AllJewishLinks.com Newsletter Issue #67 – February 14, 2013

Hasidim have hoodies too. Though theirs are intended for winter Sabbaths. Many New Yorkers have wondered how Hasidic fashion changes with the seasons, given their seemingly year-round custom of having men wear three-piece dark suits and women calf-length skirts, long-sleeved blouses and thick stockings. Several observers have figured out that except for lighter fabrics Hasidic summer wear is not all that different from, say spring or fall attire.

Moishe Goldstein came to South Florida seeking recovery from addiction five years ago. There he met Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Meir Kessler, who runs the Jewish Recovery Center in Boca Raton, and got involved in Kessler’s Shabbat dinner program. The program draws people from the area who are struggling with addictions to alcohol, drugs, prescription medicine, food and beyond.

Spiderman heroically dispatched countless foes since he arrived on the scene in 1962. Half-century later, Brian Michael Bendis managed to kill him. In 2000, Bendis was hired to write Ultimate Spiderman, a modern-day retelling of the classic Spiderman story. More than 10 years, 160 issues and several blockbuster Hollywood adaptations later, Bendis did the unthinkable, killing off the superhero’s famous alter ego, Peter Parker, and replacing him with a half-black, half-Hispanic 13-year-old named Miles Morales.

The European Rabbinical Council hoped that Pope Benedict XVI’s replacement would continue to fight anti-Semitism, as Benedict himself had continued from his predecessor. In the wake of Benedict’s announcement that he planned to resign at the end of the month, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, said that Benedict had made historic strides in combating anti-Semitism. Pope Benedict XVI continued the policies of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in reducing the historic levels of anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church, by staging visits to synagogues and conducting dialog with the Jewish people, thus improving relations with the State of Israel.

In 2009 a workshop focused on Anti-Racist organizing for white folks. The presentation allowed for self-reflection and next steps in our own organizing. At the end of the workshop people were asked to share who our white social justice role models were. It was shocking, although not surprising, that the majority of the attendees shared that they did not have any white, social justice activists to look up to. And up to now i’ve been searching for my answer to this question ever since.

Steinberg describes a literary storm between Elizabeth Gilbert and Roth wherein Gilbert defends writing as a happy profession, contrary to Roth who allegedly did the following to Tepper: Julian Tepper published a piece describing an encounter with Roth at an Upper West Side deli. Waiting on his hero’s table, Tepper tremulously presented Roth with his first novel. Roth warmly congratulated him, and then offered his advise.

Purim 2013 is on its way! Starting the evening of Saturday, February 23rd, the holiday that celebrates the clever salvation of Persia’s Jews is nearly upon us. Are you ready to make some noise, get dressed up, give gifts, and donate to charity? Don’t worry; we can help.