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J Street press conference audio

By Daniel Sieradski · April 15, 2008

Here's the audio from today's press conference about the launch of J Street, the new dovish pro-Israel PAC.

[audio:/images/archive/041508_jstreet_press_conference.mp3]

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Shatner does Exodus

By Ami Eden · April 15, 2008

It's hard to imagine anyone filling Charlton Heston's Mosaic shoes. But then again, you haven't listened to "Exodus: An Oratorio," starring ? William Shatner.

My story on the new CD is up (just in time for Passover). And here's the Podcast of my interview with the Star Terk and Boston Legal star.

[audio:/images/archive/041408_shatner_eden.mp3]

This is JTA Digital Media Master Daniel Sieradski's favorite clip from the CD.

[audio:/images/archive/shatner_exodus.mp3]

And here's the final line of the performance, which Shatner names as the most dramatic (note the Spock connection, though I'm pretty sure it's unintentional).

[audio:/images/archive/shatner_exodus2.mp3]

To subscribe to JTA's Behind the News podcast, click here.

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Boot camp for mohels

By Ami Eden · April 15, 2008

"For 19 years, Dr. Bob Levenson, 60, was one of the most sought-after mohels in Greater Boston," the Boston Globe reports. "But now he is retired and his shoes have not been easy to fill."

The solution?

A boot camp for mohels.

Last weekend, 21 students from across the country - mostly pediatricians, urologists, and obstetricians - converged for an intense three-day certification course on how to become a mohel. The first Boston-area training session in 20 years, the workshop was an attempt to replenish the dwindling number of mohels in the region and enliven the connection between Jews and the ancient ritual that symbolizes the Jewish covenant with God.

With just two dozen or so active mohels serving Eastern Massachusetts, many young parents seeking a traditional berit mila - religious circumcision in accordance with Jewish law - describe a frantic and stressful search to book a mohel in the days following their newborn's birth. To increase the numbers requires lobbying an already busy group of men and women to take on a time-consuming and important religious responsibility.

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Huffington Post columnist Leora Tannenbaum attends a pre-Shabbat lecture at the local mosque and concludes that "devout Muslims and Jews are not altogether that different, particularly in the worship department."

Just as when I attend my own Orthodox synagogue, located a half-mile away from the mosque, I was separated from the men. After we placed our shoes in cubbyholes, we women filed up the staircase to the cramped balcony above while the men found places in the majestic sanctuary downstairs. There appeared to be nearly a thousand men and perhaps sixty women in attendance for the congregational prayer.

Imam Ali delivered his khutba (sermon). He told the worshippers that Muslims need to reach out and live harmoniously with other people because all people are servants of Allah. If someone chooses another path, he said, Muslims have a responsibility to show them the right way. However, one may not force others to follow the Islamic way. "We must show respect and dignity to all children of Adam," he said. "Everyone is dignified by Allah." It is human nature, he continued, that different people have different opinions, and Allah knows this. "But this difference of opinions does not make us hate each other. This diversity is seen in Islam as good," Imam Ali declared, and all of us must "make an effort to get to know one another."

Although I tried, I could not see the imam at all during his sermon. He spoke from a platform that was obscured from all but a few choice seats in the women's section. So I ran my gaze across the women listening to him. Their hijabs reminded me of the tichels common in Borough Park and other Hasidic neighborhoods. I craned my head to check out the men below. The several men from JTS blended in with the crowd, the kippot on their heads closely resembling the kufis. After the sermon, it was time to pray. The bowing and prostrating was not altogether different from the shuckling (rhythmic swaying) commonly done during Jewish prayer.