Jewish Blogs

May Day: Celebrating through Protest

Happy May Day! Originally, May Day was a pagan springtime festival, roots of which survive in the traditions of flower-festooned maypoles and the crowning of the “Queen of the May.” Since the late 19th century, it has also been a workers’ holiday. Though in the US it has been officially replaced (and I would argue, coopted) by Labor Day in September, ...

Matzah Toffee Bark

So you’ve spent a week eating matzah with anything you can think of (I have personally eaten it so far with various nut butters, tuna salad, charoset, and jam). Maybe you’ve eaten more matzah balls than you’d care to admit at this point. Yet, somehow, seemingly impossibly….you still have matzah leftover.So what to do with all that extra unleavened goodness? ...

Matisyahu Posts Pictures of Himself Without a Kippah

Matisyahu has a couple pictures of him in his Vanilla Ice hair looking slick sans peyos and yarmulke (kippah). I really hope he stays frum, not because I think it’s right for him, but because I really don’t want to deal with all the frummies saying “I told you so” when it comes to people being frum and famous at ...

Matisyahu, Moishe House and Kickball: Detroit’s Coming Back

The last time I was at Belle Isle, the almost 1,000-acre island park in the Detroit River (the largest in the United States), was in the mid-1980s. I don’t remember if I was there to go to the aquarium (which closed in 2005) or the zoo, but I know I haven’t been there since. Today, Belle Island is most known ...

Matisyahu Gets Heter to Eat on Yom Kippur for Parnassah Purposes

It seems that Matisyahu is trying to stick it to the frum world by going off the derech in a very public manner. First he chopped off his beard, which is almost as bad as coming to shul in those skinny jeans of his, then he cut off his peyos in a marijuana induced stupor, and finally he decided to ...

Matisyahu, a Dybbuk and a Haunted Box

Out of courtesy to those who don’t want to waste time on a film that is neither a good ripoff of The Exorcist nor a good representation of Jewish culture, I’ll keep this short.The Possession is “based on a true story,” which means somebody on eBay wrote a really long-winded story, and the LA Times then picked up the story, and then Hollywood changed it ...

Mark Zuckerberg, Emily Gould & Rabbeinu Gershom

Zuckerberg was criticized last month for Facebook’s new privacy settings. Over 500 million worldwide users of Facebook had more of their information made public because Zuckerberg believes that “if people share more, the world will become more open and connected. And a world that’s more open and connected is a better world.”Read More: @ blog.rabbijason.comReaders found more information by searching for:Mark ...

Mark Twain’s view of the Jews

Mark Twain, is considered as one of America’s greatest writer, was far more than a humorist. After the Civil War, Twain also served as America’s conscience on ethnic and racial issues. Twain defended Jews, African-Americans and Indians against prejudice. Twain had a change of heart about Jews during the time of the Civil War. Twain confided to his daughter Suzy ...

Marc Maron Hates Williamsburg

I am not a huge fan of the WTF Podcast by Marc Maron. I listen to it every once in a while, but it’s not one of those podcasts that I anxiously wait to be updated every week. But yesterday, out of necessity—none of my other podcasts were new—I listened to Maron’s latest podcast, which is a recording of a ...

Manischewitz Cook-Off National Finals 2011

The Fifth Annual Man-O-Manischewitz National Cook Off just finished, and, man, I’m still buzzing. There was some serious high-octane, high-pressure, high-quality cooking, and I don’t think I expected to see any of that. I mean, this is Manischewitz you’re talking about — the matzah and wine people.But this wasn’t your bubbe’s Manischewitz. Not only was the competition a slick, well-presented ...

Manicures, Midrash and Middle School Girls

I love reading about the creative ways in which my colleagues are bringing people closer to Torah. Over the weekend I read about one young colleague (a Conservative rabbi) who is using manicures to teach midrash in a Jewish day school. Yes, manicures!The NY Times reports that Rabbi Yael Buechler of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Westchester, New York ...

Man is suing Rebbe for telling him to buy Toyota

A man is suing the Lubavitcher Rebbe after totaling his Toyota which he claimed the Rebbe told him to buy. In shocking blow to the Messianic wing of Chabad, a man is claiming that whole becoming religious through Chabad he was told to open the Rebbe’s letters to random pages to look for guidance. He is claiming that the Rebbe ...