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Written by New Voices

A Chocolate Messiah, Beyond the Pale?, Burning Hate
Chocolate as a Religious Experience
The Messiah appears at Midwestern colleges…drenched in chocolate

Waiting for the Messiah? Wait no more! Choc Latai Zvi--aka the Chocolate Messiah--has arrived on campus. Choc Latai Zvi (Choco for short) has made appearances at Ohio State University and Columbia College in Chicago, clad only in red underpants and dripping with Hershey's chocolate syrup.

At Columbia College last spring, Choco performed a Chocolo-Spritual Exercise. The ceremony featured two priestesses dressed in white dresses who poured Hershey's on Choco and shaved a chai (Hebrew for life) symbol into his chest hair, an exchange of chocolate kisses, gyrating dancing by Choco, and culminated in Choco "disappearing," leaving only an impression of a chai made from chocolate on a shroud.

Choco is the creation of Marc Tasman, a 29-year-old Jewish performance artist. When not covered in chocolate, he teaches computer art at Columbia College and at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

Tasman traces Choc Latai Zvi's lineage to Shabbatai Tzvi, the famous false messiah of the seventeenth century. Asked by New Voices why he chose to emulate a false messiah, he explained: "What is the difference between a false messiah and a real one? If you emulate a real one, you get branded as a false one."

And like any good messiah, Choco brings a message of how to bring harmony to the mortal world. "Chocolate creates a feeling of love when eaten. The act of giving chocolate is tantamount to giving love," Tasman said. "Choco advocates the giving of chocolate as much as possible." So what if he's a false messiah--at least his message is sweet!

Beyond the Pale?
University of Texas Hillel refuses affiliation to pro-Palestinian Jewish student group

Should Hillel partner with a group whose stated purpose is Palestinian liberation? Not according to the Hillel Foundation at the University of Texas at Austin. Last May, Texas Hillel denied affiliate status to a recently formed campus group, Jewish Students for Palestinian Liberation (JSPL). "Texas Hillel is solidly pro-Israel in its activities, policies and orientation, and will only recognize as constituent organizations those groups that affirm this deep commitment," explained a letter signed by staff and student leaders of Texas Hillel.

In an e-mail sent to various Jewish organizations, Liz Harr, the founder of JSPL and a Jewish University of Texas student, argued that her group had been treated unfairly and that its goal is simply to educate Jewish students. "The word, 'liberation,' illustrates our intent to both liberate our minds from prejudice and to liberate the minds of those who fail to recognize that the Palestinians are a people, human beings with rights," she wrote. "This liberation entails recognition of basic human rights, including the right to self-determination. We are expressly not campaigning against Israel."

Harr wrote that Texas Hillel's decision to spurn her group flies in the face of Hillel's stated commitment to a "pluralistic vision of Judaism that embraces all movements."

Jeff Rubin, director of communications at Hillel's International Center, told The New York Jewish Week that "Hillel tries to be as welcoming as possible to a spectrum of religious and political perspectives, embracing everything from Likud to Peace Now. We try to err on the side of inclusiveness." He also said, however, that Hillel gives autonomy to individual campus chapters in matters of affiliation, and that "there are some lines that should not be crossed."

Harr recently told New Voices that her group would remain active with or without Texas Hillel's support. But in response to the controversy over the group's name it will continue under a new moniker: Jewish Students for Palestinian Rights.

Burning Hate
Arson attack on UC Davis Hillel seems tied to Mideast tensions

It didn't come as a complete surprise this past May when someone shattered the window of the University of California at Davis Hillel house and set fire to the Israeli flag flying from the building, scorching the roof.

The morning before the arson, Davis Hillel Director Hillel Damron received a warning from a Jewish student at UC Berkeley about a possible attack on their Hillel. "He called me and he informed me that at the time someone overheard Arab-Palestinian students talking about it at a picnic in the weekend, and in fact came back to me with the names, so I had about five names at the time," Damron told New Voices. "I informed the police, both the campus police and Davis police. They didn't react--it happened."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and the FBI investigated the arson as a federal offense and Davis police classified it as a hate crime, but nobody has been arrested in connection with the crime.

In the aftermath of the attack on Davis Hillel, Jewish student groups and the Reform synagogue each hosted peace rallies. But Damron said he received no support from Arab leadership on campus.

And shortly after the attack, Arab students hosted a Palestinian solidarity week that Damron says was anti-Israel. "Look at that, two weeks after we were attacked, supposedly on political grounds, we staged a peace rally and asked Palestinians to come and speak," Damron told the Forward. "What do they do? They're staging what I call a war rally--full of propaganda. They didn't ask me or any other Hillel official to come speak, and there were no calls for discussion."

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.