How to be the Least Jewish? Wear Bacon Tuxedos!
Archive for the ‘Repost’Category
The Hip Hop Sulha Returns to New York Tonight at SOBs
The Hip Hop Sulha Returns to New York at SOBs
On Wednesday, November 11, 2009, Jewish and Muslim artists from the Tug of War Tour and Shemspeed will come together at New York’s SOBs at the Hip Hop Sulha. Performers include Israeli and Iranian rap duo Most Hated, DeScribe, spoken word artist Tahani Salah, beat boxer J. Stone, Dash Speaks, TJ Di Hitmaker, NSR and a special DJ set by Electro Morocco.
a part of this unique opportunity to see Muslim and Jewish creativity together on one stage on Wednesday, November 11th at SOBs – 204 Varick Street. Doors open at 8pm; tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Stay for the after-party with the Electro Morocco DJs spinning.
Where: SOBs – 204 Varick St. – 1 train to Houston
When: Wednesday, November 11th doors open at 8pm, show starts 9pm
Price: $10 in advance, $12 at the door
More info and tickets can be found at http://sobs.com/node/105
For a preview of what to expect, check out this promo video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6gujpROD30
Hope to see you Wednesday!
11
11 2009
NYU’S IRANIAN JEWISH CLUB & MODELING CLUB FOR A FASHION SHOW TO BENEFIT “SAVE A CHILD’S HEART”
[New York, NY – November 4, 2009] On Saturday, November 14th, at 8pm the Iranian
Jewish Club will be hosting their 2nd Annual Benefit Fashion Show to raise money for
Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), an organization, which provides medical treatment for
children unable to receive proper pediatric cardiac care in their countries. The show will
take place at NYU’s Kimmel Center (60 Washington Square South) in the Rosenthal
Pavilion on the 10th floor.
“We are thrilled to have the support of so many student clubs and are excited to show
how college kids can collaborate together to provide medical treatment for children,” said
Alex Babazadeh, Co-President of the Iranian Jewish Club (IJC).
“We were very excited when the IJC approached us about being part of such a wonderful
event and raising money for Save A Child’s Heart,” said Sloane Blair, SACH’s
Programming Coordinator. “We are truly impressed with the work all the student
organizations have put into the fashion show and I know their efforts are going to help
change the lives of SACH children across the globe.”
“After the success of last year’s show we were very excited when the IJC approached us
to execute the runway, and provide and train the models for the show,” said Rebecca
Zhou, President of the Modeling Club. “IJC has secured some very impressive designers
for the show.”
The featured designers of the night will include: JANIQUE BY KOROUSH
(http://www.janiquebyk.com), MORRELL MAXIE (http://www.morrellmaxie.com),
GorgeousLuv (http://gorgeousluv.com/), Lia Kes (http://www.liakes.com/), FAVIANA
(http://www.faviana.com/), Suzi Chin Maggy London, Romeo and Juliet and
Jew
Centric
Last fall, this glamorous yet philanthropic event attracted almost 400 people and raised
over $4,000 for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Force. With help from, ReadyU,
Herbal Essences’ Tousle Me Softly Collection, Hasbara, Hillel, Gesher, the Alpha chapter
of Alpha Epsilon Pi, MASA Israel Journey, the Iranian Jewish Club hopes to raise over
$10,000 for this inspirational humanitarian organization.
[New York, NY – November 4, 2009] On Saturday, November 14th, at 8pm the IranianJewish Club will be hosting their 2nd Annual Benefit Fashion Show to raise money forSave a Child’s Heart (SACH), an organization, which provides medical treatment forchildren unable to receive proper pediatric cardiac care in their countries. The show willtake place at NYU’s Kimmel Center (60 Washington Square South) in the RosenthalPavilion on the 10th floor.“We are thrilled to have the support of so many student clubs and are excited to showhow college kids can collaborate together to provide medical treatment for children,” saidAlex Babazadeh, Co-President of the Iranian Jewish Club (IJC).“We were very excited when the IJC approached us about being part of such a wonderfulevent and raising money for Save A Child’s Heart,” said Sloane Blair, SACH’sProgramming Coordinator. “We are truly impressed with the work all the studentorganizations have put into the fashion show and I know their efforts are going to helpchange the lives of SACH children across the globe.”“After the success of last year’s show we were very excited when the IJC approached usto execute the runway, and provide and train the models for the show,” said RebeccaZhou, President of the Modeling Club. “IJC has secured some very impressive designersfor the show.”The featured designers of the night will include: JANIQUE BY KOROUSH(http://www.janiquebyk.com), MORRELL MAXIE (http://www.morrellmaxie.com),GorgeousLuv (http://gorgeousluv.com/), Lia Kes (http://www.liakes.com/), FAVIANA(http://www.faviana.com/), Suzi Chin Maggy London, Romeo and Juliet and JewCentric Last fall, this glamorous yet philanthropic event attracted almost 400 people and raisedover $4,000 for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Force. With help from, ReadyU,Herbal Essences’ Tousle Me Softly Collection, Hasbara, Hillel, Gesher, the Alpha chapterof Alpha Epsilon Pi, MASA Israel Journey, the Iranian Jewish Club hopes to raise over$10,000 for this inspirational humanitarian organization.
10
11 2009
The 'New Jews' – An Article about Us (CNN)
This Article was written by Jessica Ravitz, CNN – and there is a BEAUTIFUL Slideshow on the CNN website – check it out!
(CNN) — When Moses came down from Mount Sinai about 3,300 years ago, he couldn’t have seen these Jews coming.
A blogger writes about how one of Judaism’s holiest days ended, for him, in a strip club, while elsewhere a guy strolls into a tattoo parlor requesting a Star of David. Two women exchange wedding vows in a Jewish ceremony, and hipsters toss back bottles of HE’BREW, The Chosen Beer. A full-time software developer prepares to lead a group in Jewish prayer, as a PhD candidate in Jewish thought pens a letter criticizing Israel’s policies.
Meet the “New Jews,” as some call them: pockets of post-baby boomers — or more accurately Generation X and Millennial (Gen Y) Jews — who are making one of the world’s oldest known monotheistic faiths and its culture work for them and others in a time when, more than ever, affiliation is a choice.
“I could wake up tomorrow and say, ‘I don’t want to be Jewish.’ There would be no social, political or economic consequences,” said Shawn Landres, the 37-year-old co-founder of Jumpstart, a Los Angeles-area organization that pushes forward out-of-the-box ideas in the Jewish world. “It’s true for the first time in thousands of years that we can build the identities we want.”
Many of those at the forefront of innovative Jewish construction are rabbis, religious educators, people who know their stuff. But they’re not interested in foisting labels on people — like the denominational terms Reform, Conservative or Orthodox — nor do they want to perpetuate the pressures that come with fitting into religious, political and social molds.
For Atlanta, Georgia, punk-rock musician Patrick A, or Aleph (the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet), this means he can seamlessly blend who he’s been with his newly embraced religious observance.
“When I’m on stage screaming, hitting my face with a microphone and pouring beer on my head, at least I’m singing about the Torah,” said the 26-year-old founder ofPunkTorah, an outreach effort to inspire Jewish spirituality.
Turns out the traditional synagogue model doesn’t have a lock on religious offerings. One alternative that’s sprouted up: independent prayer groups that invite the spiritually hungry to study text, as well as shape and lead their own services.
“It’s tapping into a need that stems from people wanting to take hold of their Jewish life,” said Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, 36, executive director of Mechon Hadar, a New York-based organization that tracks and empowers such groups. He said there are about 60 nationwide. “When the institution wasn’t serving the need, people stood up to create their own communities.”
It’s this kind of innovation that Jonathan Sarna, of Brandeis University and a leading scholar of American Jewish history, can get behind.
“When there’s religious complacency, when there’s boredom, we’re much more likely to see people check out,” said Sarna, who is a member of an Orthodox synagogue. The more pressing issue, he added, is whether cultural ties alone can keep Jewish life going.
That concern is a real one, said Steven Cohen, a sociologist at Hebrew Union College in New York. He said about half of young Jews are not marrying Jews, and that only 25 percent of children born to interfaith couples grow up to see themselves as Jewish.
But by making Judaism and its rituals more accessible and meaningful, “Emergent Jews,” as they’re also often referred to, hope they can inspire a long-lasting connection to their faith.
It’s why volunteer-driven educational retreats, sponsored by a group called Limmud (Hebrew for learning), are cropping up in Colorado, Illinois, Georgia and across the globe. It’s why Jewish Milestones in Berkeley, California, is helping interfaith, same-sex and other couples have Jewish weddings. And it’s why another Bay Area group, Wilderness Torah, hosts Passover in the desert, where participants combine Jewish traditions with their commitment to the outdoors and sustainable living.
Unlike their parents and grandparents, who may have gathered to fight anti-Semitism, remember the Holocaust, rally around Israel and liberate Soviet Jews, many Gen X and Y Jews see their worlds as wide open.
These Internet and media savvy Jews are behind what Ari Wallach, a 34-year-old social entrepreneur and consultant in New York, likes to call “Judaism 2.0.”
“They want to re-engage in the world as Jews, but not solely for Jewish causes,” said Wallach, who was one of the forces behindThe Great Schlep, an online push, featuring comedian Sarah Silverman, that encouraged young Jews to fly to Florida and convince their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama.
“If asked, ‘Would you rather fund raise for trees in Israel or for solar-powered ovens for refugees in Darfur,’” he said, “they’re more likely to go with Darfur,” which is why the American Jewish World Service, an organization that fights poverty, disease and hunger in the developing world, resonates with many of them in a way other Jewish organizations don’t.
In fact, they may not have a relationship with Israel. And if they do, it’s often complicated. They might support the country and people while being critical of the government’s policies and wanting a Palestinian state, too, as evidenced by J Street, a new left-leaning lobbying group in Washington.
Jay Michaelson, a 38-year-old writer, activist and scholar received a torrent of responses when he recently wrote in The Forward, a daily Jewish newspaper, about his ambivalent love for Israel, where he lived for three years.
The reactions that interested him most came from rabbis and Jewish Federation leaders who wrote, “You’ve said what I cannot say,” said Michaelson, who was the founding editor of Zeek, an online journal to push discussions about the Jewish tomorrow. “There’s a climate of fear, and they cannot speak out on this issue.”
But many of these “New Jews” aren’t afraid to be who they are, say and show how they feel.
Heeb magazine, a hipster quarterly based in Brooklyn, does this and leaves some cringing. The magazine recently raised a collective “oy” — and stirred outrage — when it published a photograph of Roseanne Barr standing at an oven, dressed as Hitler, holding a tray of burnt-Jew cookies. The intention, said publisher Josh Neuman, was to force a conversation about how pervasive Hitler references are in modern culture.
“We aim to elicit responses, even if they’re illicit responses,” said Neuman, 36, who formerly taught Jewish culture and thought, and worked at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
If they can’t easily find what inspires them, some create it themselves.
Sarah Lefton, 36, of San Francisco, California, said she developedG-dcast, weekly cartoon webisodes — narrated by a wide cast of characters, including an indie rocker — to make Jewish learning more engaging, “because God knows we all grew up in boring Sunday school classes.”
Allowing younger Jews to connect with their faith while living in a secular world is what drives Aaron Bisman, 29. Inspiration came for him at a 1996 Phish show, when the rock band busted out with a performance of “Avinu Malkeinu,” a Jewish prayer. Hearing a non-Jew sing in Hebrew a song to thousands of fans showed this rabbi’s son that Jewish expression could go mainstream, without being limited to Larry David shtick.
So he formed JDub Records, the original label for Matisyahu, the Hasidic Jewish reggae phenom. Bisman’s New York nonprofit promotes cross-cultural understanding by putting out innovative Jewish sounds, like hip-hop meshed with Israeli folk songs. JDub also recently adopted Jewcy, an online media outlet rich in blogs and discussions, to help build more bridges.
And mixed in with all this are those who — irrespective of where they are religiously or in the Jewish community — advertise their identities with Jewish-themed tattoos, as Andy Abrams, who is behind “Tattoo Jew,” a documentary in development, found out.
They’re not swayed by the long-perpetuated myth that Jews with tattoos cannot be buried in Jewish cemeteries. While tattoos are prohibited by Jewish law, Rabbi Joel Roth, a professor of Talmud and Jewish law at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York said he knows of “no Jewish legal source that would prohibit the burial of a Jew who violated that law.” If such a prohibition existed, added Florence Pressman, executive director of Jewish Funeral Directors of America, “how would we honor our Holocaust survivors?”
When they’re getting inked with Hebrew letters or Jewish symbols, these Jews are not fretting about laws followed by the most observant. Nor are they haunted by the numbers tattooed on arms during the Holocaust, said Abrams, the 40-year-old filmmaker of St. Louis, Missouri. They’re taking a bold stand today that they’ll carry with them, permanently, into the future.
“They’re being overtly Jewish,” Abrams said. “They’re saying, ‘I’m Jewish. I’m proud. And I’m willing to wear it on my skin.’ ”
30
10 2009
Moishe's Moving Gives Schwag for Facebook Shares!
Moishe’s Moving Systems, New York’s largest moving company and one of the jewiest of companies in the NYC area, is giving away one t-shirt a day to the winner of a daily raffle.
In an effort to increase their Facebook presence, Moishe’s has created a contest that will very simply give fans incentive to share their content!
How to Participate:
- Go to www.facebook.com/moishesmoving
- Click “Share” on the very bottom left hand side
- Add a comment to the official contest post saying *shared*
- And that’s it! At 8pm EST, Moishe’s Moving will announce the winner of the Schwag for Shares contest!
The winners can then post pictures of themselves wearing the Moishe’s Moving t-shirts! Join the fun by clicking here!
26
10 2009
An Actual Physician's Opinion on Healthcare Reform
This is a repost of Marya Zilberberg’s Healthcare, etc.
A narrowing window of opportunity
Catching up on last week’s journals, two seemingly unrelated pieces caught my eye: one in JAMA and the other in the New England Journal of Medicine. The one in JAMA talked about how the Israeli health system deals with mass casualty-related surge capacity, and the one in the NEJM focused on how growth of corporate medicine can benefit healthcare in the US. Juxtaposing these two papers made for an interesting exercise in gap analysis.
In their JAMA Commentary, Peleg and Kellermann point to evidence from studies by the Government Accountability Office, the Institute of Medicine and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, that the US hospitals lack infrastructure and resources in case of a mass casualty event. The authors then offer a formalized schema used by the Israeli health authorities to address their contingencies for disasters. Their planning, testing and enforcement functions are centralized: a government body is not only held accountable for developing and testing the systems, but also is imbued with authority to demand compliance from the participating institutions. In the US, on the other hand, the responsibility for disaster planning is divided between the CDC, Homeland Security and the department of Health and Human Services, and none of these bodies monitors preparedness and surge capacity on the ground, leaving the hospitals themselves to take them on individually and voluntarily.
Turning now to the NEJM Perspectives piece by David Cutler, a grim, albeit not unfamiliar, picture of the US hospitals emerges: ¼ of all US hospitals operate in the red, with another 11% making a less than 2% annual profit margin. In the current financial situation Medicare and Medicaid increases don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, and private third-party payers are steadily negotiating lower reimbursements. Of direct relevance to disaster planning, emergency departments are seeing 30% more visits than they did two decades ago, and among urban centers, those most likely to be affected by a mass casualty event, two-thirds operate at or over capacity. How does one prepare in this context?
Back to Israel. Three points are critical in the Israeli preparedness plan. First, they have a concrete blueprint for de-clogging the EDs, the central point for efficient and effective management of the sick. Do we? Second, Peleg and Kellermann also remind us that centralized coordination, so well designed and executed in Israel, is possible there partly because of universal access to healthcare: hospitals do not have the incentive to see insured clients over engaging in potentially less lucrative mass casualty care. Not so here. Finally, communication and collaboration between healthcare institutions are key to the success of preparedness efforts. In the US competition precludes such collaboration.
Let’s add the threat of H1N1 to this mix. Now, I am not a catastrophist, and I do not want to be perceived as Chicken Little of the 2009 flu season. I recognize that so far this flu seems by and large to cause less severe disease than its seasonal counterpart. What I am also appreciating is that this flu is highly contagious, so, despite a relatively low frequency of complications, their volume may be vast. These predictions are based on what we know so far, and, while they may not come true, we need to be moving as if they were certainty. If we do not, and they come true, we will be caught with our pants down and suffer more than just a red face. Yet no one is at the wheel coordinating a response to this likely event. If the EDs are operating at or over capacity and have no contingency plans, how do we expect them to provide adequate care this fall? If hospitals are having to let go of essential personnel due to financial difficulties, how can we expect them to care for 30-60% more patients coming through their doors with the flu? Although the Federal Government has allocated funding for institutional preparedness, no one has overseen its implementation and the math is not adding up.
The situation poses an obvious conflict between our collective need to be prepared and our societal fear of centralization, exacerbated by the healthcare system’s financial ruin. Further, our culture of individualism is driving absurdly self-centered discussions without any regard to the reality or application of wisdom to the upcoming potential disaster: not everyone will get everything. In fact, even if we had the will to implement a preparedness schema akin to Israel’s getting all of our ducks in a row, rationing during a pandemic would be mandatory. What will things be like when tough choices have to be made under the pressure of a chaotic situation, choices that we as a society are ignoring now, when there is time to approach them rationally? Why are we engaging in hysterical lies about government-sanctioned euthanasia instead of discussing this challenging and rapidly approaching reality?
Today in New Hampshire Obama appealed to our civility and common sense as a nation in our discourse on healthcare reform. We need to heed this message, turn away from demagoguery and focus on developing a roadmap for realistic scenarios of 5 patients competing for one ICU bed, of our EDs clogged with a relentless influx of casualties from H1N1, and of having to make end-of-life choices for our critically ill grandma because asking her about her preferences when she was well would have amounted to a Nazi execution.
Both, the JAMA and the NEJM papers offer solutions to the US problem of healthcare capacity and preparedness. These solutions require time and a culture shift. But time is short, and culture change before the fall is unlikely. Yet this is a teachable moment in which we need leadership. Mainstream media should lead this conversation without attention to their ratings and in more than sound bites. Treat us, the citizens, like intelligent adults, and we will rise to the challenge; treat us like spoiled children, and we will miss this narrowing window of opportunity.
