VIDEO: Israelis think Birthright is funny [Eretz Nehederet]
Israeli comedy show, “Eretz Nehederet” (“A Wonderful Country,” somewhere between “The Daily Show” and “Saturday Night Live”), took Birthright in their season premiere. The skit came complete with a perverted trip mate, an enthusiastic frat-boy a tour guide with a guilt complex… and this gem from their tour guide:
“It’s important that you tell your parents that Israeli is not what they thought. It’s not a desert with camels, but a modern and developed place. By the way, we asked women to sit at the back of the bus and men at the front.”
JNF is still the cuddly entity you learned about in Sunday school… er… wait… [+972]
Sunday saw protests at the offices of the Jewish National Fund in Jerusalem, where demonstrators sought to prevent the displacement of Bedouin families in the face of proposed JNF development in the Negev region.
“The JNF took my land, said a man who introduced himself as Hussein and who was born in al-Araqib. “They’ve taken everything, all types of crops—watermelon, wheat—and they planted trees all over it… Now we’re all living in the al-Araqib cemetery, all 25 of us [extended family members].”
Contraception for college Catholics [Campus Progress]
Students who receive health insurance from colleges with religious affiliations will also be afforded coverage for contraception, according to a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services.
“This is a major victory for the reproductive health of students enrolled at religiously affiliated universities that currently deny this coverage. Students often enroll at these universities without any knowledge of this gap in their health insurance, and they find themselves without the preventive care they need at a time when their income is low, their debt is growing, and their stress levels are high.”
Jews agree that greenhouse gases suck [JTA]
Not sure which is more sarcastic “newsflash!”-worthy, the agreement… of the fact that they agreed. Several Jewish groups have agreed to decrease their emission of greenhouse gases in a three-year span, an effort bringing together organizations such as the Union for Reform Judaism and the Orthodox Union.
Jesus: “He-who-must-not-be-named”? [HuffPo]
Are Jews still afraid to talk about Jesus? Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s latest book, “Kosher Jesus,” hopes to challenge that taboo, but he’s drawing ire. Rabbi Jason Miller discusses the positive implications of Boteach’s work.
