Most Recent Posts

Defending J.D. Salinger's Half-Jewish Roots

Robin Margolis — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:43:47 -0600

By Robin Margolis

I was reading Virginia Heffernan's article for Tablet about her encounter as a young woman with J.D. Salinger in Cornish, NH. Salinger died at age 91 on January 28th, 2010. Heffernan, who is a convert, reflected nicely on his half-Jewish identity and his troubled family life, but much to my astonishment, she was met with a barrage of comments that Salinger wasn't Jewish because he had a Jewish father, and that he had deserted Judaism as an adult, etc., etc. Here is my reply: ...

Real Talk Parsha: Beshalach

Shais "MaNishtana" Rison — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:17:53 -0600

By Shais "MaNishtana" Rison

MaNishtana Fact No. 11: I'm a big fan of Aquaman. Not so much the costume but the character. I think he's highly underused and has a lot of untapped potential because it's easier to write him off as a third string character. But the dude is the King Arthur of the sea, PLUS he can command fish...Of course while that sounds kickass on paper, it doesn't really work so much in real life. Fish have a memory span of about 3 seconds. That's why they die if you put too much food in the water: ...

On Being Black, White, and Jewish

Lacey Schwartz — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:44:47 -0600

By Lacey Schwartz

Rabbi Capers C. Funnye, Jr. The news this week has been saturated with issues of race, otherness, and problems of identity in a society that's most comfortable drawing boundaries and lines. On Sunday, the New York Times ran a story on Rabbi Capers C. Funnye, Jr., the first African-American member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. On Tuesday, Senator Barack Obama gave a landmark speech on race relations that took the country by storm. We asked documentary filmmaker Lacey Schwartz to weigh in on ...

No Sex With Bedouins?

Tamar Fox — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:32:53 -0600

By Tamar Fox

High school girls in the Israeli town of Kiryat Gat are being warned not to become romantically involved with Bedouins, via a program run by a social worker named Chaim Shalom. A 10-minute film called Sleeping With the Enemy cautions girls that Bedouins may shower them with gifts and then leave them pregnant and alone, or refuse to allow them to return to their families after ending the relationship. Single Bedouin Men: like kyrptonite for Jewish girls? Despite a message that smacks of ...

What is Frum Porn?

Heshy Fried — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:59:41 -0600

By Heshy Fried

By now I am sure you have all heard of Shaindy.com, which is a website catering to Orthodox Jews who want to meet other Orthodox Jews for extra-marital affairs. I am also sure you have browsed through - and laughed at - the Chassidic sex ads in the casual encounters section of Craigslist. Many of you may have even seen the Tefillin Date blog or tried to search for frum porn yourselves, either because you are truly interested in finding some hot women wearing nothing but sheitels, or you are a ...

Cousin Moishe's Thoughts On Your Upcoming Interfaith Wedding

Jewcy Staff — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:30:05 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

The following email was sent to Noah, a secular Jew about to marry his non-Jewish fiancee Sheila, by Noah's baal teshuvah cousin Moishe. By an odd and fortuitous chain of events, the email found its way to Jewcy HQ. The people in this exchange are all real but have had their names changed to protect the innocent - and the guilty. In other words, we could not have made this shit up if we tried. That includes the spelling and grammar errors. Subject: hi noah So I have some very bad news ...

Chagall in Postville

Eli Valley — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:00:52 -0600

By Eli Valley

Eli Valley has never been one to back down from a controversial viewpoint. In his new comic for Jewcy (complete with beautiful coloring/shading by our very own Craig Leinoff), Valley borrows from that other great Jewish artist, Chagall, to give you a unique perspective on the hubbub surrounding the AgriProcessors kosher abbatoir in Postville, Iowa. CLICK TO ENLARGE This article first appeared on December 5, 2008 and has been ...

28 Days, 28 Ideas: Idea #2

Patrick Aleph — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:24:46 -0600

By Patrick Aleph

During the month of February, six very different media outlets, with six different readerships (plus a major Jewish organization for good measure...and so no one gets hurt) have partnered to create aplatform and a mini-blog appropriately titled 28 Days, 28 Ideas to share some of the best ideas that we have heard from ourown segments of the Jewish bubble.The rat pack includes: JTA & The Fundermentalist, the Forward and its Sisterhood Blog, eJewish Philanthropy, Jewcy, Jewschool, the Jewish ...

Real Talk Parsha: Bo

Shais "MaNishtana" Rison — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:54:53 -0600

By Shais "MaNishtana" Rison

So, after Pharaoh's back and forth yo-yo game with Moses, Egypt gets hit with the last of the plagues, including Death of the Firstborn. Not sure if anyone realizes, but Death of the Firstborn is quite possibly the most devastating plague anybody can get hit with. And I say this not because of the obvious "death" part but because Death of the Firstborn is the plague that just keeps on giving: Maury: Welcome back. Now this is Imhotep and Anck-su-namun. Imhotep says that he ...

Jews and Germany: Why You Should Go, Even If It Makes Your Grandma Angry

Cori Chascione — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:49:04 -0600

By Cori Chascione

I got a lot of flack from family and friends about visiting Germany, but no one had any compelling reasons for me to reconsider-- other than 'this feeling' that it was somehow wrong for a Jew to set foot in the former Nazi-land. Their feelings, along with my own, weren't enough to quell my curiosity and in retrospect, I insist that my anti-pilgrimage was both worthwhile and a necessity. I'd never visited a concentration camp and the Sachsenhausen Camp, located just outside of Berlin, was one ...

Garfield Minus Garfield Plus God

Micah Kelber — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:38:10 -0600

By Micah Kelber

When Dubliner Dan Walsh removed Garfield from the classic Jim Davis cartoons, drawing attention to the peculiar life and mind of his owner Jon Arbuckle, he created an internet phenomenon which has drawn between 30,000 and 300,000 hits per day since February. Without the fat, waggish, sarcastic, star of the cartoon, all we are left with is Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner. Walsh would have us believe that this results in "an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and the ...

JEWCYEST WEEK EVER

Jewcy Staff — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:18:59 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

So after the Grammys last night (was T-Pain even singing?), we're all sitting around watching the media repeat itself, but before we could even wonder if Taylor Swift knows any Jews (answer: no), the conversation turned to clip shows. Turns out everyone LOVES clip shows like Best Week Ever. You know it's true. And then it hit us! We have a gargantuan website, filled with gems that never resurface. At least once a week, we stumble upon an old post while publishing something new that ...

Gary Shteyngart Becomes American

Jason Diamond — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:41:59 -0600

By Jason Diamond

Unless there is a secret pocket of Choctaw Indians that look at this site, I'm going on under the assumption that very few of us are actual "native Americans." And if I could go out on even more of a limb, I'm going to guess a big percentage of Jewcy readers can trace their bloodlines back to Eastern European places like (taking a total blind stab here) Russia, Romania, Poland, etc. While none of this is big news, it is part what essentially makes America great: we are a country ...

Claiming J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

Adam Chandler — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:38:13 -0600

By Adam Chandler

Let me get this little bit out of the way right now: Louis Menand of The New Yorker wrote the following about "The Catcher in the Rye" ten years ago and I don't think it's been said any better and I have the good fortune of being wise enough not to try to. “The Catcher in the Rye” is a sympathetic portrait of a boy who refuses to be socialized which has become (among certain readers, anyway, for it is still occasionally banned in conservative school districts) a ...

In Memory of Howard Zinn, an American and a Jew

Michael Furman — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:06:48 -0600

By Michael Furman

A close friend called me today and notified me of Howard Zinn's death. After a half hour of the requisite investigatory quest through the digital abyss, the news seemed to coalesce in my mind with the myriad headlines of the day. The modern information onslaught indeed seems malleable to me, over time becoming little more than a monstrosity of factoids. How the whole has become less than the sum of its parts. Over tea and thought, however, my knowledge of the good professor's ...

So Long, and Thanks for All the Gefilte Fish: Saying Goodbye

Lilit Marcus — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:34:51 -0600

By Lilit Marcus

A twentieth-century Eastern European writer who survived a variety of wars, movements, and renamings once said that he'd lived in five countries without ever leaving his house. During the fifteen months that I've been the editor of Jewcy, I've lived in several countries while always remaining in the same house. When I first started as the Editor of Jewcy, it was a for-profit enterprise with six other employees and a beautiful loft office in DUMBO. The following February, the company's initial ...

Now You Too Can Find Your Aryan Dreamgirl (Or Boy)

Jewcy Staff — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:21:27 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

Have you ever found yourself frustrated while swimming in the dating pools overt at Match and eHarmony? Have you ever spend days scouring JDate for your dreamgirl but turning up your nose at all the olive skin and dark hair? Well, it seems your unasked prayers have been answered - April Gaede, the mother of the adorable white pride singing act Prussian Blue, is now launching her very own Aryans-only dating service. Via the white power website Stormfront (Hey guys! It's been like a whole week ...

The Audacity of Hopelessness

Mia Rut — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:30:38 -0600

By Mia Rut

“Jobs must be our focus in 2010,” President Obama said last night to thunderous applause during his State of the Union address. “We can put Americans to work today to build the America of tomorrow.” Hope oozed out of his eloquent speech. But I had spent my morning at the local Unemployment Office in the office of a pasty Career Counselor whose doughy hands gripped my resume. “So what do you do?” With ten years' worth of work experience, I’ve run successful political ...

The Cynicism Behind Restoring Jewish Synagogues in Arab Countries

bataween — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:47:43 -0600

By bataween

Are we witnessing a new vogue in restoring Jewish sites in the Middle East? The renovated Maimonides synagogue in Cairo will be officially inaugurated in March to much fanfare. The Maghen Avraham Synagogue in the heart of Beirut is being rebuilt. Across Morocco and Tunisia, holy sites and synagogues are getting a facelift. What is going on? Nobody can pretend that these restored sites are ever going to be working synagogues. Like Hitler's project for a Jewish Museum in Prague, they are ...

5 Jazzy Jewesses You Should Be Listening To

Ayelet Rose Gottlieb — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:53:59 -0600

By Ayelet Rose Gottlieb

Some years fly by on the winds of routine, others swirl in wild storms that change your life, views, and perceptions. Then there are years in one's life in which the fruits of long labor begin to blossom, ripen and become ready to be picked and eaten by the world. This year, for me, is of the third kind. Shortly before Rosh Hashanah, my album Upto Here | From Here was released and distributed through Obliqsound. I recorded the album in 2006 with my NY based sextet, following several years ...

What Non-Jews May Think of Some Jewish Rituals

Heshy Fried — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:18:22 -0600

By Heshy Fried

There has been a lot of talk about the Tefillin bomb scare, and quite frankly, I understand where these people are coming from. Imagine some bearded individual whips out a strange device that looks like it could either be a weapon or something out of a BDSM party, and then starts mumbling to himself and swaying. Now imagine that he's in the middle of the amidah and he cannot talk. One of my roommates during Birthright thought that my tefillin were just straps to tie my arm in order to shoot ...

Mel Gibson Is Tired of Apologizing for Being a Big Ol' Antisemite

Jewcy Staff — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:58:13 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

Former Sexiest Man Alive Mel Gibson has gone through somewhat of a life crisis over the last few years. He divorced his longtime wife (and the mother of seven of his children) to knock up an aspiring singer from Russia. He also, perhaps more infamously, got pulled over for drunk driving in 2006 and launched into a tirade that involved antisemitic comments like "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" and calling a female police offer "sugartits." Now, with ...

We Are All Converts: Reviewing Shlomo Sand's "The Invention of the Jewish People"

Neal Ungerleider — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:03:55 -0600

By Neal Ungerleider

As these things go, Israeli and Jewish publications have been arguing furiously over a... history book. Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People alleges that a historical "Jewish people" does not exist and that the bulk of Jewry today descends from converts, rather than from the inhabitants of pre-Roman Judea. Sand, in writing the book, has placed himself in a proud tradition of Jewish contrarians. Given that us Jews are the most self-mythologizing and status-quo doubting ...

Jewish Fashion Designer Designs at a Price Point Even Bubbies Find Reasonable

Carrie Goldberg — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:23:02 -0600

By Carrie Goldberg

For all of us whose Jewish grandmothers have been poo-pooing how much we spend on clothing, stuffing dinner rolls in their purses to compensate for our supposed lack of fiscal responsibility - Zac Posen has come to the rescue, providing fashion-loving Jews and gentiles alike with his Zac Posen for Target line. If you've never heard of Posen, here's some Jewish geography for you, or as I like to call it, the Jewish version of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon": Natalie Portman is Zac's ...

More Information from Inside the "Tefillin Terrorist" Flight

Jewcy Staff — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:40:50 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

Last week, a flight from New York's LaGuardia airport going to Louisville, Kentucky was grounded in Philadelphia when a Jewish passenger wrapping tefillin was suspected of being a terrorist. Jewcy spoke briefly with "Caleb," a man who had been seated near the tefillin-wrapper on the plane. Now that he is no longer being questioned by the FBI, he gave us a more extended account of what happened on the flight: We landed with no announcement, so we assumed we were in Louisville, ...

American Jews Aren't Quite As Hated As Previously Thought

Lilit Marcus — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:38:22 -0600

By Lilit Marcus

In November, Gallup did a poll of 1,002 Americans, asking them their feelings on three "minority religions" - that would be the Muslims, the Buddhists, and us. This week, they released the findings. Among them: 71 percent report having a "positive" opinion about Jews, including 25 percent who have "very positive" opinions. (Does this remind anyone else of the bit on the final Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien where Steve Carell came out in character as Michael ...

G-d Is A Straight Line

Patrick Aleph — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:03:14 -0600

By Patrick Aleph

With all this talk about non-dual Judaism, whether or not Orthodoxy is the "true" Judaism that Progressive Jews are just too damn lazy or stupid to accept, or whether G-d even exists, I like to propose an idea. That G-d can be explained with a simple, straight line. Take a look at this image and ask yourself, "what is this?" It could be a letter: a lowercase "l" or an uppercase "I." It could be the number "1" or part of ...

Real Talk Parsha: Vaera

Shais "MaNishtana" Rison — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:31:49 -0600

By Shais "MaNishtana" Rison

I gotta tell you: Pharaoh is probably the worst person in the world to order lunch with. Or do anything with really. So Moses comes and is like "Dude, I'm gonna hit you with blood." Pharaoh's like "bet". Moses hits him with blood. Pharaoh's all like "Whoooa, this ish is real! Make it stop and imma let your people go." Moses makes the blood go away. Pharaoh's like "Nahh, not really though." Now take this and rinse, lather, and repeat for frogs, lice, ...

Iran, My Friend Marla, and $13 Million

Aaron Bisman — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:01:40 -0600

By Aaron Bisman

I re-met Marla Bennett at Pardes in 2001. We knew each other through friends as teenagers, but developed a relationship and shared a tight social circle during my Junior Year abroad in Jerusalem. After she and fellow Pardes-nik (and DJ) Ben Blutstein were killed in the Hebrew U bombing in July 2002, we were just getting JDub off the ground. We shifted gears and our first event was a memorial concert for them called Zachor, which raised $25K for scholarship funds in their memory at ...

Netanyahu Not Welcoming the Strangers (from Egypt!) Who Want to Do the Jobs No Israeli Wants to Do

David Kelsey — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:04:02 -0600

By David Kelsey

Sometimes it seems there is a disconnect between what American Jews believe is moral for Israel, and what they believe is moral for the U.S. YNET reports: "Infiltrators cause cultural, social and economic damage, and pull us towards the Third World," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Manufacturers Association assembly. "We suffer from a problem that actually stems from Israel's economic success," he said, explaining the problems that arise from the ...

The J-Diet

Carmela Machiato — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 -0600

By Carmela Machiato

Finding myself single yet again, I've realized it's time to focus on self-improvement. This means both, as my sister put it, "not dressing like a lazy hooker" and returning to my favorite diet so I can get back down to my goal dating weight of 110 pounds (just at the weight limit where I can still be checked in as baggage on domestic flights). Coming from a long line of giant fat people and a long history of a variety of eating disorders, it should come as no surprise that I ...

AJC Reality Check

Ben Cohen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:13:15 -0600

By Ben Cohen

Chutzpah, I know, but this post is a plug for a new internet TV show which I write and produce for the American Jewish Committee, Reality Check. Jewish organizations have long-had a reputation for being a bit stuffy and out of touch. Well, we're now embracing video; how well we've done so is up to you all to judge.

Why Many Jewish Outreach Workers Ignore Half-Jewish People

Robin Margolis — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:21:37 -0600

By Robin Margolis

Jewish outreach professionals complain constantly that younger Jews with two Jewish parents are bored with Judaism and are constantly wandering off to join Buddhist zendos and Hindu ashrams, conjuring up an image of disobedient and insolent young lambs scattering defiantly in all directions, proudly wearing nose rings, tattoos, and baaing defiantly at very expensive programs designed to lure them back into the Jewish communal sheep fold. I have assured Jewish outreach workers that many adult ...

Tip of the Week: Don't Fly While Being Jewish

Jewcy Staff — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:48:51 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

Another day, another purported terrorism scare at a New York City-area airport. Today, it's out of LaGuardia, where a flight to Louisville had to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia after a passenger's use of a religious item caused flight personnel to fear a bomb scare. What was that religious item, you may ask? Not a Koran, like you might guess. According to CBS, "a Jewish male removed a "tefillin" for prayer purposes after takeoff. The removal of the "religious ...

Chase Bank Will Have to Wait if Jewish Non-Profit Wins $1M

Jennie Rivlin Roberts — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:59:18 -0600

By Jennie Rivlin Roberts

If you are shomer shabbos and buy a Sweet Million lottery ticket, you can't check to see if you've won on Shabbat, right? Well, no big deal, because the chance of winning that lottery are about as good as an elephant showing up on your doorstep. Now imagine if your chance of winning 1 Million is 1 out of 5! That's what the Orthodox folks at Friendship Circle are facing. This non-profit that helps special needs kids is in the top five to win the Chase Community Giveaway of 1 Million dollars. ...

Jews and Plastic Surgery

Mae Singerman — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:33:12 -0600

By Mae Singerman

Three weeks ago, I wrote about the Matzah Ball, the “revolutionary” Jewish singles party on Christmas Eve, a.k.a the sleaziest Jewish-themed event I’ve ever been to. At the Matzah Ball, as I wrote, there was a table offering plastic surgery advice and coupons. Yesterday, after I had finally got the grime of the event off of my skin, I got a call from the plastic surgery clinic that the organizers of the Matzah Ball had given my contact information to. (WTF Matzah Ball organizers?) ...

Boyz II Men Singer Is Black Hebrew...Oh, and a Bigamist

Jewcy Staff — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:51:15 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

Remember Boyz II Men? I do, and I also remember dancing to "End of the Road" at a middle school dance, which is making me feel really old. Anyway, one of their members, Shawn Stockman, has been outed on a gossip site as being a bigamist. Well, not a real bigamist - he's only legally married to one woman, but he was "spiritually married" to another woman for nine years. Apparently it's cool because Shawn is an Israelite and they believe in polygamy. Wait, what? For those ...

Everything Is G-d, and Nothing Makes A Lot of Sense

D. J. Waletzky — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:39:08 -0600

By D. J. Waletzky

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?" - Western sage Steven Wright Anyone involved in new age spiritual Judaic practice has probably heard of Jay Michaelson; his influence extends to books, articles, publications, spiritual retreats, speaking tours and the like. He was even recently named as one of the Forward 50, an annual list of important and influential Jewish figures in America. In Everything is God, his magnum opus on the nondualistic Judaism Michaelson ...

An Ode to Jewish New York

Jewcy Staff — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:33:49 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

If you're a fan of the New York Yankees, enjoy rap music, or own a radio, you've probably heard Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" about a million times. The hit single, which features Alicia Keys singing the hook, has already been bandied about as a modern replacement for Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" as the Big Apple's unofficial anthem. However, comedian Billy Eichner thought that the song left out some elements of the New York City he grew up in - specifically, the ...

Marc Jacobs Introduces ... Hitler's Handbag?

Carrie Goldberg — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:03:27 -0600

By Carrie Goldberg

Designers often credit the music they listen to as the inspiration for their collections. Clearly Marc Jacobs is into showtunes - The Producers' tune "Springtime for Hitler" has never been illustrated in fashion more vividly than in Jacobs' Fluo Passementary Lily Hobo Bag from his SS10 accessories collection. You do not need to be a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor or a genius to look at this fashion accessory and see a swastika there. Marc Jacobs currently has a hand in ...

Music, History, and How I Found My Jewish Voice

Clare Burson — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:07:16 -0600

By Clare Burson

My name is Clare Burson. I write songs, sing, and play the guitar and the violin. I have independently released 2 full length albums of my own material and am preparing to release the third on Rounder Records sometime this spring. My music has been described as "world-weary like Lucinda Williams', expressive like Kathleen Edwards', mysterious like Jolie Holland's." I grew up in Tennessee and currently live in Brooklyn, NY. From March 2007 until March 2009 I was a Six ...

IDF Puts Terrorism on the Back Burner to Target Supermodel

Carrie Goldberg — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:34:08 -0600

By Carrie Goldberg

Haaretz reported this morning that the Israeli Defense Force's Major General Avi Zamir has recently declared his lastest target: supermodel and Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover girl Bar Refaeli. At a lecture he gave at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Zamir explained his frustration at not being able to punish Refaeli for supposedly avoiding her mandatory army service by marrying an older man believed to be a family friend. At the time of their quickie wedding Bar was 18, ...

Duck Bacon Three-Way

Mia Rut — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:00:16 -0600

By Mia Rut

The first time I tried it, I was in a group. The second time, it was with a married man. The last time, I was alone and loved every minute of it. It had started while I was doing my shift at my local food co-op when the seasoned staffer asked for a volunteer to stock the meat cooler. I figured I could handle meat, so I jumped right in. As the burly bearded man told me what we had to put out, he got an excited twinkle in his when he breathed, “oh, and we have duck bacon ...

Orthodox Union Poll Bolsters Need to Keep Baalei Teshuvah Poor

David Kelsey — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:00:00 -0600

By David Kelsey

I have long railed against the Orthodox Union and its double-headed outreach group, NCSY and the JSU, for funneling public school teens to haredi places whose trajectories, if followed properly, will lead the indoctrinated to poverty. The problem is that the Orthodox, even the Modern Orthodox, do not see that as a problem. From their P.O.V., they may be correct. In regards to a new national survey, the OU declared, Baalei teshuva, those who do not grow up religiously observant ...

The Latest Round-up of Awesome Jimmy Carter Apology News

Adam Chandler — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:23:16 -0600

By Adam Chandler

For those of you keeping track at home, the Jimmy Carter Apology Express has NOT been met at the station by the always apoplectic ZOA (Zionist Organization of America). Jimmy Carter (former U.S. President, peanut enthusiast, and erotica writer), in an oddly-timed pre-Christmas apology to American Jews, offered his belated Al-Het for "stigmatizing Israel" over the years. The gesture was met with both reluctant acceptance by Jewish organizations needing to appear magnanimous (see: ...

Hitler Takes a Side in Leno/Conan Feud

Jewcy Staff — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:07:11 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

So, like the rest of the country, we here at Jewcy HQ have been following the huge moral dilemma that is Conan O'Brien vs Jay Leno (our office is Team Conan, as if there were any doubt). However, we couldn't declare a victor without the most hated figure of the 20th century weighing in. That's right, ladies and gents, Adolf Hitler has officially come down on one side of the debate. Watch and learn: Update: It turns out that the director of ...

Would You Rather Be Gay in Uganda or Israel?

Adam Fox — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:36:13 -0600

By Adam Fox

Until about a week ago, the last time anyone thought about Uganda was either (1) never or (2) to convey a generic far away place that you would never want to visit. It's sort of like saying Timbuktu but sounds way smarter. Now, in a fiery fit of gay rage, the relatively tiny nation (roughly the size of Michigan) has attempted to compensate for its small size by stirring up homophobic hubbub. It's already a world leader in illiteracy - desiring to become part of a not-so-secret society of ...

Video: How Tel Aviv Was Born

Jewcy Staff — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:09:38 -0600

By Jewcy Staff

Ever wondered how the Tel Aviv we know now - high rise buildings, awesome beaches, ritzy hotels - looked a hundred years ago? Well, thanks to this awesome video from Liron Damir, you can get a sense of how Tel Aviv evolved. This is one of the coolest, and best-looking, videos we've seen in quite some time. Tel-Aviv-Jaffa from Liron Damir on Vimeo.

Natalie Portman: Pacifist Vegan Jew

Michael Croland — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:40:32 -0600

By Michael Croland

For the second time in the past year, I tracked down Natalie Portman at a public appearance in New York City and asked her about connections between her Jewish faith and her vegan diet. After the world's most famous Jewish vegan took the topic in a different direction in April, I asked her a much more direct question as part of The New York Times' Arts & Leisure Weekend on Saturday night. While performing my journalistic duty as a Jewish-vegan blogger, I learned several fascinating ...

Israeli Politicians Would Like Their Pastries Back

Neal Ungerleider — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:02:17 -0600

By Neal Ungerleider

Israel's top politicians are up in arms after the catering for cabinet meetings was switched for healthy cuisine. Starting this week, pastries and cakes were removed from the menu at daily conferences: Government ministers were shocked last Sunday to discover that their usual cabinet meeting breakfast of burekas puff pastries, rugelach and croissants was replaced with granola, vegetables and yogurts. Juices were also replaced for water. The person responsible for the new diet, ...