For anyone looking for some good tunes to snuggle up with during these winter days (even snowing in Israel this week!), soul songster Shir Yaakov has released five albums compiling most of his work to date, including his Musical Midrash project (see Beresheit5764, Vayikra5764, and Bamidbar5764) and newest tracks (see Is he free?) as well as some older work.
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Jewschool announces the U.S. premier of Breaking the Silence’s exhibit of photographs and video testimonies from soldiers who served in occupied territories, collected and presented by Breaking the Silence, bound for Philadelphia on Feb 9th – 24th and in Boston on March 1st – 16th! The exhibit features over 100 photographs and video testimonials, with guided tours led by former Israeli soldiers. A sneak peak is available here.
Why come to the U.S.? Breaking the Silence proposes no political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only that one is needed urgently. It is a cop-out to say that human rights abuses are by “a few bad apples.” Breaking the Silence’s contribution to the discussion — in Israeli and now American and American Jewish society — through “I did it myself” credibility that the system of occupation “actively rots the apples” of Israel’s young soldiers. They know, they saw it, they did it. The information presented here is crucial to everyone’s understanding — right or left — of the costs and benefits of occupation to Israel’s moral fabric.
Which is why Jewschool signed on as media sponsor, to advance these pressing questions presented by first-hand, irrefutably credible sources into the blogsphere. As media sponsor, Jewschool will accompany the exhibit through both cities, Philly and Boston, and to their satellite presentations in synagogues and JCCs there and also in DC, New York City, Maine, North Carolina. We’ll also feature clips from the Breaking the Silence video blog (launching in early February) of responses by visitors to the exhibit.
Breaking the Silence Exhibit:
Israeli Soldiers Talk About the Occupied Territories
Philadelphia: February 9 – February 24
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Opening Night Reception on Saturday, February 9 at 7 pm
Boston: March 1 – March 16
Hosted by Harvard College’s Progressive Jewish Alliance
Harvard University’s Whitehead Center for International Studies
1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Opening Night Reception on Saturday, March 1 at 7 pm
More info below the fold. More »
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Whenever the media publishes an article about the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, its usually the work of disaffected skinhead youths. With nothing better to do, these angry kids take out their frustration with the current state of affairs on the memorial space of Jews. Whether in New Jersey, Germany or Brooklyn, the vandalism of graveyards is a tried-and-true way to be unimaginatively antisemitic, and get a little sensationalist attention from the papers. I usually think little of it.
The situation of a destroyed Jewish cemetery in the Ã…Snipiskes neighborhood of Vilnius, Lithuania is remarkably different. Without any remaining tombstones, the cemetery is a vivid reminder to the city’s Jews that their contributions to Vilnius mean little to Lithuanians born after the war. Consequently, the stretch of open land with Jewish bones beneath is the sight of planned King Mindaugas apartments, a new housing development for upwardly mobile Lithuanians intent on redrawing their city to look, above all things, modern and free. Situated close to the commercial, modern center for the capital – its slick construction will obscure forever the memory of our Jerusalem of Lithuania, and set the relationship between a post-Soviet Lithuania and its proud Jewish diaspora even further apart.
Unlike Poland or Germany, Jewish tourism in Lithuania is less lucrative and less attractive to its citizens, as it would force certain elites in the society to acknowledge that their country is at its heart a patchwork of cultures – Lithuanian, Jewish, Tatar, Roma, Russian, German and Polish among others. To places like the Czech Republic or Germany, the European cosmopolitan idea is strong, and despite a rise in right-wing violence, they have poured enormous funds into welcoming Jewish tourists back to a world they lost. For Lithuanians, sacrificing a money-making housing development to erect a plaque to a destroyed cemetery invites the question for Jewschool readers: Why should a Jewish cemetery be preserved in a city that welcomes relatively few Jewish tourists, which has already marked other Jewish sites with memorial plaques and which above all things, needs a housing boom in its capital to boost an economic resurgence that could eventually benefit the Jewish community living there?
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It’s been reported that Shimon Peres has met with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It seems that Peres is now considering starting a Facebook profile of his own. Why? This is what he told a group representing more than 60 countries, who gathered at Yad Vashem for an international youth conference about the Holocaust:
“Anti-Semitism is a disease of everyone. Persecuting minorities, discrimination, xenophobia and violence exist in many countries in the world.
“You have the opportunity to teach your friends about the memory of the Holocaust so that these horrors will never be forgotten and will never be repeated.
“You can fight anti-Semitism using social networks, like Facebook.”
I know that Facebook has the causes application, and that messages can be sent to members of groups and events en masse, but as these are voluntary initiatives – you don’t have to join a group, cause, event that you disagree with, I don’t think that Facebook will be the most effective tool for countering anti-Semitism. Besides, would you want to be Peres’ friend?
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From Israel News:
An Israeli porn site is proving surprisingly popular with Web surfers in a number of Arab countries, some of which don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel.
After installing software that could detect where users are logging on, managers of the site found they were receiving thousands of hits a week from folks in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, even though the Israeli net domain .il is blocked from some of these countries.
“We were amazed to find a huge amount of our users from these countries,” says Nir Shahar, who manages the site.
…
“Arab people usually see female Israeli soldiers in a bad situation, so there’s a lot of curiosity to see what Israeli girls look like without any uniforms,” says Shahar.“We don’t make regular porn films. Our films parody the situation in Israel, so we look at issues like the elections here and Mossad.
There is a lot of relevance to the Arab-Israeli situation.”
…
“We are also interested in making films with Arabs and Israelis in them,” Shahar says.“It’s something we can do to speak about the connection between the two people, but its not going to be easy.”
I don’t even know what to say.
Full story. (Warning = NSFW)
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Brant Rosen drew my attention to a shocking piece of zionist history:
Did you know that The Beatles were scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv in 1965, but Israeli government leaders nixed the tour for fear the Fab Four would “corrupt†Zionist youth?
Well, me neither. But get this: Israel is now trying to atone for their, shall we say, “ill-advised†decision.
Click here for the lowdown…
Wow. How did that turn out?
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Samantha Shapiro of the NYTimes Magazine takes the Hartman decision to ordain women as Orthodox rabbis to the pages of The Slate. (If you’ve never seen the words “achudus ha’am” and “ahavas yisrael” in a mainstream pub, here’s a chance. Also a particularly amusing cartoon of a lady rabbi.) Basically, she, like Rabbi Haviva Ner-David, questions whether this will really make a difference for Orthodox women seeking to be rabbis.
On women becoming non-rabbi spiritual leaders and law-decisors:
These strides are significant, but there’s a question of the trajectory of these quasi-rabbinic roles. A man in any of these women’s positions could expect after a few years of service to be promoted to main rabbi. It’s fairly unlikely, however, that these women’s careers will advance much further. Without an accepted orthodox rabbinic ordination, there is nowhere to be promoted to.
And, on these women’s ability to even remain within the Orthodox movement:
Women who believe so passionately in the divinity of the Torah and its laws that they want to remain in the Orthodox community have to do a difficult dance. If they get rabbinic ordination through Hartman or other institutions, they are likely to move themselves outside of the norms of their communities and not really be able to influence them as a rabbi would—and if they don’t, well, they’re still not rabbis.
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On New Year’s Day, I was driving back from celebrating with friends at a little cabin in the woods. It was already into the evening when I and my driving buddy hit Connecticut. Temperatures were dropping rapidly, especially from New York state heading north. While driving over a bridge, my car hit a patch of black ice, wobbled, and then headed into a terrifying skid that took us 360 degrees around, over two highway lanes, headlights of the car behind us in our eyes, highway rails glimmering in the peripheral, screaming, until we stopped abruptly facing forward in the righthand lane. Thank God no one was hurt, and no car damage, mostly due to the fact that there were miraculously no cars driving right near us excepting the truck behind us.
We pulled gingerly off the highway and stopped at the next side street. I put my head down on the wheel and said, “Baruch Hashem, baruch Hashem, baruch Hashem,” over and over, like an incantation. As sure as I knew the feel of the seat below me I knew I had been given a miracle.
The following Shabbat, I wanted to bentch gomel, the blessing one who has survived a life-threatening experience (such as illness, pregnancy, or traveling long distances) makes after an aliyah during Torah service following their recovery. The catch was that I was visiting my sister. She and I were both raised in a Reform congregation and both have since come far from it — I to my neo-Chassidic, renewal, traditional, feminist enclave and rabbinic path, and she with an Orthodox husband and part of the Orthodox community of Pittsburgh. Usually, when I visit her, I make an exception to my acting principle that mechitzot = trayfe for my davenning so we can all be together. However, this Shabbat, I would not have been able to have an aliyah to bentch gomel at her shul, and so she and I went to the Conservative shul near her.
Now, I honestly don’t spend a lot of time in synagogues, but especially not in smaller cities since I’ve always lived in big cities. In the winter, when presumably the cold keeps people from trudging out to services on Shabbat, this shul combines their library minyan with their regular congregation and has one combined service–albeit still only around 40 people by Torah reading.
The gabbai came up to us when we got there to welcome us and wish us Shabbat shalom, at which point I mentioned that I would like to bentch gomel. He was really sweet about it, asked if I was all right, and set about getting me an aliyah. Someone would come and let me know which it was, he said. My sister and I found siddurim, chumashim, and took our seats. A few minutes later, the other gabbai came over and told me that I would have the fifth aliyah.
He also handed me one of those lacey doilies old ladies wear in shul and a bobby pin. More »
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Richard Silverstein, from Tikun Olam, has a great piece in today’s Haaretz about the Jewish blogosphere and its role in presenting dissenting views in the Jewish community.
In the age before blogs, Jewish leaders were like political bosses. They ruled their roosts, and anyone who questioned them was easily frozen out of communal discourse. Their politics were conservative and generally supportive of the Israeli right. For its part, the Jewish media was a corporate entity that largely expressed the views of such leaders. The few dissenting individuals and organizations made barely a ripple in the communal pond.
Blogs have changed that.
Read the full article here.
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Looks like the attacks on Obama’s “pro-Israel” bonafides are paying off…
Yesterday, while hundreds of thousands of Gazans flooded through the demolished border with Egypt simply to get food and basic supplies after nearly a week of complete border closures imposed by Israel, Sen. Barack Obama sent the following letter to US Ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad:
Dear Ambassador Khalilzad,
I understand that today the U.N. Security Council met regarding the situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be forthcoming from the Council in short order.
I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condemn the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in Southern Israel for over two years.
All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families. However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this. Gaza is governed by Hamas, which is a terrorist organization sworn to Israel’s destruction, and Israeli civilians are being bombarded by rockets on an almost daily basis. That is unacceptable and Israel has a right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.
The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks against Israel, and should make clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against such actions. If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator
To be clear, I’m one of those who actually believe Obama IS the best candidate for Israel precisely because he will be a strong supporter of Israel AND someone who can strengthen Israel’s security through peace with its Arab neighbors. So I greet this letter with sadness.
There’s no need for a letter like this. We know Obama condemns attacks on Israel and believes Israel has a right to defend itself. Even Dennis Kucinich says that. But for someone who handles every other foreign affairs issue with such nuance and care, this is disappointing.
More »
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What, in the hell, is this?
The Mr. President hotel in Belgrade is receiving increasing flak from Jewish communities worldwide for its $200 a night Hitler suite, one of numerous room dedicated to various world leaders. In the hotel, Serbia’s B92 radio reports, one can “have tea with Margret [sic] Thatcher, surf the Internet with George Washington and soak in the Jacuzzi in the company of Josip Broz Tito”.
The ADL announced their outrage in the Jerusalem post on Tuesday, with Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, saying, “using this tyrannical dictator to promote a hotel is a gross marketing ploy and demonstrates a profound failure to understand the horror of the Holocaust.”
Gross, macabre, and effective — Foxman said he was “deeply” disturbed by the “high demand for the hotel suite”. The room is the hotel’s “most popular”, attracting mostly German, Croat, and Slovenian guests. Zabunovic considers his choice to have a certain nobility, saying he is memorializing the Holocaust with the suite:
[Hotel manager Dusan] Zabunovic has not specifically commented on the ADL’s complaint, but on Wednesday, the hotel manager told Cybercast News Service, “It’s not just marketing. We placed the (Hitler) picture there because we don’t want to forget the bad things that Hitler has done.”
The manager said he’s not sure if the Hitler portrait will be removed, but he added that the hotel does not want to attract negative publicity.
The manager also said Hitler isn’t the only controversial leader. He mentioned one Serbian man who didn’t want to sleep in the Bill Clinton suite….Zabunovic told ABC News that Hitler’s victims would “turn in their graves” if there was no memorial to “what a monstrous criminal he was.”
I can’t say that I’m inclined to buy the whole “we’re the Yad Vashem Inn” defense he’s saying in the media; his “negative publicity” is keeping the room booked. Whether he is really acting under noble intentions or putting the lock on the anti-Semite niche market only time will tell.
Is the memory of the Holocaust and its catastrophic genocide becoming cheapened? The 2006 Indian faux pas of the Hitler’s Cross cafe still haunts search engines, and Italian winemaker Vini Lunardelli got caught up in 2007 for making its Der Führer line of wines, made “on special request” from German and Austrian vinophiles. 2002 saw the heyday of the Hitler Techno Bar in South Korea’s 2nd largest city Pusan, and Dubai-based Conqueror Realty “stood by” its 2007 decision to use Hitler in its UAE advertising campaign, with its owner saying: “He’s a famous person — bad or good, I don’t care — and I want to attract the attention of readers. And yesterday we had a lot of response.”
We should be outraged, but I feel, more than that, when Hitler triggers positive enough responses in people’s minds that they make consumer decisions based on seeing his face…perhaps it’s a sign we should be watching our collective backs.
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So the Israeli university strike ended at the 11th hour (or as they say in Israel, the 90th minute), and classes began on Sunday. So this is the first week of the semester for all the classes that have been on strike (i.e. classes taught by senior professors), and the last week of the semester for classes that haven’t been on strike (classes taught by junior faculty, everything at Rothberg and other special programs exempted from the strike, etc.).
The Hebrew University has announced the calendar for the rest of the year, and I assume the other universities are doing something similar. This is too insane to be believed.
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Wow. Estimates of the number of people who went from Gaza to Egypt today range from 200,000 to 350,000 (out of a total population of 1.5 million).
I’m probably missing something big, but I’m finding it hard to see how this isn’t a good thing for both Israel and Palestinians. The right-winger in me says that after 60 years, maybe this will finally force Egypt to take some responsibility for the situation in Gaza, and the left-winger in me says that Gaza is a shithole so who wouldn’t want to leave. We’re not talking about the West Bank, with ancestral villages and olive groves and such.
Whether one sees all Palestinians as terrorists, or whether one sees them as human beings to whom the Israeli government has a responsibility as long as they’re living in Israeli-controlled territory, one way or the other it seems like Israel is better off letting this be Egypt’s problem.
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Whoa, missed this yesterday! Fed up with Israel’s siege, Gazans blew up 2/3 of the 7-mile wall between Gaza and Egypt, and flooded over the border in the tens of thousands to buy water, milk, wheat, cigarettes, and medical supplies. I suppose this is what happens when you starve a million people, yes?
Photos courtesy of AP and Reuters.
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Walter Mosley, the Los Angeles born writer, is best known for creating Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator who, from his imaginative beat in Watts, propelled Mosley’s volumes into the hands of Bill Clinton, and into a movie starring Denzel Washington.
He sat down with Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg of the Wall Street Journal to speak about his newest protagonist, Ben Dibbuk. A little quote from the interview for flavor: “I’m Jewish. My mother is Jewish.”
His thoughts on book publishing, mysteries and Yiddish abound.
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In a move heard loudly around the environmental world, the Israeli government has reached a deal with Project Better Place and Renault-Nissan for the three partners to create an electric car infrastructure throughout the holy land by 2011. Israel is cited as the perfect site for such a project due to its small size and the fact that electric cars currently can not go long distances without being recharged. The tax incentives and system are expected to make the electric car cheaper than using fuel for most drivers, given the increasing cost of fuel.
Using the pre-paid cellphone system as model, Renault-Nissan will build battery recharging stations around the country, and the government will provide tax incentives to purchasers. One of the impetuses behind the project, Idan Ofer, of Project Better Place, hopes this can be a model that will eventually go international. “If Israel will ever produce a Nokia, it will be this,†he told the NYTimes.
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(X-posted from Judaism Without Borders.)
I just got off the phone with a leftist student group who wanted to partner on the Israel-Palestine project I’m coordinating. They were ready to sponsor events on their campus, publicize it widely, etc. They’ve enthusiastically done it before. But when I told her that they couldn’t be seen associating with us, my poor heart ached as I heard the disappointment in her voice. She managed to not sound upset, but considering I’ve never met this person before, I feel like I’ve just betrayed a friend.
Reputation means everything. Breira was a 70s era Jewish peace group which aired to America the occupation opponents in Israel and even accompanied them to meet with Palestinian leadership…and quickly was accused of being non-Jewish posers or self-haters, and imploded. New Jewish Agenda of the 80s was another Jewish dove group which failed to cope with membership in the Jewish community when when “member” was defined by the arch-conservatives, and it collapsed from within. For both of those groups, their former leadership now quietly sits on the boards of present dove orgs, albeit after learning a costly lesson.
The lesson is simple as it is unfair. As much as we Jewish peace and coexistence activists want to partner with Arabs and peace-seeking goyyim, the cases where we can do so without being accused of treason are sparse. This is the reason in the early days of Brit Tzedek, the organization made the decision that to do it’s work inside the Jewish community, it had to play nice with the OJC, to pick its allies with care. Other organizations also make the same sacrifices on a regular basis. Those that weren’t careful, died. Or even worse, gained the title of the “irrelevant left.”
Reputation is all that we have sometimes in this work. It’s sad that to know that if I say “Such and such activist is kipah-wearing” or “served in the IDF” or “goes to shul” or “works in the OJC” suddenly gives that person a credibility boost. That credibility is built on stereotypes as flimsy and repugnant as any other. Yet we use them and even buy into them in order to open doors.
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