Jewish Blogs

The Chanukah Presence

The current establishment of Chanukah presents really ticks me off and I’ll tell you why. Judaism purports to have its origins in first the private and then the public revelation of God to humans, and it has been changing with the times ever since.Now, that’s not to say that it changes like Christianity or Islam, but it definitely changes. We used to ...

The Challenge of Introducing Young American Jews to Torah

There are no shortcuts to solving this problem. No matter how one tries to position it, Judaism is prescriptive. It teaches that there are things that one must do, and things that one cannot do; things that are permitted, and things that are off-limits. These constraints do not sit well with a generation that grew up in a multicultural environment, ...

The Celebrity-Monotheist: Twenty Years Since the Assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane

The Celebrity-Monotheist: It has been twenty years since the tragic assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane.Rabbi Kahane was American-Israeli Orthodox rabbi, an ultra-nationalist writer and political figure and a member of the Israeli Knesset.In the 1960s and 70s, Kahane organized the JDL, the Jewish Defense League. Its goal was to protect Jews in New York City’s high-crime neighborhoods and to instill ...

The California Governor’s Race, Rebbi and Antoninus, and Israeli Ingenuity

California voters face an unusual choice in the coming gubernatorial election. Interestingly, a recent Daf holds the key to the way frum voters are likely to go.Elections are often a choice between tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. (Too often, unfortunately, that should be spelled tweedle-dumb.) The two candidates in this election could not be more different, and each candidate’s claim to excellence ...

The Butter Ten Commandments

Shavuot is on the horizon, which means everyone is preparing for a holiday whose main ritual is eating blintzes. Don’t get me wrong, I love blintzes, but I’ve been thinking about a good way to combine the custom of eating dairy on Shavuot with the theme of the Israelites receiving the Torah on Shavuot. What I’ve come up with is ...

The Burlesque Poetess: A Jewess with “Artitude”

Jojo Lazar is a Boston-based multimedia visual and performance artist with a dizzying portfolio of projects. She puts her MFA in Poetry and love of vaudeville to work performing as “The Burlesque Poetess.” She plays the ukulele in the steam-crunk band, “Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys,” and with Meff in “The Tiny Instrument Revue” and in “WHY ...

‘The Bookseller’s Sonnets’: Andi L. Rosenthal’s debut novel

March 2005 was the absolute worst month of Andi L. Rosenthal’s life. She broke off her engagement to her fiancé. Ten days later her father died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. Then she lost her job.Rosenthal was understandably lost. “It was [writing] the book that brought me back to life,” she said. “I couldn’t live in my life, so I ...

The Black Jewish Soul

When I think Black Sabbath, I get visions of Ozzy Osbourne in his bat-eating days. But this isn’t about riding the meshuggeneh train. I was already sold on The Idelsohn Society’s Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations because I have a soft spot for anything involving Johnny Mathis (and Danny Kaye, for that matter.)Read More: @ yoyenta.comVisitors found this page by ...

The Best Entertainers on Earth

Jewish people might be out numbered by people belonging to other religion but they can’t be outnumbered by the contribution towards countless fields that we live in. Whether its in the line of science, literature, medicine, and economy. Name any field you can, you will find the highest contribution are made by Jewish people like the great Albert Einstein, Henry ...

The Bedouin and the Haredi

My day job brings me into frequent contact with members of other faiths, as I try to build bridges and alliances on behalf of Jewish interests. One of the first things I learned was how people with serious religious convictions have an easier time relating to Orthodox Jews – who believe in right and wrong, take Scripture seriously, and believe ...

The Batsh*t Logic of a Southern Halloween

Oh fer froop’s sake: Since October 31 falls on a Sunday this year, the City of Savannah has taken it upon itself to change Halloween to Saturday, apparently to accommodate the complaints of a few idiots who want to have their religion and their candy, too.Chatham County Commissioner (I’m almost positive this isn’t even a real job) Pete Liakakis said ...

The Barack Obamulke Yarmulke

There is much discussion about “The Jewish Vote” in the ongoing presidential race. While “Jews for George” made headlines during the 2004 campaign and more Jews than expected voted for McCain in 2008, in the 2012 election the political pundits are already predicting a large shift among Jewish voters, who historically have voted overwhelmingly Democrat.Aside from polling numbers, another way ...