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.
Mobius is giving the blogosphere a reaming in the motherboard over the rightwingosphere’s dive tackling keffiyah-sporting Rachel Ray in the knees. Far be it from me to comment too much further than the grand-daddy of the topic has already done.
But since Mobes made me more aware of the keffiyah trend, I really did a double-take a couple times while in Israel two weeks ago: keffiyahs are for sale everywhere. And not by Arabs in the Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City, or East Jerusalem, or Nazareth — but by Jews in Jewy places.
I first saw them in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, not too far from the Jaffe Gate. In particular, I stopped to photo and joke about the rainbow-colored keffiyah on sale with the red and black ones. “What is this?” we joked, “the gay-friendly Palestinian resistance?” After a couple jokes about the audacity of a “log cabin” Hamasnik, I moved on.
But what really made me stop and stare was the prominent display of a rack of brightly colored scarves in the windows of fashion boutiques in Tel Aviv’s trendy Shuk HaCarmel! The shop was called “Smash Wear” which nearly made me pee my pants at all the possible and incredibly inappropriate puns.
Mobius can say what he wants about American ignorant hipsters being duped into buying “peace scarves” (I’ve confronted a few friends myself who didn’t know any better), but now we’ve gone muddied the waters when Israelis either (a) wear them or (b) sell them to tourists. Is this irresponsible or have we actually managed to strip the keffiyah of it’s national symbolism?
I’m an advocate of cultural appropriation. Judaism is just a litany of appropriations of other people’s food, clothes, philosophy — latkes apparently are a Polish food, available year-round in Polish shops in Williamsburg, for example. With the exception of matzah, I think very few cultural trappings of Judaism are actually invented by a Jew. So this keffiyah thing doesn’t bother me that way.
But I’ve been considering a line of hipster wear with Chillul who? which smashes a few other borders: a Palestinian flag kipah, for example. Or let’s go all out and make a keffiyah out of little blue Magen Davids! How about a keffiyah-colored tallis? Let’s just say “fuck it” to the sacred cows and have an end to them. Fashion has killed the keffiyah and we can only wonder what other national symbol is next. Is any one taking bets?
A short video clip from this past weekend’s first-ever Limmud Southeast:
A little self-promotion: This is part of the “Moses in a Megachurch” speech about a Jewish journalist who spent a year immersed in Christianity. For the complete speech, please see http://myjesusyear.com/limmud2008.mov — And to pre-order your copy of the book, please visit http://myjesusyear.com.
Richard Kaplan, the mystically-inclined world-music hazzan from the East Bay, reports that tomorrow night’s episode of House, MD will feature his rendition of the Niggun of the Alter Rebbe. He writes:
The episode begins with an Hasidic bedeken, to the davvening sounds of yours truly. They have asked for 2 1/2 minutes of the recording from my 2nd CD “Life of the Worlds.” There is a very long chance that in the final editing last Thursday, something may have changed, but in all likelihood the song is “in.”
Original art from the graphic novel Megillat Esther on exhibit at the NYU Bronfman Center from Feb 7 - Mar 24th!
Artist JT Waldman will be speaking from 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM next Thursday, Feb 7th, about the making of the graphic novel at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life at NYU. Opening reception and refreshments from 7pm-9pm. (Directions here.)
View more amazing panels from the graphic novel here.
If you’re able to get to Tel Aviv tomorrow (Sunday) or Haifa next weekend, you ought to check out “South Coast.” I caught tonight’s screening at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and really got into it.
A feature length documentary, it explores the 25ish year history of hip hop in Brighton, England, comparing it to the scenes in the US (”east coast” and “west coast” America lend to the film’s “south coast” England title), London, and other parts of Europe. Listen to good music, watch some amazing break-dancing, see local writers and graffiti artists, and throw in a tonne of archival footage and interviews, and you too will be an expert on the south coast hip hop scene.
Thanks to the Hebrew subtitles, you can also chalk it up to an, um, educational viewing: learn new slang that you might otherwise miss out on. Learn the hip hop culture jargon - dis haters, curse, bboy and pop, and scratch - b’ivrit. (If only I’d brought a notepad!)
Since we’ve now completed another year, it’s time for our annual, highly idiosyncratic, completely unscientific, best–of round up. Happy (secular) new year from all of us here at Jewschool! More »
Babe Ruth was a quintessential American. Somewhat larger than life, the Babe represented the kind of freedom that drives those who believe in despotic regimes mad. During World War II, when Japanese soldiers charged American troops, they would sometimes scream, “To hell with Babe Ruth.” Not “to hell with FDR” or “to hell with Douglas MacArthur,” but “to hell with Babe Ruth.”
And now he needs our help.
OK, OK, so why write about that on Jewschool?
Because we owe him one.
Dr. Rafael Medoff wrote in the Jewish Ledger a few weeks ago that during the last week of December 1942 Babe Ruth helped to keep public attention focused on Hitler’s atrocities. Although the U.S. and Britain had finally publicly acknowledged and condemned the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany, there was no talk of any steps being taken to rescue the Jews and the issue was fading from the public eye.
So, Babe Ruth and other prominent Americans of German descent, stepped up to the plate and signed the “Christmas Declaration by men and women of German ancestry†which appeared as a full-page ad in the New York Times and nine other major daily newspapers.
It read in part:
“[W]e Americans of German descent raise our voices in denunciation of the Hitler policy of cold-blooded extermination of the Jews of Europe and against the barbarities committed by the Nazis against all other innocent peoples under their sway. These horrors … are, in particular, a challenge to those who, like ourselves are descendants of the Germany that once stood in the foremost ranks of civilization.â€
The ad went on to “utterly repudiate every thought and deed of Hitler and his Nazis,†and urged the people of Germany “to overthrow a regime which is in in the infamy of German history.â€
Dr. Medoff’s article drew the attention of the Babe’s granddaughter, Linda Ruth Tosetti, who wrote a comment on the article expressing delight in reading about how her grandfather took a public stand against Hitler. She also asked for help in getting Babe’s number retired from all of baseball by signing the petition that can be found here.
So sign the petition folks - it’s the least we can do!
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, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zymoFHGYBnQ&feature=related
“>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.
I have a friend who works for Starbucks, and she claims that their Christmas Blend and their Holiday Blend are the exact same coffee–out of the same grinding machine and everything. Evidently, one’s packaged for the Christmas-averse crowd in a soothing blue and white package, and the other is full of bright red holiday cheer. If this is indeed true, it’s an irritating piece of marketing brilliance.
Over on WFMU’s Beware of the Blog, we’re nearing the end of their 365 days of music (read: legally downloadable mp3s) project. Today’s entry features the album “Stories Under the Mitzvah Tree.” For those of you who didn’t hear these as children, each track is a different story, dramatically read by children and adults. I had completely forgotten how much I loved this record, until I saw it on the blog today.
Cory at WFMU writes,
My favorite story has always been The Beautiful Garbage Can, in which a garbage can grows big and strong when little Chani won’t eat everything on her plate. The story includes the deathless line, “Oh, my! What a beautiful garbage can you have!” Garbage Can’s narration also includes the telling line, “What do you think of that? Let me tell you.” And in Hillel’s Love for Torah, the piano gets so dramatic that you actually start to fear for little Hillel’s life. (SPOILER ALERT: He lives.)
There are at least two or three other Mitzvah Tree albums out there (and by “out there,” I mean buried at my mother’s house somewhere).
The Union of Progressive Zionists announces “Final Status Taboo” in a clever pun on my all-time favorite game, Taboo, in which players attempt to describe final status issues, such as Jerusalem, right of return, etc., without loaded words like “holy,” “Dome of the Rock,” “wall,” “Israel,” “capital” or “religion.”
“While the premise of these events is play, this game has serious ramifications for our ability to move forward as a community in advocating for vigorous U.S. leadership in the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations necessary to ensure Israel’s prospects for peace and security in the future,” says Tammy Shapiro the Executive Director of UPZ.
Indeed, this is a variation of a game I play with myself all the time — “Zionist” taboo. I don’t use the Z-word word. I won’t use it around any group. It’s got too much baggage. However, despite how I refuse to call myself a Zionist, I put so much of my time and effort towards a two-state solution, one could argue that I’m more actively supporting the existance of Israel than many so-called Zionists who either (a) take a passive interest but don’t do anything about it or (b) believe that prolonging the unclear status of 6 million Palestinians under Israeli jurisdiction isn’t likely to backfire.
In either right- or left-wing Jewish settings, or especially among non-Jews, the Z-word has too many meanings, too many conflicting connotations. Heroic or villainous, it’s not worth the time of deconstructing my vocabulary, so I just do without it. “Two state” is the wording of choice, “a secure Jewish state alongside a viable Palestinian state” seems to avoid the troublesome yelling matches which occur when people read into my language something I didn’t intend in the slightest.
This offends a few commited left-wing Zionists, including people I greatly, greatly admire, because they believe so strongly in taking back the Z-word from the Messianists, the Likudniks, and the Christians. That fight is laudable, sure. But it’s not worth my time to make a pit-stop to save the Z-word on the way to fighting for peace in the Holy Land. And it has the added benefit of making it easier to get along with all kinds of people.
Sorry, Z-word, it’s just another reason to leave you behind.
This LOLCat Bible touches on something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. If anyone has seen the play The Great Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), then you understand how poking fun at a great work of art can be so educational. But this is also more insidious than simple entertainment: its aim is to make esoteric language accessible to the un-initiated. I think a great swath of American Jewish life could benefit hugely from this comedic approach.
Thus, for the longest time, I’ve wanted to create the Great Works of Judaism (Abridged). The LOLCat Bible is way more thorough than this intends to be. On its face, Judaism (Abridged) would be a series of short one-act skits to be produced by Hebrew school kids. But of course deeper than that, it’s a chance to explore what the meaning of the prayers are, rendered in so direct a way that it can only be funny.
So here goes the Hazti Kaddish (Abridged):
Chazzan: Oh dear God: You are big. Really big. And by big, I mean huge. You just gotta be damn near the biggest, most grandest, most hugest thing out there, and boy don’t we know it. I mean, you made it all, so you gotta be bigger! Right, folks? Amen.
Congregation: He is Big!
Chazzan:God, you are super-big and super-cool and we just think that’s downright awesome and righteous and knarly-rockin’-sweet. We just can’t say it enough. Everybody with me? Amen.
Blasphemy is illusive; I don’t think this counts. After all, we should all pray in both the words of our ancestors and in our own — if one believes the Old Man Upstairs* is for real, then surely street slang works just fine and the Old Man can recognize the sacred in a little humor. I personally won’t be able to say this in shul without chuckling a little after posting this. If kids (or us’n growed-all-ups) had to write out their prayers as they understood them, then maybe (a) they’d learn them more personally and (b) we might get insights with no fear into how the next generation will reinvent our tradition.
*By no means do I imply that the Infinite is male.
Evidently there’s a new book out in which some guy tries to spend a year “living the Bible as literally as possible.” Annoyingly but not surprisingly, a lot of the fuss in the marketing materials is on all the really weird stuff he did, like letting his beard grow, not mixing wool and linen, and, you know, thinking about what he eats. Oooh, weird. (They make a lot of fuss over the beard thing.) I’m actually curious about how he interpreted a lot of the mitzvot–that is to say, did Rabbinic interpretation and definitions (of, say, what Shabbat is) affect him, and if not, how did he figure out how to translate some of the more vague instructions into ma’aseh (stuff you actually do)? Did he hold like the Karites?
In this Newsweek interview, though, it seems that the author, A. J. Jacobs, got a bit more out of the experiment than just getting to pretend he was Charlton Heston.
The experience changed me in big ways and small ways. There’s a lot about gratefulness in the Bible, and I would say I’m more thankful. I focus on the hundred little things that go right in a day, instead of the three or four things that go wrong. And I love the Sabbath. There’s something I really like about a forced day of rest…. One thing I learned is that the outside affects the inside, your behavior shapes your thoughts. I also really liked what one of my spiritual advisers said, which was that you can view life as a series of rights and entitlements, or a series of responsibilities. I like seeing my life as a series of responsibilities. It’s sort of, “Ask not what the world can do for you, ask what you can do for the world.”
I’m personally reserving judgement on the project until I actually read it. Hate the marketing, though.
It has been pointed out that in two years, Talk Like A Pirate Day will fall on Rosh Hashanah. In the meantime, though we don’t get to blow the shofARRRRRRR or read about HagARRRRRRR today, we can still tell other Jewish pirate jokes on this festive occasion.
Q: What is a pirate’s favorite masechet of Talmud?
A: ARRRRRRRachin.
Q: Who is a pirate’s favorite biblical prophet?
A: ZechARRRRRiah.
Q: What is a pirate’s favorite Yiddishist socialist organization?
A: The ARRRRbeter Ring.
Q: Who is a pirate’s favorite Republican Jewish senator?
A: ARRRRRRRRlen Specter.
Q: Who is a pirate’s favorite Democratic Jewish senator?
A: BARRRRRbara Boxer.
Q: Who is a pirate’s favorite amora?
A: DARRRRRu bARRRRR Papa.
Q: What is a pirate’s favorite Israeli newspaper?
A: Yedi’ot. (You probably thought it was Ha’ARRRRRetz, but that’s far too intellectual for the average pirate.)
I know we’re living in a post-Harry Potter era, but I thought that this article on translating the Hogwarts tales into Hebrew was kinda cute, and it raises all sorts of interesting questions about translation in a bigger way, so I’m posting it.
The World Jewish Digest spoke with Gili Bar-Hillel, the series’ Hebrew translator, about the various challanges she encountered in trying to translate the thing:
Beyond the lack of British cultural parallels, which can be true anywhere outside of England, for Bar-Hillel there is also the issue of Israelis’ relative ignorance of Christianity, references to which play a small role in the series. A line that posed a special challenge appears in Book Five, where Sirius Black, Harry’s godfather, passes Harry’s door singing “God Rest You, Merrye Hippogriffs†toward his pet hippogriff, Buckbeak. Knowing that Israeli kids would not typically recognize Sirius’ melodic outburst as a parody of a Christmas carol, Bar-Hillel rendered it as a play on a Chanukah tune: Mi yimallel Hippogriff she-ochel, (“who will recount the story of the eating Hippogriff â€), a play on the popular Chanukah song that begins mi yimallel gvurot yisrael (“who will recount the heroic acts of Israelâ€)…
If Bar-Hillel has so many different considerations to account for when translating actual English into Hebrew, imagine the challenge she faces when rendering those words that Rowling made up, such as Polyjuice Potion (shikui polymitzi, according to Bar-Hillel), dementors (soharsanim) and animagus (animagus).
“Take the word ‘mudblood,’†says Suel. “You have many choices of what to do with that. On one extreme is to transliterate it, to write out the sound ‘mudblood’ in Hebrew writing. You could translate mud and translate blood, and then turn them around to put them into Hebrew syntax. Or you could make up something new which keeps the feeling of the word. [Bar-Hillel] translated it as botzdamim, mud-bloods. The plural form somewhat removes the problem of having to say whether the subject is male or female, though when Hermione is called a mudblood, Bar-Hillel uses botzdamit, the feminine form.
I first saw them in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, not too far from the Jaffe Gate. In particular, I stopped to photo and joke about the rainbow-colored keffiyah on sale with the red and black ones. “What is this?” we joked, “the gay-friendly Palestinian resistance?” After a couple jokes about the audacity of a “log cabin” Hamasnik, I moved on.
Mobius can say what he wants about American ignorant hipsters being duped into buying “peace scarves” (I’ve confronted a few friends myself who didn’t know any better), but now we’ve gone muddied the waters when Israelis either (a) wear them or (b) sell them to tourists. Is this irresponsible or have we actually managed to strip the keffiyah of it’s national symbolism?
Original art from the graphic novel Megillat Esther on exhibit at the NYU Bronfman Center from Feb 7 - Mar 24th!
A feature length documentary, it explores the 25ish year history of hip hop in Brighton, England, comparing it to the scenes in the US (”east coast” and “west coast” America lend to the film’s “south coast” England title), London, and other parts of Europe. Listen to good music, watch some amazing break-dancing, see local writers and graffiti artists, and throw in a tonne of archival footage and interviews, and you too will be an expert on the south coast hip hop scene.
