On a crowded Jerusalem bus, heading towards Ben Yehuda and Kikar Zion tonight, I witnessed a great exchange. The scene: three hareidim, in full black suits, black hats, tallit katan on top of their shirts.
Guy 1: “You guys gonna get crunk tonight?!?”
Guy 2: “We’re gonna get shit-faced!”
Amazing.
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Babe Ruth was a quintessential American. Somewhat larger than life, the Babe represented the kind of freedom that drives those who believe in despotic regimes mad. During World War II, when Japanese soldiers charged American troops, they would sometimes scream, “To hell with Babe Ruth.” Not “to hell with FDR” or “to hell with Douglas MacArthur,” but “to hell with Babe Ruth.”
And now he needs our help.
OK, OK, so why write about that on Jewschool?
Because we owe him one.
Dr. Rafael Medoff wrote in the Jewish Ledger a few weeks ago that during the last week of December 1942 Babe Ruth helped to keep public attention focused on Hitler’s atrocities. Although the U.S. and Britain had finally publicly acknowledged and condemned the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany, there was no talk of any steps being taken to rescue the Jews and the issue was fading from the public eye.
So, Babe Ruth and other prominent Americans of German descent, stepped up to the plate and signed the “Christmas Declaration by men and women of German ancestry†which appeared as a full-page ad in the New York Times and nine other major daily newspapers.
It read in part:
“[W]e Americans of German descent raise our voices in denunciation of the Hitler policy of cold-blooded extermination of the Jews of Europe and against the barbarities committed by the Nazis against all other innocent peoples under their sway. These horrors … are, in particular, a challenge to those who, like ourselves are descendants of the Germany that once stood in the foremost ranks of civilization.â€
The ad went on to “utterly repudiate every thought and deed of Hitler and his Nazis,†and urged the people of Germany “to overthrow a regime which is in in the infamy of German history.â€
Dr. Medoff’s article drew the attention of the Babe’s granddaughter, Linda Ruth Tosetti, who wrote a comment on the article expressing delight in reading about how her grandfather took a public stand against Hitler. She also asked for help in getting Babe’s number retired from all of baseball by signing the petition that can be found here.
So sign the petition folks – it’s the least we can do!
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The separation of church and state is complicated in Canada, thanks to the notwithstanding clause in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Nonetheless, the courts and (most) governments take strides to keep the two separate.
Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of Stephanie Burker, who had been trying to get a get from her ex-husband for 15-years. (If memory serves, hers is one of the stories in the documentary film “Untying the Bonds: Jewish Divorce.”)
“The fact that a dispute has a religious aspect does not by itself make it non-justiciable,†Judge Rosalie Abella wrote for the majority. Denying the woman the ability to remarry was “an unjustified and severe impairment of her ability to live her life in accordance with his country’s values and her Jewish beliefs.â€
I find it encouraging, then, that the court was able to take a specifically religious issue – that of Jewish women, gets, and agunot – and examine it from a purely legal vantage – contract law. [Read more.]
In the wake of Quebec’s “reasonable accommodation” hearings, I’m curious to know if there has been any backlash against this ruling from the quebecois majority in Quebec, or from the Christian “majority” in the rest of Canada.
More »
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According to a study by the Israeli Masorti movement,…well, maybe you should see for yourself:
According to survey conducted by Masorti Movement in Israel, 87% of public support gender equality, but only 24% of seculars would attend synagogue more often if partitions separating men and women were removed…
Eighty-seven percent of the public believe that nominal gender equality is entirely justified, and 54% claim that Jewish tradition discriminates against women….39% are of the opinion that discrimination doesn’t exist, and another 4% claim that Judaism holds women above men.
Meanwhile, 24% of seculars and 18% of ‘traditional’ Israelis said that eliminating the gender barrier in places of worship would in fact make them more likely to attend prayer services.
OK: Not startling: gender inequality exists; startling: gender inequality doesn’t exist; not startling: most Israelis support gender equality, also not startling: only in theory. startling: the Masorti movement bothered with this study at all. What is it supposed to tell us, exactly?
I suppose the idea is to show that there’s a whole group of people out there for whom Masorti would be a godsend – and IMO, Masorti is making great strides among the Israeli and immigrant populations it Israel, but were they thinking that this would get the government to take them more seriously, or send money, or even help them fight off the more egregious exclusions of the hegemony in Israel?
Well, all the same, good luck!
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New York’s supreme court ruled that two of the three main bodies of Chabad have the right to expel Congregation Lubavitch – the messianist faction- from the synagogue in the bottom of 770. Apparently this struggle has been going on for about 15 years (actually, this makes me feel much better – I hadn’t known that there was much of anything going on opposed to the crazier factions of the movement, which, from all accounts now make up, at least half of Chabad) but the suit stems from when some member/s of the messianist group defaced a plaque that referred to the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson as “of blessed memory” because that’s not what Congregation Lubavitch believed was the current state of said rebbe.
From JTA
New York State’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and Agudas Chassidei Chabad, two of Chabad’s three main bodies, giving them the right to eject Congregation Lubavitch Inc. from the synagogue located in the basement of 770 and 784-788 Eastern Parkway, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. The sites represent the worldwide headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch.
In that first case, the court ruled in favor of Chabad’s leadership, declaring in June 2006 that Merkos and Agudas are the rightful owners of the entire property. The current suit was brought by Merkos and Agudas in order to give them the authority to physically remove the opposing congregation, and its four gabbais, or trustees, from the premises.
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Okay, no one really thinks so. For one thing, Hoffman’s been dead a while, and Sacha Baron Cohen is still alive and kicking. Also he appears, as a general rule to be adequately groomed. But this just in:
In Spielberg’s new movie on the trial of the Chicago seven, Baron Cohen will play Abbie Hoffman. A rather more serious film than Baron Cohen’s incredibly strange, and disputedly funny (some say yes, others not so much) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, The Trial of the Chicago Seven is about the famous dust-ups resulting from protesters of the 1968 Democratic party convention (not “Democrat party convention,” as the TimesOnline refers to it, incorrectly)
The Trial of the Chicago Seven follows protesters who disrupted the 1968 Democrat party convention with an anti-Vietnam-war “carnival†that turned nasty. Demonstrators threw bricks, police responded with tear gas and the centre of Chicago was engulfed in flames. Curfews only escalated the violence.
After the clashes, independent investigators blamed eight police officers and eight protesters including Hoffman, who had already disrupted the New York Stock Exchange with showers of fake money.
The police were not charged but the protesters were accused of inciting a riot. One was jailed for contempt, leaving the seven to fight the charges.
It was, said the late writer Norman Mailer, who testified for the seven, a noisy televised clash between the old order and the burgeoning counterculture.
Hoffman and four others were found guilty of attempting to incite a riot while crossing state lines, but the convictions were overturned and none served any jail time.
Hoffman, of course, was well-known as a prankster who used his somewhat outre pranks as a form of protest against the Vietnam war. That, I’m sure is the attraction for Baron Cohen, but he also had a much longer history as well. He had been active in the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and later a leader of the Yippie movement. Hoffman was also somewhat of a tragic figure, as he committed suicide at 52 , having somewhat earlier been diagnosed as bipolar.
I think it will be very interesting to see Baron Cohen’s take on Hoffman. Note to Baron Cohen: What could you change with your comedy if you put your mind to it?
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… like pastrami. And placemats.
And those letters. The ones where Aleph and Samech become the N and D in 2nd Ave Deli.
So much has been written about the return, about Deli whiz-kid Jeremy Lebewohl taking over the family business, about the lines around the block. Me, I’m going to wait to do a full review for a few more weeks, give em a chance to get up and running (as I would any restaurant). This is just coming from a random New York Jew right now.
It’s wonderful to have it back. Yes, the place has half the seats, the line is as crazy as I’ve ever seen it (even on several Christmas days), and they were out of potato pierogies and gribenes (mmm, fried chicken skins) by 2pm. And yes, it’s on 33rd St by 3rd Avenue. But to have that soup, those latkes and fries, and fried onions so sweet you could eat them like candy (and I needed three sides of them with my latkes and half pastrami/matzo ball combo), to have that back in New York, with so many of the staff faces i recognized (not even a regular, probably, at most, went 6-12 times a year)… it was like Christmastime for the Jews. And in a city where everyone’s a little bit Jewish, we all got pastrami in our stockings this year. What, you’re veggie? Hmmm, uh, mushroom barley soup, then?
Good luck Jeremy. We’re rooting for you.
Welcome home.
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This is one part amusing, two parts horrific. The first thing we learn in this trailer for You Don’t Mess With the Zohan is that Adam Sandler has gotten buff and doesn’t do an Israeli accent very well. That doesn’t stop him from playing Zohan, a Mossad agent who fakes his own death so that he can move to New York City and become a hairdresser. Until his past catches up with him… Sort of like Shampoo, Exodus and Munich rolled into one.
If the trailer is anything to go by, the film half mocks, half affirms American stereotypes of and fetishes for Israeli soldiers. Still, you know you’ll see it when it hits the theatres in June.
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One of Lilith Magazine’s EcoUshpiztin, Betsy Teustch (yes, ZT‘s mommy) celebrates one year of her new blog, Money Changes Things. Here are a few highlights of her anneversary post:
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The slide in the picture, from Prof. Sylvia Barack Fishman‘s presentation yesterday at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute‘s International Conference on Contemporary Reform Judaism, depicts a sentiment I’ve been warning about for years. This quote is from an interview with one of Prof. Fishman’s students at Brandeis, but she said that it was typical of many of her students. So I guess this means I wasn’t just crying wolf.
The two-day conference continues today and promises to be interesting, so if you’re in Jerusalem, stop by the Van Leer Institute (it’s free and open to the public), and if you’re not, you can tune in to the live web broadcast. I only caught a little bit of yesterday’s sessions, but I’ll have more time today since my Arabic class is cancelled (apparently most of the students are observing some sort of holiday or something), and I’ll be covering it for Jewschool.
Unlike the recent URJ biennial, this is not a conference put on by the Reform movement — this is an academic conference talking about Reform Judaism. And I must say that, in the limited time I was there yesterday, I found it quite refreshing to hear Reform Judaism discussed with respect, rather than either disdain or defensiveness.
No time to write more — I’m off to hear about “Halakhah and Ritual in Reform Judaism”. Perhaps I’ll see some of you there.
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Update: according to CNN: “It is an awful and disgusting lie,” Smith said in a statement Monday provided by his publicist. “It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation. Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet,” read the statement.
What I want to know, now, is what he actually did say. I suppose we’ll never know.
Scottish press, who quoted him saying, “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I can do today. I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good’. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming. I wake up every day full of hope, positive that every day is going to be better than yesterday. And I’m looking to infect people with my positivity. I think I can start an epidemic.”
I’ve gotten a dozen emails about this, and I’ve seen it reported in an assortment of blogs, and what I want to say is: STOP! More »
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Daniel Burstyn, over at Sustainable Judaism, on the jumbotrons during davvening at the recent URJ Biennial:
Jumbotrons are all well and good for large gatherings of non-Halakhic Jews, like the Biennial and Craig Taubman’s Friday night live kind of things. They might be ok for other environments, like camp. Maybe when the Temple is rebuilt, there will be Jumbotrons.
But they really go against the grain of the “do it yourself” aspect of Judaism, as it has developed since the publication of the Jewish Catalog in the early 1970s.
…
If Joe or Jane Jew can’t walk onto the bima and run a worship service as well as s/he can run a committee meeting or an awards dinner, then something is broken. There should be no “little man behind the curtain,” nor flashy light show on the bima in Judaism.
Amen!
I remember the jumbotrons and the pit band at Kabbalat Shabbat at the Biennial two years ago, and feeling like it was Shabbat: The Musical. More »
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Six years ago, back when Jewsapalooza was a twelve night festival at the Knitting Factory leading up to Christmas night, I had the pleasure of turning my typical Jewish Christmas into a New York Jewish Christmas with Hasidic New Wave and Yakar Rhythms. Christmas eve with longtime Catholic pals, Christmas brunch at 2nd Ave Deli, a movie, chinese food for dinner, and then the long walk across and downtown, in the snowy sludge, to Leonard Street to catch the culimnation of Jewsapalooza 2001. Fiery Jewish music, mixing jazz, funk and rock with Jewish melodies and African rhythms. It was fantastic. And while I loved all the tunes Hasidic New Wave jammed out, it was the cohesion between Hasidic New Wave and the three incredible drummers of Yakar Rhythms. I bought “From the Belly of Abraham” the album length collaboration between the two groups immediately and it was in heavy rotation for a few years. I’ll admit I hadn’t listened to it in while, but when backbeat told me the two groups were playing together last night at Southpaw as part of Culture Clash, with Circuitbreaker and Avi Fox-Rosen opening up, I knew Knucklehead and I had to make the trek, and we took kungfujew along for the ride too. More »
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How did I miss this?? Last month, Israel was caught red-handed propping up Ahmadinejad’s regime! America demanded that Israel respect international sanctions against Iran and Israel, shamefacedly, crowed that it would of course cease immediately. Apparently, Israel is the world’s largest importer of pistachio nuts whereas Iran is the world’s largest exporter, and Israel’s imports from Turkey were revealed to be funneled through from — you guessed it — the Jew-haters of Tehran. Dun dun dun!
That was a month ago. This is now. Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council and author of a new book on U.S.-Israel-Iran secret relations, writes in this week’s Forward that Israel better join the Iranian cold war thaw or find herself left behind in an American-Iranian deal. Apparently, Iran is not only poised to find common cause with Israel but proposed so already in 2003: More »
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Attention everyone in Chicago: We’ve been informed about a brand-new website, JewishMeetup.com, which seeks to be a central resource for the Chicago Jewish community. It’s providing a space for people and organizations to advertise their events, as well as to find people with similar interests to organize things with. The site is hot off the presses, so the forums (etc.) are mostly empty right now, but if you know about anything Jewish going on in Chicago, or want to make something happen, go and post it!
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Because I will always have the sense of humor of a twelve-year-old boy…
Over at Jewish Myth, Magic & Mysticism, Geoffrey Dennis writes:
So, as a former Registered Nurse, I often emphasize to my congregants that Judaism is a spiritual tradition that embraces every aspect of what it means to be human. Hence, at Kol Ami we encourage use of the b’rukhah of Asher Yetzer ha-Adam, the blessing for having a bowel movement.
This prayer, said once in the morning, covers all subsequent bodily functions for the remainder of the day. But the Shulkhan Arukh, the 16th Century digest of Jewish law by the legal and mystic genius Joseph Caro, also reveals a more complex spiritual tradition concerning defecation. In 3:3 Caro states:
If one wishes to palpate the rectum with a pebble or a piece of wood in order to open up the hole, he should do so prior to sitting but not after sitting in order to thwart sorcery.
He proceeds to bring Talmudic sources explaining how we leave our guardian angels outside while we’re doing our business, leaving us vulnerable to the forces of negativity which attempt to enter our every orifice (even that one).
Texts are provided to sufficiently enrich your BM experience well beyond Asher Yatzar – how to excuse the angels from accompanying you into the john, as well as formulas for protection. If all that isn’t enough:
Rabbah bar bar Hannah said: We used to walk behind R’ Yochanan,
And when he needed to go to the bathroom -
When he was carrying a book of Midrash he’d give it to us.
But when he was carrying tefillin, he wouldn’t give them to us.
He would say: “Since the Rabbis permit us [to take tefillin into a privy],
They will guard me [against demons]!†(Berakhot 23a-b)
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