Does G-d Believe in Comic Books?

According to the Ramban's Thirteen Principles of Faith, we, Jews, believe that "that the dead will be brought back to life when G-d wills it to happen."

Okay, but what happens if you remarried and your first wife comes back? Dum-dum-DUM! (That's eerie music playing in the background, duh.)

Anyway! Will it be, like, before "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (DC Comics) where there was an Earth-one and an Earth-two and each Earth had, like, it's own Superman? So they'll be, like, alternate universes?

Whew, this is too big for my pretty little head. ;)

Luckily, I'm sure G-d has read "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (after all, it's only $19.79 on Amazon.com) and thought about this. I wonder if G-d has also considered "resurrection technology"....

Related:

Book I wish I'd purchased at the YU (Yeshiva University) annual Soy Seforim Jewish book sale! (Sale ends February 15!) Sadly, I went WAY over my book budget this month: "Jews in America: A Cartoon History"

There's even a Hispanic version: "Latino USA: A Cartoon History, written by Mexican Jewish writer Ilan Stavans.



Also check out: "American Judaism: A History" by Jonathan D. Sarna. Not a comic book but very engaging and interesting.

Mini-Movie Review: Off and Running

At the beginning of the documentary, "Off and Running," Avery Klein-Cloud seems like just your regular, average Brooklyn teen. She's a pretty, athletic, self-assured African-American teenager. She's a top member of the Erasmus High School track team with the prospect of college scholarships in her future. She comes from a happy, stable family, comprised of two white Jewish lesbian mothers (one called Mama, the other called Imma) and her two adorable brothers--both also transracially adopted, her stoic Princeton-bound older brother looks mixed, the younger one is Korean and irrepressibly cuddly. But everything goes awry when Avery seeks out her birth mother, a decision that takes her on a path far, far from smooth.

All the issues I expected that you read about transracial adoption were addressed. When an Asian therapist who is also a transracial adoptee asks Avery if she feels black, Avery responds dumbfounded but poignantly, "I'm not sure what that means." Avery talks about how her skin color made her Jewish classmates in school assume things about her that weren't there. She explains that she was really just like them, raised with white Jewish parents. But it's clear at a reunion that these former classmates see her as being different and exotic and that race is issue discussed with notable discomfort for everyone involved.

Avery has little exposure to African-American culture until she moves from Jewish day school to the New York City public school system for high school and the film explores this extensively. But it's clear that while Avery feels like her parents don't understand how her "black side," her black Christian friends don't get her either. These friends don't quite know what to make of Avery's Korean little brother or her lesbian mothers. In Avery's home, at practice, these friends offer prayers to Jesus that make Avery clearly visibly uncomfortable. Avery seems most comfortable, most at peace, with a close friend, a transracially adopted Latina, and her brothers.

The story takes an unexpected downward spiral when Avery's birth mother responds in an unexpected way that throws Avery's entire family, especially herself, for a loop. What on the surface seems like typical teenage rebellion is quite obviously depression and a cry for help at a time of particularly heavy emotional turmoil. But whatever you call it, it is quite painful to watch as Avery's happy life falls apart and she finds herself "off and running" from her support system.

As a complete outsider to the world of transracial adoption and the happy families, I wonder how an insider will see this film differently. For me, there were many moments in the film, particularly towards the end, when I wished someone, anyone, her parents, her older brother, her timid boyfriend would shake Avery back to herself and make her realize that in her search to "find herself" and where she "really comes from," she nearly loses everything...especially herself. When Avery finally reaches this realization by herself, it feels like too much has been lost already.

Related: Off and Running: The Film

"Off and Running" Movie Review (NY Post, 1/29/10)

"Off and Running" Movie Review (Forward, 2/2/10)

Cool Jewish Events: Children of the Bible NY Premiere (American Sephardi Film Festival)

Event: Children of the Bible (American Sephardi Film Festival)
Date: Thursday, February 11th
Time: 7:00pm
Place: The Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY

Admission:
$30 General Admission
$25 ASF & YUMuseum members, students and seniors
$250 Opening Night Friend (includes the above for two (2) + VIP
pre-screening reception and listing in Festival Program)

Festival Pass:
Admission to all Center for Jewish History screenings (except Opening & Closing Nights)
$100 General
$75 ASF & YU Members, students and seniors

NY PREMIERE

The rapper and informal educator, Jeremy "Cool" Habash, exposes us to the complex situations facing Ethiopian-Israeli youth. Jeremy works towards changing the humiliated and depressed image of the Ethiopian community in Israel, both in its own eyes and in the eyes of Israeli society, by bringing members of the Ethiopian community closer to their tradition - the songs, the meaning of the Ethiopian names, stories about the lives of the Ethiopian community and about the journey that has taken on mythical proportions

Director: Nitza Gonen. Israel 2009, 53 mins. Hebrew and Amharic w/English subtitles.

Followed by Closing Night Dessert Reception.

Oh no, he didn't! "Why Orthodox Rabbis Must Stop Conversions"

A prospective convert appears before a rabbinical court in Israel. Photo Credit: Jewish Chronicle

In "Why Orthodox Rabbis Must Stop Conversions," (Jewish Chronicle of London, 2/4/10), as the title notes, Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet tells Orthodox rabbis that they need to stop converting people "for the foreseeable future (except perhaps in special circumstances such as adoptions)."

Expletive! Expletive! Expletive!

Now, I would love to give this rabbi a piece of my mind. What convert wouldn't? This is one of the most disgraceful things I have read about the current "conversion crisis" and trust me, I've read a lot of disgraceful things about it. This piece, in particular, is a disgrace to Judaism and a personal affront to all converts!!!!

Why is it that it's converts who constantly have to pay because the rabbis can't get their acts together? Why? Why? Why?

Oh dear, I think I'm going to be sick...from reading this.

And please don't tell me not to take it personally. I would like this rabbi to stand before me and other converts and read this piece aloud. And then I will tell him truly why I feel like he's just spat in all our faces. I feel like I have to go wipe the slobber off right now. Also, perhaps if he saw our faces, our reactions, our heartbreak, he would feel a sense of shame.

He writes passionately: "Conversion is the single biggest issue ripping at the fabric of Jewish society. If we persist in our current trend, we will self-destruct."

But dear rabbi, if the Jewish people self-destruct, it will be because of rabbis like you. Not us sincere converts.

This is not Judaism.

***
If you want to give Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet a piece of your mind, here are some ways to contact him:

http://twitter.com/RabbiYYS

office@millhillsynagogue.co.uk

Related: "Who is a Jew?"

Cool Jewish Events: Indian-Israelis Book Talk @ Library of Congress

Event: Indian-Israelis Book Talk @ Library of Congress
Date: Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Time: Noon
Place: Library of Congress, the foyer of the Asian Reading Room located in Room 150 of the Thomas Jefferson Building at 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C
Admission: Free

Details:

Israelis of Indian descent continue to live on the periphery, where they were settled by the state of Israel between the 1950s and 1970s. The story of Indian migration, acculturation and identity in Israel is the subject of a new book by Maina Chawla Singh titled “Being Indian, Being Israeli: Migration, Ethnicity and Gender in the Jewish Homeland.”

The event is sponsored by the Asian Division, the Asian Division Friends Society and the Library of Congress Hebrew Language table in cooperation with the Embassy of India.

Maina Chawla Singh is an associate professor at the University of Delhi, India, and a Scholar-in Residence at American University in Washington, D.C. From 2005 to 2008, Singh conducted research and lectured in Israel at Bar-Ilan, Haifa and Tel Aviv universities. In 2008, she was a scholar-in-residence at Haddasah-Brandeis Institute in Waltham, Mass. The following year, she was a fellow at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. She holds a doctorate in history and a master’s in philosophy.

Jewish Here, Not Jewish There

It's articles like these "Jewish in Tel Aviv, Gentile in Ashkelon" (2/3/10, The Jewish Daily Forward) that led to the following joke I make in one of my speeches:

"In America, I am Dominican but in the Dominican Republic, I am American and in Israel, whatever I am depends on a couple of angry rabbis."

What a life!

I heard another Orthodox Jewish woman who converted in America say of this of the situation in Israel: "I'd like to see those rabbis try to take my Judaism away from me. They would have to take it away from me while I was kicking and screaming. I would fight and I would never stop fighting."

Now imagine if they try to take Judaism away from her children. Well, I think it's safe to say things would get ugly, no? But then things have already gotten ugly, haven't they?

2010 Be’chol Lashon Media Awards/For Excellence in Reporting on Global Judaism

2010 Be’chol Lashon Media Awards

For Excellence in Reporting on Global Judaism

Write about Jews Around the World - Win $1,000

Deadline: February 26, 2010
NO ENTRY FEE

(NEW! Nominate your favorite article from the past year. Prizes include a Be'chol Lashon T-shirt or keychain flashlight. Now, you best me nominating your favorite pieces from this blog!!!)


Call for Entries

Established in 2008, the Be'chol Lashon Media Awards honor excellence in coverage of the ethnic and racial diversity of world Jewry. Subjects may include profiles of individuals or groups or reports on Jewish communities of color (African/African American, Asian, Latino/Hispanic, and Native American/Indigenous). Work will be evaluated on originality, depth, sensitivity, accuracy of reporting and impact. Particular emphasis on creativity will be placed on entries in the new media category. Judges may reassign entry categories or refrain from making awards in any category.

Categories

Print Media: Newspapers and magazines, including general circulation and ethnic press, of any circulation size. $1,000

Broadcast: Local and network television and radio. $1000

Film: Nonfiction general release/independent film. Please no film trailers. $1,000.

New Media: Web sites, blogs, podcasts, and online multimedia. $1,000
Entry Requirements

One entry per person. No entry fee.

Open to staff or freelance reporters; editors; producers for newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and film; individuals and teams.

All entrants certify that work submitted is as it appeared on its original date of publication/airing.

Deadline: February 26, 2010. Postmark accepted.

Submissions

Please use the entry form to submit your work for consideration.

Broadcast, film and new media entrants may, if they choose, submit their work on DVD or audio CDs and mail them to:

Be’chol Lashon Media Awards
PO Box 591107
San Francisco CA 94159-1107

For more information, email Awards@BecholLashon.org or call 415.386.7900.

Black and Jewish: African American Jewish Identities in the Early Twenty-First Century

Black and Jewish: African American Jewish Identities in the Early Twenty-First Century

Dr. Jamie Wilson is partnering with Be'chol Lashon on his upcoming book, Black and Jewish: African American Jewish Identities in the Early Twenty-First Century. It will be a collection of autobiographical narratives that expands the definition of what it means to be Jewish in the early twenty-first century. The essays will give voice to those who stand at the intersection of African American and Jewish communities, documenting the history and traditions of Jews of African descent in the United States.

If you identify as African American and Jewish (Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform, Renewal, post-denominational, or secular), please consider sharing your spiritual journey with us. In thinking about your essay of 1,500 to 3,000 words, please consider some of the following questions:

What movement (Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform, Renewal, Unaffiliated) of Judaism do you belong to? Why did you choose this one? If you are a secular Jew, what do you see as the position of secular Jews in Judaism?

How do you describe your ritual observance? Do you have a favorite Jewish Holiday? Why is it your favorite holiday?

How do your Jewish and African American identities intermingle and coexist? How do you navigate your religious community and your racial community?

If you are an African American Jew by Choice, why did you choose to convert to Judaism? From which faith did you convert? Do vestiges of your previous faith coexist with your Jewishness? How did your family understand your conversion?

If you were born Jewish, explain the Jewish heritage you inherited.

If you see your Jewish identity as a returning to Judaism, explain your notion of return. Why did you return?

What is your Hebrew name? If you selected it, how did you select it? If it was given to you, why was it given to you? What does it mean?

What is the place of the State of Israel in your life?

What do you see as the future of Judaism?

The deadline is June 1, 2010. Essays will be edited by Dr. Wilson. Due to publishing constraints, only a select number of essays will be published in the book. The remaining essays will be featured on the Bechol Lashon website.

Please also include a photograph of yourself, and let us know if you have any questions.

For more information and to share your spiritual journey, please e-mail bechol_lashon@jewishresearch.org. Or call us at 415-386-2604.

Related: Be'chol Lashon monthly newsletter All the news and more on Jewish diversity at your fingertips. Sign up today!

A extra post in honor of my insomnia

"Get over it."

I think that's what someone said about my childhood once.

I think it's pretty safe to say that whatever friendship I had with that person should have ended there but I have this, sometimes quite irrational need, to see the best in people and to give them the benefit of the doubt even when they do not deserve it.

How do you explain to someone who tells you to "get over it" about survivor's guilt? It is something I've never had to explain to other survivors.

Because how do you explain to them that you are 29 years old and that without warning, you can't even finish a proper shower without thinking about the last words you ever heard your youngest sister utter before you never, ever spoke to her again?

She was 7 at the time. Tiny. Emaciated. And I was helping the person who made sure to feed her every day run away.

We explained to her that my 18-year-old sister B. was running away (I kidnapped my sister A. two weeks later), she said solemnly, "But why aren't you taking me too? She beats me, too. Every day."

I write her name everywhere hoping that she hasn't forgotten me. Hoping that years from now if she comes looking for me, if she has somehow emotionally and physically survived after being raised alone by.... Hoping that when she turns 18 and asks why I couldn't save her, I will have something more to say than that the term "justice system" is seriously flawed.

Now tell me again why you think I should be thinking (and Twittering) about more important things than whether one is on Conan's side or Leno's side. Please enlighten me.

I'll try not to think (because unlike you, I try not to say all the awful things I think in my head) about that fact that I was thinking about "more important things" while your mother was still coddling you during one of your teenage tantrums. I was never a child so I don't like being treated like one now. I'm sure you didn't appreciate it when you were.

Perhaps, if I was more obnoxious, maybe I'd even throw in a mini-mussar Tweet about respect. It seems you could use it. I wonder if I inherit secret, special mussar powers when my husband gets ordained. Probably not. I don't actually enjoy schooling people on manners. I find it really ironic considering I was raised by wolves.

I don't want your sympathy. (Insert eye roll here.) I just want you to remember that just because we can't see each other's faces online that doesn't mean we're not dealing with human beings who deserve to be treated like human beings...or perhaps even better given that we don't treat our human beings very well.

More on Yesterday's blog

It's nice when you post something on your blog and you've done well enough by moderating away the crazies on your blog that you don't hear a peep about it.

Okay, there was a peep. Someone commented on my post about the Rabbi Steven Greenberg event being off-color on my Facebook fan page but that was quickly and easily deleted. I won't describe the comment, I'll leave that to your imagination. I am currently trying to wash it out from mine. You see, I have discovered that though I can't do so in life, people on the Internet can easily be blocked, deleted and un-Friended from your life. If I wanted a discussion, I would start a discussion forum, not a blog. Plus it's easy to tell who's trying to have a discussion and who's just yelling at you via email.

I heard a lot of racist things growing up in my family, even anti-Semitic things but I never, ever heard anyone slander anyone else for being gay. I didn't even think about it until I got older and realized that other people grew up hearing lots of awful things about gay people. And I, instead, had grown up punching those people out on the playground for making fun of my "effeminate" best friend and then turning around and dumping that best friend when he told my black best friend she couldn't be Batgirl because "she's black!" Ah, the irony.

My first boyfriend was gay. I was 17 (he was 16) when we started dating and 18 when he came out after breaking up with me about three months after I'd run away from home. My mother told my father when I ran away that I had run away with this boyfriend. It made my father furious enough that when I spoke to him after a ten-year hiatus, he said some of the most disgusting things I can ever imagine someone saying to a person. I did not runaway with my boyfriend. I ran away to my grandmother's house and it was years before I could stop running.

So, anyway, as you can imagine, my first relationship ended miserably. I was not that sweet girl on Dawson's Creek who was supportive and understanding. It was a later pen pal, a teenage boy in a town I'd never seen or heard of where another boy had been killed for "coming out of the closet," who helped me pick myself up after my broken heart. And all that after a first relationship that ended about as disastrously as you can imagine...in court.

Take that and add in the memorable stories from my first boyfriend who told me about being beaten from early childhood for being effeminate and well.... "Didn't you know he was gay?" I get asked sometimes, when people aren't utterly horrified that I've said "my first boyfriend was gay." Probably. I also knew that there were very few people in my life, save my sisters, who understood what it was like to be beaten to a bloody pulp just for being born the way you were.

I remember thinking I had made a new Orthodox Jewish friend and then hearing her say that she thought people were being gay because of "something in the water." I was too horrified to say anything. Maybe if I had shared these stories, it would have made an impact. Maybe she would have felt differently. I know that she grew up hearing different things, maybe things that I would have, should have, could have heard as a Catholic but was somehow spared.

Whatever the Torah and halakha (Jewish law) say about homosexuality, please don't imagine that every religious Jew is reconciled on this issue or women's issues or other particularly tough subjects. Imagine me instead, dressed modestly, sitting in a car with another religious Jew and trying to quite literally escape from the backseat of a car (damn child locks!) because he said that he thought if "homosexuals should be treated sensitively so should people who commit incest or want to marry their siblings." (He was speaking about a recent event at Yeshiva University, "Being Gay in the Orthodox World" which I did not attend where gay YU students and alumni spoke about their experiences.)

I wish I could say that was the first time I'd heard such drivel uttered in my presence. But I also know an Orthodox rabbi, who upon watching a Shabbat table discussion turn into an anti-gay bashing fest, announced he was gay. He isn't. But he was making a point. A point that was not lost on anyone. I met Rabbi Steven Greenberg in person. I don't know what I expected but I could have sat listening in his lectures all day. So if you were looking for that blog to trash gay people or Jewish people or people of color or poor people or any people, you've come to the wrong place. Start your own blog and rant away. Don't do it on mine, my fan page or my Facebook fan page.

Note: I wasn't at any point discussing halacha. Even people who have never read the Torah understand what the halacha says. But I am not a rabbi, just a Rebbetzin-in-training-wheels.

Related: "Sensitivity in the Face of Controversy: Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 19:17"

This Week's Parsha is Named After Yitro, Moses's Non-Jewish Father-in-Law? Yup.

Parshat Yitro from G-dcast.com

More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com

As narrated by fellow (Reform) convert and blogger Leah Jones of Accidentally Jewish. According to some interpretations, this parsha is also about Yitro's conversion. Personally, I think this is the parsha where Yitro tells Moses to start the first rabbinical school.

Related: Chabad's Parsha in a Nutshell: Yitro

Cool Jewish Events: Queer Torah with Rabbi Steven Greenberg at Jerusalem Open House

Event: Queer Torah with Rabbi Steven Greenberg in celebration of the Israel release of "Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible."

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Time: 7:30pm

Place: Jerusalem Open House, Hasoreg 2, Jerusalem, Israel

Join the Jerusalem Open House for an evening of Queer Torah with Rabbi Steven Greenberg
in celebration of the Israel release of "Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible." (I heard Rabbi Steven Greenberg speak at the first annual Limmud LA and it was an incredible experience.)

Rabbi Steven Greenberg, a contributor to Torah Queeries, will be teaching Torah and discussing the book. A question and answer session will follow. Event is in Hebrew, questions may be asked in English and Hebrew.

Copies of Torah Queeries will be for sale.

Torah Queeries brings together some of the world’s leading rabbis, scholars, and writers to interpret the Torah through a "bent lens". It is an incredibly rich collection that unites the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and straight-allied writers, including some of the most central figures in contemporary American Judaism. All bring to the table unique methods of reading and interpreting that allow the Torah to speak to modern concerns of sexuality, identity, gender, and LGBT life. Torah Queeries (NYU Press, 2009) is a project of Jewish Mosaic, edited by Gregg Drinkwater, Joshua Lesser and David Shneer, with a foreword by Judith Plaskow.

Steven Greenberg is an Orthodox rabbi, ordained at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Since 1985 he has served as a senior educator for CLAL, a think tank, leadership training institute, and resource center. Rabbi Greenberg is the author of Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, which won the 2005 Koret Jewish Book Award. He is currently rabbi-in-residence at Hazon, a leading Jewish environmental organization, and Keshet, a grassroots organization dedicated to LGBT inclusion in the Jewish community. Rabbi Greenberg contributed several chapters to Torah Queeries.


Reviews:

"The diverse group of scholars and rabbis who have contributed to Torah Queeries ask us to bring the whole of our selves — our imaginations, bodies, and senses — to Torah. They collectively demonstrate that every parashah (Torah portion) can speak to us as embodied, conflicted, desiring selves and as cognitive individuals." -Mara Benjamin, Sh'ma

"With Torah Queeries, no longer is the LGBT community an outsider in the Bible. In each parasha, in every holiday, gender bending exists. ...It should appeal to those who wish to read the Torah with an open mind and the willingness to look at the words from 3,000 years ago with new, and often jarring, perspective. ...This is a volume that I would describe as a must for the Jewish bookshelf." -Rabbi Andrew Sacks, Jerusalem Post

A labor of intellectual rigor, social justice, and personal passions, Torah Queeries is an exciting and important contribution to the project of democratizing Jewish communities, and an essential guide to understanding the intersection of queerness and Jewishness.

Related:
"Gay Orthodox rabbi nudging Judaism" (Seattle Times)

"Wrestling with G-d: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition" by Rabbi Steven Greenberg (Book)

"Trembling Before G-d" (Documentary)

Reminder: Cool Jewish Events: Friday Night Moroccan Dinner in the Bronx

Event: Friday Night Moroccan Dinner (Half of the proceeds will go to the Haiti relief fund!)

Date: Friday, February 5th, 2009

Time: 6:15pm-8:15pm

Place: Kingsbridge Center of Israel, 3115 Corlear Avenue, Bronx, NY 10463

Admission:

$18 per adult

$30 per couple

$5 per child

Pay on website or by check (Put "Friday night dinner" in the memo)

RSVP: Natalie AT kcishul.org (Put "Friday night dinner" in the subject line

Dominican? Jewish?

Well why haven't you joined the Facebook group, silly? :)

Check out: "Dominican Jews.... cuantos somos?"

We're at 44 members!

Rabbi Marc Angel on Racial/Ethnic Discrimination within the Jewish People

Ah, just unearthed these words of wisdom in an email from a fan. Sorry it's so late and doesn't relate to this week's parsha but its message is anything but old.

Racial/Ethnic Discrimination? Thoughts on Parashat Shofetim...
BY RABBI MARC D. ANGEL (Rabbi emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel, the historic Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York City)

"...lest his heart become haughty against his brethren..." Devarim 17:20

The Torah teaches emphatically that all people—even the king—must not become haughty, must not look down on others. All human beings are created in God’s image, and all are entitled to fair treatment. This concept is underscored in the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5) that describes how witnesses were examined before giving testimony in capital cases. They were reminded that God began humanity by creating only one man: this is to teach that each human being is unique and irreplaceable, and that each life is like a universe. It also teaches us that all human beings ultimately descend from the same ancestors, Adam and Eve, so that no one should say "my pedigree is better than yours". The Mishnah echoes the Torah’s insistence that no one should puff himself up with self-importance, but should rather realize—humbly and honestly—that all human beings are equal in the eyes of God. To discriminate against others based on race or ethnic origin is to violate basic teachings of Judaism.

All Jews who have received even a modicum of religious education know this to be true. Yet, there sometimes seems to be a gap between what we know and what we do.

The Supreme Court in Israel recently ruled against a Beit Yaacov school in the Israeli town of Immanuel. That school, purporting to be a right-wing religious establishment, had blatantly discriminated against its Sephardic students, making them enter the school through a different door, requiring them to wear different uniforms, and actually building a wall to separate them from the Ashkenazic students. Those who ran the school and enforced these heinous policies did not seem to think they were doing anything wrong. In their (warped) minds, it is fine to discriminate against children based on their ethnic origins. Fortunately, a group of Israeli activists sued the school and has won the case. The school will now be forced to create a fair and equal environment for all its students. It remains to be seen, though, if the school officials and teachers will change their hateful attitudes. Let us pray that they decide to observe Torah properly by demonstrating respect and kindness to all.

A recent article in the Israeli newspaper, Ha-Arets, reports that between 100 and 200 children of Ethiopian Jewish background have not been accepted into religiously-run schools in Petah Tikvah. The reason: the schools don’t want Ethiopian children. This is the ugly face of racial hatred—and it shows itself in schools that present themselves as being "religious". It needs to be pointed out clearly and forcefully: any school that enforces discriminatory policies and attitudes is NOT RELIGIOUS. It pretends to foster Jewish law and tradition, but in fact makes a mockery of Torah and rabbinic tradition. No parent should allow his/her children to attend such schools. No one should contribute financially to such schools. Efforts must be made to replace administrators and teachers who foster these repulsive and anti-Torah policies.

The problem of racial/ethnic discrimination is not confined to these few schools in Israel. It is evident in many communities. People of one Jewish background somehow take it for granted that they are the normative group, and those Jews of other backgrounds are "ethnic" or "exotic" and just not quite equal to them. They puff themselves up and are disdainful of those who come from different backgrounds. Their smug mindset leads them to look down on, speak rudely of, and act disrespectfully to those who are different. The discriminatory pattern is so ingrained, that they don’t even realize they are committing horrible sins against their fellow Jews and fellow human beings. They live in the haughty self-assurance that they—and they alone—are God’s true Jewish children. Such individuals—even if they observe so many mitzvoth—cannot rightly be described as being religious. They are charlatans who disgrace the Torah’s true message.

Those who have felt the sting of racial/ethnic discrimination can never quite overcome the deep pain. It is ever so difficult to forgive those who have treated them with disdain, who have spoken to them meanly, who have negated their self-worth and the worth of their family traditions. Yet, they must learn to grow and to forgive. But they must also learn to fight—with every grain of their moral fervor—against those individuals and institutions which foster injustice, hatred, disrespect, discrimination. They must lead the way to creating a Jewish people that lives up to the ideals of Torah—the equality of all in the presence of God. Let all truly religious Jews join in this effort.

***The Angel for Shabbat column is a service of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, jewishideas.org. Please feel free to distribute this column to your contact list, and to reprint it for distribution in your synagogues and schools. Together we can do great things.

Hat tip: Fraternite Judeo-Noire de France

Event: Yisrael Campbell's "Circumcise Me" with talkback with Sandra Bernhard

Don't miss "Circumcise Me" while it's off-Broadway until May 16, 2010! It's the must-see Jewish event of the year! It was so good I'm seeing it again and again and again...and bringing my friends and family!

Event: "Circumcise Me" starring comedian Yisrael Campbell with comedian/actress Sandra Bernhard talkback following 3pm performance
Date:
Time: 3pm
Place: Bleecker Street Theatre, 45 Bleecker Street, New York City 10012

He is just your average Irish, Italian, Catholic kid from Philly, Comic Actor, Sober Alcoholic, Recovering Drug Addict, Husband, Father, Reform, Conservative, Unorthodox, Orthodox Jew.

His name is Yisrael Campbell, (the artist formerly known as Christopher), and this is his story - a spiritual journey stretching across four decades, two continents, and three circumcisions. It's that rare collision of comedy and theater that will have women howling with laughter, men squirming in their seats, and everyone standing up to cheer.

Poignant, provocative, and powerfully witty, Circumcise Me is the true - and truly unforgettable - story of a man who was born to be funny. The Jewish part came later.

Sandra Bernhard will join Yisrael Campbell for a talkback following the 3:00pm performance of CIRCUMCISE ME this Wednesday, February 3rd. (Please join us for the performance and talkback and SAVE 45%! ALL SEATS $36*)

"Yisrael Campbell is the FUNNIEST Roman Catholic Orthodox Jewish comedian in the world. HURRY AND SEE HIM before he becomes a Buddhist!"
-Stephen Colbert

"PLENTY OF LAUGHS. Mr. Campbell's genial and polished recounting is a tale well told."
-New York Times

"MAZEL TOV! Pitch-perfect blend of genuine sentiment and hilarious one-liners. DEEPLY MOVING."
-New York Post

"... an EXTRAORDINARY spiritual, creative and occasionally absurd journey..."
-Jerusalem Post

"LENNY BRUCE never had sex with an Orthodox Jew, but if he had he would have produced Yisrael Campbell."
-The Guardian

"... a blessing both to the Jewish people and to humanity."
-BBC News

"LEMME GIVE YOU A TIP-this show definitely makes the cut!!!"
-Judy Gold, Emmy Award Winning Comedian

"Yisrael Campbell is a combination of Seinfeld and Costanza with a beard and a wonderful story. Run to see this show-but don't trip over your tallis."
-Rabbi Charles Klein, President of the NY Board of Rabbis and author of "How to Forgive When You Can't Forget."

www.CircumciseMeThePlay.com

Stay up to date on all things Sandra!

http://www.sandrabernhard.com/

3 Easy Ways to Order Tickets:

PHONE: BroadwayOffers.com 212-947-8844 and mention the
Code: CMFFAMILY

ONLINE: BroadwayOffers.com and enter the Code:

CMFFAMILY

IN PERSON: Print this email and bring to the Bleecker Street

Theatre at 45 Bleecker Street (Just East of Lafayette St.) or Mention the Code: CMFFAMILY Box

Office Hours: Monday through Sunday: Noon to 8:00pm.

Cool Jewish Events: CIRCUMCISE ME: The Comedy of Yisrael Campbell

Event: CIRCUMCISE ME: The Comedy of Yisrael Campbell

Date: Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Time: 8pm

Place: Kehilat Yedidya, 12 Lifshutz St. Jerusalem, Israel

And if you're in New York City, the show has been extended through May 16, 2010 which gives you plenty of time to see it twice!!!! The New York City performance schedule is Wednesdays at 3pm, Thursdays & Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 4 & 8pm.

Looking for Rabbi Versed in DARK TALMUDIC ARTS to create GOLEM. (Astoria, NY)

WANTED:

One Rabbi versed in the Dark Talmudic Arts to create one Golem for household of three. Golem will perform rudimentary household chores such as dishes & sweeping, basic Math Tutoring for our daughter in 3rd grade and basic household security. Golem must be obedient and fairly unobtrusive on our every-day lives.

We will supply all materials needed (clay, twigs, calfskin parchment, etc) needed to create the Golem. All you need to do is use your magical ancient Rabbinic skills to animate said Golem!

Please note! We are looking for a Rabbi to create a Golem: an anthropomorphic being created from intimate matter from Jewish folk-lore, NOT Gollum: a former Hobbit turned into monster and looking for "precious". This is important! We have no interest in living with Gollum. We want a Golem. Please respond, serious inquiry only.

Location: Astoria, NY
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: no pay

Cool Jewish Events: Inside Jewish India/Matzah & Chutney: Jewish in Mumbai

Event: Inside Jewish India/Matzah & Chutney: Jewish in Mumbai
Date: Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Time: 7-10pm
Place: Tantric India Bistro, 123 Stuart St., Boston, MA 02116
Admission free.
Must RSVP: tahliaos AT jdcny DOT org or call 212-885-0811