by biz · Thursday, September 25th, 2008
Over at Mixed Multitudes, Matthue Roth has an interview with The Sway Machinery leader Jeremiah Lockwood in advance of his Rosh Hashanah concert experiences, Hidden Melodies Revealed: A Secret Celebration of Rosh Hashanah. They’re taking place Monday and Tuesday night (Yes, ON Rosh Hashanah) at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. Here he’s describing a story he wrote which was animated for the events by Six Points Fellow and New York Times Illustrator Andrea Dezso:
I wanted to open the part of a person that sheds tears, and shows pain… It’s especially relevant to this time in history, where we’re all juggling several worlds at the same time. It’s exactly what I’m trying to do with the Sway Machinery. It’s what I’m trying to do with Rosh Hashanah.
Jeremiah plays guitar with Balkan Beat Box, and The Sway Machinery includes Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Jordan and Stuart from Antibalas. According to SPIN, Sway sounds like an “eclectic afro-beat, blues, and Jewish-cantorial melange.” Like many new Jewish music projects, you really do need to hear it to believe it. Check out this MP3 of P’Sach Lanu Sha’ar and decide what you make of it for yourself.
Hidden Melodies Revealed is made possible through the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, of which Jeremiah is a member of the inaugural cohort. If you don’t have holiday plans, you really should get your butt to this event. Can’t make it to the events? JDub just released an EP available from itunes, amazon, emusic, and the JDub webstore.
by Justin Goldstein · Sunday, July 27th, 2008
The New York Times has a pretty good article that focuses less on Rubashkin and more on the immigrants. What is striking about this article is it specifically addresses the issues involving child labor (with sound clips of three teenage workers). It seems that the underage workers could be the “coin that tips the scale,” so to speak, regarding whether or not Aaron Rubashkin (and presumably others) will face criminal charges. According to the report,
In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result in criminal charges for Agriprocessors executives, labor law experts said.
There are also some shocking accounts, as shocking as things found in the previous post on the Agriprocessors scandal, like this:
“The floor supervisor then took one of the meat hooks and hit the Guatemalan with it,” the informant said, adding that the blow did not cause “serious injuries.”
And this one, for myself, is particularly hard to read:
Elmer L. said that he was clearing cow innards from the slaughter floor last Aug. 26 when a supervisor he described as a rabbi began yelling at him, then kicked him from behind. The blow caused a freshly-sharpened knife to fly up and cut his elbow.
He was sent to a hospital where doctors closed the laceration with eight stitches. But he said that when he returned, his elbow still stinging, to ask for some time off, his supervisor ordered him back to work.
The next day, as he was lifting a cow’s tongue, the stitches ruptured, Elmer L. said, and the wound bled again. He said he was given a bandage at the plant and sent back to work. The incident is confirmed in a worker’s injury report filed on Aug. 31, 2007, by Agriprocessors with the Iowa labor department.
a few personal thoughts, after the jump More »
by biz · Monday, December 10th, 2007
CK at Jewlicious has decided to hold a poll. We’ve all been blessed with a glorious opportunity: “to decide who you feel is more Jewy, good for the Jews, cool or Jewlicious.”
While not condoning what really seems to be a simple popularity contest, if its going to happen, Jewschool’s founder Mobius should be getting your votes. So point your mouse over there and do it!
by Danya · Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
A frum woman in Boston has made a dollhouse shul for her daughters and their friends. The project is pretty impressive, and her guidelines are kind of interesting in the context of Torah/play (eg. “I used fancier materials than we normally use for one of our standard doll houses, in order to show honor for the synagogue in the abstract, and for the Torah and its accessories.”) I admit to having a pretty adverse reaction to the notion of a mechitza dollhouse–and one with a whole seperate women’s gallery at that. But that’s not surprising, given that I’m not a fan of seperate seating for grownup synagogues, either.
In any case, the full post and how-to instructions are here. Some notable shots:
Cute toy ammud, complete with shatz wearing a teeny tiny kippah.
What’s the status of kol isha among plastic dolls?
Fortunately, there’s an eruv.
The social hall is filled with Artscroll seforim.
(Via Jen.)
by BZ · Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
Dan “Mobius” Sieradski, founder of Jewschool, gave this speech yesterday at the GA.
Yet it is my belief that the next big Jewish idea will not be hatched inside a board room. It will not be the result of a research study. It will not come from within an institution at all. Rather, the next big Jewish idea will be the work of a young, independently minded individual seeking to address the needs of his or her own self or his or her own immediate community.
But the next big Jewish idea will not meet institutional funding guidelines — or at least, that’s what the rejection letters will say. It will be for any number of reasons: The project is too local; too global; too narrow; too ambitious; the subject too political; the creators too eccentric. Perhaps they’re more creatively-minded than business-minded and are thus bad at writing grants. Maybe they’re too young, or too idealistic.
And sometimes the grantmaker themselves are so disconnected from the realities of what the Jewish public needs — like the funders who don’t even have a computer on their desks — that you’re done before you’ve even started. Sometimes funders just don’t get it; or they do get it and they feel threatened by it. They’re afraid to give up too much control. They want safer bets.
Read on.
by YehuditBrachah · Sunday, October 14th, 2007
Over at Nextbook, one woman’s musings about the role of The Jewish Catalog (the first, need you ask?) in her life and on her parents’ shelf.
I like the way she describes the ubiquitous nature of The Jewish Catalog.
““On the ‘hip’ level,†she told me recently, “we were probably down in the negative range.â€
But some things were, perhaps, unavoidable then, like inane news about Lindsay Lohan is today. By the time I was born in 1975, our house was punctuated with little emblems of the era; these shone for me like beacons. Despite my parents’ heavy Neil Diamond predilection, for instance, some Joan Baez and Simon and Garfunkel albums seemed to have fallen from a planet of fairies into our living room. My parents had chunky macramé plant hangers and trippy Marimekko hangings on the wall. And on their bookshelf was an oversized red volume called The Jewish Catalog.
The Jewish Catalog, a 320-page tome first published in 1973, was not necessarily a hippie artifact. But it had a profound effect on me growing up that I associated with hippie culture, subtly signaling that Judaism, like life, was a sort of groovy pursuit to be embarked upon however you wished.”
I had a similarly surprising experience while searching through my bubbie’s shelves a few years ago for a siddur; I found two copies of Gates of Repentance with High Holiday tickets from 1973 and, you guessed it, an original copy of The Jewish Catalog. My bubbie was even farther from the world of happy hippies and their handmade kippot; she was the one yelling at my mother to be in by 11pm when she was in college and at my father to cut his hair and get a job.
About integrating past experience with Judaism with a do-it-yourself spirit:
“Most of their friends had copies of The Jewish Catalog, and for my mother, it was a user-friendly guide to a Jewish life she had never actually lived. Suddenly making Shabbat dinners, she mined it for recipes and information on the order of blessings. Celebrating holidays other than Passover and Rosh Hashanah, she consulted it for instructions on how to, say, decorate a sukkah. For my yeshiva-educated father, who was well acquainted with much of the information contained in the Catalog, it was meaningful in a different way. Like many kids who grew up Orthodox in the generation following the Holocaust, he’d grown up thinking Judaism was a strict, dour affair, but the catalog was evidence to him that in fact it could be fun. Together, my parents used it to help craft an earnest, positive Jewish household. And when I discovered it on their bookshelf, The Jewish Catalog let me believe that somewhere out there beyond the cut lawns and latticework sidewalks of suburban Chicago was an even greater Jewish fantasy world where everyone really did sit around crocheting yarmulkes and sewing needlepoint challah covers, and they looked really happy doing it. Jews looking happy being Jewish. Amazing.”
What will our generation of thinkers and innovators’ contribution to this spirit be? Will it be a book? Will it be havurot that last? Will it be our blogs? And can this maybe move from fantasy to reality (or has it already done so)?
Full article here.
by zt · Thursday, September 20th, 2007
Following up on the excited discussion stemming from Rooftopper Rav’s post on the new ArtScroll Siddur for women, Desh has written about what he’d like to see in a new siddur that would travel well, contain good footnotes, and not contain misrepresentations about prayers and halachah.
Go check it out and throw in your $.02 on what a new siddur should have if it wants to rival ArtScroll.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Boy, I’m feeling cranky today. Is it the news, or just the weather?
Yes, indeed, we are all to stand in awe of another Bronfman project to lead the Jewish world into the Future. According to JTA, “three dozen Jewish intellectuals are put in a swank ski resort for 48 hours and let loose on the question ‘Why be Jewish?’”
From July 29-31 the Samuel Bronfman Foundation ran a conference hosted by the foundation’s managing director, Adam Bronfman, son of philanthropist Edgar Bronfman, that “included French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion President David Ellenson, writer Anita Diamant and other rabbis, professors, artists, philanthropists and communal professionals.”
But even JTA itself noticed, “These rarefied, all-expenses-paid gatherings beg the question: ‘So what?’ What does it matter if a bunch of smart Jews sit around talking? Some in Park City wondered the same thing. ‘The take-away is there’s no take-away,’ said former Under Secretary of Defense Dov Zakheim of Washington. Some participants questioned the top-down premise. ‘There’s a presumption that we get to answer the question “Why be Jewish” on behalf of the “amcha,” ‘ or Jewish people, said Idit Klein, executive director of Keshet, an advocacy group for gay inclusion.”
In other words, even the grand old daddies (well, not Keshet, exactly) of institutional life are beginning to wonder, along with the rest of us, why there are all these conferences in which “important people” chosen by other “important people” sit around yakking about what the rest of us ought to do. I suppose it’s news that, at least in this case,
If some participants grumbled about the conference’s lack of tangible goals, organizers insisted that was the point.
“We’re not looking for ‘an answer,’ ” explained the foundation’s executive director, Dana Raucher. “We’ve gathered a rather eclectic mix of people, each of whom has something to offer. Each of these people has influence somewhere. Each of them will hopefully have been enriched by this and will take the conversation home with them.”
In other words, they didn’t come out of the conference with another program that doesn’t change anything, or more instructions that have nothing to do with actually living a Jewish life that we’re all to fall in behind with cash in hand. Perhaps that’s an improvement. Although I do have to draw breath at such pronouncements as, “In fact, as more than one conference attendee pointed out, the Talmud, the seminal text of rabbinic Judaism, emerged out of just such open-ended conversations among Jewish leaders.” Wow. I think our old friends the Greeks might have referred to this as hubris.
I think, though that the most important comment in the article is this:
Arthur Gross-Schaefer, a professor of business law and ethics at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said the American Jewish community “needs a new myth” that can appeal to the younger, largely unaffiliated generation. That’s something this group, and others like it, can realistically tackle, he said.
It seems to me that this nicely sums up the attitude that hasn’t shifted amongst the cohort that is failing to engage those whom they ostensibly wish to engage. In other words, there’s you young people out there, not doing what we want you to do; we need to make up a nice story for you (yes, I’m aware of the Gillman idea of myth, eh.), so that you’ll fall in line with our priorities. Instead of actually talking to the young, affiliated, engaged people in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties - and even older folks who have helped build these alternative organzations, groups, minyans and institutions- who have built an entirely different way of relating to Judaism, just as vibrant (actually, IMO, more vibrant, and also healthier and more Jewish) as the old Holocaust, peoplehood, anti-semitism emphasis of the last thirty-five years.
There’s no shortage of young Jews engaging as “more observant” than their elders, of independant minyanim, trichitzas, potlucks for eating habits across the spectrum, social justice Judaism as an outgrowth of halachah, and organizations that are helping build these new foundations out of what are really, the old bricks that we had forgotten about for oh, so long while we were busy becoming American: how about JFSJ, JUFJ, JFREJ - well, you all know the drill, we talk about them all the time here.
Bronfmans: we’re waiting on you.
by matthue · Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
Give it up for David Arfa, who’s pioneering the latest in do-it-yourself halacha l’maiseh. This is (or will be) the cover to MezuzaZine, which is going to be just what it sounds like — practical halachos, cool stories, trivia, and other mezuza-related writings and drawings. Although it should be as funky as can be, we’re planning to hold with a Traditional Halachic common denominator.
A brainstorm of topics:
- Basic Halacha of putting up a mezuza and which doorposts need them and which do not
- D.I.Y. mezuza case… just add a shin
- Where to find Kosher mezuza scrolls
- Something mystical or deeper meanings
- Interview with a Sofer
- Funny PSA style advertisements with pictures of homes, Jews, and their mezuza choices
feel free to share ideas! send submissions and questions to mezuzazine at gmail.com
by Mobius · Monday, February 26th, 2007
In its first week of usage, ShulShopper has become so popular that the damned hosting environment we’re on isn’t powerful enough to handle all the incoming traffic!
We haven’t even managed to fix all the bugs yet (don’t worry, there are only about a dozen outstanding issues left) and already we need to move to a new, more powerful server.
If you believe in ShulShopper and find it to be a valuable service that you would like to see grow, now is the time to consider making a donation to support the project. We need your help. Please, donate today.
by Mobius · Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
JPost covers the ShulShopper launch and asks, “But is it relevant to Israel?”
Although ShulShopper, which lacks Hebrew capability, plans to expand to Israel in the near future, Friday’s launching focused on North American Jewish communities.
Sieradski is doubtful that Israelis will go for ShulShopper.
“We are aiming for the Anglo community here, especially tourists and students who are in Israel for a limited period of time. But I have no expectations for the sabra community, though in theory ShulShopper can be a useful tool for every Jew.”
Sieradski, who has lived in Israel for three years, said that in comparison to the diverse spiritual options available in North America, Israel has a very uniform spiritual world.
“Most Israelis are either mainstream Orthodox or totally secular. The few Reform or Conservative shuls that exist are simply not growing. That’s the reality and people accept it.”
In contrast, Sieradski said that anglos who live or visit in Israel are receptive to various “indie-minyans” (independent prayer groups) that explore alternative prayer styles.
Eh… What I said was that a lot of factors, including rabbinic hegemony and a lack of state backing, have prevented non-Orthodox expressions of Judaism from growing. I also said that while I don’t have any expectations, I’m eager to see what happens when the site offers Hebrew language support and whether or not it finds an audience or has any impact.
In related news, ShulShopper was featured today on CSS Mania, a site which indexes cutting edge web design, and has been awarded a rating of 7 out of 10 by the site’s community thus far. The mention brought in over 3,000 page views!
We’re now up to 200 congregations and 200 registered users, and we haven’t even imported the congregational databases yet!
by Mobius · Monday, February 19th, 2007
Since ShulShopper’s launch on Friday, we have already had 1,000 visitors and 9,000 page views. Of those 1,000 visitors, 115 have registered as users, contributing among them thus far 80 congregations. I have received roughly 20 bug reports, which we are currently rectifying, the reports including several suggestions that we are going to implement as well.
Thanks to everyone for making our launch such a great success.
by Mobius · Thursday, February 15th, 2007
A new tool is imminent when Daniel Sieradski, founder of the jewschool blog, launches ShulShopper. Sieradski pledges it will “provide the greater Jewish community with entirely free tools and resources conducive to independent Jewish learning and community organizing.†The launch was expected Thursday, but the site was not quite ready.
Full story.
It’s true. We hit a snag. The site won’t launch til tomorrow morning (my time).
For the Jewschoolfully devout, however, you can go to dev.shulshopper.com and poke around.
If you try to register, you will likely get a broken confirmation link. Just stick dev. at the beginning of the URL (shulshopper.com/etc.).
Email me any bugs, questions, etc. at info at shulshopper.com.
by Mobius · Thursday, February 15th, 2007
Finding the right synagogue can be a tiresome task for even the most devout of Jews. Every synagogue — be it Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist — has a style, a tone and a rabbi all its own. Paying personal visits to each establishment to determine where you fit could take months or even years. But a new Web tool aims to simplify things, making the process of picking a house of worship as easy as clicking a mouse.
Set to launch February 15, ShulShopper.com allows would-be congregants to locate synagogues and independent minyanim in their areas and to rate and review the congregations.
“It’s a sort of Zagat for synagogues,†said Daniel Sieradski, ShulShopper’s creator. The Web site is one of the first projects from Jew It Yourself, an initiative that offers tools and resources to empower constituents to take active roles in their local Jewish communities.
Full story.
ShulShopper will launch its public beta tonight! Stay tuned!
by Mobius · Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Thanks to everyone who’s donated thus far to get ShulShopper up and running. I’m really touched and honored by your support.
We’ve still got a ways to go before meeting our mark, so please, if you have cash to spare and you want to help get a kick-ass project off the ground, donate to Matzat today.
by Mobius · Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Jew It Yourself seeks, first and foremost, to provide the greater Jewish community with entirely free tools and resources conducive to independent Jewish learning and community organizing. It further aims to assist established Jewish communities by offering these same tools and resources, which we believe will reinvigorate constituents’ interest in and commitment to Jewish life by empowering them to take an active role in their local Jewish community.
What is ShulShopper?
Our proof-of-concept, ShulShopper, is an introduction to the overall model for Jew It Yourself, and will demonstrate several of Jew It Yourself’s key concepts.
Set to launch in early February, ShulShopper is a tool which allows individuals to locate congregations (synagogues and independent minyanim) in their local area and to rate and review those congregations.
More »
by Mobius · Friday, January 26th, 2007
A man can’t get a break. Okay, a man occasionally gets a break, but they’re few and far between. Let me give it to you straight:
I’m in desperate need of finishing funds for the production of ShulShopper, the first component of Jew It Yourself set to launch in just under two weeks. I need your help to get the site up and running.
For more than two years now, I have tried to raise funds to build Jew It Yourself. Indeed, I have applied to nearly two dozen organizations, and though many took a sincere interest in the project, only one gave funds to support it.
Since embarking upon the wild ride that has been Jewschool, I have tried my best to examine the issues facing the Jewish community and to creatively and actively address them, whether dealing in issues of Jewish identity and affiliation, or of our relationship to Israel. While neither my analysis nor my solutions have resonated with everyone, in these last four years I have found camaraderie and solidarity in hundreds of Jewish people, of all backgrounds and ages, with whom we together collectively share an understanding of, and vision for the Jewish community.
By and large, those with whom I have spoken, whether Jewish professionals or simple am haaretz, have told me that that which I am trying to accomplish with Jew It Yourself, if it’s not the direction that the overall Jewish community is going in, it is certainly the direction in which they would like their Judaism to be going.
I have been offered letters of support from dozens of pioneering Jewish organizations; built a board of directors and an advisory committee consisting of some of today’s greatest Jewish thinkers and innovators — all of whom are committed to this vision; and I have personally committed myself (even to the verge of my own financial detriment) to bringing, not my vision alone, but our communal vision to life.
I’m tired of trying to convince stiff-necked wealthy eccentrics to support this project. They clearly aren’t interested. They’d rather hold focus groups masquerading as young Jewish leadership initiatives and outsource our ideas to disinterested businessmen who are motivated more by their own profit than the fulfillment of our vision.
If you believe in Jew It Yourself — what it represents and what it will do for your Jewish life — I need your money. We’re at the point where you have to be willing to commit more than your ideological allegiance alone. You have to commit the fruits of your labor. And while a kickdown of $10 or so is greatly appreciated, I’m talking about real money: 10% tithings and the like.
We are on the brink. ShulShopper is 9/10ths complete and once it launches and gains both popularity and visibility, it is a surefire funding candidate (whereas federations and foundations alike will be fighting over who gets to attach themselves to it, as per Schopenhauer’s “Three Stages of Truth”). But I need private donors right now. I need your support.
I’m doing this for you. Really, honestly, sincerely, with everything I have in me. But I need your help to get it done. Don’t email me the name of another foundation to try. Give me $1000.
Please, support Jew It Yourself. Make a donation today.
