JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Lezak eyes a solo on podium

By Marc Brodsky · August 13, 2008

Jewish Olympian Jason Lezak surely has made his mark on U.S. Olympic swimming relay teams, notably with his unfathomable dash in the final 50 meters on Monday to lift the 4x100 men's freestyle foursome to the gold medal in Beijing and a new world record.

Now Lezak, at 32 the oldest male swimmer ever to qualify for an Olympic team, may have his last shot to earn the individual honors he so craves. The American record holder in the 100 free finished sixth in Wednesday's semifinals to qualify for the night's finals.

In his three Olympic Games, Lezak has five medals, including three golds with the one he acquired in his remarkable anchor leg in the Water Cube, but none individually. And while he talked in an interview with JTA a week before the Games about being a "team-type player" and the "amazing feeling" of winning medals in the relays, the Californian savors the chance at redemption in the individual 100 free. He failed to qualify for the finals at the 2004 Games in Athens.

"I took the preliminaries too lightly," he told me in a phone interview. "I was thinking about how many races I had to swim and I saved too much energy." Lezak says he learned "a horrible lesson" from Athens, but that it sparked him to keep going for China and "that he had unfinished business."

His improbable surge in the 4x100 – overtaking the favored French and their one-time world record holder Alain Bernard – helped Michael Phelps in his historic pursuit of eight golds in Beijing. And Lezak will have a tough road to the top of the medal podium against the likes of Bernard, who recaptured the world record in one semifinal, only to see it snatched in the other by the Australian Eamon Sullivan. (Another American Jewish swimmer, Garrett Weber-Gale, did not qualify for the finals.)

In our interview, Lezak said, "To do something on your own feels pretty good. I have a lot to prove to myself. I know I'm capable, I just haven't done it yet."

Can he do it tonight? Certainly his anchor leg in the relay shows that anything is possible.

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Bad bounces in Beijing

By Marc Brodsky · August 13, 2008

Shahar Peer in action on Jan. 21, 2008, when she was part of a doubles team that advanced to the Australian Open quarterfinals.

Israeli tennis stars Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich didn't bring their Melbourne magic to Beijing. In fact, the Olympics have turned out to be a major disappointment on the courts for the entire Israeli tennis contingent, which had high expectations for China.

Ram and Erlich, strong contenders for a medal, had fired up Israel in January by winning the Australian Open men's doubles in January – the Jewish state's first Grand Slam title. No doubt the veteran French tandem they defeated that day in a tough two-setter recalled that loss this week, when they exacted revenge Tuesday in the first round of the Olympics. Unseeded Arnaud Clement and Llodra Michael knocked off the third-seeded Israelis, 6-4, 6-4.

On the women's side, 24th-seeded Shahar Peer may have been thinking medal, too, especially with such highly ranked players as Maria Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport sidelined by injuries. Peer, 21, who gained much attention playing in the Qatar Open in February, won her first-round match Monday before falling in the second round the next day.

She did go down fighting: It took Russia's Vera Zvonareva one hour, 11 minutes to win the second set, 7-6, after taking the opener, 6-3.

So, too, did Israel's other women's singles performer, Tzipora Obziler. She dropped a grueling three-hour affair to Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, on Tuesday. The deciding set lasted one hour, 6 minutes. That same evening, Obziler and Peer fell in straight sets in their doubles match.

Peer, who last year became the first Israeli woman to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals, should be back for another shot in 2012 in London. But Ram and Erlich may not return, as both will be in their 30s for the next Summer Games.

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Agri saga continues in the Times

By Ben Harris · August 13, 2008

It took more than a week, but the Times today printed six responses to last week's op-ed by Shmuel Herzfeld criticizing the responses of the major Orthodox groups and calling for a rabbinic investigation of the kosher producer Agriprocessors. Not surprisingly, opinion roughly divides between the rabbis and everyone else.

The Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America both took strong exception to Herzfeld, restating their position that, yes, they do care about worker treatment etc., but the federal government is the only entity qualified to evaluate and enforce those standards. Also, the company is entitled to due process and a presumption of innocence.

The letters can be read in full here.

Also, we got some emails regarding my description yesterday of Shmuel Herzfeld as Nat Lewin's "rabbi." Though Lewin is a member of Herzfeld's Washington shul, as well as several other area congregations, Lewin is a regular attendee of an Orthodox synagogue in Potomac, Md., where he lives. Calling Herzfeld his "rabbi" is inaccurate. Sorry about that.

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The News Shticker: Lindsay Lohan converting?

By Daniel Sieradski · August 13, 2008

Actress Lindsay Lohan with girlfriend Samantha Ronson

Pop-tart Lindsay Lohan is apparently contemplating conversion to Judaism in order to be closer to her girlfriend, DJ Samantha Ronson. According to the BANG Showbiz news service,

"Sam's family is Jewish. Lindsay has learned a lot about Judaism from Sam and admires its beliefs."

However, friends of the 'Mean Girls' actress have doubts about her intention to fully convert to the religion and think she is just doing it for attention.

The source added to Life and Style Weekly magazine: "Two years ago it was Kabbalah. Last year it was Alcoholics Anonymous. She was into 'peace' for a while. Whatever is of the moment, that's Lindsay. But the one thing it does show is her commitment to Sam. She could be any religion and Lindsay would be open to it."

More shtick:

• Jon Stewart and author Ron Suskind, who recently revealed that the Bush administration falsified evidence to retroactively justify invading Iraq, discuss an Iraqi general's penchant for Yiddish on Monday night's Daily Show.
• Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle davened minchah at the Great Wailing Wall of China.
• The Onion adds its two cents to the Agriprocessors scandal.
• Jezebel asks Dr. Ruth about her feelings on sex during niddah, the period when a woman menstruates. Warning: Not for the faint of heart. And not halachically permissible (i.e., acceptable under Jewish law) by any stretch of the imagination. (Hat tip to EV.)
• A Roman pagan temple was unearthed in Israel's Galilee region.
• Social Research: An International Quarterly of Social Sciences has devoted the entirety of its summer issue to the concept of martyrdom, giving special attention to Islam, and Palestinian society in particular, where "violent acts [are considered] cultural expression and [are] critically linked to collective imagination and memory."
• "Rhinestone Cowboy" singer and former TV personality Glen Campbell divulged to Reuters his identity as a Baptist cum Messianic Jew (a.k.a. Jew for Jesus).
• Gothamist reports on the outrage sparked by the sale of Flatbush's Kosher Gym to non-Jewish owners.
• The AP reports on Los Angeles Jewish organizations' efforts to bridge the Jewish-Latino gap by reaching out to Pentecostals.
• Likewise, Mehnaz Afridi writes in the Khaleej Times on bridging the Muslim-Jewish divide.
• AlterNet writes on the rise of arranged marriages in America, chiefly among Orthodox Jews.
• The Sydney Morning Herald profiles author Naomi Ragen.
• The Detroit Free Press profiles Naomi Zaslow, a recent art school grad and ex-Orthodox lesbian, who uses her photography to "deconstruct her identity."
• A guest blogger named Sam at the popular feminist blog Feministe just capped off two weeks' worth of contributions on Jewish subjects. You can peruse the archive of her contributions here.

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