What’s Israel’s favorite wine? “We wanna go back to Egypt!” Now that we’ve finally left Sinai and are on our way to Canaan it’s complain, complain, complain. The Hebrews demanded dietary diversity! Though for us it’s hard to figure why they needed the extra foods since manna tasted like whatever the eater wanted. We’re not [...]
There’s a long sordid history of Jews and Blacks in Chicago. some of its good and some of it is not. LAWNDALE is the old west-side neighborhood where from 1920-1959 or so, nearly 200,000 Jews lived within a square mile. You can still see the old, magnificent shuls along Douglas and Independence Boulevards, along with [...]
In an odd twist of events, Erran Baron Cohen, Sacha’s brother, was commissioned to compose a symphonic piece based on Kazakh folk tunes.
The commission came after someone from Kazakh saw “Borat” and loved his composition for the soudtrack so much, they rang him up. I guess they got over the initial bruises and realized [...]
The good folks at Moshav Ham have created something rather cool using a blend of rss feeds and good design. I admire their whole gestalt (or the fact that they even have one) and flattered they felt we’re cool enough to include in their collection of Maggidic (Maggidut?) voices.
When I look at that, compared with [...]
Adam asked me to give my professional opinion about the updated JUF site. Let me say that I am a donor to JUF and traveled to Israel with them last year.
1. RSS: This is a huge leap forward for any website and I’m thrilled to see the JUF using it. RSS is to the new [...]
YHWH demands that women suspected of adultery be brought before Her. It’s surprising, since last week’s parsha condemned any non-priest approaching YHWH to death. We have a theory of what was up. Practically speaking, we imagine the woman standing in the courtyard before the curtain of the Tent of the meeting. YHWH would dwell behind [...]
JUF.org has a redesign. A bit sterile, but hey, it has RSS feeds and a new calendar function. JUF News editor Aaron Cohen even has a blog, The Heart of the Matter.
But uh, where’s the comments section? Is someone shy about feedback? It sorta looks like a cleaned up version of the last [...]
Shavuot, the festival of Weeks when we celebrate reciving the gift of Torah, starts tonight at Sundown.
It traditional to eat dairy on this holiday, hence the Eli’s reference, and to stay up all night studying text. Anyways, the annual Lakeview Tikkun Leyl Shavuot All-Nighter is going on at Anshe Emet this year. [...]
American Jewish World Service prez Ruth Messinger was on WBEZ’s WorldView with Jerome McDonald, speaking about her organization’s work and leading role in the Save Darfur Coalition and the Darfur Divestment campaign. Give it a listen here:
WorldView
The latest from the Pulitzer-winning novelist is a “murder-mystery speculative-history Jewish-identity noir chess thriller,” in the words of Publishers Weekly. It’s a private-eye story set in a fictional community of Jewish exiles — “the frozen chosen” — displaced to a temporary settlement in Alaska by World War II.
He appears in Chicago for a NextBook program [...]
There’s a long sordid history of Jews and Blacks in Chicago. some of its good and some of it is not. LAWNDALE is the old west-side neighborhood where from 1920-1959 or so, nearly 200,000 Jews lived within a square mile. You can still see the old, magnificent shuls along Douglas and Independence Boulevards, along with [...]
State Sentator Jan Schakowsky is living on food stamps to raise awareness.
Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, along with Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA), Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and Tim Ryan (D-OH), will be cutting way back on grocery shopping this week as part of the Food Stamp Budget Challenge,which started on Tuesday. For a week, Schakowsky will [...]
Soup Nazi, that is. I’m not sure how this is relevant, but maybe the man made famous by Seinfeld is coming to town. Tug of tzitzis to gapersblock
This week, YHWH (which we’re told can be pronounced, “Yoo Hoo Woo Hoo”) and her band of Hebrew homies begin their adventures “In the Wilderness.” Despite being about the business of raising an army, the parsha itself is REALLY DRY. You can see why it’s called the book of “Numbers.” They might also call it, [...]
This week, YHWH (which we’re told can be pronounced, “Yoo Hoo Woo Hoo”) and her band of Hebrew homies begin their adventures “In the Wilderness.” Despite being about the business of raising an army, the parsha itself is REALLY DRY. You can see why it’s called the book of “Numbers.” They might also call it, [...]
The latest from the Pulitzer-winning novelist is a “murder-mystery speculative-history Jewish-identity noir chess thriller,” in the words of Publishers Weekly. It’s a private-eye story set in a fictional community of Jewish exiles — “the frozen chosen” — displaced to a temporary settlement in Alaska by World War II.
He appears in Chicago for a NextBook program [...]
Dror Yikra
Shkembah
Black Sheep
ESTA is a multi-ethnic band with innovative compositions and imaginative arrangements – deeply rooted in Israel’s diverse traditions. Esta’s band members are all first generation Israelis, raised on their parents’ musical heritage from Bulgaria, Iraq, Poland, Iran, Romania, Syria, Russia, and Turkey. Inspired also by the 1970s progressive rock, Esta’s [...]
Chicagoan Modern Uberdox had a lovely post about his Lag B’Omer experience with his 7 year old son.
As we walked home, I asked my son if he had a good time. He said the bonfire rocked! He then said, “Abba, the best part was when you said the we should dance. Then you asked me [...]
Shalom Rav goes on about Fair Trade, Temple Taxes and our Torah portion, Behar-Bechukotai:
This week’s Torah portion, Behar-Bechukotai (Leviticus 25-27), contains numerous commandments to the Israelites to create a society based on principles of economic equity: the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, the equitable redemption of land, fair interest rates, the “tax scale” for funding the [...]
This was in the Trib last month, but it caught my eye.
Sephardic groups use Coca-Cola trespass suit to reveal misfortunes of thousands in era of Middle East conflict
“The Egyptian government’s actions were part of a campaign of anti-Semitic discrimination and persecution that caused almost a million Jews in Arab/Islamic countries, like the Bigios, to [...]
