Tel Aviv is celebrating its centennial this year. When in Israel I am often struck by a sense that the histories of the land, or rather the various narrative strands emphasized different groups, are almost visibly overlaid. Like overlapping stencils.
In some places, such as Jerusalem, this is more visible and well known. In others, like Tel Aviv, the prior history of the place is far more submerged under the modern city. More »
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Those not up on their Scandinavian political/ sports news may have missed a current shitstorm in Sweden over a Davis Cup tennis match, played today, in which the Swedish national team meets the Israeli national team in the Swedish city of Malmö. The Israeli aspect is what has people up in arms.
Assorted political groups in Sweden, including, but not limited to, radical leftists, mainstream leftists, Palestinian solidarity groups and neo-nazis (!) tried to stop the game.
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This is somewhat old news but it provides a new way to beat a dead scarf, so why not.
A few days ago I spotted a young German man on the Berlin subway wearing a Kaffiyeh Yisraelit. I mentioned this to a German friend. My friend did a quick google search and turned up this gem: The Kaffiyeh Feygele. It seems a gay or two on the “anti-German” left has now appropriated Rachel Ray’s favorite scarf.
In the place of the classic Levantine pattern, the Kaffiyeh Feygele has hearts, butt plugs, condoms and hammers and sickles. Also, it has stars of David in the corners. This is an article in the German paper Taz on the phenomenon.
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A children’s program in Yiddish very nearly aired on Swedish TV. Why, you ask?
Since Jews are one of five “national minorities” in Sweden, Yiddish is one of five official “national minority” languages. This means the government “supports Yiddish with view to keeping it alive.” This is pretty cool, though slightly misguided. Plenty of older people spoke Yiddish when I was a kid. Sadly most have passed. Few, if any, Swedish Jews under the age of 70 speak Yiddish at home.
Apparently efforts to keep Yiddish alive in Sweden at one recent point in time included plans for a children’s show in Yiddish. The show was killed when a Jewish woman saw the script and pointed out that a show in Yiddish about children on a pig farm was a little culturally off.
How do I know this? Well, I am on vacation in my native Sweden. I switched on the TV and stumbled on a live Q. & A. in the Swedish parliament with representatives from these five national minorities. One of the Jewish representatives related the story.
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Zina Sapir “daughter of real estate mogul Tamir Sapir” and her husband “real estate mogul” Rotem Rosen are the proud parents of a new baby boy.
Naturally they want you, yes you, to be aware of this joyous event. The bris happened at the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Ohel last Sunday. A publicist was hired and a press release about the bris sent to major New York publications. New York Magazine writes about it here.
The location was “personally arranged for” buy none other than Lev Leviev, buddy of Putin and Russian Chabad-funder extraordinaire. It seems the proud father Rotem Rosen is Leviev’s “right hand man.”
The press release further informs us that the guest list includes real estate big wigs such as Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Joe Monahan, Giuseppe Cipriani, Andre Balazs, and Amy Sacco. Just one big, cozy family.
Mazal Tov, people.
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This is one part amusing, two parts horrific. The first thing we learn in this trailer for You Don’t Mess With the Zohan is that Adam Sandler has gotten buff and doesn’t do an Israeli accent very well. That doesn’t stop him from playing Zohan, a Mossad agent who fakes his own death so that he can move to New York City and become a hairdresser. Until his past catches up with him… Sort of like Shampoo, Exodus and Munich rolled into one.
If the trailer is anything to go by, the film half mocks, half affirms American stereotypes of and fetishes for Israeli soldiers. Still, you know you’ll see it when it hits the theatres in June.
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I am a Jew born in Europe and I feel strongly about being both European and Jewish. As I rarely get to hear matters Jewish and European discussed in the present tense I had high hopes for a congress in my hometown of Stockholm, Sweden on “The New Cultural Landscape in Europe and the Jewish Experience.†The speakers were academics and artists, most of them Jewish. Naïvely perhaps, I was anticipating some fruitful perspectives on Jews and newer minorities in Europe, maybe even dialogue with representatives of such minorities. I was disappointed. Much of the talks and panel discussions devolved into talk about new immigrants in Europe (there were virtually none present at the congress) as problematic others, less civilized than “us†— European Jews. The implication seemed to be that “we†belong in Europe and thus deserve citizenship and inclusion while “they†do not.
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