The ancient laws of keeping kosher have now gone digital. Rabbi Eli Garfinkel of Temple Beth El of Somerset, N.J., has gained a reputation as something of a technophile, creating videos and podcasts on Jewish rituals and a website called askmyrabbi.com. Garfinkel recently found another high-tech outlet: developing smartphone… Read more »
Posts By Jigsaw Digital
Will the new ‘Dirty Dancing’ be Jewish?
NEW YORK (JTA) — When I first heard that Lionsgate was remaking the classic ’80s movie “Dirty Dancing,” I had two questions: One, why won’t Hollywood leave my childhood alone? And two, will this update be as culturally Jewish as the original? While the first question is obviously rhetorical… Read more »
In Slovakia, being strategic about preserving Jewish heritage
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (JTA) — In 1989, on the eve of the fall of communism, the American poet Jerome Rothenberg published a powerful series of poems called “Khurbn” that dealt with the impact of the Holocaust on Eastern Europe. In one section, he recorded conversations he had had in Poland… Read more »
In tapping Ira Forman to be Jewish point man, Obama campaign goes with an insider
WASHINGTON (JTA/WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK) — The fight for the Jewish vote in 2012 is expected to be a tough one. So the Obama campaign is turning to the quintessential insider. On Aug. 16, the Obama campaign tapped as its Jewish outreach director Ira Forman, the former head of the… Read more »
Parents can help raise Jewish children even once they’re away at college
ST. LOUIS (JTA) — American Jews are known for the emphasis they place on academic success. Jewish professors populate America’s universities, and, respectively, Jewish doctors, lawyers and politicians help fill the nation’s hospitals, law firms and legislatures. At the core of this success are generations of American Jewish parents… Read more »
In the Jewish Newspapers: Wax Fuhrer furor, Beck’s Beverly bash, Soloveitchik the juggler
MINORITY OF ONE: The New York Jewish Week looks at the lives of the small numbers of Jewish students enrolled at historically black colleges. “I create my own Jewish life,” says Abraham Mercado, a place-kicker for the football team at Baltimore’s Morgan State University, where he may (or may… Read more »
After Gadhafi’s fall in Libya, is Syria’s Assad next?
(JTA) – He was the Arab world’s most quixotic leader. During the Reagan era, he was Public Enemy No. 1 in the United States. Later, after his apparent cooperation in dismantling nonconventional weapons, he became an ally to President George W. Bush’s administration in the war on terror. He… Read more »
For Israel’s Muslims, Ramadan a time to celebrate Islam in the Jewish state
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Last week, Muslim and Jewish soldiers gathered after a day’s training to eat a communal iftar, the traditional break-the-fast meal eaten after sunset during the month-long observance of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. “Ramadan isn’t just one day like the 17th of Tammuz or Tisha B’Av,”… Read more »
The long tradition of Jewish farming in America
(Tablet Magazine) — Every morning before breakfast, Rabbi Rafoel Franklin, 60, an Orthodox Jew living in Swan Lake, N.Y., puts on tefillin, says his morning prayers, and then heads outside to milk his 30 cows. Three decades ago Franklin and his wife, Naomi, left Monsey, N.Y., the ultra-Orthodox hamlet… Read more »
From the Sanhedrin to Alan Greenspan, strategies to avoid the perils of groupthink
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (JTA) — When Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve, he reportedly conducted meetings of the Fed’s Open Market Committee by going around the table and asking the 17 members for their opinions. Only after the others had spoken would Greenspan, a towering figure in… Read more »
Gymnastics and ‘Hava Nagila’: the best of
NEW YORK (JTA) — Not all “Hava Nagila” routines are created equal. Here are five routines performed to different versions of the Jewish folk tune by notable gymnasts: Lilia Podkopayeva (Ukraine), 1994 World Championships in Brisbane, Australia http://youtu.be/-IVUIoLBMEg The future 1996 Olympic champion uses “Hava Nagila” in the all… Read more »
An exhibit on Rembrandt, Jews and Jesus
NEW YORK (Tablet) — Like so many other aspects of his life and work, Rembrandt’s connection to the Jews has been sentimentalized, overestimated, misappropriated, criticized, dissected — and debunked. In recent years, the image of the artist as a philo-Semite who painted and socialized with his Jewish neighbors has… Read more »
Young Russian Jews in assimilation bind
NEW YORK (N.Y. Jewish Week) — Like 500 other young Jews from the former Soviet Union who marched in this city’s Celebrate Israel Parade in June, Boris Shulman wore bright orange. In addition to signifying support for Israel’s settler movement, which also uses orange, the color contrasted sharply with… Read more »
Little-known non-cutting ritual appeals to some who oppose circumcision
LOS ANGELES (Jewish Journal) — In the same week in which a San Francisco judge struck from the city’s November ballot a controversial measure aiming to ban circumcision of any male younger than 18, two reputable media sources reported on a relatively new, little-known ceremony that serves as a… Read more »
Old soldier: Israeli reflects on two decades of civilian and military life
MAZKERET BATYA, Israel (Tablet) — In 20 years of military service, I thought I’d seen all the crappy training camps the Israeli army had to offer. But there I was, early one morning last spring, walking from the glorified gravel pit that passed for a parking lot at the… Read more »
Why recognizing the Bergson Group matters
WASHINGTON (JTA) — After many decades of being excluded from most history books and Holocaust museums, the 1940s’ rescue activists known as the Bergson Group are finally receiving the recognition they deserve. That’s important to ensure historical accuracy, to promote Jewish unity and, most of all, to help inspire… Read more »
Just how expensive is it to live in Israel?
JERUSALEM (JTA) — What began in Israel in June as a Facebook-driven rebellion against the rising cost of cottage cheese, then morphed in July into tent encampments protesting soaring real estate costs, has since turned into a full-scale Israeli social movement against the high cost of living in the… Read more »
Inside Empire’s slaughterhouse: The life of a kosher chicken
MIFFLINTOWN, Pa. (JTA) – The end came swiftly for the chicken I’ll call Bob. Propelled into a trough of sorts by a machine that tips a crate’s worth of birds onto the assembly line — “They’re like children, sliding down,” the head kosher supervisor said — chicken Bob was… Read more »
Conference for art mavens reflects European Jewry’s niche-appeal trend
AVIGNON, France (JTA) — The roomful of artists, musicians and cultural leaders let their imaginations run wild. Unencumbered by budgetary considerations or practical concerns, they dreamed up a theater partnership between Budapest and Bordeaux, a traveling photo exhibit on the idea of “kosher spaces” and a host of other… Read more »
Newest entrant into GOP field, Rick Perry, is longtime friend of Israel — and Jesus
WASHINGTON (JTA) — To some conservative Jews, Texas Gov. Rick Perry would make an excellent presidential candidate. He’s been to Israel more than any other candidate in the field and has said he loves it. Some conservative Jews say Perry creates jobs. But other Jewish conservatives seeking the anti-Obama… Read more »