Kicking ass and taking Twitter handles!

By David A.M. Wilensky August 12, 2010

Crossposted to Jewschool Riddle: What is neither a mosque nor located at Ground Zero, but is on Twitter? Answer: Park 51! (This can be confusing though. It’s called the Ground Zero Mosque by people using it as en election wedge issue and by those who buy into their rhetoric. The institution itself, once its built will…

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Reading List: A 10-year old reads “Portnoy’s Complaint” and more…

By Ben Sales August 12, 2010

Good afternoon! What happens when a pre-pubescent non-Jewish kid reads a revolutionarily risque Philip Roth book about a frustrated MOT? Sentences like, “There are a lot of words in Portnoy’s Complaint that I didn’t really get, like shtupp and schlong and shmutzig and punim.  I don’t know what they mean, but they’re really fun to…

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Israel is Confusing

By Ben Sales August 11, 2010

This article was edited on Aug. 12 to reflect a correction: the Israel Land Authority and the Israeli Police–not the Israeli Army–were responsible for the demolition of the Bedouin village. I’m not an expert on domestic security. Unlike my Israeli friends, I’ve never served one day in combat nor toted an M-16, so I can’t…

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Women of the Wall ring in Elul

By David A.M. Wilensky August 11, 2010

Crossposted to Jewschool Despite Women of the Wall leader Anat Hoffman being banned from the Kotel plaza for 30 days, Rosh Chodesh services proceeded today in the plaza and concluded, as usual, with a Torah service at Robinson’s Arch. And they live-tweeted the whole thing! Among other things, they tweeted: Proof that police + rules…

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The Reading List: LeBron and the bling-bling rabbi, and more…

By Ben Sales August 11, 2010

Good morning! As this photo proves, LeBron “Most Hated Man Not in Cleveland” James met with a rabbi to solicit some advice on a major business deal. The rabbi’s price: somewhere around $100,000. [TMZ] Women in the Washington DC area call some more (needed) attention to the age-old problem of agunot, or Jewish women whose…

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Children are Good for the Jews

By eweiss August 11, 2010

There is a wonderful story about a village whose residents wanted to present their feudal lord with a gift: a full barrel of whiskey.  There would be a grand celebration on the lord’s birthday, when the mayor of the town would present the gift accompanied by choir and song. To spread the cost of the whiskey,…

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The Reading List: Insane new anti-Cordoba ad and more

By David A.M. Wilensky August 10, 2010

The ad above has been approved by the MTA to run on New York City buses and subways after the ad’s creator threatened a law suit. [Gothamist] With suspect reasoning, here’s a claim that childless Jewish women are less engaged with their Jewish identity and the Jewish community. The best part: “I don’t know any…

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J Street U: Reach Out, Take Part, Make Peace

By admin August 9, 2010

Before flying off to Israel a couple weeks ago, I went to hear journalist Peter Beinart speak. I asked him how young, liberal American Jews should engage the kind of “uncomfortable Zionism” he prescribed in his famous June article. “To connect to the people in Israel who share your values, you know?” Beinart replied. “To…

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The Reading List for 8/9/10 – Adolf Hitler taken away from his parents and more

By David A.M. Wilensky August 9, 2010

Good morning, class. Here is your reading list. Haaretz reports that the Israeli government tried to cover up the Waqf’s secret excavations on the Temple Mount. Did Senator Lindsey Graham go against Abe Lincoln and the Bible in advocating the repeal of the 14th Amendment? asks Rabbi Andy Bachman. An American university president and Clinton-era…

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The Reading List: Sunday Brunch – ADL self-destruct continues

By David A.M. Wilensky August 8, 2010

As noted in Ben’s pre-Shabbat post, we’re starting a new feature here at the New Voices blog called The Reading List, a daily round-up of links from around the Jewier corners of the interblogotwitsphere. Our goal is to do a beefier edition on Sundays, for your Sunday brunch reading pleasure. This Sunday section will feature…

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Reading List: Shabbat Shalom!

By Ben Sales August 6, 2010

Hello loyal New Voices blog readers! This is the first installment of our newest feature–the Reading List–a short roundup of the interesting, quirky, relevant, funny and/or important happenings on the Jewy internet. We’ll publish the Reading List every weekday morning and on Friday evenings. On Sundays, the Reading List will link to several articles discussing…

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Tablet wants interns too. It must be that time of year.

By David A.M. Wilensky August 6, 2010

Man, like two minutes after I posted below about the J Street U internships, I see Tablet has an internship this fall too. It’s just that time of year. Anyway, Tablet is looking for a paid design intern for the fall, accepting undergrad juniors and seniors as well as grad students. Full info here. Happy…

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J Street U looking for interns

By David A.M. Wilensky August 6, 2010

Yo. I’m generally opposed to unpaid internships. But if you’re into them and you’re into J Street, their fall internships might be worth taking a look at. They’re looking for interns for their Boston, LA, DC, NYC and Chicago operations. Full info here.

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The New One-State Solution

By Ben Sales August 5, 2010

Those gosh-darn liberal, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, Palestinian-loving Likkudniks. In a bizarre turn of events, members of the Israeli right-wing are now endorsing an answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was once the purview of the Israeli far left and the intellectual circles of Europe and the US: the one-state solution. An article in the JTA reported today that Knesset…

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The Cordoba Initiative is Not Jewish

By Ben Sales August 4, 2010

I’m not sure if other people know this, but the community center/mosque that New York City just approved for construction is not a Jewish project. Given the public statements on the center from the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League and J Street–all leading Jewish American organizations–your Jew on the street could assume that this was…

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