I’m a progressive yid, so I’m mostly a fan of Jon Stewart. Mostly. I’m certain that his and Colbert’s rallies in 2010 deprived close east congressional and state level races countless volunteers (I lost 10 volunteers, half of them for the weekend, to attend it) that could’ve helped turn out voters to make the difference in state legislatures that have gone to the crazyville he so ably lampoons. But I enjoy him, a lot, and I have from the time he was cracking wise on MTV’s Remote Control. His legendary takedown of Crossfire I have watched dozens of times. And it’s fun to have such an on point and hilarious member of the tribe go at the insanity that is the news of the day.
Sometimes even our favorite folks swing and miss, and Stewart did big time with “faith/off” his coverage of the convergence of the beginning of Passover and the end of Holy Week on the Daily Show. More »
Of the applications, two artists will be selected to participate in the Institute and share their work, teach a class of about 20 and share their work in communitywide program with people that come together from all across the country for the Institute.
Last year’s fantastic Artists in Residence were Joey Weisenberg and Jordan Herskowitz. Previous artists include Rabbi Greg Wall, Tracey Erin-Smith, Aviva Chernick, Ramon Tasat, Heather Stoltz, Bear Bergman, among many great others. Feel free to send any questions to poretskyair@havurah.org
I’ll admit it- there was a time when my younger self was not into Debbie Friedman, ZL. Growing up in a Conservative minyan in a Reform shul, and being the youngest by a generation in said minyan, I mostly thought her stuff was kinda weak. English? Who sings prayers in English? Non-Jews do, that’s who.
I didn’t see what Momma K saw in her, using her music in her Sunday school class. I didn’t see how a song about a latke going bad b/c it wasn’t being fried quickly enough was going to do anything to help my fellow Sunday School students (most of whom were jerks who were not interested in being there or, as far as I could tell, being jewish) actually get into the history, the tradition and the faith of our people.
Of course, it’s easy to see now how wrong I was then. How many loved ones, friends, teachers, how many yids are moved by her voluminous catalog of songs? Friends and acquaintances are sponsoring memorial singalongs across the country, another noted how quiet facebook was during the funeral ceremony. This is the fourth post that’s referencing her on Jewschool in the last few days. How many melodies of hers have I sung and not even known it?
And that’s a question I pose to you, readers. What are your favorite melodies of hers? Let me go one step further. I’ve decided to stay home in the county of rulers instead of joining so many of our friends at an amazing LimmudNY weekend. A friend and neighbor is hosting a singalong service on Friday. Full singalong. What are melodies we could use in a full hebrew liturgy service?
Just wanted to give a shout out to the folks at Encounter. Encounter is an educational organization that provides Jewish Diaspora leaders from across the religious and political spectrum with exposure to Palestinian life. They do really incredible work and are worth checking out no matter where you are in the galaxy of views about Israel and Palestine. I know a good chunk of the staff who make it run and couldn’t be prouder to call them friends. They’ve got a new video showing a little bit of what they do, check it out:
On Friday, during the slush of a winter storm and while I was running around getting ready for Shabbos guests, David Sax was complaining about tipping.
Normally, I might write this off as some fool who wields the written word well, log in to the Judy Miller Times, add to a comment stream, and be done with it, but this is a guy, like me, who loves the Jewish delicatessen. This is a guy who was able to take his love and passion and, perhaps wiser than me, parlay it into a career. Or if not a career, certainly something where he gets to travel across the continent, eat tasty Jewish vittles, and presumably get paid to sign books and speak at events in shuls and community centers across North America. As the JM Times article notes that he lives in Park Slope, one could venture a guess that he’s doing pretty well at something I’d call “living the dream.”
So, a good part of your present occupation is getting paid to eat, write about, and talk about Jewish Delis. You do well enough at that, and probably some other things too, that you’re able to live in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn. And by Brooklyn, I also mean the US. And THIS is how you repay the folks that bring you your food? By writing an article about tipping that included gems like this one? More »
Review of the Abraham Inc. Album Release Party, Le Poisson Rouge, NYC, 2/25/2010.
I feel like I just saw two different David Krakauers on stage. The first one I can only describe as avuncular and earnest. Like your uncle Dovid hearing your high school jazz band and really getting into it, smiling, dancing, clapping, just a really big smile on his face as he’s connecting with this music in a new way because of personal attachment. He’s inside it, and he’s really digging it. This funk the kids play, it’s really something!
David Krakauer number 1 must feel that way in part because of how David Krakauer number 2 tore it up on stage. More »
“There are many ways to have intelligent interfaith conversation, and they don’t always have to take place in a boardroom or office. Sometimes they’re with people you run into on the sidewalk and interact with for five minutes.” — Lilit Marcus
I don’t remember exactly when I actually met Lilit for the first time, though it could possibly have been at that very meetup nearly four (gah!) years ago, at a Kol Zimrah, or other random Jew-y stuff here in NYC. Always was impressed with her wit, her knowledge, her openness, and her writing. Always fun to snarkily break down a stupid argument or to get her clear-eyed insights, especially on faith, religion, spirituality, and a Jewish world she could see with fresh eyes, having not been drowned in NYC Jewyness her whole life. A blast to have a bourbon with as well.
In any case, the J-blogs just got a little less smart last week as Lilit, friend of the blog and former contributor here at Jewschool, parted ways with Jewcy. After helming it through its near-death experience and keeping it alive until it could join forces with our friends at JDub, she was recruited to start something new on the internets. Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be smart and snappy. We wish her all the best!
Her last post as big cheese of Jewcy is here. Good luck finding a replacement, Jewcy, you have some awesome shoes to fill.
Attention all artists! Today is the day- the deadline for applications to be one of two Poretsky Artists in Residence at the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute 2010. The two artists selected will be teaching a course and presenting their work to a diverse, open, eager community of 350 people from all across North America.
If you stopped halfway through your course description, time to finish it up, as the application is due in less than 11 hours! You can download the application by clicking here. Applications due 11:59pm tonight, East Coast time. Good luck!
[Edited by TWJ to add: today is also the last day to submit course proposals. More details here.]
Hey all, so for those who saw my post the other day about the new play Granada, I just found out that Jewschool readers can get 3 dollars off their tickets by entering the promo code JEWSCH when they buy tickets. It’s running for three weekends starting with this one, Thursdays-Saturdays @ 8pm, Saturdays @ 3pm, Sundays @ 7pm at the Access Theater Gallery, 380 Broadway at White Street, 4th Floor. Check it out and tell ‘em Jewschool sent ya!
This sounds interesting. New play in New York City featuring a woman who thinks she’s Maimonides, exploration of Sephardi folk tales and the expulsion from Spain:
Polybe + Seats, the New York-based experimental theater, premieres Granada, the new play by Avi Glickstein, on November 5th at TriBeCa’s Access Theater Gallery in New York City.
Granada begins in 1992 as the King of Spain prepares to symbolically welcome Jews back to Spain after 500 years of banishment. A young Egyptian Jewish woman has been invited to stand in for all of those exiled—but following the ceremony, she reveals to Spain’s prince that she believes herself to be the resurrection of Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), philosopher, royal physician, and Jewish cultural icon. Quite suddenly, the prince’s world is not what it was before her revelation: he is pursued by a bear, seduced by a princess hatched from a grapefruit, and nearly betrayed by his trusty aide-de-camp. Is this the beginning of the Messianic age?
Bringing together characters and storytelling from Sephardic Jewish folklore and history and weaving from Spain to Israel to Morocco and back again, Granada explores issues of identity, both religious and national, and the uncanny link among followers of a tradition separated by continents but united by a state of exile.
This seems intriguing. I’ve heard good things about this company and who doesn’t love theater with bears somehow involved? Running the next three weekends, Thursdays-Saturdays @ 8pm, Saturdays @ 3pm, Sundays @ 7pm at the Access Theater Gallery, 380 Broadway at White Street, 4th Floor. Gonna try to catch it myself, let us know what you think of it if you see it!
With the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute 2010 a scant 9 months away, the call is out for artists to apply to be this year’s Poretsky Artists in Residence at the Summer Institute. For artists, this week chock full of learning, singing, hiking, playing, hanging and great people from all across the continent, and an amazing opportunity. A week with a community eager to learn from you and share with you, a supportive environment to explore new projects, a week on Franklin Pierce University’s relaxed campus in New Hampshire, a chance to build relationships with people from all over North America, a $1000 stipend for the week on top of the free ride to Institute. You have the opportunity to teach a class and take a class from amazing teachers. Also, there are games, singing, jams, hiking, lots of fun stuff happening all week.
Full text of the letter and the application after the jump. Know an amazing artist who would love an opportunity to work with a community of 300-400 Jews of all types from across North America? Tell them to apply to be a Poretsky Artist in Residence. More »
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.
Cookies, that is. Seems that the bad folks at Brynwood Partners, owners of Stella D’oro, aren’t taking the NLRB decision that they’ve screwed over the 134 workers at their Bronx factory lying down. From the JM Times:
Last week, a federal judge ordered Stella D’oro to reinstate 134 workers after a protracted 10-month strike. This week, the company invited the workers back. It also announced that it would close the factory in October.”
snip
“The decision to close the Bronx bakery operations has not been made in haste or without significant planning,” a statement from the management said. Operations will be moved elsewhere and the products would continue, the statement said.
Ah yes. They had plenty of time to figure out how to shutter this factory and move it elsewhere, by refusing to bargain with the union for 10 months and then, easily plan their escape. This looks like a pretty standard union-busting move here: demand massive pay concessions that you know are not fair, and either you get them and break the union, or you get enough cover to plan a move elsewhere and break the union.
Also, important to note that the NLRB administrative law judge ruled the company refused to bargain fairly with the union. And there is no punishment for them leaving these 134 workers out to dry. No penalty strong enough to compel them to treat their workers with respect. This same attitude towards is workers is just another example of why we need labor law reform like the Employee Free Choice Act. If it was easier to organize around the country, this tactic would be less effective.
One thing’s for sure: Stella D’Oro joins Disney and Coke on my treyf list.
So I’m getting on the plane to New Orleans, and there’s this tall woman with a tenor sax hanging over her shoulder. I always want to know what my fellow tenor players are playing, so I walk over and say, hey, what do you play? The woman turns back to me, perhaps a bit surprised that someone would ask at the airport, and says Balanced Action. I smile. She asks, “And you?” I tell her about my Couf Superba I. She seems amused. “Where is it? You going to New Orleans for Jazzfest without it?” “I’m going to listen. So who are you playing with?” “George Wein.” “And I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name…?” “Anat. Anat Cohen.”
After hearing her Thursday, I don’t think I’ll forget that name anytime soon. Sorry, Daphna, but it looks like you’ve got competition in the woodwind crush division. More »
Perhaps Senator Arlen Specter was upset by BZ’s note that the Senate is now bereft of Jewish Republicans. A tidbit from the upcoming NYTimes Magazine interview with the party switching octegenarian. (ht Huffpo):
Q: With your departure from the Republican Party, there are no more Jewish Republicans in the Senate. Do you care about that?
A: I sure do. There’s still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.
Congressional Quarterly has him saying he “conclusively misspoke” but I think the real Snarlen Arlen was speaking then. This move is about political expediency, about pulling a Lieberman in a state that won’t allow him to start his own party if he loses the election. So call me completely unsurprised that he’s not so supportive in getting a real Dem into the Senate chamber.
I know a lot of people have been really excited about the Dems getting to 60, but 60 people with a D after their name is not the same as 60 reliable votes on an issue. I’d much rather wait the 1.5 years and replace Specter with an actual Democrat, who may not be perfect but will be far better than Specter.
I would be ecstatic to be wrong here, but I think the Dems have thrown a lifeboat to someone who should’ve gotten an anvil. This guy is going to be worse than Blanche Lincoln and he’s in a state that Obama took by what, ten points?
RJC Announces Norm Coleman to Serve as Consultant and Strategic Advisor
Washington, D.C. (January 22, 2009) — Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks announced today that Senator Norm Colelman (MN) has agreed to join the RJC as a consultant and strategic advisor. In this capacity, Coleman will help the RJC as it plans for the future and looks at ways to continue its historic record of growth and success.
Which success, the one where despite a huge whisper campaign and a candidate named Barack Hussein Obama, Jews voted 78-22 for our new President, besting Kerry’s 04 numbers?
I’m reminded of a certain CT senator staying on the ballot for Senate while running for VP. Getting a job just in case all the spurious claims don’t get you back into that seat, Norm? Here’s hoping a real Progressive is back in Senator Wellstone’s (z’l) chair.
Given the awesome gathering that Rabbis for Human Rights has put together from Sunday through tomorrow, I think it’s awful fitting that tomorrow, one of the more public and horrifying cases of US-allowed torture of the last several years, that of Canadian-Syrian citizen Maher Arar’s rights to recourse in the courts of the United States, will be decided on in part by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals here in NYC. And I have to take a moment to tip my hat to Representative Jerrold Nadler for making a strong statement on the case today.
While on the campaign trail, I got really angry with Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY8) and his really foolish off-the-cuff remarks about now President-Elect Obama at a shul in Florida. Now, I have to stand up and give him props for the statement he and Rep. Bill Delahunt have at Talking Points Memo, demanding that Arar be able to get some justice in this country. For those who don’t know, the Arar case is one of the uglier individual cases of the last 8 years that we actually know about. Finding out about this case was the moment that persuaded me to get back into electoral politics four years ago. And tomorrow, when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decides the current fate of this case, they have a chance at a small piece of redemption for this country. A small piece, but a piece nonetheless.
The short version: when Arar flies into JFK in September, 2002, from Zurich on his way to Montreal, he is detained. Because he is a co-worker of the brother of a “terror suspect” and has met the brother very casually over several years, he is pulled in for questioning. This questioning, including being questioned without a lawyer, and being dragged out over many days, results in Arar being flown to Syria where he is tortured for almost an entire year. Beaten, starved, forced to sign documents, the whole nine. what you’d imagine in a movie about a prisoner being tortured. Except all Maher Arar did was happen to have dual citizenship in Syria and Canada, and happen to know the brother of someone who was a suspect.
Nadler and Delahunt argue that our government has a responsibility to allow Arar a chance to seek recompense for the horrific events that were brought about by the actions of this government. They argue that the administration’s use of “national security” as an all purpose get out of jail free card for any wrongdoing is feeble and wrong:
Mr. Arar’s case represents much more than an isolated search for answers and justice by a single individual. His situation dramatically calls into question the Administration’s longstanding and outrageous assertion that national security places it above the law and beyond the review of any other branch of government. Mr. Arar’s case thus raises essential questions for all Americans regarding respect for the rule of law and the vitality of our Constitutional system.
In fulfilling their role in our system of checks and balances, the courts have, in the past, recognized and remedied violations of individual rights by government officials. Where cases may implicate national security concerns — as the government claims here — the courts have proven more than capable of safeguarding sensitive national security information from harmful public disclosure. We are confident that they can also do so in Mr. Arar’s case.
This is not some made up story. This is not a farce. This isn’t a story about what happens if a mythic government goes wrong. This is a story about what happens when our government, the one that acts in our name and we fund with our taxes, is responsible for the torture of an innocent man for a year. Rabbis for Human Rights has done a ton of work to call attention to torture and work to end it, and I’m sure they would be glad to know that Rep. Nadler has taken a strong position on this case that is one of many horrible stains on the years of the Bush Administration.
And sure, we know about this case, but how many other cases of rendition are lurking out there for this one we know? Arar is a software programmer in Canada, with some means. Imagine if he wasn’t able to rally any kind of support? He would probably be another of the cases we simply don’t know.
Unfortunately, I could not make it to the 2nd North American Conference on Judaism and Human Rights, which chillul who? and KRG are blogging about, but it’s awful appropriate that as their fantastic looking conference closes, a chapter of new oversight and efforts at making things right will hopefully open up here in New York. Hopefully. For Mr. Arar’s sake and our own.
… and sadly, this is not related to Agriprocessors. From our friends at the Jewish Labor Committee. If you happen to be near Brooklyn today, near 4pm, stop by:
WHO: IWW Workers at Flaum Appetizing kosher food supplier fired
en masse for supporting fired fellow worker.
WHAT: Protest and Press Conference
WHEN: Thursday, June 19, 2008 4:00 p.m.
WHERE: Flaum plant, 288 Scholes St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn
WHY: Workers organized with the Industrial Workers of the World have been waging a bitter struggle with management at Flaum Appetizing, a major distributor of high-end kosher products in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn. Previously required to work more than sixty hours per week without legally-mandated overtime pay, without sick leave, holidays, vacations, or even drinking water on the job, the workers joined the IWW, and through collective action have won some concessions, but management continues to treat them with contempt and to pay them starvation wages.
Last month, a worker was fired without cause. Her fellow workers demanded her reinstatement and were fired en masse. Employers across New York City have resorted to such unlawful mass firings in the face of IWW organizing, and the union is determined to stop this hateful discrimination. Flaum’s ultra-orthodox managers hide behind a veil of piety, but in fact their mistreatment of workers violates both U. S. and Jewish law.
Members of New York’s Jewish community are rallying to support the locked-out workers. Jewish law is emphatic in its demands for justice towards workers, and many ask whether food prepared by mistreated workers can truly be kosher.
In addition to their union, the Industrial Workers of the World, the workers have the support of many community organizations, including Make the Road New York, the Chinese Staff & Workers’ Association, and the Million Worker March Movement, NYC, all of which are expected to send speakers and supporters to tomorrow’s rally.
Come hear these workers tell the story of their struggle for a living wage and dignity on the job.
CONTACT: Billy J. Randel 646-645-6284
John Cronan 401-413-2443
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