Ask a Jewish kid who grew up in the ’80s for their favorite examples of Jewish popular culture from that era and you’re certain to encounter fond memories of Muppets with a penchant for Hebrew, Jewish holidays and gloriously bad puns. Often they’ll give you just two words: “Moishe Oofnik!”

Your likely trigenarian would of course be referring to Oscar the Grouch’s Israeli cousin and the best-selling Jewish video series of all time, Shalom Sesame. Shot in 1986, and then again in 1990, the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) production combined segments from the classic Sesame Street with those of its Hebrew-language counterpart, Rechov Sumsum, mingling elements of Jewish and secular culture for American Jewish audiences.

Now, just in time for the prior generations’ viewers to share it with their own children, Shalom Sesame has returned for the first time in twenty years with a DVD collection slated for release this Hanukah. The new series follows our familiar friend Grover to Israel, where he joins the cast of Rechov Sumsum, as well as Jewish celebrities like Jake & Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ben Stiller, Natalie Portman and Matisyahu, in learning about Jewish and Israeli culture.

Of course no introduction to Jewish culture would be complete without a lesson in the value of repairing the world. In the episode “Mitzvah On the Street,” a storm makes a mess of Sumsum Street, creating an opportunity for the Shalom Sesame characters to help their friend Avigail learn about mitzvot like “helping each other out” and “taking care of what’s important to us.” Together, they sing and learn about engaging in tikkun olam, repairing the world, or as Avigail says: “We help the world when we help someone do what they can to make things right.”

That’s pretty good for a three year-old purple monster!

You can learn more about the series at the Muppet Wiki or pre-order now on DVD.

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I also expressed displeasure, in my comments, with the authors’ characterization of “the president’s roughhouse treatment of Israel.” If receiving a 10-year $30 billion aid commitment during an economic catastrophe is Klein and Chesnoff’s idea of “roughhousing,” I’d gladly be “roughhoused” by the Obama administration any day. Frankly, enforcing long-standing U.S. policy against settlements is not “roughhousing.” Obama has made no statements nor taken any actions that could be construed as any more radical than those of Bush administration, which itself deemed settlements “an impediment to peace.” And American Jewish voters, polled time and time again, come down far more harshly against the settlements than Obama ever has. In that regard, Obama has likely far more to fear from the Jewish progressives he has alienated by being self-defeatingly bi-partisan than he does from the right-wing Zionist demagogues misleadingly portrayed in this article as voices of the Jewish liberal mainstream. Sure, his approval ratings have slipped to 61% among Jewish voters. But none of those polls seem to ask why. It could just as easily be that they’re pissed off about Bam’s failure to close Gitmo, withdraw from Iraq, end DADT, or pass a health care bill that was worth a shit, than it was his failure to make Israel’s hardline right-wing Prime Minister feel all gooey inside. Therefore, while Klein and Chesnoff make much ballyhoo about Jewish Democratic donors sitting out this election, it’s no surprise that the Dems still raked in a record $16 million last month alone from online donors. More than a fair share of that money is sure to have come from Jewish Democrats. Perhaps just not the racist millionaires. Yet somehow, for crying bullshit — without so much as invoking an expletive — my comments were deleted from Huffington Post for alleged violations of their terms of service. I still do not fully understand why. Apparently, it’s okay to slander the entire Jewish community as Israel-firsters who turn their backs on their party and their country at the drop of a hat. If you take a stand and say, “Well, actually, no, that’s a false and even antisemitic narrative,” according to HuffPo’s moderators, you’re the one in the wrong.

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That said:

4. By engaging in violence against the IDF, the activists aboard the vessel gave Israel plausible deniability that their soldiers were acting in self-defense, thereby turning what would have been a propaganda slam dunk into a rimshot. Worse yet, they have demonstrated succinctly to Israel’s supporters and allies that they, and by extension all Palestinian solidarity activists, are neither non-violent nor pro-peace. This hampers their cause and the greater cause of Palestinian liberation. 5. By partnering with ?nsani Yard?m Vakf?, an Islamic relief organization that has been tied by the CIA and Mossad to al Qaeda and other terror groups, the Free Gaza movement has cast doubts on the credibility of their activities. Worse yet, that a scimitar wielding Islamist aboard the ship was allowed to prance before television cameras while others likened the flotilla to the Battle of Khyber indicates, at best, that the Free Gaza movement’s communications team has a big messaging problem, and at worst, that the floatilla is nothing more than a tool of radical Islamists bent on Israel’s destruction. 6. Because the amount and nature of aid being transferred by the floatilla to Gaza is insignificant considering Gaza’s true needs, the conclusion is inescapable that this activity was merely symbolic and deliberately intended to provoke an IDF response that would evince Israel’s barbarism. Mission accomplished, apparently. But to keep representing this as an honest-to-goodness humanitarian mission focused on the transfer of relief supplies is deceptive and disingenuous. 7. Israel’s reaction to this provocation suggests that the Netanyahu administration is either a) insane, b) incompetent, c) all of the above, or d) working towards a major concession—such as endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state—which requires the political cover of international pressure in order to succeed. However, the end result of this particular interdiction will only be the further isolation of Israel from the international community and a mounting conviction that Israel is operating as a rogue state. This is untenable for Israel’s survival.

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On Monday, October 26, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, America’s largest Jewish religious denomination, addressed a plenary session of the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby J Street’s first national conference in Washington, D.C., drawing cheers and jeers alike from attendees. Yoffie’s appearance at J Street was something of a coup for the nascent group, as it re-established some legitimacy lost when, in December of 2008, Yoffie condemned J Street’s position against Israel’s war in Gaza as "morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve." Yoffie’s denunciation of J Street subsequently became fodder for the pro-Israel right, which used his remarks to paint J Street as being even too-far left for the left itself. Nonetheless, J Street welcomed Yoffie’s participation in the conference, exemplifying the group’s desire to engage those with whom it disagrees, in the greater interest of promoting more open dialogue within the Jewish community about Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. And while it was clear, by the end of Yoffie’s remarks (which included a roundtable discussion with J Street’s executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami), that the Reform leader agreed on much more with J Street than he disagreed, there were clear differences on the issues of human rights and international law, particularly regarding the Goldstone report. While J Street has neither condemned nor touted the U.N.’s Gaza war crimes investigation findings, it has cautiously stated the need for Israel to take the allegations seriously and investigate the charges. Yoffie, on the other hand, went straight for Goldstone’s throat. "This is not the time for a full discussion of the Goldstone report," he said, turning heads among audience members offended by the implication that Israel need not take credibly the allegations therein. "Its reasoning is shaky in some places and more often absurd," he added, focusing not on specific charges, but on the seeming imbalance of the report’s language, which he characterized as unjustly laying greater responsibility for the events in Gaza at Israel’s feet rather than Hamas’. Yoffie drew loud boos with his declaration, "You cannot be a moral agent if you serve an immoral master, and Richard Goldstone should be ashamed of himself for working under the auspices of the U.N. Human Rights Council." I admit, I was among the booers. In their opening night speeches, both Ben-Ami and incoming New Israel Fund executive director Daniel Sokatch made note of the fact that while increasing numbers of young Jews were disaffiliating from Israel and the organized Jewish community, their organizations were reeling them in en masse. I reiterated this point in my remarks at the much-reviled bloggers’ forum the next afternoon, explaining that this is because mainstream Jewish organizations fail to reflect the progressive values of young American Jews, the majority of which voted for Obama and favor a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And I offered that our biggest divide, was not on our support for Israel, but on our differing attitudes towards international law and human rights. "The way we are asked to defend Israel is not by debating the facts," I said, "but by undermining and delegitimizing the international system and human rights law all together. But as a grandchild of four Holocaust survivors with two Israeli sisters, I am a beneficiary of those same systems." With his remarks against the Goldstone report, Yoffie was only proving my point. So I stopped him in the hallway after his speech, and said as much to him. "Rabbi Yoffie, how can you decry young American Jews’ disaffiliation from Israel, while at the same time asking them to both be progressive and renounce and undermine international law?" He evaded my question. "The Goldstone report was unbalanced." "So is Israel’s military advantage over those it occupies," I said. "Gaza’s not occupied," he replied. "Oh no? Israel controls the air, the sea, the borders, the electricity and water." Moments later, a woman would hand me an unsolicited copy of Amnesty International’s latest report on the violation of Palestinian water rights by Israel. "That’s not occupation," he said. I stared at him in disbelief. "We gave them back Gaza. They could have used it as an opportunity to build a viable state and a stable economy. Instead they chose to rain down rockets on Sderot." "What’d you expect from unilateral withdrawl without a negotiated settlement?" I asked. "Sharon’s senior advisor, Dov Weisglass, told Ha’aretz just before the disengagement that their plan was to demonstrate that land for peace was a failed proposition by withdrawing without a peace accord. They knew exactly what would happen." "Good for Weisglass," he said, haughtily implying that he knew better than a designer of the disengagement himself. "Besides, you’re blaming Israel." My face reddened with the kind of frustration I’ve often experienced at Shabbat dinner tables around Jerusalem. I asked, "Who was it that said, ‘when you take your boot off their neck, they will pop you in the nose’?" "Three years of rocket fire is more than a punch in the nose," Yoffie replied. "Forty years is a damn long time to have a boot on your neck." Yoffie had to then take off for a meeting with one of the members of Knesset attending the conference. I of course deferred, but I remained where we had stood, dumbfounded by the man’s obstinancy. I thought to myself, is it any wonder that young American Jews like myself are increasingly repulsed by the organized Jewish community when three years of sporadic rocketfire from an occupied people is touted as a greater tragedy than decades of their oppression and dispossession? I’ll concede that the international system is well-beyond imperfect. With Libya chairing the Human Rights Council it’s hard to call it anything other than corrupt. But if we’re truly committed to the advancement of human rights and justice, shouldn’t we focus on improving and strengthening the systems of international law rather than repudiating them all together? Thus, among the reasons J Street appears to be capturing my generation and community’s support is that where Yoffie and his contemporaries in the organized Jewish community’s answer to that question would be "No," J Street’s answer appears to be, at least for the time being, a resounding "Yes."

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As neoconservative columnists and other hawkish pro-Israel voices mount pressure on members of congress to withdraw from the convention’s host committee, J Street has taken pains to demonstrate that it is far more centrist than some progressives initially believed. In an interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published Friday, J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami took swipes at various individuals and organizations deemed "anti-Zionist" by the pro-Israel right, including the Bay Area’s Jewish Voice for Peace, saying "I hope we get attacked from the left." Ben-Ami doesn’t have to hope too hard, as Jewish and non-Jewish Palestinian-solidarity activists alike have denounced the group for trying to cater to a pro-Israel center that pivots on the right. After the Weekly Standard unearthed some incendiary writing in which the poets Kevin Coval and Josh Healey drew analogies between the Israeli occupation and the Holocaust, the two were promptly disinvited from performing at J Street’s conference. On Tuesday, Coval and Healey issued a statement which appeared in the Huffington Post, faulting J Street for "caving to this sort of McCarthyism." "The right stands by its politics, and practices solidarity with their allies," wrote Coval and Healey. "Too often the left doesn’t. And that’s why we often lose." Coval and Healey’s missive was also circulated by Tikkun magazine, which itself has grown increasingly critical of J Street since, as Tikkun claims, the group formally declined to have Tikkun and its well-known publisher, Rabbi Michael Lerner, participate in its conference.   On Wednesday, Tikkun sent an email to its subscribers claiming that, "It is inconceivable that J Street could have emerged without the benefit of much of [Rabbi Lerner] and Tikkun’s work. To exclude us is not fair to Tikkun and it is an unnecessary blow to [Lerner] personally." The magazine’s managing editor David Belden said the group would nonetheless participate in the conference informally, noting that "Rabbi Lerner continues to support J Street and urges people to attend the conference even as they exclude him." In response to Ben-Ami’s interview with Goldberg, one reputed anti-Zionist blogger, Mark Elf of Jews Sans Frontieres, quipped on Twitter that J Street was "AIPAC-lite." Richard Silverstein, of the Tikkun Olam blog, who is organizing a luncheon for Israeli-Palestinian issues bloggers at the convention (in which, I hereby disclose, I will be a participant), took umbrage with many aspects of Ben-Ami’s interview, notably his characterization of Jewish Voice for Peace. Writing on his blog yesterday, Silverstein remarked, "He is using Jewish Voice for Peace as a convenient foil thus allowing him to say to those on his right: ‘See, we’ve dissociated ourselves from them.  Aren’t you glad we’re not them?’ That does a terrible disservice to the legitimate role that JVP places in this debate." Ben-Ami, of course, welcomes such vocal criticism, as it helps more clearly delineate J Street’s position within the spectrum of Israel advocacy organizations. "I believe that we are at the center," Ben-Ami told Goldberg. "The Marty Peretzes and the Michael Goldfarbs and the Lenny Ben-Davids are on the right, to the far right, and there are people to our left, and we are in the middle trying to put forward a thoughtful, moderate, mainstream point of view about how to save Israel as a Jewish home."

Editor’s Note: Jewcy is a media partner for the J Street conference. This piece was not commissioned by Jewcy and all views expressed in it are those of the author.

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Within days, 10 predominantly Democratic representatives — including both of New York’s senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand — withdrew from the conference. The success of their campaign has neoconservatives smelling blood in the water. The question looms: Why are Democrats allowing themselves to be intimidated by the same hawks responsible for strategizing and selling the Iraq War? Those same individuals now crying foul over J Street’s purportedly egregious offenses (most notably, inviting a poet with unfortunate taste in analogies to read at their conference), have been unrepentant in their defense of the indefensible.

Goldfarb himself has supported America’s use of torture against detainees, alleged that President Obama is secretly a Muslim who "pals around with antisemites," and targeted members of the House for investigating Blackwater’s corruption.

If this is who the Democrats are allowing to define what falls within the spectrum of pro-Israel belief, is it any wonder that the U.S. is failing to advance peace in the Middle East?

Editor’s Note: Jewcy is a media partner for the J Street conference. This piece was not commissioned by Jewcy and all views expressed in it are those of the author.

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For the moment, a reprieve.

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The email, which also called, in the voice of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, for "an immediate ceasefire, immediate negotiations between Israel and Hamas, and for lifting the economic blockade of Gaza," was apparently a hoax initiated by a group of young British Jews affiliated with the organization Jewdas.

Billed as a "radical Jewish diaspora group," Jewdas is well-known for having pulled off other provocative stunts in the past. Though they have not yet publicly disclosed their involvement, on Sunday an unidentified member of the group was apprehended by the London police as the alleged sender of the email. He is presently awaiting arraignment.

An anonymous source close to Jewdas told Jewcy, "We wanted to show another possible reality, to suggest that another Jewish community is possible. Those who believed it, even for a moment," he said, "were being given a gift — a vision of a Jewish leadership which stands up for peace and justice rather than mindless ethnic solidarity."

The Board of Deputies did not respond to Jewcy‘s requests for comment, but a spokesperson, Samantha Cohen, described the incident to BBC as "an attempt to silence the Jewish community’s support for peace for the people of Israel and Gaza."

Not at all, says the anonymous source. "This action was a call for new or radically reformed Jewish communal organizations. Ones that promote peace and justice over solidarity, and pluralism and democracy over hierarchy and backroom politics."

Taking issue with the Board of Deputies’ branding of the Trafalgar Square rally as one that was "pro-peace," he said, "A rally that puts all the blame on one side and fails to call for a ceasefire would be better be described as a pro-war rally."

"We will not allow the notion of ‘peace’ to be bastardized, to become ‘peace on our terms,’" he added.

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All in all about 40 people turned out to brave the cold and an onslaught of fiery invective from some pro-Israel demonstrators who couldn’t quite grasp how we could be against the killing on both sides. It was a hard day but spirits stayed high and we outlasted our detractors, overpowering their angry epithets with Hebrew and Arabic songs of peace, and opening up a few of them to possibilities beyond continuing violence.

We also got a fair amount of attention from local, national, and Jewish community press and we’re hoping to see our voice enter the debate on this issue in print and on television over the next few days. Please keep an eye out for articles mentioning our event and share them with us. If you have any photos or videos to share, we encourage you to do so as well.

Thank you so much to everyone who attended and also to those who helped get the word out! We’ll let you know about any future demonstrations which, b’ezrat hashem/inshallah/God willing won’t be necessary should a ceasefire come soon.

More photos:

(Credit: Eli Valley)

(Credit: Daniel Sieradski)

(Credit: Daniel Sieradski)

Cross-posted at Orthodox Anarchist.

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On Sunday, January 11, a coalition of New York-based Jewish and Zionist organizations will be holding a mass demonstration outside of the Israeli consulate on 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue in unreserved support of Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip. AIPAC, the ADL and several other groups will join forces to proclaim in the name of American Jewry that it is Israel’s right and responsibility to decimate Hamas, even at the cost of hundreds of civilian Palestinian lives and thousands more injured. Also on Sunday, a mass demonstration by pro-Palestinian activists will transpire in Times Square, where protesters will condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza and — in all probability — justify Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians as a legitimate response to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, its multiple violations of the 2008 ceasefire agreement, and the international community’s failure to adequately address these matters. Both of these groups will likely demonize one another — the Jews decrying the Palestinians and the pro-Palestinian activists maligning the Jews — each engaging in gross displays of hatred, and advocating not in favor of peace, but in one side’s victory over the other. We wish to propose a third way: A counterdemonstration to both the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations. That is, we wish to propose a pro-peace demonstration. We invite individuals who favor an immediate ceasefire, oppose the occupation, support the two state solution, and who believe in the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security to join in action against those who justify violence and hatred on either side, and against those who claim a monopoly on representing our voices in this matter. We wish to see not just a contingent waving Israeli flags and another waving Palestinian flags, but also a contingent waving Israeli and Palestinian flags together, carrying peace signs and banners with slogans like, “Fighting for peace is like f*cking for virginity” and “Peace cannot be achieved militarily.” We call on all organizations — Jewish, Arab and otherwise — which advocate in favor of peace, dialogue and coexistence to join in this action by encouraging their constituents to come out in full-force. (If your organization is interested in cosponsoring this event please be in contact.) Those who truly believe in peace should and must make a showing and demonstrate that there are significant number of us who differ from both sides in their responses to this latest round of violence. We have been granted permission by the NYPD to assemble south of the consulate on 2nd Avenue near 41st Street from 11AM-1PM. I hope to see you there.

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