The Week in Jews

FEEL GOOD STORY OF THE WEEK: 15-year-old Toronto Jewish boy collects shoes for children in Ethiopia. [The Jerusalem Post] BRAZILIAN JEWS DONATE WINTER COATS BUT RABBI JACKS TIES THE NEWS: São Paulo's Jewish community donated 10,000 winter coats to a government-run campaign. [Jewish Telegraph Agency] THE CHATTER: The Jewish community there (of Brazil’s 120,000 Jews, half live in São Paulo) is mourning the loss of a 14-year-old Jewish girl who died in a plane crash on July 17th. [Yeshiva World News] With the donation of their anoraks, are the Sao Paulo Jews making up for the egregious thievery of their most famous rabbi, Henry Sobel? [The Economist] “It has been a tumultuous time for Brazil’s best-known rabbi. Henry Sobel, the head of the São Paulo Israeli Congregation (the city’s largest Jewish community), took leave from his post after he was arrested in Palm Beach, Florida for stealing $680-worth of designer ties. He returned on bail to São Paulo in early April and checked himself into hospital, explaining that medications for insomnia had altered his perceptions.” ISRAELI ENERGY IN THE CALIFORNIA DESERT THE NEWS: An Israeli company will build what is being called the world’s largest solar energy park in Southern California’s Mojave Desert. [Jewish Telegraph Agency] THE CHATTER: Last August, the US approved a $20 million annual grant for joint US/Israel renewable energy projects. [Treehugger] Solel Solar Systems, based in Beit Shemesh, Israel, will build and operate the park in California, and it will generate enough energy to power 400,000 homes. [Santa Cruz Sentinel]

RYAN BRAUN GOES TO THIRD BASE AND OFTEN ALL THE WAY THE NEWS: Ryan Braun, the half-Jewish son of an Israeli who is the Milwaukee Brewers’ new sensation at third base, is connected to Jewish baseball history. [The New York Times] For almost 40 years, his grandfather Bob Robinson has lived in a house that once belonged to Hank Greenberg, a Hall of Fame slugger and one of the game’s best Jewish players. Braun likes the baseball auspiciousness of his grandfather’s home. Sportsfigures are superstitious. You know, having same pre-game meal or wearing the same jockstrap for months at a time.

His offensive prowess is inarguable, but he’s a sub-par fielder with a team-leading 13 errors. Just trying to say he’s human while being one of the best power hitters in the game.

RABBI SHMULEY SPITS MAD GAME THE NEWS: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s new dating Web site, LoveProphet, is launched. [The Jewish Daily Forward]

THE CHATTER: Kavorka: what Boteach has and all us gawky Jewish boys wish we had. [Urban Dictionary] The Rabbi’s wife is Australian and he has eight, count ‘em eight, children. [Shmuley] Shmuley’s book, “Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments”: encouraging awkward Jewish singles the world over. [Shmuley] [Amazon]

JEWS PSYCHED: BIRDS DEAD FROM FLU HALF OFF AT MARKET! THE NEWS: Bird flu hits Israel. [Jewish Telegraph Agency] THE CHATTER: Avian flu, known as the H5N1 virus, has reached across Europe, Africa and Asia since 2003, killing at least 100 people who caught it from infected fowl, and killing or forcing the slaughter of tens of millions of poultry in Asia. Scientists fear it may mutate into a strain communicable between humans, triggering a global pandemic. Israel’s first known outbreak of avian flu was in March 2006, and a blogger wrote, “Containment of epidemics is one area where Israeli-Palestinian cooperation is absolutely essential.” [The Head Heeb] From Frank Gannon in Shouts and Murmurs, “Beyond Bird Flu: Other Potential Epidemics.” [The New Yorker]