Archive
Nothing makes me feel more like a Jew than going shopping with my mother. Maybe I should rephrase that to sound less self-hating. No, I mean it. I mean it as a positive statement. A point of pride. My Jewish/New Yorker/American ancestors did not get where they are today buy paying retail price. I mean […]
The Jewish world has so many layers beyond its pain, but tales of Jewish identity too often recount suffering with an almost liturgical precision – to the exclusion of its triumphs. Evelyn Toynton’s second novel, “The Oriental Wife,” is the tale of young Jews who flee Hitler’s pogroms for America, exploring the effects of culture clash without miring itself in that inescapable identity pity that asserts itself in similar works. As they struggle to eke out a life of substance in a strange country, these young people must deal with their shattered expectations and a new tragedy that will shake and redefine their relationships permanently.
Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of my Rabbi, not in temple, but at the supermarket. I’ve seen him at ShopRite, Stew Leonard’s, Costco, Stop & Shop, and the Big Y. That’s all of my area’s major food stores. And every single time, I have pork in the cart, glaring up for God to see. […]
Did you ever notice that any time a T.V. show or magazine article or, well, anything really, wants to show something Jewish, they inevitably show either a boy holding a Torah or Hareidi men at the Kotel? Inevitably. This is true across the board, even for seemingly impartial sources such as National Geographic. During their […]
When the opinion editor of Israel’s Maariv newspaper, Ben-Dror Yemini, visited the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year, he gave a lecture tour stretching from the campus of Stanford University to the network of Bay Area JCCs. He talked about the things he knows: Israel, the media and multiculturalism.
“The main problem that I recognize here is ignorance,” Yemini said from across a coffee table in his hotel in downtown San Francisco. He wore a crisp black suit and round, wire-framed glasses. “They don’t hate Israel or love Israel. They just don’t know.”
Roseanne Barr announced her run for president of the United States (and Prime Minister of Israel–it’s a toofer) on The Tonight Show. She is heading up the “Green Tea Party” and is bringing back the barter system. Nice to see a dream come true. What started out as a plug for her Lifetime reality show, […]
In this installment, Carly Silver returns to Hinduism, visiting a Hindu temple under construction in Flushing.
The New York Times says that the Master’s is the new Bachelor’s. Then how do they explain my employment? Huh? Huh? Anyway, Jenna Weissman Joselit points out that not only are MA program proliferating right now, but there are more Jewish Studies programs popping up as well. In the Times article, they cite the appearance […]
When news of JDub’s impending death first hit, we blogged about it a bit. And then New Voices reporter Alisha Kinman checked in with them at their last party. Now, Jewish Daily Forward intern Pnina Kessler is weighing in–and quoting New Voices Editor David A.M. Wilensky. Kessler writes: …I’m here to tell those speculating about the […]
Lo, when Moses didst return from the mountain, he spake unto the people: “People!” And the people didst say, “Yeah?” And, in his best Charlton Heston voice, Moses proclaimed, “I have many words from the Almighty—about ten-ish.” Verily, Moses gave the people the commandments, a lesser known of which was, “THOU SHALT MAKE CHINTZY RELIGIOUS […]