This photo: inspired Liverpool's RESPECTacles Project. In November, Liverpool was chosen to hold England's national Yom HaShoah observance, led by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. So Liverpool decided upon the RESPECTacles Project, a result of a collaboration between the Liverpool Town Hall and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

The project was inspired by a photo of a pile of damaged glasses worn by Shoah victims, which will be on display from January 21st through 26th in Liverpool. According to the Liverpool city website:

The unique project wants to put across the message that all individuals, particularly our young people, can play their part in genocide prevention simply by having, showing and insisting upon RESPECT for other human beings and for their differences.

Danny Radcliffe (Harry Potter) gave a pair, along with his costar Jason Issacs, who will be taking part in the services held on Yom HaShoah at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall on January 27th. Jerry Springer gave a pair, too, along with Yoko Ono, Stephen Fry, Paul O’Grady and Ronnie Corbett. (Elton John? I'm looking in your direction. Ahem. Glasses? Hi?)

On Liverpool City Council's website, there is still a call out for donations of glasses, sun and non. Eyewear donors are invited to label their glasses with a name in honor or memorial, as well. No specifics are given on donating by mail from stateside, but there is a bit of contact info (scroll about midway down) on their site, including a name and phone number, and I'm sure there's still time to coordinate something if you have old specs to give.  After Yom HaShoah, all glasses will be donated to Vision Aid Overseas, which aids people in obtaining much-needed prescription glasses in developing countries.

Jewish Living: Awesome Martheleh goodness or feminist party foul?I'll probably read this. I mean, I am mostly in the demographic, it covers stuff I am into, but... what is it that's got my knickers in a twist? Is it that Heeb is selling itself short? Is it that I feel like I'm being told I'm too old to play with Heeb and that it's time to grow-up and read something more grown up? Is it that Martha, while her subscriber base probably is largely female, I can't say I've heard her ever specifically address her readership as female? Is it that I'm not too keen on the hearth and home magazines being addressed to me (I'm pretty sure that like that sort of thing because I like it, not because I'm female, etc.)? All of the above?

In any case, here's what's up. Ex-ad exec Daniel Zimmerman is set to launch Jewish Living magazine next week, a "thoroughly modern magazine" that covers the "Jewish home, family and cultural life":

The bimonthly magazine, boasting "How-To" features on Chanukah parties, Friday night diners and something entitled "Stop Coddling Your Kids", will launch with a rate base of 100,000-- part newsstand, part pre-launch subscriptions sold to Jewish associations-- targeting Jewish professional women ages 25-34 with a median household income of over $125,000.

(Full story from Folio)

So, maybe I'm iddly because it's dangerously close to promoting itself as the reader for the second-shift syndrome (when both parties of a couple are employed, and one, usually female, assumes the household responsibilities, or the bulk thereof)...? Would I feel differently if it billed itself as being aimed at Jewish professionals, rather than Jewish professional women? Or, am I coming to the table with a a notion of what women's magazines are and assuming this is just a Jewish Redbook? (Oy, can you imagine?) I mean, maybe it's a Jewish Bitch or Jewish Bust? Right, that would be cool. I could dig that.

Eh well, I have to reserve judgment until I've read it, to be fair. And, I will read it. And, maybe I'll keep a copy of it next to my copy of Heeb and read them both.

I'm not too old to read Heeb, right?

Jewish Living Magazine has just released their list of "Hip Hebraic Homepages" and tipped me off once the list was ready. For reasons quite obvious once you reach the end (kvell, kvell, kvell), I just had to share. Taken straight from Jewish Living:

SHUL OF ROCK

www.jewsrock.org Chaim Witz, Perry Bernstein, Jeffrey Hyman. Half the fun of Jewsrock is finding out the given names of pop icons like Gene Simmons, Perry Farrell, and Joey Ramone, respectively. You can also tour the rock ’n’ roll “Challah Fame” or take the “Jew or Not?” quiz. Between the lines, there’s a serious message about pride in Jewish accomplishments, and a dedication to smashing my-son-the-dentist stereotypes. Alas, the Web site appears to have gone static, but is no less rockin’ for it

KOSHER COMEDY

www.bangitout.com When a site bills itself as “kosher comedy for the circumcised,” expect few sacred cows. Part gimlet-eyed news digest, part Onion-like satire, and part self-tweaking Jewish social club, BangItOut mashes raucous headlines (“New Book Helps Rabbis Stay Away From Hot Widows”), amusing photos (the Barbie menorah is a favorite), and see-it-to-believe-it videos (don’t miss the hilarious “jPhone” commercial). As their site promises, “If something’s funny and Jewish on the Internet, it’s either on here or linked from here.”

COME ON, FEEL THE “OYS”

www.klezmershack.com As this site points out, “klezmer is a popular music form that is no longer exclusively Jewish.” Likewise, KlezmerShack isn’t just about klezmer anymore; it’s blossomed into a one-stop shop for news about Jewish music, hot cultural events worldwide, reviews, even music videos grabbed from YouTube (you haven’t lived until you’ve heard “A Hard Day’s Night” in Yiddish). Webmaster Ari Davidow—an online strategist for a Jewish nonprofit by day—oversees the festivities with charm, wit, and infectious joy.

COOLEST JEWISH RECORD LABEL ON EARTH

www.jdubrecords.org If your knowledge of Jewish music stretches from “Hava Nagila” to… “Hava Nagila,” expand your horizons at the online home of JDub, the coolest Jewish record label on the planet. You’ll impress your kids with casual references to ultrahip bands like Golem, Balkan Beat Box, Socalled, and the LeeVees. Then the whole family can download inimitable JDub videos and songs (like all four segments of Socalled’s mystical sci-fi, hip-hop Claymation opus “500-Pound Planet”). Who says parents and kids can’t agree on music?

SCHMOOZE, SHVITZ, SHOP

 www.jewcy.com What began as a retailer of risqué rags (the “Chai Maintenance” T-shirt was a fave) has become the center of Jewish hipsterism’s new wave. The shirts are still there, but so is smart original reporting and opinion, a vibrant social network, and much discussed blogs such as “The Daily Shvitz” and “Faithhacker.” Brains, attitude, and sheer chutzpah make Jewcy a daily must-read.

 Good Shabbes, all. Mwah.

Seasonal hazard: Beware Barbie assaultsI can't believe I'm about to say this, but I, Amy Guth, a Jewish woman, kind of support the keep-the-Christ-in-Christmas bullshit. I think. Wait, no. I don't. No, I do. Sort of.

Oy.

Anyway, some other Jews and a few Muslims are with me on this. For them, it's about keeping religion in the public sphere—rather than banning Santa, they want to see their local mall decorate for Christmas and Eid and Rosh HaShanah. For me, it's more because year after year, I see parking lots fill up, I see people quite literally freaking out as they shop, I see people feeling crabby and shitty and taking off of work to finish their shopping. I see stores open as early as 4 AN=M (!) so frantic shoppers can get their massive shopping finished. I read statistics about a family of four spending an average of $1,800/year (and climbing) on the holiday each year.

And it's kind of gross to me. I'm not a Christian, so although it's not my problem, I do feel obligated as a human being to at least consider the things I see pushing people to their emotional limits year after year. Especially when two fighting shoppers nearly hit me in the face with the last Barbie doll in Target.

So, despite my tendency to react to fundamentalist evangelist types with "Oy, what a short-sighted, narrow-minded thing to say!" I think the KTCIC campaign might be not the worst idea.

First, it could cut down on materialism, crabbiness and hyper-consumerism by refocusing the celebration on its origin. Gifts are great, but do they have to be so excessive and huge? Maybe focus on family time, the pretty winter scenery, the sparkly decorations, the meals, the parties, etc.

Watch out: Christmas shoppers are out in droves, and generally pissed off. Secondly—and this one would be bound to cause a huge stir if I walked around saying it to Christmas-celebrators—secondly, if it was focused on the person Christmas is actually about, the people celebrating Christmas would actually be Christians. The secularists would maybe make their own thing: Winter Solstice or something along these lines. If you like celebrating Christmas because you enjoy the sparkly lights and winter stuff, you should celebrate the crap out of lights and winter.

But then, I have a Christmas-observing friend who considers Jesus a mere metaphor, a representation of the lives of different Pharisees, and so celebrates this metaphor as a reminder of living peacefully, but doesn't feel like there's any dude behind any of it, or that there is any reason to call anyone a savior. Just like I know Jews who don't feel terribly connected to the Torah, but observe Pesach as a metaphor for freedom from metaphorical slavery to various things and people. It's somewhat largely about semantics, sure, and semantics that don't apply to me at all (in the case of Christmas), but again, when you nearly get clobbered by a Barbie-as-weapon, you can't help but feel inclined to at least riff on it.

I've been asking fellow Jews what they think about all of this, and I'm really surprised that it's elicitedsuch strong opinions—not even healthy banter, but full-on "I'm so glad you asked because..." monologues.

So here's the can of worms: Do I, do you, think it is OK to secularly celebrate any holiday with religious origin? Sort of. Maybe. Not really. Sort of. (I don't mean for secular Jews to celebrate a secular Christmas, that's a whole other issue. I mean secular Jews celebrating religious Jewish holidays secularly, secular Christians celebrating Christian holidays secularly, etc.) Maybe what I'm really driving at is that we could all use a little dose of the "if you're going to do it, mean it" as applied to a lot of things...?

But then the thought of a public school or the White House filled with religious Christmas decor like a manger or whatnot makes me itchy. I'd be uncomfortable if my kids were going to school with a manger up in their grills. And then we sort of branch off into the Merry Christmas v. Happy Holidays issue in retail (I have an upcoming post on that later—hold tight.) This whole thing a complex issue, one that certainly isn't black and white, but one that even as a Chanukah-celebrator, I can't help but consider and discuss with other non-Christmas celebrators, since we're all at risk of getting hit in the face by a Barbie doll. Discuss.

(Please note: This post was written pre-Shabbes. An unfortunate area blackout of internet access prevented it from being posted.)

Today at Limmud, nothing has happened yet -- well, it's 7:30 in the morning and my rabbi from yeshiva just pounded on my door to wake me up, but I asked him to, and now I'm iChatting to my wife and her big expectant belly. It kicks when I talk to it -- and I am feeling uncomfortably like our friend George Weinberg (of John Saffran vs. God fame, if you're Australian -- but, if you're Australian, you probably know George Weinberg anyway), who travels a lot and, when he is home, his daughter runs to the computer video camera to talk to him.

Last night, I hopped between two events -- one of the difficulties of an event like this, where at any given moment you could be having six completely different life-changing experiences. At 11pm was the Y-Love show, featuring guest M.C. Daniel Silverstein (of the band Emunah, until 2 nights ago) and about a zillion screaming girls, and upstairs, as far removed as you could get, was a crowd of people sitting in a nearly-dark room, surrounding Rabbi Raz Hartmann, who was teaching nigguns, wordless Chasidic melodies, and then, between them, giving over tidbits of Rebbe Nachman teachings. Like, for instance, did you know that it was traditional for prophets to not give over prophecies without accompaniment? There's one part of Prophets where someone is literally, like, "Fetch my backing band -- I need to prophecize." And then, like Sarah Silverman, they pop up, ready for a jingle-perfect tune about....well, no, probably not about *that.*

San Diego Jews could use a hand.

As the wildfires burn in Southern California, hundreds of thousands of San Diego County residents have had to evacuate. And, not-surprisingly, Chabad-Lubavitch representatives mobilized immediately. Removing the Torah scrolls, backing up their computer files, and printing out community member lists, the Shluchim at over a dozen Chabad centers in the city immediately went to work ensuring that every person appearing on their community list was accounted for.

Four centers were initially designated shelters as safety permitted, with information posted on Chabad San Diego's websites for anyone needing help, each of which made food and shelter available as needed. Chabad's website reports that around 4:30am Monday morning, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, Chabad rep to Chabad of Poway, grabbed his community list and began going door-to-door to help his community evacuate. Many had no idea how bad the situation had become. “They thought I was coming to fetch them for morning services,” he said.

San Diego, CA: Jewish organizations have set up communal funds to help families and individuals displaced by area fires. But, funds can't fund themselves, yo.

Goldstein, who is also Chaplain with the Sherrif’s Department, said to Chabad.org, “When they left, they saw the flames advancing, and many are frantic that their homes were destroyed. They are desperate to know what has happened to their homes." (For information on relief efforts in Rancho Bernado/Poway, click here.)

The Lawrence Family JCC in La Jolla is among the area Jewish facilities that have been evacuated. Over one hundred residents of the Jewish Sea Crest retirement village were evacuated Monday night, as well. Though the San Diego Jewish Federation is out of the fire zones and not in any danger, many of its employees have been evacuated from their homes and are not at work. It is not known if any of the area's synagogues have been damaged, but a number are, apparently, in fire zones.

Jewish communal leaders in San Diego County held a conference call Tuesday to discuss the situation, however, in the meantime, The Jewish Federation, the Jewish Community Foundation and the Jewish Family Service of San Diego have set up the Jewish Community Disaster Fund to help assist with relief.

Information on donations can be found at Jewish San Diego. To locate any Chabad representatives in San Diego, click here.

(I'm an oft-multi-tasking dumb-ass, and failed to save this post, written prior to Shabbes, properly, so we'll operate in the better-late-than-ever/glad-I-decided-to-work-on-Sunday mindset, yes? Great. In any case, I beg your pardon.)

In November, I remember reading about a Jewish cemetery near Baltimore getting vandalized and thinking, "What if surviving relatives can't afford to restore the headstones?" and only paragraphs later reading a spokesperson's statement:

For gravestones that cannot be traced to a family, Mr. Cohn said the congregation will likely absorb the cost of repair, which he said will be about $125 per stone. He said the cemetery – which likely dates back to the mid-19th century, according to the congregation—is not insured for vandalism, and perpetual care only covers the upkeep of the grounds.

“Morally and ethically, it’s our responsibility. But legally, it’s not. Families will have to pay for it, and we feel very, very bad about this,” said Mr. Cohn, who noted that the congregation plans to install high-intensity lighting at the cemetery. “It will cost us, it will cost the families, and we’ll absorb what we can. But it’s limited. Where are the funds? It’s not like, bingo, we have the funds.”

If you want to fuck with me: then fuck with me. Not dead people.On Jan 1st, a Jewish cemetery back east in New Brunswick, NJ was vandalized, and I quickly found mention of a restoration fund in an article reporting the arrest of the teenagers responsible for the damage.

About a week ago, here in Chicago where I live, someone, or a group of someones probably, broke onto the grounds of Westlawn Jewish cemetery and vandalized gravestones with swastikas, line-slashed Magen David symbols, threats, slogans... the usual hate graffiti schtick.

Anyway, the price tag on getting things back in order is estimated to be between $100,000 and $150,000 and thought there are some unclear bits of information floating around here, it seems that the financial responsibility is falling upon surviving families. I haven't heard anything official from the JUF, as far as funds being used to offset their expenses, but I'm sure it's either forthcoming, or I've just yet to track it down. In any case, the cost is going to be considerable, every bit will surely count, and my feeling is that because hate against some of us is hate against all of us, and so responsibility also falls equally.

I'm sure earmarked donations would be welcome here:

Westlawn Cemetery and Mausoleum (Vicki Pulido, General Manager), 7801 W. Montrose Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60706
(773) 625-8600

 

Torah 2.0: Should we make a bracha for downloading a Torah widget?You know Chabad has a Facebook application, yes? Rabbi Moshe Plotkin of the New Paltz, NY Chabad, who made the Facebook application, has turned to the open system being used by Google. Yep, you can add a Torah Widget to your Google Desktop and iGoogle pages. The widget, which I added on both my Google and my Facebook pages, contains Torah odds and ends for study and links to the weekly pasha. Viral Torah. Discuss.

Widgipedia has a few similar widgetot, as well, and then there is Digi.Torah (note the website boasts access to the "Holly Book of Torah"), and a favorite of mine, the HebCal widget for Mac.

Totally kosher: How cute is this little Hebraic rebel? If it seems like everyone and their great aunt has a fairy tattooed on their lower back, and if you're thinking of joining the crowd, check out the article in today's New York Times about the newish trend of people paying big bucks for elaborate temporary tattoos. Apparently the temp variety has gone all mainstream. The very end of the article quotes Michael Benjamin, the president of Temptu, a New York supplier of mock tattoos and body paints, saying "I get to be a nice Jewish boy who looks tough."

Temporary tattoos have been a part of Jewish life for centuries, especially in communities from North Africa and the Middle East. Intricate henna designs and henna ceremonies are common for people who are engaged. Hennapedia gives a nice summary of how henna is used in Kurdish Jewish tradition, and you can look at pictures from tons of henna ceremonies at onlysimchas.

It's a short journey from the rise of temporary tattoos to someone saying that if you have a tattoo you can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery. We've actually already covered that on Faithhacker before, but just to review, while permanent tattoos are specifically prohibited in the Torah, having one doesn't preclude your ability to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. In other words, they're definitely a no-no, but if you've got one, you can definitely be buried near your family, and fully participate in all synagogue rituals.

But now that there's rad fake tattoos, why get caught up in the real thing? May I suggest a big Jewcy tattoo on your left butt cheek?

Israeli Sex Trade: Hooters, teachers for brides-to-be, lesbian parents and, uh, vaginoplasty. Discuss.What about news of a Hooters in Israel? (I can't help but to wonder if there has ever been a battle of altering the uniform to conform to religious modesty mandates? I mean, if a woman is a qualified applicant, or say she is an employee who then decides to become more.. covered... wouldn't the company legally have to give her wiggle room? I wonder if that's ever come up for them? Sure, working at hooters probably wouldn't be on your list of things to do if you were concerned with such matters, but again, what if someone was already working at such a place and then decided...? yes, yes, modestly is more than just attire, it's situational and behavioral, too, but I just wonder. Anyway: Hooters. Covering. Discuss.) What are our thoughts on JOFA's class teaching teachers of brides-to-be about sex? Of course, you caught Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs chairman Michael Nudelman being called upon to do something for immigrants pushed into the sex trade, too. A lesbian couple is getting recognized as co-mama and co-mama, while the IDF Rabbi is pissed about women in combat. Uh, and some Israeli physicians are interested in bringing the labiaplasty and vaginoplasty to Eretz Yisroel. Ew, ouch and ew.

 

Man, I forgot all about this guy's song. Well, let's dust it off and enjoy it another year, even if it is a day late. (And, on a related note, hit Tamar's post that ponders our actions on Christmas and Easter.)

Michael sent me a link to this fascinating article in the NY Times about how the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is a complicated and basically isolated market with different rules and standards than secular Israeli society.
Your Phone Is Ringing: Don't worry--it's kosher

A Modern Marketplace for Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — When Larry Pinczower switches on his cellphone, the seal of a rabbinate council appears. Unable to send text messages, take photographs or connect to the Internet, his phone is a religiously approved adaptation to modernity by the ultra-Orthodox sector of Israeli life.

More than 10,000 numbers for phone sex, dating services and the like are blocked, and rabbinical overseers ensure that the lists are up to date. Calls to other kosher phones are less than 2 cents a minute, compared with 9.5 cents for normal phones. But on the Sabbath any call costs $2.44 a minute, a steep religious penalty.

“You pay less and you’re playing by the rules,” Mr. Pinczower, 39, said. “You’re using technology but in a way that maintains religious integrity.”

A community of at least 800,000 people — out of 5.4 million Jews living in Israel, a country of 7.1 million — the ultra-Orthodox, though comparatively poor, form a distinct, growing and important market, and Israeli companies are paying attention. While there are rabbinical strictures against watching television, using computers for leisure, immodest attire and unsupervised mixing of men and women, the Israeli market economy has adjusted in creative and surprising ways.

Full story

The article treats the idea of a separate market for a religious group like it’s incredibly novel, but of course there’s plenty of it here in America. Veggie Tales are for evangelical kids, and there are Muslim cell phones. Communities with particular or unusual needs are generally able to command a small market of their own. To me, this article seems to be more about religious intolerance within the frum community than anything else. There’s a whole section about how psycho people are in Ramat Beit Shemesh B and we have heard this before.  Instead of marveling at how much toilet paper frum people buy, how about trying to figure out a way of dealing with haredim who will throw hot oil on a man trying to run a kosher pizza restaurant? Just saying.

Though they often behave like godless heathens, the stars are "just like us," as the old saying goes. They, too, search for divinity and meaning in their lives--a quest that can sometimes lead to trouble. The latest spiritual superstar pitfalls:

• Cruise: he's number 2Madonna has been accused of using her charity, Raising Malawi, as a front to raise funds for the Kabbalah Center. Her reps are calling said accusations "outrageous, incorrect, inaccurate, hurtful and malicious."

• The internet is all a-twitter with rumors of Britney's possible conversion to Islam.

• Soccer star Kaka, Fifa "World Player of the Year," may be in some hot water due to his ties to an apparently corrupt evangelical church.
  

• Andrew Morton, author of the unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise, which paints him as "Scientology’s de facto second in command," is standing by his book despite threats of legal action. It's in bookstores today.

• Better yet, check out Cruise's terrifying Scientology Indoctrination Vid, over at Gawker.

Last week the NY Times ran an article about how Megachurches are getting so big that they're doing things like buying shopping centers, which is fine, except when a church owns a store that makes money there's a question about whether they have to pay taxes on that property. Here's an excerpt from the article:Death, Taxes: and Megachurches?

Among the nation's so-called megachurches - those usually Protestant congregations with average weekly attendance of 2,000 or more - ChangePoint's appetite for expansion into many kinds of businesses is hardly unique. An analysis by The New York Times of the online public records of just over 1,300 of these giant churches shows that their business interests are as varied as basketball schools, aviation subsidiaries, investment partnerships and a limousine service.

At least 10 own and operate shopping centers, and some financially formidable congregations are adding residential developments to their holdings. In one such elaborate project, LifeBridge Christian Church, near Longmont, Colo., plans a 313-acre development of upscale homes, retail and office space, a sports arena, housing for the elderly and church buildings.

Indeed, some huge churches, already politically influential, are becoming catalysts for local economic development, challenging a conventional view that churches drain a town financially by generating lower-paid jobs, taking land off the property-tax rolls and increasing traffic.

But the entrepreneurial activities of churches pose questions for their communities that do not arise with secular development.

These enterprises, whose sponsoring churches benefit from a variety of tax breaks and regulatory exemptions given to religious organizations in this country, sometimes provoke complaints from for-profit businesses with which they compete - as ChangePoint's new sports center has in Anchorage.

Mixed-use projects, like shopping centers that also include church buildings, can make it difficult to determine what constitutes tax-exempt ministry work, which is granted exemptions from property and unemployment taxes, and what is taxable commerce.

And when these ventures succeed - when local amenities like shops, sports centers, theaters and clinics are all provided in church-run settings and employ mostly church members - people of other faiths may feel shut out of a significant part of a town's life, some religion scholars said.

I was reading this trying to think about whether I would feel comfortable working out at a gym that was owned by a church, and I don't think I would. In fact, I know I wouldn't. Later on in the article there's a point where a business manager at one of the big churches owns up to the church's motives:

Mr. Rieder, the church business manager, paused when asked whether people of other faiths would have felt comfortable at the event.

"We try not to discriminate in doing community service," he said. "There are Muslims and other non-Christians here, of course. And we do want to convert them, no doubt about it - that's our mission. We don't discriminate, but we do evangelize."

The same quandary confronts Pastor Clauson in Anchorage. "There is nothing inherently alienating about what we're doing economically," he said. "An Orthodox Jewish youngster or a conservative Muslim child encountering our programs would find zero intimidation."

Nor does he want his community to become divided along religious lines, he said. But at the same time, "we definitely want to use these efforts as an open door to the entity that we feel is the author and creator of abundant life - Jesus."

He added, "It's a tough balancing act."

Emphasis mine. Full Story

I can tell you right now I would never set foot in a mall or a sports complex that let me know I was going to get the Jesus spiel along with my purchases or basketball game.

This is a complicated issue on the tax front, and also on the ethical front. What happens when a church dominates the fitness scene in one town? Or owns the mall, or the movie theater? Would you shop there? And does the Starbucks that the church brought in need to pay taxes?

I know that Megachurches have been a good thing in a lot of ways, but this scares the shit out of me.

Die Laughing: the Suharto wayFormer Indonesian dictator Suharto is finally dead, leaving behind a legacy of ethnic and political persecution and genocide. Estimates on the number of Communists, activists, political opponents, and ethnic Chinese killed under his rule range from hundreds of thousands to millions, and Suharto died accused of embezzling more than any other world leader in history: An estimated $15-$35 billion over three decades. The Economist says that in death, Suharto cheated justice.

Coincidentally, Suharto died on the UK's Holocaust Memorial Day, which marks the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of Auschwitz-Birkenau and aims to prompt British action on behalf of all persecuted peoples.

One Briton who has been prompted into action is Prince Charles himself. More news out of England has the press throwing a royal fit over Prince Charles' decision not to attend the Beijing Olympics. Though no reason was officially cited, it's safe to assume that the Prince's longstanding support of Tibet and the Dalai Lama has something to do with it.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Kenya is soaring as the country's ethnic and political crisis continues to worsen. Atrocities being perpetrated in the mob violence include forced circumcisions on Luos by Kikuyus. A New York Times article quoted one Kenyan woman as saying, "God made all of us. We need his help."

Finally, a Sikh couple in France are founding their own school to skirt the pesky turban ban, which went into effect in French state schools in 2004. Gurdial Singh says, "It would be a huge campus with schools, colleges and a university, imparting both professional and general education without any ban on anybody's religious dress or something that exhibits one's religious affiliation." Sounds idyllic to me.

Previous: Germany supports Chinese oppression of Tibet

MCS: For reals, yo.I'm just hearing about this, but yesterday in the Canadian Jewish News, Avrum Rosenweig printed a letter written in response to his last couple of days of blog posts written about a Jewish Canadian woman suffering from MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) who has become homeless and is living in her car. Right? What? Did you hear about this? Here is the initial blog post, followed by the second and finally, her letter of response below. Rosenweig noted in his article, as I will also note in this post, that this woman still needs support and assistance. Personally undereducated in matters of MCS (though I will begin looking around right away) and not entirely sure how much help she still needs, I haven't the foggiest idea where to begin to help her, though I'm sure some of you do. All I know is that it's really fucking cold in Canada and surely a car is no place to survive a Canadian winter. Just after some people came forward to assist her, she wrote:

For the past year and a half, I, a Jewish woman with MCS, have struggled to survive in my car. This experience has shaken the very foundation of my belief in a good and loving God.

This summer, however, a dedicated doctor referred me to another caring doctor. He in turn put me in touch with Ve’ahavta [the Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and Relief Committee], namely Avrum.

After exhausting all potential helping avenues, I reached out to catch this last lifeline. Given my disappointment and frustration with our health care and social services, I agreed to yield my fate to members of my Jewish community.

After the articles about my situation appeared in The CJN, I cannot tell you how touched I was by the generosity of spirit and the genuine compassion of the newspaper’s readers. Given the criticism I have received and others’ judgmental attitudes, as well as the rejection, abandonment and alienation I experienced subsequent to the onset of MCS, the response of well-wishers, creative problem solving and the offer of financial assistance was a breath of fresh air.

So often people make good economic investments without a second thought. They know, based on personal intuition and/or business acumen, that the returns will be most satisfying. These past few weeks, however, I am pleased to say I have witnessed generosity beyond any rational comprehension. (This is not to discount the support of a few dear friends; a special aunt and efforts by family members).

A number of readers have suggested feasible ways for me to renew my hope to live a normal life once again. Collectively, they have begun to offer me the potential of securing shelter and money to facilitate the costly transition from my car to that of a safe and secure home, and they have referred me to a professional who specializes in the treatment of MCS.

All of these special fellow Jews, and others, have moved me in a way that is really beyond words. But since words are the only medium available to me to express this gratitude, I have put pen to paper. These angels have invested in a human life – my life.

They don’t know it yet, but by doing so they have invested in the Jewish community at large. With my renewed health, I aspire to continue the efforts to ameliorate the lives of others living with MCS.

I plan to establish an MCS support group, and later I hope to lobby for a pilot residential environment geared exclusively to the needs of those tormented by MCS.

Honestly, one would be hard-pressed to identify a better way to invest their money. After all is said and done, material things come and go. Love, compassion, kindness, pride, faith and hope endure for a lifetime and then some. To those readers who gave of their hearts and took the time to respond, you brought much warmth and comfort to my chilled existence.

And to those readers who went above and beyond that to bring about concrete changes to my declining health status and my meagre physical environment, I bless you with this sentiment. May God, whom I questioned, bestow upon you the daily compounded interest of love and good that truly does exist in the Almighty and through the Jewish people.

For more information about MCS, click here.

 

 

 

The most emailed article in the New York Times right now is Jon Meachem’s Op-Ed “A Nation of Christians Is Not A Christian Nation.” Here’s a nice little excerpt:

Jesus: Is so patriotic

The only acknowledgment of God in the original Constitution is a utilitarian one: the document is dated “in the year of our Lord 1787.” Even the religion clause of the First Amendment is framed dryly and without reference to any particular faith. The Connecticut ratifying convention debated rewriting the preamble to take note of God’s authority, but the effort failed.

A pseudonymous opponent of the Connecticut proposal had some fun with the notion of a deity who would, in a sense, be checking the index for his name: “A low mind may imagine that God, like a foolish old man, will think himself slighted and dishonored if he is not complimented with a seat or a prologue of recognition in the Constitution.” Instead, the framers, the opponent wrote in The American Mercury, “come to us in the plain language of common sense and propose to our understanding a system of government as the invention of mere human wisdom; no deity comes down to dictate it, not a God appears in a dream to propose any part of it.”

Full Story

The rest of the article is all kinds of other examples of how the US of A isn’t a Christian nation, (this in response to John McCain’s statement that “the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation”).

Legally, I’m certain Meachem is right, and I love the article. But as an American who grew up in a heavily Jewish neighborhood I have to report that I’m sometimes annoyed at just how Christian my life is. We’ve got the National Day of Prayer (which is entirely Christian) and the War on Christmas courtesy of the uber-American Fox News, plus the fact that I attended more than a decade of Jewish day school but had the Lord’s Prayer memorized before the Amidah… Sadly, with Bush in the White House I don’t think McCain was too far off the mark. It may not have been set up in the Constitution, but most days it seems like the unspoken eleventh ammendment in the Bill of Rights.

Oh, big news in the world of Agunot this week!

Fear not, Agunot!: Canada will save you. But, should it?Canada doesn't mess with religious matters in its courts so much, but the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the civil divorce agreement signed by Jason Marcovitz, in which is specifically agreed to give his wife, Stephanie Bruker, a get, was declared a valid contract that overrides his assertion for protection under freedom of religion. (Having never been divorced myself, is it standard in a civil divorce to specify a get to be forthcoming? I would imagine not and that this case could potentially hyper-sensitize civil divorce language if a husband has any inclination towards hesitating on the get, no?) The couple married in 1969 and obtained a civil divorce in 1980, with Marcovitz initially agreeing to give a get and later changing his mind, until 1995 when he did finally give her a get, at which point she was 46 years old, past child-bearing age for many women, as the court noted.

So, the court awarded his ex-wife almost $50K in damages, on the grounds that her ability to remarry and have more children was blocked by Marcovitz's lack of cooperation. (What, do you think, is a fair settlement for being barred from remarrying and having children or more children? Can you put a price on that, really? And, is it somehow worth more or less in damages if there were no previous children? Discuss.)

Evelyn Brook, president of the Canadian Coalition of Jewish Women for the Get, called the decision "a great relief." The ruling "does not say that he had to give her a get. It simply said that because he didn't, then there are things to forfeit," Brook told JTA. "For every husband who has gone back on his promise" in a divorce settlement, "this makes a difference." While many women's groups are gung-ho about this ruling, yet many in the legal world aren't so sure this is a good thing, as this ruling could be the first bit of tiptoeing into religious meddling by courts.

Marcovitz's complaint and reason he claimed to withhold the get from Bruker was that she'd had breached their civil agreement by becoming less observant and by turning the couple's daughters against him. This decision was reached 7-2 by Canada's Supreme Court, with the dissenting judges stating Marcovitz's promise was nothing beyond a moral obligation and that "finding otherwise will expand courts into areas where they have no jurisdiction", JTA reports this morning.

The Marcovitz/Bruker case was the first to be presented to Canada's Supreme Court since Ottowa's amendment to the Divorce Act in 1990, which prohibited people from creating or maintaining obstacles for their former spouse to marry religiously.

Surely we have an Agunot or two in our readership that could provide some insight here? Surely a few people with greater knowledge of the Canadian legal system than I can offer? Or, with great knowledge of American family law and how, if at all, this ruling could make waves in our courts...?

 

 

Okay: So this soldier is actually Canadian. Sue me.An exhibit opened in West Hartford, CT this week honoring Jewish veterans of WWII at the George J. Sherman and Lottie K. Sherman
Museum of Jewish Civilization at the University of Hartford. Over 500,000 Jews served in the U.S. armed forces during WWII, and can be credited with such contributions as rebuilding synagogues, conducting weekday and Shabbat services, and assisting a reconstruction of the Talmud for Army issue:

"From two sets of Talmud brought from New York...a special Army edition of 500 sets were made in 1948. They are the only sets to include the English language, in a preface dedicating it to the U.S. Army for its "major role in the rescue of the Jewish people from total annihilation."

The return of the Jewish GIs to the U.S. directly influenced a
dissolution of the bigotry against Jews that had been prevalent
nationwide, and opened doors that had previously been shut or barely
opened. Jews, previously subject to quotas at many colleges and
universities, attended schools en masse under the GI Bill.

"Seeing Jewish GIs seizing the opportunity to fight for their country,
there's something entirely empowering about that," Patt said. "It's
only after the destruction of European Jewry that U.S. Jewry rises to a
position of prominence on the world stage."

Superior Court Judge Referee Jerry Wagner, featured in the exhibit, agrees.

"America at the time of World War II was a country of considerable
bigotry. There were openly anti-Semitic senators in Congress," Wagner
said. "I'm convinced one of the greatest forces for changing that was
the influence of Jewish vets coming back."

(Hartford Courant.com)

The exhibit is on display through February 24th and contains portraits of the 24 local veterans (then and now) and various items they each donated to the exhibit. The exhibit was primarily sponsored by family of Navy veteran
Jack Rosenblit (A"H), who passed in 2006 and whose portrait is featured on the exhibit catalog. "He was so
proud to be in the Navy and so proud to be an American GI," Rosenblit's
widow, Elka, said to the Hartford Courant. "This is my way of celebrating his life."

Related link: Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford.

Related reads: Ours to Fight For: American Jewish Voices from the Second World War and G.I. Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation.

Please, please, please: be careful.I was reading tonight about the rabbi who wrote a letter of apology to her congregation after being busted for driving under the influence. Rabbi Amy Bernstein of Temple Israel in Duluth, Minnesota had apparently shared a bottle of wine with a few people and then was speeding home in hopes of arriving before her daughter's bedtime when she was pulled over for going about 75 in a 55 mph zone on an icy night with a .11 percent blood-alcohol level.

There are some cringe worthy factors in her situation-- drinking and driving, icy weather, speeding-- at .11 she wasn't sober but she likely wasn't completely wasted, either, and it's not uncommon to drive over the speed limit, and certainly not unusual in the least for a parent to step on the gas a little in anticipation of time with their children. Fair enough. And, Rabbi Bernstein wrote a very humble and, I thought, beautiful letter to her congregation stating, “We have got to be really attentive to our own inner lives and our own best practices and the need to slow down in general — the need to stay centered and whole so that we don’t get careless. Because that’s what happened — I got careless. Those of us who teach about that need to take our own advice.’’ Rabbi Bernstein, who has been planning to take a three-month sabbatical in Israel since before this incident then wrote, "“This incident has shocked me into awareness that there are several important things that need my careful attention right now. I promise to make my time in Israel a time of real inner work and careful reflection on the meaning and direction of my life.’’

I like her letter. Her congregation is standing behind her, and I think that's honorable and I would hope I would and could do to same if my own rabbi was in Rabbi Bernstein's shoes. Also in her letter, she wrote, “… This has been a traumatic wake-up call for me and I can only beg your forgiveness and promise that it will, of course, not happen again.”

Personally, I hope she means what she wrote, which I'm sure she does. I'm sure she's a fine person, a wonderful person, even, and I don't think she's a bad person for what she did. But more than anything else, I hope her congregation was listening, and I hope with everything I have that her congregation took her words personally, and took them in and will think very hard about their own actions.

You see, that is my hope because, I have a little bit different perspective on DUI. I lost a beloved family member to a drunk driver when she was only twenty-four years old. The driver responsible for her death was, like Rabbi Bernstein, driving with honorable intentions, eager to reach family on the other side of his drive. He was certainly a fine enough and well-liked person in the community, certainly not meaning to hurt anyone and, I honestly believe, absolutely not intending to kill anyone, but, in his case, tragically and quite accidentally, did.

If you have a problem with alcohol and you are ready, please consider talking to your Rabbi or family, or whoever, or maybe touching base with JACS, or checking out many of the meetings that are starting to be held in shuls now, instead of just churches. A lot of us, and I'll be the first to admit I've caught myself thinking this, have this thinking that we, Jews, because of reverential feelings for kiddush or for whatever reason, are somehow exempt from alcohol-related issues, but it's just not true and I've got to think that we're doing ourselves a major disservice by not recognizing members of our community who need our support.

But, let me be completely clear. I only mention substance dependency because we're talking about booze, but I do not, under any circumstances, think that people who are driving under the influence are alcoholics. Some probably are, but, honestly, I worry more about the casual drinkers. We all keep our eyes on the big boozers in the circles we run in and we know not to let them drive under any circumstances. But, the casual drinkers who just catch a nice buzz then decide to head home seem like they're not doing too terrible of a thing, as if surely the "don't drink and drive" slogans aren't talking about them, surely not, but let me tell you under no uncertain terms that it only take a moment of lapsed judgment or a second of delayed reaction to make everything horribly different. And, let's be honest, we've all probably, at one time or another in our lives, driven or started to drive and only then realized we maybe were a little in the cups. We've probably all driven at one point when we probably should have not.

So, it's my hope that we all really think very carefully of Rabbi Bernstein's words, not only on this issue, but in many areas of our lives, and that we take them very personally and really hear them:

"We have got to be really attentive to our own inner lives and our own best practices and the need to slow down in general — the need to stay centered and whole so that we don’t get careless."

The NY Times has an article about Indie Jewish communities that’s very popular, and pretty interesting.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 — There are no pews at Tikkun Leil Shabbat, no rabbis, no one with children or gray hair.

Shabbat Happens: even in Colorado and Kansas

Instead, one rainy Friday night, the young worshipers sat in concentric circles in the basement of an office building, damp stragglers four deep against the walls. In the middle, Megan Brudney and Rob Levy played guitar, drums and sang, leading about 120 people through the full Shabbat liturgy in Hebrew.

Without a building and budget, Tikkun Leil Shabbat is one of the independent prayer groups, or minyanim, that Jews in their 20s and 30s have organized in the last five years in at least 27 cities around the country. They are challenging traditional Jewish notions of prayer, community and identity.

In places like Atlanta; Brookline, Mass.; Chico, Calif.; and Manhattan the minyanim have shrugged off what many participants see as the passive, rabbi-led worship of their parents’ generation to join services led by their peers, with music sung by all, and where the full Hebrew liturgy and full inclusion of men and women, gay or straight, seem to be equal priorities.

I think the best part of the article is a brief mention of an indie minyan in Denver, and the end of the article, which talks about a group that meets in Kansas City, MO.

The minyanim are noticing that some of their worshipers are getting older, and it is unclear how they might evolve as participants have children and move to the suburbs, said members and experts on the movement.

The answer may be found in the likes of Shabbat in the Hood, a minyan that draws 55 to 70 worshipers to peoples’ homes once a month in Leawood, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City, Mo. Worshipers belong to local synagogues. This is “the soccer mom set,” with lots of children around, many of them encouraged to lead prayers, said Marla Brockman, the lay coordinator of the minyan.

“It has been a spiritual hit for our families,” Ms. Brockman said. “We were all looking to go back to Jewish summer camp — the ease of community, this feeling of ‘go ahead and try it, try a reading’ — and we found it.”

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I just want to emphasize that you don’t have to live in NY, LA or Chicago to be a part of a strong and innovative Jewish community. You want to daven egalitarian, and hang out with non-for-profit workers, hip mamas, and a handful of corporate types? There are places for you outside the biggest communities. And same goes for people with kids. If you don’t want to live in Brooklyn, you don’t have to. But if you do, there’s always Brooklyn Jews.

Y-Love, over at Jewlicious, calls attention to a crazy new trend in the ultra-Orthodox community. A small group of women in Israel, intent on being as uber-modest as possible, have started voluntarily wearing burkas and hijabs. Y-Love links to and quotes from Muqata blog, which has translated part of the Haaretz article about the new fashion move:

Appropriate for Synagogue: and mosque, too.

A group of Ultra-Orthodox chareidi women in Ramat Beit Shemesh have hyperbolated tznius [laws of modesty] to the extreme and now wear burkas whenever they go outside their home. Not advocated by any known rabbi, the burka fad is apparently a radical ultra-Orthodox feminist "invention", and many are wary of this custom being adopted or repudiated. The radical Beit Shemesh tznius patrol is even scratching it's head whether someone managed to out do them, and leave them in the dust with the liberal left.

The husband of one such woman took his wife to Beit Din (religious court) to request from her to remove the burka due to shalom bayit (a peaceful home). The court ordered a religious divorce even though the husband didn't even request one -- because the court found her behaviour to be so bizarre.

Mother in Israel posts some truly unbelievable pictures, and the issue is being discussed everywhere from the Forward’s Bintel Brief to the Lilith blog where Friend of Jewcy Rebecca Honig Friedman writes:

 

They are adopting the ideal of modesty that to some extent has been ingrained in them by male religious authority (and no doubt by female authorities, too), but they are doing so on their own terms. They are taking the power of dictating women’s dress away from the male religious authorities in their community, deciding for themselves what modesty means and, in classic fashion, being persecuted for it.

These women have the right to wear whatever they want, but we should also question the values that have led them to such extreme decisions, and the society that perpetuates those values.

I’ll be the first to admit it: there are days when I would happily put on a burka so as not to have to spend half an hour blow-drying my hair and putting on makeup in order to be presentable. And I think the visceral negative reaction to burkas has more to do with the mistreatment of women in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries than with the burka itself (and anyway, all of the pictures I’ve seen so far are not of women in burkas, they’re of women wearing jilbab). Do I think the women in Ramat Beit Shemesh are going overboard? Absolutely. But though I find it all pretty strange, it’s not as offensive as if they were being told to wear jilbab by their rabbis, which, no doubt, is just round the bend.

I'm not a sci-fi geek. But, almost a decade ago, I had a roommate that introduced me to the world of the cons. ComiCon, GenCon, something that seemed tailored for the renaissance fair, er, faire crowd, a couple of Star Trek cons and such. She and her boyfriend were sci-fi lovin', comic book readin', -Con attendin', role playin' folks. (It's not my bag, but rest assured, I'm not making fun. I'm all for people doing whatever they're into. Anyway.)

Even in a galaxy far, far away: You can still sorta-kinda keep Shabbes.During this time, it was explained to me that several of such -cons host wedding and religious services in theme of the event, and both admitted they'd only seem limited Jewish weddings or services in their travels, or at least always saw more activity from other religious groups, which always seemed odd to me, with so many comic superheroes having such good Jewish roots and with the Star Trek Dr. Spock "live long and prosper" hand gesture having a Jewcy base as well. Isaac Asimov? Harlan Ellison? David Brin? Mind you, that's only what I was told based on the events they attended. I never braved an event to verify any of their claims for myself.

About a month ago, Jewish Journal of Los Angeles ran a short piece that caught my attention and reminded me of these conversations with the roommate and her guy. LosCon, an annual weekend Sci-Fi invasion at the LAX Marriott had featured a Sci-Fi Catholic mass and a Sci-Fi pagan/wiccan circle and last year, thanks to uber-sci-fi-fan, Marsha Minsky, a minyan was added to the schedule of events, Beit LosCon. She's named herself "Rabbi of the Con", though she doesn't have a rabbinical ordination and her services, based on a conservative liturgy, brought about two dozen people of the thousand or so in attendance of LosCon.

Could one do a B'nai Mitzvah at a 'con? Has anyone?

I'd just like to eveyone to take a moment and imagine what a Sci-Fi or RenFaire Shabbat service might involve. And, if you've been to one, please tell us about it. I'm dying to know if it's tailored to the occasion. Discuss.

I finished reading an interview with Norman Mailer that’s in last week’s New York Magazine on the plane back to Nashville, and it’s fascinating and fairly bizarre. He thinks weird looking fish are cosmic mistakes. Still, part of me kind of wishes he would come out and say something seriously whack-o that would be really interesting and controversial, instead of the whole ‘technology is evil’ crap that, frankly, I got plenty of in high school. Anyway, here’s a little bit of Mailer’s thoughts:God: uses a Mac

Much of the world’s present-day cosmology is based on such works of revelation as the Old and New Testament, or the Koran, but for me, revelation is itself the question mark—not God’s word, but ours. I confess that I have no attachment to organized religion. I see God, rather, as a Creator, as the greatest artist. I see human beings as His most developed artworks. I also see animals as His artworks. When I think of evolution, what stands out most is the drama that went on in God as an artist. Successes were also marred by failures. I think of all the errors He made in evolution as well as of the successes. In marine life, for example, some fish have hideous eyes—they protrude from the head in tubes many inches long. Think of all those animals of the past with their peculiar ugliness, their misshapen bodies, worm life, frog life, vermin life, that myriad of insects—so many unsuccessful experiments. These were also modes the Artist was trying—this great artist, this divine artist—to express something incredible, and it was not, for certain, an easy process. Sometimes a young artist has to make large errors before he or she can go further.

Full story

If you’re looking for another and perhaps more accessible look at who/what God is all about, try the awesome and incredibly comprehensive Walking with God curriculum available as a free download from the Ziegler Rabbinical School website. I’ve only spent significant time with the Modern Jewish Thought section, but it’s pretty amazing. Doesn't involve any fish, though. Bummer.

Challah for Hunger: Creative loafing.Tonight, I was hanging out with a couple of friends, talking about this and that and a conversation about poaching pears turned into a conversation about baking which turned into a conversation about a particular challah recipe, which turned into the discovery that only a couple of degrees of separation stood between me and this organization: Challah for Hunger. I headed home, Googled it up, and, well, that pretty much brings us up to right now.

In an incredible stroke of luck, it being Social Justice Tuesday and all, the very first sentence seen upon entering the site is: "Challah for Hunger is a national organization centered around activism and social justice." Blammo. It continues, "With our weekly challah sales, we raise money and awareness for the victims of the genocide in the Sudan. Challah for Hunger has sent more than $20,000 to relief organizations and thousands of letters to Washington, urging elected officials to take action. We also work to inspire others, bot