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What do you do when your drama teacher makes you wear a tree costume that is really uncomfortable? If you’re an elementary school student at the anarchist Stelton Colony in New Jersey, you go on strike.
You always remember your first. Mine was on a boat in the Hudson River. It was dark, and the wind across the top deck was cold. Some of the savvier kids were drinking a bottle of something expensive that they had grabbed from the bar while the bartender was looking the other way. Downstairs, everyone danced to “I’m a Barbie Girl.” I took a deep breath. Yes, it was my first absurdly extravagant Bar Mitzvah.
“The two leading lusts of the Jew’s life are lechery and money.” So wrote the improbably named Telemachus Thomas Timayenis in his 1883 anti-Semitic opus The American Jew: An Expos\xc3\xa9 of His Career. As Forward editorial director J.J. Goldberg says in his interview in this issue, stereotypes are frequently unfair, but very rarely unfounded. It seems improper, then, that seventeen years on this magazine has dedicated at least two of its covers to sex and none to money.
Jewschool has the story: According to a full-page advertisement in The Forward, available as a pdf here, New York Senator Charles Schumer will be making a “Special Appearance†at an event in Central Park that apparently opposes a two-state solution, is opposed to negotiations over Jerusalem, refers to settlers as “heroic pioneer families,†insists “No! […]
Sage Advice for Troubled Times
You know the type. They drank Mocha Lattes at the Starbucks after high school, wore shoes at 16 that would have looked extravagant on a 30-year-old, and drank martinis when you were still working on your rum and Coke. Now, with a Blackberry in one hand and Pinkberry in the other, they rule the Quad, the sorority, and the local dive. We got a real live Jewish American Princess to answer some questions about the culture. Her name is withheld, but she’s for real.
In the aftermath of the revelation that Bernard Madoff’s investment fund was a tremendous Ponzi scheme, the Jewish community adopted a customarily defensive pose. Afraid that Madoff’s religious affiliation would encourage anti-Semites, community spokesmen worked to disassociate him from the Tribe. David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, complained to the New York Times in a December 13th letter that their coverage of Madoff had placed “a striking emphasis on his being Jewish,” and pointed out that no one was talking about the religion of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who had been accused of corruption the same week.
A thought experiment. Imagine that it turns out that Glenn Beck is right, and that President Obama is a closet socialist. Further, imagine that upon reelection in 2012, Obama announces a series of reforms – call it a Four Year Plan – to narrow the gap between rich and poor, and that the keystone of the plan is a marginal tax rate of 99% on income over $100,000. A few machers and their lawyers would figure out how to game the system, but the broader communal affluence that sets us apart from nearly every other American ethnic group would disappear. Given such a scenario, what would it mean to be an American Jew in 2030?
Horseracing is a disorienting sport for the unschooled spectator. We’re used to experiencing sporting events within one of a few of dramatic frameworks: the underdog perseveres, an indomitable spirit spurs forgotten athlete to greatness, teamwork lifts mediocre players to victory, etc. Each May, NBC tries to convince us that these sorts of narratives apply to […]
The third and final audio recording from the 38th Annual National Jewish Student Journalism Conference is posted below. In this segment, editors of five Jewish campus publications talk about their trade. Speakers included representatives from The Shpiel, Schmooze Magazine, the Commentator, Avanim, and Hakesher. Download their conversation by clicking on the following link: Jewish Student […]