our Code of Ethics, which all teachers are required to abide by. This unfortunate incident has strengthened our determination to maintain our high standards and continue to create an environment that is safe and heartfelt for all our guests.
The Committee continues to work in this regard.
This situation is only beginning to unfold. As always, at moments like this, there is a tendency to want to share and speak about what has happened. I urge all of us to do so with the highest awareness of what our tradition teaches about lashon harah, negative speech. We have both the obligation to know and to teach about abuse of power, and the obligation to strive to refrain from gossip — and any harm that we may cause others by our speech.
This is also a moment to send our love and support to those women who have been harmed, and to acknowledge their courage in coming forth.
May we each send forth our blessings for healing, for all those who are involved in this situation and for each of us as we face our own shadows in the journey through our lives,
b’shalom
Lynne Iser
Chairperson, Board of Directors
by Danya [➚] · Thursday, May 25th, 2006
The group B’Maagalei Tzedek (In Circles of Justice) has come up with a brilliant idea–just as restauraunts get certification if they pass certain standards of kashrut, thus enabling people to know which places are kosher and which not, so too should they be certified in a public way if their business practices and treatment of employees are ethical and just.
Their website explains:
B’Maaglaei Tzedek’s flagship social action effort is the Social Seal project, which awards a seal of approval similar to kashrut certification to businesses that commit to upholding ethical standards.
Piloted in Jerusalem during this past year, this project has already awarded ethical certification to 40 restaurants and catering halls – frameworks that often ignore the rights of their kitchen workers and waiting staff – and to 75 businesses associated with the religious kibbutz movement. Over the next three years, our goal is to teach consumers that they have the power to change society by insisting on the Social Seal as a prerequisite for their business, and to turn the Social Seal into certification that has financial implications for businesses, thereby encouraging their compliance with the social values that it represents.
A list of businesses and eateries in Israel that have been awarded the tav ha-hevrati (social seal) can be found here. You can sort by city/region, if you’d like. Go to these places. Reward them for good practices with your business. And make it a point of telling managers that you’re there bacause of the tav.
If a favorite restaraunt is not on the list (or anytime you go out, really), make a point of going in and asking if they have a tav, telling them that it makes a difference to you in terms of where you go. Let cafe owners know that it’s good business for them to have the tav.
The home page of B’Maagalei Tzedek’s site is here.
by Mobius [➚] · Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
Media Matters reports,
On The 700 Club, host Pat Robertson said “Islam is essentially a Christian heresy” that “picked up snippets of the gospels,” and other Biblical texts and is now taking “everything that Jesus said” and “transport[ing it] into this fictional Mahdi.” Robertson also perpetuated Jewish stereotypes in a discussion about the need for Israeli soup kitchens, stating that “When you think of Jewish people, you think of successful businessmen” who are “very wise in finance and who are prosperous.” Robertson later added that “[i]t shocks people” to find out “there’s poverty in Israel,” because “Jewish people” are “very thrifty” and “extraordinarily good business people.”
Full story.
by Cole Krawitz [➚] · Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
An interesting mix of media coverage populates the internet today, from the coverage of the rise of secular Jewish cultural programs in universities throughout the country, to the release of a report stating the need that NYU Hillel’s be more “welcoming” to undergraduates who have one Jewish parent, to the extensive coverage of “Inspiring Values, Creating Leaders: The Summit on the University and the Jewish Community,†hosted this week in DC by Hillel. The conference drew more than 600 university leaders, professors, students and Jewish professionals to talk about yes–one of jewschool’s favorite talking points–how to reinvigorate Jewish life into Jewish youth culture.
What stood out the most in reading this coverage was, not only that Hillel pledged to double its numbers over the next five years including “double its annual campaign; double its funding to local Hillels; and launch an aggressive recruitment and retention program for campus professionals,” but also that the Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center will increase its endowment from $10 million to $100 million.
Unbelievable! $100 million!!!
Now I don’t know about you, but Hillel on my campus was far from innovative, embracing or capable of truly bringing in or meeting the needs of the breadth and depth of student life, and I don’t think that this has to do with money–inherently one institution will never be able to meet the needs of a population of people, however small or large, that varies extensively on a number of demographics, including region, class, language, race, political affiliation, background and upbringing, and the list goes on and on.
So what gives? The Schusterman’s seem to be busy with Hillel, recently supporting endeavors in Texas and DC.
So who is the Schusterman Fund?–well according to their website:
“The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation is dedicated to helping the Jewish people flourish by supporting programs throughout the world that spread the joy of Jewish living, giving and learning.”
The list of places that this foundation supports is unbelievable–from federations to colleges to the Jerusalem Open House, they’re across the map–Granted I’m not “in the know” about the foundation world, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of these folks before–and I’m wondering if maybe other folks haven’t either and if not, that maybe it’s time we start knocking on their door in Tulsa, and bring coverage like the New Voices recent article on JCPA and the bureaucracy of students trying to engage with a body that claims to “serves as the representative voice of the organized American Jewish community in addressing the mandate of the Jewish community relations field,†or a host of other examples about the barriers to reinvigorating Jewish life, and the need to, not just study the issues impacting Gen X and Gen Y, but to also allow us to build, define and cultivate communities by and for ourselves. And definitely not only through the halls of Hillel.
I’ve always wanted to visit Tulsa, OK.
Update: A Jewschool reader rightfully suggested that we should clarify, that Charles Schusterman passed away in 2000, and since then Lynn has continued to pursue the philanthropic course she first charted with her husband of 38 years. She is joined in this task by her daughter, Stacy Schusterman, the other director of the Foundation.
2nd UPDATE:Just got off the phone with the Schusterman Family Foundation, and indeed as Jeff Rubin, Associate Vice President for Communications of Hillel wrote in the comment roll, it is NOT the Family Foundation that is increasing its endowment to Hillel by ten. Rather, the Hillel’s headquarters was named after the Schusterman’s after they gave an endowment to help build the center. A bit confusing with the names for sure, but, nonetheless, apologies for continuing to feed this confusion between the foundation, and Hillel’s international center, on Jewschool.
by Benyamin [➚] · Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
For those of you who haven’t seen, our May/June issue of AJL Magazine is out and features the over-the-top bar mitzvah comedy Keeping Up With the Steins on our cover. We go behind the scenes of the flick and have sidebars on celebrity bar mitzvah memories, star Jeremy Piven, and pop star turned movie cantor Jaron Lowenstein. The issue’s complete table of contents can be found here.
But that’s not the purpose of this post…
The purpose of this post is to solicit help for our Jul/Aug issue. That will be our annual “What’s Hot” issue and we’re looking to you, dear Jewschool readers, for suggestions on the hottest people, places, sites, trends, etc. in Judaism today. And no Natalie Portman or Zach Braff entries allowed. No Matisyahu or Jewish hipsterism either. C’mon, people, let’s think outside the proverbial hot box.
Send your submissions to hotissue@ajlmagazine.com. As always, thanks for your help.
by Mobius [➚] · Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
Adfreak asks, “Was the Tom Cruise show the last straw?”
Tune-in to ABC in 45 minutes to watch Oprah and Elie Wiesel tour Auschwitz.
by E. [➚] · Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006
I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I hauled my suitcase off that rickety bus that rolled from Belgrade to Nis. It was in that little town, wedged in between Kosovo and Belgrade that Serbia gripped my beating Jewish heart. There was a small synagogue filled with garbage four blocks from the city center. With their spare hands, little boys chomping on pizza at a nearby cafe held the triggers on their toy guns. The Jewish community in Nis numbered about 40 people, mostly intermarried in the aftermath of the Shoah, many had adopted Muslim and Christian names. Their cemetery, which dated to the years when Sephardim fled to the Ottoman-controlled Balkans, had been cordoned off with barbed wire. Surrounding it, a new mahala, or ghetto, had been constructed. This time I couldn’t find no shtibl. The Roma had been forcibly settled directly on top of the cemetery in the aftermath of numerous Balkan wars. Now swarthy, mustached men stood with one foot on the gravestone of a Jew, the other in mud. After Israelis of Serbian origin drew attention to the Serbian government’s goof, the salvagable portion of the stones had been protected. Donkey drawn carts paraded along the edges of the cemetery, which had been carefully fenced in by a team of Romani men hired by The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Where were the Jewish, Serbian and Romani activists to demand better housing in the first place? Where were the voices in Nis to voice outrage at the desecration of a Jewish cemetery? Without economic or political power, the Roma in an EU-aspiring Serbia were literally living on top of Jewish memory.
Jewish memorial space like the cemetery is disappearing if we believe that the only remnants of our civilization are in the discolored cement where a mezuzah was scratched off of its doorframe. I believe what we built wasn’t only physical. It existed in tandem with the creativity of the non-Jewish minorities who still live on the eastern and southern edges of the continent. The music of Roma, especially in countries like Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, bear a relationship to European Jewish culture as it existed then and as it exists now. Manele, Chalga and Serbian Turbo-Folk are styles that emerged from Balkan, Turkish, Greek, Roma, Flamenco and Klezmer music. Considered to be the musics of the underclass, they reflect the traditions from which they draw while borrowing from hip hop and other Western music. They have given a unique voice to the silenced. They reflect the reality of being on the edges of Europe. With lyrics that tout sex, gun-running and economic hardship, the origins of the music are both dubious and known to all.
One of my most memorable moments in Serbia was sitting at a computer with Ismail, a bright and toothless man of about 25, at the offices of RTV-Nisiva, a Roma-run TV Station. Fiddling with Winamp, he played for me the manele remix of “Turn Me On” by Kevin Lyttle, a soca musician from St. Vincent, West Indies. I smiled with my teeth, listening to the clarinets and thinking to myself: I came here as a Jew, but I’m going to leave a stronger one.
(Some bands and performers to look out for on youtube and the like: Adrian Puradelu’ Minune / Vali Vijelie / Florin Fermecatoru / Florin Salam)
by Jewish Robot [➚] · Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006
by Kalman Rushdie [➚] · Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006
The Ford Foundation funds many causes that improve the world and advance its goals of “strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advance human achievement.” Ford gives priority to work in the Palestinian territories, acknowledging that “a just resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is of central importance to the region as a whole, as well as to the peoples directly affected.”
Strange then that it also funds NGOs such as Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, International Committee of Jurists (ICJ), Miftah, Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, SHAML and EMHRN, all of which exploit human rights rhetoric to delegitimize Israel while undermining efforts towards a peaceful end to the conflict. It’s even stranger considering Ford Foundation President Susan Berresford promised to stop funding groups that “promote or condone bigotry or violence, or that challenge the very existence of legitimate, sovereign states like Israel” in the wake of widespread allegations that Ford helped finance much of the anti-Israel activity at the infamous Durban Anti-Racism Conference.
Read more here
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