By now, we've all heard the hype: Web 2.0 is changing the very notion of media, blogging is replacing journalism, and thanks to MySpace and YouTube (not to mention XTube), we are all, just as Andy Warhol predicted, movie stars of the ephemeral, exhibitionists of the mundane.  Here at Zeek@Jewcy, it's all the rage: comments, community, user-created content.  It's a brave new world.

Well, sort of.  While it's true that information technology has enabled this revolution, if that's what it is, Free Press, a 2006-published coffee-table anthology bearing the subtitle "Underground and Alternative Publications, 1965-1975," shows that the ethos of the blog originated long before the Internet even existed--in the small, alternative magazines of that amorphous era known as the Sixties.  And it teaches us a great deal about our present moment.

Assembled by two veterans of the underground press, Jean-Francois Bizot, founder of the Left Bank magazine Actuel, and Barry Miles, a columnist for the East Village Other (EVO) and a founder of the European alt-paper International Times--all publications copiously represented in the book--Free Press is an assemblage of pages from dozens of alternative magazines, newspapers, and newsletters that flourished in the youth culture of the Sixties.  From Berkeley to Paris, Detroit to Greenwich Village, these long-forgotten publications, some professionally produced, others little more than mimeographs, were the company newsletters of the counterculture, disseminating information, producing often-stunning art, and challenging every norm of mainstream media, along with mainstream culture in general.

Reflecting that era's rejection of staid conventions like narrative form and rational organization, Free Press is itself a kind of collage of Sixties politics and aesthetics.  It's a beautiful book, full of appealing young people who took the notion of revolution seriously, and of artistic forms--solarized photographs, intricate line drawings not unlike the cover of the Beatles' Revolver, the shocking images of Sixties-era agit-prop--which later found their way into the mainstream.

What's most striking reading Free Press in 2008, though, is its juxtaposition of the dated and the prescient.  On the one hand, the admirable but also tragic naivete, the occasionally loony liberationist politics, and the celebratory but also puerile treatment of sex and drugs all mark the magazines as being of their era.  On the other hand, they were clearly onto something.  For perhaps the first time in history, they gave a publishing platform to unedited, unfiltered human expression: a handwritten notice page from the New York Rat (1970), a conversational essay on "Lesbian Feminism isn't a White Male Trip" (1975), and oodles of bad poetry.  These magazines were largely about self-exposure (not least in their many nude photographs), and providing an outlet for the expression of the individual rather than its repression in the service of, say, standards of the written word.

They're blogs, in other words--group blogs, sometimes with better art and sharper content, but essentially about the unfettered expression of their contributors. 

What's interesting, thirty years later, is how this democratic aesthetic value has become unmoored from its larger political context.  In the Sixties, artistic and linguistic liberation was part and parcel of a larger liberationist agenda which also included the liberation of women and minorities, the expansion of consciousness (through drugs, spirituality, or just "waking up" to political oppression), and, most centrally, a revolution--intended to be political as well as cultural--that would overthrow the many repressions of The Man: war, economic injustice, discrimination, and, if we want to be cynical about it, anything that got in the way of having a good time.

Did it work?  Obviously, not entirely; Tricky Dick was elected, twice, and the political revolution never quite happened.  The sexual revolution did, though, and reading Free Press, it's clear that a kind of cultural-literary revolution did as well.  Today's countless blogs--and even, to some extent, magazines such as this one, which, by way of independent European magazines, is an indirect descendent of the underground press--owe a great deal to the press of the counterculture: the "Do Your Own Thing" ethos, the value of informality and spontaneity, the mistrust of rules and conventions, the Kerouac ethos of "first thought, best thought," and, perhaps most importantly, the very democratic idea that everyone has something worthwhile to speak, post, or rant about.  

Independent magazines long predate the Sixties, of course--they feature prominently in Tom Stoppard's Coast of Utopia, a trilogy about nineteenth-century Russian intellectuals.  But the pop aesthetics, the exhibitionism, the intimacy, and the informality were new, and arguably important.  What's shifted is that these values were  once parts of a larger revolution, not just of style but of self as well.  Today, the media is its only message.  "Do your own thing" is practically a corporate slogan; it's a value linked not to liberation but to indulgence.  Informality is apolitical--and of course, there are as many right-wing blogs as left-wing ones.

Arguably, though, today's blogs are better suited to carry the liberationist torch than the magazines of decades ago.  Thanks to technology, they allow for much more collaboration, feedback, and, yes, democracy, at least of the artistic kind.  Politically, the jury is still out: we'll see if they help elect our next president--or if the next president will be the last (probably) to not use a computer at all.

Whatever the political-democratic benefits, though, there have been aesthetic-democratic effects, for better or for worse.  Beyond the buzzword, "Web 2.0" stands for the proposition that the "users" (a risible term) are the content providers, and that reader-writer-participants are better at sifting wheat from chaff than are (occasionally) paid writers and editors like me.  We'll see how that plays out: it may be revolution, or it may be banal.  Or it may become the capitalist 1984, in which we voluntary install telescreens/webcams/twitter updates so that others can watch us all the time and we can watch them do it.

I want to suggest that the free presses of the Sixties were the first postmodern-popular publications, their supposedly romantic politics notwithstanding.  Identity was deconstructed, and then reassembled from whatever was lying around.  Cultures were mixed, and values questioned.

If so, and if today's blogs resemble yesterday's underground publications, then it really is an exciting time to participate in the de/reconstruction of a particularist identity like Jewishness.  Jewish identity has always had its shadow side: groupthink, ghettoization, tribalism, ethnocentrism, the denigration of the goyim.  But Jewishness has so many upsides: culture, spirituality, kitsch, history, the prophetic call to justice.  For a long time, folks have argued that you can't have one with out the other.  But now, everyone is having one without the other.  Old school identities, fixed and coherent like LPs, are irrelevant to the ipod generation.  So it's not just a Jewish thing; rather, we're being carried along for the ride.

"People of the Blog" is one of those ridiculous quips that only a second-tier headline writer would use.  But let's take it seriously.  If the book is replaced by the blog, hierarchy is replaced by democracy.  Buy-and-consume is replaced by rip-and-mix.  Exclusivity is replaced by the mixtape.  Maybe it's a good time to be alive after all--or at least, a good time to revisit, rethink, and remix cultures like this one.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on Jewcy about my Jewish identity - more specifically, about not knowing Hebrew and wondering if that made me less of a Jew. I also referenced the fact that my mother is not Jewish, which isn't some big secret or anything, but was tangential to the main topic of the post. The blogger Luke Ford linked to the post on his blog, and mentioned he liked my writing. In response, he got this email from "Chaim Amalek," which he published the next day:

We all know about the Shiksa Menace, V1.0 - the blonde with boobs and bearing who turned the heads of many a yid one or two generations removed from the shtetl, and who continues to lure Jewish men to the doom of happiness. Then came Shiksa Menace 2.0 in the form of the Yellow Peril - Asian women morphing themselves into good “jewish” wives while still eating dog meat. Now comes Shiksa Menace 3.0, possibly the most pernicious and effective of all because, well, they know Jewish men through their fathers, and have the good looks of the gentile mothers. This Lilit person is an example of that. She may think of herself as Jewish, but in terms of rabbinical law she simply is not. How many Jewish men will be lured to their communal doom by this new breed of shiksa?

Sadly, I believe this email was intended to be humorous. The bottom line is, I'm well aware of what Orthodox Jews think of my Jewish identity and, if I cared, I wouldn't go to shul, observe holidays, or edit a blog about Judaism. But I do all of those things and then some, and the people at my egalitarian, open-minded, non-judgmental Reform synagogue couldn't care less who my mother is or what she believes in. For the record, she was raised a Presbyterian - and perhaps the Protestant half of me believes that it's faith, just faith, that makes me a Jew. The rest is noise.

Luckily, I have some pretty rad, smart, and observant friends who thought "Chaim"'s email was ridiculous. Jewcy blogger Zachary Thacher noted:

For those who want to marry a Jewish woman who has a non-Jewish mom, there are many simple remedies for the halachic question it poses. Being a racist asshole isn't one of them.

If wanting to marry a Jewish man and raise Jewish children makes me a shiksa menace, then so be it.

Oh, and for the record, "this Lilit person" looks like her father. You know, the Jewish one.

How does it feel to be living in Gaza or have family and friends in Gaza right now? Not many people are blogging from Gaza today because of the lack of electricity. But a little research yielded a few bloggers out there either with personal connections in Gaza or an internet connection. Take a look at these blogs.

In Gaza, a Canadian human rights activist named Eva Bartlett:

How to explain this feeling? I am physically numb to the explosions, not that i am in any way brave, but just physically unaffected. This is useful, it allows me to continue to write, to photograph, to speak. But my rational side which is continuing these things. Alberto, a Spanish journalist sitting next to me, helps me to recall that last night I told him: "I'm so focused on conveying the eyewitness account that i'm not thinking about danger."

 

Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot, a blog written by two friends: one in Gaza and one in Sderot:

I am asking the international community to stop what is going on in Gaza I hope to return to ceasefire and move away from violence Because violence will bring more violence.

 

From Gaza, Dr. Mona El-Farra, a Gazan woman currently in England:

 

I am travelling from Manchester to Cairo this week to send medication, emergency supplies, and very important orthopaedic equipment, for Al Awda hospital and the Red Crescent society. Also, some very important children's medication, and medications for chronic diseases. While the hospitals are overwhelmed with the injured, it is important to secure the rest of the patients - a very difficult balance for us in such crisis, with the health services at the point of collapse.

 

Rafah Kid, reports from Rafah: 

And what shall I say? I will not speak of my daily misery having to put up in Friday with a 24 hour power cut; nor will I like to mention my father standing in a long queue in front of the bakery at 7 a.m. to buy some bread; nor will I mention the 3 empty gas cylinders awaiting to be filled since a month; nor will I lament the patients living on respiratory support or kidney washing machines and are afraid the hospitals will have no electricity ; I find it enough to say that all those I meet,including myself and my family, are psychologically and emotionally tired.

 

Raising Yousuf and Noor, a blog from a mother in North Carolina in touch with parents in Gaza: 

"It's strange, my whole body is shaking. Why is that? Why is that?" she rambles on, continuous explosions audible in the background. "There they go again. One boom after another. 15. Before that, one or two, maybe 20 total so far."

 

Mideast Youth, a collection of blog posts and podcasts from young men and women in the Middle East: 

300 dead and over 1000 injured, and Israel is promising more.

 

As I part with my blogging week, here are three pieces of advice  They are simple, and I believe, useful and true.

1.  Always call.  When you doubt (upon hearing of someone's loss, or illness) whether you should call, don't doubt.  Your silence is more likely to be seen as indifference than delicacy.  Even if awkward, call.

2.  Learn to say 'no.' Someone else's legitimate expectation does NOT create in you a legitimate obligation.  My congregants have a legitimate expectation that the Rabbi will attend their event.  Since always attending would make it impossible to ever have a home life, I often find myself saying 'no.'  I do not say it with glee, but try also not to say it with guilt.  One who cannot say 'no' is forever a slave.  Besides, your 'yes' means nothing if you really cannot say 'no.'

3.  It is usually not about you.  Other people spend time thinking about you as often as you do about them.  In other words, they too are thinking about themselves, and not the cranberry sauce you spilled on your shirt.  It may torture you all night, but they are already on to their own considerations.  A gentle humor about oneself, taking yourself seriously but not solemnly, smooths life's path.  

OK, I said three things; the fourth is not from me.  It is from the great writer Henry James, who said the three most important things in life are: "to be kind, to be kind and to be kind." 

Now, good luck; or as we say in Aramaic, B'seyata D'shmaya -- with Heaven's help.

Danit Brown, author of Ask for a Convertible, will be blogging all week as one of Jewcy's Lit Klatsch bloggers. Danit's book uses a fictional character to discuss life as an Israeli-American who has trouble fitting into both her parents' homelands.

When I was a teenager, I knew a girl who was such a big fan of the TV show Fame that she would take snapshots of her TV screen and send the stars of the show gifts on their birthdays. At the time, I thought she was weird: yes, I too have had dreams in which I was being wooed by celebrities (most notably, Barry Williams a.k.a. Greg Brady, but also, more recently, Barack Obama and Kelly Ripa), but even way back in junior high, I already knew instinctively that these people had better things to do than answer my mail.

And then my husband introduced me to the wonder that is blogging.

Continue reading...

Steven Colbert Breaks Down Race Barriers: He exemplifies SWPL #14, while I show off #35 Got an ethnic or sexual identity? If so, then according to the Internet, you probably like stuff. Ever since Stuff White People Like became an overnight sensation, bloggers from all across the identity spectrum have been eager to put in their own two cents about, well, what stuff their people like. Any trendspotter now knows that when a few other people of the same race or sexual orientation like things, a website is the next inevitable phase. Just in case you don’t know how, for instance, your young Jewish adult friend might feel about you inviting her to a game of ultimate frisbee (LOVES it), or are in the mood for some awkward stereotype-based humor, here’s a roundup of some more stuff people like:

• For the temple youth group crowd, there’s Stuff Young Jewish Adults Like: (surprisingly?) similar to white people. Likes include Ironic Jewish Themed t-shirts, Isla Fisher, NPR, Taking Christ’s name in vain. My guess? The name of the blog is too unhip to have been written by a real “young Jewish Adult.” But I sort of want to own that T-shirt.

• Stuff Black People Like is currently under construction and is operating in the meantime in blog form. Visitors to the site can learn about how much Black people love talent shows, Black Jesus, using the word “conversate,” “yo mama” jokes, and revolution, or they can participate in the ongoing discussion about what it means to be “Blaucasian.”

• If you are educated, Black, and feel that Stuff Black People Like does not represent your interests, you might find a cozy pigeon hole over at Stuff Educated Black People Like. This group digs wine and cheese affairs, Oprah, mega churches, jazz, fraternities and sororities, advanced degrees, poetry slams, CNN, and moving to Atlanta.

• Time to take it over to the Asian crowd with Stuff Asian People Like! I’ve got to say, this list reminds me of a lot of non-Asian people I know. According to the site, Asians are heavy into Dance Dance Revolution, higher education, house hunting, cutting in line, nagging, fortune cookies, eye enlargement, white girls, white guys, and peace signs.

SNbL #15 - The "Grocer's Apostrophe": Nobody likes faulty punctuation • If you are of South Asian descent and hate DDR, you are in luck! Thanks to Stuff Desis/Brown People Like, you can finally have a forum to discuss you love of Niagra Falls, chai, Desi-White couples, staring, masters degrees, bargain hunting, friends, and cricket.

• For the LGBTQ crowd, don’t fret: you’ve got a site too! Stuff Queer People Like is the place to share your love of having emotionally unstable childhood best friends, finding excuses to wear short shorts, reading Queer subtext into things that are not actually Queer, and my personal favorite, off color humor as told by awkward white women.

The good news is that the trend seems to have run its course. Introducing the meme-ending Stuff Nobody Likes. Because no matter who you are, you definitely hate herpes, the G train, pedophiles, comic strips that don’t know when to quit, and “e-Mail ~~ FWDs!!!!!!!!!!111!!!”.

I live some of the year in Las Vegas. The thing about living in Vegas is that you are basically reliant on people from out of town to tell you what's going on in the city, because the only time a resident hits the strip is while crossing it to go from a bowling lane to a pool hall (the extent of non-strip related entertainment).

As such, a few weeks ago when Armed Liberal of Winds of Change asked me if I was attending something called a Blogworld Expo, I, with the contempt that a resident of Las Vegas reserves for all conventions said: "There is a bloggers convention in Vegas? Shit, count me out!"

But then Michael Totten emailed me, saying he was coming and wanted to meet. And, after that, while I was giving a lecture at Instapundit's law school in Tennessee (by the way yes, that is a double collared shirt I'm rocking), he told me that he was coming to the Expo as well. At this point I started to think that perhaps this convention was a bigger deal than I was wont to give it credit (though I still had no intention of registering or going to any of the events). I told Totten and Armed that we should get together over coffee or dinner and I didn't bother to ask or inquire whether anyone else was intending on going.

Totten -- who from his world travel knows more about brown people than most white people ever will -- and I met up at his hotel and then met Armed at Grand Lux Cafe in Venetian. We talked about random stuff, including motorcycles, scenic drives in California, all while wondering why the waitress didn't wear a name tag. Then, when like an old man, Armed retired (around 9 pm), I took Totten to my favorite local hooka bar where we talked about Hizbollah, Islam, and Hooka-smoke blowing techniques. It was a fascinating conversation, conducted over four mint teas (me) and three Turkish coffees (he). He sang the praises of Lebanese society and I discussed Pakistani martial law and my preferences in women.

I figured that would be the extent of my interaction with the blog world expo, and for a few days it was.

On the last night before Totten left he gave me a call to meet him at Bally's "where a few of us are getting together." I figured hell, I've ignored the entire affair, I might as well catch it on its tail end. When I arrived at the lounge I found that I had walked into the largest gathering of conservative bloggers that I had ever encountered.

It was essentially a Pajamas Media meet up. Totten introduced me to Ed Driscoll, Mary Katherine Ham from Townhall (who recognized me from Dean's World, and whose boyfriend is one of my favorite conservative bloggers), a military wife from Badgers forward, Uncle Jim from Blackfive (who wrote the classic piece on Horowitz entitled Horowitz Sucked Hoover), Vodkapundit, and a few other people whose names I forgot  due to being under the influence of  extra-hot chicken wings and three Pepsi's.

Sitting amidst this crew and enjoying the company, I realized that now, in addition to being part of the leftist-islamist alliance to take over the world (due to my writings at the Guardian), and being a stooge of neo-zionist imperialists (due to my writings at Jewcy), I will now also be accused of being Wolfowitz' right nutsack simply by virtue of having an enjoyable time with some right-wingers. The stupidity of labels began to weight me down.

This led me to further reflect on the fact that at some point many of us -- especially those who write about politics prolifically -- forget that when we are expressing disagreement, it is humans (and not bloodsucking reavers) with whom we're disagreeing. That is something many of us probably knew when we first started writing, but as we slowly began to conceive of human beings as permalinks, lost.

That realization -- as I big goodbye to Totten and walked towards my car -- led me to further think that if it is so easy to  turn ordinary Americans (who dress like me, eat like me, talk my language, and are from my country) into Others, isn't it even easier to turn the rest of the world, with whom we have so little in common, into Demons? That was a sobering thought, and all of a sudden, despite the utter lack of pathos in the air in Las Vegas, I grew melancholy. The barely bearable heaviness is with me still.

Who knew there were so many blogs dedicated to debunking the paranormal? Herewith, our top five:

Bad Astronomy
What it’s about: Finding the funny in NASA, politics and UFO sightings.
Who writes it: Phil Plait, physics and astronomy professor at Sonoma State University
Who should bookmark it: Science geeks, Trekkies

The Skeptic’s Dictionary
What it’s about: A comprehensive resource on the supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific, “from Abracadabra to Zombies.”
Who writes it: Sacramento City College philosophy professor Robert Todd Carroll
Who should bookmark it: Academics, philosophers

The Rogues Gallery
What it’s about: Debunking myths through science and debate.
Who writes it: Members of the New England Skeptics society.
Who should bookmark it: Conspiracy theorists

The Quackometer
What it’s about: Exposing health fraud and pseudoscience on the web.
Who writes it: Self proclaimed “mad inventor” Andy Lewis.
Who should bookmark it: Disgruntled med students

Memoirs of a Skepchick
What it’s about: A critical thinker’s take on pop culture, the supernatural, and religion.
Who writes it: Skeptical Bostonite Rebecca Watson.
Who should bookmark it: Atheists, literature lovers

    *    *    * 

Related: Rebecca Diliberto visits the spiritualist community of Lily Dale.

As an assimilated Negro, I find that black Jews just tickle my fancy. (Any Oprah/Sarah Silverman hybrids, call me!) I agree with the writer Julius Lester when he says, “What I find remarkable about Jews: They’re the only ethnic group that seems to care about blacks. At least Jews want to learn.”

I’ve certainly tried to learn a Jewish girl a thing or two on blacks, so I figured Julius Lester might have some words of wisdom for me. I first discovered Lester when I stumbled upon his must-read 1984 New York Times interview with James Baldwin (during which Baldwin exclaimed “Fuck Norman Mailer!” when Lester mentioned the author of “The White Negro”—sadly, the Times struck it from the record.) Besides being an academic and literary star—he's author of over 45 books and a decorated professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts—Lester also happens to be that most intriguing of exotic birds, a black Jew. He made a name for himself as a writer, radio commentator, and avowed atheist during the civil rights era, but converted to Judaism in 1982 after years of religious searching (Lovesong, his spiritual memoir, details this journey.)

At 68, Lester is still writing; next spring HarperCollins will publish his novel about lynching, told from the point of view of a 14-year-old white boy. I took to asking him some questions over e-mail.

 

 

THE BLACKER THE BERRY, THE JEWER THE JEW

I think the average black person is suspicious when the average Jewish guy distinguishes himself from the average white guy—at least in America. What do minorities like blacks or Hispanics have in common with American Jews, and what are their differences?

Not a huge fan of Normal Mailer: BaldwinIdentity has many faces, and one’s social identity may not correspond to one’s personal identity. There are Jews whose personal and/or religious identity is so forceful that they resent being identified as white, even though they look like “the average white guy.” Someone who identifies first as a Jew sees him or herself as living by a value structure that believes in justice and equality as opposed to a white guy whose value system is different. Perhaps blacks should not be so quick to dismiss a Jew who insists that he is not white, regardless of what he looks like.

Growing up in the forties and fifties, I always thought Jews were different from whites. Jews were people who empathized with blacks, who understood what it was like to be discriminated against. When I was doing radio on WBAI from 1968 to 1975, people would call me on the air and identify themselves as being “white and Jewish,” and that always confused me because, in my mind, Jews were different from white people.

None of this is to say that Jewish racism does not exist, because it does. And black racism exists, despite those who maintain that blacks cannot be racists because they are victims of racism.

It is increasingly difficult to generalize about blacks, Hispanics, and Jews because of increasing class differences within each group as well as generational differences. For example, blacks and Jews of my generation and older worked together in the labor movement and the civil rights movement. As fraught with tensions as black-Jewish relations became, that coalition meant something. The present generation of blacks and Jews do not see why it is expected that blacks and Jews will work together. The black-Jewish coalition means nothing to them, and I would not argue with that. The events of their lifetimes—Farrakhan, Israel, Arabs—mean very different things to each group.

Different from the rest of the country: Unique New York However, having said that, black-Jewish tensions have been more pronounced in New York than, for example, in the Midwest, where I found blacks and Jews working together on many issues with none of the suspicion and antagonism that can exist in New York. People too often think that the experiences of blacks and Jews in New York reflect the state of affairs between blacks and Jews across the country, but that is not the case. I know it’s difficult for New Yorkers to believe that their experiences do not represent the truth for everyone in America, but New York is unique.

Politically I think blacks and Jews made a huge mistake in the 1980s and 1990s by not reaching out to start working with Hispanic groups. Even twenty years ago, demographic projections suggested that Hispanics were going to become the largest minority group early in the 21^st century. That has happened earlier than anyone predicted. As Hispanics become an increasingly strong political group, the public discourse on whom and what constitutes a minority will change, and neither blacks nor Jews are prepared to deal with the shift. Blacks are in the process of losing their golden status as the largest minority group, and this loss is going to have an impact on black identity, which has been too focused for too long on being victims.

 

SLAVERY: OVER FOR 142 YEARS. THE HOLOCAUST: OVER FOR 62 YEARS. BEING A VICTIM: TIMELESS.

Is there a statute of limitations on historical tragedies? For how long is Auschwitz or Jim Crow Mississippi relevant to a young Jew or Negro in New York City?

Compassion fatigue: Remember the Maine? A very interesting question. I suppose one needs to ask if there is a statute of limitations on memory. There was the recent article in the Sunday Times about people who are tired of memorial services for the victims of 9/11—about “compassion fatigue”. The article referred to the numerous events that were once remembered by public ceremonies and are scarcely remembered now: the sinking of the USS Maine, the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

One of the real problems facing America today is that since the 1960s, Americans no longer share the same historical memories, or we do not share those memories in the same ways.

In the summer of 1973 I taught summer school at a small college in Macon, Georgia. In one of my classes was a very beautiful blonde girl who invited me to drive up to someplace in north Georgia with her. I declined. I knew that northern Georgia was prime KKK territory and as much as I wanted to sleep with her, driving into Klan country was a price I was not willing to pay. When she asked me why I told her about the Klan’s prominence in northern Georgia, about segregation and the backs of buses, etc. She looked at me with her wide blue eyes like I was crazy said in her honeyed southern accent “None of that ever happened down here.”

Echoes of the past: Jim Crow Mississippi can't be forgotten Even though she was blonde, she was not dumb. She had come of age after the changes wrought by the civil rights movement and had grown up at a time when blacks sat anywhere on buses, when there were no white and colored water fountains in stores, when blacks and whites went to school together. I was floored by her response. I had no idea that history could be wiped out so completely in so short a time. This was 1973. The summer nine years before, I had been in Mississippi waking up every morning half-surprised that I hadn’t been killed during the night. After that day I didn’t know how to talk to her, (which was sad because she was really a beautiful girl) because her experience negated the history I had endured.

It is not enough that we remember only what happened to us. We should make the effort to remember that which happened to others, even others before we were born. So many U.S. states and cities have Native American names. The people are gone; all that remains is a word from their language, which is really a kind of tombstone. Massachusetts is a Native American word meaning “High Mountain Place.” Connecticut means “Long River Place.” It is my obligation to remember. The act of remembering connects us to each other. The life of the young black in New York grows from the lives and deaths of blacks in Mississippi who endured and struggled so that he would not have to endure and struggle in quite the same ways. The same goes for the young Jew.

Still relevant?: Building the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin Our lives do not begin with our births. Our lives exist on a continuum. Part of that continuum is that our lives today will become someone else’s past, and how we live our lives will, to some degree, give texture and context to the lives of people not yet born.

One of the things I love about being Jewish is that remembering is an integral part of being Jewish. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we sing melodies and say prayers that date back a thousand years and more. On Tisha B’Av we still mourn the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago. At Passover we remember the exodus from Egypt, which may or may not have happened, but something happened that was transformative.

It is my wish that the young black New Yorker will remember Auschwitz as well as Jim Crow Mississippi, and that the young Jewish New Yorker will remember Jim Crow Mississippi as well as Auschwitz. Remembering the sufferings of others makes us come closer to each other.

Seems to be being a black Jew might have some perks. For example you can’t be “out-victimized” by anyone, right? It also seems the particular black-Jew blend should have a nickname. Any suggestions?

If there are perks to being a black Jew, I missed out. And I must be dumber than I realized because it never occurred to me that no one could out-victimize me. I never thought of being black or Jewish as being a victim, which just goes to demonstrate how much out of touch I am with the times I live in.

As for nicknames, oy vey! Virginia Hamilton wrote a novel called Bluish about a kid who was black and Jewish, but “bluish” sounds more like an alien in a bad Sci-Fi movie. The police chief (or maybe he’s former police chief now) of Charleston, South Carolina is (was) a black man named Reuben Greenberg, and he is Jewish. He said he was working on a recipe for fried chicken soup. That’s as close to black-Jewish humor as I’ve seen.

 

THE JULIUS LESTER GUIDE TO BLOGGING WHILE BLACK, JEWISH, AND 68 YEARS OLD

You’re a blogger at 68, when many people your age are still trying to get on to the Internet. Do you think it's important to stay engaged with the youth generation? Do you think blogs are a good medium for bridging generational gaps?

The non-linear world: Can you blog and walk at the same time? There are probably more people my age online than is recognized. I think it is important to stay engaged with the youth generation to the degree that is possible. I taught at the University of Massachusetts for 32 years, retiring at the end of 2003. I retired in part because I couldn’t continue to bridge the generational difference between my students and me. Yes, I blog but Facebook, YouTube, and other such enterprises are beyond me. At age 68, I keep having to decide: Given however much time I have left, how do I want to use it? One of my children is on Facebook and I enjoy logging in and seeing what she’s up to, but I don’t have the time or energy to create a Facebook site for myself.

One difference that my daughter and I talk about is that I grew up in a “linear world,” i.e. the world of print, and also a world in which you did one thing at a time. She has grown up in a world of simultaneity, a world in which one does several things simultaneously. It took me a while to understand that I can be talking to a friend in France on Skype and at the same time being sending that friend an attachment relating to what we’re talking about. And there’re probably four other things I could be doing at the same time. I grew up taking piano lessons; my daughter grew up with Garageband. A big difference.

I want to stay engaged with younger generations but recognize that I can only do so to a limited extent. Aging has its own interesting challenges and rewards. One is relief that I won’t be young again; another is the ability to look back to when I was young and what my dreams were and being able to say that I have achieved what I set out to achieve and more, that I didn’t sell out, that I made my dreams become reality. I would not trade being 68 for anything.

Are there any classic writers that would have thrived in this new media environment?

The Perez Hilton of Dublin: Joyce (drawn in text) This is a very interesting question. The writer who first comes to mind is Malcolm Lowery. I don’t remember the name of the novel, but one of his novels has a separate text running in the margin next to the main text. I wrote a short story (“The Child,” published in Join In: Multiethnic Short Stories) and a novella (“Catskill Morning,” published in Two Love Stories) in which I attempted to tell two stories—one in the margin, the other the main text. And I think James Joyce would have excelled in this new environment. To be able to add visuals to stream of consciousness feels like a natural for him. Although he’s not a writer, certainly Picasso would have thrived on the kind of art that is possible now, which can combine text, visuals, and sound.

I went with Baldwin one day to help him buy an electric typewriter. It frightened him so, I don’t think he ever used it.

What blogs do you read? You mentioned seeing me on Gawker.

I read Gawker, Jezebel, The Assimilated Negro, and several blogs devoted to women’s fashions. I love women’s fashions and subscribe to Vogue, Paris Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W, and a couple of others. Both Gawker and Jezebel are funny as hell. The contributors on both have raised cynicism to a height that has its own peculiar beauty. However, Gawker needs to lighten up on the cracks about old people.

I've been covering the blogosphere for Slate for almost two years. In that time, I've formulated two laws which further immersion into the messy world of unvarnished opinion has done nothing to overturn:

Weiss's 1st Law of the Blogosphere:  Journalists who become bloggers will suffer in both roles because the abuse and stupidity they'll face in the latter will make them psychologically less fit for the former.

Weiss's 2nd Law of the Blogosphere:  The crazier the comments section of a blog, the more interesting the blog. The tendency to leave a comment is no different than the one to write a letter to the editor: the reader strenuously disagrees with the printed content. However, a comment needn't be vetted for clarity, eloquence or sanity before it's posted. So a blog filled with bile, sociopathology, anti-Semitism must be doing something to provoke. A blog filled with easy-listening affirmation, on the other hand, has got a built-in audience and need only cater to expectation and party line.

Joe Klein needs to learn the laws: 

But the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed—especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable. Some of this is understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered. They are also justifiably furious at a Bush White House that has specialized in big lies and smear tactics.

In one of the only hilarious essays George Orwell ever wrote, he anatomizes the sad, catchpenny life of the professional book reviewer thus:

In a cold but stuffy bed-sitting room littered with cigarette ends and  half-empty cups of tea, a man in a moth-eaten dressing-gown sits at a  rickety table, trying to find room for his typewriter among the piles of  dusty papers that surround it. He cannot throw the papers away because  the wastepaper basket is already overflowing, and besides, somewhere  among the unanswered letters and unpaid bills it is possible that there is a cheque for two guineas which he is nearly certain he forgot to pay  into the bank. There are also letters with addresses which ought to be  entered in his address book. He has lost his address book, and the  thought of looking for it, or indeed of looking for anything, afflicts  him with acute suicidal impulses....

Half  hidden among the pile of papers is a bulky parcel containing five volumes  which his editor has sent with a note suggesting that they "ought to go  well together". They arrived four days ago, but for 48 hours the reviewer was prevented by moral paralysis from opening the parcel. Yesterday in a  resolute moment he ripped the string off it and found the five volumes to  be PALESTINE AT THE CROSS ROADS, SCIENTIFIC DAIRY FARMING, A SHORT  HISTORY OF EUROPEAN DEMOCRACY (this one is 680 pages and weighs four  pounds), TRIBAL CUSTOMS IN PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA, and a novel, IT'S  NICER LYING DOWN, probably included by mistake. His review--800 words,  say--has got to be "in" by midday tomorrow. 

Anyone who's ever attempted to summarize, qualify and cram, say, a 1,000 page literary biography into the space of 600 words knows the pathos of this thankless task. And all for what? To see that you used the word "Surely" to open a sentence twice in the space of two paragraphs? To wind up a lopped-off and "de-contextualized" blurb on the back of a bargain-bin paperback edition?

The confessions of a book reviewer could keep a priest busy all the live long day. But every so often, the confession becomes a shrieking cri de coeur, and you pity the poor fool who think his in-box won't be glutted with hate mail for writing anti-democratic stuff like this. Mark Sarvas, Maud Newton -- I give you Richard Schickel:   

Let me put this bluntly, in language even a busy blogger can understand: Criticism — and its humble cousin, reviewing — is not a democratic activity. It is, or should be, an elite enterprise, ideally undertaken by individuals who bring something to the party beyond their hasty, instinctive opinions of a book (or any other cultural object). It is work that requires disciplined taste, historical and theoretical knowledge and a fairly deep sense of the author's (or filmmaker's or painter's) entire body of work, among other qualities.

Opinion — thumbs up, thumbs down — is the least important aspect of reviewing. Very often, in the best reviews, opinion is conveyed without a judgmental word being spoken, because the review's highest business is to initiate intelligent dialogue about the work in question, beginning a discussion that, in some cases, will persist down the years, even down the centuries.

I know the objections to this argument: Most reviewing, whether written for print or the blogosphere, is hack work, done on the fly for short money. Anyone who has written a book has had the experience. Your publisher kindly forwards the clippings, and you are appalled by the sheer uselessness of their spray-painted opinions. Looked at this way, you could say that book reviewing is already democratic enough, thanks much. It's more than ready for the guy from car parts.

Blogs.

Remember when Jessica Cutler signed a 250,000 dollar book deal, and when Tucker Max’s smarmy grin was plastered over airport bookstores coast to coast? Well, it seems that 2005’s mania for internet content providers is finally trickling down to those artistic martyrs- comics artists.
Persimmon Cup: Nick Bertozzi's web comic on Act-i-vate. Bertozzi has not one but two books coming out in April.
On Monday, the AP Wire ran a story on Act-I-Vate, the free, daily webcomics blog that’s the coolest thing to come out of Livejournal in years. Full disclosure: I’m friends with two of the Act-I-Vate creators. Ryan Roman shoots photos for Dr. Sketchy’s, and me and Dean Haspiel have been trading one-liners for years.

Says Tobi Elkin on the AP…

ACT-I-VATE is the brainchild of Dean Haspiel, whose pathos-packed "Immortal" appears in weekly installments on the blog. The story chronicles the misadventures of Billy Dogma and Jane Legit, a pair of star-crossed lovers "who don't know how to love each other right," he says. Haspiel's "Fear, My Dear," the sequel to "Immortal," features Billy discovering the eighth deadly sin. "I do super-psychedelic romance comics with a boozer/dame sensibility." These are not your father's comics.

Haspiel's vision for ACT-I-VATE was to create "a space where people can parlay and talk to each other about the comics they're making" in real-time. ACT-I-VATE members include a mix of up-and-coming artists and veterans like Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, Dan Goldman, Josh Neufeld and Leland Purvis. The members consider themselves auteurs who both write and draw their own comics.

Apparently, Act-i-Vate members have been getting book deals like an FIT dormitory gets herpes- a lot. Dan Goldman, who won my eternal respect for standing up to the security Nazis at Comiccon, is having his graphic novel Shooting War published by Warner Books. Two of Act-i-vate artist Nick Bertozzi’s graphic novels, The Salon and Houdini: Handcuff King are coming out in April.

Providing free content for the digital maw is a noble task, but often a thankless one. It always make me grin when it’s rewarded with cash as well as comments.

Here at Faith Hacker we’re prolific perusers. And I thought it would be appropriate on this day of cheesiness and wet sloppy kisses that we send some virtual roses to my favorite faith-related blogs (and a few plain ol’ websites). Without further ado…

The Kosher Eucharist—I should be totally honest here and say that my feelings about the Kosher Eucharist transcend the term blogcrush and go all the way to straight up regular crush. Written by a pair of best friends who are Jewish and Catholic and live in Israel and New Zealand respectively, I spent most of the time I’m reading their blog giggling and wishing Michael was my boyfriend. His posts about learning Hebrew mixed with Chris’s laments about the mullet in New Zealand make for snarky awesomeness. Alas, Michael lives in the Holy Land and I live in Music City. Also, we’ve never met. So I’ll have to make do with reading the blog and wishing I’ll someday meet someone who appreciates both the Clash and bossa nova.
Blog Love: A sweet keyboard is such an aphrodisiac.
Jewlicious—I only started reading The Kosher Eucharist because a lot of Michael’s posts are cross-listed on Jewlicious, which is always full of crazy, smart, hilarious and otherwise rockin’ items. Today they’ve got a picture of Ahmadinejad in a chocolate bath. ‘Nuff said.

Jewschool—At this point I hardly want to be friends with someone who doesn’t check Jewschool once a day. On the frontlines of Post-Zionism, a creator of Jewfusion, supporter of Limmud NY, and just generally excellent and brilliant people, Jewschoolers educate me daily. If you’re not a fan, you should be.

This is Babylon—I saw Y-Love perform at Limmud and commented to my friend that after his Friday night tisch he could have slept with any of about 300 women who were salivating at his feet. If you weren’t there to fall for his mad rhymes or rockin’ body (the first and only time I have been attracted to someone in a Hassidic get up) then check out his blog to fall for his mind.

Hebrew Language Detective—I’m an etymology and linguistics nerd, but even if I wasn’t I’d love this blog that takes a close look at how Hebrew works and where it comes from. The Jewish alternative to Dictionary.com.

Self Aggrandizement—This blog of a twenty-something New York film producer Joshua Newman touches on all sorts of topics, but he’s got some interesting things to say about Judaism. The podcast he does with Sarah Brown is also completely hilarious.

SOMA A Review of Religion and Culture—Always has some scintillating articles and thought provoking reviews (like this one about Hip Puritan Sex) for those days when you’re feeling highbrow.

But Not As You Are—My English friend Adam runs this little blog of divrei Torah. Besides being one of my favorite people in life, Adam is frighteningly smart (or clever, as they say in England). If you don’t get to be one of the people he calls when he’s having a theological crisis, well, that’s really sad for you because those calls are awesome. But now you can read a little bit of what’s on his mind.

Antithesis the Rapper—Speaking of British men I am slightly obsessed with, Antithesis and especially his radio show Kol Cambridge, which you can download as a podcast, are one of the great joys of my life. He plays contemporary Israeli hip-hop, interviews Israeli music stars, and DJs. I wrote my entire undergraduate thesis to the sweet sounds of Kol Cambridge. All kinds of awesome.

Jewbiquitous—Written by a couple of smart chicks who take no prisoners this blog makes me go, “Hey, yeah!” with every post. Also, they like me, which is pretty flattering.

SemGirl—I don’t think there are enough frum girls writing and being loud and proud out there. So Baruch Hashem for SemGirl.

Unbroken Glass—It’s not updated anymore because the blogger got married, but it’s still full of great shidduch-date-gone-horribly wrong stories. My favorite is The Vort.

Articles of Faith—This is the London Times’ religion blog, and because I used to live in England and I perpetually have a crush on any of a number of British men, I like to keep up with the news in Blighty. Not much in the way of Judaism, but plenty of interesting religion news all the same.

This Woman’s Work—A writer from Ohio with two kids and lots to say on Judaism, infertility, adoption, writing and being a hip mama.

On the Life of a New Author—If you haven’t read Naomi Alderman’s debut novel, Disobedience, you should get to it ASAP. And her blog, which is rarely updated but always interesting, will tide you over until her second novel comes out.

Calm Kallahs—This is a guilty pleasure, but if you’re planning a wedding, or just like watching Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? then you should check out this website. The ‘Intimate Matters’ forums are especially amusing.

OnlySimchas—I admit it, okay? I check onlysimchas twice a week to see which of my friends from high school got engaged. Then I call all my friends and talk about how tacky it is to put pictures of your ring up online. When someone gets married, we discuss the wedding dress ad nauseum.

Jewess—Laurel blogged about Jewess just the other day, so I don’t think I have to say much more than that it’s great and fresh and fun.

That’s about all the blog-love I can deal with in one day. Now get out there and enjoy the fresh blogosphere air.

 [Note: Movable Snipe is a week-long feature wherein two writers read and evaluate five blogs, sending each other one letter a day. This week's Snipers are Michael Helke and Fiona Maazel. Michael's first letter can be accessed here; Fiona's response to it, here. Day Two: Michael.]

[Note: Movable Snipe is a week-long feature wherein two writers read and evaluate five blogs, sending each other one letter a day. This week's Snipers are Michael Helke and Fiona Maazel. Michael's first letter can be accessed here; Fiona's response to it, here.]

Last week, when the Pulitzer Prize board announced that blog posts are now eligible for the award, blogging officially became as cool as the episode of Life Goes On where Corky lip-synched (and moonwalked to) Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.” It’s an excruciating but expected cultural cycle: That which engages the creative, the young and the angry, unemployed, underrepresented middle will eventually become the property of The Man, The Oppressor, or at least The Parents.

They still have to be online portals attached to daily, weekly or Sunday newspapers, but this is a major step toward recognizing the future of journalism. As Egon said in Ghostbusters, "Print is dead."

With its new rules for online submissions, the Pulitzer Board will require each online element to be a single, discretely designated presentation, such as a database, blog, interactive graphic, slide show, or video presentation. Each designated element will count as one item in the total number of items, print or online, that are permitted in an entry.

What's next? YouTube Nobelists? 

To Michelle Malkin, he'll always be Admiral EdHey Melissa,