Happy Israeli Independence Day
Happy 64th Birthday State of Israel, with all your triumphs and tragedies, accomplishments and faults, diversity and difficulties, defense of the Jewish people and the attendant imperfections.
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2011, what’s that?
As the new year begins, here at Jewschool we put together an entirely unscientific, completely biased view of some of the best and worst of 2011.
2011 was simultaneously one of the most inspiring and dispiriting years I can think of. From the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords way back at the beginning of the year, to the passing of important greats like Debbie Friedman, to Occupy Judaism’s prominent place in the Occupy Everything movement. Israel has been a roller coaster, between the hopefulness of the J-14 protests to their quiet whimpering away, new settler attacks, undemocratic legislation, and fights over gender segregation. However, it was a mostly great year for the arts, despite JDub Records’ closing. Here’s to a new year with more distillants, and less despirits.
L’chaim!
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Sunday: Inside the Activitsts’ Studio — Bay Area
4th Annual Bay Area Inside the Activists’ Studio
Sunday, February 27 at 10:30 am
Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street, San Francisco
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Jewschool co-sponsors Inside the Activists’ Studio 2011 in San Francisco!
Jewschool is proud to sponsor for the third year running the Inside the Activists’ Studio series. We’ve co-sponsored in NYC, DC…and now San Francisco! Pursue: Action for a Just World takes the lead with this year’s partners New Generations of The New Israel Fund and Progressive Jewish Alliance plus a host of other Jewish social justice co-sponsors.
(Will you be in San Francisco for this? Email us and cover it!)
4th Annual Bay Area Inside the Activists’ Studio
Sunday, February 27 at 10:30 am
Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street, San Francisco
Join us to learn from and be energized by local Jewish change-makers and to celebrate the multitude of ways we are working to create a more just world! This signature annual event features skill-building social change workshops, catered lunch, panel discussion with local change-makers, networking opportunities, and a who’s who of local Jewish social change organizations.
Panelists:
Sasha T. Goldberg, Associate Director and Director of Student Programming at Nehirim.
Seth Linden, Founding Director, Tutorpedia.
Workshops:
The Game of Life 2.0: Identity, Power and Privilege
Giving Loving Rebuke
Community Organizing for Economic Justice
And more! (Lists in formation and subject to change, stay tuned for more details!)
P.S. If you’re in the NYC area, sign up for Justice and Jewish Thought — a study group series on radical Jewish thought.
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Write for Jewschool
Our apologies for the slow nature of posts, our contributors are away on vacations, study tours, and saving the world in India. Now is as good a time as any to remind everyone that we accept guest posts and petitions to become summer contributors. Send an email to editor@jewschool.com with your post on Jewish, progressive topic (self-defined) of your choosing. We publish quality thoughts free of grammatical errors from those who care passionately about a cause, have a bone to pick, or a project to promote. Please be in touch!
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Jewschool co-sponsors Love, Hate & the Jewish State 3
Jewschool co-sponsors the third in this series of dialogues on the intersection of social justice and Israel. Themed “What’s Jewish about a Jewish state?” this dialogue couldn’t be better timed. With the Gaza flotilla still all over the news and with old Jews talking about young Jews’ non-attachment to Israel, it seems to be more on our minds these days than normally. Need to talk about Israel some? Sure, I think we all do…
Love, Hate and the Jewish State 3.0: What’s Jewish about a Jewish state?
Thursday, June 24 at 7:00 pm
The JCC in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Ave at 76th Street
Cost $10
Do your social justice values impact the way that you relate to Israel as the Jewish state?
Social justice and Israel are often polarizing and separate conversations. Israel’s Jewish character affects government policy, life-cycle events, state symbols, and everyday life for both Jews and non-Jews.
Join us for the third in a series of highly interactive, non-persuasive, open discussions with a diverse group of people in their 20s and 30s. The program will be followed by a reception.
Hosted by Joel Chasnoff, Comedian and Author of The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah
This event is brought to you by the New Israel Fund and Makom, co-sponsored by a growing list of organizations, including: Bnai Jeshurun’s Tzeirim, Brooklyn Jews, Encounter, the Foundation for Jewish Culture, Hazon, J Street NYC, the JCC in Manhattan, JDub Records, Jewcy.com, Jewschool.com, Kehillat Hadar, Pursue: Action for a Just World, Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, and Zeek.
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“So… Wot’s it Like?”*
Thursday May 27th is a typical DC summer day: hot, humid as a sauna, and threatening rain.
What wasn’t typical were the 200 or so Jewish guests of the White House. Although President George W. Bush established May as Jewish Heritage Month in 2007, this was the first time the White House hosted an event to honor it. Jewschool was honored to be apparently the only Jewish blog invited (as press, anyhow. The basement of the White House is really quite basement-y. In any case, there may have been others, but we were the only ones attending, as far as I could tell…)
A curious mix of guests included an odd emphasis on sports figures, including Dara Torres and Zoe Taylor (youngest member of the national telemark team)… and the great Sandy Koufax, still mentioned whenever there is need of a model Jewish sports figure, perhaps because unfortunately, in these days, few Jewish sports figures will distinguish themselves by refusing to play on Yom Kippur – as Rabbi Brad Hirschfield of CLAL (also present) commented to me, Koufax was perhaps one of the greatest rabbis in America for that act. A thought worth considering.
More »
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A Helping Hand for Haiti
As we have seen plastered across TV, the Internet and newspapers, Haiti was rocked by a devastating earthquake, killing upwards of 100,000 people and leaving millions more without food, water, shelter or medical supplies. Please do your part (despite what Michael Steinhardt says) and donate whatever you can to help the island nation dig itself out and begin the painful rebuilding process. Below are just a few opportunities for you donate through a Jewish organization to help the survivors of this disaster.
American Jewish Committee
American Jewish World Service
Combined Jewish Philanthropies
Joint Distribution Committee
Mazon
Union for Reform Judaism
You can also Text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to relief efforts in Haiti through the Red Cross.
Thank you for your help,
If you know of other Jewish organizations accepting donations or otherwise organizing to help the people of Haiti, please leave a comment with the necessary information.
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Max Weinberg’s Gift to the Mormons…
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock (or don’t live 24/7 inside the jblogosphere, like we do), Republican Mormon senator from Utah Orrin Hatch (who apparently has a big song-writing hobby) loves the Jews so much, he decided to give us a brand new song about Chanukah. Jewschooler Aryeh Cohen covered the song here. Tablet originally posted the song.
In return, Jewschool started thinking about a way to return Hatch’s gift with a song about a Mormon holiday. (Big tip o’ the nib to RebYudel and KRG.) We were looking at ways to record it, had come up with some great lyrics, but this was used on the show before we had a chance to polish it off and post it ourselves. Our RobK passed it along and the result?
Conan O’Brien and his Jewish sidekick Max Weinberg decided to return the favor with this. Enjoy. Chappy Chanukah.
Editor’s note:
Our blogger Rob Kutner adds more of the back end to the story – again, note that the idea came from a discussion offline among Jewschool’s contributors:
I saw the idea being bandied about among Jewschool’s contributors. Someone had a pretty brilliant riff to the tune of Maoz Tsur. Then it occurred to me that the Tonight Show band leader, Max Weinberg, is Jewish – and maybe he could be the centerpiece of such a response to the Mormons. I pitched the idea to Conan, and then my colleague (and Heeb 100er) Todd Levin and I wrote new lyrics to the more universally known (if not necessarily beloved) “I Have A Little Dreidel.” Unlike the scathing Maoz Tsur lyrics, Standards & Practices was skeptical, so we made our focus the average American’s cluelessness/misunderstandings of Mormonism. It’s definitely an interesting moment when Jewish culture is mainstream enough to provide a window on another minority religion’s relative marginalization.
One more cultural nugget: I had the idea to liven it up by bringing in the “Mormon Tapper-nacle Choir,” and one of the tap dancers told me last night that she was Jewish, but that her hair was too frizzy, so they had to put a straight wig on her to make her look more “Mormon.”
One last little tiny update. For those who are jonesin’ to know what the lyrics were, we include them below. We wanted to have a song that was special to a Mormon holiday, and the one we found was Joseph Smith’s birthday, to the tune of “Oh, Chanukah, Oh Chanukah.” Thanks to our Mormon friends for taking it all in a lighthearted spirit. Just to be clear (in case it isn’t) the lyrics are meant to make fun of Orrin Hatch, not Mormons or Joseph Smith.
Oh Joseph Smith, Oh Joseph Smith
The prophet of the Mormons
On Dec 23 we toast your birth
(Though not with coke or tea or bourbon)….
An angel showed to you a bunch of golden plates
Leading you to make your people mi-grate
And Jesus …did visit …the natives of this land
giving revelation, that lead to celebration
and moving to Ohio with his band.
But financial collapse and other mishaps
brought them to Utah and senators who like wiretaps
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Some Overdue Updates
This is an announcement for you readers who follow Jewschool through our RSS feed. Tomorrow afternoon, we’re going to be changing a few settings on how the feed is published, with the result that its location will change. There are a bunch of reasons for making these changes, like that we’ll now be able to offer per-author and per-category feeds, but what it means for you is this: once we update those settings, the next time you try to access the feed, you’ll see that it’s empty except for a single article, which will give you the new location. This bears repeating: if you don’t switch your subscription over to that new location, you will not get Jewschool posts through RSS. The placeholder item will remain in place for 30 days, at which point the old feed address will cease to function altogether.
Let us know in the comments if you have any questions. It should be a pretty painless switch.
Thanks!
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Jewschool Co-Sponsors Inside the Activists’ Studio 2009 in NYC
Join us to learn from and be energized by local Jewish change-makers and to celebrate the multitude of ways we are collectively working to create a more just and equitable world.
PANEL DISCUSSION WITH:
Carinne Luck – Israel, food and women’s issues organizer
Alan Lungen – Attorney and Darfuri refugee advocate
Avi Rosenthalis – JFREJ member organizer on housing justice / Rude Mechanical Orchestra
SKILLS SHARE WORKSHOPS WITH:
Suzanne Grossman – Career coach, LYJ – Love Your Job
Alison Hirsch – Assistant Political Director of East Coast and Federal Programs, SEIU 32BJ
Isaac Luria – Campaigns Director, JStreet
Alissa Wise – Program Director, Ma’ayan
…and others still TBA!
Reception with dinner and spoken word performances will follow.
Emceed and with special performances by Daniel “Fritz†Herschel Silber-Baker, award winning slam poet and Brooklyn-based community activist.
Date: Sunday, December 6th
Time: 4pm-9pm, registration at 3:30pm
Place: Congregation Beth Elohim at 274 Garfield Place, in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Cost: Sliding scale, $8 – $18 (nobody will be turned away for lack of funds)
For more information and to register, visit whoinspiresyou.eventbrite.com
Hosted by the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership and our partners:
Jewschool.com, the New Israel Fund’s New Generations, Uri L’Tzedek, and the Young Leaders of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Co-sponsored by:
Adamah, Bronfman Youth Fellowships, Congregation Beth Elohim / Brooklyn Jews, B’nai Jeshurun, Hazon, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Moishe House, Teva Learning Center, Zeek, and others TBA.
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Meet Birthright’s Exciting New PR Team!!!
5WPR, headed by the uber-cool Alpha Dog of the PR World, Ronn Torossian, is now representing Birthright.
Yay! Good for the Jews!
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!
- Inspire Jews by reminding them that “Hitler was a hunter sent by god to help get the Jews back to the promised land.”
- Understanding The Israel-Palestine Conflict with Ronn Torossian – “I think we should kill a hundred Arabs or a thousand Arabs for every one Jew they kill.”
- Highlighting the Cutting Edge Israeli Porn Industry
- Impersonate respected religious leaders online to… no, wait, that didn’t really work.
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!
Hat-tip, Shmarya.
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Jewschool invites social justice and Israel activists to “Love, Hate & the Jewish State” on June 18
The social justice agenda and the Israel agenda overlap awkwardly. They are kept separate in our activism, our communities and often in our own thoughts. When they do, we are left with conflicted thoughts, bruised feelings, and shortcomings of priority, loyalty, knowledge. Rightly so, they’re described as two separate “worlds” of Jewish life.
Do they need to be separate? How do they impact our communities? Are the two issues incompatible? Do we end up choosing one over the other, when and why? And can we envision a future Jewish community which integrates social justice with Israel, Israel with social justice, together and elsewhere?
This is why Jewschool is co-sponsoring Love, Hate, and the Jewish State: A Conversation on Social Justice and Israel on Thursday, June 18th at 7 pm. This evening dialogue is brought to you by the folks you trust: social justice leaders who have grown frustrated at being unable to discuss this conflict openly. This is this first attempt at creating an open space where we can hear each other, air our personal qualms, celebrate our similarities, and perhaps think anew about what to do.
This agenda-free, apolitical, open and non-persuasive conversation has one goal: to hear you, to hear each other. Come and leave your mark — full sponsors list below the fold.
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Jewschool moves to a new host!
Dear readers, Jewschool has a new home! Our friend and tech guru Aryeh Goldsmith has moved us to a new host with vastly more appropriate resources. This means faster loads and no downtimes! Hooray!
We’ve also begun revisiting our contributor list and rebuilding our editorial team. If you’ve ever wanted to guest post to Jewschool, become a regular contributor, or help guide the direction of content and recruitment, drop an email with your credentials to editor@jewschool.com.
Thanks for sticking with us during our bumpy past few months — we’re due for smooth sailing now.
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New and improved bylines
In case you didn’t notice, you can now easily browse each author’s archives by clicking their byline! The little arrow beside our byline will now take you our personal blogs.
Thanks to Mobius for this tweak!
– The Jewschool editoral team
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Got Something to Say About It?
The following is from AJWS:
AJWS is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for the Dvar Tzedek Lisa Goldberg Memorial Writers’ Fellowship for 5770 / 2009-2010. AJWS Dvar Tzedek Fellows receive a modest stipend and write weekly Torah commentaries relating to the Jewish imperative for social justice. The Dvar Tzedek currently reaches over 4,000 people a week over e-mail.
To see examples of the work of this year’s Dvar Tzedek commentaries, and to download the application for the fellowship, please visit www.ajws.org/parshah.
We invite you to apply for the fellowship and to circulate information about the fellowship to anyone else you think would be interested. For more information, please contact Lisa Exler at lexler@ajws.org.
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We haven’t been ourselves lately
Perhaps one or two of you have noticed that Jewschool has been having a few problems lately. We admit that we haven’t been ourselves of late. Somehow all those late nights, too much caffeine, and jaunting around the world in search of the cutting edge, the complex, the groovy and also the outre, startling and eccentric of the Jewish world, has taken its toll on our beloved website.
Well, actually I have no idea what the problem was, as I’m not really much of a techie.
We have taken several steps to try and fix the problems, and hope that we have the problem under control. We apologize for the sporadic outages, and welcome everyone back to the joyous world of Jewschool. Thanks for your patience.
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Migration complete
If you’re seeing this message, that means you’re seeing Jewschool on its new server. Let us know how it’s working and if it’s noticeably faster.
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