by Mobius [➚] · Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
Become a UPZ Intern!
Do you want to help your favorite campus movement? Do you want to gain real world and resume building experience? Do you want to hang out in a fun filled, interesting office in the heart of Chelsea? Then come spend all or part of your summer in NYC interning for UPZ! We need help on several exciting projects such as:
- planning next year’s programs and conferences
- finding funding for increased activities
- revamping the UPZ website
- UPZ networking
- Designing and producing UPZ gear
- And much more!
We possibly will be able to provide a place to stay.
Please Contact Tammy, director@upzshalom.org for more info.
***
Intern with Meretz USA!
Have some extra time this summer? Why not spend it in a young and fun office in New York City, contributing to an important cause and adding some volunteer experience to your resume!
UPZ-sponsoring organization Meretz USA is looking for an intern for May 31st – June 15th.
Duties will include:
- Database update
- Daily posting of news articles
- Filing
- Other functions as appropriate and needed (e.g. telephone)
A modest stipend is possible.
Anyone interested should send their resume to mail@meretzusa.org.
by BZ [➚] · Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: The tithe economy
256. “No bound or hired laborer of a priest shall eat the sacred.” (Leviticus 22:10) = not just a random non-kohen (as in #255), but even an employee of a kohen can’t eat terumah
257. “No uncircumcised man may eat of it.” (Exodus 12:48) = in context it’s about the pesach, but from this is derived a prohibition for an uncircumcised man to eat terumah
258. “No man of Aaron’s offspring who has had an eruption or a discharge shall eat of the sacred donations until he is clean.” (Leviticus 22:4) = any kohen who is tamei (ritually unclean) can’t eat terumah
259. “If a priest’s daughter marries a layman, she may not eat of the sacred gifts.” (Leviticus 22:12) = she loses her priestly status and thus authorization to eat terumah (etc.)
260. “It is the tithes set aside by the Israelites as a gift to God that I give to the Levites as their share.” (Numbers 19:24) = everyone has to give 10% of their produce as a tithe to the Levites
261. “You shall set aside every year a tenth part of all the yield of your sowing that is brought from the field.” (Deuteronomy 14:22) = set aside an additional 10% as “ma’aser sheini” (the second tithe), to eat in Jerusalem or redeem
262. “I have not deposited any of it with the dead.” (Deuteronomy 26:14) = don’t use the proceeds from ma’aser sheini for any purpose other than eating, drinking, or anointing
263.”I have not cleared out any of it while I was unclean.” (Deuteronomy 26:14) = don’t eat ma’aser sheini when you’re tamei
264. “I have not eaten of it while in mourning.” (Deuteronomy 26:14) = don’t eat ma’aser sheini while you’re in aninut (the first stage of mourning, before the deceased has been buried)
265. “You may not partake in your settlements of the tithes of your new grain…” (Deuteronomy 12:17) = don’t eat grain of ma’aser sheini outside Jerusalem
266. “…or wine…” (Deuteronomy 12:17) = don’t drink wine of ma’aser sheini outside Jerusalem
267. “…or oil.” (Deuteronomy 12:17) = don’t eat oil of ma’aser sheini outside Jerusalem
268. “In the fourth year all its fruit shall be aside for jubilation before God.” (Leviticus 19:24) = the fruit of any tree, after being forbidden for the first 3 years (#200), shall have the status of ma’aser sheini during the 4th year, and must be eaten in Jerusalem
269. “When you have set aside in full the tenth part of your yield — in the third year, the year of the tithe — and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your settlements, you shall declare before Adonai your God: ‘I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house….’, etc.” (Deuteronomy 26:12-15)
270. “The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of Adonai your God.” (Exodus 23:19) = bring your first fruits to the Temple
by BZ [➚] · Monday, April 23rd, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: Economic justice
241. “The gleanings of your harvest … leave them for the poor and the stranger.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)
242. “Do not gather the gleanings of your harvest.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)
243. “[The solitary grapes of] your vineyard … leave them for the poor and the stranger.” (Leviticus 19:10)
244. “Do not pick the solitary grapes of your vineyard.” (Leviticus 19:10)
245. “The fallen fruit of your vineyard … leave them for the poor and the stranger.” (Leviticus 19:10)
246. “Do not gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard.” (Leviticus 19:10)
247. “When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field … it shall go to the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.” (Deuteronomy 24:19)
248. “…do not turn back to get it…” (Deuteronomy 24:19) = the forgotten sheaves from #247
249. “Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your yield from that year … and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow in your settlements shall come and eat their fill.” (Deuteronomy 14:28-29)
250. “Open your hand to your poor and needy kin in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:11) = tzedakah
251. “If there is a needy person among you, one of your kin in any of your settlements in the land that Adonai your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kin.” (Deuteronomy 15:7)
252. “The first fruits of your new grain and wine and oil … you shall give to [the priest].” (Deuteronomy 18:4) = terumah, the portion for the kohanim (priests)
253. “Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the Israelites their tithes, which I have assigned to you as your share, you shall set aside from them 1/10 of the tithe as a gift to God.” (Numbers 18:26) = after the Levites receive 10% of the produce (ma’aser rishon), they have to pass on 10% of that 10% (terumat ma’aser) to the kohanim
254. “Do not delay the skimming of the first yield of your vats.” (Exodus 22:28) = when you separate the various tithes, make sure to do it in the right order, with terumot (for the kohanim) before ma’asrot (for the Levites); don’t delay the terumot
255. “No lay person shall eat the sacred.” (Leviticus 22:10) = a non-kohen may not eat terumah
by Mobius [➚] · Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Just kidding!
Show your love for Jewschool in the 2007 Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards!
Jewschool has been nominated in the following categories:
Best Group Blog
Best News/Current Events Blog
Best Pro-Israel Advocacy Blog
Best Left-Wing Political Blog
Best Jewish Anti-Establishment Blog
Best Designed
Best Contribution / Blog that Made a Difference
And don’t forget to give love to Radical Torah, Orthodox Anarchist, and our friends at The Kvetcher, Kosher Eucharist, JVoices, JSpot, The Jew & The Carrot.
Preliminary round voting is open til Sunday.
Click here to cast your vote.
On a side note, in an article on the Jewish blogosphere in the March 2006 edition of Jewish Socialist magazine, Cliff Singer wrote:
Jew School has become a bastion of Jewish blogging, with 30 contributors and more than 50,000 readers per month, and is one of the few liberal sites nominated in the Jewish and Israel Blog Awards. Sieradski says the real problem isn’t bias in the awards, but in the online Jewish community. He told Jewish Socialist: ‘I get riled up because I have a hard time accepting that the Jewish community – which is primarily liberal and progressive – should appear to be so overrepresented by the religious right… The domination of the blogosphere by the Jewish right is a stain on our community and reflects poorly on us internally and externally.’
Though it didn’t make it into the publication, I followed up on that remark by saying that my goal, at the time, was to help foster a larger, stronger left-wing Jewish blogosphere, by providing technology, design and marketing support to other individuals and organizations that wanted to get in on the blogging action.
Last year, there were only six politically left-wing blogs nominated throughout the entire JIBs contest, three of which were my own, and one of which was a Jewschool contributor’s blog. I’m very pleased to say that this year, there are 18 blogs nominated in the left-wing politics category alone (in fact, this is the first year a left-wing category was merited), and of those 18, two are sites of my own, and four are sites that I worked on. There are, beyond the left-wing category, at least a half-dozen other blogs nominated which I either designed, hosted, or consulted on.
Which leads me to conclude that even if I don’t win any awards this year, I have already won, in a certain respect, by having so clearly succeeded in my goal.
by Jewish Robot [➚] · Monday, April 23rd, 2007
by Danya [➚] · Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Couldn’t resist posting this little scene from Jen’s Tefillin Barbie workshop.
by BZ [➚] · Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: Earth Day! The earth belongs to God.
226. “The nazirite shall shave his/her consecrated hair, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and take the locks of his/her consecrated hair and put them on the fire that is under the sacrifice of well-being.” (Numbers 6:18) = upon completing the term of the nazirite vow or upon becoming tamei (ritually unclean)
227. The table of assessments of humans (Leviticus 27:2-8) = if you make a vow, saying “I vow the value of Ploni”, you have to pay according to a fixed amount depending on Ploni’s age and sex
228. “For any unclean animal that may not be brought as an offering to God, the animal shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess it. Whether high or low, whatever assessment is set by the priest shall stand.” (Leviticus 27:11-12) = if you vow an animal (and the animal itself can’t be offered), you pay a monetary contribution determined by the priest
229. “If anyone consecrates his/her house to God, the priest shall assess it. Whether high or low, as the priest assesses it, so shall it stand.” (Leviticus 27:14)
230. “If anyone consecrates to God any land that s/he holds, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirement: 50 shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed.” (Leviticus 27:16)
231. “Anything that one proscribes for God, whether humans or animals or land of his/her holding, … every proscribed thing is totally consecrated to God.” (Leviticus 27:28) = “cheirem”
232. “It shall not be sold…” (Leviticus 27:28) = cheirem
233. “…and it shall not be redeemed.” (Leviticus 27:28)
234. “You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed.” (Leviticus 19:19)
235. “You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed.” (Deuteronomy 22:9)
236. “You shall not let your cattle mate with a different species.” (Leviticus 19:19)
237. “You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together.” (Deuteronomy 22:10)
238. “You shall not wear cloth combining wool and linen.” (Deuteronomy 22:11)
239. “You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.” (Leviticus 19:10) = leave what? see #240
240. “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap the corners of your field.” (Leviticus 19:9)
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
Antisemitism on the Left is a problem that just won’t go away.
One may recall a number of thorough discussions on Jewschool to that effect, including “Antisemitism on the Left,” “That’s funny, you don’t look antisemitic,” and “Opposing antisemitism in the movement.”
That last link is to a conversation that took place in response to the announcement of a workshop last summer led by April Rosenblum, a Jewish activist based in Philly who decided to take the initiative to address this issue comprehensively, first with her workshop, and now with a recently published pamphlet, “The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Antisemitism Part of All of Our Movements.”
April’s work is, in many ways, the first of its kind. A valiant and cogent attempt at examining anti-Jewish discrimination from within the context of modern Left-wing anti-oppression movements, “The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere” aims to draw clear lines for activists who wade, often unintentionally, into the morass of anti-Jewish ideology that has seeped its way into the realm of post-colonial politics.
More »
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
The Intersection of Israel and Progressive Politics
Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, a dynamic Democrat from Nevada, will join us for a conversation on how support for Israel intersects with progressive politics.
Hosted by Pro-Israel Progressives
proisraelprogressives@columbia.edu
Sunday, April 22, 2007
8:15pm – 10:00pm
Math 312 // 117th & Broadway-ish
Cafe Nana will be served. Feel free to come 15 minutes early to start eating!
Co-Sponsored by LionPAC and CU DEMS
[Update] See Backbeat’s informative comments below.
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
Jewschool reader Steg reports,
Yesterday, Rav Avi Weiss and the Jewish activist organization he founded, AMCHA: the Coalition for Jewish Concerns, coordinated a civil disobedience protest at the United Nations.
Around 50 rabbis and rabbinical students, as well as a lay communal leader or few, participated in the protest. They prepared themselves in a staging area near the Iranian Mission to the UN — putting on talleisim and distributing signs — and after a few short speeches and rounds of slogan-shouting, they marched, singing ‘Am Yisra’eil Hhai, to the steps that go down past the Isaiah Wall across the street from the UN buildings.
At the bottom of the steps, they sat down, blocking the public thoroughfare.
[...] A representative from the police department addressed the protestors, explaining to them that they need to cease obstructing pedestrian traffic, or they will be arrested and charged with disorderly conduct (as well as more severe offenses if they actively resist). So about half of the protestors stepped back and dispersed along the upper reaches of the staircase, obeying the police orders, while the other half remained sitting and blocking the steps, expressing their willingness to go all the way and be arrested in order to make their message heard more dramatically.
And so, one by one or two by two, the waiting police officers with their belts full of plasticuffs handcuffed the civilly-disobedient protestors and deposited them in the back of two police vans.
Full story.
by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
- Israel welcomed an offer by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- George W. Bush honored the Israeli professor who sacrificed his life to protect his students during the VA Tech massacre.
- John MacArthur at Harper’s says, if you think the Israeli lobby is disproportionately and improperly influential, you should see the Saudis.
- Debbie Schlussel is a disgusting human being.
- “Members of the Reform movement, including Holocaust survivors, filed a complaint for libel with the police against former chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Wednesday, following his statements linking the Reform movement and the Holocaust.”
- Walmart is still selling t-shirts bearing a Nazi emblem despite vowing to remove the shirts from their stores nearly six months ago. The shirts, incidentally, were designed by a Jew.
- Don’t get what the White House email scandal fuss is all about? Threat Level breaks it down nice and easy.
- Wanna know where your tax money is going? Check out visualization A and visualization B.
by BZ [➚] · Saturday, April 21st, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: Oaths and vows
211. “Do not deal deceitfully” (Leviticus 19:11) = don’t deny that you have something that has been entrusted to you
212. “Do not deal falsely with one another.” (Leviticus 19:11) = don’t make an oath denying that something is in your possession
213. “By God’s name you shall swear.” (Deuteronomy 10:20) = if for some reason you’re making an oath, and if you’re telling the truth
214. “You must fulfill what has crossed your lips and perform what you have voluntarily vowed to Adonai your God, having made the promise with your own mouth.” (Deuteronomy 23:24)
215. “If a person makes a vow to God or takes an oath imposing an obligation on him/herself, s/he shall not break his/her pledge.” (Numbers 30:3)
216. The procedure for annulling vows (Numbers 30:3-16)
217. “The hair of [a nazirite's] head shall be left to grow untrimmed.” (Numbers 6:5)
218. “Throughout the term of his/her vow as a nazirite, no razor shall touch his/her head.” (Numbers 6:5)
219. “[The nazirite] shall not drink wine or any other intoxicant, or vinegar of wine or of any other intoxicant, and shall not drink anything in which grapes have been steeped.” (Numbers 6:3)
220. “Fresh grapes … [the nazirite] shall not eat.” (Numbers 6:3)
221. “Dried grapes [the nazirite] shall not eat.” (Numbers 6:3)
222. “Throughout his/her term as nazirite, s/he shall not eat anything that is obtained from the grape — even seeds…” (Numbers 6:4)
223. “…or skin.” (Numbers 6:4) = of the grape
224. “Throughout the term that the nazirite has set apart for God, s/he shall not go in where there is a dead person.” (Numbers 6:6)
225. “Even if [the nazirite's] father or mother or brother or sister should die, s/he must not defile him/herself for them.” (Numbers 6:7) = or for any other dead person
by Mobius [➚] · Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Eyal Press asks, in The Nation:
What happens when a student magazine committed to fostering dialogue and to featuring a diverse range of opinions opens its pages to critical views on Israel? The sobering consequences were brought home recently to the staff of New Voices.
Full story and useful commentary.
by rokhl [➚] · Friday, April 20th, 2007
Tonight at Barbes in Park Slope, a rare US appearance by the soon to be superstar Dan Kahn and his band The Painted Bird. If you’re not familiar with the novel which inspired Kahn’s project, I’ll tell you it’s the only book my parents ever forbade me from reading. They didn’t keep me from reading Anne Frank’s diary in fourth grade, or even taking out the book about Mengele in 7th. But Kozinski was beyond the pale. Gey veys. Go figure.
The Painted Bird (the novel) is an incredibly dark portrayal of life during World War II in Poland. It questions our very ability rise above our animal natures. It’s material is the grotesque and the grotesque as a reflection of life.
The Painted Bird, (the band), is an outgrowth of Dan Kahn’s travels as an American, and a Jew, in Central and Eastern Europe. (He’s been living in Berlin the last two years). It asks what it means to have an inheritance of victimhood but not be a victim oneself. And what does it mean to be the grandchild of perpetrators when one is not guilty of anything but being born into a troubled national legacy?
From his recent album Dos tsebrokhene loshn (the broken tongue) Kahn’s song Son of Plenty takes up the question:
Speak not of your righteousness/for though you might be true/ the tree of evil might just have its seed inside of you/ waiting for the proper time to bloom
We the chosen children of this martyrdom must learn/ that martyrs turn to murderers when tables have been turned/ and history repeats its bloody tune
This theme of the pathology of martyrdom and revenge shows up in a new song Kahn has been performing all over Europe and now here. It’s called Nakam and it’s about the aborted plan, devised by one of the leaders of the Vilna Partisans, Abba Kovner, to take revenge on the Germans, after the war, by poisoning the German water supply and extracting an equal number of German victims to match those who were sent to their death in the camps.
It’s a strange, uncomfortable and incredibly compelling story that challenges our ideas about healing, history and victimhood. As Dan told me, while his relatives here in the States have encouraged him not to perform it here, it’s his most popular song in Germany and Poland.
The music is part cabaret, part wine cellar, in yiddish, german and english, and leans heavily both on Tom Waits and Brecht. With the most important new Jewish clarinetist under 30, Michael Winograd, the band takes Jewish music to a whole new level. And while the subject matter is heavy, they’ve also got some of the funniest material I’ve heard in a long time, especially the new English verses for the classic Yiddish love song, Borscht, written by Dan and Moscow blues guitar legend Vanya Zhuk.
So don’t miss this rare show- Tonight, Barbes, at 8 pm.
by BZ [➚] · Thursday, April 19th, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: More kashrut.
196. “Don’t cook a kid in its mother’s milk” (Exodus 34:26) = don’t cook meat with milk (cf. #195)
197. “Bread … don’t eat until that day, until you have brought the offering of your God.” (Leviticus 23:14) = don’t eat bread from the new grain harvest until you have brought the omer offering on the 2nd day of Pesach
198. “…or parched grain…” (Leviticus 23:14) = see #197
199. “…or fresh ears of grain…” (Leviticus 23:14) = see #197
200. “When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten.” (Leviticus 19:23)
201. “The crop from the seed you have sown, and the yield of the vineyard, may not be used.” (Deuteronomy 22:9) = if a vineyard is sown with another kind of seed
202. “They shall not profane the sacred donations of the Israelites that they set aside for God.” (Leviticus 22:15) = don’t eat tevel, produce from which the tithes have not yet been removed
203. “God will say: Where are their gods, the rock in whom they sought refuge, who ate the fat of their offerings and drank their libation wine?” (Deuteronomy 32:37-38) = don’t drink wine that has been used for a libation
204. “You may slaughter any of the cattle or sheep that God gives you, as I have instructed you, and you may eat to your heart’s content in your settlements.” (Deuteronomy 12:21) = slaughter animals properly before eating them
205. “No animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young.” (Leviticus 22:28)
206. “If any Israelite or any stranger who resides among them hunts down an animal or a bird that may be eaten, s/he shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.” (Leviticus 17:13)
207. “If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young.” (Deuteronomy 22:6)
208. “Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.” (Deuteronomy 22:7) = continuation of #207
209. “You shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God.” (Leviticus 19:12)
210. “You shall not take the name of Adonai your God in vain.” (Exodus 20:6)
by LastTrumpet [➚] · Thursday, April 19th, 2007
From this week’s Forward:
While the Jewish community is energetic about replying to perceived slurs against Jews or the State of Israel, we are remarkably passive when it comes to answering insults against our religion or our God.
Seems like a workable presmise.
The article first take on the athiests, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. So far we’re good. There’s a bit about apologists and The Guide for the Perplexed:
In fact, the Mishnah makes it every Jew’s obligation to be an effective apologist, an obligation that most of us ignore nowadays: “Know how to answer an unbeliever†(Pirke Avot 2:14) — with the word for unbeliever being apikorus, a follower of Epicurus, the Greek philosopher.
Epicurus is known as a primary exponent of materialism, the belief that material reality is all there is in the universe. And materialism happens to be one of the most serious challenges that religion is up against today.
Right on! Then things take a turn:
More »
by BZ [➚] · Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: What’s kosher
181. “The following you shall abominate among birds — they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination:” (Leviticus 11:13) = followed by the whole list of forbidden birds
182. “Anything in the seas or in the streams that has no fins and scales, among all the swarming things of the water and among all the other living creatures that are in the water — they are an abomination for you, and an abomination for you they shall remain: you shall not eat of their flesh and you shall abominate their carcasses.” (Leviticus 11:10-11)
183. “All winged swarming things are unclean for you; they may not be eaten.” (Deuteronomy 14:19)
184. “All the things that swarm upon the earth are an abomination; they shall not be eaten.” (Leviticus 11:41) = swarming creatures that reproduce normally
185. “You shall not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that moves upon the earth.” (Leviticus 11:44) = swarming creatures formed by spontaneous generation (I’m just reporting what the Rambam says)
186. “You shall not eat, among all things that swarm upon the earth, anything that crawls on its belly, or anything that walks on fours, or anything that has many legs; for they are an abomination.” (Leviticus 11:42) = worms that come out of fruit
187. “You shall not draw abomination upon yourselves through anything that swarms.” (Leviticus 11:43) = water creatures
188. “You shall not eat a carcass.” (Deuteronomy 14:21) = an animal that died by means other than kosher slaughter
189. “Its flesh shall not be eaten.” (Exodus 21:28) = an ox that gores someone and is executed
190. “You must not eat flesh torn by beasts in the field.” (Exodus 22:30) = or any animal (even if slaughtered properly) that has any of the defects that render it tereifah or “treif”
191. “You must not consume the life with the flesh.” (Deuteronomy 12:23) = don’t eat any part of a living animal
192. “Do not eat any blood.” (Leviticus 3:17)
193. “Do not eat any cheilev.” (Leviticus 3:17) = forbidden fat
194. “That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle.” (Genesis 32:33)
195. “Don’t cook a kid in its mother’s milk.” (Exodus 23:19) = don’t eat meat with milk
follow us on Twitter
follow us on Facebook
subscribe to our email