by YehuditBrachah · Friday, February 29th, 2008
Sports Illustrated is covering a story about a boys basketball team that might be forced to end their playoff run because they are shomer shabbat.
If Herzl/RMHA makes it to the regional championship and refuses to play a Saturday game, another school would be chosen to take its place, CHSAA commissioner Bill Reader said.
Earlier this month, the Colorado High School Activities Association, which governs sports and other high school activities, rejected the team’s request for a schedule change.
The State Senate got into the action, too:
Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, said the CHSAA’s decision was ironic because it has a rule barring games from being played on Sunday for religious reasons.
Full story here.
by Mordy · Thursday, February 28th, 2008
I don’t generally nitpick NY Times editorial decisions, but today’s huge [website] frontpage story has a ridiculous non sequitur too good not to share. The article runs about 40 graphs pertaining to the escalation of the conflict in the Gaza. The big news was the replacement of Qassam rockets with Grad-type missiles. “The Grad missiles have a longer range than the homemade, relatively crude Qassam rockets,” the Times explains. Which is how Ashkelon became a target today (Four rockets. One hit a house. No casualties.).
The final graph of the story, though, dismisses the rocket/retaliations narrative for something entirely different:
Omri Sharon, a son of Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister, began a seven-month prison term on Wednesday after being convicted in 2006 of violating party campaign finance laws, fraud and perjury. The sentence had been delayed because the elder Mr. Sharon, 80, had a severe stroke.
I don’t know if this indicates that the NYT is lazy, that the writers needed to pad out their word count, or that they believe all Israel news belongs under one monolithic rubric. But I do know that it’s buried far enough down in the story that most readers will never have the wtf moment I did reading the Times today.
by Rooftopper Rav · Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
JTA (and inside sources) report that Brandeis has selected a winner in their competition for Bronfman Visiting Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation (i.e., “the next big idea in Jewish life”). According to this article “the idea is based on the contest held by Sears Roebuck and Co. chairman Julius Rosenwald in 1929, in which Rosenwald offered $10,000 to the person who could answer the question: ‘How can Judaism best adjust itself to and influence modern life?’ Sixty-two contestants answered the question over two years, until Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, submitted his work ‘Judaism as a Civilization’ and won.”
Mazal tov, Yehuda!
Brandeis names competion winner
Brandeis University selected a Harvard graduate student as the winner in its competition for a visiting professorship and book deal, JTA has learned.
Yehuda Kurtzer, who is finishing his doctorate in Jewish history at Harvard University, won for his proposal, “Shuva: the Sacred Task of Rebuilding Jewish Memory.”
Brandeis and the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies offered a two-year visiting professorship and a book deal to the person who could come up with the best proposal for a book that would transform the way Jews think about themselves and Judaism.
Kurtzer’s book would be a combined history, theological statement and prescription for programming that can help Jews access their history through text study to create meaningful Jewish experiences, Kurtzer said Sunday at a Brandeis symposium for the five finalists in the competition. The open competition garnered 231 applicants.
The school would not comment on the selection until after the official announcement.
by Rooftopper Rav · Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
If you’re in NYC and want to learn more about the intersection of Judaism and justice from a stellar lineup of teachers (and a great book), run run run to sign up for this class! (And then email us if you want to guest blog any of the sessions). It looks amazing.
REVOLUTIONARY TEXT STUDY!
A Six-Part Series on Michael Walzer’s Exodus and Revolution
“Wherever people know the Bible, and experience oppression, the Exodus has sustained their spirits and (sometimes) inspired their resistance.”
- Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution
Do you have the same conversations at your Passover Seder, year after year? Are you looking for something that might spice things up this time around?
Do you crave substantive and meaningful Jewish learning in community?
If so, here’s the program you’ve been waiting for!
Exodus and Revolution, by Michael Walzer, traces the dynamics of revolution, redemption and liberation through the biblical story of the Israelites leaving Egypt for the Promised Land. It also examines later retellings of Exodus by diverse groups including classical rabbinic interpreters and political actors who used the story as the rallying point for their own revolutionary struggles – from African American resistance to slavery and Jim Crow, to the British and French Revolutions, to the guerilla liberators of various Latin American countries.
Over the course of 6 weeks together, we will unpack Exodus and Revolution through intensive learning in chevrutah (in pairs) and through facilitated discussions that will be guided by some of NYC’s leading scholars and activists. You will have a chance to learn with and from a roster of inspiring rabbis and social justice educators, including:
Aaron Dorfman
Director of Education, American Jewish World Service
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Mechon Hadar
Rabbi David Rosenn
Founder and Executive Director, AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps
Dara Silverman
Executive Director, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Rabbi Melissa Weintraub
Co-Founder and North American Director, Encounter
Shmuly Yanklowitz
Co-Founder, Uri L’Tzedek
Rabbi Brent Spodek, the Marshall T. Meyer Fellow at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, will open and close the series by teaching the introduction and conclusion. Teams of rabbis and educators (including those listed above) will teach the four chapters in between.
Dates: Weekly, starting on Wednesday March 12th and ending on Wednesday, April 16th (March 12th, 19th, and 26th and April 2nd, 9th, and 16th).
**The course will end just in time for you to bring your newfound insights to your Passover Seder!
Time: 7pm-9pm
Location: TBA
RSVP: Audrey Sasson at 212.792.2871 or asasson {at} ajws(.)org or asasson {at} avodah(.)net.
This program is brought to you by AJWS, AVODAH, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Encounter, Uri L’Tzedek, Mechon Hadar, and JFREJ.
by Ruby K · Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
I’ve grown tired of the ridiculous attacks on Obama. Maybe it’s a visceral reaction b/c of all the “if you do X, you’re clearly a self hating jew/anti-semite” bs that gets lobbed around, especially in the j-blogosphere. But Tim Russert, on a national stage of a Presidential debate no less, took the old yarn out for a spin and spent almost seven minutes on it.
I don’t know how many times we have to be over these moronic smears. But Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo lays it out:
That’s not what Russert did. He launches into it, gets into a parsing issue over word choices, then tries to find reasons to read into the record some of Farrakhan’s vilest quotes after Obama has just said he denounces all of them. Then he launches into a bizarre series of logical fallacies that had Obama needing to assure Jews that he didn’t believe that Farrakhan “epitomizes greatness”.
As a Jew and perhaps more importantly simply as a sentient being I found it disgusting. It was a nationwide, televised, MSM version of one of those noxious Obama smear emails.
Don’t worry, Josh, I won’t call you an Anti-semite for the “perhaps more importantly” bit. Seriously, for me, personally, this is my equivalent to the Hillary NH moment. Some folks felt that the harsh attacks on Hillary made a lot of people angry and turned out her supporters, making the difference in the primary. I’ve had it with this smear nonsense.
Don’t get me wrong. I still have some strong reservations on Obama. I don’t think he’s where I want him to be on economic issues. But he’s solid on a lot of things, he’s bringing better people with him, getting new and more people involved, and the fact that he’s done community organizing gives me more faith in him than in the other candidates still standing. But I’m tired of the mainstream media getting this shit wrong, at best lazy perpetuation of a baseless story, and at worst purposefully trying to attack and derail on innuendo. Look, ask them hard questions about trade, about the war, about whatever. But this bullshit is old, tired, and has been answered repeatedly and as thoroughly as possible. It’s been rejected and denounced, debunked and dismissed, and still, it somehow remains around.
So congratulations, Russert. Pushing that smear actually made me go from a moderate supporter to a volunteer (with ten years of organizing experience). Just call me a snowball in hell.
Or, as the Hip Hop Hoodios say, Shalom Obama!
by biz · Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
There were many times when we worried that one move too far into the mainstream, one step beyond the very traditional bounds of the Orthodox world, could bring a ban on a certain very tall Hasid. We took a lot of questions to the Bet Din at 770 and respected the answers they gave, but always, always, I had this concern. Seems in another part of “the Jewish music jungle” (Thanks frumhouse, i love that term), just such a ban has been decreed. Does anyone care? Will anyone follow it? I just find this too intriguing not to share…
Have you heard of The Big Event? If so, for the love of Hashem, write a comment and chime in. I love how the Ultra-Orthodox world can randomly swing into Madison Square Garden and it flies totally under the radar of the rest of the Jewish world. Apparently, it is/was a concert planned for March 9th featuring frum music favorites headlined by Lipa Shmeltzer. Lipa really is a King. A wedding singer and simcha entertainer, he gained prominence with his lighthearted rewrites of secular tunes as newly Kosherfied hits in both Yiddish and English. He performed at a friend’s wedding and while his “Yo Ya” was good, he really got me with version of Melanie C’s “I turn to you.” Apparently you can make it Jewish simply by adding “Hashem” before the phrase. ANYWAYS…
I’ll let the frum bloggers explain from here:
Frumhouse:Basically, the current king of the Jewish music jungle, Lipa Schmeltzer, has been deemed too wild by certain factions of the orthodox community. Furthermore, these factions believe that current Jewish music has become goyified (my word, not theirs). Songs that stem from non-Jewish melodies, even if the words and taam have been changed to elevate their kiddusha, are deemed inappropriate for kosher Jewish entertainment.
This concert and future Jewish music concerts have been banned by a group of about 35 rabbanim. They also prohibit people from hiring any performer who participates in the Big Event Concert.
Lipa speaks out: I have recently started learning Bichavrusa with a leading Rosh Yeshiva, and I promised him that I will never sing any songs which were composed by non-Jews. Being true to my word, I have sang at more then a dozen Chasuna’s since I made that decision - and I have not sang “Yidden”, “Abi-Mileibt”, or “Numa” (Rabbi Nachman M’uman) or any other song that is questionable as to its origin.
The really ironic thing to me about this is many Hasidic niggunim, and most Jewish music in general, doesn’t come from exclusively Jewish sources. We are a people with a tradition of song as a vital form of expression in our lives. But with the exception of Torah cantillation as a system of musical notation and musical modes of prayer, as a Diaspora people our appropriation of the culture of our various host communities is inevitable. What makes Klezmer more Jewish than pop songs about Hanukkah? What makes pining for Hashem to the tune of a French Revolutionary War March more Kosher than pining to Hashem to the tune of an ex-Spice Girl?
by Rooftopper Rav · Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
I’m too tired to really comment, but here’s the update on the egg roll strike story from two weeks ago:
Yesterday’s The World reported that Israeli sushi restaurants planned to go on a “sushi strike” today in phase two of their protest against Israel’s plan to eliminate work permits for foreign chefs. (Okay, really their plan is to challenge the new Israeli policy in court, but this is more fun, if totally counterproductive.)
Best line in the story comes from the Israeli owner of Sakura, a Japanese restaurant in Jerusalem: [Israelis just want to be normal.] “Being normal means you can eat sushi whenever you want…kosher or not kosher…”
by shamirpower · Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Listen up Jewschoolers:
Shemspeed is giving you all the chance to remix from our files. First up is Y-Love next will be Pharaoh’s Daughter and they will keep coming. Here is how it works!
We give you the instrumentals and accapellas and you use whatever program you would like to make your own remixes from these files. We recommend Ableton (download a free trial here). You have the chance to remix four different singles off the “This is Babylon” album.
Once you finish the remix submit it to Shemspeed (djhandler {at} shemspeed(.)com) and have a chance to win a Shemspeed fun pack (includes CDs, Stickers, Posters, Fliers and an official Shemspeed T Shirt).
have fun!
DOWNLOAD ALL FILES AT www.ylovemusic.com/remix to listen to the songs in full go to myspace.com/ylove.
by LastTrumpet · Monday, February 25th, 2008
My beard is a constant source of conversation (especially with my mother). So when I saw an article in Commentary titled “Why Beards?” you can bet my interest was peaked. In the article, Meir Soloveichik examines the Jewish beard, from its biblical origins to modern America.
Wherever we look, writes Kass, “we see in Egypt the rejection of [bodily] change and the denial of death.” Shaving was a key element in this rejection. “No shaggy outlines or blemishes mar the perfectly smooth look. What appears to be an unveiling [of the human face] is actually also a veiling of age and disorder.” With this in mind, it begins to seem no accident at all that the Hebrew Bible, which steadily sets itself against pagan practices of every kind, should have positively enjoined the opposite practice—that is, the wearing of beards—thus visibly and deliberately repudiating the false blessing of eternal youthfulness and underscoring the fact of our eventual and inevitable mortality.
More »
by BZ · Sunday, February 24th, 2008
In this happiest month of Adar, we look back in history at all the joyous events that have taken place in Adars past. Can you believe that it has been 18 years (and 24 Adars) since Digital Underground released their album Sex Packets, on 29 Adar 5750?
On Thursday night at a “Def Adar Jam” in southern Jerusalem, I performed a folk version of “The Humpty Dance” on acoustic guitar in honor of this milestone. Yes, there are other versions floating around the Internet, but if I may say so, my rendition is better. (And no, my version isn’t on YouTube and never will be. By day, I teach high school, and I don’t need my students googling me and hearing me sing about how I’m still getting in the girls’ pants.)
Here’s the thing though. It’s not really my version. I first heard it at Hillel Leaders Assembly in 1999.
In Megillat Esther, an Adar classic, after Mordechai uncovers the plot to assassinate the king, Esther passes this information on to Achashverosh in Mordechai’s name (Esther 2:22). The rabbis of the Talmud derive from this that anyone who says a thing in the name of the one who said it brings redemption to the world (Megillah 15a). Wait, no. Rabbi Eliezer taught it in the name of Rabbi Hanina. That’s better.
So I’d like to give proper credit to the person from whom I learned this acoustic folk version of the Humpty Dance, and thereby bring redemption to the world. There’s only one problem. I never got his name. I’ve been chasing Humpty ever since.
Then I realized that there’s really no good reason that this mystery hasn’t been solved yet. The Jewish world just isn’t that big, especially the subset of it who were Hillel student leaders in 1999 and play guitar. This person shouldn’t be more than a couple degrees of separation away from me. But he (yes, I’m pretty sure about the gender) has remained at large for 8.5 years. So I’m bringing in the big guns and asking the blogosphere. If you played the acoustic Humpty Dance at Hillel Leaders Assembly in 1999, please identify yourself so that the world can be redeemed. And if it wasn’t you, but you have a hunch of who it might be, please forward this post to them, so that together we may usher in an era of peace and humptiness forever.
Thanks in advance!
by Eli · Sunday, February 24th, 2008
The cover of Albatros, drawn by Henryk Berlewi. Albatros was a interwar journal for new writing and graphic arts. Edited by Uri Zvi Greenberg. Berlin (1923)
By the time that painter, typographer and critic Henryk Berlewi’s work appeared in New York City in 1976, it was half a century after he made clear his artistic theory, and nine years after his death. His theory, Mechano-faktura, claimed:
Space is an illusion. Two dimensionality is the artist’s goal. Colors are reduced to black, white and red, and images are produced through mechanical means using rhythmic arrangements of lines and simple geometric forms, like circle and squares.
He was a pioneer of Yiddish modernism in an ideological hurricane season. By 1928, Berlewi, known today as a brilliant creator of posters, book jackets and page designs in Yiddish and Hebrew, was close to major Jewish artists and writers of his time - Alexander Wat, El Lissitzky, Peretz Markish, Uri Zvi Greenberg and Anatol Stern. His work represents a time when Jews participated zestfully in the cultural life of Europe, and more importantly, saw in this participation an opportunity to create a uniquely Jewish art. As those before him, he challenged the second commandment, suggested the possibility of a national aesthetic and smoked countless leaves on the streets of Paris- to be a Jewish artist, influenced by Europe while nourishing its soul with beauty. Berlewi, who is remembered today by only a few scholars, is better remembered as a Jew for all of us. More of his images are below.
Composition in Red, Black and White (1924)
Berlewi’s cover for Perets Markish’s Di kupe (Warsaw 1921)
How bout these in the lobbies of new Jewish institutions, so that our youth are nourished by his experimentation and rebellion?
by Ben Baruch · Friday, February 22nd, 2008
See Shabot on Facebook!
by Kung Fu Jew · Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Yehuda Shaul and Arnon Degani will be interviewed on live radio with Rabbi Bruce Diamond, who served as Military Chaplain for the U.S. Air Force, today at 2 pm EST archived on WGCU’s site.
Listen to the show live by clicking here.
Dial 1-877-GCU-TALK (428-8255) during the show to participate.
More photos related to this broadcast below. More »
by Kung Fu Jew · Thursday, February 21st, 2008
From Yoshie Fruchter and the gang: PITOM does a short tour in Israel this weekend and next week. First a solo Beyond the Book show and then a trio PITOM gig, both in Jerusalem. Very different vibes for each gig, but both should be a lot of fun. If you have any friends or family in Israel that you think would dig, please let them know.
BEYOND THE BOOK at OU Israel Center
WHERE:22 Keren HaYesod • POB 37015 • Jerusalem 91370
phone: (02) 566 7787 • fax: (02) 566-0156
WHEN: Saturday night, Feb. 25th, 8:30pm
PRICE: 40 Shekels
YOSHIE FRUCHTER’S PITOM (acoustic trio with Tomer Tzur and Oded Goldschmidt)
WHERE: Artel jazz club, Jerusalem
Heleni Hamalka 9, Tel: 077 9620165
When: Monday night, Feb 25th, 10pm
PRICE: 20 shekels
by chillul Who? · Thursday, February 21st, 2008
In what may be the most effective awareness-raising campaign and the best embodiment of the Jewish value of “kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh”* to ever come across my G-mail ticker, Appalachian Voices and Michael Gross have set up http://www.ilovemountains.org/ , the End Mountaintop Removal Action and Resource Center.
It’s a good site to check out in order to see for yourself the devastating human and environmental impacts of strip mining for coal in Appalachia. You can view Google Earth imagery in the National Memorial for the Mountains and read up on current news from the mountain towns of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and from the regulatory agencies in Washington, DC.
Its most impressive feature, however, which reminded me of the Hebrew proverb I quoted above, is the “My Connection” page. You enter your zipcode. You pick your energy supplier. They tell you if your power company uses Appalachian coal from mountaintop removal mines. Then, with another click, you can send an email to your power company telling them to stop supporting mountaintop removal.
That’s what we call using our power of interconnectedness for good.
* “All Israelites are responsible for one another” - I think it’s obvious that the reasons this is true, when dealing with Jewish community issues, are equally applicable to all human beings, when dealing with global issues.
by chillul Who? · Thursday, February 21st, 2008
I had an acquaintance in college, a man whose parents had moved to America from Bangladesh, an observant Muslim with whom I would spend late nights discussing religion and watching the mountain fog coalesce. We lost touch after he moved off-campus and later graduated, but I still remember one comment he made to me after I did my best to explain to him what a “machloket” is and how the halachic system accomodates (or otherwise deals with) disagreements in matters of law.
He was impressed, and complained about the Muslim student group on campus, saying the form of Islam espoused there was too strict and particularistic. Muslims from Bangladesh, he said, don’t practice the religion the same way as Muslims from Arabia, and the Arab students in charge were intolerant of that diversity. He and other non-Arab Muslims were told that their clothing was “un-Islamic” and their observances were faulty. He objected, saying, “I’m not Arab. I shouldn’t have to follow Arab cultural norms to be a good Muslim.”
Apparently, policy clashes between conservative and liberal Muslim students, and between Muslim students with different traditions, are common on college campuses. Sound familiar? But unlike in the Jewish community where Hillels have a set policy of pluralism dictated from on high by philanthropists and “Jewish professionals”, according to this article by the New York Times’ gloriously-named Neil MacFarquhar each franchise Muslim Students Association chapter (there are more than 200 in the US) sets its own rules as to what food/clothes/events/philosophies are acceptable. Depending on where you go to school, your local MSA may alternately scandalize traditional parents or Imams, and shun students who aren’t “Muslim enough”.
The reporter, who apparently attended last weekend’s MSA West Conference in San Jose, got some good anecdotes, including community reaction to the sexes mingling at a barbecue, a potential member driven away because he wore a Budweiser t-shirt, liberal Yale vs. Wahhabist UC-Irvine, and the kinds of sermons given by Imams who visit college campuses.
I’m wondering what can we learn from this article, and what those of us still in school can learn from our Muslim fellow students. And what can we teach them? Keeping in mind the extensive similarities and deep differences between Judaism & Islam and between the Jewish community & the Muslim community, there’s got to be some productive knowledge to be gleaned. What do you think it could be?
by zt · Thursday, February 21st, 2008
The release for the following job opportunity crossed my desk; I thought a Jewschooler might fit the bill.
Moving Traditions seeks a Project Consultant to assist us with our groundbreaking efforts on Jewish Boys
Summary
Moving Traditions seeks a Consultant to lead a two-stage action-research project that will: 1) determine how best to meet the needs of teenage boys and thereby inspire their participation in Jewish life; 2) promote recommendations and leverage change in the Jewish community. The ideal candidate will have experience creating, managing, and evaluating programming; knowledge of the Jewish community; excellent organizing skills and strong writing skills; experience in social change work is a plus. The Consultant will work 80 hours a month and will be based in Philadelphia or within easy travel distance; s/he will report to the Executive Director. The consultancy could lead to a staff position.
Where Have All The Young Men Gone? is Moving Traditions’ action-research campaign to help the Jewish community better understand and meet the needs of Jewish adolescent boys and thereby inspire boys to participate in Jewish life. The campaign was launched in December 2007 at a roundtable conference co-sponsored with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. We are embarking on a year of action-research followed by a year of promoting specific recommendations to leverage change in the Jewish community.
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by BZ · Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Step aside, Snood. Stand back, Seterra. Scram, Scrabulous. There’s a new addictive online game that everyone is playing! People are getting hooked by the Mandel Fellows in Jewish Education Game, sitting in front of their screens for hours.
There isn’t much in the way of instructions, but just start playing and you can figure it out pretty quickly. Not to toot my own horn too much, but I got up to Level 12. But then I got stumped. Has anyone figured out how to beat that level? Drop me a line if you do.
