Culture, Global, Mishegas, Politics, Religion, Sex & Gender

Mishegaas for the Days of Awe

  • Barbra Streisand is selling off her stuff. You could own a piece of the legend. Better yet, proceeds benefit her foundation, which supports a bunch of progressive causes including environmental and economic policy groups.
  • Days of Awesome is a livejournal community for fanfiction themed around the Yamim Noraim. I once introduced Bible superstar Marc Brettler to fanfic to explain a theory I had about Shir HaShirim, so I have a soft spot in my heart for the overlap between Jewish Studies and fandom.
  • And speaking of said overlap, there’s also In the Beginning, a Hebrew Bible fanworks fest, coming soon to an internet near you. This one challenges fanfic writers to write “fanfic” about the Hebrew Bible… or, what others might call midrash. Pieces will be published beginning October 2nd, but until then the site gives some background to the project.
  • I meant to post this before Rosh Hashannah, but apparently StorahTelling held services in a winery? Maybe this makes more sense for those of you who live in New York. If this piques your interest, they’ll be back for Yom Kippur – more info here.
  • My facebook feed before the holidays was abuzz with discussions of this article from The Forward, decrying the lack of family-friendly policies in the Jewish professional world.
  • My twitter feed, on the other hand, was abuzz with folks retweeting Judith Rosenbaum’s consideration of What Patrick Swayze (z”l) did for Jewish women over at the Jewish Women’s Archive Jewesses with Attitude blog.

6 thoughts on “Mishegaas for the Days of Awe

  1. Re the last link: Imagine the reaction if, in 2009, a Jewish man wrote a piece on a Jewish blog praising how “the unattainable, sexy non-Jewish girl became (in the movie, at least, briefly) attainable”.

  2. After nearly a year in the Storahtelling office as a part time graduate intern, High Holidays 5770 was my first experience actually participating in Storahtelling service and a Torah service Maven ritual. The experience was excellent, and new for a girl used to Conservative liturgy and services.
    City Winery is producing both the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur High Holidays experience downtown this year. Previously, Storahtelling services have been downtown and high up in one of the World Trade Center buildings. CW is a beautiful space with excellent acoustics and a lovely layout that lends itself to be set up for tefillot.
    Storahtelling services are a place for ancient traditions to be revived through theater and music, and this year’s experiences have thus far included a performance by David Broza, and a Maven that included chanting of traditional text AND an interpretation of Isaac and Ishmael’s story that addresses differences between the telling in the Torah and the Quran.
    Challenging, intellectual, spiritual, and different, the Storahtelling crew puts out a unique and fulfilling service.

  3. @Amit – The “Maven” is very gig-esque, but even that is similar to any Torah service with interpretation between aliyot. The entirety of the services at CW were very much a tefillah service, with traditional and not-so-traditional liturgy spread out with a clear beginning, middle and end.

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