Here it comes, my twice-yearly analysis of the New Jews that have surfaced in our modern era. Remember kids, this is all in good fun. So if you see a little bit of yourself in this, just laugh, because I certainly have.

 

Bro-thodox

Exactly as it sounds: an epic combo of "Bro" and "Orthodox."

Seen wandering around Circle K gas stations on Sunday nights with his "boys", the Bro-thodox smells like Axe Body Spray, wears a white baseball cap backwards,  and has been seen hitting on Hot Chanis at kosher pizza shops, but making sure not to accidently touch them for fear of awkward Shomer Negiah moments. He jerks off to Jewish porn star Joanna Angel but will call his sister a "whore" for wearing a skirt that is above her ankle. He calls his next door neighbor "shvartze" but listens to hip hop, has a picture of the Rebbe on his mini-fridge but skips davening and after failing vet school will wind up working for his dad, the only person kind (and stupid) enough to put up with his oafish, lazy attitude. He's the kind of guy who winds up making teshuvah in his mid-twenties and turning his asshole attitude into a fundamentalist, halachic requirement.

JCC Sluts

For some, spiritual enlightenment comes from being "as Jewishly connected as possible." This person is the JCC Slut. Their Blackberry reads like Shindler's List: a collection of "steins," "bergs" and "mans" that they don't really know on a personal level, but would have no problem calling up for a job recommendation, a deal on a car, or a chance to fundraise for their local Federation. A condo dweller by nature, this person is a "committee chairperson" for more Jewish organizations than probably exist. Their inner peace comes from IDF banquets at the local hotel, Limmud brainstorming sessions and Saturday night "Young Professional Singles" Parties sponsored by the local Reform synagogue. The Banana Republic skirt and too small jacket with not-too-slutty heels and gold "chai" necklace are a dead giveaway.

Jew Ager

This person takes Jewish Renewal to its logical extreme. With Tibetan prayer flags hanging from their sukkah and a picture of Krishna draped by blue and white "Hanukkah" lights, the Jew Ager (Jew/New Ager), is really a Universalist who was born into the Jewish tradition and just can't give it up, despite really having no interest in Judaism, per se. They drink Yerba Mate from their Jewish National Fund mug and nearly shit themselves when they heard about the Abayudaya music from the Jewish people of Uganda. 

The Palestinian Jew

It's really en vogue for college students to hate Israel. And the best are the Jewish kids who hate it. Coming home for a Passover seder, they proudly proclaim to their parents that they are hosting an anti-Birthright Israel party in the student center on the next Shabbos. With an "End the Occupation" button on their messenger bag and a "Free Palestine" bumper sticker on the Toyota Corolla their parents bought them, the Palestinian Jew is the epitome of American youth--totally clueless about anything and more than willing to shoot their mouth off, as long as their isn't an actual Palestinian around who might correct them on their theories about Middle Eastern Politics. They don't want a Two-State Solution, because then it would make them lose a soapbox to stand on. The Palestinian Jew has never befriended a Muslim (the hijab just looks too scary) but has certainly seen lots of them on Al-Jazeera. This person will later grow up to be a Jew Ager.

That Annoying Convert Guy

The name is John Smith, but he likes to be called "Adam Ben Avraham v' Sarah." This person knows everything about the Holocaust and like to point it out to everyone, feeling a certain glee that he's smarter than guys with names like Saul Bromowitz and Kyle Bergman. That Annoying Convert Guy only eats Cholov Yisroel dairy and goes into a rage when anyone suggests that OU is "just as good". For the Annoying Convert Woman, it's all about getting into uncomfortable conversations with women about periods and mikvah and complaining about how unobservant the men on JDate are. The best way to piss off this person: point out that they are a convert, then watch them fly into a storm about how the Gemarrah says that pointing out a convert is a sin and that, since they do not wish to be called a convert, the person is giving up Olam Haba because calling someone a name "by which they do not wish to be called" leads to the destruction of the soul.

I write this with some mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am pleased that my original post on Zeek / New Jewish Thought was taken seriously enough by Diana to provoke her into writing a lengthy, articulate and serious response. However, I am also concerned that readers of Zeek, which in my understanding caters to a largely North American/Israeli readership, might find the exchange between us difficult to translate into local vernacular, if not irrelevant to their national experiences as Jews.

In our defence though, the questions we are grappling with are important ones in global Jewish terms. Who should represent Jews, what Jewish politics should consist of, how we should relate to Israel: these issues recur throughout the Jewish world.

The first thing I should say in my response to Diana is that her piece appears to conflate two public statements I have made. The first, my piece for Zeek, only mentions Jews for Justice for Palestinians in one paragraph as part of a wider (and generally rather abstract) discussion of British Jewish politics. The second is an invited speech I made at the Annual General Meeting of JFJFP a few weeks before the Zeek article was published. In my speech I described myself as a ‘critical friend’ of the organisation and suggested ways in which JFJFP might build a closer relationship to the UK Jewish community. This speech was for the most part received respectfully but it was also clear that most (but by no means all) participants at the AGM disagreed with what I had to say.

In what follows I will respond briefly to some of Diana’s points. Some things we will have to agree to differ on; other criticisms that Diana made are based perhaps on a misunderstanding of my intentions in writing the Zeek piece and conflating what I said at the AGM and what I wrote in the article.

First of all, I should say that I share many of Diana’s historical criticisms of the Board of Deputies. In its long history it has a shameful history of quietism and accommodation with power. However, while some of the basic problems with the Board remain, I do think that there are grounds for working with the organisation. First, it provides an umbrella for a lot of uncontroversial and necessary work, such as statistical research. Some of its representative work attracts little criticism, as in its defense of Kashrut. The Board is also involved in important inter faith work (although arguably some of its public positions on Israel may undermine this at times) and I had absolutely no reticence in completing a research report on inter faith work for them earlier this year.

Second, the Board no longer has the kind of unquestioned power it used to. The fast-growing UK Haredi community is not affiliated to it and power has shifted to the Jewish Leadership Council and other ad hoc groupings. Third, the recent election of Vivian Wineman, a former chair of British Friends of Peace Now, as President, does suggest that there is more room for movement among the Deputies than has often been supposed. Indeed, Diana herself notes that the Board’s unquestioned support for Israeli actions may finally be waning.

Diana represents my views regarding the Board as follows:

He suggests, as perhaps a modernising response, that like the British democratic parliament, there should be a parliamentary opposition which would allow the safety valve of open debate and thus draw the sting from those who feel excluded from Jewish life, because they happen to have fundamentally different conceptions of what the Board should be doing, particularly with respect to Israel.

I wasn’t actually suggesting that the Board needed to have an official opposition as a practical policy suggestion. Rather, I was trying to demonstrate that the parliamentary model on which the Board is based is imperfect as it fails to allow for an organised but respected opposition. I certainly would not want people who have different conceptions of the Board to be incorporated and neutered through some cynical ‘safety valve’. In fact, my suggestion, perhaps an overly subtle one, was much more radical: that we rethink what it is to ‘represent’ a community.

On to my views of JFJFP, Diana argues that I did not ‘do justice to the actions of JFJFP’ in my article and that the organisation has ‘made strenuous efforts to bridge the gap between ourselves and mainstream Jewry’.  Diana quite rightly points out that JFJFP are often viewed with great hostility and that attempts to reach out are often rebuffed. Where I would differ from her is in her argument that ‘It is not us who shun the community but the mainstream community who seem to find our message difficult to digest’.

Now I have absolutely no hesitation in recognising and condemning the hostility that JFJFP engenders. I acknowledge that JFJFP have, in their public statements at least made efforts to use moderate language most of the time. I also acknowledge that in their current process of consultation about whether to support boycotts of Israel there is a real internal debate going on as to how to engage with the Jewish community and how to bridge the divides on the boycott question within JFJFP itself.

The problem is that there are many signatories to JFJFP that I met at the AGM and at other occasions that are incredibly angry at the ‘mainstream’ community, have very little involvement with it and have no hesitation in attacking it rather than working with it. Now much of this attitude does indeed stem from the historic conformism and conservatism of Anglo-Jewry. Until very recently the only choice for the leftist Jew with concerns about Israel was ‘put up or shut up’. Understandably, many rejected this choice and chose to leave the community, while often still identifying as secular Jews. 

But while I understand where the hostility comes from, I also think that it is ultimately self-defeating and increasingly anachronistic.  In the last decade or two, things have moved on in Anglo-Jewry. Among a younger generation, brought up with Limmud, Jewdas, the JCC for London and the Moishe House, the old choice to put up or shut up no longer has to be made. There are spaces now to be a leftist, critical Jew and still be religious to some degree and to be part of the Jewish community. I have no illusions as to the limits of this trend and that many mainstream institutions are unreformed. But – for the first time in decades, perhaps even ever – there is now something to play for.

There is a real chance to change the Jewish community, to create more spaces to be Jewish and progressive, without the need for hostility and anger.

The biggest difference between Diana and myself probably lies in my attitude to the Palestinians. She claims that

‘It is difficult to understand how to equate the brutality of a military occupation together with its denial of human rights, with injustice to Jews.  Indeed it is difficult to know how, when Jewish life has never been less constricted, what injustice is being perpetrated.’

I do not for a moment deny that the more powerful party in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle is the Israeli one. I do not for a moment seek to minimise the brutality of the occupation and the injustices heaped on the Palestinians. However, none of this is to say that Israelis/Jews do not suffer terribly from the conflict. Suicide bombings are horrific and cause huge pain. The spasmodic bombardment of Sderot – however amateurish and however few it kills – causes terrible fear and trauma. No of course I would rather live in Sderot than Gaza, but pain is pain, anguish is anguish, post-traumatic stress is post-traumatic stress.

There’s a bigger issues here. Diana argues:

There is also the question raised by those of us who are schooled in the anti-colonialist struggles of the last century.  This is that those from the dominant side have a responsibility to challenge our own side and to expect the challenge to the oppressed side, to come from within.  Anything else is paternalism.

Absolutely, those of us who are attached to the most powerful side in such conflicts have a duty to challenge our own side. But things don’t stop there. There are fundamental questions of morality and ethics. To give a ‘free pass’ to the ‘oppressed side’ in a conflict is immoral and ultimately self-defeating. One of the main problems in liberation struggles is that when the oppressed side eventually wins, they frequently themselves end up as oppressors. Look at Mugabe!

It is utterly wrong to suspend moral judgements until the far-off day when victory is won. The liberated state is always formed in embryo in the struggle. Do you really want to see a Hamas style government in the occupied territories? In any case, it is pointless to remain silent if the tactics of the oppressed will only increase their suffering and make liberation less likely. Bombarding Sderot was a gift to the right-wing in Israel. It has probably put paid to any chance of a just peace for decades. Hamas and the Israeli right are both happy that they can continue their sordid little conflict indefinitely.

I should state here what it is that I would like to see: a real peace movement that makes excuses for NO ONE. A movement that rejects violence on both sides. At the moment there is no peace movement – just people who are happier to excuse one sides crimes that the other’s.

This is the problem with single –issue politics. In focusing ire on just one group, institution or issue, any kind of holistic vision is lost. The argument I have with Engage is similar to the one I have with you. I am frustrated that in their justifiable desire to oppose anti-Semitism, a leftist group most of whose members hold views on Israel are not to different from JFJFP have essentially sidelined activism against the occupation. I am equally frustrated by JFJFP’s lack of enthusiasm at fighting anti-Semitism (and yes I recognise that the issue is controversial and different definitions abound) which is sidelined in the fight against the occupation. I recognise that JFJFP do important quiet work on anti-Semitism in the pro-Palestinian movement and that Engage do restate their opposition to the occupation regularly, but there is no question that these activities come a very distant second to the main activities.

As I have stated before, there is a real opportunity for a broad-based progressive Jewish organisation that is critical about Israel. At the moment though, the internecine warfare that bedevils the Jewish community and the Jewish left makes this a dim possibility.

But perhaps Diana and I are both wrong: me in my call for a more politicised Jewish community and Diana in her defence of the integrity of her organisation. Maybe, just maybe, the new generation that is emerging will build a Jewish community that is less limited by the (non)-politics that those of us who grew up in the pre-Noughties community have experienced. Perhaps there is more respect for difference – on Israel and on other things. Perhaps there is less tolerance for puerile ‘Judean People’s Front’ politics and a greater desire for grassroots coalition building. Perhaps there is a willingness to see love of Jews, love of Israelis, love of Palestinians, hatred of violence, hatred of racism and hatred of anti-Semitism as non-contradictory values.

In short, maybe Diana and I are dinosaurs.

 

I've been asked to suffix all of my comments that address Limmud as "Limmud UK," which is a giddy curse-turned-blessing-in-disguise -- Limmud NY starts in just about two weeks, and Limmud LA comes right after that. I'm going to be otherwise occupied with being on the verge of giving birth, G*d willing, but oceans cannot contain the amount of jealousy I have for everyone who gets to carry on in the grand tradition of Limmud.

Before I went, I asked what Limmud is, exactly, and this is what I've discovered: it's the Hebrew word learning. There's a whole universe of stuff that falls under the arbitrary umbrella we've decided to call the Jewish nation, and

I wish I could be more specific. I wish I could nail down everything that I've learned. I wish I could even give you the highlights. Man -- maybe next year, Jewcy'll sponsor me and buy me a PDA to do instant updates from each session. I started to make a list, and here's what I got:

• Former Speaker of the Knesset Avrum Berg's assertion, while reading I.B. Singer's Nobel address, that Yiddish is a language without words for violence. That, he says, should be our model for building a Jewish state and a model for its future -- with all the corollaries that come with that. (After our session, I pointed out to him that one of the first Yiddish phrases I learned was potch in the tuchus. He said it didn't count.)
• Raz Hartman teaching a room full of young/old/middle-aged hippies/punks/investment-banker-lookin' people how to sing wordless Chasidic dirges. (We came late, and met someone leaving the room, jaw dropped open, who told us, "I just sang for ten minutes straight. And I didn't even know the words.") In between, he taught slices of Rebbe Nachman, who said that the prophets weren't able to give over their prophecy unless there was music playing.
• Shalva Weil's intense sessions on Ethiopian Jewish refugees, and the halachic battle that determined where, ultimately, they landed in Israel's diaspora. The final word came, in the early 1970s, from a young Sephardic rabbi named Ovadia Yosef, who ruled that, based on a 14th-century precedent, they were not Jews -- because Jew implies from the tribe of Judah -- but Israelites; they were the lost children of Dan. (This probably could and will get its own article, if not its own book; but here is a very brief answer.)
• Daniel Boyarin. The most controversial straight queer commentator on the Talmud today. I think I can say that unabashedly: he gave over a three-part lecture charting the course of Chapter 7 of Baba Metzia that started
  with the laws of hiring bricklayers and then proceeded into a discussion of how the size of a man's member corresponds to the size of his desire, and how all the rabbis with the biggest stomachs managed to impregnate their wives (Rav Papa, according to the Gemara, was the size of - if anyone has this in front of them, please correct me - five half-barrels of wine, and some say it was seven.)

This seems like the perfect opportunity to say that, if you don't learn this at Limmud, you will probably have to enroll in a yeshiva for multiple years of your life in order to find out. One more reason to make it to LA or NY (or one of several other Limmuds around the world, from Turkey to South Africa)....and one more reason for me to be jealous of you.

This morning's sessions: when the messiah's coming, and what it means to believe - fave quote: ''Why wasn't the Rambam just, like, I KNOW the messiah's coming?'' -- and a veritable feast of the Danish gay poet Jacob Israel van Haas, whose brother became a hasid and sister became a nun. Issues always sound better in dutch. Seriously: it's like Italian seduced German and had a kid who never stops french kissing.

There are SO many different lanugages here. I'm getting lost in them and I love it.

And I stand by what I said, that there's nothing like this anywhere. At least, not that I've seen. Yes, I know we have lots of Jews stateside -- I'm a yank myself, I live in Brooklyn and I'm representing NYC over here, whoo, but the feeling I get here is that of jews of nearly every different band coming together -- can't wait for NY Limmud and the amazingness that will come with it, but Tamar, you've gotta get yourself over here. England is a very different place than New York - know, though, us New Yorkers think there's nothing else out there, certainly nothing better - but the very smallness of the UK is what makes it so fascinating that all these little demographics interact in a way that I've never seen in america.....that is, actually interacting. and without those petty labels like ''conservative'' or ''reform'' or ''breslov hasid who would never ordinarily go to the shiur of a conservative rabbi, but hell, we're at Limmud and boundaries are sooo last decade.''

I’ve already told you to make your reservations for Limmud NY because it’s going to be off the hook, but if you’ve waited you’ve got until December 28th to get the reduced rate.  Limmud NY has sold out every year in the past, so make sure to make your reservations before you’re shut out of all the rocking and rolling (and learning).

Limmud NY Rocks So Hard: It will blow your purple hair/fauxhawk/payis/sheitl back, for sure.

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.*

Dateline, Limmud UK: All the way here, I saw signs for Stratford-Upon-Avon. Banking on my last post, about the merits of visiting the graves of tzaddikim, I am trying to convince people here to come with me to hang out with me at Shakespeare's final resting place. (If ''hang out with me'' means ''give me a ride,'' that is.)

Meanwhile, I have a new favorite writer: Bernard Kops. An 81-year-old British dude whose play about Anne Frank is going up in LA next week and soon in NYC, he did some amazing poetry -- just sat down and started reading, his voice against the loud air conditioner. He has a singuar talent for the one-line zinger:

People always tell you

everything will be

alright.

 

You thank them

and shut the door

and lie awake all night.

 

 

About this, he said: ''I've suffered more from reassurance than I have from criticism.'' He also told us that, if politics changed anything, it would have been abolished years ago.

Hello from Sunny Old England, where today's sky is grey, but bright grey, which might be the closest it's come to sunlight in, well, years. (Don't listen to me -- I just landed at 7:oo last night, 12 hours later than I was supposed to. We sat in the airport for practically forEVER -- which gave me a chance to meet Judith Hauptman, who has some pretty amazing ideas for getting twentysomethings involved in Jewish party life, I mean, holiday life....and really, there is such a fine line between the two).

Getting off the bus, they wouldn't give me my room key because there was a note that I had to see E.J. immediately. I'd just been in airports for 24 hours and Virgin Atlantic is nowhere near as space-age and spiffy as everyone says -- after a flight, you're still tired and gross. But I ran to meet her and to fight for my right to shower. A girl said she knew where E.J. was, and the led me through corridors and then through this door that spilled out right onto a stage. EJ was the MC. They were having the Opening Gala, and wanted to know if I'd perform.

 So -- tired, plane-dirty, and deprived of sleep for the past 24 hours, I ripped of my coat and my Doctor Who scarf and let loose a poem.

My actual show was an hour later. By that time, I'd managed to clean myself up, both body and language, and managed to meet some of the most amazing and insightful personalities that I'll tell you about in my next post, because afterwards we went to this concert that I need to tell you about now.

The amazing and rave-worthy mostly-Jewish-but-with-a-Palestinian-M.C.-and-a-kickass-violinist band Emunah played last night. Imagine a howling jungle beat with fat heavy bass and a Russian diva wailing Shlomo Carlebach melodies over it. A bunch of people took pictures, but I think they're all still too hung over to post them. This was the band's final show with their other M.C., a brilliant lyricist named Daniel Silverstein. "Five years of my life," he kept saying again and again after the show. (Honestly, I don't know how he could talk at *all* after that -- I really think he spoke faster than I can type on that last song, a drum&bass beat that sounded like a stopwatch being fast-forwarded.) He also said that he's leaving the band but he's never leaving music, and then alluded to the possibility that he might be moving to New York......!?!?!?!? People in New York -- if he does, you have to hunt him down and stand outside his house and listen to every word he says. It'll be worth it.

Hey, if you want to register for Limmud NY (and trust me on this, you do) you’d best be pointing and clicking your way over to their registration page by December 28th before the price goes up $50.

And if you’re thinking that Limmud is not so much your thing, and you’d rather just chill with some friends that weekend, allow me to give you a couple of reasons to change your mind.
Limmud NY Rocks So Hard: It will blow your purple hair/fauxhawk/payis/sheitl back, for sure.
Rabbi Niles Goldstein will be there, he of the “gonzo” Judaism, and The New Shul in the Village. He’s leading a session on “reclaim[ing] our rebel, counter-cultural roots, and revitalizing our spiritual lives in the process.” And he’s also doing an Ask the Rabbi session that’s billed as “No Holds Barred.” Now’s your chance to ask how the hell we got from ‘Don’t Boil A Kid In It’s Mother’s Milk’ to two separate sets of dishes.

Aaron Freeman will be there, he of the “All Things Considered” commentaries, and the Israeli/Palestinian Comedy Tour. He’s doing a bunch of comedy themed sessions, and sitting on a panel with a few other Jewish comedians. I’ve been lucky enough to see him perform a few times and he’s awesome in a way that’s completely unexpected.

Heather Altman will be there, teaching a bunch of awesome Jewish infused yoga classes. If davening bores you, check out the yoga, yo. Both Amy and I swear by it.

Noam Dolgin will be there, he of the Green Zionist Alliance that promotes envrionmental sustainability in Israel, and formerly of the Teva Learning Center.

Gregg Drinkwater will be there, he of the Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, an organization dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender inclusion in the Jewish world. He also edited "Torah Queeries", inspired by the online Torah commentary project he co-launched in 2006. Also, I met Gregg last year and he’s really cool and lives in Colorado, which made me happy because it was exciting to meet someone else who wasn’t from the East Coast.

And there will be tons of other cool people, too!

And I’ll be there! With a bottle of whiskey! And purple hair! And you can tell me in person why you think I’m wrong, so wrong about everything I’ve written on the blog. Or, you can tell me I’m awesome. But I won’t really believe you if you say that.

Anyway, register now!

Just got back from the swanky new Jewcy office where I happened to mention that I'm going to the Limmud convention in England over Xmas break. Tahl The Editor got excited and asked if I could blog it, upon which *I* got excited, because I'm supposed to speak at a dozen or so sessions and haven't actually thought of anything to say at any of them.

As a point of fact, I'm not entirely clear on what Limmud is. This is what I do know: Limmud is the Hebrew word for learning, and the weeklong conference has featured sessions with Nobel-contending authors, the director of Tiny Ninja Theater, my rabbi from yeshiva who teaches mysticism in the Talmud, and the odd Hasidic performance poet who writes about supermodels and kung-fu (me).

I've heard the raves from past participants. Y-Love, who'll be there, has warned me to prepare to have my mind blown. Right now, I'm mostly scared -- scared that I won't finish my collaborative play about Rebbe Levi Yitzchok of Berdichev, scared that I'll stuff up talking about sacred porn in the Song of Songs. But I'm excited.

What I'm most looking forward to, I need to tell you, is the conversations. Insomniac walks through the dorms at night, bumping into holy heretics and brilliant nuts, thinkers who could change the world (and who are). A.B. Yehoshua never replied when I asked if he wanted to do storytelling together. But even he's got to sit next to somebody at dinner every night.

This is just to make the official announcement that I am the girl who shows up at big Jewish conventions with a bottle of whiskey and unpopular politics. I share both freely, and usually end up with some guy's phone number written on my arm in blue, courtesy of the free highlighters distributed by CBL. This week at the GA I hung out with Mobius and he kept calling me a frummy and a Litvak. I also hung out with a random group of college students (Ari, from OSU--I washed your number off by accident. Sorry!) and brought food to the hungry. Whiskey for Breakfast: with bagels, obviously.

My next venture will be at Limmud again in January, with my bottle in tow (I'm thinking bourbon as opposed to the more traditional Scotch, but now is the time to make your requests) and I'm psyched for learning, drinking, and general rousing of rabble. In the next few weeks Faithhacker will be featuring some of the exciting speakers who will be at Limmud (Akiva the Believer! Aaron Freeman! Rachel Elior! Ruth Messinger!) and reminding you to register. Plus, at Limmud I'll be hosting a special little gathering of Jewcers who can get together to talk trash about various political candidates, call each other names, roll eyes, and compete as to whose glasses are most indie. You bring the angst and I'll bring the fire and brimstone.

Register now, people!

A quick interruption from our High Holiday coverage to give you this exciting news:
Registration for Limmud NY is now open!
Yaaaaay!!!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Limmud, it’s an organization that runs these awesome conferences that bring together all kinds of Jews and all kinds of Jewish learning. Basically you hang out in a resort or conference center (this year it’s in Egg Harbor Township, NJ) and from early in the morning until late at night you choose from hundreds of different classes and workshops on all kinds of subjects. Everything from Israeli dance to intensive Talmud study. There are tons of different minyanim to try out, rabbis to meet, and friends to make. It’s like Burning Man, kind of, but for people who like to rock the Torah.
Limmud: Is For Jewcers Just Like You
Here’s some info from the Limmud website:

What is Limmud NY?

We are a conference, a festival, a gathering of hundreds of Jews from all walks of life, all Jewish backgrounds, all lifestyles, and all ages. Limmud is four days of lectures, workshops, text-study sessions, discussions, exhibits, performances and much more—all planned by a community of volunteers.

In Hebrew, Limmud means "learning"—and that's what it's about. An opportunity to craft your own Jewish world. Explore your connection to Jewish ideas and tradition. Meet people who share your curiosity and enthusiasm. Relax, reflect, and celebrate.

What will happen

From early in the morning until late each night, you'll have an opportunity to choose from an ongoing menu of 8-12 simultaneous sessions on topics ranging from Talmud to psychology, from film to Bible, from drama to Israeli politics. Some sessions will be given by renowned lecturers; others will be discussion groups, artist circles, or workshops. Some will be small; others will be events for the entire Limmud community. There will be time to make new friends, and time to talk with presenters, so that you can truly learn from everyone.

Immerse yourself—or dip in—as much as you choose. The learning, in all the ways it unfolds, will be nonstop, inspiring, and invigorating.

Who will be there

Anyone from the New York area who is interested in Jewish learning, from every age group and background, is welcome at Limmud NY: Singles, couples, kids, parents, students, homemakers, retirees; artists, lawyers, teachers, computer programmers, business executives, doctors, poets; Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazic Jews; gay Jews and straight Jews. Some participants have been Jewishly involved their whole lives. Others are just beginning to explore their Jewish journeys.

For more info, click here.

To register, click here.

Limmud NY is awesome, and I highly recommend it to any and everyone who can make the trip. The only possible reason I’d skip it this year is if I manage to make it to Limmud UK, the crown jewel of the whole Limmud organization, held this year in University of Warwick at Coventry from 23-27 December.

So sign up already! Scholarships are available, and you might even be able to convince your synagogue or minyan to sponsor some or all of your registration. And if you plan on coming, be sure to let me know—we can have a Jewcy tisch!

Final note to convince you to come: my sister met her boyfriend at Limmud, and last year one night I sat on the floor in some random hallway with my friends and offered limmudniks who passed by a shot from my bottle of scotch. I got three dates out of the weekend, made some great friends and Limmud is what convinced me to apply for Yeshivat Hadar, which ended up being one of the best summers of my life. If Limmud doesn’t rock your world, you’re probably incapable of having fun.

The Spot: This bouncer is all about Jewish LearningSince Tamar (who is a smart cookie) appears to have learned a lot at (the apparently amazing) Limmud Conference this year, I thought I'd take this chance to tell everyone that LimmudNY 2008 is gearing up, with a launch party for people who might like to get involved and volunteer for next year! It's a chance to hang out with really smart interesting people, help out, and learn some stuff.

Of course, attending the party will require you be in NY, which many of us (including ME!) are not, but for those of you who are…be there!

Please join us for our Volunteer Launch and 2007 Post-Party, as we kick-off the Limmud NY 2008 volunteer planning process! This is a chance to drop by, speak to last year's volunteers, and learn how you can be involved in the volunteer community that will shape the 2008 conference.

Monday, February 12, 2007
7:00-9:00pm
Barrow Street Ale House
15 Barrow Street
(bet. W. 4th St. & 7th Ave S.)

NY, NY
Take the 1 to Christopher Street or the A,B,C,D,E,F, or V to West 4th Street.
New York, NY 10014
(212) 691-6127

Cash bar including Monday's special: $3 Pints of Sam Adams & Sam's Seasonal

I put off posting about Limmud NY because I was hoping we'd have someone more experienced (maybe even someone involved) covering the topic, but after reading the Jewschool coverage, I feel remiss in NOT telling you about Limmud.  Just in case you'd like to get on the ball and sign up for next year (they sell out every year).

Limmud NY is a Jewfusion experience that invites Jews of diverse backgrounds and all ages to come together for a long weekend to form a community that celebrates Jewish life. It is a dynamic, creative, and interactive environment, run almost exclusively by volunteers, which fosters personal growth and learning.

The conference offers hundreds of diverse, innovative programs celebrating Jewfusion. They range from interactive lectures, concerts by renowned musical artists, and activities for children and families, to film screenings, opportunities for artistic creation, text study, and panel discussions around the social issues that shape the daily lives of New York area Jews.

Join over 800 of us for Jewfusion at Limmud NY. Scholarships are available for people of all backgrounds.

It's really supposed to be a spectacular experience.   Getcha some!