Over the past week, the Jewish paper of record (The New York Times) has reported a few times on the Shabbatroversy in Houston, TX.
Robert M. Beren Academy joined the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools for sports. Not surprisingly, TAPPS is dominated by Christian schools. It is Texas. When Beren joined, TAPPS told the school that there may be games during the playoffs on Shabbas. There were also no games to be held on Sunday, according to the by-laws.
But I don’t care. It also seems that Beren didn’t care either. Sure the kids were bummed but the school made a CHOICE to join TAPPS and the school is filled with religious Jews. They clearly are going to pick Shabbat over B-ball any day and that is how it should be. I am lost at the outrage from the liberal movements and the community at large.
Congrats to the kids being taught that in a secular world, they can sue to get what they want religiously. Good luck with that in the real world. But now that they can play, I hope the beat the pants off those anti-Semites.
Recently, while perusing back copies of the German newspaper Der Zeit, I came across a November 1990 interview with famed Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner, which, nearly two decades later, remains as sublimely absurd as ever.
Taking this entirely out of context (because it is far more fun this way), here is an excerpt of the interview with a gem of a quote:
Gibt es Erfahrungen, die Sie noch machen wollen?
MESSNER: Ich bin noch nie abgestürzt. Also das fehlt mir. Ich bin 1980 auf dem Mount Everest in eine Spalte gefallen. Aber die war nur acht Meter tief. Ich wäre auch gern einmal eingesperrt. Mich würde interessieren, wie ich reagiere, wenn ich eine lange Zeit im Kerker verbringen müßte. Aber dazu müßte ich ein Verbrechen begehen. Ich könnte Sie zum Beispiel erschießen.
Haben Sie einen Revolver?
MESSNER: Nein.
Außerdem wäre Ihre mutwillig herbeigeführte Verhaftung eine Erfahrung, die nicht viel zählt.
MESSNER: Das ist wahr. Es ist etwas anderes, ob ich freiwillig oder ungewollt leide. Ich habe mir meine Leiden immer selbst ausgesucht. Ich bin nie in einem KZ gewesen. Das wäre noch eine Wunscherfahrung. Ich möchte wissen, wie lange ich durchhalten und wie selbstsüchtig oder brutal ich mich den Mithäftlingen gegenüber verhalten würde.
In other words, Messner expresses his morbid curiosity and interest in experiencing the horrors of a concentration camp: as the ultimate test of physical endurance and moral fortitude. This reality television show practically writes itself…
Oh wait. Larry David has already taken care of that.
Now that the Winter Olympics are done, what are you going to watch? Try the Matzo Ball Olympics, a short video I made for Manischewitz. It’s a teaser for a longer mini-mockumentary I produced about Manny Schevitz, a beleaguered Matzo Ball Olympian.
As any American sports fan has noticed, the last two decades have shown a new trend emerging in African-American naming culture. In the movement towards fresh and creative names, we are seeing a prefix model become increasingly common. Pre-existing names get a prefix; for instance, Marcus becomes DeMarcus. Similarly there are NFL players named DeJuan, D’Juan, LaJuan, TyJuan, DeSean, LeSean, DeMarcus (besides the one mentioned above), JaMarcus, LaRon, Le’Ron, LarDarius, D’Anthony, and lots, lots more.
Updated: How does this trend relate to Hebrew uses of prefixes (and suffixes) in naming? KRG pointed out that there might be a bias towards French sounding names. Is that why this specific set of pre-fixes has emerged? BZ notes that his time as a public school teacher in NYC, like my time as a public school student in Philadelphia, has not led him to notice many people with this name pattern. He noted that it seems to be most pronounced in the deep south. Why would that be? Do most examples reflect patrilineality? Is this trend an alternative to Jr., III, etc?
Jews, in general, have been very slow to adapt to this cultural trend. I have yet to meet a Da’Shlomomit, JaShmuel, LeEytan, DeSharon, or a JaDavid. Not even a LaIrit. Although, come to think of it, we may have been ahead of the trend. Just ask L’Chayim.
Nico Tarosyan and Olga Samosvatov will have a chuppah in a “festive public ceremony” in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square on Tu B’Av (Aug 4th), in part to raise awareness about the lack of civil marriage in Israel and the fact that they, and many other Jews from the FSU and elsewhere who are not recognized as Jews by the rabbinate, are thus legally unable to marry at all.
Omri Casspi is the first Israeli to join the NBA. When told they also have hummus in the US, he replied, “Man, I tried it… I will bring some from Israel, maybe. I’ll let you taste it and you tell me.”
According to one survey, 80% of secular Israelis and 59% of Israelis overall define their level of Judaic knowledge and Jewish heritage as mediocre or lower.
You may have seen this one [youtube] making the rounds lately: former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman (and Super Bowl champion) Alan Veingrad became BT and is living the life of a seriously observant Jew. (Love the sportscaster’s patter at the end: “he studies, he prays, the whole nine yards…”)
Actually, given the abundant opportunity for silly shtick, I think it’s a lovely, respectful piece.
Remember when the Jets asked the the NFL commissioner to change their schedule as they had two consecutive home games on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and they thought their Jewish fans would be annoyed and unable to fill seats in the stadium? Me neither.
So I’m sure many of us received the email a few weeks ago about the Boston Red Sox changing their schedule to accommodate passover, and of course, it was bogus. But, as the New York Post has illustriously dubbed the affair, “Jewish fans jolt Jets, NFL”
So if in a couple of months you start receiving emails that the New York Jets are accommodating their schedule for Yom Kippur, it’s true.
The AP reports:
Jets upset about home games on Jewish holidays
By DENNIS WASZAK Jr. – 10 hours ago
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets, upset about being scheduled for home games on consecutive Sundays in direct conflict with Jewish holidays, sent NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a letter Thursday asking that one of the game times be changed.
The Jets’ home opener is Week 2 against New England at 1 p.m. on Sept. 20, which falls during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. New York then plays Tennessee at 4:15 p.m. the following Sunday, with Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, beginning at sundown.
In the letter to Goodell, owner Woody Johnson suggested the game against the Titans be changed to a 1 p.m. start to give Jewish fans time to arrive home before sundown.
“I am extremely disappointed with the league’s decision to schedule us to play at home on consecutive Sundays that are in direct conflict with the Jewish High Holy Days,” Johnson wrote. “There has long been an understanding that neither the Jets nor the Giants fans should have to bear completely the brunt of this issue since we are in the largest Jewish market in the country.”
Jets officials called the league offices first on Wednesday to express their concern, and Johnson followed with a formal letter Thursday.
“We were not contacted prior to this decision,” Johnson said. “We are flexible and would have been more than happy to work with the league to accommodate as many of our fans as possible.”
Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of corporate communications, said the league received the letter and was reviewing it.
The Giants are on the road for both weeks, with games at Dallas at 8:20 p.m. in Week 2, and at Tampa, Fla., at 1 p.m. in Week 3.
I think this is kind of awesome, but it also makes me stop and think why it is that such accommodations are made. I don’t know how one could track, really, the ethno-religious demographics of Jets fans, but looking at the larger perspective, there are what, 1.5 million Jews in NYC? out of around 8 million. that’s around 18%. Subtract from that 18% the number of people that are going to attend or watch despite it being Yom Kippur and those that are going to record it, and not to mention those that just don’t care about the game. That doesn’t seem like too many people. Interesting. It begs the question, do other minorities get such accommodations? And is this even really necessary? And do we, in fact, control football?
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.
Did you know the undisputed mother of women’s judo is a Jewish great-grandmother named Rena Glickman? And did you know that Japan’s government recently awarded her with one of its highest honors, the Emperor’s Order of the Rising Sun?
I kid you not. The mighty Rena Glickman (known to millions of judo-devotees as Rusty Kanokogi) has been doing her thing since the 1950s, when she had to masquerade as a man to practice her art (a neo-Yentl saga if ever there was one!) A recent Sports Illustrated article gives the backstory:
(Kanokogi) had to collect 25,000 signatures and threaten legal action for sex discrimination against the International Olympic Committee and its TV partner, ABC, to get women’s judo into the Games in ’88…She also found time, in between, to coach the 1988 Olympic team, officiate the ’96 Olympics and provide NBC’s color commentary at the 2004 Games.
I was so sorry to read that Ms. Kanokogi is currently being treated for bone cancer – all the more reason to be proud that she is receiving this unprecedented honor. Mazel Tov Rusty! (Or as the judo masters teach: “Chiri mo tsumori yamato nari.”)
It is fairly well known that, in Israel, many recognize and observe seven days of pesach and a single seder whereas, outside of Israel, many recognize 8 days of pesach and two seders as proper observance.
Where did the extra day come from?
A piece over at my jewish learning does a good job explaining:
The Jewish calendar is lunar. Over 2,000 years ago, a council of rabbis from the Sanhedrin, the ancient legislative and judicial body, held special sessions in Jerusalem at the end of each lunar month to receive witnesses to the first sliver of the new moon. Because a lunar cycle is approximately 29 days long, it was no mystery when the new moon should appear, but the Sanhedrin still declared months and holidays only on the basis of these witnesses. …
Once the sighting was legitimated, the rabbis declared the next day Rosh Hodesh, the beginning of the new month. Originally, beacon fires would be set on mountaintops to spread the word to distant Jewish communities already living in far away places such as Egypt and Babylon. Watchers on faraway hills set their beacon fires as soon as they saw them, continuing the relay “until one could behold the whole of the Diaspora before him like a mass of fire” (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 2:4)… Celebrating festivals for an extra day would ensure that, regardless of whatever confusion reigned about the exact start of the new month, at least one day of their celebration would be on the correct day.
Okay, that makes sense but we started to switch to a rule-based fixed-arithmetic lunisolar calendar system after the destruction of the second temple. That made the days designed to prevent error obsolete since everyone everywhere in the world used the same system and derived the days similarly. It no longer mattered how close one was to the Sanhedrin so why keep the extra days?
At the end of Beitzah 4b that issue is addressed. “Now that we know the fixed new month, what’s the reason for doing two days?” The answer there is hizaharu b’minhag avoteichem (be careful about your ancestors’ minhag), because in the future there might be a decree preventing us from keeping the calendar…And we can even agree on the value of minhag avoteinu (see Beitzah 4b), and you can follow the minhag of your ancestors who kept 2 days, while I’ll follow the minhag of my ancestors who have been Reform for at least five generations.
The other common answer is given by a Rabbi from Aish here:
So why was a second day Yom Tov added? In order to make a distinction, to add to the Jewish awareness that one is living in the Diaspora and does not claim permanent residence in the Holy Land.
BZ’s answer to Minhag Avoteinu is compelling as is the issue that there has ceased to be a consistent mihag in the diaspora. The Reform, Renewal, Reconstructionist, and Conservative movements have all offered decisions permitting the use of a 7-day pesach. Here is some CCAR (Reform) analysis. The Cons and Recon movements both provide flexibility for local congregations but the result is that a majority of American Jews, and nearly all Israeli Jews fall under a 7-day authority. Many have been in such a situation for generations.
Now to respond to the idea that we should have an extra seder to remember we aren’t in Israel…
Was anyone really confused? In case you were here are ten ways to conclude you are in the US rather than in Israel that have nothing to do with extra days of passover.
10:The falafel is overpriced and underspiced.
9: Municipal services are transparent and efficient.
8: Sunday is for football not school.
7: Teacher strikes are generally limited to a few days, max.
6: People talk slowly and get uncomfortable with interruptions (supreme court excepted).
5: Holocaust jokes are rare and usually generate discomfort.
4: People have difficulty making political and religious assumptions based on the type of kippah a person is wearing. Many can’t remember the word and use “beanie” or “skull cap” instead.
3: Though people talk about God non-stop in government there aren’t religious parties associated with single religious approached.
2: Nation’s founders where individual rather than collective farmers.
1: Look around. No occupations and settlements for miles in any direction? You probably aren’t in Israel.*
This year’s Boston Marathon, traditionally held on Patriots’ Day (the third Monday in April), will be on the second day of Pesach. The Associated Press reports on Rabbi Jonah Pesner and other Pesach-observant marathon runners, and how they are reconciling the Pesach diet and the marathon diet.
Passover begins just two days before the April 21 marathon, and the holiday’s strict dietary rules mean Jewish runners can’t eat bread and pasta, the normal staples in the days before the big race.
Besides matzoh, which is unleavened bread, Pesner plans to pound down foods such as potatoes during a rare “carb-load seder” the night before the race.
Pesner never considered breaking the dietary rules for the sake of the race, which he is running with his wife for an autism charity.
“For me, running the marathon is a very spiritual quest,” he said.
Sports Illustrated is covering a story about a boys basketball team that might be forced to end their playoff run because they are shomer shabbat.
If Herzl/RMHA makes it to the regional championship and refuses to play a Saturday game, another school would be chosen to take its place, CHSAA commissioner Bill Reader said.
Earlier this month, the Colorado High School Activities Association, which governs sports and other high school activities, rejected the team’s request for a schedule change.
The State Senate got into the action, too:
Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, said the CHSAA’s decision was ironic because it has a rule barring games from being played on Sunday for religious reasons.
There isn’t much in the way of instructions, but just start playing and you can figure it out pretty quickly. Not to toot my own horn too much, but I got up to Level 12. But then I got stumped. Has anyone figured out how to beat that level? Drop me a line if you do.
A Jewschool exclusive, written by Rabbi Elie Kaunfer. (See below.)
It is clear to any baseball fan, and to anyone with a sense of history, that the Red Sox are the Jews, and the Yankees are Ancient Rome, Assyria, or pick your classic nation-state villain. The Yankees are a world-class dynasty, always pull it out, conquer the world with their braggadocio. And the Red Sox are the band of rebels that always find a way to come close to redemption, but blow it in the end. Think Bar Kochba: sure they attain independence for a few years (win the division title) but when it comes to restoring the monarchy (World Series), not a chance.
Until 2004. That year was “next year.” The first World Series victory since 1918. It was the year I got married, and my brother joked in his toast (in mid-July), that I am a true-believer, and “this is the year” for the Sox. But it turned out to really be the year: Johnny Damon and the Sox crew
pulled off the greatest baseball comeback of all time, down 3-0 against the Yankees, with perhaps the most exciting week of baseball yet.
Yet here we are, still living in an unredeemed world. How can it be? As a kid, religion and baseball were always intertwined. I got Bar Mitzvahed during the 1986 World Series, when the Sox lost to the Mets in stunning fashion. That was the year Peter Gammons wrote a column that began: “How will it feel if the Red Sox ever win?…How in God’s name will it feel?”
It felt great. Incredible, in fact. Celebrating at a “Red Sox bar” in the heart of NYC, all the fans finally coming out of hiding. But what do you do afterward? This is baseball, after all, so shouldn’t everything change when the Sox win? I find myself wondering: Is it better to be crushed by the near-misses or to be lulled by victory?
There are those who are getting used to the Sox winning ways. Time to cast off the tragic New England mindset, and grow into a dynasty. But that ignores the essence of the Sox, their Jewish neshama. As Mike Barnicle once wrote: “Baseball is not a life and death matter, but the Red Sox are.”Are they, though, if they turn into Rome?
So I am watching this World Series with confusion. Of course I am pulling for the Sox, and I am astounded at their comeback against Cleveland. But when the New York Times publishes a column calling the Red Sox the new Yankees, all cannot be right. The cosmos seems out of order. One can only hope that true Messianic redemption will feel different.
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, a Sox fan living in exlile, is executive director of Mechon Hadar: An Institute for Prayer, Personal Growth and Jewish Study. Mechon Hadar has launched the first full-time independent egalitarian yeshiva in the United States: Yeshivat Hadar To see some highlights of our 2007 summer, click here.
What’s really cool about the story, imo, is that it’s from a regular old perspective — it’s not a Chabad story, it’s not even really a story aimed at Jews. Hidden inside is the subtext of a Packers offensive lineman who became baal teshuva, but at the story’s heart it’s middle America seeing religious Jews as, hey wait!, they’re normal folks who do this instead of going to church on Sunday.
Check this out:
The group’s morning prayers include the use of a prayer book.
Pretty awesome, no? In the end, the article finishes on a high note: “‘I think it’s important to be proud of being Jewish,’ said Veingrad, the former Packers offensive lineman.” Word.
It’s hard enough being a young female rabbi without inadvertantly offending the key master of the entire Boston Jewish community. [I'm late in posting this, I blame the holidays.]
For those of you who haven’t been following football, the uproar in Boston right now is over charges that Patriots coach Bill Belichick knowingly had a Patriots employee videotape opposition plays to get the scoop on their offense before the game. Belichick has been fined $500,000, and it’s pretty disgraceful for the Pats (who nonetheless creamed the competition on Sunday without videotape help, go Pats!). Many of you know the name Bob Kraft from Kraft stadium in Israel, from his great philathropic work in the Boston Jewish community and around the world. You should also, then, know that he is the owner of the Patriots and a davenner in Newton, MA.
Well, seems that on Rosh Hashanah, the rabbi at Kraft’s shul decided to use perhaps an unfortunate metaphor in her sermon — as covered by Jason Schwartz on the Boston Daily Blog of Boston Magazine.
Her main trope was that people should act as as though God is always watching them. Not a bad lesson, except that in making her point she must have made an endless number of references to acting like you’re being videotaped. This was awkward… The guy sitting next to my dad leaned over and whispered, “Does she even know Bob Kraft goes to this Temple?†and a hefty portion of the congregation craned their necks over to Kraft’s pew toward the front. To his credit, he didn’t have any sort of discernible reaction. But, about five seconds after that sermon mercifully ended, he was up and out of there. In fairness, it was toward the end of the service and plenty of other people were leaving too, but trust me, there was no hesitation in his step.
Funny in its own right. What isn’t funny are some of the posts in response. Mostly they are other members of the shul rebuking Schwartz for his opinion/for exposing the incident. Some good stuff there. Some, however, focused on the rabbi:
“Saul” wrote:
The more important question here is why the rabbi of your congregation is a woman. There’s no way a male rabbi would have not known about the sensitive situation Mr. Kraft is in. This is just another example of what happens when a woman does a MAN’s job.
And “Bob” (presumably not Kraft) wrote:
The blogger did not embarrass Bob Kraft – the rabbi did that all by herself. And the blogger didn’t embarrass the rabbi – she did that all by herself, too. After years of her silly sermons where she tries to find spiritual messages to share with the congregation in tales of her daughter’s poop-filled diapers, and all the other stories of her kids, her mother-in-law, her cooking, her…. on an on…. she is clearly beyond feeling embarrassment. This is not the first time she stumbled into inflaming the sensitivities of the community. Maybe next sermon she can talk about harming people through acts that are intentional vs reckless vs simpleminded and uninformed. That would make for a good Yom Kippur sermon, as long as she doesn’t include more stories about her kids.
Errr… Does this mean that all stories of family and home-based experiences should be left off the bimah, while sports analogies are encouraged as long as they are sensitive to the feelings of sports celebrities??
Madonna’s going to be 
From my 
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