Archive
Fans of funky music are used to finding Jews behind the scenes. During the 1960s, Jerry Wexler produced hits for Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. During the 1970s and ‘80s, David Geffen signed just about everybody. And in the 1990s, Rick Rubin locked the Red Hot Chilli Peppers in an abandoned Hollywood mansion and voila: […]
Thanks, crooked ultra-Orthodox. You, with your flowing white beards, black velvet kippot, black coats and blacker hats, have shown the world that we Jews love laundering money through corrupt charities. You, who present yourself to the world as the platinum standard of our religion and culture, have branded us all with the stereotype we’ve been […]
For the last couple of years, I have been slowly developing a passion for honey bees, fueled by a combination of delicious varieties of local honey, a passion for sustainable agriculture, and a fascination with the inner workings of bee hives. When I returned to New York City I decided to look for a venue […]
As a child a tale was told to me of the Halutzim, the pioneers who came from the diaspora to the land of Israel and cultivated the parched, barren earth into the beginnings of a fruitful nation. I did not doubt this tale, or the image drawn for me of the proud pioneers as they […]
So there are answers to the “Where is God?†question after all. I’d like to respond to a couple of comments that appeared on my last post that both validated my observation of God’s absence but provided different reasons for it. Benjamin Siegel’s main claim was that “God is nothing more than a very compelling […]
Uri L’Tzedek, a student driven Orthodox social justice group, wants to wed halakha and ethics. Its latest project, Tav HaYosher, aims to certify kosher eating establishments for fair labor practices.
An Israeli stole $300 from me yesterday. Said Israeli, whose name–I have since learned–is not Avi Levi, played me for the cash under the pretense of needing medicine money for his sick 10-year old daughter, who had flo4from Israel to Maryland for kidney surgery the day before. He needed the medicine before flying back, he […]
Today marks the 64th anniversary of the first nuclear bomb test at Trinity, a desert site sixty miles west of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Conducted in the early morning of July 16, 1945, the “gadget†was a success: producing a “burst of light of a brilliance beyond any comparison†and laying the groundwork for the U.S.’s […]
It’s a personal relief to see so many Jewish innovators and new Jewish organizations really giving a lot of thought to the Jewish experience, which is something I feel was left out too often in my Jewish day school and Young Israel synagogue experience. But I’m confused about one thing: Where is God? The question […]