The fight for Palestinian liberation is hip, timely, and fashionable, but how to get involved? Here's the good news: You don't need to know a thing. Armed with the right look and a few key phrases you'll have the Zionist entity in retreat in no time! To that end, Jewcy proudly presents an in-depth guide to Israel Apartheid Week, which runs from February 3 to 19 and features events from Johannesburg to Toronto and Berkeley to New York.

We've collected all the must-have items you'll need to get looking like a pro(-Palestinian).

First and foremost, you'll want to find yourself a breezy, global-chic, Euro, Riviera, Anti-War, Peace scarf. Anti-war scarves (some people also call them keffiyehs) are great for a few reasons:

1. They come in a bunch of different color combinations.
2. They turn any fashion into a statement.
3. They can help protect you from the environmental perils of the desert, making them especially useful for activists who live in places like the Middle East or the University of Arizona.

Most importantly, anti-war scarves are sporty, bohemian, and popular with celebrities.

Left to right: Juliette Lewis, Kirsten Dunst, the Olsen twins.

Left to right: David Beckham, Sting, Colin Farrel

 

Don't let those Zionist naysayers tell you that this military-chic accessory is any worse than cargo pants, a trench coat, or a beret. These stylish scarves symbolize Palestinian nationalism, and that's what you're all about. Simply Islam has some great colors to choose from.

Round out your wardrobe with a graphic tee, a cool messenger bag, a declarative pin, and an assertive pair of socks. And don't forget the underwear! People who appear passionate about things are sexy, so you run a good chance of getting laid after the events.

1. Let people know how much Israel sucks with this pithy T-shirt, which is available at EvilMerch.com. Sure, Israel is the only country taking a stab at democracy in the predominantly authoritarian Middle East, but it totally sucks. Or are you calling that T-shirt a liar?

2. Moonbatter up! You'll be the catcher in the wry with this sporty "Free Palestine" jersey, which has been updated to reflect the 58--not 56--years in which Palestinians have been oppressed by Israel (and their own corrupt leaders, and terrorist factions struggling for dominance, but there simply isn't enough room for all of that rambling on one little shirt). Pick one up at the Palestinian Online Store.

3. Palestine is for lovers, which must be why gays and lesbians enjoy so much freedom there that they often flee to Israel.

4. Girl I know you wanna show that Palestine thong th thong thong thong: Radical Islam is all about the booty!

5. Pins like these are a great way of connecting with fellow travelers like the Truthers that you're sure to encounter during Israeli Apartheid Week. Get them at the 9/11 Truth Store!

6. Go the extra mile in these Impeach Bush socks, which were specially made for stamping out oppressive, Imperialistic, Fascist regimes like the one here in America.

7. What better way to honor an esteemed leader like Yasser Arafat than to keep an image of his boyishly charming face next to your genitals? Get these boxers here.

8. This handy Che messenger bag may have been produced by capitalist enterprise, but it makes a great icebreaker for striking up conversations with cute communists. Pick one up at the Che Store.

Next: Vocab for the Newbie

Once a week, Jewcy spotlights people who fight for peace, justice, equality, freedom and other worthy causes while also managing to be hot.

This week's Activist Hottie is Katie Pfleghar, a German actress who cares so much about the freedom of chickensSave the Chickens: Dip Me in Honey Mustard Instead that she has decided to remove her clothes and cage herself. Why? Who cares? Oh, fine, it's for a PETA protest urging German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer not to delay the ban on factory farming, due to go into effect EU-wide in 2012.

If you speak German, check out her online profile. And if you have $500, you can purchase the video of her naked caged antics. A wise investment!

Last Week's Activist Hottie. (Ladies: we'll bring you a socially conscious stud next week. Promise.)

You know, just when I write off the Reform movement they come at me with this amazing programming and I have to admit how much they rock. Check out this article from The Washington Post:
Eric Yoffie: suddenly kind of hot

Jews and Muslims Set Up Big Interfaith Effort

By Michelle Boorstein

Two major Jewish and Muslim organizations unveiled an interfaith dialogue curriculum yesterday and are urging their hundreds of thousands of members to use it. Both sides say it is the broadest Jewish-Muslim interfaith effort in the continent's history.

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, North America's largest Jewish movement, announced the partnership with the Islamic Society of North America at his group's biennial convention in San Diego.

"As a once-persecuted minority in countries where anti-Semitism is still a force, we understand the plight of Muslims in North America today," Yoffie said yesterday. "We live in a world in which religion is manipulated to justify the most horrific acts, a world in which -- make no mistake -- Islamic extremists constitute a profound threat. For some, this is a reason to flee from dialogue, but in fact the opposite is true. When we are killing each other in the name of God, sensible religious people have an obligation to do something about it."

This summer Yoffie became the first major Jewish leader to address ISNA, the continent's largest Muslim organization with 30,000 attendants coming to its annual convention. ISNA President Ingrid Mattson will address the 980-congregation Jewish group today, the first leader of a major Muslim group to do so.

The manual and video are built around five sessions that touch on topics including the place of Jerusalem in Jewish and Muslim tradition and history. The toughest potential sticking points will probably be related to Israel and to stereotypes both groups carry about the other, Mark Pelavin, director of interreligious affairs for the Jewish group, said in an interview. "Jews want to know how Muslims feel about terrorism in the name of Islam, and Muslims want to know how Jews feel about Palestinian suffering."

Full Story

The amazing thing about this effort is that it’s not one of those lame, ‘we’re not going to talk about Israel we’re just going to talk about how important it is to respect each other’ gigs. Both sides plan on addressing really serious issues. My guess is it won’t be pretty, but I’m SO psyched that they got this going. Now what I want to know is when the Conservative movement going to step up to the plate.

Meanwhile, over at Jewschool there’s a pretty decent breakdown of all the cool things Yoffie has planned for the next year or so. My favorite part is an excerpt from Yoffie’s big sermon on Saturday:

In recent years, there has been a feverish conversation among communal leaders about how to connect young adults to Jewish life. We all agree that they need Torah study, Jewish ritual and connection to Israel. But all of this has not been enough.

Well, here is my suggestion to these leaders about what they need to do next: They need to speak up for justice. They need to speak up loud, proud and unafraid.

Because our young people are very wise. They know that a Judaism that ghettoizes itself has no real mission and therefore no real purpose. They don’t understand how Jews can pray for the sick every day and then do nothing to get health care to those who need it. In the end, if the Judaism we offer our young does not speak to the great moral issues of the world and of their lives, it will fail to capture their imagination or their hearts.

I kind of have a crush on Eric Yoffie now. But don’t worry, I promise not to have meaningless sex with him.

The early-spring Jewish festival of Purim—rooted in, or given roots by, the Scroll of Esther—is an expression of the same topsy-turvy view of the world that we see in Mardi Gras and other early-spring festivals of folly. The story is a satire on the stupidity and the violence of rulers.

Even though we are still in wintertime, Purim is the only way to understand what has just happened in the topsy-turvy somersault in US National Intelligence Estimates concerning Iran.

The tale of Esther is about a foolish king of Persia—Iran! But that was when he was the Emperor of the World. Now the same folly is found in another king who wants to make Persia another province in his empire. Who still wants to, even after revelations of the naked truth by the network of officials called VASHTI—Vigilant Affirmers of Security, Honor, Truth & Intelligence.

The time has come to put an end to this farce—this bloody farce. In the light of the Intelligence Estimates revelation, we have revised our multireligious call to the US and Iran to make peace.

But now, let us remember the Purim story, as it comes dancing into our real lives on Hanukkah.

Once upon a time, a pompous, stupid, oily king was clever enough and oily enough to bamboozle his subjects to keep him in power, even when he made disastrous mistakes. He had a prime minister—they called him the President of Vice because he was so vicious—who was extremely clever, addicted to power, and hot to invent new enemies each four years.

That way, he figured, he and his boss (or puppet) the king could keep the populace riled up, not noticing they were being robbed of everything they cared about:

Their privacy; the value of their money; their schools; their medical care; the sweet air of their forests and their mountains; their freedoms; the former joy of their prayers, now corrupted by hatred of the prayers of others; their dignity, respect, and honor in the eyes of other peoples, who now viewed them with contempt as the home of lies and torture; even, for thousands of them, their lives, limbs, minds, and souls.

So the President of Vice decided to make the majority culture of the land subservient to him (and the king his master, or maybe servant) by attacking one of the peoples just barely outside the great Empire. This people prayed a different way, and they owned precious resources that could be confiscated by the Oily Empire that the king already owned so much of. And they had one leader who was as nasty-hearted as the President of Vice. So under the table, the two nasties could cooperate by making enemies of each other.

So the pompous clever/stupid king and the clever/vicious President of Vice lied. They said the foreign nation was hiding terrible weapons. When people stopped believing that lie, they lied again—and said another set of foreigners were making terrible weapons. There too there was a nasty-hearted leader, and once again the nasties collaborated by making enemies of each other.

Said the President of Vice:

Any Lie
To hang these people by,
On a gallows high
That they the quicker die!
And if you ask me why,
To make my
Power high
Higher
Higher
Higher

But deep inside the palace there was a truth-telling network who thought the king and the President of Vice were addicts of the drug called Power and were, in their drug-infested mania, endangering their country. This network called themselves VASHTI—Vigilant Affirmers of Security, Honor, Truth & Intelligence. In the original story, the king tried to force his queen Vashti to dance naked before a great banquet. She refused.

But in our modern story, it was VASHTI who wanted to reveal the naked truth to a puzzled people, and the king who tried to stop them. So VASHTI released to an intrepid reporter (probably named Esther, or maybe Mordechai) the true intelligence about the vicious lies about the foreign peoples.

And even then, the King and his President of Vice insisted they must attack the dangerous foreigners.

**** 

The time has come to end this bloody farce. The peoples of Iran and the United States must insist their governments meet directly to take up all the issues between them, and come to a mutually respectful peace. And the people and government of Israel must learn from the ancient Jewish satire on power turned addictive – and move beyond the knee-jerk resort to threats of war that has characterized the Israeli government's policy toward Iran. Together, we must all seek instead to examine what would be decent terms of peace. See The Shalom Center website for more.

UPDATE: Read how the protest went, here.

**** 

Think it's just no good for a Jewish civil rights organization to support a campaign of genocide denial? Then come out with Jewcy tonight in Los Angeles as we join with the Armenian Youth Federation and survivors of the Armenian Genocide to protest the Anti-Defamation League's "2007 Los Angeles Celebration." Press release:

NEWS ADVISORY – December 1, 2007 – NEWS ADVISORY

Los Angeles calls on Abe Foxman to stop undermining the universal humanitarian principles of the ADL

WHAT: Jewcy Media and the Armenian Youth Federation, joined by victims of the Armenian Genocide, will protest outside the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Saturday, December 1^st, when the Anti-Defamation League holds a celebration at the hotel. The protest is being organized in response to efforts by ADL National Director Abe Foxman to use the ADL as a vehicle for genocide denial—starkly violating the universal human rights principles which the ADL claims to revere.

WHO: Ghazaros Kademian, survivor – Armenian Genocide

Joey Kurtzman, Executive Editor – Jewcy

Arek Santikian, Representative – Armenian Youth Federation

WHEN: Saturday, December 1, 2007 @ 6:00 p.m. PT

WHERE: On Wilshire Boulevard in front of the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

Address is 9500 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. GoogleMap.

BACKGROUND ON ABE FOXMAN and the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: For many years, the ADL, working on behalf of the Turkish government, has refused to acknowledge that the massacres of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 was a genocide. Worse, they have lobbied for Turkey to prevent passage of a resolution by the United States Congress affirming this genocide.

This year, under pressure from the New England community, the ADL issued a highly ambiguous statement regarding the Armenian genocide. It stated that the “consequences” of events in Turkey were “tantamount to genocide.” This duplicitous statement sidestepped the legal definition of genocide by avoiding any language that would imply intent, a critical part of the 1948 UN Genocide treaty.

In the same statement, the ADL reiterated its opposition to the Congressional resolution recognizing the genocide, calling it “a counterproductive diversion.” The ADL then apologized to the Prime Minister of Turkey for having put his government “in a difficult position,” expressing its “sorrow over what we have caused for the leadership and people of Turkey.” No apology has been offered to date to Armenian Genocide survivors and their heirs.

On August 23, echoing Turkey’s call for an “impartial study,” the ADL suggested “further dispassionate scholarly examination” of the genocide. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has labeled such proposals as propaganda, not scholarship. By the ADL’s own standards, casting doubt on the historical truth of genocide constitutes genocide denial. And asking Armenians to sit down with denialist historians on the payroll of the Turkish state is exceptionally offensive. Considering the ADL’s unceasing – and just – efforts to combat Holocaust denial, their actions are remarkably hypocritical.

Perceiving its Armenian Genocide denial and subsequent missteps as simply a public relations dilemma - not a moral issue - the ADL hired the most prominent public relations firm in Boston, Regan Communications, to clean up its image.

For immediate commentary on this news story, please call JEWCY at (323) 600-3243 or the AYF-WR at (818) 507-1933.

# # #

Hindu-Jewish Leadership SummitYesterday's New York Times ran a story about Indian-Americans finding an activist role model, and sometime partner, in American Jews.

Indians often say they see a version of themselves and what they hope to be in the experience of Jews in American politics: a small minority that has succeeded in combating prejudice and building political clout.

Sanjay Puri, the chairman of the U.S. India Political Action Committee, said: “What the Jewish community has achieved politically is tremendous, and members of Congress definitely pay a lot of attention to issues that are important to them. We will use our own model to get to where we want, but we have used them as a benchmark.”

One instance of Indians following the example of Jews occurred last year when Indian-American groups, including associations of doctors and hotel owners, banded together with political activists to win passage of the United States-India Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Act, which allows New Delhi to buy fuel, reactors and other technology to expand its civilian nuclear program.

I remember when Bush announced the passage of the United States-India Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Act. One of the administration's finer foreign policy moments. An overlooked commitment to global outreach at a time when the U.S. was taking a lot of flack for its supposed unilateralism and cowboy diplomacy.

I think the U.S. relationship with India these days has taken on a similar tint to our relationship with Israel in the following aspect: Its a non-zero-sum game. On the biggest issue of the day The U.S, India, and Israel are up against the same menace. As the Times article goes on to say: "[A]mong Hindus, who are a majority in India and among Indian-Americans here, some assert that a vital bond they share with Jews is the threat to India and Israel from Muslim terrorists."

Although, some Indian-Americans are leery of emphasizing that commonality.

This makes me relatively suspicious, because there is the desire to reduce the complexity of the issues in a conflict,” said Vijay Prashad, professor of South Asian history at Trinity College in Hartford.

The India Community Center in Milpitas, Calif., represents the nonsectarian approach many Indian-Americans take to replicating the experience of American Jews. When Anil Godhwani began talking to other Indians in Silicon Valley about opening a center, “more than one person talked to us about making this a Hindu community center — sometimes in very strong terms,” he said. That was never his intention, though he was raised Hindu.

Indians have worked with The American Jewish Committee on immigration and hate crimes legislation. The American Jewish Committee has also organized group trips to Israel for Indian Americans.

This is a golden opportunity, one that must not be wasted. Jewish Americans and Indian-Americans must join forces and figure out how to conquer that most formidable of our common antagonists: our over-protective mothers.

Serious Business: Gay and Jewish in BerlinOn the day of Gay Pride Berlin, known locally as Christopher Street Day, I was invited by the rabbi of the city's newest congregation to speak during services. So instead of the rabbi’s weekly speech about the Torah portion, the 60 or so people at the Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue got to hear about the gays. Berlin takes Gay Pride seriously. Berlin also takes its Jews seriously. The two made for an exhausting Shabbat. The Oranienburger Strasse synagogue represents both the horrors of German Jewry’s past and the ...

Akbar Ganji: Iran's Dissident Rock StarBecause you've seen enough scary photos of clerics and dictators, meet Akbar Ganji.

He is a journalist, a champion of Iranian democracy, and fierce opponent of the velayat-e faqih.

 

If Jewcy had a politburo, this would be its first diktat. If we issued encyclicals, this would be the first to go out under the waxy Shin seal. Our communiqué to all Jewcers: please get behind the Domestic Jewish Agenda 2008.

In America, self-anointed ethnic leaders make smashing careers out of speaking on behalf of enormous constituencies to which they have dubious claim. Jewish America is no different. For too long, presidential candidates have assessed the concerns of the Jewish community by bending down and inviting professional Jewish gasbags such as Abraham Foxman and Malcolm Hoenlein to flatulate into their ear. Never heard of ‘em? Tough shit. They’re speaking on your behalf anyway.

Until now. Jewish Funds for Justice and JSpot have teamed up with Jewcy and a slew of other worthy partners to harness the decentralizing power of the internet and run an end-around of Organized Jewry in the upcoming presidential election. We’re canvassing all Jewishy people with an internet connection, and asking them to fill out this online petition.

The petition describes ten domestic issues—child care, civil rights, education, environment, health care, housing, immigration, Katrina/Rita, seniors, and wages—and asks you to identify the five that will have the greatest influence on your presidential vote in 2008.

On May 29, the votes will be tallied and sent to every presidential candidate under the names of all signatories. We'll request a written explanation as to how that candidate will address the concerns of the American Jewish community. As candidates reply, their answers will be publicized here at Jewcy and at other partner websites.

So help us show that there's a bigger, broader Jewish agenda than is evident in the plenary meetings and press releases of a handful of sclerotic old Jewish organizations. Add your voice to the Domestic Jewish Agenda 2008.

I’ve had some pretty strong and negative feelings about goings on in the Jewish community in the past. There are some rabbis who make my blood boil. And yet, it never even occurred to me to do this:
Take That!: Religion gets trashy.

The Grace Episcopal Church controversy took a bizarre turn Sunday when a man barged into the 9 a.m. service, hurled a cream pie at the Rev. Don Armstrong and dashed out without saying a word.

The pie thrower didn’t get far. Several parishioners chased him for several blocks, apprehended him near Palmer High School, then hauled him back to the church for Colorado Springs police.

Marcus Hyde, 18, faces misdemeanor charges of harassment, trespassing, criminal mischief and disrupting a lawful assembly, police Sgt. Vince Niski said. Hyde was cited and released at the scene.

Armstrong was delivering a sermon titled “Of Christian Love and Charity” when Hyde burst through the side door closest to the pulpit, said church member Tim Chambers, who wrote about the incident on his blog at tbc.livejournal.com.

Armstrong responded to a request for an interview by writing an e-mail to The Gazette. In it, he said he avoided a face full of dessert by ducking behind the pulpit. He said the missile smelled like banana cream.

Part of me thinks this is the best piece of practical spiritual activism I have ever seen. I mean, a pie in the face makes a statement, but doesn’t hurt anyone. On the other hand, it makes a total mockery out of a religious service and a church. And the pie becomes the story, which wasn’t Hyde’s intention.

 

It turns out Hyde was protesting Armstrong’s position in the church. Last year Armstrong was suspended under suspicions of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the church. He was reinstated when the church decided to leave the Episcopalian church, which they thought was getting too liberal, and shack up with the Convocation of Anglicans, who have traditionally held much more conservative views, specifically on homosexuality.

In a way, this brings light to just how petty and ridiculous most religious conflicts become. Even though theoretically people are disagreeing about God and in which ways one should approach and respond to God, it ends up being something like a food fight, with little substance brought to the table.

Today’s lesson: If the only thing left to do is throw a pie, you screwed things up a while ago. Retrace your steps and see if you can find something constructive to do/say.

Judeo-Arabic American Joseph Braude sends us his fourth dispatch from the Middle East. Doha, Qatar — If blame for domestic violence rests in part with neighbors who sit idly by, then the slaughter of 400,000-and-counting Darfuri African Muslims in Sudan is a pan-Arab disgrace. Governments throughout this region have turned a blind eye to atrocities perpetrated by Janjaweed Arab horseback raiders, Sudan’s Ku Klux Klan. Two Arab states in particular, Egypt and the Gulf emirate of Qatar, have done even worse: They have provided diplomatic cover for the genocidal junta in Khartoum that arms and equips the Janjaweed. When, by contrast, a man stands up in either country and struggles against the deafening Arab silence on Darfur, he follows in the tradition of Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust—the “righteous among the ...