by Danya [➚] · Saturday, December 23rd, 2006
The Forward reports,
Two major new demographic studies estimate the American Jewish population at well above 6 million people, indicating a growing Jewish community that contrasts sharply with popular images of Jewish decline. In particular, scholars say, the new studies appear to refute a widely publicized survey conducted in 2001, which counted 5.2 million American Jews and sparked widespread anxiety over American Jewry’s future.
Full story here.
by Mobius [➚] · Saturday, December 23rd, 2006
The NY Times reports,
The board that oversees the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here publicly distanced itself on Thursday from a member who recently condemned the first Muslim elected to Congress for planning to use a Koran during the private part of his swearing-in ceremony.
In November, the board member, Dennis Prager, a conservative commentator and radio show host, said that Keith Ellison, the newly elected Muslim member of Congress, should give up his post if he could not take his oath on a Bible, which Mr. Prager said was the traditional religious text of the United States.
In its resolution, the council’s executive committee criticized Mr. Prager’s remarks as “antithetical to the mission of the museum as an institution promoting tolerance and respect for all peoples regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity.â€
Full story.
by Mobius [➚] · Friday, December 22nd, 2006
Morton Klein has made a career for himself by virulently attacking criticism of Israel on the Left. Yet as director of the Zionist Organization of America, Klein has himself become one of the most vociferous American critics of Israel on the Right. Under his stewardship, the ZOA has loudly and publicly opposed any and all Israeli peace efforts of the last decade, including Oslo, Camp David, the Road Map and the Gaza disengagement.
As if that were not enough to demonstrate Klein’s discontinuity with the overwhelmingly pro-peace American Jewish community, as well as the consistency of his views with those of religious Jewish extremists, after this summer’s war in Lebanon, Klein opposed the use of post-war relief funds contributed by the American Jewish community to assist Israeli Arab communities ravaged by rocket fire in Israel’s north.
Klein has even gone so far as to deny that the Deir Yassin massacre ever took place (despite the fact that the Irgun themselves admit to it, albeit disputing the application of the word “massacre”). Forgive the connection here made between the Shoah and the Palestinian experience — because they’re quite clearly dissimilar and incomparable experiences — however little, if any, difference exists between denying Palestinian suffering and denying the Shoah. It’s not okay when it happens to us, it’s not okay when we do it to them.
In his latest affront, Klein has focused his energies on having the Union of Progressive Zionists (comprised of Habonim Dror, Hashomer Hatzair, Meretz USA and Ameinu alumni) thrown out of the Israel on Campus Coalition for co-sponsoring a recent North American university tour of pro-peace IDF veterans.
More »
by Yoseph Leib [➚] · Thursday, December 21st, 2006
Cannabis chassidis is about to retire, as I’m pretty sure I’ve said
most of what I want to say with it. I’m probably going to keep writing
something somewhere else, but before it folds: Is there anything that
still needs to be explored on it? I’ve taken the questions of religion
and drugs as far as I think I can without getting redundant too often,
but if there’s anything else anyone wants explored there, post a
comment on www. cannabischassidis.blogspot.com. I’ll do one more big
post in a month or so based on whatever feedback I get, and then one
more after that to tie it all together.
Otherwise, feel free to rifle the archives, they should be up for at
least a little bit longer, and if you want, feel free to save, print
them out, and translate or distribute the Torah there as needed. I’m
commenting here now and again, and also on this one raw, unkempt blog
called sevenfatcow.wordpress.com, amongst others as needed.
Zai Gezunt, happy redemption, and Stay High.
—Yoseph Leib
by Y-Love [➚] · Thursday, December 21st, 2006
You just don’t get idiocy like this on C-SPAN.
The Mail & Guardian Online reports:
An ANC [African National Congress] MP cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion — the infamous anti-Semitic forgery used by the Nazis — as a credible document at a recent Iranian-sponsored academic seminar in Pretoria.
Farida Mahomed agreed recently she had asked a Jewish seminar delegate, Claudia Braude: “Are the protocols still relevant to you in today’s time? How do we apply this balanced approach to reconciliation when we read them and they are totally the opposite?”
Was she being serious? Was she attempting to use the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as an academic source to be “reconciled” with modern events? Surely she must know they have no validity.
Interviewed this week, Mahomed said she was unaware the protocols had been exposed as a hoax. Mahomed said that she had read the protocols on the internet but had not researched them.
Asked whether she thought they had ever been “relevantâ€, she replied: “I can’t make a comment. They must have been relevant or they would never have been written.”
Yet when asked about the Holocaust:
Asked for her views on the Holocaust, Mahomed said: “I don’t want to comment on something that I haven’t done research on. I wouldn’t want to be influenced by any scholar.”
It’s just plain sad. This is an elected official. In a country as modern as South Africa, elected officials are, in 2006, asking Jews at conferences for their official positions on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
President Thabo Mbeki already urged Hamas to “accept Israel” and the official South African position is a “two state solution” with “secure borders”. This is no Ahmadinejad. Anti-Semitism in South Africa is also nowhere near the levels of its European counterparts.
This is no more than one MP’s anti-Semitism born out of unabashed ignorance. Ignorance so bad, it’s pitiful. (Hat tip to EOZ.)
by EV [➚] · Thursday, December 21st, 2006
Interesting little tidbit from Consumerist: For the past six weeks, Walmart has been selling a t-shirt that, intentionally or not, contains insignia from the Waffen-SS. As Consumerist notes, the offending imagery was quite possibly the result of “a hack designer googling for skull pix”. But although Walmart apologized for the error, the offending tee is still in stores.
The original blogger’s report is here.
by Ronen [➚] · Thursday, December 21st, 2006
When most of us think about the institutions that define the typical American
Jewish experience, we think of synagoguges, summer camps, JCCs and youth groups.
Not Sing Sing prison in New York or death row in Texas.
Boston-based filmmaker Rhonda Moskowitz has asked me to compose an original musical score for her upcoming documentary, American Prison: The Forgotten Jews. The film explores the lives of Jews who are serving long sentences in American prisons (including Sing Sing and others).
How do these prisoners relate to their spirituality? What role does Judaism play in their lives? How do the prison system and the Jewish community relate to these inmates?
This is an important film that will explore these subjects. As interest in Jewish-themed documentaries surges, American Prison: The Forgotten Jews is destined to make its mark alongside films like Trembling Before God; it will illuminate a segment of our community that, until now, we’ve largely swept under the rug.
This documentary needs your help. Watch the clip below, and please consider making a tax deductible donation–even a small one.
You can make a secure tax-deductible donation on-line, or if you prefer, send a check by mail. Click here to support Rhonda’s film.
by Danya [➚] · Thursday, December 21st, 2006
I haven’t seen anything up here about the Judith Regan drama that’s been unfolding, so I figured it was time to post. This is a pretty big deal in the publishing world, in any case.
The short version: Judith Regan had her own schlock-selling imprint at HarperCollins (“How to Make Love Like a Porn Star,” etc) and was slammed hard for signing and publishing OJ’s revolting book, “If I Did It,” in which he speculated on how, exactly, he would have committed double murder if, in fact, he had (which of, course, he didn’t.) The book was cancelled, but not before making the company (and Murdoch, its owner) look terrible–thus putting Regan on thin ice already. Then she began getting some flak over a forthcoming Micky Mantle pseudo-memoir. The last straw that lead to her dismissal, however, was about some charming statements made to the NewsCorp (HarperCollins’ parent company’s) lawyer. The WSJ reports:
Andrew Butcher, the News Corp. spokesman… added that Ms. Regan said the following in the phone conversation: “Of all people, Jews should know about ganging up, finding common enemies, and telling the big lie.” He said Mr. Jackson [the NewsCorp lawyer] had taken notes during the conversation.
In the next breath, Mr. Butcher said, Ms. Regan said that literary agent Esther Newberg and HarperCollins employees David Hirshey, Jane Friedman, and Mr. Jackson constitute “a Jewish cabal. All of you people are conspiring against me.”
Full story here.
But that’s not the interesting part. The NYT reports,
Ms. Regan was investigated in the spring of 2003 after an editor complained that she had boasted of removing the scrolls from her neighbors’ mezuzas and replacing them with torn pieces from dollar bills.
(Story here.)
Cabal or no cabal (there is one, of course, and it convened shortly before her sacking), that is… way over the line. A good klaf costs way more than a dollar!
by YehuditBrachah [➚] · Thursday, December 21st, 2006
I just got back from the Matisyahu concert in Boston. Like, the I’m still sweaty kind of just got back. I am totally blown away. And not necessarily by what you might think.
I felt a little weird going tonight because of the whole Jdub break. But I’m pulled to any places that have some twinkle of reaching upward. So tonight I left my history paper on second Temple period apocalypticism and ventured over to Lansdowne St in Boston.
I witnessed a deeply puzzling phenomenon: the Pseudo-Jew.
Walking into the Avalon ballroom, first thing I noticed was this was not your Moshav Band crowd. This was not Jewish hippies. There were few kippot and lots of pointy-toed shoes and frat t-shirts. That “us-ness,” that camaraderie I feel at Jewish gatherings, was distinctly absent. Because what creates a collective is a shared understanding of what you are participating in. I expected people to not quite get it, many to not be Jewish, but I was disappointed by the depth of it. It’s one thing not to know how to sing along to “yibaneh beis hamikdash, bimheira b’yameinu.” It’s another to be freak dancing with your girlfriend to the lyrics of a song describing the Jewish people’s survival of the Holocaust.
After two experiences at the concert tonight, my question is this: what makes people pretend to be Jewish at a Matisyahu concert?
More »
by shamirpower [➚] · Wednesday, December 20th, 2006
Last night every’s favorite squiggly Shamir took the mic MC-style for night 5 of Chanukkah, and night 4 of the second annual Sephardic Music Festival in NYC. Did I mention there were some hot talented beards on stage?
There’s still three nights left, including two shows on Thu. night (uptown and downtown), the Sat. evening Arabian Nights Hanukkah Party with Smadar @ Knitting Factory (Tap Bar), all culminating in Sunday’s back to back Hip Hop Sulha shows:
SUNDAY DEC. 24:
HIP HOP SULHA feat. Hadag Nachash, Saz, Yuri Lane, Y-Love, Jake Break,& dj handler @ BB Kings, 237 West 42nd St. Doors @ 6PM show begins promptly at 8pm / all ages
HIP HOP SULHA MINI (for especially kids & teens), featuring a selection mc’s from the Hip Hop Sulha series @ The JCC in Manhattan, 3pm, 334 Amsterdam Ave @ 76th St.
This unique concert will be followed by an exclusive Q&A with the musicians.
Visit HipHopSulha.com for more info.
by sarah [➚] · Wednesday, December 20th, 2006
An update on the “Jewish Rosa Parks” story from Israel:
A woman who reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc “modesty patrol” on a Jerusalem bus last month is now lining up support for her case and may be included in a petition to the High Court of Justice over the legality of sex-segregated buses.
Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No. 2 bus….In her first interview since the incident, Shear says that on the bus three weeks ago, she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women.
“Every two or three days, someone would tell me to sit in the back, sometimes politely and sometimes not,” she recalled this week in a telephone interview. “I was always polite and said ‘No. This is not a synagogue. I am not going to sit in the back.’”
But Shear, a 50-year-old religious woman, says that on the morning of the 24th, a man got onto the bus and demanded her seat – even though there were a number of other seats available in the front of the bus.
“I said, I’m not moving and he said, ‘I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.’ Then he spat in my face and at that point, I was in high adrenaline mode and called him a son-of-a-bitch, which I am not proud of. Then I spat back. At that point, he pushed me down and people on the bus were screaming that I was crazy. Four men surrounded me and slapped my face, punched me in the chest, pulled at my clothes, beat me, kicked me. My snood [hair covering] came off. I was fighting back and kicked one of the men in his privates. I will never forget the look on his face.”
Shear says that when she bent down in the aisle to retrieve her hair covering, “one of the men kicked me in the face. Thank God he missed my eye. I got up and punched him. I said, ‘I want my hair covering back’ but he wouldn’t give it to me, so I took his black hat and threw it in the aisle.”
More absolutely infuriating details here. I imagine that those of you who live in Israel have your own eyewitness accounts of this sort of thing. I know we see posts about these incidents from time to time and I think it’s important to keep the issue alive.
by Ruby K [➚] · Wednesday, December 20th, 2006
From my favorites, the folks over at the Judy Miller Times:
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19 — It is fair to say that in a neighborhood largely populated with Orthodox Jews, it is rather unconventional to have a life-size Santa perched on the edge of the roof of a house, attached to a microphone and bellowing, “What is this Hanukkah you speak of?â€
Ms. Loomis-Shrier, with her son, Hunter, said that some people were offended by her holiday display but that it was her right to put it up.
It is particularly noteworthy that the Santa, and the elaborate Christmas display in which he rests, sits outside the home of a Jewish family, sparking the curiosity, and occasional ire, of neighbors.
“Some people are so offended, you have no idea,†said Mary Loomis-Shrier, who has long erected the giant display on a lovely street south of Hollywood. “But some of my neighbors think it is great. Some of their kids drop their list of toys in my mailbox. I don’t care because I love it, and it is my right.â€
So many things to say. What odds will you give me that she’s on Bill O’Reilly’s show tonight… especially when he reads this:
“Ms. Loomis-Shrier, who with her husband runs the famous Hollywood undergarments outpost Trashy Lingerie”
One serious concern that jumps into my head: does she know she’s about to become the poster child for every single Chistian fundamentalist that wants to take the separation out of “separation of church and state”?
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
The Forward reported yesterday that the Conservative movement is beginning the process of creating a new ethical certification system for kosher food. The ongoing shenanigans in some of the country’s largest slaughterhouses last year (and previously) prompted the movement to set up a special commission to investigate working conditions at the AgriProcessorsInc slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa (See previous posts: Where’s the beef now? Kashrut update on Rubashkin’s; Another beef with kashrut in the news; Kashrut Brouhaha Has Legs all from earlier this year). Starting with PETA’s allegations of improper slaughter, following with federal subpoenas in connection with a criminal antitrust investigation and rounding up with allegations of improper treatment of workers, such an investigation has been long overdue.
According to the Forward,
The five-person commission, formed by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, was created following an investigative report in the Forward, which detailed a series of allegations about the treatment of workers at the AgriProcessors plant in Postville, Iowa. Members of the Conservative panel, who visited the Iowa plant in August and September, recently issued a report stating that “there are significant issues of concern at the plant, including issues of health and safety.â€
The goal of the committee is to establish a “tsedek hekhsher,†or a oversight that includes justice as a guideline, to ensure that kosher food producers “have met a set of standards that determine the social responsibility of kosher food producers, particularly in the area of workers rights.â€
This is the first time that any Jewish denomination has attempted to use labor as a guideline for certifying food and is also the first time that the Conservative movement would be involved in overseeing food nationally.
According to the Rabbinical Assembly Press release,
According to the Rabbinical AsThe commission intends to continue working with these and other kosher food manufacturers to ensure adherence to Jewish values in the production of kosher food and will be conducting other site visits.
As the humane treatment of animals is at the heart of the laws surrounding kosher slaughter, further visits may include assessments of the conditions and treatment of animals. Additional study may also include an assessment of the effects of their products on the environment by these same and other food processors.
The idea of this committee most likely sprang from ongoing conversations within the movement which called into question exactly what it means to certify something as kosher. As we have seen, the laws of kashrut (just for one example) have recently been taken to be exclusively about following certain ritual requirements, and have had less attention paid to other related laws which guide us as Jews to have respect for animals and their comfort, let alone to paying attention to business practices of Jewish organizations and businesses. It has been profoundly disturbing to those of us who take halakhah seriously, to see that Jewish organizations and businesspeople have selectively focused on certain halakhot and felt it within their their rights to ignore others, and still to call themselves observant.
More »
by TheBarkin [➚] · Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
The LA Times‘ Joel Stein says that Jews are ready to engage in the War on Christmas. “War is a zero-sum game,” he writes, “so when Christmas is winning, Hanukkah is losing.”
You have deployed your most annoying Gentiles against us: John Gibson and Bill O’Reilly. So forget Al Franken. Once we find the alley that Pauly Shore is sleeping in, he’ll be singing the dreidel song outside your house. We’ll force storeowners to greet you with a “Happy Hanukkah” — and not the secular version but the one with the “Ch” in front and all the accompanying spittle. We’re also going to shoot you. Us Jews hear war, we take it seriously.
I realize these are difficult times. I understand the desire to declare “our” unified Christianity in public places, to fence out the Mexicans, to fight against the luxury of Muslim free speech, to pass English-only legislation. But a great nation, as our Constitution figured out, fights its populist instincts. And uses Latin to confuse its citizens.
More.
by Mobius [➚] · Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
Dear Mormons,
It’s one thing to believe that Jesus Christ appeared to a Lost Tribe of Israel in pre-Colonial America to preach the gospel before ascending to heaven. It’s yet another to know that this story was concocted by a man who buried his face in a hat and claimed to be reading from ancient magical plates. I’m not really here to poke holes in your myths, because so long as they promote ethical behavior, you can believe whatever narishkeit you like.
Again, that is so long as your beliefs are ethical.
What is evermore chutzpadik than even the presumption that I’d remotely consider accepting the basic premises of Mormonism, is that when I die, you won’t even allow me that choice. In essence, you trample my religious self-determination and rob me of a fundamental freedom due all human beings.
Only 60 years ago, a people arose that sought to rob us not only of our freedom, but of our very lives. Now you finish their work, robbing us of our identities as we lay at rest in our graves, harvesting our souls.
You do this to such a mentsch?
KSL 5, Salt Lake City, reports:
Questions tonight about a well-known Jewish leader, whose name appeared on genealogy records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Simon Wiesethal died last year, after surviving the Holocaust and dedicating his life to fighting anti-Semitism. But his name on Latter-day Saint records has upset Jewish leaders. They call it a violation of an agreement between Holocaust survivors and the church.
The name was apparently only on the church records for less than a week and was removed today as soon as the church learned of it.
[...]
On December 11th, Wiesenthal’s name appeared on the LDS church’s International Genealogical Index.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder, Simon Wiesenthal Center: “This is very offensive to Jews. It violates an agreement that the Mormon Church had with the American Gathering of Holocaust survivors.”
The LDS church believes in performing baptisms for those not of their faith, after their death. But in 1995, the church agreed with Jewish leaders to remove the names of all Holocaust survivors who were baptized for the dead in LDS temples, and to stop adding them to their rolls.
Hier told the JTA:
“We are astounded and dismayed that after assurances and promises by the Mormon Church, Mr. Wiesenthal’s life and memory, along with so many other Jews, would be trampled and disregarded,†Hier said.
Wiesenthal “proudly lived as a Jew, died as a Jew, demanded justice for the millions of the victims of the Holocaust and, at his request, was buried in the State of Israel,†he said.
“It is sacrilegious for the Mormon faith to desecrate his memory by suggesting that Jews on their own are not worthy enough to receive God’s eternal blessing.â€
Sacrilegious indeed. It’s what we call a chilul hashem — a desecration of The Name.
You are tarnishing the reputation of G-d in your representation of His Name.
And you must stop.
***
Friends, call 1-800-645-4949 and arrange your own private meeting with a representative of the LDS to let them know how you feel about this issue.
by Mobius [➚] · Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
Stills and background at Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi’s blog.
by Mobius [➚] · Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
The European Jewish Press reports,
British celebrity husband and wife Katie Price and Peter Andre will be raising money for Jewish children’s charity Norwood after they teamed up to produce a album of duets.
Norwood, based in Stanmore, north west London, was one of five charities chosen by the singing duo to benefit from the record sales.
Welsh-born Price, better known by the nickname Jordan, found fame in the late 1990s as a topless model who regularly appeared in tabloid newspaper The Sun. She met Australian singer Andre on the television show I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here in 2004, and the pair were married in 2005.
[...]
“We know, that as parents of a child with a learning disability, Katie and Peter understand only too well the challenges as well as pleasures that this can bring and how vital it is to have people to turn to for support when the going gets tough,†she said. “We hope the album is a great success.”
The money raised will help to fund Norwood’s wide variety of services, including the respite care centre, Buckets and Spades; its new school project providing education to children with profound learning disabilities, and its social work team who give vital support to children and families.
According to media reports Price is in fact Jewish as her maternal grandmother was Jewish, but she does not identify publicly with the Jewish community.
But it is her relationship with Norwood president Richard Desmond which is likely to have encouraged her and Andre to include the Jewish organisation amongst their list of charitable causes to benefit from the album.
Full story.
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