Another casualty of the economic crisis. The LA Times reports,
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, a seminary and graduate school for Judaism’s Reform movement, is facing such deep financial troubles that it is considering closing two of its three U.S. campuses, which include a location near downtown Los Angeles.
In a letter sent this week to members of the college community, its president, Rabbi David Ellenson, said pension funding problems, flat donations and declines in its endowment had placed the institution “in the most challenging financial position it has faced in its history — even more so than during the Depression.”
As a result, Ellenson wrote, Hebrew Union’s board of governors will meet next month to discuss such scenarios as whether to keep just one of its three U.S. campuses in Los Angeles, New York and Cincinnati, where the college was founded. Alternatives include merging some academic programs but keeping more than one of its U.S. campuses open, he wrote in the letter, which was released by his office. A decision is expected in June.
We’ve had debates over NYC knishes and promoted a lecture on Montreal smoked meat, but have we ever had a culinary battle between the two cities?
Montreal doesn’t do knishes. NYC doesn’t do poutine. (No matter what they say.) That leaves us with deli sandwiches. NY’s pastrami and Montreal’s smoked meat are comparable; their countries of original, recipes and methods, are similar enough. But the taste is completely different.
My wife, Gretchen, and I recently found ourselves faced with a unique opportunity: to eat the famed smoked meat of Montreal, then travel back to New York and taste our home city’s notorious counterpart, pastrami, all within a few hours of each other. This rare, real-time comparison turned into a pastrami vs. smoked meat smackdown, as we tried to answer the fundamental question: “Which is better?”
Check it out. And let me know what you think…
(Meanwhile, I know what I’ll be having for lunch on my next trips to NY and Montreal, though not from the restaurants listed in the article above.)
Jews have been overrepresented in US Government for quite awhile. For instance, currently 15% of Senators are Jewish versus 2% in the general population. Who has the best chance of being the first Jewish President?
In the past few years several leading contenders have had small setbacks, some have had career ending ones.
A couple years ago I would have had Elliott Spitzer high on the list but I think we all know how his fortunes have turned.
Following his rise to prominence in the late 90s, Senator Lieberman was another candidate but his mangling of Iraq resulted in a terrible political response in CT where he couldn’t even win the Democratic Primary.
Governor Rendell is a two-term Governor from a big swing state. He is now about 65 and couldn’t run until 2016. By then he’d be older than McCain was this past run. More vital for sure, but probably has aged out.
Though I’d love to vote for him, I suspect Senator Feingold is too far left.
Though not a pretty man, Senator Schumer is one of the few yidden whose presidential stock has risen since the early 90s. He is associated with Wall Street, from New York City, and it’s easy to see how the religious right might use xenophobic attacks to marginalize him. I suspect they will say he is too “New York” to connect with “real” Americans. Everyone will know exactly what they are saying without them saying it.
Also of note, is Rahm Emmanuel. He’s been successful as a political operative and also as an elected official. If the Obama years are good, could he run on that?
There is only one Jewish candidate I can imagine becoming a serious candidate in 2012 (though this is unlikely). That man is none other than George Allen.*
Who do you guys think is the most likely person currently alive to be the first Jewish President (of the US)?
*Though many would consider Allen a Jew, including anyone applying Orthodox Halachic standards, I tend towards the Recon standard and wouldn’t consider him a Jew. Here is some more nuance.
What does God mean to Jewish women today? How does our contemporary moment — gendered and generational — affect our understanding of, and connection to, the Divine? Sign up with code “ZEEK” to get the exclusive $12 rate — available only for Zeek readers and their friends. Spread the word!
Panel will feature the following excellent individuals, including two Jewschool contributors:
Feminist theologian Dr. Judith Plaskow is the author of Standing Again at Sinai and The Coming of Lilith.
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is the author of Surprised By God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion.
Jen Taylor Friedman is the first woman known to scribe a Torah scroll. She is the creator of the infamous Tefillin Barbie.
Dr. Tamar Kamionkowski is the academic dean of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the author of Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos: A Study on the Book of Ezekiel.
Presented by the 92Y in cooperation with Zeek: A Journal of Jewish Thought and Culture.
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said just after Ahmadinejad finished speaking and the delegates returned to the room, “I deplore the use of this platform by the Iranian president to accuse, divide and even incite. This is the opposite of what this conference seeks to achieve. We must all turn away from such a message in both form and substance.”
Yet another note from the best listserve I was ever involuntarily signed up for. The last one was about the orgy for universal peace and harmony to be held in Tel Aviv [editor's note: link added]. Can we doubt the word of Rael? Of course not. He wrote, after all, this book! (Though how he’s going to get five dead people into a government these days is a bit of a pickle…)
Subject: Rael reveals ultimate message of Yahweh to Jews – “The only acceptable Zionism is a Palestinian Zionism.”
LAS VEGAS, April 16 – Rael, founder and leader of the International Raelian Movement, recently proposed a one-state solution for Palestine in which Jews and Palestinians would combine resources to create a powerful, wealthy state forged from brotherhood and love. He said today that the need to achieve that goal has become especially urgent. More »
Guest post by Dr. David Albert, PhD, Austin, TX, professor and foreign policy analyst.
The Jewish community is actively discussing the likelihood of the Obama administration pressing Israel on the peace process. So far, the administration has sent some signals by appointing Mitchell and such, but they haven’t done much to press the new Netanyahu government.
I think their decision to begin a process towards lowering barriers with Cuba is certainly a signal of their approach to foreign policy. It is particularly important, because they are challenging the Cuban American Foundation’s long-standing opposition to an opening to Cuba and the Castros. Their role on Cuba policy is the closest parallel we have to AIPAC’s role on Israel policy. Obama is taking them on. His actions so far are relatively small and basically non-controversial. Even Sen. Mel Martinez is supporting his actions. But they seem to suggest the beginning of a gradual process to overturn a foreign policy taboo. The timing is important, too. Obama took this act in the lead-up to a Latin American trip. This suggests to me that it is possible that Obama may be planning to take some actions to pressure Bibi on the peace process in the lead up to the rumored June Israel trip.
There are some big differences between Israel and Cuba policy. There are significant indications of generational change in the Cuban community on this issue. I see much less of that in the Jewish community. There are significant indications of real change in a positive direction from the Cuban government. Israel has just elected a more recalcitrant government. Also, the Cuban community has long been a Republican stronghold. Obama doesn’t need them to win Florida and doesn’t need Florida to be re-elected. Conversely, the Jewish community is a staunch Democratic group that voted for him overwelmingly (and donated to him in large numbers) and helped him win in several key states. He faces greater political risk challenging AIPAC than he does the Cuban American Lobby. Jimmy Carter and Bush Sr. took significant re-election hits by challenging the Jewish community on the peace process and Obama knows that as well. Obama seems to have some bipartisan support for Sen. Dick Lugar among others for shifting Cuba policy while he is likely to meet stiff resistance from most Republicans and the Christian Zionists to changes in Israel policy. Also, the Cuba policy shift is more of an economic shift and there is support from various farmers and trade lobbysts for changing Cuba policy. There is little in the way of obvious economic lobbies to change US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I think Cuba offers us an indication that Obama’s instincts are to challenge foreign policy taboos and try to resolve decades old conflicts through diplomacy and compromise. But he will do so cautiously, graudally, and strategically. He will challenge influencial foreign policy interest groups if the political costs are not too high. Of course, we don’t know how far he will go. But clearly, the issues around Mideast policy are more entrenched than those around Cuba.
Ink deciding to be blobby, and turning letters from agreeably three-dimensional into excessively three-dimensional. Photographed whilst still wet.
This image amuses me for three reasons. First, just because it’s amusingly blobby. Second, because the letter on the right is letter ayin, which is a fountain kind of word, obviously the best letter to display excess liquid. Third, because it’s in the story of the Flood, which of course was the archetypal problem caused by excess liquid. More »
We recently pointed out that Stephen Colbert’s report on birkat hachamah included a strange urban legend that this was only the third time in history that birkat hachamah has taken place on Erev Pesach. Our debunking has made it to the pages of the Forward!
But as [BZ], a comedian and blogger on jewschool.com points out, the last time the event occurred on this date was in 1925, only three cycles ago. The rumor, according to [BZ], has been spreading on the Internet for the past few years. “I read that this [rumor] first appeared in 1925. It wasn’t true then, either!” [BZ] told The Shmooze. Well, Mr. Colbert, sorry to disappoint, but it looks like you’ll just have to keep waiting with the rest of us for an event of truly biblical proportions.
First of all, I must say I’m honored to be promoted to “comedian”. (I’m actually a high school physics teacher, so I guess it’s not so far off.) Second, I’m not entirely sure why this even needs sourcing, since it is an undisputed matter of public record that Wednesday, April 8, 1925 fell on 14 Nisan, but Jewschool is happy to have the publicity.
Some supplemental information on this virulent rumor:
If my calculations are correct, birkat ha-chamah has taken place on 14 Nisan (Erev Pesach) six times since the beginning of the Common Era: in the Julian/Gregorian years 77, 609, 693, 1309, 1925, and 2009. (Going further back than that would be anachronistic; 77 is almost certainly anachronistic itself. Even if you hold that birkat ha-chamah corresponds to an actual astronomical event that has been recurring since creation, all agree that the current mathematical algorithm for determining the start of the Hebrew lunar months only dates back to the late rabbinic period, and months were previously determined by observations of the new moon, so we have no way of determining whether 14 Nisan fell on a Wednesday (etc.) in any given year before the current algorithm started.)
If you look closely at Colbert’s computer screen, he seems to be getting his (mis)information from this site. This and other places trace the rumor to the Ostrovster Admor, aka the Kadosh Elyon. I can’t find much more information on him; most of his Google hits are about this precise topic. Does anyone know anything about him? When did he write this? (Certainly before 1925, it seems.) Or is his whole existence a hoax?
[The same site notes "Another interesting aspect of this date is that the Moshiach ben David will arrive at the end of a 7-year
cycle. The year 5768 is a shmitta (sabattical [sic]) year, and is followed by 5769, the year in which we recite Birkat Hachama.” This isn’t particularly interesting at all — it’s simple math to see that 28 is divisible by 7, and therefore birkat hachamah is always said in the year following the shemitah year.]
For some reason, people have been talking about thes calendar facts as if there is any room whatsoever for differences of opinion. For example, the 5 Towns Jewish Times says:
The Ostrovster Admor, who lived some 200 years ago, reportedly said that this occurred only a few times in history, including immediately before the Exodus from Egypt and before the original miracle of Purim. The Ostrovster apparently predicted that its next occurrence, which is in a few days, would be a prelude to the Final Redemption and the coming of Mashiach ben Dovid. Others say this is not so, and the dates come out wrong. I am not in a position to comment on this, but…
“Others say this is not so”? Birkat ha-chamah has occurred on Erev Pesach multiple times, including twice since “200 years ago”. This is a fact. Why report it as a he-said-she-said controversy? I suppose the 5 Towns Jewish Times is just following the trend of the last decade in political reporting, presenting every issue as “fair and balanced” with two equivalent sides, without reporting on whether one side might have the facts wrong. Paul Krugman has said “if Bush said the Earth was flat, the mainstream media would have stories with the headline: ‘Shape of Earth–Views Differ.’ Then they’d quote some Democrats saying that it was round.”
Adam Lambert has received a lot of attention for his daring song choices, his dramatic make-up, and his dedication to falsetto on this season’s American Idol. Lambert has created quite a buzz because <gasp> he’s gay!! And as it turns out, <gasp> he might also be Jewish! Now, I know we aren’t supposed to be idol worshippers, but a gay, Jewish Idol might just put me over the edge.
So, though, I’m not sure how I feel about the English translation of the verses in this arrangement, I couldn’t not provide you with your potential future Idol falsettoing away in Hebrew with some Israeli gals:
This week’s Shabos Zmiros comes to us from Godcast, the weekly animated d’var torah. I guess it’s really less a song than it is a rambling musical narration of the parsha. But never has strange fire, divine retribution and fins and scales been so catchy! This week’s Godcast is musically narrated by one of my favorite Jewish musical acts around, Deleon.
So I’m sure many of us received the email a few weeks ago about the Boston Red Sox changing their schedule to accommodate passover, and of course, it was bogus. But, as the New York Post has illustriously dubbed the affair, “Jewish fans jolt Jets, NFL”
So if in a couple of months you start receiving emails that the New York Jets are accommodating their schedule for Yom Kippur, it’s true.
The AP reports:
Jets upset about home games on Jewish holidays
By DENNIS WASZAK Jr. – 10 hours ago
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets, upset about being scheduled for home games on consecutive Sundays in direct conflict with Jewish holidays, sent NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a letter Thursday asking that one of the game times be changed.
The Jets’ home opener is Week 2 against New England at 1 p.m. on Sept. 20, which falls during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. New York then plays Tennessee at 4:15 p.m. the following Sunday, with Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, beginning at sundown.
In the letter to Goodell, owner Woody Johnson suggested the game against the Titans be changed to a 1 p.m. start to give Jewish fans time to arrive home before sundown.
“I am extremely disappointed with the league’s decision to schedule us to play at home on consecutive Sundays that are in direct conflict with the Jewish High Holy Days,” Johnson wrote. “There has long been an understanding that neither the Jets nor the Giants fans should have to bear completely the brunt of this issue since we are in the largest Jewish market in the country.”
Jets officials called the league offices first on Wednesday to express their concern, and Johnson followed with a formal letter Thursday.
“We were not contacted prior to this decision,” Johnson said. “We are flexible and would have been more than happy to work with the league to accommodate as many of our fans as possible.”
Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of corporate communications, said the league received the letter and was reviewing it.
The Giants are on the road for both weeks, with games at Dallas at 8:20 p.m. in Week 2, and at Tampa, Fla., at 1 p.m. in Week 3.
I think this is kind of awesome, but it also makes me stop and think why it is that such accommodations are made. I don’t know how one could track, really, the ethno-religious demographics of Jets fans, but looking at the larger perspective, there are what, 1.5 million Jews in NYC? out of around 8 million. that’s around 18%. Subtract from that 18% the number of people that are going to attend or watch despite it being Yom Kippur and those that are going to record it, and not to mention those that just don’t care about the game. That doesn’t seem like too many people. Interesting. It begs the question, do other minorities get such accommodations? And is this even really necessary? And do we, in fact, control football?
B’chol dor vador chayav adam lir’ot et atzmo k’ilu hu hatza mimitzrayim. In every generation, each person must consider himself as if he had come forth from Egypt.
This production is being billed as Topol’s “Farewell Tour” with the show, in the role he’s been playing for over 40 years on stage and screen. And frankly, that nearly kept me away from the show – Tevye should be in his early 40s, not his early 70s. But I had never seen Fiddler on stage, so I couldn’t resist.
During the performance, I kept thinking about how the show felt like a seder to me. We were retelling – in some sense, reliving – a story that most of us already knew. The audience was a palpable part of the storytelling, from the massive entrance applause that greeted Topol when he first appeared from behind Tevye’s house, to the clapping that made us a part of “Tradition,” to the roars of approval the first time a trademark niggun or chasidische dance move appeared.
There was a generational shift going on, with Topol passing on his show to a new generation, and with parents and grandparents passing on the show to their children and grandchildren. My mother told me about the first time she saw Fiddler, on a trip to Broadway when she was in college. I told her about the time I went to “Sing-a-Long Fiddler on the Roof” at the Somerville Theater.
But just as the seder seems to take on new meaning for every generation, I found myself seeing new things in Fiddler on the Roof that I had never noticed before. For one, I’m pretty sure this is the first time I found myself most identifying with Perchik, the activist. And perhaps related to that, I was taken with how much of the show is about enlarging the traditional definition of marriage. (I also wondered if everyone else in my age bracket has permanently associated the song “Anatevka” with the series finale of Newhart. Despite reminding me of the departure of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, the song still managed to break my heart.)
Most strikingly, I can’t believe how moved I was by a show that, despite never having seen it on stage before, I still know inside and out. I laughed far more than I expected to, and I cried at every moment I’m supposed to. I even found myself moved at times I would have never predicted, like the moment Perchik crosses the mechitza to introduce mixed dancing to Anatevka. The themes of triumph and loss, progress and prejudice all resonated as strongly with me tonight as I imagine they did for the original Broadway audiences in the 1960s and for Sholom Aleichem’s readers at the turn of the century.
And I wonder. What will the next generation to receive this “Tradition” make of it? Will the struggles with tradition faced in the mythologized shtetl feel relevant to kids who’ve grown up in a Jewish community more open, diverse, and fluid than the one I’ve grown up with? On the one hand, I hope that these struggles seem quaint and distant to my children and theirs. But on the other hand, the march of progress ever continues, and just as I see new things in Fiddler today that I never saw before, I’m sure the next generation will find new meaning as well. We are always leaving Egypt. We are always leaving Anatevka.
PS – To restate the obvious, this production is better than I expected it to be, or really than any aged-star-recreates-the-role-that-made-him-famous-40-years-ago production has any right to be. The tour continues through the end of August. Go see it! You won’t regret it.
The National Havurah Committee Summer Institute 2009 is now accepting application for the Everett Fellows Program. Fellows participate in the full Summer Institute programming and in four workshops designed specifically for them. As a Fellow, you receive a scholarship for tuition, room, and board, and are expected to pay only for registration and dues ($120) for the full week.
Fellows also join the ranks of some of (y)our favourite Jewschol bloggers who were Everett Fellows in past years.
Summer Institute is a week of learning and teaching with 350+ of your closest friends from across North America (and a few other places too). To quote BZ, “if a multigenerational Jewish community were inclusive of educated laypeople, respectful of individuals with or without families, and open to experimentation, would it be a place for 20-and-30-something Jews like [me/you/us]? Yes.” You can also see what we’ve had to say about the Summer Institute in the past on Jewschool.
To apply for an Everett Fellowship, you must be 22 through 32 years of age, interested in exploring havurah Judaism, and willing to participate fully in the Summer Institute. Preference is given to first time Institute attendees. Please click here for more information or call the NHC office at 215-248-1335. The application deadline is May 1.
Questions? Ask your NHC Summer Institute experts in the comments below!
At work, I’ve gotten the reputation of being one of the more technology-minded folks in the building. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m an early adopter, or a digital native, or simply younger than the rest of the folks around, but I tend to get called into meetings to help brainstorm how the interwebs might help or hinder any given project. Lately, I’ve been part of an ad hoc team convened by our marketing department to consider how we could better use social networking tools to publicize community programs and generate leads for our academic programs. (Being part of this team has lead to my late adoption of twitter… if anyone wants to watch me take my fumbling first steps, you can follow me here.)
Thinking more critically about how the college can engage with the community online has heightened my awareness of how others are using technology in interesting ways. Today, my attention was grabbed by Rhonda Moskowitz, a filmmaker working on a documentary about Jews in prison. She describes her film thus:
Modern-day Jewish prisoners are a hidden and ostracized segment of our nation’s Jews. Many people in our society aren’t even aware of their existence. It’s a startling concept and one that’s difficult for people to face, especially Jews.
TESHUVA (RETURN) brings the subject of Jewish prisoners into public awareness and humanizes Jews who have gone astray. We can learn a lot about ourselves by studying the lives of others. Viewers may be surprised to discover that the film’s subjects, Dana and Phil, despite having committed crimes, are more like themselves than they realize.
As one might imagine, financing an independent documentary about anything these days is difficult. Financing an independent documentary about a subgroup within a minority community — and a subgroup that community is unlikely to want on display — is an uphill struggle. So, like many other independent artists, Rhonda has taken to the internet to raise money for her film.
However, Rhonda hasn’t simply set up a virtual pushke and hoped for the best. Rather, Rhonda has set up a blog which offers fascinating insights into her process and the stories she’s hoping to tell.
This week, Rhonda shared two captivating film clips of Passover seders taking place inside prisons. How does one celebrate freedom behind bars? Follow the link to find out. And then read on for thoughts on Hanukkah on Death Row, what the families of prisoners go through, and more.
This article suggests that Mugabe has stolen the Aron Habrit from it’s spot resting in a museum.
The decayed wooden object lying neglected on a shelf in a museum storeroom didn’t look like anything too exciting. But Tudor Parfitt, Professor of Jewish Studies at London’s School of African and Oriental Studies… was convinced that the object, which resembled a damaged, ancient African drum, was in fact the lost Ark of the Covenant.
One of the most holy objects in existence, the Ark, thought to have dated back to around 1200 BC, is described in the Bible as a form of container that once held the tablets on which were inscribed God’s Ten Commandments.
This is wild stuff. The theory rests on a few assumptions.
1) The Lemba of South Africa and Zimbabwer descend from the Ancient Israelites.
This claim has been largely accepted once the evidence came to light that their priestly caste, the Buba, carry the genetic Cohen marker sometimes called the Cohen Modal Haplotype.
2) Rashi and other were correct that there were two Arks, one wooden, and one gilded.
This is very hard to demonstrate but has decent backing in the mythology.
3) The wood object is of the correct age to be the first of the arks.
It has been carbon dated to 1350, when the Lemba say it was rebuilt. This is not conclusive for or against.
There is lots more. Definitely read this article examining the claims and intrigue surrounding the ark and Mugabe.
Google Reader has delivered two new *ahem* midrashic projects into my life this week. On the less blaspehmous end, there is This American Life contributor Jonathan Goldstein’s new short story volume, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! and on the more blasphemous end, there is The Zombie Bible.
I’ll begin with Ladies and Gentlemen. This new book, which I’m now really eager to read, came to my attention via this week’s Nextbook podcast. In the podcast, it is revealed that Goldstein has filled this book with short stories that play with the notion of funny and poignant, three-dimensional versions of biblical characters. For instance, Adam becomes, in this telling, a sort of childish doofus, spending whole days rubbing his face in the grass. Though there is no retelling of the Binding of Isaac in this collection, its memory haunts the old shell of a man that Goldstein presents Jacob and Esau’s father as. Sounds really cool and I’m really excited to read it.
On to the blasphemy. The Zombie Bible is an online wiki project, so it’s open source for those not afraid of lightning bolts to play with and add to. Rather than explaining about this project, I’ll just give you the first five verses of Genesis, according to The Zombie Bible.
1:1 In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth and the Zombies sprang forth from the roiling foam of creation, barking in uncontrollable rage, hungry for human flesh to eat and pestork, giving pause to our Lord who shat himself and uttered ‘Oh, f[EDIT]ck’ amidst the primordial celestial gloom.
1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God was, like, what am I going to do with all these Zombies, they chew up my shoes and make a mess of the place generally.
So the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And the Zombies went shithouse, screeching like their eyes were being burned out, turning away and howling in seething rage. And said the LORD unto the shambling dead, what is with you guys, there’s no pleasing you, is there?
1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good for his hydrangeas : and God divided the light from the darkness.
1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day, so he had a coctail.
God goes on to celebrate the second day with absinthe. Enjoy
Montreal doesn’t do knishes. NYC doesn’t do poutine. (
This production is being billed as 
But just as the seder seems to take on new meaning for every generation, I found myself seeing new things in Fiddler on the Roof that I had never noticed before. For one, I’m pretty sure this is the first time I found myself most identifying with Perchik, the activist. And perhaps related to that, I was taken with how much of the show is about enlarging the traditional definition of marriage. (I also wondered if everyone else in my age bracket has permanently associated the song “Anatevka” with the series finale of Newhart. Despite reminding me of 
The National Havurah Committee 
As one might imagine, financing an independent documentary about anything these days is difficult. Financing an independent documentary about a subgroup within a minority community — and a subgroup that community is unlikely to want on display — is an uphill struggle. So, like many other independent artists, Rhonda has taken to the internet to raise money for her film.
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