It’s Friday night in Brooklyn and I’m on a reconnaissance mission to finally check out a venue that has local brownstone residents buzzing. Tucked away on busy Atlantic Avenue between a string of antique showrooms and overpriced boutique stores, there's a new high-end cocktail lounge that's been four years in the making. Unlike many nightspots with arbitrary names, this bar's moniker references the life of the building whose birth date and previous name are still engraved on the original façade. Welcome to Talmud Torah Beth Jacob Joseph est. 1917, now known as Deity.

Entering Deity: it's a great place to renew your bat mitzvah!Deity is the vision of financial consultant Caio Dunson (pron: Kuy-yu) and his fashion-designer wife Kristine. They bought the dilapidated building, which had not seen shulgoers for over 30 years, in 2003. The space had been an antique warehouse in the interim. The couple, with the help of family, friends and talented Brooklyn artists, tirelessly transformed the interior while consciously preserving the integrity of the building. They turned the top two levels into their residence. The bar below, as they see it, is like an extension of their living room.

 

The exterior hasn't changed much since the early 1900’s when Yeshiva students entered the hallowed building to study Gemorah and daven in its synagogue. Hebrew letters are inscribed into the limestone while decorative Magen Davids encircle the entrance. Tonight, a guy in a fedora hat smokes outside the wrought iron gates and a stylish brunette hostess in a red trench coat invites partygoers into the new sanctuary.

 

Continue reading...

Everyone's had the skeevy friend request on a social networking site from someone they don't know well. But what about a request from someone you know very well, but prefer not to hang out with in a given digital realm?

USA Today (via Howard Rheingold's SmartMobs) points to the case of Deb Levine, executive director at Internet Sexuality Information Services in Oakland, who faced a tough decision when her rabbi's wife added her on LinkedIn:

Then the wife of Levine's rabbi asked to "friend" her on the site, and Levine felt compelled to say yes.

Now Levine has mixed her religious life with her work life online, something she never intended to do. And she worries that having a personal contact listed among business associates will make her look less professional.

"I'm using LinkedIn to further my professional projects," Levine says. "There's just no way (the rabbi's wife) could be helpful in that. I don't talk about my religion and religious affiliations" while at work.

 

Levine's quandary raises some important issues about where religion fits into the scheme of social networking, including sites like Friendster, Facebook, or that other one that Darth Murdoch. Social networking norms also complicate how users interact with smaller, more specialized sites that are accessible to the public, including sites built around cultural spheres -- such as religion -- that tend to be volatile. (At least one such site for riffraff comes to mind.)

In addition to Jewcy, so far I've toyed with a professional network for my career, a private blog for family and friends, started a new social networking account, lapsed with an old one and tried out social bookmarking.

In the process, I've grown less concerned with my digital footprint. But I've grown more concerned about which footprints I allow my different friends, family, acquaintances and colleagues to follow. Users might not always consider it kosher to let all of their friends into a specialized social networking space. I'm sure that if Levine was also a member of a social networking site for say, single Jews, she might think twice about importing all of her LinkedIn contacts.

Online social networking seems to work best at its two extremes. Facebook and the rest work splendidly as general spaces. And the most advanced, forward-thinking online magazines -- sites I like to call digital magazine communities -- make the most of their readerships by capturing their activity online, beyond the mere consumption of content. In other words, the larger platforms are trying to specify their features while the smaller platforms are trying to broaden them. After all, every social networking site wants to be profitable, and profits depend on two things: audience and activity.

In the grand tradition of technology causing problems that only technology creates, this doesn't make things easier.

Call it networking creep: if online social networking works best at its two extremes, does that mean we all need X number of specialized digital magazine communities in order to satisfy our particular digital craves? There's obviously a terminal limit, if for no other reason than there are only so many hours in a week to maintain one's spot in every community.

Of course none of this solves Levine's quandary. Then again, I'm a little bit less concerned with users who worry about religious friends and acquaintances -- oh, that pesky rabbi's wife! -- creeping into other social networking sites, and much more interested by the opposite scenario. Should religious networking sites make an effort to blockade non-religious users?

Put differently, who owns the right to define the community?

 

 

Gimme a J! Gimme an E! Gimme a W!There’s a lot to love about Jewcy’s new(ish) office in Dumbo. It’s not in Manhattan, for starters. The office number is 613, corresponding with (cosmic?) accuracy to the mitzvot. The virtues of the ping-pong table and heedlessly fornicating neighbors have already been well articulated. But perhaps the funnest part? Why, I’d say it’s the touch-screen building directory in the lobby!

You walk into 45 Main St., come upon this sleek little machine, touch “Find a Company”, and are instructed to enter the first three letters of the company’s name. Which are, in this case, straightforwardly enough: J-E-W. Love. It.

Izzy, with Menorah: The childlike tape job was done by Craig.'Twas the first night of Hanukkah
And on each Jewcy table
Not a Menorah was present
Or so goes this Fable

All the workers worked quietly
Til one passer-by called us out
"You call yourselves Jewish?"
He said with a shout

We fretted and frowned
At the words of this man
But then Izzy stood up
And said "I've got a plan!"

She remembered an email
That Tara had sent
A small paper menorah!
The day was not spent!

Dogs: Here's a picture of some dogs to even out the empty space in this article. Izzy and Craig
With scissors in hand
Set to work cutting
No regard to the plan

When it all was done
And the candles affixed
It looked only half-great
...The feelings were mixed

And so to her iMac
Izzy did run
And took a picture for you
And for holiday fun

We wish you the best
On this Festival of Lights
We wish you a menorah
Cause ours kind of bites

Continue reading...

Sunset over Jerusalem: What does it mean to an American Jew?I am a playwright, director and actor, and the artistic director of Traveling Jewish Theatre, a 29 year-old experimental company based in San Francisco. I’ll be posting a weekly blog about the process of writing my new play “A Jerusalem Between Us.”

I start with the question, why? Why write this play?

The Sundance Institute Theatre Program is producing a reading in Los Angeles this coming Friday night. They sent out a flyer that reads:

"A Jerusalem Between Us" takes stock of some of the recent controversies that have divided Americans and American Jews. Davidman untangles the Rachel Corrie controversy, considers the word “apartheid”, reflects on the spirit of Jewish values and wonders what’s left of the Left. This solo play follows one man’s journey from America to the Middle East on a quest to answer some of the most provocative questions of our time.

The other day a gentleman sent an email to the artistic director of the LA theatre that has generously offered to host the reading. He offered to moderate. When the artistic director replied that Sundance had already chosen a moderator, the gentleman replied with the following:

If I'm not going to speak, I probably won't come. But I'd like to see a review of it...I don't want this guy sitting there spewing some anti-Semitic, self-hating Jewish crap. Can you find out something about it? I can't find any reviews online. It's important that we don't use the theater as a forum for any anti-Israel propaganda, right? The way the blurb is written about that horrible Rachel Corrie character gives good reason for concern that there might be a problem brewing....Please find out more. It's never too late to cancel an anti-Semite!

Why write this play? To bring forward a nuanced, complex and dynamic story about an American Jew and his relationship to Israel in the midst of a culture of fear, one-dimensional analysis and hysterical allegiance. This blog will cover the developments of the play. For more information you can also stay tuned to aarondavidman.wordpress.com.

Jewcy offices circa 1935 Jewcy is looking for interns for Winter 2007-8 to help with day-to-day production in our Brooklyn offices. Candidates must be organized, motivated, interested in online media, and ideally good writers as well. (Actually being Jewish not required, but an interest in Judaism would help.) Internships at Jewcy are unpaid and require a minimum commitment of 2 days per week. Applicants should be juniors or seniors in college, or recent college grads. Please send a short cover letter and a resume to interns@jewcy.com and indicate which type of internship you are applying for (descriptions below). Those interested in the editorial internship should also include 2-3 short writing samples.

Web / Technology Intern
Your duties start with general maintenance of our Drupal-based site and office tech. Ideally, you will end up able to do higher-level theme and redesign changes. We can offer a small stipend for food and stuff with this internship.

You should have:

1. A strong handle on HTML. If you "get" what XHTML is about, all the better.

2. Some knowledge of PHP and how it interacts with MySQL.

3. A real desire to learn new things, as well as the patience to keep trying when things fail.

4. Knowledge of CSS, including selectors, with the cerebral fortitude to handle big, huge stylesheets.

5. Photoshop skills, awareness of the "Save For Web" function.

6. A clear understanding of FTP. If you have ever done SFTP or SSH, that's great.

7. If you know about Drupal, then you score super bonus points.

8. Javascript and DHTML experience also equate to super bonus points.

9. You should like speaking to other humans, too.

Art / Design Intern
Art / Design interns must be proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Ilustrator and InDesign. Illustration and typographic skills are a plus. Self-motivation and strong online image researching skills also required.

Editorial Intern
This is a great opportunity for eager, young journalists to earn clips, learn about the cutting edge world of online media, and work under talented, entertaining editors. This is a creative position with room for growth. Daily tasks include researching and uploading articles, as well as maintaining and updating the website. Copyediting is also involved. Related work experience or internships are a plus but not required.

London Calling: it seems to be saying something about cute Jewish boys with accents...Calling all Jewcy readers in London! I’ll be in Blighty for a few days in early January and am thinking of hosting a Jewcy get together at a pub. We can all hang out, rouse rabble, and you can tell me what kinds of things you want Jewcy to cover.  If you think you’d be up for such a venture leave a comment, or email tamar@jewcy.com. I want to make sure we’d have a critical mass before I make it official. Otherwise it’s just me in a bar. Or, as we say in America, Thursday.

Three cheers: For Rice.Want to improve your vocabulary and feed the hungry at the same time? Then visit Freerice.com. For every vocabulary question that you get right, the website will donate ten grains of rice to the hungry. The advertisements on the website pay for the donated rice and the rice is distributed by the United Nations World Food Program.

The highest vocabulary score you can get is 50, and I averaged 37, which left me feeling…..below average. Anyway, let’s all work on our respective vocabularies and give a little in the process.

Last night, Jewcy had a small, intimate housewarming party to celebrate our new digs in DUMBO. (We've got a ping-pong table, foosball, all courtesy of Law & Order: Special Victims' Unit, which shot an episode here a few weeks ago. Vincent D'Onofrio says "folks." Take a note.)

Anyway, as the affair was winding down, and the jazz trio that showed up uninvited began drinking themselves silly for their next non-scheduled gig, we noticed an odd thing happening across the way. Actually, Dan Koffler, one of our Cabal contributors, noticed it. I was deep in discussion with Dan about the prospect of abolishing the U.S. Senate and what it's like to share a desk with Michael Walzer when his attention not so much drifted as was hijacked. "Uh, yeah, that's some sex happening over there."

And how! We're still not sure if the building across from ours is residential or commercial, but one happy couple left the blinds open and got busy during our wine-tippled haze. They kept it up for about thirty minutes, with only a few water and breath-catching breaks. Many positions were tried. The lighting was adequate. Our cheering only seemed to encourage them.

Our intern Laura had a digital camera that shoots videos, so allow me to bring a little slice of office life right on home to you. Enjoy.

After one month of wandering around a foreign city without any grasp of its language, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I’m sure you’ve noticed, too, that overhearing a conversation in a strange tongue, and in some distant metropolis, can induce a linguistic panic. All of a sudden everyone else is in on this joke and I’m relegated to my own bubble.

I get my revenge by laughing at the abundance of funny words that make a regular appearance on storefronts or displays: Berlin is full of fahrt (journey), uhren (clocks) and schmuck (jewelry). Sadly, the game where I play “How many schmucks can I spot on a block?” makes me feel infantile after the fifth round.

So, in an effort to reverse all fears that I’m a stupid American, I made up another game where I take note of what people say in English as I pass by them in the environs of Berlin. In other words, what do people talk about when they’re on the subway, in a coffee shop or taking a leisurely stroll? I assure you, it’s not Goethe, but when people talk in German it might as well be.

Items overheard:

“ … but you have to bring it into the classroom,” said a hippy-dippy woman, age 50ish, talking to a male companion in Berlin’s rebuilt downtown district.

“Mom, where are you,” asked a teenager in Zara by the retail district.

“ … a bagel in the grocery store,” said a teenager at the busy Zoo train station

“Are we there,” one uncertain British tourist asked another on the subway.

“Not all Germans are right-wing bastards,” retorted a 20ish cad, with a British accent, to his group of friends in the hippest part of the former East Berlin.

“You were allover them: ‘Hey lady, can I buy you a drink,’” mocked an American 20-something to his inebriated friend on the subway.

English is, without a doubt, the language of poetry.

Forget Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier short. Check out The Tribe: An unorthodox, unauthorized history of the Jewish People and the Barbie Doll...in about 15 minutes

Buy it here for 2 bucks on iTunes.

Teaser here. 

Long ago, far away, I bought a typesetting company in Iowa with my mentor and business partner. Yes, yes, yes, I know I'm an idiot. I am reminded daily. The Wall Street Journal said I was a dope. Business Week decided I could have been more clued in. And a letter I got in the mail today told me that "If you'd talked to me, you'd never have bought that company and had to bear your guilty soul."

As the book the Secret says, if you want it bad enough, it will come to you. And if you don't, you'll deserve the crap you get.

It's nice to be smart in retrospect. It's comforting to know you'd never have pushed the launch button on the Challenger or invested with the Hunt Brothers or bought a Newton.

In the book the Black Swan, Nassim Taleb points out that, "Nobody would publish a book about business failure." Because the business press, and media in general, creates the myth of the formula for success. How do you find this equation? Just get a bunch of successful people in a room and try to find something they all share in common. Do they get up early to exercise? Did they have sloppy handwriting in grade school? Do they lace their shoes all on the left and then the right?

Nassim says it's all bunk. Success is what we all know already, a mix of skill, perseverance, and luck. And luck is a big big part of it. If Bill Gate's mother hadn't been on the board of United Way with the CEO of IBM, he likely wouldn't have gotten that meeting to sell them DOS. And how do you control who your mother knows? I guess you just have to wish hard enough.

 

 

I've recently moved in with my girlfriend. She's Persian. I am not. She likes oriental carpets ("Do you know how much these carpets are worth?"). I do not. She likes French provincial furniture ("Do you have a version with more curlicues?"). I, well, you get the picture.

I grew up with Danish Modern furniture and my father's desire to paint walls white, if for no other reason than having fewer paint cans. Also, I once was nearly forced to rent an apartment in London that was owned by a Persian man with unrestrained decorating taste. There were mirrors on the ceiling, and the walls were covered with either deep blue or red velvet. ("I am sorry, I ran out of red velvet.")

Now we must attempt to find a way to match our styles. And I have made this suggestion. We get a mirrored panther. Possibly on a red velvet platform.

I think such an object would allow a concentration of all Persianess into a singularity of Orientalism. An entire opium den/Rubaiyat/Tehran airport in one fused mass. The challenge is, where to find a mirrored panther? The Internet will make this easy, no? No.

The first couple I find certainly have the potential to make me ill, but they are not three dimensional enough.

Mirrored Panther Take 1: (A little to Chinese?)

Mirrored Panther Take 2: (Cool Panther, Scary Lady)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alas! I could not find a mirrored, tiled, panther anywhere! That includes an entire site devoted to mosaic sculpture on one very very very long page. However, lest you think that I am an idiot Googler ("Did you try putting it in quotes?") or that the world is not full of mirrored, mosaic animal sculptures, I present:

A mirrored horse: A little large for our apartment, but maybe for you?

A mirrored dolphin: What does a mirrored dolphin have to do with cancer research? Also, definitely too big for the apartment.

A mirrored catfish: Now we are talking.

So, what to do? Nu? After much Internet searching, I have found the answer. Something that satisfies the Persian in her and the Jew in me: A mosaic (although sadly not mirrored) Hamen. (As in hamentaschen!)

A mosaic Hamen: (But what about a hamen Moses?)

 

An Allergy Free Cat: Is a Happy Cat Here's some of the things I have to do today:

• Return the electrical breaker I bought that was wrong.
• Find something of equal or lesser value that I can now consider "free," like box of tiny screwdrivers.
• Return the shower head I'm not ever going to install and get a toaster oven in exchange. Alton Brown said toaster ovens are cool.
  
• Determine plan for convincing clerk that I do have the receipt for the shower head, it's just invisible.
• Rub down cat with anti-allergy shampoo.
• Rub down other cat with anti-allergy shampoo after moving all the furniture it has scooted under; includes bed, sofa, kitchen cabinet, front closet, my closet, my underwear.
• Disinfect and bandage allergy-free-cat inflicted wounds.
• Come to some kind of resolution on the 3 month old email about my expiring US airways miles. Hope that all deadlines have finally passed and it is now a moot point that I don't have to do anything about except gripe. ("Bastards just took away my miles! Just like that!")
• Reopen article about outsourcing that my publisher and PR team thought was, "Not up to your usual standard."
  
• Close article about outsourcing so as to reboot computer to install "Critical iTunes Update."
• Make plans to visit my girlfriends parents in North Carolina by checking prices on Expedia.
• Curse airline industry.
• Fight with girlfriend over travel plans.
  
• Fight with girlfriend over the way my job lets me "work at home."
  
• Attempt to define drooling on keyboard as real work, just like her job.
• Call girlfriend back to apologize after realizing I am hard to live with, again.
• Think really seriously about installing that ceiling fan that's on the floor. Maybe shift ladder again to determine best position for thinking seriously about it.
• Google myself.
• E-mail anyone who has even kind of mentioned my book.
• Mop excess moisture off of coffee maker.
  
• Revel in glow of dry coffee maker, and at least one task accomplished.

 

Battlestations, Jewcy: For your entertainment, here's a novelty image of some sort of wacky space adventure involving the Millenium Falcon or something. This is what it's like to upgrade the site.You may be wondering why the site was down for so long last night. We may be wondering what kind a creepy person was up until four a.m. wondering things like that. And so we've reached an impasse.

But you probably have a lot of other things you're wondering about. Some examples: "Why doesn't the Events page work?" "Is it just me, or do one or two other pages look weird also?" and "If they killed fewer people total than normal bees do each year, why are they called 'Killer Bees?'"

The answer to all these questions lies in the massive overhaul of site infrastructure that occurred last night between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Rest assured we'll be addressing most, if not all, of these problems by the end of day Tuesday.

The likelihood of people noticing too many other problems should be pretty low, but what do I know? By 1:30 Eli Valley had already sent me three emails, a text message, and a voicemail where he was in tears, screaming, "I want my Jewcy" like the little kid from the old Maypo advertisements. In other news, Francois emailed, speculating that Ahmadinejad's forces took a moment off from their NYC excursion to wreak havoc on our servers. And Tamar emailed me also, just saying hello, apparently unaware that the site was in ruins.

Note to self: Remove Tamar from list of possible home security system vendors.

Fruit: In German a little squeeze can turn Gretel into Hansel
As part of my trying to figure out where I come from and why my mother thought herring in tomato sauce was suitable for a 3rd grader's lunch box, I recently retried taking German lessons at NYU. I had failed miserably at it in high school ("You mean I have to memorize all this stuff?") and again in college ("You mean I have to memorize all this stuff?") and again when I went to Germany ("Ich weiss nicht was Sie sagen." I have not memorized any stuff.)

The first day of these things is always awkward as we go around the room explaining why we'd like to learn to recast the world into the stark light of male, female and neuter.

"My fiance is German."

"My fiance is German."

"You people tried to kill my family."

After that, well, the class actually wasn't too bad. With my 5 previous years of instruction I had tested easily into level 3 out of 10 available classes. ("You have a good sense of the nouns, but do not seem to have memorized any verbs.") Being the optimist I am, I chose level 2.

I was easily the best student, and could sit back and enjoy the struggles of the woman who spoke Korean, English, French, but stumbled over "Potzdamer Platz." Ha! I am so much way smarter, even if I can only speak English and kindergarten German. At least I can say "Kindergarten." (Which is masculine, of course, even though the children are, technically neuter, except for a group of boys, which is feminine, naturally, or girls, who are always neuter until they are ladies and been around the block a few times.)

Here are some useful hints for knowing what gender objects are in German.

• Fruit, such as oranges, grapes, cherries, and lemons are female, except for apples, which are male, because, apparently, they killed Snow White. However, when squeezed into juice, they all turn male. Apparently the German's believe a little pressure can go a long way.
• Your eyes, ears, hair and eyebrows are feminine, even your lips are ladies, but your mouth and throat are male. Think about that the next time you lick your lips, or anyone else's for that matter.

In my next post, I will show you how not to stick words together in German if you are trying to avoid explaining how you spent the day misusing Canadian hats.

German Cockroach: Mine didn't have the pin in it. Does that mean it was going to explode?

I don't know what's more disturbing, finding a German cockroach in my sink, or the fact that they're called "German." I mean, it's a little disconcerting right? The French have kissing, toast, doors and even a kind of broom. All of it either very pleasant or just extremely useful in tight spaces. (French doors, what were you thinking?)

But Germans, what do they have? World Wars, that's what. And cake. And cockroaches.

Now I say this as a German myself. I mean a real German because they gave me citizenship. Sure I had to go over to the consulate on 50th street and show them the papers that proved my mother and her mother had been born in Landau in Der Pfalz. And by show them, I mean go into an enclosed bullet proof glass cubicle with doors that locked on the outside and deposit my mother's papers into a bomb proof receptacle that was passed between myself and the German consular official, who then removed, with either dispassion or thinly disguised passion, all of the non-essential documents that showed how my mother had been rounded up with the other Jews of the Palatinate and taken to a concentration camp in France. (And this is not the good "kissing" and "broom" kind of France.)

So now I'm a German, and I note that my documents say that I will be until I die, but that my children, should I have any, will not be allowed to inherit this condition. On the other hand, my mother, who avoided telling me she was from Germany until I was in high school, and pretended not to have much knowledge of the years 1940 to1945, would have been unhappy to hear that her son had become one.

And maybe that's why I'm not so happy with the cockroach. Because I can go from an article I was going to write about German as an adjective and end up in the holocaust. And perhaps I should, as my girlfriend suggests, seek some therapy.

“You’re packing that?”
 
It wasn’t heat, but it might as well have been for the look my mother gave me. I looked down at the Brandeis hoodie I was holding. Mother didn’t think a sweatshirt with the name of America’s Jewish-sponsored school emblazoned on it would go over well in Germany. “Oh please,” I responded. “They’ll have no idea what Brandeis is over there.”
 
It turns out that I was the one as dumb as bricks when it comes to appropriate street apparel in my residential neighborhood in Berlin. Did I say residential? I meant to say street walking.
 
At the intersection of Potsdamerstrasse and Kufurstenstrasse – across the street from the Turkish grocer and right next door to the bakery – is the neighborhood sex shop. It goes by the name “LSD” – not the drug, silly, but an acronym for the trifecta of “Love, Sex, Dreams.” This is not just any purveyor of sex toys. A billboard rivaling the size of any in Times Square features a blonde in a white thong lying on her side. It’s so glaring and enormous that I feel embarrassed whenever I stand next to old German ladies as we wait for the light to change. Clearly, they could care less. At any given point in the day, but at night for sure, women decked out in above-the-knee stiletto boots motion to passing cars. They work the busy intersection but I see them more often eating pastries in the next-door bakery than sliding into strangers’ cars. Yes, prostitution is legal here.
 
In America I’m considered pretty much a prude. So in Germany I might as well be a nun. Oh wait, here comes one right now. As I emerge from the U-bahn station I find myself colliding with a crowd of prostitutes and a nun who is trying to go about her business. Oh, and here comes the token transvestite wearing sequined jeans, a brunette wig and too much blush.
 
I wasn’t wearing my Brandeis sweatshirt but I can assure you – or my mother, rather – that nary a soul would or could care less what I’m wearing. There’s much more interesting things to gape at on the street. Welcome to Berlin.

Every so often, the Jewcy editors and a few beloved contributors carry on a deranged email correspondence. Some of these eventually wend their sinuous way into the lead space as gussied up features or dialogues. Sometimes we discuss other people's articles and how a) we should have scooped them, b) we should get them to write for us, c) we should ask for reprint rights.

The following is more along the lines of c), but one comment in Arthur Waskow's Nation piece, "Why the Silence?", about the muted Jewish antiwar movement, struck us as worthy of its own thread. Was Waskow talking about Jewcy in his reference to an "online Jewish magazine" that impolitely asked him to keep mums on the Iraq war?

On Sep 21, 2007, at 2:28 PM, Eli Valley wrote:

Curious -- any guesses as to which "Jewish online magazine" Waskow is referring to? Are there any besides Jewcy that call themselves "online magazines"? Jewsweek.com doesn't seem too update much.

"And in my e-mail I receive, from the editor of a Jewish online magazine, her response to my submission of an article she had commissioned me to write. She had asked me to address what the High Holy Days might say about America's predilection for violence, at home and overseas. But now she demands that I revise my article: "I can't have an article taking sides in the Iraqi conflict." (I refused to revise it.)"

On 9/21/07, Michael Weiss wrote:

Not only did the Nation email me to offer us reprint rights for that piece, but they love my crazy neocon ways.

It's not us, though. Waskow's only dealt with Joe, and out of all of us, Izzy would be the last person to tell him to shy away from criticizing the war, don't-cha-think?

On 9/21/07, Izzy Grinspan wrote:

Yeah, definitely wasn't me. Not only wouldn't I have a problem with criticizing the (misguided) war, but can you imagine Jewcy asking someone not to take sides?

On 9/21/07, Eli Valley wrote:

I agree -- of all places, Jewcy would be the place that would print any view on the war. So then what's he referring to? A blog maybe?

On 9/21/07, Joey Kurtzman wrote:

Michael mentioned it to me the other day, I didn't think much of it, I just figured it was some bullshit Jewish site out there. But you know what, I actually think there's a chance he's talking about me. If so, he'd have to be pretty confused, but here's what he'd be referring to:

The Waskow/Bronstein dialogue was conducted during Jewcy's pre-launch phase, during Israel's quasi-war with Hizbollah. Waskow opened his first e-mail with a protracted ramble about the events of the previous day, I think an IDF bombardment of West Beirut. Then he got started on the e-mail proper. In one of his later e-mails he denounced the Iraq War and explained that it's important to love peace, or some such insight from the Prophetic tradition. When we finally ran the dialogue several months later, I kept in his stuff about Iraq, which was obviously still ongoing, but cut the months-old news report about the long-finished Lebanon conflict.

When I showed him the edits and asked whether there were any that he found intolerable. I had edited the shit out of some of his kaballah-influenced theological stuff, because it was, well, literally esoteric (Hey, that's neat) and ridiculous for a general publication. So I was expecting a fight over that. But instead he wrote back and said it was fine, but that he resented that I'd removed some of his comments about the Iraq war. I wrote back and said that I hadn't removed any comments about the Iraq war, only the stuff about Lebanon and only because it was dated. (You know what, I actually really do think he's talking about me.) He replied something right along the lines of "oh, okay, got it."

So there was no editing out of anything about Iraq, and of course no demand that he not write about Iraq. But the guy's getting old, and he's a self-styled teller-of-dangerous-truths, so maybe he's just rejiggering what happened so that it fits into his self-narrative.

Where would he get "she" from...maybe for the same reason Deepthroat was a chainsmoker but Mark Felt wasn't? Or he didn't remember my sex and "she" is his default pronoun? Or maybe he just assumed I was a she-male?

On 9/21/07, Joey Kurtzman wrote:

Check all that, just read his article, he's clearly not talking about me. I liked the idea of it, though, because the whole thing fit into my self-narrative as someone who catches people fitting events into their self-narratives.

On 9/21/07, Joey Kurtzman wrote:

I remember the time Arthur Waskow lied about my having refused to let him right about the Iraq war. God, that was fucking outrageous. Have I ever told you that story?

On 9/21/07, Joey Kurtzman wrote:

God, that was fucking performance art right there. People don't understand the idea of impromptu performance art, but I see openings for it everywhere. Okay, no more.

On 9/21/07, Eli Valley wrote:

More!!!

On 9/21/07, Eli Valley wrote:

...And for what it's worth, I've assumed you were a she-male since day one. You're not?

I was just having dinner with an old friend the other night who's from Newton, Massachusetts, sort of the haute-bourgeois Lodz for the Diaspora. I told him about Jewcy's ongoing battle with the ADL and that organization's cynical stance on the matter of the Armenian Genocide. My friend's pretty conservative and is far more concerned with tradition, Jewish continuity, and Israel than I am. He shook his head and told me what anyone below the age of 50 has come to discover in due course: Guys like Abe Foxman are just too fucking old.

I had no idea what the term "New Jew" meant until I joined this magazine. But judging by its readership, the wider online community of vibrant young members of Team Chosen, and the array of their political and cultural convictions, I think we have cause to be optimistic. The Foxmans of the world won't be around forever, and guess who stands to inherit the mantle of Jewish leadership once they're gone? The generation that grew up watching an overnight annihilation of Tutsis take place live on CNN; the generation that saw an ex-Communist apparatchik ethnically "cleanse" one of the most cosmopolitan centers of European Islam; the generation that continues to watch black Muslims being killed, raped, and exiled from their homes in Sudan. If "never again" is too high a mark to shoot for, then let's redefine the term: let's make it mean that so-called realism can no longer stand in the way of cold, hard, brutal fact.

Here's an encouraging sign: The Newton Human Rights Commission has severed its ties to the ADL. Our friend Sevag Arzoumanian sent us this press clipping, reposted from No Place For Denial:

Town Refuses to be ‘On the Same Boat’ with ADL
By Khatchig Mouradian

The Armenian Weekly
September 12, 2007

NEWTON, Mass. (A.W.)—Generations of Americans converged at Newton City Hall on Sept. 11 to make their voices heard to the local Human Rights Commission (NHRC) meeting, which, after deliberations, unanimously voted to cut their ties with the ADL’s No Place for Hate (NPFH) program until the former unequivocally recognizes the Armenian genocide and supports H.R.106 in Congress, thereby affirming the historical record.

Commissioners and Advisory Council Members
In a letter dated Aug. 24, the NHRC had asked the ADL to recognize the Armenian genocide, actively support H.R.106 and rehire the ADL’s New England regional director Andrew Tarsy. During the Sept. 11 meeting, commissioner Marianne Ferguson noted that although Tarsy has since been rehired, unequivocal recognition and support for the Genocide Resolution had not been achieved.

Advisory Council member Dianne Chilingerian expressed concern about the ADL’s position on the Genocide Resolution, which she considered inconsistent with its mission. She said that she is bothered by the ADL’s position as a human rights activist, and that this is not just an Armenian issue. Student Advisory council member David Fisher asked how we expect to end genocide campaigns today “when we still can’t recognize what happened 92 years ago.”

ADL Regional Board Members
Emphasizing that he was not speaking on behalf of the ADL, the organization’s NE Regional Board member Gerry Tishler said, “I have studied, thought and written about the Armenian genocide and it wasn’t ‘tantamount to genocide’ it was genocide. … I am also in favor of the U.S. government acknowledging and commemorating the Armenian genocide.” He noted that the meeting of the ADL’s national commissioners will discuss the issue in November, though said that continuing with the NPFH should not be based on that outcome. “If you make it conditional, you are making a bad mistake,” he said, noting how much the ADL has added to the town’s programs.

NE Regional Board member Beth Tishler also argued the importance of not dissociating from the NPFH, adding, “We have stood up and gone against our national leadership. We have heard you. The National ADL has heard you.”

ADL National commissioner David Apel said that ADL national director Abe Foxman “is not empowered” to support the Genocide Resolution, and that “your message will be brought forth to the national commissioners in November.” In response, members of the audience pointed out that while Foxman seems to be able to change his position daily on the Armenian issue, he needs the green light from the commissioners to properly acknowledge the truth about 1915.

“I reject the notion that we are misguided citizens,” continued Apel. He said the last few months had been a learning experience for him and many others, and that everyone in the room was on the same boat. “Give us time till November,” he added.

Members of the Audience
Newton residents, university professors, human rights activists, students, descendents of Armenian genocide and Holocaust survivors, spoke about the need to send the right message by severing ties with the ADL.

Newton resident David Boyajian, whose letter to the Watertown Tab sparked the ADL controversy, said that the “ADL’s [genocide] acknowledgement was thinly disguised denial,” and that its “verbal gymnastics show bad faith.” He stressed that the ADL will not change its position without pressure from the towns, and asked that Newton sever its ties immediately.

Newton resident Sonya Merian, whose mother was on one of the earliest Newton Human Rights commissions, read a letter by the ANC of Eastern Massachusetts addressed to the NHRC members and Newton mayor David Cohen. “Foxman apologized to the Prime Minister of Turkey for having put his government ‘in a difficult position,’ expressing his ‘sorrow over what we have caused for the leadership and people of Turkey.’ No apology to the heirs of Armenian Genocide survivors has been issued to date,” she said.

Prof. Jack Nusan Porter, treasurer of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), stressed the importance of severing ties with the ADL until Foxman resigns or changes course. “Turkey cannot harm a single hair of a single Jew,” he said, referring to Foxman’s stated concern that supporting the Genocide Resolution would harm the Turkish-Jewish community. “Is Israel, with its army, afraid of Turkey?” he asked.

Newton resident Nancy Aykanian said she was startled that the NPFH has an annual re-certification process for all participating towns, and said the ADL was hardly in a position to grade anyone on their human rights performance.

“The ADL lacks the moral leadership and courage and any program sponsored by the ADL cannot be accepted,” said Newton resident Michael Mensoyan.

Newton resident and Armenian Youth federation (AYF) member Nora Kaleshian said, “My family and I are deeply hurt [by ADL’s practices],” expressing hope that it promotes the Human Rights of all people.

Prominent human rights activist and author of Our Bodies, Ourselves, Judy Norsigian, also from Newton, noted that “the time is ripe to make this a national issue.” She underlined the position and authority of Newton to send a strong message to the ADL by severing ties.

Newton resident Bethel Charkoudian introduced her father, a genocide survivor and thanked the NHRC for their stance. “My father survived the genocide and came here because he knew people understood his suffering,” she said.

Associate professor of philosophy at Worcester State College Henry Theriault said that while people were used to the denial of the Armenian genocide by Turkey, it was shocking to see a human rights organization engaging in the denial, adopting similar hate speech and lobbying against genocide recognition.

“There is no such thing as ‘degree of genocide,’” said Newton resident Salpi Sarafian. “The ADL has spoken in absolute clarity against Sudan, Bosnia and Afghanistan. They need to do the same regarding the Armenian genocide.”

In a poignant speech, activist Berge Jololian underscored the importance of realizing that recognizing the Armenian genocide is a moral issue and not a political one. “ADL was established in 1913, the Armenian genocide occured in 1915. ADL had 92 years to acknowledge this crime,” he said.

Activist Narini Badalian recounted her experience at a recent lecture by Foxman in New York. Badalian had confronted Foxman to say whether ADL’s position is consistent with that of a Human Rights organization. Foxman had responded, “It is up to you to decide.” Badalian urged, “It is time for us to decide.”

Activist Luder Sahagian made strong points about the failure of the ADL to “rigorously uphold settled history.” He said, “The ADL has yet to subscribe to the wisdom of the esteemed Rabbi Hillel, who many, many years ago advised, ‘What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor…That is the entire law. All the rest is commentary.’”

Visiting professor of Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University Dikran Kaligian said, “The ADL has made itself complicit in [Turkey’s] multi-million dollar denial campaign.” When the ADL controversy first broke, he explained, the ADL’s first reaction was not to approach the Armenian community but to hire a leading PR company. “Foxman does not see this as a moral issue, but a PR problem,” Kaligian said, adding, “We need to take the necessary steps for them to get the message.”

In an emotional speech, activist Alik Arzoumanian responded to the numerous calls on the NHRC and on Armenians to wait until the November meeting before deciding to sever ties. “We have been waiting all our lives,” she said, and explained how offended she was by Foxman’s claim that a Genocide Resolution was “counter-productive.” Foxman considers “our struggle to recover our dignity” to be counterproductive, she added. “I don’t want to give National ADL one more day.”

Mayor Cohen
Newton mayor David Cohen spoke next, and said that “there is a tremendous amount of common ground here.” He called the ADL National’s failure to “make a forthright statement” recognizing the genocide and supporting the resolution as “an ongoing injustice.”

“The resolution that we have in the U.S. Congress is one of the best pieces of legislation that deserves passage,” he said, referring to H.R.106. “It is incumbent on the ADL” to support it, he added.

On the same boat?
ADL Regional Board members emphasized several times during the meeting that everyone in the room was “on the same boat,” though they went on to say that suspending ties with the NPFH and ADL was not the answer. Asked to comment near the end of the meeting, however, Student Advisory Council member Fisher said, “Hearing the voices of the Armenian community and my own Jewish conscience, I cannot be on the same boat with you.”

The NHRC voted unanimously to cease participation in the NPFH, pending the ADL’s unambiguous recognition of the Armenian genocide and support of HR106.

In Islam, in the story of Mohammad's accession to paradise, there is an important moment when he meets Moses.

Muhammad, after having met G-d, is on his way to earth when he runs into Moses. G-d has just given the gift of salat, prayer, to the Muslims. Muhammad eagerly shares the fact that Muslims are going to be responsible for praying 50 times a day. In response, Moses tell Muhammad that there is no way anyone will pray that much during one day. Moses forces Muhammad to go back and negotiate a reduction in the number of prayers. Muhammad, thus, talks to G-d and comes back with 45 prayers. Moses advises getting the number reduced further. Muhammad complies. The prayers are cut down in incriments of five, with Moses pressuring Muhammad the whole time. This continues until the number of prayers is down to 5. Moses insists Mohammed should go back again, to reduce them to three. but Muhammad replies he is too embarrassed.

That, my friends, is how Muslims ended up with five required prayers a day. Or as my mum put it when she told me the story: "Thank god for that Prophet Mosa!"

What are the implications of this story, and how do those tie into larger theological and political narratives in the world? Please feel free to speculate and discuss. Be as idealistic or cynical as you like. I hope to be able to use the story and discussion as a jumping off point later in the week.

From our Armenian friends at No Place For Denial:

BREAKING NEWS: The Belmont Human Rights Commission voted unanimously this evening to recommend to the board of selectmen that Belmont immediately sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League. It cited the ADL’s failure to unambiguously recognize the Armenian Genocide and its continued opposition to Congressional resolutions recognizing the Genocide.

Karine Birazian, the Eastern Regional Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America, called me this morning to tell me the good news. I suggested the next stop should be Amnesty International.

Contact Amnesty's Northeast Office at aiusane@aiusa.org, or call them at 212-807-8400. Tell them that the ADL has disgraced human rights activism and has no business call itself an organization that combats "bigotry of all kinds" unless it unequivocally recognizes the Armenian Genocide and backs the Congressional resolution that does so.

* Check our always up-to-date list of Jewcy's posts on the ADL/Armenian Genocide issue

Just got back from the ADL protest an hour or so ago. I'll have a more comprehensive post about the event tomorrow, but suffice it to say, it came off remarkably well. I was very proud to be an editor of this magazine tonight, and even prouder to call Joey Kurtzman -- who brought the bulk of the media attention to this scandal -- a friend and co-thinker.

Mobius (formerly)* of Jewschool was there and took photos. Some below, more here.

Manning the Barricades: Armenian protestors across the street from the 92nd St. Y

 

Our Resident Cartoonist: Jewcy contributor Eli Valley lent his Foxman caricature skills to the signage

 

"Why Jewcy Did This": The Armenians asked me to address the crowd and explain the mag's commitment to recognizing the genocide

* See Jewcy's official press release for the protest
* Check our always up-to-date list of Jewcy's posts on the ADL/Armenian Genocide issue

I meant formerly, yes. But can you ever really leave Jewschool?

 

[Note: This is the official Jewcy press release about our upcoming protest of Abe Foxman at the 92nd Street Y. Please copy and paste what's below if you intend to e-mail any news sources or organizations about the event.]

Jewcy Protests Anti-Defamation League Director Abe Foxman at the 92nd Street Y

WHERE: Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, New York
WHEN: Thursday, Sep 6, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. (The event starts at 8:15 p.m.)

As reported by Jewcy Senior Editor Joey Kurtzman, Abe Foxman has refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Weeks after Jewcy called for h