JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Why a chicken?

By Ami Eden · October 13, 2008

Ben Harris filed a report on the feud between animal-rights activists and Chabad-Lubavitch Chasidim over kapparos. Here’s his interview with Rabbi Shea Hecht about why the pre-High Holiday ritual must performed with a chicken.

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1 Comment | Share This | High Holidays, Holidays, Judaism, Orthodox, Podcast, Religion, Ritual

Gutkind sees Jerusalem through a writer’s eyes

By Uriel Heilman · August 21, 2008

In the following podcast, author Lee Gutkind, whose most recent book is “Almost Human: Making Robots Think,” speaks with JTA Israel correspondent Dina Kraft about seeing Jerusalem through a writer’s eyes.

Gutkind, who has been dubbed “the godfather of creative non-fiction” by Vanity Fair, has performed as a clown for Ringling Brothers, scrubbed in with heart transplant surgeons, traveled with a crew of baseball umpires, and seen the U.S. on a motorcycle — all as research for his more than a dozen books, and numerous profiles and essays.

In Jerusalem, he says, “there are stories everywhere.” He was in Israel this month to teach a writing seminar hosted by Bar-Ilan University’s Shaindy Rudoff graduate program in creative writing.

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0 Comments | Share This | Podcast

Parsing the Russian-Georgian conflict

By Lisa Hostein · August 20, 2008

JTA’s Grant Slater, on the ground in Georgia, talks to JTA Senior Editor Lisa Hostein about the conflict, the Jewish rescue and relief effort and the debate over who’s responsible for the current mess.

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0 Comments | Share This | Georgia, Podcast, Russia

Huckabee on Jerusalem

By Uriel Heilman · August 19, 2008

JTA Israel correspondent Dina Kraft interviews former Gov. Mike Huckabee during his two-day visit to Israel.

The former GOP presidential candidate is visiting Israel courtesy of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, the U.S. fund-raising arm for Ateret Cohanim, a Jewish organization that buys Arab properties in eastern Jerusalem to boost the Jewish presence in Arab neighborhoods of the city.

Critics say organizations like Ateret Cohanim are an obstacle to peace, making it more difficult for the Israeli and Palestinians to divide sovereignty over Jerusalem.

But Huckabee says bringing Jews into Arab neighborhoods is good for eastern Jerusalem. He also says he doubts a two-state solution ever will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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2 Comments | Share This | Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, jerusalem, Podcast, Politics

Sharanksy on Solzhenitsyn

By Ben Harris · August 6, 2008

Former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky shares his recollections of the Russian literary giant Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who died Sunday in Moscow at age 89.

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0 Comments | Share This | International, Podcast

Rosh Hashana Girl (and Guy) Come to Israel

By Daniel Sieradski · July 1, 2008

Michelle Citrin and William Levin

Dina Kraft, JTA’s Israel Correspondent met up in Jerusalem with singer Michelle Citrin aka Rosh Hashana Girl and her creative partner and friend William Levin. They are the team who brought the world the two YouTube hits “Twenty Things to do with Matzah” and “I Gotta Love You Rosh Hashana” – part of their attempt to bring a touch of the young, hip, and artistic to being Jewish today.

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1 Comment | Share This | Judaism, Music, Podcast, Ritual

Walt & Mearshimer take on “The Lobby” in Israel

By Daniel Sieradski · June 18, 2008

Stephen Walt, at the podium, with “Israel Lobby” co-author John Mearshimer and Israel activist Uri Avnery at a speaking engagement in Tel Aviv on June 12, 2008. Photo by Dina Kraft.

In the following podcast, JTA’s Israel correspondent Dina Kraft speaks with Harvard Professor Stephen Walt, co-author of the controversial book “The Israel Lobby” who, with his co-author John Mearshimer of the University of Chicago, visited Israel last week on a speaking tour sponsored by the Israeli peace organization Gush Shalom. Walt said he welcomed the dynamic and lively debate in the Jewish State and said he hoped their book might prompt discussion about the policies of the Israel lobby among Israelis themselves.  You can read Ms. Kraft’s full story on the subject here.

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1 Comment | Share This | Israel, Podcast, Politics

Artist envisions new state for Jewish discontents

By Daniel Sieradski · June 18, 2008

In this podcast, JTA German correspondent Toby Axelrod interviews Ronen Eidelman, an Israeli artist studying abroad in Weimar, Germany, whose senior thesis project – seeking the establishment of a Jewish state in Germany – which launches this coming Sunday, is already ruffling some feathers in Germany and abroad.  You can read Ms. Axelrod’s full story on the subject here.

(Full disclosure: I am a friend of Mr. Eidelman’s and an adviser on this project.  I also accidentally named this initiative.)

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1 Comment | Share This | Art, Podcast, Politics

Thomas Friedman in Israel

By Daniel Sieradski · June 11, 2008

JTA correspondent Dina Kraft caught up with New York Times columnist and author Tom Friedman in Tel Aviv last week, where he was speaking at a conference sponsored by the Reut Institute, an Israeli think tank.

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0 Comments | Share This | Israel, Podcast

Borscht Boss: Brooks Arthur on Catskills nostalgia, Barbra Streisand, and Adam Sandler?

By Matthue Roth · June 4, 2008

Brooks Arthur started his career as an audio engineer in the 60s, working on “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “The Locomotion,” and “Leader of the Pack” before building up to producing albums for the likes of Liza Minelli and Carole King. He struck up a friendship with a young breakaway comic named Adam Sandler led him to produce Sandler’s ubiquitous “Chanuka Song,” after which they co-wrote possibly the most scatological Chanukah movie ever, Sandler’s “Eight Crazy Nights.”

Arthur’s latest venture is The Jewish Songbook, a CD filled with new and veteran performers doing renditions of Jewish songs. Most hearken back to the Borscht Belt melodies of the 1940s and 50s, but there is also the liturgical (Barbra Streisand doing “Avinu Malkeinu"), the modern Israeli patriotic ("Hatikvah"), and the unexpected—Adam Sandler doing a version of “Hinei Ma Tov” that not only isn’t a joke song, but also manages to showcase his competent classical tenor. JTA spoke to Brooks Arthur the day before the CD’s release about the record, the performers, and how it felt to sing alongside Barbra Streisand.

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1 Comment | Share This | Music, Podcast