Jewish Blogs

Best Supporting Tummler of the Year

They’re handing out the Oscars this weekend. Hollywood may be in the city of Angels, but when some movie people are jealous or skeptical of other people’s projects, they have a devil of a time keeping a straight face. It has happened a lot with motion pictures that many people might put in the ‘Jewish movie’ category.Cases in point:When director ...

Best Jewish Apps of 2011

As I walked around the recent International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, one thing was impossible to miss. Mobile applications are being integrated everywhere and into everything. Smartphones are no longer the only devices on which users are downloading their favorite apps.2010 saw a proliferation of iPhones and Android phones on the market, and with that came a sharp ...

Ben Stiller is Not a Patrilineal Jew

I also tuned in to Saturday Night Live following a 25-hour fast and then watching my Detroit Tigers lose in their first game of the ALCS to the Texas Rangers. I thought it was funny that Ben Stiller opened his monologue with a Yom Kippur reference and stated that “My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Irish-Catholic, which means according to the ...

Ben Stein Sues Kyocera for Religious Discrimination

With today’s 10-second tease video with Matthew Broderick hinting at a “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” sequel, it is only fitting to take a close look at Ben Stein’s ongoing legal battle with Kyocera. Stein, who played the memorable high school teacher in the 1986 movie (“Bueller? Bueller?”) was set to film a commercial for Kyocera, the producer of cameras, copiers, ...

Being Frum is not a Crime

I know there must be a lot of you out there who think I hate orthodoxy and this is why I make fun of it, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The fact is that I myself am pretty frum in practice, existentially troubled in belief and was given a very good observational eye by the Lord, but ...

Behind the Charedi PR machine

From the outside it looks like any other home in Boro Park, even the ground floor looks like a normal home. The cherry wood bookcases containing volumes of Talmudic discussion, the glass case filled with ritual silver, right down to the table filled with nosh and other heimishe food items, every detail is correct. Anyone coming to dinner, to collect ...

Behind Farm 54: The Making of the Graphic Novel by Galit & Gilad Seliktar

The graphic novel Farm 54 is based on three stories written by Galit Seliktar. The stories were first published in Israeli literary magazines and then adapted into a graphic novel by Galit’s brother, illustrator Gilad Seliktar. Farm 54 is a real place where both siblings were raised, an actual farm in Ganei-Yohanan – a small village located in Israel’s agricultural periphery.Read More: @ myjewishlearning.comReaders found more ...

Behind “Chagaga” by the Tichel Cuties

My friend Becca, along with some of her Orthodox Jewish Day School friends/co-tichel cuties created a pretty intense fusion of Lady Gaga and traditional Orthodox concepts (the wearing of the tichel – garb for married women, preparing for Shabbat, and the waiting for the Messiah). This is not a likely combination so that’s probably why it has been getting so ...

Be Hungry

There is an advertisement that I pass when biking to work.It’s of a gorgeous man, with brown hair and blue eyes, a rugged 5 o’clock shadow, his arms slightly raised, about to pop the collar of his denim jacket. His lips are parted slightly, his gaze steady. He is ready to meet whatever lies before him on the horizon.And in ...

B’Bye, Elevenses

Oh, you know, just one more end-of-the-year list to add to the bloggysphere. While Yentaland did not involve any freed Israeli soldiers or major disasters, there were a few milestones worth noting.Here are the top stories of 2011 in my own head:1. I Got A JobAfter almost two years of bouncing around Savannah’s job market like a loud, Jewish, lopsided ...

Bay Area Orthodox Jews are ahead of their time

One of the first things I was told when I moved to the Bay Area was that the Jewish community was way ahead of its time. The first interesting thing I noticed was that the Berkley Chabad and the left wing modern orthodox shul switched off for minyanim. Instead of trying to hold down two daily minyanim in the small ...

Bat Mitzvah: A Balancing Act

A few months back, I dragged my 12-year-old, Harry-Potter-enthusiast sister to go with me to see the new Disney princess movie Tangled (which retells the Rapunzel story). In one part of the film, Rapunzel has just escaped from the tower against her mother’s wishes and is encountering the World, and her independence, for the first time.(Watch the clip here.) While her companion ...