The February issue of BelleMode, an Israeli fashion magazine, is speaking up against anti-women events in Israeli public life in its own provocative way. Their making-of video below and here’s some of the full set. But here’s the question: protest notwithstanding, is this also sexist objectification?
Oh, and this is the first time I’ve ever checked the “fashion” category box in my life. Shehekhianu… (Hat tip Alix.)
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In what seems like a development only possible on the satirical pages of the Onion, Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions has just unveiled plans to co-finance a new film about Judah Maccabee, with Joe Eszterhaus of Showgirls fame onboard as screenwriter. This is too good to be true. I mean, who better than
Mel Gibson, the man who boldly asserted that Jews are responsible for all wars in the world, to capture the quintessential epic military struggle of Jewish national religious pride versus the lures of assimilation?
I can see it now: in a creative twist on the Hanukkah story as related by the Talmud, Mel Gibson’s Hanukkah Tale: The Jews burn for eight days.
In light of this exciting news, I’d like to offer Mr. Gibson some free advice as preparations go underway for this sure-fire blockbuster:
Free Casting Advice to Mel Gibson from a Jewgirl Cinephile:
The first one is a no-brainer: we’re casting Russell Crowe as Matisyahu (if the connection isn’t obvious to you already, here’s a hint: follow the first link and check out 1Maccabees 2:46)
The role of Judah Maccabee is a tough call, but I think our winner is Vincent Gallo.
In his debut dramatic performance, Prince Harry of England will play Jonathan Maccabeus, and comedian Andy Dick will play Simon Maccabeus. John Hyrcanus will be played by Rick Sanchez.
Charlie Sheen needs a role in this cinematic masterpiece as well. Let’s cast him as Eleazer Maccabeus.
We’re going to offer the role of Antiochus to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—an offer he surely can’t turn down.
Oh, and wardrobe will definitely be by John Galliano.
Well, time will only tell what choices Gibson will make, but if he sticks to my above plan, we’re going to have something even greater than The Passion of the Christ (2004). Or, as Reb Yudel puts it, “If Gibson’s Hanukkah film succeeds, can his Tisha b’Av blockbuster be far behind?”
Incidentally, I vividly recall dragging a date to a Sunday matinee screening of his last Jew epic in 2004. We paid for two tickets to see Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights in the hopes that our tickets wouldn’t profit Gibson’s film, but later, a friend in the industry explained to me that films only benefit from concession stand money, not from actual ticket sales. Alas. The film itself wasn’t particularly noteworthy, aside from its curious subtitling choices. While Gibson promised to cut out any direct implication of the Jews in Jesus’ crucifixion, the English subtitling did not always match the Aramaic dialogue onscreen. (I attended a high school which forced us to learn Aramaic. Now on facebook, I smugly resent that under the languages option, there is an “Aramaic of Jesus” and not also an ‘Aramaic of Rabban Gamliel.”) We, along with busloads of young Christian children, some of whom were as young as four years old, proceeded to watch what amounted to two full hours of Jesus being beaten to a bloody pulp. ::Spoiler alert:: Jesus is killed.
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What with 86+ comments of serious talk in a civil and respectable manner going on here recently, I must post here an item of frivolous “WTF?” These Magen David-embroidered chordiroys brought to us by Bonobos. Um, Happy Yom Haatzmaut?
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Jewish Fail points out this charming wardrobe offering from the Jewish Enrichment Center, the Ohr Somayach-affiliated group that is–for reasons that utterly elude me–the only Birthright Next affiliate in the New York area.
The theory behind this hoodie is that you shouldn’t boycott Israel because Victoria’s Secret panties are made in Israel. Now, I agree that you shouldn’t boycott Israel, but, as Jewish Fail points out, this one doesn’t quite add up: The fabric is made in Israel, then sent to Jordan where it is turned into panties. In Jordan, they sew the Made in Israel label in and send them back to Israel for export.
Jewish Fail puts it like this:
That makes this a quintuple FAIL: A failure in taste, factuality, Israel advocacy and spelling (“Isreal?”), as well as a failure in tzenuah (modesty) by the Ohr Somayach-affiliated JEC.
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In the great tradition of Jewish lawyers defending Nazis and Nazi sympathizers (such as the infamous Supreme Court case involving neo-Nazis marching in Skokie, IL in the late 1970s), turns out that the most recent source of drunken and/or drug induced anti-Semitic rants (in the great tradition of Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen), fashion designer John Galliano, has got himself a Jewish lawyer–to be fair, according to the interview linked below, he has been his lawyer for the last seven years. 
YNet has published an interview with the Galliano’s lawyer, Stephane Zerbib, who has apparently received threats because representing the former top designer of Christian Dior. You can see the video of the clearly drunken and rather despicable rant at the HuffPost.
My favorite gem from the interview comes right at the beginning.
Your client is accused of making rather harsh anti-Semitic comments. What is your explanation for this?
“I have no explanation. It could happen to any one of us. Anyone can go to a bar, drink a little and get into a fight with someone.”
Yes. It could happen to any one of us. You walk into a bar, become obliterated drunk while under the influence of prescription drugs and then tell the people next to you that you wish Hitler had killed them… Happens all the time.
My personal opinion, for what it’s worth, is that Galliano’s comments are unforgivable and despicable. Not to mention, in the greatest sense of irony, as a homosexual and self-proclaimed “gipsy” (apparently very publicly) he too would have fallen victim (twice) to the egregious and murderous crimes of the Nazi regime. However, I also think it wrong for people to be threatening his lawyer. Justice is justice, and lawyers take an oath to uphold justice; not to pick and choose which parts of the law to uphold. All the more so I find it acceptable for Zerbib to represent Galliano if they have had a professional relationship for nearly a decade.
Ultimately, anti-Semitic sentiment (drunken or sober) will not be eradicated because Jewish lawyers refuse to represent anti-Semites. Again, justice is justice and in free and democratic societies all people have the right to fair representation in court. Plus, if Galliano’s lawyer is going to make arguments in court such as the one quoted above–that any one of us could, in a drug and alcohol induced state, proclaim our love for Hitler–well, I think we can feel comfortable in how this case will go.
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A while back I wrote about Kabbalah Vodka. Made with ‘real Christian babies,’ each bottle featured a glass sculpture in the bottle. Odd, but at least creative.
Now comes L’Chaim Vodka. I’ve worked in the liquor industry, and this one leaves me scratching my head. Forget for a minute that unadulterated spirits don’t even need a hechsher…
“Nestled between Jerusalem, Nazareth, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, you will find Or Akiva. It is within these scenic hilled terraces and river channels that we draw our natural spring water and ingredients to produce the highest quality vodka product in all of Israel. We invite you to enjoy the taste and celebrate.”
There are quality Vodka products made in Israel? Huh. Is this for realz? Is it Jewsploitation? I can’t tell. Its website makes no attempt to extoll the virtues of the product, preferring instead to extoll the virtues of its creator. A true exploitative product would boast of multiple distillations using the grains of matzah meal, water sourced from the same pure rain as Mikvahs and being filtered 5 times through the beards of Gedolim…
“It’s pure ingredients and distillation process and recipe is based on a formula handed down through several generations of European and Russian Jews, resulting in a slightly spicy flavor profile with vanilla aromas., L’chaim sources its own spring water shunning any filtering and de-mineralization treatments.”
From what I know, vodka is not supposed to have a flavor profile… or an aroma… And the product is being made not by Russian Jews but a man named Mizraji… I’m not sure what to make of this- it might be truly great. At least it looks sorta sexy. The nightlife, that frosted bottle. Mmmm… But I’m not losing objectivity here.
I can say this for sure: we at Jewschool will not know for certain until we’ve tried it. At least twice. We will not rest until we get to the bottom… of a bottle… We call on the makers of LChaim Vodka to offer proof (100 proof to be exact) of their product’s quality and eagerly await a case for uh, critical purposes…
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Fashion designer Zac Posen adjusts orthodox teen contestant Esther Petrack before one of the final runway competitions on ANTM
If you’re anything like me, you’re just dying to hear impassioned opinions on ANTM (that’s America’s Next Top Model, for the non-cognoscenti among you) from someone who has never once watched the show.
What follows is based on a controversial clip featuring an Orthodox–or more specifically, a Modern Orthodox–Jewish contestant from the recent cycle of the CW reality show and the virtual ruckus it caused among the online community, Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike.
In case you have not seen this yet, here are some…visuals:
18-year-old Maimonides alum Esther Petrack was recently eliminated from the popular CW reality television show and has finally spoken out to dispel the rumors about her and to address the damning insinuations circulating among the blogosphere and beyond. In a Nov. 3 article in the Jerusalem Post, for example, the Orthodox Jewish reality TV star responded to a rumor that she had lived in Mea She’arim and was excommunicated by explaining that she had never lived there, and adding: ““How did they even find out about me? The video was on the Internet, which they’re not fans of, anyway.”
Indeed in that same interview, Petrack explained that she is not, nor has she ever been haredi. Yet despite this, the media persists in sensationalizing her story by describing her as haredi or ultra-orthodox.
Example:
Amusingly, the Israeli news reporter here also describes the school she attended in Boston (Maimonides–one of the bastions of so-called Centrist/Modern Orthodox Jewish education in the U.S.) as “haredi.” Haredi or not, Petrack’s appearance on the show created a stir among many in both the US and Israel who self-identify as “frum.” The infamous clip of the show went viral in the Orthodox community over a month ago, causing outrage and declamatory, self-righteous tongue wagging wherever it raised its scandalous head. One can understand why such provocative television might elicit a raised eyebrow or two but, in all honesty, I think such righteous indignation is misplaced. In all of the online discussion of this admittedly rather ridiculous episode, search though I might, nowhere could I find condemnation of what seemed to me to be the most shocking moment of all: an instance of blatant religious discrimination. In the video clip above, Tyra Banks makes clear, in no uncertain terms, that all contestants, irrespective of their beliefs or practices, are expected to conform to the show’s 24/7 work schedule, religious observance be damned.
While the norms and mores of civilized life are often suspended in ironically titled “‘reality” TV moments like these make me squirm more than scenes of so-called survivors consuming their own feces in order to prolong, for just another glorious week, their “15 minutes of fame.”
If an employer in the US today denied work to a prospective employee based on her/his religious practice, the almost automatic result would be a job discrimination lawsuit with an expectedly grim outcome for the employer . While, just under a century ago, pious Jewish immigrants, fresh-off-the-boat from Europe would routinely lose their jobs and face poverty and even starvation if they did not work on Saturday, thankfully times have changed dramatically, and now religious tolerance is a blessed norm in the US: no longer does a Jew have to choose between starvation for him/herself and his/her family and Sabbath observance. (Thanks is of course also due to courageous labor unions for more humane work hours and weekends off.) The apparent demand of the show’s creator and hostess, Banks, that Petrack chose between “honoring the Sabbath” and being part of the show, would seem to be a throwback to “bad old times” before anti-discrimination laws established norms of fairness and equality in hiring.
As to the “case” itself, we can hardly blame an 18 year old for the offenses of a crassly sensationalistic, heavily edited, celebrity-powered televised competition. While the wisdom of entering such a competition might be questioned at the outset, what Petrack does is her personal choice; she is not forcing anyone – Orthodox or not — to watch or to sanction or imitate her actions.
Much of the online uproar surrounding Petrack’s supposedly hypocritical activity as an Orthodox Jewish young woman is actually misinformed. We later learn, via a blog comment posting by Petrack’s mother (or someone posing as Petrack’s mother. However you please), that her daughter’s statement, “I will do it,” (viz., desecrate the Sabbath by working) was actually edited out of context. Upon re-watching the clip, you can see the response, indeed, was edited. Despite the remaining tsniut (modesty) issue, Esther’s Shabbat observance may very well have been ‘technically kosher’—contrary to the way several articles (even some sympathetic) suggest.
A good part of me empathizes with Petrack. How many of us can readily recall certain decisions and activities undertaken at the tender age of 18 that we would not exactly wish to immortalize on video? Especially for those of us raised in Modern Orthodox milieus, the eternal saga of rationally reconciling the two (modern and orthodox) is a plight that strongly resonates. Granted, at least in my line of work, this doesn’t generally involve lifting one’s shirt on television…..at least not as far as I can remember, anyway.
One day, when I host a Jewishly-observant-themed talk-show entitled Halakhically Incorrect, I think Petrack should be a guest.
Anyone who has, at some point, lived a genuinely modern and Orthodox existence knows that certain actions, on paper, (or, in this case, video edited out of context) could easily baffle others. Or, as one of my good friends from college whom I recently visited remarked while laughing with a glint in his eye, “Remember when I used to sin for you on Saturdays?” referring to my Shabbat observance in which several of my more keyed-in non-Jewish friends and living-mates knew to flip the bathroom switch on before I ducked in on the seventh day of the week.
In short, the real judgment in this case should be against Banks for issuing such a shockingly intolerant ultimatum, not against an 18 year old struggling to reconcile traditional religious observance and modernity. But Banks is “nit fun unzere” (translation: not one of the “tribe”). So why attack her, right?
Naches all around.
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It’s just so dumb…
Are you tired of your yarmulke falling off every time you run to catch a frisbee? Do you ever wish your yarmulke could block the sun from your eyes? Well, it sure seems like the Daily News wishes so, and today they included a hard-hitting news report all about the “yamulkap,” a new half-yarmulke, half-visor that protects your forehead as well as it protects your soul.
You should go read the full summary on Gothamist.
No, wait, you’re not actually going to click over to it, are you? I’ll just give you the rest of the stupidity (yarmulke’s, not Gothamist’s), here:
The yamulkap was created by Seth Mosler, a visionary charter school business manager who lives on the Upper East Side. Where some might only see young Orthodox children playing in a field, Mosler saw an opportunity to change the status quo: “When you’re talking about yarmulkes, you are talking about thousands of years of tradition. But this has a practical purpose.” Struck by inspiration, Mosler cut up an old baseball hat, and started searching for a manufacturer. Since then, Mosler set up a website two months ago to help spread word of his revelation, and “has sold about two dozen so far.”
But there will always be people who don’t get it: Manhattan mom Lea Haron thought the hat was a little silly, since religious rules say wearing a baseball cap is fine, just as long as one’s head is covered. “I feel bad. I hope he didn’t put too much money into it.”
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Shemspeed should stay in the music business–where, as a music reviewing blogger, I quite like it–and leave the political fashion statements to someone else. They previously released their Israeli keffiyeh earlier this year. Today they proudly announced that they’re also selling a version of their Israeli keffiyeh with familiar yellow and army green colors–the IDF keffiyeh! Seriously.
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TWJ posted a link on Twitter to this article involving a collaboration between hipsters and Hasids. Aside from the rather fascinating story, it got me thinking about what a combination of hipsters and Hasids would look like. Thus we bring you the Khipster: Ironic thick-rimmed sunglasses mingle cleverly with long peyes. An unshaven beard morphs smoothly into a waxed handlebar moustache. Untucked white button-down shirt, tzitzit hanging down, almost brushing the tops of bright green Converse. Truly, the khipster is the most fearsome creature ever to roam this earth.
Other ideas about this most alarming of combinations are certainly welcome (and if anyone’s good with Photoshop, go to town).
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Since we’re ecumenical folks around here, and since Tefillin Barbie is such an old friend of ours,
I thought it might be nice to note that a woman named Julie Blake Fisher has created a whole wardrobe of Episcopal Priest Barbie gear. She comes with a Roman-style cassock,
an alb and stole,
a biretta and capa nigra,
and all manner of other things.
I imagine that Tefillin Barbie and Episcopal Priest Barbie have all sorts of great conversations about various interfaith issues. It wouldn’t surprise me if they also commiserated on how annoying it is, as women of faith, to feel like they have to maintain that polite smile all the time.
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I often get quizzical looks from friends when I posit that Jews should remix the couture of Ashkenaz. “I mean, why would you want to look Haredi if the whole point of dressing that way is to evacuate any sense of individuality and to emphasize modesty?”, they ask. The first problem is that not all Jews dressed that way, and nevertheless, there has to be a way to subvert traditional attitudes towards Jewish ways of dressing while exploring the ways that our ancestors wore their identity. Putting aside our anything-but-cool associations with the bekishe and borsalino of today’s hasidishe velt, gaze upon this studious young man from Krakow. Check out his distinctly cut cap, ankle pants, his sturdy-worn ankle boots and stylish leather briefcase:
Yael Sloma of TheStreetsWalker, a Tel Aviv/Jerusalem fashion blog, seems to be drawing unconscious parallels between the threads of Ashkenaz and Israeli street fashion, which draws unapologetically from continental concepts. Check out her photo of a Jerusalemite rocking a DIY version of the ankle pants, the wingtips and watchmaker vest. He may not be on his way to the shtibl, but he’s probably on his way to oylem habo:
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Today, a kid’s tefillin caused an emergency landing. A plane that took off from New York’s La Guardia, and was bound for Louisville, KY, landed in Philadelphia instead.
It takes a certain level of frumkheit to want to lay tefillin at an airport or on an airplane. I have had numerous tefillin-related adventures whilst flying to and from Israel — namely, waking up with the bags and boxes on my head; apparently something about a girl in pants on a plane makes her an inanimate object to the ultra-Orthodox — but never in the States. This 17-year-old, however, was operating, er, davening by himself, and it appears he was not violating anybody’s personal space. He just wanted to do his ritual on the plane at a time he found to be appropriate for shacharit.
According to the AP, via the Washington Post, Tefillin boy said he explained himself, and the flight crew said his explanation didn’t make any sense. You know the sad song – the teenager tells the truth and parents just don’t understand!
I’ve always found it strange that I can bring knitting needles on a plane. Knitting needles, which are like a weapon waiting to happen, are allowed on a plane, but my nearly empty tube of toothpaste gets trashed because it at one point contained more than 3 oz. of Colgate.
Tefillin sure look funny, but do we really live in a world where people can’t figure out that they’re not dangerous through either (A) a clear conversation, (B) context clues, like a prayerbook, (C) your eyeballs or (D) asking someone else to help explain? You can’t tell me there weren’t other Jews or someone else who had ever seen a Jew on that plane — it went out of LGA!
In these uncertain times, where it’s possible to smuggle oh-so-many things on a plane or even into an airport, such as exploding underwear and romantic idiots, you sort of hope that the tefillin aren’t being used to house stolen or dangerous goods, and are rather just the vectors of meditations meant to serve as “God antennas” to those who travel with them – male or female.
More from: Gothamist, NY Daily Intel, and Tablet.
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Shemspeed, one of my favorite outlets for new Jewish music, has proudly announced that they are now selling the first every Israeli kaffiyeh! Except for this one:
Oh, and this one (though I suppose this one is more a Jewish kaffiyeh than an Israeli kaffiyeh):
But aside from prodding Shemspeed for their premature announcement of originality, I want to seriously question the usefulness and the morality of co-opting another group’s important symbol of identity and struggle. Though I’m never sure of what exactly I think of the struggle between Palestine and Israel, something about this entire endeavor just doesn’t sit right with me.
Especially when coupled with the phrase עם ישראל חי, which has come to be such a nationalist statement in its own right:
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OY. Thank you to Oliver Miller from the FasterTimes for summing up this ridiculousness and saying what we were all thinking:
OHHHHH CHRISTMAS YOU SO FINE YOU SO FINE YOU BLOW MY MIND, GO CHRISTMAS! CLAP CLAP CLAP! GO CHRISTMAS! Awesome job, The Gap, way to go! You have created an ad that is a uniquely horrible combination of a Toni Basil song, the movie “Bring It On,” “Stomp,” the Blue Man Group, and everything else that is terrible in this universe. …GO CHRISTMAS! CLAP CLAP CLAP!
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You can buy all kinds of tacky t-shirts on the side of the street or in the markets in Israel. For example, as American oleh comedy blogger Benji Lovitt points out:
“IDF: My Job is So Secret, I Don’t Even Know What I’m Doing!”
“Don’t Worry, America, Israel is Behind You”
“Super-Jew”
And of course, rock bands which reached their peak twenty years ago.
Lovitt has a bold plan to combat this sartorial foolishness. Today, he unveiled at his blog, What War Zone?, a new line of tacky Israel shirts.
My favorite of Lovitt’s new shirts:
Check out the rest of the line here.
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from Guestposter Soferet Avielah Barclay
New York City’s underground fashion’s latest darling, bad-boy wild child Levi Okunov, is dressing women up as Torahs.
Now, I’m not the smartest person in the world. Sometimes it takes me a while to fully get an idea. I need time to process so I can fully appreciate the impact of a situation or an event. But not with this. This I got right away. Just not in the way you think.
For a little background, please see Jay Michaelson’s Jewcy article and this 1:22 minute film on YouTube.
Okay, it’s interesting – sort of. As for his actual auto-didactic fashion designs, nothing special there. It’s a bit of a simplistic rebellion, and therefore boring. And empowering the Torah as a focus of fetish (in the religious or veneration-of-the-animal sense) is not new, as Michaelson’s article pointed out. Neither is heresy new – nor necessarily offensive or threatening. “Heresy”, after all, is just a Greek word for “choice”.
More »
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Hey folks. We need some Jewschoolers to take a test drive for our friends over at The Jewish Channel.
This week’s “Week in Review” includes Jewish responses to the situation in Iran, coverage from last week’s New Israel Fund/Makom event at the JCC in Manhattan & perspectives on birthright NEXT’s Shabbat dinner sponsorship program.
You can also check out films and original TV series.
The first-ever Jewish television news broadcast was recently launched by The Jewish Channel. Because we need discerning audience members like those who follow every detail here at Jewschool, TLC is offering the entire Jewschool readership a free month of TJC to get your feedback. If you don’t like TJC, you can cancel at the end of the month.
For the free month redemption, simply call 1-866-769-2297 and follow the directions, using the coupon code “JSC.”
The Jewish Channel is available on the following systems:
iO Optimum Cable Channel 291
Time Warner Cable Channel 528
Cox Cable Channel 1
Verizon FiOS Channel 900
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