Somehow, a copy of the Jewish Week Singles Supplement found its way into my apartment, and because I am a glutton for punishment, I looked at it. Here’s the breakdown: There are places other than the Upper West Side to meet people and find Jewish community. Orthodox Jews who are divorced would like to date again, and it’s hard. It’s also hard to be a single Jew when you’re over 40. Also, sometimes, being single makes people sad and they make theatre out of it. Of course, there is nary a gay mentioned anywhere in the magazine, because we all know gay people just want to have a lot of sex and no relationships, ESPECIALLY the Jewish gays.
On the upswing: There is an interesting piece about Jewish women who become single mothers by choice, and another about interfaith relationships and how they might actually galvanize, and not destroy the Jewish people. What I thought was the most important part of the supplement was a piece by Sandy Brawarsky called “Tuesday, the Rabbi Went Out,” about single rabbis and the stigma they deal with regarding their marital status. Apparently, many folks who were interviewed for the article declined to be named, because ”they feared for their rabbinic careers as well as their dating lives.” I’ve heard from a lot of rabbinic students that it’s hard to reveal their chosen field to potential dates, but the idea that one’s career could be jeopardized by not having a partner is beyond ridiculous.
It’s also problematic that both male and female rabbis (again, no one who identifies outside the definitive gender binary was involved in the making of this article) are lumped together in the conversation, because as single folks, they face very different issues with respect to dealing with their situation. A single female rabbi is challenging to our beliefs about women, that women have babies, especially Jewish women. Without a partner, how will this happen? Single male rabbis face a challenge to their masculinity, because in addition to being the head of a shul, they’re also expected to be head of a household, and if masculinity and femininity isn’t demonstrated in the way we’re accustomed to, we’re threatened, and the last place we want to be threatened is in a Jewish space.
Trust me when I say that the organized Jewish community, or maybe all Jewish communities, are lonely places for single people, even (especially?) if you aren’t interested in changing your status. Interviewed for the article, Rabbi Felicia Sol, of Bnai Jeshrun on the Upper West Side, said, “It is a challenge to the Jewish community to create as many avenues for people to find partners and be supportive of all kinds of families, but it is just as important to be inclusive to those who are single.”
Seriously, though, is this ever going to happen? My money is on probably not, because, after all, religion has become about family and we remain inflexible as to what that concept is, and about letting people define that notion for themselves. The article does end with some hope, though. Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, of the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons, offered this: “I think we could do more to change the culture where marriage is the highest value.”
The Masorti movement (the Israeli and generally non-North American arm of the Conservative movement) is bringing out the snark a bit with a new ad campaign to address the issue of government stipends for yeshiva students in Israel.
They’ve put up big ads all over Jerusalem (including on the back of buses) with the statement, “Torah that is not accompanied by a worldly trade will in the end amount to nothing and will lead one into sin” (Pirke Avot, chapter 2) and an index of the occupations of some of the tradition’s great sages–Maimonides was a physician, Rashi was a vintner, R. Yehoshua ben Hananiah made needles, and so forth.
I, for one, am amused, and glad they’re throwing down on this one.
You can see a close-up of the ad here.
The 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey, which was criticized for methodological problems, painted a grim picture. It had the American Jewish population on the decline and led to a decade of the official Jews running around with their heads cut off, trying to stop intermarriage, which, as we know, is the root of all evil.
Leonard Saxe, the Klutznick professor of contemporary Jewish Studies at Brandeis, said that the survey was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Saxe has a new study out that puts us in a growth trend, estimating one million more Jews than previously thought, for a total of 6.5 million.
“We have to stop worrying about whether the community will exist,” Saxe said. “Instead we should worry about the content, about how we make communal life meaningful for the many Jews who are out there.”
Which is kind of what we’ve been saying all along.
the following is another guest post by Andy Green, a student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. For another of his write-ups click here
And now… the exciting conclusion….:
Friday afternoon, I headed to Ted Merwin’s session on Jewish food in
pop culture. Those present were treated to an old Hebrew National hot
dog radio jingle, the classic yiddish song “Romania”, the deli scene
from “When Harry Met Sally”, and more. I found especially interesting,
the discussion recognizing the routine conflation of gastronomic
pleasure and sexual pleasure in representations of Jewish food
consumption in media. Also, I learned from this session that the terms
delicacy and delicatessen come from the same root suggesting that in
Eastern Europe, deli meats and dishes were consumed as rare
delicacies, far from standard fare.
Next, I hiked with a few other brave souls to the Walter Creek Ranch
Turtle Pond for a mikveh immersion in some exceedingly cold “living
waters.” The hike was about .6 miles each way and much of the trails
were muddy from earlier in the day. Before we stripped and immersed,
we paused as our certified lifeguard and fellow Hazonik Kyle Lebell
offered us some words of intention about mikveh connecting the three
traditional immersions with our experience and prayer for the past
week, present moment, and future week. However, with the exceedingly
cold temperature of the water, I was unsuccessful in retaining full
mindfulness of this intention while immersing. More »
There’s a bit of history that you need to know to clarify the situation. Kadima, a Jewish community in Washington, wanted to buy a Torah written by a woman. After making inquiries, they learned that there were no Torahs written by women. So they decided to commission six women to write one.
Since the time that this Torah was commissioned, in 2003, several women have become Torah scribes (or sofrot) is and completed the writing of a Torah on their own. (In fact, one of those is Julie Seltzer, an MJL writer who bakes a different challah for every Torah portion {here’s this week’s — not that it has anything to do with the movie; it’s just independently cool}.)
Perry explains a bit of the background:
Since the time the Women’s Torah Project began, nearly 50 women have become Torah scribes, and one woman, Jen Taylor Friedman, has written 3 sefer Torahs by herself. Not only has Kadima created a beautiful Torah for their community, they have also opened doors for women to take their places in Judaism one step further.
Now that the community has this Torah, what are they going to do with it? The next step is, of course, decorating it — other women from the community are already starting to work on the crown, mantle and yad. But really, the next big step is Shabbat — like any other Torah, they’re going to read the eternal story of our people’s history each week.
If you’re interested in seeing what types of sessions are being offered at the Food Conference out in Sonoma County you can see the program here.
the following is a guest post by Andy Green, a student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and first-time participant of a Hazon Food Conference, who has shared some of his experiences at the conference currently in progress.
Yesterday afternoon, following our over seven hour carpool from Los
Angeles, we arrived at Walker Creek Ranch for the 5th annual Hazon
Food Conference West at the gorgeous Walker Creek Ranch in Northern
California.
We were greeted by friendly Hazon staffers and participants, provided
with schedules, snacks (including outstanding pineapple ginger
kombucha), and a short amount of time to unpack before the conference
began. An impromptu mincha minyan commenced to enable a participant to
recite kaddish.
For the first session, I briefly visited the babka making class where
I picked up the babka recipe, before heading over to the Fermentation
session. The babka class is making babka that will be ready for
dessert tonight (for our Shabbat evening meal.)
by Kung Fu Jew [➚] · Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
The next time someone accuses Palestinians of publishing textbooks that incite hatred against Jews and Israel, send them this article in the Forward. An exhaustive survey of the back-and-forth over school textbooks, sermons, maps, naming streets after (Jewish) terrorists, and who out there has the credibility to have the final say.
1. Acts of writing should not be at issue here. From the article:
E-readers are problematic not only because they are electronic but also because some rabbis consider turning pages on the device – which causes words to dissolve and then resurface – an act of writing, also forbidden on the Sabbath.
That’s completely absurd. Writing is forbidden because its an act of creation. God’s rest on the first Shabbat was a rest from the work of creating the world. We follow suit, by avoiding acts of creation. The equivalent of turning the page on a Kindle is just that–it’s the equivalent of turning a page! The electronic equivalent of writing is typing.
2. That doesn’t mean Jews who observe a high number of ritual prohibitions on Shabbat are going to start davening from an e-siddur. They’re still electronic!
3. Who cares? Codex technology came into being and we retained the scroll. Now e-readers have been invented and we’ll retain the codex (fancy word for book) too.
by Aryeh Cohen [➚] · Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
From Gershom Gorenberg over at South Jerusalem:
At 10:03 on Monday morning, Osama Rusrus phoned from Beit Umar in the West Bank with wonderful news: His wife Sunya and daughter Dalal had crossed through the checkpoint into Jerusalem, on their way to Alyn Hospital.
It took nearly two months of wrangling with the Israeli authorities, especially the agency that never signs its name, and it was touch and go till the last moment.
Before I tell the story, let me note that this is just an early chapter. The next chapter is getting Dalal the full treatment she needs at Alyn, in order to allow her to live as fully as a girl with brain damage can. Right now she is unable to walk, has use of one hand, and has a vocabulary of one word. Treatment, according to Dr. Eliezer Be’eri of Alyn Hospital, will allow her “to develop to her potential, whatever that is” and enjoy a greater quality of life. It will require a lot of money. If you want to help, read on, or just go here.
Be’eri met with Osama and his daughter Dalal in October to give an initial assessment of her condition and of whether Alyn could help her. Dalal is three-and-a-half years old and has suffered since birth from brain damage that has drastically slowed her development. (An account of that meeting is here.) Neither Osama nor his wife Sunya were able to enter Jerusalem, so Be’eri performed that initial examination on the patio of the Everest Hotel outside Beit Jalla in the West Bank.
Be’eri’s assessment was that Dalal not only could benefit from treatment, but needed to begin quickly. He arranged for a multi-disciplinary examination at Alyn, and made sure it was scheduled as “urgent.” With Alyn’s letter, Osama requested a permit to enter Jerusalem.
They brought you the Answers in Genesis ministry. They brought you the Creation Museum, showing that humans and dinosaurs coexisted on God’s 6-day creation 6000 years ago. Now, they are bringing you Ark Encounter–an 800 acre Noah’s Ark theme park complete with life-size replica of the ark and a model of the Tower of Babel. Crazy? Perhaps. But also lucrative!
The developers of Ark Encounter, who have incorporated as a profit-making company, say they expect to spend $150 million, employ 900 people and attract 1.6 million visitors from around the world in the first year. With the Creation Museum only 45 miles away, they envision a Christian tourism corridor that would draw busloads from churches and Christian schools for two- and three-day visits.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the article:
“It’s our opportunity to present accurate, factual biblical information to people about a subject that they’re really interested in,” said Mike Zovath, a senior vice president of Answers in Genesis.
this one makes me laugh because if it’s accurate and factual to the Bible, it’s not accurate or factual to those pesky things called history or reality! If it’s accurate and factual to history and reality, well, then it will likely not be so much in line with the Bible…
“We think that God would probably have sent healthy juvenile-sized animals that weren’t fully grown yet, so there would be plenty of room,” said Mr. Zovath, a retired Army lieutenant colonel heading the ark project. “We want to show how Noah would have taken care of them, taken care of waste management, taken care of water needs and food needs.”
that God, always thinking about practical matters! sounds like someone needs to do a little reading of some midrash! healthy juvenile-sized animals. hilarious.
On Sunday December 5th, Pursue New York hosted its 3rd annual Inside the Activists’ Studio (IAS) event at the 92nd Street Y in Tribeca. Hip-hop artist and Jewish activist, Y-Love – the event’s emcee – welcomed the crowd and warmed us up for a full evening of dialogue, debate, learning and of course, eating.
I was particularly inspired by the cornerstone of the IAS experience – a panel discussion with four compelling, young, New York area-based change-makers. Tablet’s senior writer, Alison Hoffman, moderated the discussion with thoughtfulness and humor, eliciting “coming of age as an activist” stories from Karin Fleisch, Taylor Krauss, Annie Lewis and Lucas Shapiro, as well as diverse and insightful reflections on how their Jewish backgrounds did – or did not – shape their identities, careers, volunteer choices, and life paths.
Their stories were powerful and accessible – everyone in the audience could likely relate to at least one perspective or experience that the panel shared in the course of their dialogue with Alison and with each other. For example, Karin Fleisch spoke movingly about the successful letter-writing campaign she participated in during college that led to the release of Tibetan nuns from Chinese prison, and how it convinced her that, in some instances, individual actions can make a significant impact .She applies that inspiration now working at the Food Bank for NYC and serving as a compliance officer for Uri L’Tzedek’s Tav HaYosher (ethical seal), ensuring that NYC restaurants follow basic labor laws.
Taylor Krauss educated the audience on his experience documenting national and global issues including healthcare, sexual violence, the war on drugs and genocide. He emphasized the importance of showing people the truth, coming to terms with identifying unjust and inhumane practices, and taking the right steps to work towards necessary change in creating more humane societies in the United States and abroad. He also shared his unique story of growing up Reform and being among the few Jews in his Catholic high school in Phoenix. As a result of being in that environment, he felt compelled to explore his own Jewish identity further. While in high school he traveled to South America which influenced his work both in college and in his professional career as a dedicated video journalist – for instance, filming in Rwanda where he has been building an archive for genocide survivor testimonies. He noted that the survivor community in Rwanda feels a sense of solidarity with Jews because of a shared history of genocide.
Annie Lewis discussed the unique path that led her to rabbinical school after working at a women’s center in Jerusalem and a citizens’ rights center in Ashkelon. She expressed her enthusiasm for being a part of the first LGBTQ-friendly program as a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary and spoke of the challenge of spending a year in an Israeli yeshiva that had not yet embraced the same policy as part of her rabbinical program. This perspective affirmed that change takes time, and a policy changes does not mean that the culture will automatically shift – it may take awhile.
As an experienced organizer and active voice in a number of causes ranging from political projects to building queer communities, Lucas Shapiro expressed his frustration with society’s current obsession with social networking devices. He shared with the audience his belief that social networking devices such as Facebook and Twitter often prevent individuals from connecting on a personal level, and more face-to-face contact can allow for better communication in working together to move projects forward. Lucas referenced an ambivalence about his Jewish identity, but even as he spoke, he was wearing a JFREJ (Jews for Racial and Economic Justice) t-shirt, on whose board he sits, and was participating in a Jewish event; an inspiring example of how you can constantly question and struggle with your Jewish identity and still consider yourself a proud Jew.
After participants returned from their workshops, they were greeted with a delicious Hanukkah-themed, Tav HaYosher meal provided by Café 76 of the JCC. Emcee Y-Love closed out the evening with a mini-concert, showcasing hip-hop coated with messages of social activism. With a hearty blend of panel discussions, group workshops, and a hip-hop infused social justice concert, the evening had its fill of inspiring stories and positive ideas for change in the Jewish justice world. As an individual who is new to New York and its Jewish community, I found the event to be incredibly inspiring, and am looking forward to becoming more involved in future change-making events.
So for those of you who had anything better to do than say keep up with Princeton’s great hummus debate of 2010 may not have heard the news out of the Central Jersey Ivy League last week.
The referendum failed. According to The Daily Princetonian a total of 1,014 students voted against the referendum, while 699 students voted in favor (out of 4,878 undergraduates total).
In a follow-up article about the vote, both sides seem to claim victory and honestly I think the real winners are the food service workers who have to deal with both sets of entitled Princetonians.
As I wrote before, this is possibly the stupidest student government action I have ever heard of…however it did spark some sort of real conversation about boycotts and divestment. In the same article, Yoel Bitran, of the poorly named PCP, said, “We’re having a big panel on boycott, divestment and sanctions coming up next week, and we’re very excited to plan for next semester.”
Maybe the pro-Israel group can have an equally constructive conversation about the reasons building settlements is ok because God said it was cool.
Yesterday a good friend told me that according to her father, candy canes are supposed to be the bones and blood of Jesus in edible form, and for this reason, she was not allowed to eat them as a child. Before this conversation, I thought that the main thing that might cause parents to discourage/forbid their children from eating candy canes was the fact that if you suck on them long enough, they’ll form a sharp point that would be ideal for stabbing someone. Either way, I dislike Christmas.
When I was growing up, it was celebrate Christmas, fake it, or be extremely bored. The streets of the medium sized Northeastern city where we lived was desolate on all holidays and on Sundays after 5. I didn’t know anyone Jewish who wasn’t in some way in a Christmas situation (including my family), and so I’d buckle down and watch Christmas tv and listen to Christmas music and still feel deeply, intangibly lonely.
Jami Attenberg, one of my favorite writers, posted a piece on her personal blog last week about December being a month that’s always hard. I think that for me it has to do with my refusal to indulge tinsel and lights and pine smell anything infused by/with Christmas infused mirth. This is based in: a) feeling exhausted by the consumerism of the holiday season, b) trying to pretend I’m not assimilated, which is of course, false, being that I’m an American Jew. There’s no use in putting up this front at Christmas when it’s something that I have to deal with all year. Living in Manhattan is certainly a change from the days of yore, what with things being open and people roaming the streets, but even with all the movement, or perhaps because of it, something feels heavy and overwhelming and at the same time, empty.
Workers who toiled at Flaums for years, making kosher food in abusive and illegal working conditions, are trying to bring some justice to their cause.
They are counting on us to bring awareness to the Jewish community about the labor violations that have occurred there and the Flaums unwillingness to pay the fine ordered by the courts. You can read the story here. Today, on Sunday December 19th, from 5-7pm, we’ll be canvassing businesses that carry Flaum’s, in person and by phone, letting the stores and their customers know about the problems at Flaum’s and exerting pressure on the company to pay the $270,000 they owe their workers. We’re meeting at 96th and Broadway at 5pm.
Apologies for having been quite quiet for the past while. Much of it had to do with planning a wedding and getting life back to “normal” afterwards. As I reflected on that experience, I decided to write up some advice for people planning weddings or helping people that are. Crossposted at DiD. Since this is a manifesto in progress, your thoughts on topics for inclusion, changes, etc are all very much welcomed. Sorry for the technical mishap and resulting problems with readability in an earlier draft.
Wedding Manifesto
As we planned our wedding we came under pressure to spend obscene amounts of money on a variety of silly things–I suspect this is the American way. The pressure was real, came from many places, and thankfully was almost entirely resisted. If it can happen to us–it can happen to you! I’ll outline some of the things we did and why, including resources. My approach to weddings is that it’s critical to save your budget for things that will make your wedding match your goals. Since the budget is limited, spending on things you care about will necessitate ruthlessly cutting things you don’t. I’ll talk more about this throughout. My experience with wedding is a bit limited (though I’ve been to 30 or so I’ve only planned one).
So says Aitan Mizrahi, a cheese maker at Adamah. He recently taught a group of people Hazon Food Conference East Coast how to make cheese with goat milk, and at The Jew and the Carrot you can learn how as well. On a totally different note, it’s fascinating that “goats are the Jews…” is slightly endearing, yet “Jews are the goats…” is horribly offensive.
Apparently Ben Harris at the JTA has video footage forthcoming of this cheese making session, and perhaps some reviews of the locally raised meat cholent, maybe goat?
You may have missed the Food Conference on the East Coast, but it’s not too late to register for Hazon Food Conference West Coast Dec. 23-26
The Masorti movement (the Israeli and generally non-North American arm of the Conservative movement) is bringing out the snark a bit with a new ad campaign to address the issue of government stipends for yeshiva students in Israel. 
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