Mishegas

Mishegaas

I’ve had a busy week, so some of these links may be older than others. Nonetheless, chances are you missed a bunch of this stuff.

  • Israeli Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger issued an edict banning the wearing of fur skinned from live animals.
  • “Ronald Lauder, the second son of the cosmetics-maker Estée Lauder, who died in 2004, [is] heading a last-ditch attempt to prevent closure of Berlin’s Nazi-built Tempelhof. His suggestion is for a €350m (£235m) project to turn the relic of fascist architecture into a luxury fly-in beauty clinic for Europe’s super rich.”
  • “Recently collected Gallup Poll data suggest that most highly religious Americans either believe that they can be personally religious without needing to spread their beliefs, or that they can best spread their beliefs by converting others to their religion. Only a small percentage of highly religious Americans — 15% — believe the best way to spread their religion is to change society to conform to their religious beliefs.”
  • “Eurovision is threatening to ban Israel’s entry for its annual song contest in because of its “inappropriate” political message.”
  • “The Jewish Council for Public Affairs voted Monday for a targeted divestment initiative to help halt genocide in Darfur, Sudan.”
  • Pornstar Ron Jeremy discusses his relationship with Judaism.
  • Creative Loafing investigates Stormfront, the US’s most popular white nationalist online community.
  • “Was Thomas Jefferson the first Jewish president? Researchers studying Jefferson’s Y chromosome have found it belongs to a lineage that is rare in Europe but common in the Middle East, raising the possibility that the third president of the United States had a Jewish ancestor many generations ago.”
  • Outgoing leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, “recommended anti-Semitic conspiracy tracts and former President Carter’s book to his followers” at his final address this week.
  • JTA on the protest in Teaneck against settlement sales.
  • Here’s how the Mossad sees you. More interesting videos here.
  • 70% of Palestinians now support a one state solution.
  • “Foreign observers of Israel tend to focus so intently on the dangers the country faces from its Arab neighbours that they have largely missed an astonishing story that has been accelerating over the past few months: that of the Jewish state’s possible move toward internal collapse. If you consider this an exaggeration, just take note of what the past couple of weeks have brought about.”

6 thoughts on “Mishegaas

  1. Re: Israeli Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger issued an edict banning the wearing of fur skinned from live animals.
    I’ve often wondered what’s up with leather and fur goods.
    If meat’s kashrut status is to some extent based on the way in which the animal was slaughtered, is there rabbinic oversight over fur and leather production? Are there kosher and non-kosher fur and leather goods? If not why not?
    Someone School me; Your boy is somewhat disconnected from the kashrut/halachah game.

  2. Re: Eurovision contest
    So maybe I live on the wrong side of the pond to speak with any authority, but given that the only 2 Eurovision winners I can remember feature lines like “Agadoo, doo, doo — push pineapple, shake the tree,” and “Waterloo — couldn’t escape if I wanted to / Waterloo — knowing my fate is to be with you”… I just don’t think meaningful lyrics are part of the equation.
    Looking online, I also see that other winning titles include: “La, la, la” (1968), “Boom bang a bang” (1969), “Ding-a-dong” (1975), and “Diggi-loo-diggi-ley” (1984).
    I think it’s safe to say that even the level of concern for the state of the world as exhibited by your typical 14-year-old is a little too deep for Eurovision.

  3. Especially considering that your typical 14-year-old is either writing rhymed verse about unicorns and world peace, or free verse about black lipsick and death. (depending on which part of suburbia you’re in)

  4. re: one state solution, the previous number i’d seen was a haaretz survey a year or two ago that said 30% of pals favored one state. a jump to 70% needs some explaining.

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