Faith & Spirituality

Book Club: Hyper-chondriac

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:51:05 -0500

Author: JewcyTodd
Posted to Jewcy: October 10, 2008 1:51 pm
=====

You need this book: or you might come down with something...Brian Frazer has used his week of Jewcy blogging to expel some common and very current political frustration. He began with a peek at his book, telling an introspective yet entertaining tale about his brother's wedding. Then he turned to politics, putting wrinkles on the faces of Biden's botox obsessors, reacted to the second presidential debate, begged the forgiveness of those he has insulted, and devised a painfully amusing plan for preventing another economic meltdown. Want more of Frazer's frenzy? Buy his book! Does your blood pressure surge if the car in front of you turns without signaling? Do your neck veins pulsate when a cashier takes too long to ring you up? Does relaxing seem like it'll have to wait until you're dead? Then your name could very well be Brian Frazer. On paper, Frazer is the world's healthiest guy. He eats right, exercises regularly, gets plenty of sleep, has never smoked and has missed only one day of flossing in the last five years. But inside he's a swirling vortex of angst, capable...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/book_club_hyperchondriac

Hearing the Call: Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:14:18 -0500

Author: Ezra Sarajinsky
Posted to Jewcy: October 10, 2008 1:14 am
=====

Rabbi Arthur Waskow turns 75 this month. In honor of that milestone, we sat down over Skype to talk. I first met Arthur in 2002 when I attended a week-long class on tikkun olam which he was teaching at the old Elat Chayyim retreat center in Accord, New York. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a terrific introduction to his life and work. Arthur's made a career of highlighting Judaism's prophetic tradition and its call for social justice. That call transformed him, a staunchly secular civil rights and anti-war activist, into one of the Left's most outspoken rabbis. Social justice has always been central; his doctoral dissertation focused on the 1919 race riots. In his early political career he co-wrote a bill to create a National Peace Agency, and served as senior staff at the Peace Research Institute (later the Institute for Policy Studies.) ...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/hearing_call_rabbi_arthur_waskow

An Open Letter to the Jewish Community in the Ten Days of Repentance 5769

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:21:24 -0500

Author: Rabbi Dayle Friedman
Posted to Jewcy: October 08, 2008 12:21 pm
=====

My fellow American Jews, I am a member of Rabbis for Obama, along with 550 colleagues from all movements of Judaism. In this sacred season of repentance, I would like to share my reflections on some powerful messages from our tradition and their implications for the fateful choices we face. Arise from your slumber and rouse yourselves from your lethargy..." (Maimonides) In hearing the blast of the Shofar, we have an opportunity to wake up to the grave challenges our nation faces, and to forge a path based on our Jewish values of tzedek (justice), hesed (loving-kindness), and shalom (peace). I believe that Senator Obama offers us a chance to build bridges across the divides of race, religion, class and country of origin. In this moment of economic turmoil and suffering, he calls on us to move beyond self-interest to extend opportunity across our society to "lift up the fallen" through lifelong education, accessible healthcare, and through involvement in community service. He urges us to reinforce the civil rights and liberties upon which our safety, and that of all of the vulnerable people in our society, depends. I hope we will hear in the call of the Shofar an invitation to this path toward a repaired society and nation, as Senator Obama said in his historic Rosh Hashanah conference call with 900 Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative rabbis, "[this is]... a time to recommit to the serious work of Tikkun Olam, of mending the world." "For the sin we have committed...in impurity of lips" (Machzor). Among the sins we will recount in our Yom Kippur confessional prayers is this one: "for the sin we have committed against you in impurity of lips (b'tumat sfataim)." Far too often, I hear good Jewish people repeating slurs and calumnies without the slightest basis in truth. My 9 year-old son came home from his...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/open_letter_jewish_community_ten_days_repentance_5769

Angetevka Days

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:20:00 -0500

Author: Jo Ellen Green Kaiser
Posted to Jewcy: October 08, 2008 7:20 am
=====

On the evening of Yom Kippur, in preparation for the 25 hour fast, Jews the world over will offer charity, request forgiveness from friends and family whom they may have wronged, and immerse themselves in the mikveh to be purified. At some point, perhaps post-mikveh and before donning their white garments for the Kol Nidre service, many of them will stick a little something up their tuches. I discovered this secret several years ago, here on West 90th Street in the week before Yom Kippur when I was complaining to a neighbor about how not eating or drinking doesn't bother me, but the caffeine withdrawal is brutal. "In Monsey, there's a run on caffeine suppositories the day before Yom Kippur," my in-the-know friend shared with me. I envisioned a hoard of desperate, bearded Jews pounding on a pharmacy door, like heroin addicts begging for a fix. The purpose of fasting is to enable us to focus on our prayers and thereby to come closer to God, without the distraction of thinking about food. It tends not to work out that way, in my experience. This same friend's wife confided that while she can pray with her whole heart in synagogue on the morning of Yom Kippur, come afternoon she is obsessed with food and so she sits at the kitchen table, reads cookbooks, and fantasizes about crème brulee. Jewish porn. It's hard to transcend the pounding headache and slip into an altered spiritual state if you're pre-occupied with food or coffee. So if that caffeine suppository offers you a path to God, I say hallelujah. The end justifies the means. Though my husband grew up in an Orthodox home, he never heard about going the rectal route! He jokingly considered asking his brother, a rabbi, whether this backdoor loophole is recognized in the rabbinical world as being kosher, but he knew that his brother didn't like to encourage those kinds of "frivolous" questions. "All...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/angetevka_days_0

The Brisket King

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:41:56 -0500

Author: Ezra Sarajinsky
Posted to Jewcy: October 06, 2008 7:41 am
=====

If I had a brisket for every time I have heard “I’m interested in spirituality, not religion”, I’d be … um, The Brisket King, I guess. I never ate brisket growing up. I ate coq au vin, or greasy tinned British steak-and-kidney pie, raclette aux pommes de terre nouvelles, or roast beef; and for a time when I was young, toward the end of each pay period, ketchup sandwiches. Sometimes we went to a ‘kosher-style’ restaurant to eat ‘kosher-style’ chopped liver and smoked meat. This was partly nostalgia, partly well-meaning ethnic tourism. My mother, born in Belgium, escaped with her family to London in 1940, where she was raised in an assimilated (though nominally Orthodox) family. ...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/brisket_king

The Not-So-Best Man

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:48:00 -0500

Author: Brian Frazer
Posted to Jewcy: October 05, 2008 12:48 pm
=====

It wouldn't have been intentional, but I almost ruined my brother's wedding last week. I had no idea when he asked me to be his best man that I would have any responsibilities other than making a speech before dinner. Had I known that I'd have to stand with him at the Chuppa, I would've had to decline the best-manship. As I stood in front of all the wedding guests alongside my brother, I became very light-headed. The room started to spin and my heart began to palpitate so I gripped the wooden Chuppa poles with my hands for support. Seconds later, I fainted. As my wife, Nancy, my sister and several others rushed to my aid with water, juices and handkerchiefs to wipe my brow, everyone assumed it had to do with low-blood sugar or the heat. Only Nancy knew it had nothing to do with either. It was my aversion to religion that had caused yet another meltdown. It all started shortly after my Bar Mitzvah, in 1977. Two months after I had officially become a man, my Long Island rabbi ditched Judaism to become an Episcopalian minister in Rhode Island. Ever since then I have freaked out when being exposed to organized religion. It's not limited to Judaism, either. When I go to a Catholic wedding I need to sit in the back row, so I can periodically take breaks from the sermon. When I was in Bangkok, I was unable to last more than three minutes in a Buddhist Temple, despite not understanding one word of Thai. Even weeks before my own wedding, when Nancy and I first met the rabbi in his office, I needed to leave the room to get into the fetal position on the cold bathroom floor. Thankfully,...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/notsobest_man

Jewish US Army Private: I Was Beaten by Anti-Semitic Soldiers

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:34:52 -0500

Author: JakeRake
Posted to Jewcy: October 03, 2008 3:34 pm
=====

A Jewish-American soldier stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia was taken to a local hospital last week after being badly beaten by fellow privates in what his father believes was an act of anti-Semitic violence. The US Army Pvt. Michael Handman had complained of religious discrimination on the base in past letters home, and had apparently been informed on at least one occasion that he may have been in danger. Two Fort Benning drill sergeants have been reprimanded for religious discrimination toward Handman, having reportedly referred to him as "Juden"—the German word for Jews – and asking him to remove his yarmulke, which Handman was wearing with his uniform. Handman’s father, Jonathan, says that his son fears future attacks and that he regrets encouraging his son’s enlistment in the armed forces. Click here to read more... ...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/soldiers_attack_may_have_been_motivated_antisemitism

Book Club: Dumbocracy AND Losers

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:06:07 -0500

Author: JewcyTodd
Posted to Jewcy: October 03, 2008 11:06 am
=====

Roth's and Beckerman's books are a world apart. Yet, the dialogue they developed over the course of the week is proof enough that two authors of divergent religious convictions and very dissimilar genres can be quite compatible. Weaving in and out of social commentary, the two find common ground in their uniquely awkward identities as writers. They marry the seemingly incongrous worlds of human sexuality and religious fundamentalism (without a pre-nup!), define the relationship between kink and the Torah, express the need to mouth off from time to time. And yes, they even contemplate an inexplicable preoccupation with sodomy! It's a discourse that leaves you begging for more... so indulge and go buy their books! Marty Beckerman: DumbocracyDumbocracy: In this election year, we hear much about the all-powerful "bases" of each major party. Who are these activists? What drives them? And why are...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/book_club_dumbocracy_and_losers

The Queer Orthodox Jew

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:00:42 -0500

Author: Jo Ellen Green Kaiser
Posted to Jewcy: October 03, 2008 10:00 am
=====

There is a certain element of schizophrenia to it--biblical verses run through my head even during the sexual encounter--‘I know this is wrong, I'm sorry G-d'-but at a certain point those voices are silenced by the sheer physical pleasure of it. Single Woman We tend to think of "queer" as referring to homosexual orientation. But within the Orthodox Jewish community, the term queer can take on a more subtle meaning. As an Orthodox individual, any step I take outside of the mandates of halakhah, or Jewish law--whether in the sexual realm or any other realm--makes me queer. Let me explain: In general society, which is heteronormative, "queer" is juxtaposed with "straight" in thinking about sexual identity. However, in the Orthodox Jewish community, halakhah defines the norm, or the "straight", and the acts marginalized by halakhah leave a large space open for the queer, including heterosexual individuals. ...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/queer_orthodox_jew

The Heretic: Will Wall Street Bring the Collapse of Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Welfare State?

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:00:00 -0500

Author: Shmarya Rosenberg
Posted to Jewcy: October 02, 2008 10:00 am
=====

Israel is facing an economic crisis of truly epic proportions, but even though its immediate cause is the declining dollar and the crisis now gripping US financial markets, its roots lie in Mea Shearim quarter, not on Wall Street. Every year, Israeli ultra-Orthodox charities raise almost $1 billion abroad. That money is used to support soup kitchens, food pantries, organizations like ZAKA, and the ultra-Orthodox school system, including yeshivas and kollels. Kollels are yeshivas for married men. And herein lies the problem. 70% of ultra-Orthodox married men choose not to work. Instead, they study in kollel. They are each given a stipend from the kollel that amounts to about $300 per month. Their families subsist on government welfare benefits, aid from various ultra-Orthodox charities, and whatever else the mothers of seven (or more) children are able to earn in their “spare” time. This planned unemployment – which often lasts well into a man’s forties – is a tremendous drain on government resources. It is also a tremendous drain on charities which, one way or another, are compelled to support it. Dirt Poor: in the city of goldExcept for those few lucky kollel students with rich parents or in-laws, these families live in real poverty, packed together in small, aging apartments, worried...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/heretic_will_wall_street_bring_collapse_israel%E2%80%99s_ultraorthodox_welfare_state

Primal Scream Therapy with Tortured Authors, Part 4: Chaos and Creation

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Author: Marty Beckerman
Posted to Jewcy: October 02, 2008 8:00 am
=====

From: Matthue Roth To: Marty Beckerman Subject: Chaos and Creation Marty, I have the advantage of writing fiction, if we're making it a contest, and the biggest advantage of fiction is that "flaws" don't count. I don't mean flaws in spelling or when characters inexplicably pop up in the middle of scenes -- I'm talking about the emotional rawness and the fundamental awkwardness that authors have, which translates to the perfection of awkwardness and rawness that our characters have. Case in point: My first novel, Never Mind the Goldbergs, is about a self-assured 17-year-old Orthodox girl who's punk-rock, confident, sassy and in-your-face -- basically, everything that I wanted to be at 17 that I absolutely wasn't. Four years later, I look back at Hava and I'm simultaneously wincing and kvelling. I was never that sure about anything in life -- not my religion, not my music, not even my attitude about myself. And then I started reading the reviews. People said I made her perfectly flawed, that I built up her bubble, and then popped it. The reviews were complimentary, but I was horrified. I was like, She's not egotistical! She's the coolest person I always wanted to fall in love with! It was great. My image of perfection imploded on itself, and apparently I learned how to create a tragic protagonist. Never Mind the Goldbergs: by Matthue RothMy new novel, Losers, is almost the direct...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/primal_scream_therapy_tortured_authors_part_4_5

Atonement Missive: "It must never happen again. . .to us."

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:43:18 -0500

Author: Simon Glickman
Posted to Jewcy: September 30, 2008 4:43 pm
=====

[Is there anything you think we, as a community, should atone for this year? If so, and you feel like sharing it, please post your Atonement Missive onto your personal Jewcy blog and send the link to info@jewcy.com. Over the next 10 days we'd like to post a selection of these missives.] In a few hours I'll be heading over to my parents' place for our traditionally non-religious celebration of Rosh Hashanah. My brilliant nephews (including recently Bar Mitzvah'd Jonah) will recapitulate the meaning of the holiday. There will be much talk of the election (in my house, the day's political news may as well be on an ancient scroll). Apples will be dipped in honey as we wish each other sweetness at the beginning of an ancient calendar we don't observe. That's how we secular types roll, so L'shana tovah, whatever that means. But just because I'm not versed in Hebrew and have no metaphysical beliefs doesn't mean I'm not aware of -- and reflect upon -- our tradition. Julia and I were cruising home from the gym yesterday afternoon and listening to Speaking of Faith on NPR; I heard a familiar voice talking about the Days of Awe and realized it was Reboot regular, IKAR luminary and Very Hot Rabbi Sharon Brous. She spoke interestingly about the scriptural legacy of dysfunctional families and about the Jews and Muslims, descendants of Abraham by different mothers. And then I came home to a story about someone spraying a "chemical irritant" through...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/atonement_missive_it_must_never_happen_again_us

Primal Scream Therapy with Tortured Authors, Part 2: From one freak to another

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:00:05 -0500

Author: Marty Beckerman
Posted to Jewcy: September 30, 2008 11:00 am
=====

To: Marty Beckerman From: Matthue Roth Subject: From one freak to another Marty, You're right. I know I shouldn't admit you're right -- I am, after all, one of those fundamentalist zealots you're talking about -- but the fact is, religion often gives people an excuse for idiocy. It's not what Jewish Law is supposed to be. Jewish Law is supposed to place the responsibility on the individual -- if you screw up, you're culpable to God. But that's not how it plays out in contemporary religion. Instead, we let rabbis and priests tell us what the books say. When the religious leaders have that power, either through ignorance or a lack of dissent, the power has a tendency to get abused. The attitude is that, as long as you have a rabbi saying something's okay, you're covered. Some of them -- again, not most -- have learned to manipulate the system, and they use their power for no good, or even straight-up evil. You proposed that there's a link between the degree of someone's fundamentalism and his/her kink. I feel duly obliged to note that, in Judaism, many forms of consensual kink are both acceptable and welcomed (and many others are debatably acceptable). The greater world likes to divide religious fundamentalists as either incredibly knowledgeable, having the entire Bible memorized, or as totally ignorant, only thinking what, like, Meir Kahane or Pat Robertson or Swami Prabhubada tells them to think. The reality is more of a bell curve. There are people who don't know very much -- or who are the least fundamental of the fundamentalists -- who are struggling (in prayer, with a job, in life itself) just to keep up. Then there are the people who are on top of everything. Some of those people are totally comfortable with their station in life. Some of them are even really good at it, and some are obsessed with condescension and moralizing, but you can find others who don't make...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/primal_scream_therapy_tortured_authors_part_2_5

Primal Scream Therapy with Tortured Authors, Part 1: Allow me to Freudian slip inside you

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:06:56 -0500

Author: Marty Beckerman
Posted to Jewcy: September 29, 2008 4:06 pm
=====

To: Matthue Roth From: Marty Beckerman Subject: Allow me to Freudian slip inside you Matthue, Writers are not exactly well-adjusted people. Posters of Ernest Hemingway and Hunter Thompson used to hang over my desk, but one day I realized with sudden discomfort that two suicides constantly looked down at me as I worked. I've never read anything by David Foster Wallace -- the Internet and Jack Daniel's have ruined me for any book longer than three hundred pages, let alone a thousand -- but he's another writer who bailed on existence. And yet, even though we're writers, neither one of us will commit suicide anytime soon. We have different reasons for this -- you're an Orthodox Jew who believes that suicide is murder, and I'm an egomaniac who would never selfishly deprive the human race of his boundless and necessary wisdom, roguish good looks, etc. -- but even well-adjusted writers need to analyze ourselves sometimes. We can't afford psychologists to guide us on our reflective journeys, of course, but at least we have each other. Despite our aversion to self-destruction, we are pretty goddamned fascinating people. (At least I am; what's your name again?) Nobody understands an author quite like another author, and the public deserves to know the motivations and psychologies of its most gifted citizens. Therefore, Matthue (oh yes, that's your name), it's time for us to explore each other, probe each other... I just want to get inside of you and dig. You are a self-described religious zealot, although quite different than most. You seem non-judgmental, and lacking in palpable sexual neuroses. Call me a snide coastal elitist, but I immediately associate religious extremism with sexual perversion; it seems as if every week another conservative preacher or politician gets in trouble for allegedly being...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/primal_scream_therapy_tortured_authors_part_1_5

Shofar, So Good: Theology for Kids via YouTube

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:33:00 -0500

Author: tahlraz
Posted to Jewcy: September 29, 2008 3:33 pm
=====

I woke up to an email from my mom this morning, featuring a little backdoor Jewish New Year guilt. To be fair, she also wanted to let me know how much she was enjoying American Wife, which I gave her for her birthday. Here's what mom said: "Happy New Year. I know this doesn't mean much to you, but the combination of school starting, my birthday and Rosh Hashanah has always been the start of a new year for me. I wish I could capture and explain how special this time of year was when I was growing up." Yes, yes, I know. Things were so much better in New Jersey in the 1950s. As soon as I closed the email, I did an abashed Google search for "shofar." A wise acquaintance of mine has said that a Jew need fulfill only one true requirement on Rosh Hashanah: He or she must hear the call of the ram's horn. Not surprisingly, there were lots of videos of shofar playing on YouTube. Elijah woke up at 8:15. There was no school today for "teacher training," which is good, because the kids needed a break after nearly two weeks of rigorous study. He came down into my basement, where I was sampling shofar videos. I decided this was a perfect time for a little low-level Jewish education. "Good morning," I said. "Good morning," he said. "Can I watch a show?" "Sure," I said. "But first, come over here. I want to play something for you." "What?" he said, suspiciously. He sensed that I was about to delay his Spongebob fix for something ostensibly edifying. "Well, you know how the Jewish calendar is different than the regular calendar?" "No." "There are different months and it moves in different cycles." "OK." "Tonight starts the Jewish New Year, called Rosh Hashanah." "OK." "And...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/shofar_so_good_theology_kids_youtube

Bad Karma on the Kippur

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:26:09 -0500

Author: Alex Grossman
Posted to Jewcy: September 29, 2008 12:26 pm
=====

Bad Karma on the Kippur was created for Film Racing (www.filmracing.com), a 24-hour film contest where movies have to be written, cast, directed, edited and scored in less than a day! The assigned theme of the contest was karma, and someone had to water a plant within the body of the short. While most of the other films in the contest really hit the karma theme nail on the head, Alex Grossman, the writer and director, decided to go for a looser interpretation. The film was a finalist in the competition, but really took on a life of it's own when someone posted it on YouTube, where it's garnered over 30,000 hits in just a few days. CONVERSATION: Do you have similar tales of holiday scalping? Does Grossman's depiction ring true? Are synagogues just trying to survive? Is there something culturally perverted in the dynamic between American Jews and their houses of worship? ...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/bad_karma_kippur

Sarah Silverman Wants You to Schlep Your Fat Jewish Ass to Florida

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0500

Author: Elisa
Posted to Jewcy: September 26, 2008 9:00 am
=====

You know when you get the same link from like six different trusted friends in the span of a single day? And you’re like, fine, okay, I’ll click, wtf? Yeah, so, enjoy: (Jimmy Kimmel, you’re a douche-nozzle for letting her go.) ...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/sarah_silverman_wants_you_schlep_your_ass_florida

The Heretic: How Jewish Law Killed Rabbi Yossie Raichik

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Author: Shmarya Rosenberg
Posted to Jewcy: September 25, 2008 8:00 am
=====

On Sunday, Jewish law killed a 55-year old American-Israeli man. Rabbi Yossie Raichik died of a lung infection. He was waiting in Israel, where he had lived for almost 30 years, for a transplant to replace his irreversibly damaged lungs. It could have saved his life. It did not because the donor organs that matched him did not arrive. Raichick headed Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl project. Children of Chernobyl took children from the area around Chernobyl’s exploded nuclear reactor and brought them and their families to Israel for medical treatment. Raichik brought more than 2500 children to Israel during the 22 years since the disaster. He is said to have played a role in airlifting Jewish children out of Iran just after the revolution ushered in what became the Islamic regime. Raichik’s transplant didn’t come because the donor’s family insisted on consulting with an unnamed leading Israeli ultra-Orthodox rabbinic expert before allowing the transplant. While the rabbi investigated, the woman’s heart failed and the organs – including the lungs that could have saved Raichik – were lost. Raichik died soon after. Unlike kidneys and livers, which if necessary can be removed immediately after cardiac death, lungs must be taken while the donor’s heart is still beating. This means the only way to get lungs for transplant is to take them from patients who are brain stem dead, or from Chinese political prisoners killed by the government...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/heretic_how_jewish_law_killed_rabbi_yossie_raichik

The Protocols: Like Medieval Poland, the American South is Desperate for Jews

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:00:00 -0500

Author: Rachel Shukert
Posted to Jewcy: September 24, 2008 7:00 am
=====

Well folks, my summer of traveling just ended with a brief visit to my ancestral home of Omaha, Nebraska. Despite the fact that I was there for ostensibly professional reasons (I was honored to participate in the fantastic annual Omaha Lit Fest, which is turning into quite a major event) the trip was fraught as usual with the ghosts of the past; despite the disconcerting presence of a new American Apparel, it’s still my hometown, and being there, I couldn’t help but reflect on my childhood and adolescence, and for probably the millionth time, what it was like growing up Jewish in a place where being Jewish is still at least semi-weird. I’ve written extensively about this (it’s so comfortable to revisit postions we’ve already taken, isn’t it?) and I’m not going to go into my personal experience here; if you’re interested, you can read my book. But being home reminded me of a strange little news item I caught sight of a couple of weeks ago, and have since meant to call to your attention. Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services is offering Jewish families as much as $50,000 to relocate to Dothan, Alabama—a town of 58,000 known as the Peanut Capital of the World (although I think a few towns in Georgia might dare to differ). It's a kind of yiddische Homestead Act set smack in the cradle of Dixie, and the terms are simple: the families stay at least five years, become active in the local synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, and the money never has to be repaid. Jews in the South are nothing new, and historically, were in some ways...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/protocols_medieval_poland_american_south_desperate_jews

A Rabbi at War

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:32:20 -0500

Author: Andrew Shulman
Posted to Jewcy: September 23, 2008 9:32 am
=====

Soldiers construct a menorahMy 15-month deployment to Iraq as a chaplain in the US Army just came to an end, and in a strange way, I was a bit sad to go. I'm going to miss the people I've met, the friends I've made, and, of course, the action and adventure. But I know it was time to go home. I left my house in Malden last year and reported to the US Army Chaplain School at Fort Jackson, S.C. Upon graduation, I was assigned to the Third Infantry Division in Savannah, Ga. By mid-May 2007, I was on a plane to Iraq. I'm a battalion chaplain with a Blackhawk helicopter unit. We were based in Baghdad. My primary responsibility was to look after the spiritual and religious needs of the roughly 400 soldiers in my battalion. I performed Jewish services on my base. About once a month, I'd take a ride in a Blackhawk to visit Jewish soldiers at other bases around the country, giving them a taste of home, if only for a day or two. For the first half of my deployment, I was the only Jewish chaplain in Iraq. I wore a yarmulke everywhere, a strange sight in a place like Iraq. I ate strictly kosher food: lots of salad, cup o' soups, dried salami, dehydrated camping meals, and more tuna than most people eat in a lifetime. I fasted on all the fast days and celebrated every holiday in the Jewish calendar - a few of them twice. I lit the menorah on Hanukkah with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in California on a live TV simulcast; I met Condoleezza Rice and shook hands with General David Petraeus, ran frantically for cover during rocket attacks, and stood on the banks of the Tigris River. Twice...

Read this article in its entirety at: http://www.jewcy.com/post/he_offered_more_prayers_iraq