Shlissel (Key) Challah: The Loaf of Idolatry?
Jameel discusses the origins of the minhag of Shlissel Challah.
Chanukah Special: Biblical Archeology Second Temple Artifact Found
Jameel writes about a fascinating archeological find that might very well be related to Chanukah.
“Rabbis for Human Rights” Refuse to Condemn the PA
The organization "Rabbis for Human Rights’ knows exactly how to condemn the State of Israel and its authorities for any action against a Palestinian. Yet, when it comes to a letter which condemns the actions of the Palestinian Authority, the Rabbis for Human Rights would prefer not to be in conflict with Palestinian activists.
Yori’s Jewish NuzeKlips, Feb 29/12
On the menu this morning: A Yiddishe Robbery … The Birds, The Bees, And The Jews … Latter Day This … Albert Brooks? Try Albert Speer! … and Human Rights Watch Guy Gets Watched Back. We're weird, we're borderline freaky, we're Jewish – get used to it. Or don't, we get paid either way.
Blogger Puts Congressional Aide’s Get Refusal In Context
The case is, predictably, another ugly and scary and very personal one, which is why I stayed off it all this time. But as the pressure campaign is increasing and even Fox News is dumping on the husband (a Republican!), I went looking for some context. Now you can, too…
Why It’s Important To Know Hebrew
Many of the most fascinating posts I come across are based on sources in Hebrew. These stories would fascinate you, yet I simply do not have the time to translate them all for you...
Holy Smokes, Rabbi
According to the State, Rabbi Meshulam Rothschild, 26, was moving about 3,600 cartons a week of illegal cigarettes with no tax stamps out of his warehouse on Spencer Street in Williamsburg. At $50 a carton in taxes, that's a very nice income, although not so steady, it turns out…
When Allan Met Lillian and They Were 95 and Asked for a Short Wedding
They didn't want marriage at age 95, but their parents insisted…It's a very old joke which I kept thinking about while watching this video. You absolutely have to, also, or you'll hate yourself afterwards. Seriously, they look so CUTE together, short, wrinkled, with 190 years between them and such sweet love. After their two-minute ceremony in a small room in the county office, the couple ate lunch at a nearby International House of Pancakes and returned to their Palm Springs condominium…
German Federation Condemns Fans Who Hitler-Saluted Israeli Player
The German soccer federation condemned an anti-Semitic act involving Kaiserslautern's Israel striker Itay Shechter, 24, and says such abuse has to be "nipped in the bud" and "we must act decisively." Sunday's taunts came the day after his team's 4-0 defeat by Mainz – their fourth straight loss – in which Shechter did not play.
Lubavitch Replicate Another Major Edifice
After moving the Rebbe's home at 770 Eastern Parkway to Israel, Lubavitch now moves the Kotel to America. My advice to you is, fasten the bolts and beams in your house, or one morning you'll wake up to discover Lubavitch has moved you to a new continent…
Food Co-op Wars Revisited
Ginia Bellafante writes in the NY Times about the Park Slope coop wars we told you about a week ago (In-Fighting at Brooklyn Food Co-op over Israel Boycott). She points out the obvious: "Calling for a boycott of Israeli-made foods at the Park Slope Food Co-op turns out to be a lot like calling for a boycott of Speedos in Minsk. And, predictably, the use of a healthy food-related organization for political reasons has enraged the Hummus Party. I kid you not.
5th Annual New York Peace Film Festival Offers No Attacks on Israel
When a press release from the organizers of the NY Peace Film Festival popped in my email, I naturally braced myself for the usual torrent of anti-Semitic graffiti masked as criticism of Zionism we have learned to expect from any event with the words Peace and Festival in the title. To my very pleasant surprise, someone at the 5th annual festival has decided—imagine!—to dedicate the entire program to films discussing peace efforts around the world.
Video: Netanya Purim Carnival—Sassy, Noisy, Happy
We went out to watch the Purim Parade in our sweet town of Netanya, and for a few hours were transported to a care-free world, somewhere between Disneyland and New Orleans. Our daughter Yarden said, Purim is like Halloween but without dead people. Everyone was distinctly alive in Netanya this Purim. And everyone seemed to take very seriously the idea of the Purim happy noise. Even the babies.
Designer Leon Max Is Buying Up Britain
The Sunday Daily Mail features a colorful spread on fashion designer, owner of the Max Studio upmarket fashion chain, Leon Max, or Leonid Maxovitch Rodovinksi, "one of a clutch of rich Russians buying up chunks of Britain." The piece recalls another billionaire, Roman Abramovich, who bought the London Chelsea soccer team. But instead of buying soccer clubs, Max has purchased "a spectacularly beautiful English stately home." Love those Jews and their wonderful money…
Matzel Toff? Really?
Punning might be the most annoying form of art save for mime (a punning mime, now that would be hateful). Check out the Monday NY Post (a paper known for outrageous punning, not enough mime) for verification. They claim that an outfit named Urban Nosh, which got its start making Matzel Toff, a chocolate-covered matzah, is adding a new, year-round version of the same dubious treat, called Matzel Bits, and are also conspiring to launch yet another new product, called Holy Macaroons. Help…?
Two Holocaust Survivers Reunited 70 Years Later
Lemel Leo Adler, left, and Leon Schagrin are cousins, the sons of two sisters. After the invasion of Poland, they were transported to the Tarnow ghetto, and then to several labor camps, and finally to Buna, "a chemical plant taht also known as Auschwitz III." In there they met only briefly, between shifts. In January 1945 they were separated and didn't see each other again. "A far as they know, everyone else in their families were killed."
Fauxtography: UN Employee Wages Media War Against Israel
Palestinians wage a war of lies with fake photos - the latest fauxtography is coming right out of the UN.
‘Natural Born Killers’ Murdered ‘Jewish Sounding’ Victim
Anti-Semitism in some parts is apparently so rampant, it's enough to have a Jewish sounding name for your life to be in danger. A couple of rampaging murderers who are up for several murders in Oregon and California, said in a jailhouse interview after their arrest that one of their victims, Cody Myers, was killed because he had a "Jewish sounding" last name. Myers happened to be a devout but extremely unlucky Christian.
Courage Under Fire
Numerous people sent me a blog post which has been reverberating around the internet -- its title translated into English; "One who believes isn't...
Jewish Black Youth Wins Third Irish Dance Competition
What's a good Jewish Press Story for the Irish national day of beer and more beer? We've got one for you! It's about Drew Lovejoy, 17, from Greenville, Ohio, who is the son of a black Baptist from Georgia and a white Jewish mother from Iowa. But his fame is international, after winning the all-Ireland dancing championship in Dublin for a third straight year.
Too Much Symbolism? South Bronx Kids Visit Anne Frank Center Betwixt Freedom Tower and...
Is there such a thing as too many metaphors for the triumph of the human spirit packed into one sidewalk, especially such a crowded sidewalk near Wall Street (add that, too, to the mix, wrap in an American flag and call it a day?). But I'm probably being too cynical. It's actually a heart warming story.
‘Nose Job’ El-Balkimy, Egyptian MP, Loses Parliamentary Immunity
What do you have to do as an Egyptian Member of Parliament to earn the nickname Nose Job? Anwar El-Balkimy, of the Salafist Nour Party (that means he's sooo religious, he has one regular prayer rug and a special one for yomim tovim), told everybody he had been beaten and robbed of LE100,000 by thugs on 29 February. But according to Al Ahram, it was later discovered that his facial injuries were caused by cosmetic surgery on his nose.
Video: Ultimate Haredi Western Featuring Assassination over Get Refusal
The world is full of people without a sense of humor, as was discovered recently by Vanya Heiman, Anat Vershovsky and Amit Shimoni, all students from the "Bezalel" Academy of the Arts, who created the clip "Der Mensch" for the Visual Communication Department at the Academy. It was only supposed to be a genre exercise…
Mayor Bloomberg to the Homeless: No Cholent for You!
Former pro-Soviet Jewry activist and local Upper West Side all around tzadik Glenn Richter has been collecting food from the Ohav Zedek synagogue and similar institutions and bringing it to homeless shelters for more than 20 years, but recently, when he attempted to bring a traditional Shabbat cholent leftovers from a shul kiddush, he was refused on account of the Bloomberg administration's decree against giving too much salt, fat and fiber to the homeless.
Fleeing Islamists to US, Omar Sharif’s Grandson Comes Out as Gay and Jewish
"I write this article in fear," starts Omar Sharif Jr.'s revelatory article in the Advocate, which dishes out coming out stories to fit every pallet. This one involves an Egyptian TV and screen actor, grandson of a Hollywood legend, who fled his homeland for the safety of America. And he's probably Jewish, too.
Embarrassed by J Street’s Olmert Connection, B’Tselem Lies, Gets Caught… By Palestinians
As sponsors of the upcoming J Street conference, B'Tselem has had to explain to its Palestinian allies how it can be part of an event featuring as keynote speaker former PM Ehud Olmert, "the Butcher of Gaza." B'Tselem's response was typical – a lot of backpedaling and revisions. But what works for the op-ed pages of Ha'aretz and the NY Times does not wash with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights…
The Migron Saga – the Animated Version
The entire story of the Migron outpost explained in 3 entertaining minutes, including the missing link, the one component the High Court is yet to offer in this sad trampling over justice and lives: proof of Arab ownership.
Sheldon Cooper’s Girlfriend Speaks at National Museum of American Jewish History about her Bat...
The lovely Mayim Bialik, heartthrob of millions of geeks as Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, spoke at the National Museum of American Jewish History to mark the 90th anniversary of the Bat Mitzvah. I absolutely love Mayim, who confessed to nursing her own little boy, Fred, through age 3 ("I believe in child-led weaning"). I just think she may not be the best advocate for rituals of adulthood…
Seattle LGBT to Visiting Israeli Homosexuals: Gay Aveck!
In the solidarity business, life can be unpredictable. Take, for instance, the story of the LGBT commission representing the gay community in Seattle, which this month canceled a Friday reception at City Hall for a visiting delegation of Israeli gay leaders. They argued that Israel was "pinkwashing" its treatment of the Palestinians by showing the world how fabulous they are on gay rights.
Precious Passover Pop Priceless
The Fountainheads are a group of young Israeli singers, dancers, and artists, all graduates and students of the Ein Prat Academy for Leadership, who "have joined forces to create new Jewish artistic content for today's Jewish world." So far, this could be an intro to some really boring stuff, but in this case it ain't so. In my search for great, new Passover content, I landed on their YidVid Breakin' Free, and will definitely be using it while running on my treadmill.