The Reading List: Sammy Davis, Jr. is so Jewish

By Ben Sales October 6, 2010

If you don’t believe me, watch this. If you do believe me, please also watch it. You’ll thank me later. [Manischewitz120] If that wasn’t funny enough for you, check this out : a rabbi has just given female Mossad agents the halakhic go-ahead to seduce the enemy with sex. Only in Israel. [Ha’aretz] Oh, did…

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The Festival of (Jewish) Film

By akinman October 6, 2010

From “Dinner for Schmucks” to “The Social Network,” what is there not to love about Hollywood’s hottest Jew crew? Captivating young audiences worldwide, Jewish entertainers like Paul Rudd and Jesse Eisenberg have starred in money-making, motion pictures, bringing a little bit of Jewish humor onto the big screen. But rarely do people watch films about…

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Glee and the New Jewish Superheroes

By bspringer October 5, 2010

It was the Jewiest episode of Glee yet! Rewind. Glee is one of the only television shows I watch on a regular basis. Don’t judge. It’s amazing. This week’s episode elevated studly muskeljuden Noah “Puck” Puckerman to the top of my list of Jewish heroes and sealed diva Rachel Berry, AKA Lea Michele, as the…

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My Release

By jcohen October 5, 2010

When I was little, I was not a fan of services. They were long and dull and always, always during my favorite TV shows. I spent the whole time checking my dad’s watch and flipping through the Siddur, attempting to appear pious, but really just counting how many pages of the service remained. Even after…

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More Buzz on BDS

By Ben Sales October 5, 2010

In case you’ve missed one of the hot topics of the Jewish media this year, Members of the Tribe have their panties in a bunch over the slowly growing BDS movement in the US and worldwide, which urges universities to divest from, boycott and sanction companies that do business in the West Bank and Gaza….

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My letter to the editor of the The NJ Jewish Standard

By David A.M. Wilensky October 5, 2010

The following was crossposted to Jewschool. It was also emailed to New Jersey Jewish Standard Editor Rebecca Boroson, who you can also email at editor@jewishmediagroup.com. For a little background, check out today’s Reading List. To the editor: As a member of both the New Jersey press and the Jewish press, I am deeply disturbed by your…

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The Reading List: “Jewish Standard” prints shameful editorial note

By Ben Sales October 5, 2010

The New Jersey Jewish Standard claims in its “About Us” that it is “dedicated to giving expression to all phases of Jewish life.” Its actions, however, show that it is not open to the Jewish LGBT community. The Standard did the sensible thing last week by printing a community couple’s same-sex wedding announcement, just as they would for…

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A simple suggestion to strengthen Jewish identity

By mmoncaster October 5, 2010

My childhood Jewish identity revolved around two main things. One was the synagogue. I was either begrudgingly sitting through services, or devising new ways to get out of them without arousing my Mom’s suspicion. The other was Hebrew school, which I was coerced into attending on Saturday mornings while my non-Jewish friends were sleeping in….

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The Terrible and the Horrible

By yschwartz October 5, 2010

We all know that Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook was, in his time, a passionate advocate of vegetarianism within a traditional Jewish philosophical framework. But Shmuel Hanagid? Seriously? (Shmuel Hanagid, by the way, was (one of) the 10th-11th century Jewish poet laureate(s) of Muslim Spain. He was also a learned Talmudic scholar, in addition to serving…

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What we talk about when we talk about Germany.

By ckessler October 4, 2010

This morning, Justin Jacobs, a fellow Pittsburgher and an associate editor at The Jewish Chronicle, interviewed me about a neat summer experience I had. Which made me realize that I hadn’t written anything so “official” about it yet. So, what better forum than New Voices? I’ll break it down like this: Who: Me (a creative…

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No Surprise

By admin October 4, 2010

This is a guest post by Moriel Rothman, a senior at Middlebury College and the president of J Street U. The Israeli government did not renew the ten-month settlement freeze that ended on Sunday, so settlement construction restarted. No surprise. Netanyahu would have displayed courage and conviction by renewing the freeze, given his hawkish history…

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The Reading List: Italian Strongman slurs Jews… sound familiar?

By Ben Sales October 4, 2010

Does history repeat itself? The strongman prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, told an anti-Semitic joke this week featuring–of all things–the Holocaust. But don’t worry, it’s OK, because it’s not like the Italian government had anything to do with carrying out the Holocaust… right? Right? [NYT Lede] In other hate news, it looks like “Price…

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Park 51 is gonna look awesome… if it ever gets built

By David A.M. Wilensky October 4, 2010

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Park 51, the thing that is going to be neither a mosque nor at Ground Zero. Io9, my favorite scifi blog, reports that designs of Park 51–which may never actually get built because they don’t have any money, but never mind that…–look like Superman’s Fortress of…

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Israeli Bacon

By jagross October 3, 2010

Dr. Eli Landau just accomplished the saddest thing I have heard (recently): he wrote Israel’s first pork cookbook. While some might argue that this is horrible because it is an Israeli cookbook about pork. I, on the other had, see this as horrible because it is only Israel’s first. Landau’s precedent shattering work is called,…

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outsider/outsider: geek/jew

By lcmoore October 3, 2010

I give people all sorts of very sound, very Jewish advice. Find a synagogue you like going to. Check out your local JCC. Check out services. Find your own unique, awesome way to celebrate your Jewishness, your faith, your culture. Get involved with people romantically who understand how important faith is or isn’t important to…

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