Jewish Blogs

Are you a JFK-Jew (just for kiddush)

I’m not sure popular the term JFK-Jew is but it means Just For Kiddush. For the record I have never been a Just for Kiddush kind of guy, unless you count the kavannah of having in mind that I’m only davening in the said shul because they have a good Kiddush that week. Of course, here in the Bay Area ...

Are they Jewish? Apple in France De-Apps “Juif ou pas Juif?”

Cupertino-based Apple Inc. has removed a mobile app called “Jew or Not Jew?” from its online App Store in France.The app let users consult a database of celebrities and public figures to determine if they are Jewish or not. Its removal follows a complaint from a French anti-racism group that threatened to sue the iPhone and iPad maker.Yes, the app ...

Are opinionated Jewish women hiding behind stereotypes?

Scratching, clawing, digging. Those words don’t sound very friendly, do they? When it comes to getting beyond the surface of stereotypes, they’re even worse than that. They’re painful. Embarrassing. And uncomfortable. And that’s just when we realize that we’re assuming what we know about someone else. What about the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves? I love seeing myself as ...

Are Mormons Jewish?

No, Mormons are not Jews, and according to some Mormons, they are not Christians either.The Times has an op-ed by David V. Mason, “I’m a Mormon, Not a Christian,” that proffers:I want to be on record about this. I’m about as genuine a Mormon as you’ll find — a templegoer with a Utah pedigree and an administrative position in a ...

Are Jews the People of the Talmud?

A broad romantic version of a slice of Jewish religious history from an author who thinks that Jews are the people of the Talmud, “Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures,” by Talya Fishman, reviewed by Lawrence Grossman, “How Jews Became the People of the Talmud: Thinkers Have Long Puzzled Over Oral ...

Are Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Jewish?

Mazal tov again – update: Jared and Ivanka had a baby girl 7/17/11. Enews reports on the video below.//orig. post 7/17/09//Yes, Jared Kushner is a Jew and Ivanka Trump, not born a Jew, says that she is going to convert so she can marry Jared.UPDATE 10/27/09: The Times reports they got married 10/25/2009: “Ivanka M. Trump, the daughter of Ivana ...

Are Goldman Sach’s Islamic Bonds Kosher?

Reuter’s reports that some Islamic oriented bonds issued by Goldman Sachs may be overstating their “rabbinic” certifications (“Goldman Sachs in new flap over Islamic bond suspected to be not 100% halal”). Whoops.Goldman Sachs’ controversial $2 billion Islamic bond programme faced a fresh challenge on Wednesday as it emerged that at least two scholars named as potential approvers had not even seen ...

Are Glenn Beck and Fox News AntiSemitic?

Yes as Hendrik Hertzberg in the New Yorker shows, Glenn Beck and Fox News are most certainly antiSemitic.It’s hardly news when Fox News airs something nasty. This time, though, it’s personal—or, at least, institutional. Recently, the nation’s highest-rated cable-news network’s biggest star devoted three hour-long episodes of his program to an attack on a single prominent citizen. The in-house advance publicity ...

Are Charlie Sheen, Glenn Beck, John Galliano and Julian Assange Anti-Semites?

How does one know when someone’s comment is anti-Semitic? I suppose it’s the same as how United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart explained pornography in the 1964 case of Jacobellis v. Ohio: “I know it when I see it.”There have been several high profile examples of anti-Semitic outbursts recently. And like famous anti-Semitic rants in the past, there has ...

Archaeology of the Rules of Toasts Scroll

We were surprised to read recently about the discovery of a new text related to toasting.A paper boy in Ho-Ho-Kus New Jersey errantly tossed the Sunday Times into a garage and heard a breaking of pottery. He entered and found a Hebrew manuscript which he spirited away and sold on the black market.Scholars are still arguing about the interpretation of ...

April 11th: An Eerie Confluence of Dates

It was the 50th anniversary of the start of the Eichmann Trialand the 11th anniversary of the verdict [judgment] in my libel trial in the UK when David Irving sued me for libel for calling him a Holocaust denier.More significantly, on April 11th I spoke at the United States State Department to mark the anniversary of the Eichmann trial. In addition to State ...

Apple and Archaeology: iPad at Pompeii

As an example of what amazing things iPad can do, Apple assembled an account of how this game-changing revolutionary tool helps archaeologists at Pompeii.For Dr. Steven Ellis, who directs the University of Cincinnati’s archaeological excavations at Pompeii, perhaps the most significant discovery at the site this year was iPad. Ellis credits the introduction of six iPad devices at Pompeii with ...