JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

And now for some local Jews

By Uriel Heilman · September 16, 2008

Two for Tuesday.

• Jews are moving back into Harlem, including – of course – Chabad, reports the New York Daily News.
• Also in the News, New York’s only known black Chasidic rapper (how many of them are there outside the Big Apple?), Y-Love, talks about being, well, a black Jewish rapper.
• A teenager’s suicide has rattled L.A.’s Persian Jewish community, polarizing the wealthy and insular community and challenging its commitment to Persian Jewish traditions and American justice, the L.A. Times reports.
• Also in the L.A. Times, novelist Philip Roth talks about his latest book, ”Indignation.”
• The spat between a Boston-area mosque and The David Project, a pro-Israel group, is fading as regular worship at the mosque gets under way, the Boston Globe finds.
  
• Also in the Globe, a Jewish U.S. Army chaplain reviews his 15 months of service in Iraq: “I wore a yarmulke everywhere, a strange sight in a place like Iraq. I ate strictly kosher food: lots of salad, cup o’ soups, dried salami, dehydrated camping meals, and more tuna than most people eat in a lifetime. I fasted on all the fast days and celebrated every holiday in the Jewish calendar - a few of them twice.”
• Newfound Sabbath observance compelled Jewish blogger Leah Koenig (jcarrot.org) and her boyfriend to go on a 5-mile Shabbat march to attend a Saturday wedding. She wrote an essay about her trek in The New York Times’ Sunday Magazine.
• Also in the Times, a Queens synagogue finds a happy ending after its stolen Torah scrolls were recovered by police.

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The News Shticker

By Ben Harris · August 26, 2008

• Beijing it aint, but the folks from Heeb have concocted a Semitic version of the Olympiad. Other videos from the series include Disconnecta Yenta, the Penny Pick-Up and Gefilte Fish Wrestling.


• Madonna compared John McCain to Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe, and the ADL isn’t pleased.


• Meanwhile, Madonna hubby Guy Ritchie doesn’t share his wife’s affinity for Kabbalah, saying he prefers to stay “objective.”


• Israeli rabbis have a beef with Uruguay’s president.


• A shofar recovered from the Thames is found to be reaaaally old, just not as old as was hoped.


• The Dalai Lama gets a tallis.


• A biographer has revealed that Austrian Jewish actress Heddy Lamar was forced into a sexual relationship with Adolf Hitler by her first husband.


• The Miami Herald tells the story of nearly 400 Jewish youth who fled Cuba for America in the 1960s.


• The Chicago Tribune recounts how state courts wrestled with the question of whether or not to enforce the will of a Jew who nixed his descendants’ inheritance for marrying outside the fold.


• The Independent (UK) explains how two Picassos once owned by a wealthy German Jewish banker made their way from Nazi Germany into the hands of two New York museums.


• An Egyptian film critic expresses incredulity at his government’s decision to ban the release of Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan.”

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The News Shticker

By Uriel Heilman · August 19, 2008

• Kenneth Cole features what is probably the first hasidic Jew in a Kenneth Cole ad:
  


• Oy gevalt, you should only know how many Yiddish and Hebrew influences have found their way into American English already, writes the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a piece on the upcoming Survey of North American Jewish Language by linguist Sarah Bunin Benor sociologist Steven M. Cohen, faculty members at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.


• On JTA Election Central, Eric Fingerhut asks whether a typo in an Associated Press report on vice presidential speculation unconsciously channels the feelings of many Democrats about Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic VP pick.


• Australia’s The Age newspaper discovers the ”double mitzvah” of Friday night.


• The Jerusalem Post ran a story about how the haredi followers of Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman say the fighting in Georgia stopped as soon as Georgia’s prime minister got a blessing by phone from the rabbi.


• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice wants to see Saudi women compete in the Olympic Games. Those burkas might make it a bit difficult in the pool and on the uneven bars, however.


• Linday Lohan’s dad confirmed his daughter is considering converting to Judaism. “She’s exploring right now. She’s explored the Church of Scientology, she tried Kabbalah, and now this,” said Michael Lohan. “I think it’s just another phase. But either way, she’s involving God in her life, and I’m happy about that.”


• The Press-Enterprise of San Bernardino, Calif., reports on the uncertain future of a local synagogue.

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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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The News Shticker

By Uriel Heilman · August 12, 2008

• On a visit to Israel, actor Rob Schneider haggles at the souk in Tel Aviv.
• The hottest ticket of the summer theater season in Cedar City, Utah, is “Fiddler on the Roof,” which is beating Shakespeare in ticket sales in this mostly Mormon town 170 miles from the nearest synagogue.
• Ha’aretz uses questionable criteria to declare that Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli has become one of the hottest celebrities in the U.S. Perhaps someone should tell the folks at Ha’aretz that Heeb isn’t exactly an American mass-circulation magazine (though putting Refaeli on the cover certainly doesn’t hurt).
• It’s official: Brad Pitt will play an American Jewish soldier in the new Quentin Tarantino flick, “Inglorious Bastards.”
  
• Jean Sarkozy, the 21-year-old son of the French president, reportedly filed a police complaint over anti-Semitic graffiti in an upscale Paris suburb that read ”Sarkozy, thieving Jew.”

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The News Shticker

By Uriel Heilman · August 7, 2008

• B.J. Novak of “The Office” is in talks for a role in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming World War II movie “Inglorious Bastards,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. Brad Pitt is also in talks to play a character in the film.
• TV host Jerry Springer sobs after learning what happened to his Jewish grandmothers during the Holocaust, reports the U.K. Sun.
• Saudi Arabia’s not happy about a new Nissan TV commercial showing Arab oilmen upset about the new Nissan Tiida’s fuel efficiency, reports Israel’s Channel 10.
• N.Y. State Assemblyman Dov Hikind warned yeshivas he’d publicly shame them if they harbor molesters.
• Teenagers in the eastern German state of Brandenburg are trying to root out neo-Nazi bad apples with an elaborate satire of far-right dress and slogans.

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More shtick than you can shake a stick at

By Daniel Sieradski · August 4, 2008

• The Detroit Free Press reports that “A Detroit-area military engineer accused in 1997 of passing secrets to the Israelis was targeted because of his Orthodox Jewish faith, the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General said in a report.”
• The ruling DRP party of the island nation of Maldives, located roughly 700km southwest of Sri Lanka, attacked the opposing MDP party for bringing “white foreigners and Jews” into the country.
• Speaking at Rabbi Marc Schneier’s Westhampton synagogue, New York governor David Paterson called himself “a son of Israel” and acknowledged having Jewish ancestors. The governor also characterized the Hampton Jewish community’s struggle to put up an eruv as a civil rights issue.
• New York’s JFK international airport got a kosher vending machine.
• Newsweek reports on kiddush clubs and alcohol abuse in the Orthodox community.
• Jewschool reports that an Israeli actor will play Saddam Hussein in an upcoming BBC drama.
• Eunice Pollack’s new “Encyclopedia of American Jewish History” examines the Jewish community’s role in shaping contemporary American culture.
• Scotland got its first kosher kilts – or tartans, to be precise.
• Sixty Six, a new British comedy about a bar mitzvah boy competing for attention with the World Cup finals, debuted over the weekend.
• The NY Daily News reports on a 44 year-old Brooklyn man who fought through his cerebral palsy in order to celebrate his bar mitzvah.
• The AP tells the story of a Shoah survivor and her gentile rescuer who have lived “like sisters” in Warsaw since 1942.
• Chabad won a lawsuit against a Florida town that tried to prevent it from leasing city property to open a Chabad house.
• The NY Times has a feature on The Jewish Channel, the relatively new on-demand Jewish cable network run by Elie Singer, son of former head of the World Jewish Congress Israel Singer.
• Jerusalemite shares an Al Jazeera video about Jerusalem cuisine, reluctantly admitting, “They did a great job.”
• Israeli authorities used explosives to demolish an apartment building in eastern Jerusalem built without a permit.
• The Forward reports on a growing trend among religious Zionists in Israel to use the fast of Tisha B’Av to mourn Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza strip.

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The News Shticker

By Daniel Sieradski · July 31, 2008

• This video demonstration of how electrocuting a pickle is like being a Christian has been making the rounds over the last few days.
• Not only is Ivanka Trump back with her Jewish boyfriend, Jared Kushner, but now there’s talk that she’s planning to convert to Judaism.
• Britney Spears has become romantically involved with her Israeli bodyguard.
• Naomi Campbell compared Kabbalah to Alcoholics Anonymous.
• BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow shares a dramatic reading of his story “The Super Man and the Bugout,” which imagines Superman as a nice Jewish boy from Toronto.
• The Palm Beach Post chimes in on the debate over Jews and tattoos.
• Former Barak staffer Daniel Levy chimes in on Joe Klein’s anti-neoconservatism.
• The Boston Globe looks at the Agriprocessors fallout and the ethical implications of kashrut.
• The U.K.’s Independent claims that Jewish Beverly Hills residents are trying to prevent Arab investors from buying property in the area.
• Times Online interviews British Jewish comic Josh Howie.

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The News Shticker: There’s no denying it … David Irving takes Manhattan

By Ami Eden · July 30, 2008

Max Blumenthal goes underground – literally – to report on David Irving’s secret appearance in New York.

Plus…

• Chief Rabbi to women: Give up your maiden name.
• USA Today: Messianic Jewish inmate says he’s Jewish, prison says he’s Protestant.
• Baptist couple and their grown children convert to Judaism in Austin after hearing a Jew lecture on Torah in their church.
• A crackdown on forced marriages in Britain may inadvertently affect fervently Orthodox Jews by barring marriage under age 21.
• NBA players visit Seeds of Peace camp. Teens in Canada prepare for cruise with Israelis and Palestinians.

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The News Shticker

By Uriel Heilman · July 29, 2008

• A growing number of Hispanics are discovering their Jewish roots, and one organization, Aliyah Sepharad International, wants to help them make aliyah, the Fort Myers, Fla., News-Press reports.
• Meanwhile, The Oregonian reports, more Chinese adoptees and other non-whites are being raised as Jews. “But – you don’t look Jewish,” they’re often told.
• And in Israel, the Jerusalem Post features a group of 22 Polish youth who recently discovered their Jewish roots and arrived in the Jewish state for a three-week seminar in Jerusalem organized by Shavei Israel, a non-profit that strengthens ties to Israel among descendants of Jews around the world.
• Gregory Levey, the author of ”Shut Up, I’m Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government,” writes in The New Republic about what happens when a member of the Israeli delegation takes Arabic classes at the U.N.
• The Chicago Tribune has a piece on how some younger Jews are reclaiming the ancient rite of immersion in the mikvah, seeing it as a way to honor and nurture women in times of transition.
  
• Jonathan Freedland has a new novel out on the Jewish avengers who tracked down and executed their Nazi tormentors after World War II.
  


• A new “wiki” helps educators design curricula for Torah teaching, thanks to Lubavitch.

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