Now what could EV possibly be saying here? That Zionism is an untimely regression? That idolizing a culture so steeped in “us first”-ism will corrode our universal values? That claims to Israel’s moral superiority are embarrassingly Pyyric victories? Surely not! He’s just calling for a Jane Goodall to translate for us: we’re actually civilized, when you get to know us and lower your standards far enough.
Not that I ever thought they were, mind you. But did you hear the one about the woman, in what looks like an IDF tee shirt, who yelled “Heil Hitler!” at the Israeli who was speaking proudly about the health care system and the way the Israeli gov’t treats its soldiers? HILARIOUS!
Almost as funny is her reaction to be calling out and caught on camera, and her reaction to an uninsured person’s massive hospital bills. When someone points out something good about an alternative to our system, she says the most hateful thing she can. And when someone points out a massive flaw in our system and their own rough situation, she mocks him, with the protection of two large men.
It’s all you need to know about many of the people trying to stop health care reform.
Jewschool: Progressive Jews and Judaism. It says so in the tile bar. Sounds simple, right? But, how do we build a rich and self-consciously progressive Judaism and Jewish community?
For me, a small set of contemporary Jewish thinkers have been instrumental in providing the food for thought I needed to begin to sketch out my own vision for what that could look like. People like Art Green, Jonathan and Daniel Boyarin, Judith Plaskow, Art Waskow, Rachel Adler, Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz and many others. I’m a pretty voracious reader, but I got the bulk of my progressive Jewish education in one fell swoop when I decided to facilitate a progressive Jewish reading group in DC.
Some friends back at school had put together a student forum in Radical Jewish Thought. Since I’d graduated and moved away, I could not take the class, so I thought, “why not just run it out my living room?” That experience turned out to be a powerful catalyst. It solidified a young progressive community in DC, opened my mind about the possibilities (and challenges) of progressive Jews and Judaism, and ultimately encouraged me to pursue graduate studies in religion. Different versions of that course have since been run by Jews United for Justice in DC and Moishe House Boston: The Kavod Jewish Social Justice House , and now, this little student forum is about to hit the big time.
This fall AJWS and Avodah are coordinating a version of the Radical Jewish Thought course/reading group in NYC. It’s really a pretty incredible syllabus of articles by some really thoughtful people writing on Judaism and Jewish identity in relation to progressive/radical politics. It is also going to be a great opportunity to meet in small local groups for really stimulating conversation. I’ve been consulting with AJWS on this, and I’m really excited by the possibility of small groups of folks all over the city working together to think through the possibilities of living a meaningful and socially engaged Jewish life.
The AJWS syllabus tends more towards questions of Jew (identity and politics) than Judaism (God, Halacha, revelation). But, if it’s a success, I could see them offering a second version that highlights those questions (or of course, you can take this course back to its DIY roots and put together your own reading group. I bet lots of Jewschool folks would be happy to post suggestions for that list in the comments).
If you are in the New York, you should definitely check this out. Official info with registration instructions after the jump.
Covered last week in Pitchfork, SOULICO is a four-member DJ Crew from Tel Aviv, the first DJs in the Middle East to master the trifecta of production, turntablism, and party-rocking skills. “Their music is a unique mix of hip-hop, middle eastern melodies, dancehall, electronic, Reggae, English, Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish.” Rising from poverty and extreme hardship on the streets of Netanya, special guests AXUM have been marked as “Israel’s biggest hip hop hope.”
[I hope there will be a lot of collaboration on this one, so i will set out the framework and edit it a lot, so please make suggestions and additions in comments and I'll add them to the main text.]
One of the most festive parts of the (Ashkenazi?) Jewish wedding tradition is the shtick. According to Wikepedia:
“Shtick” is derived from the Yiddish word shin-tet-yud-koof, meaning “piece”; the closely-related German word Stück has the same meaning.
In a wedding context however, it refers to a specific part of the dancing. Generally there is circle dancing. At some point brides and grooms (and sometimes their families) are lifted in chairs. Once the couple* is returned to ground level it is time to fulfill a special wedding-specific miztvah: mesameach chatan v’ kallah (gladdening the groom and bride).
The general setup is:
bride and groom is sitting on chairs
open space in front of them
music playing
people standing around the open space.
Now, many things will happen, all designed to entertain the couple. I’ll look at a few categories of entertainment and then at a few common tricks. I am sure that many of you will have all sorts of ideas as to how to do these various tricks better and will have suggestions of others I forgot. My intention is to create a framework so that we can all collaborate to make a good repository of ideas so that folks unfamiliar with this part of a wedding can think about how they’d like to participate ahead of time. My personal experience, is that this offers an opportunity for different kinds of skills to emerge and people who aren’t used to having some of their talents recognized in a Jewish context get that chance here.
Skits
Oftentimes guests who know the bride and/or groom well will have prepared various sorts of brief skits. These should be short because quick turnover is important to the flow, and these can drag out if brevity isn’t a focus. As my new neighbor, BZ, reminded me–since the music is often loud, skits should be purely visual so the bride, groom, and assembled masses can all enjoy it without hyper-focus. Examples?
Signs, Decorations, etc
It commonly happens that people will use inside jokes, groom/bride related humor, etc to concoct funny posters and other objects that relate to the specific couple. Dlevy writes: at many of the weddings I’ve attended, friends from different phases of the celebrants’ lives will bring t-shirts from the camp/youth group/college/etc they shared, often decorating the couple in the regalia as part of a skit.
Who has other examples?
Cuteness
Often, kids get involved and do very cute things. I saw a 7-year old bring a violin once, hush the band and play a piece he had recently learned. It was delicious.
Dancing/Acrobatics
Personally, this is my favorite category. Tons of approaches are in-bounds. Magic tricks, feats of strength and balance, fancy dancing, and anything else worthy of the spotlight. Here are a few examples:
Bottle Dancing–This is a feat of balance that ranges from simple to extremely hard. You move around with a bottle on your head. If you are beginning you might just walk around, which may very well impress. The guy pictured below can come very close to lying down and standing back up without ever touching the bottle. Word to the wise: this trick is easiest when the bottle is about half full. Difficulty: Ranges. Wow Factor: Very High. Injury Risk: Low.
Want to experience a stealth-haredi political hack job in the guise of an educational talk about health care reform?
Then have we got an event for you! RSVP at the New York Birthright Next website for September 9th’s ”Q&A with Grace-Marie Turner, President of the Galen Institute“!
This media darling and shill for the pharmaceutical industry will be happy to take a few hours out of her busy lobbying schedule to educate you on ”what is happening with health care reform and what you need to know about the bill before Congress”!
No, there is nothing unseemly about this arrangement at all. Just like there’s nothing untoward about having all Birthright Next programming in the largest BRI alumni community in the world be under the sole jurisdiction of an ultra-Orthodox kiruv organization.
What’s next? A weekend at Ohr Somayach with Orly Taitz?
If you’d like to tell the fine folks at Birthright Israel what a great job their Birthright Next providers in NYC are doing, here‘s their contact page.
After years of folks asking: “Should a partnership of philanthropists, Jewish federations and the Israeli government be squandering money sending middle-class and rich kids to Israel when needs were so pressing at Jewish day schools and for various Israeli social service programs?”, blogger Noah Lederman reports on one of the first efforts of young adults taking on Birthright Israel fundaising.
This past Thursday, beneath the section of the High Line yet to be refurbished, Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni gathered for what was the kickoff party to the “I am Birthright Israel” campaign. It was to celebrate ten years of sending Jews aged 18 to 26 to Israel, and to fundraise.
As I passed beneath the shadow of the High Line it felt like the perfect symbol for the state of Jewish philanthropy. That eyesore running through Chelsea was at one point like many Jewish charities after Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme—in serious jeopardy. But those who couldn’t let a landmark die transformed the elevated wasteland into a beautified respite from the city, similar to how a bunch of young Jews—mostly in their late 20s and early 30s, who had traveled to Israel on Birthright—are trying to breathe new life into Jewish fundraising.
Taglit-Birthright Israel was in need of assistance. Although Birthright had never invested with Bernie Madoff, they most certainly felt his impact (check out Business Insider’s list for your favorite Jewish organization burned by Bernie). Not to mention, our crumbling economy isn’t helping. In 2008, Birthright sent 42,000 Jews to the Holy Land, but had to cut that number back to about 25,000 in 2009.
Once I arrived inside the M2 nightclub on 28th street, I watched as the event organizers, most of whom donated months of time to plan this fundraiser, sprinted around in their cocktail attire, clutching envelopes of raffle tickets. (The grand prize: a trip back to Israel). The goal for the campaign is $130,000, just enough to send one busload of Jews to Israel. (You can go to Birthright’s website to watch the windows of the bus graphic change from grey to blue as money trickles in—at the time of posting, the campaign had raised $47,891).
As the congregation swelled to seven hundred, everyone seemed to be enjoying the open bar and the music of past Birthright participant, DJ Gatsby, who played funky grooves and even mashed up forgotten Israeli tunes with modern American pop.
“What do you think this is?” a girl asked me as we stood by the food table. “It’s not crab cakes, is it?”
It did taste like crab cakes.
“It’s definitely not crab cakes,” a guy interrupted. “Do you think they’d serve crab cakes? There are rabbis here.”
Then the organizers spoke. They were so passionate about the project that I was half-expecting one of them to slip in some blame on the villain of the story, Madoff. Were they going to whisper his name like old Jewish ladies mouthing cancer? Or was Madoff the Haman of the 21st Century? Where was my grogger? More »
A lot of people say they were at Woodstock, but only Alan Cooper can say that he was the lead singer who took the stage right before Jimi Hendrix.
He sang bass for Sha Na Na, the goofy but endearing ’50s nostalgia act that was the next-to-last performer at the festival.
“It was Monday morning when we finally came on, around daybreak,” he said. “The reason there was still a crowd was that the concluding act was Jimi Hendrix.”
Cooper, 59, is now provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan, a Bible scholar whose bio on the seminary Web site does not mention that he was a founding member of Sha Na Na.
…
Sha Na Na did a full, 40-minute set at Woodstock after days without any real sleep. There was no water, Cooper remembers, but plenty of champagne. The guys in Ten Years After had a camper and lots of food,
which they were happy to share with Cooper and his gang.
Cooper, a Long Island native now living in South Orange, N.J., left the band when he graduated in 1971 and headed for grad school. He was replaced by Jon “Bowser” Bauman, who became the face of Sha Na Na for
decades.
[Editor's note: obviously we all know about Bowser's Jewish roots from Adam Sandler]
“Some of the schtik he did was stuff he inherited from me,” Cooper said. Woodstock devotees still remember Cooper. A couple of years ago, a few came to the seminary and had Cooper sign about 50 Woodstock artifacts.
…
Can he believe it’s been 40 years?
“It’s extraordinary,” the Bible scholar said. “It doesn’t feel like a day over 39.”
Yesterday, I received an e-mail with the urgent subject line “Of Utmost Importance Concerning PLP!” I assumed it was a final reminder to pay the registration fee for their upcoming ThinkTank4 conference. When I opened the e-mail, I was instead greeted with notice that Professional Leaders Project would be phasing out operations by the end of the month. (For full text of the e-mail, check out The Fundermentalist.) Let me first say that my immediate reaction was sadness for the professionals working for the organization who have now lost their jobs. JewishJournal.com reports that the shutdown is a side-effect of the death of primary funder William Davidson. PLP’s Executive Director Rhoda Weisman has expressed hopes that once his estate is sorted out, funding will resume and the program will be revived, but frankly, that would shock me. (Ironically, the Spider-Man Broadway musical is experiencing a similar shut-down and facing similar skepticism right now. Frankly, if one of these projects is going to rise from the dead, my money’s on the wall-crawler.)
But let’s face it, most of us don’t come to Jewschool for the same kind of reporting you can get from the JTA. So I thought the interesting side to this story that no one seems to be writing yet is to consider whether PLP was worth the millions of dollars invested in the organization over the past five years.
You may recall that I’ve had mixed feelings about the usefulness of PLP. On the one hand, I’ve met a lot of great people doing interesting and important things in the Jewish world. On the other hand, many people involved with PLP have felt its goals were unclear and its promises unfulfilled. There’s been a sense among some of my peers that pet projects (both in terms of programs and people) have been nurtured by PLP but others have been treated as the unfavored step-child. As someone participating in a NY-based network despite living in Boston, I’ve been disappointed that PLP hasn’t connected me to the other PLP-affiliated people in the Boston area, which is at least in part a side-effect of the various PLP programs operating in separate orbits.
I reached out to my Facebook friends and friends-of-friends to see if anyone would be willing to share some thoughts on PLP at this time. I got a range of responses, from those grateful to PLP to some quite venomous. You’ll note that of the quotes I compiled below, none come from Academic Fellows. It’s not that I don’t know anyone who’s been a PLP Academic Fellow, but my experience rarely brought me into contact with that cohort, which I believe is symptomatic of some of the problems with the way the organization operated. But enough out of me, let’s see what others had to say. More »
North Carolina is not known as hotbed of Jewish political activism, or Jewish anything for that matter. It’s no Berkeley, and it’s certainly not Brookline, but this year we aim to bring a little radical reflection to your high holy days.
The NC Havurah will be hosting a wonderful Yom Kippur retreat at The Stone House. So if you live in the area (or you’re willing to travel), come join us in building a spiritual and radical religious community at a two day Yom Kippur retreat full of study, singing, fasting, and prayer.
We plan to create a spiritually uplifting, emotionally engaging, introspective, and welcoming space. In addition to focusing on our personal atonement we will be talking and reflecting critically about the teaching/meaning of Yom Kippur in the context of the ongoing occupation of Palestine and Palestinian people. We welcome people who identify in a diversity of ways. This will be an antizionist, nonzionist, diasporist, queer and trans positive space. More »
Isn’t it funny how the most unexpected things bring Orthodox Jews together? Last month, YCT and YU Rabbinical students went on a Christian-Jewish interfaith mission together, and last night (8/10), the senior administrations of these two schools came out with dozens of others to the Manhattan JCC to remember those who were killed, pray for the injured, and recognize the every day pain, suffering, and fear that plagues the queer Jewish world.
Rabbi Yosef Blau, the Mashgiach Ruchani of Yeshiva University, Rabbi Avi Weiss, President of YCT, and Rabbi Dov Linzer, YCT’s Dean and Rosh Yeshiva each spoke at the event. Rabbi Blau spoke in direct, clear words to the evilness of hatred and murder, and to need for all of us to act differently to our neighbors. Rabbi Weiss lead the gathered in Rabbi Nachman’s song, reminding us that though the way is narrow and dangerous – we must never be afraid. Rabbi Linzer lead the group in a unique prayer that he composed for the occasion.
In addition to the Rabbinic leadership, many leaders of the homodox community spoke about their ongoing activities, and we got an update regarding LGBT issues and organizations in Israel.
The unity, and the size of the event was inspiring, as well as the brave personal stories of the many who are struggling to be proud of who they are in all ways. However, I still left with a bad taste in my mouth. While this stuff was great, at the end of the day it was a memorial for two people who are dead, and I still don’t know that much about then. I hardly heard a word about these people. About the only thing I know is what the murderer wanted me to know – they are gay, and they are dead.
I know, I know, “You should never let a crisis go to waste.” And yes, there is much work to be done, and yes, it was very inspiring to see this unprecedented event take place last night. But, I just wish there was a way we could do that while still honoring the memories of these people who were killed. To recognize that Nir Katz and Liz Trubeshi were real people, whose identity went far deeper than the gender of those they were attracted to. I wish I could know them. I wish we could have this rally, without turning them into dead pawns.
It’s hard, as a long-confirmed bachelor, to always stay optimistic, hopeful, that I too will find a partner. It’s all the more difficult in the midst of wedding season, when every remaining summer weekend is filled with another wedding.
But I need not fret!
I was able to make it past the horrifying web layout, reminiscent of 1997 Angelfire pages, to see that by simply filling out a form, the results of which can be viewed by anyone, groups will be formed to say Tehillim (Psalms) for us single folks in hopes that it’ll help us find our basherts (destined, fated; soul-mate).
The site also offers links to dating websites (notably, JDate isn’t included – it’s not frum enough) and to articles on how to set folks up (all but one are dead links).
What the FAQ doesn’t answer is which Tehillim should be said, which are the most powerful for making a match. Some googling turned up the answer (also, wow, who knew there were so many Tehillim/singles/shidduchim sites?!). According to one source, Tehillim 32, 38, 70, 71, 72, 82, 121, and 124 are to be said. Another site encouraged those that were in Artscroll:
Don’t just sit by helplessly as you watch Israel and the Jewish people being terrorized by their enemies. You can make a difference! As the world turns its back on the Jewish people’s plight we are forced to defend ourselves. Since time immemorial, Jews have survived and been victorious through the power of their prayers. … Specifically, Jews are urged to devote at least fifteen minutes a day to this form of prayer and to recite Psalms 20, 83,121,130 and 142 during that time.
And then I found the jackpot: it seems if I read this book in full in addition to saying Tehillim daily, I’ll find my bashert. Or, wait, was I supposed to say Shir HaShirim early in the morning for 40 consecutive days, Perek Shira for 40 consecutive days, and also say Tehillim Chidah? Or… Hrm. Maybe if I were really dedicated to finding my beshert, I’d be reciting all of Tanakh everyday.
What are some of the cutting edge, creative ways 5W might represent Birthright? Let’s look back on some of their past clients and tactics and see if we can figure it out!
Well, I’m sure he’ll come up with something. He’s a PR genius! Any alum who want to share their excitement about Birthright’s latest hire, drop them a line!
I said before that I would share some biographical information about myself, so here it is. The real reason I’m writing this post is to talk about some issues that I thought of while deciding what sort of biographical information to share.
One criticism of the Internet that I hear a lot, particularly regarding bloggers, concerns anonymity. People don’t like the idea of someone being able to write whatever they want without their name or identifying information attached to it. I’ve been thinking about what this means from a Jewish perspective. What ethical responsibilities do I, as a blogger, have to those who read my writing? Do I owe them information about myself?
I don’t think I do. There’s no reason a blogger can’t write responsibly, with well-researched and well-cited information, while still maintaining anonymity. I personally have no problem with people on the Internet knowing who I am, but there are a lot of cases where that’s not true.
The key is this: there’s a difference between anonymity and cowardice. I can write under a handle without ever linking that handle to any kind of real-world information, but I still have a responsibility to provide honest content and to respond honestly to criticism. Using anonymity as a shield for ignorance or deception is not acceptable. That’s true in any field, and the blagotubes are no exception. Neither is it acceptable to use my anonymity to spread lashon hara. So from a Jewish ethical perspective, as well as one of scholarly responsibility, with great anonymity comes great responsibility.
Given the pitfalls of anonymity, are there any advantages? Well, if one provides useful content free of charge (most bloggers don’t get paid), it could be considered a form of tzedakah. I’m not trying to sound self-centered here, but ideally blogging is a useful form of information and perspective, in donation form. Maimonides said that one of the higher levels of tzedakah is giving anonymously to an unknown source. So if a blogger writes an anonymous post, they’re engaging in a high level of charitable giving. They don’t know who’s going to read their post; it could be anyone in the world. That’s the beauty of the medium. And the person reading it doesn’t know who wrote it. So there’s been an exchange of significant information between two people, neither of whom have any idea who the other is. There’s no ego involved (“look how much I know about this topic”), just learning. That, to me, exemplifies both the ideals of Jewish text study or chevrutah and those of journalism; the pure exchange of ideas.
So in this case, as in most, the Internet makes it easier to do really good work or really bad work. The question is, which one will you choose?
Hi everyone. My name is Harpo Jaeger. I’m a new poster on Jewschool. I’ve been blogging for a little over a year now at my personal website, harpojaeger.com. I’m really excited to start blogging here! Some of the other Jewschoolers I know from the NHCSummer Institute, some I don’t know at all.
At some point in the future I’ll be updating my biographical information, but right now I am here with the intention of posting about something very specific.
Being a pluralistic community, the Summer Institute (which I’m currently at) has some interesting halakhic quirks. For the members who don’t carry items on Shabbes, we create an eruv, a quasi-physical boundary around the campus that halakically turns the campus into one building, thus allowing those people to carry siddurim, a talit, and so on, between buildings. For several years, I’ve been a coordinator of this construction process, and I’ve learned a lot from it. BZ suggested I write a post about this, as a sort of “DIY eruv”, which is a very good way of putting it, so here it is.
The essential idea of an eruv is a series of simulated doors. To do this, we use a series of lecha’in (singular lechi, which translates as “doorpost”), with string run over the tops, representing the header of the door frame. There are various other components of the eruv in addition to sticks and string. For instance, a hill can act as a natural boundary around an area if it is steep enough. Part of the campus here is on a steep hill, so we can place a lechi at either end and use the hill as a go-between. Additionally, an existing cable such as a telephone wire can be used if a lechi is placed below it and the cable sags less than about eleven inches (inaccuracy due to conversion from biblical units of measure).
What’s interesting about the process we’ve gone through is that neither myself or my friend with whom I coordinate have a great deal of experience with this halakha. We’ve learned it from those who do, we’ve internalized it, and at this point it’s become a DIY ritual more than anything else. Without having a pre-existing complete grasp of the spiritual and traditional elements of the eruv, we are able to create one that is completely in line with all of the requirements. Also, it’s pretty fun. We stay up late drinking tons of caffeinated beverages, drive around in a golf cart with lumber and power tools, drive around the perimeter with one of the halakhic experts to verify the whole thing, and then sanctify it by saying a blessing (al mitzvat eruv) over a “communal meal” (in today’s case, half a bagel left over from yesterday’s sunrise hike up Mt. Monadnock). That meal is then eaten after the eruv no longer needs to be sanctified (although I anticipate the bagel being rather stale by then).
So, starting from a mere interest in construction, and with the counseling of some persons with more halakhic knowledge, we’ve learned a lot about the practice, had a bunch of fun, and helped some of our co-Institute-goers observe Shabbes more easily.
If you have the opportunity, I’d highly recommend getting involved in the construction of a local eruv. It’s a fabulous way to learn about some very interesting halakha and its modern implementations, as well as explore a host of pluralistic issues. Great all around.
That’s all for now. It is time to light candles here, and I must away. I hope this first post is food for thought, and I’m really looking forward to writing here. Shabbat shalom!
Guest post by Anne Mintz, who blogged about the NHC Summer Institute for Jewschool last year.
I threshed wheat this morning for the first time. Along with about 15 others in Jonathan Rubenstein’s challah-baking class at the NHCSummer Institute, I went outside, took the bizarre-looking tool that looked like a prop from a Ben Hur movie, and swung with all my might to smash those sheaves of wheat wrapped in the sheet on the ground in front of me. I was mildly successful in separating liberating the seeds from the stalks – others were really good their first try. We stopped TheWanderingJew as he walked by and insisted that he partake in this experience. We then literally separated the wheat from the chaff by dropping the separated seeds in front of a blowing fan and letting the seeds drop into a bucket while the chaff blew away. We had to finish this by hand, picking the chaff out of the remaining seeds.
Fortunately, Jonathan brought an electric grinder for the rest of the process, and we ground the seeds into flour. Two sheaves of wheat from his home field yielded over two cups of whole wheat flour that we will be using tomorrow morning as we set out on our class task to bake challah for the entire institute – over 300 people. He tells us that his front yard is a wheat field, although these particular sheaves were from another field that he planted. One can only imagine what his neighbors think!
In addition to the process of grinding our own flour today, we also indulged in babka-making, which was a break from straight bread. (I can’t wait to taste the finished goodies at dinner tonight.) Because we didn’t have enough rolling pins for all the dough, we needed to use a bottle of wine to roll out one of the recipes – improvisation at its best. Tuesday we baked oatmeal-maple bread, and Wednesday it was his newly created “seven species bread” (Deut. 8:7-8) with barley, wheat, dates (honey), figs, raisins (vines), pomegranates, and olives (oil). I’m taking the time to focus and breathe as we knead and cajole the dough into fabulous creations.
The most interesting part of this class turns out not to be the baking, or even the threshing – it’s Jonathan himself. He and his wife Linda Motzkin, who met at the beginning of their rabbinical school years, have shared a pulpit at Temple Sinai since 1986 in Saratoga Springs, NY, where they raised their family. He is a long-time baker who founded Slice of Heaven Breads, a non-profit, volunteer, charitable bakery operated out of the synagogue. It produces a variety of baked goods for the daily table and special occasions, and supports hunger relief among other charitable causes. It gives the bikkurim – the first fruits of their labors – to these causes. Today we had the pleasure of celebrating his 60th birthday with him as we learned more of the Torah of bread and challah. He’s a wonderful role model for following one’s heart and creating a parnasa (earning a living) at the same time.
Onward to preparing the challot for Shabbat, and all the Torah/learning that accompanies it.
No, there is nothing unseemly about this arrangement at all. Just like there’s nothing untoward about having all Birthright Next programming in the largest BRI alumni community in the world be under the sole jurisdiction of an 
This past Thursday, beneath the section of the High Line yet to be refurbished, Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni gathered for what was the kickoff party to the “
Among those 
Yesterday, I received an e-mail with the urgent subject line “Of Utmost Importance Concerning PLP!” I assumed it was a final reminder to pay the registration fee for their upcoming ThinkTank4 conference. When I opened the e-mail, I was instead greeted with notice that Professional Leaders Project would be phasing out operations by the end of the month. (For full text of the e-mail, check out 
administrations of these two schools came out with dozens of others to the Manhattan JCC to remember those who were killed, pray for the injured, and recognize the every day pain, suffering, and fear that plagues the queer Jewish world.
5WPR, headed by the uber-cool Alpha Dog of the PR World, 
, a quasi-physical boundary around the campus that halakically turns the campus into one building, thus allowing those people to carry siddurim, a talit, and so on, between buildings. For several years, I’ve been a coordinator of this construction process, and I’ve learned a lot from it. BZ suggested I write a post about this, as a sort of “DIY eruv”, which is a very good way of putting it, so here it is.
Without having a pre-existing complete grasp of the spiritual and traditional elements of the eruv, we are able to create one that is completely in line with all of the requirements. Also, it’s pretty fun. We stay up late drinking tons of caffeinated beverages, drive around in a golf cart with lumber and power tools, drive around the perimeter with one of the halakhic experts to verify the whole thing, and then sanctify it by saying a blessing (al mitzvat eruv) over a “communal meal” (in today’s case, half a bagel left over from yesterday’s sunrise hike up Mt. Monadnock). That meal is then eaten after the eruv no longer needs to be sanctified (although I anticipate the bagel being rather stale by then).
I was mildly successful in separating liberating the seeds from the stalks – others were really good their first try. We stopped 
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