(In parts excerpted from/inspired by my JTA post, available in its entirety here.]

The non-techheads among you might not know what Second Life is. But people in the know are aware that Second Life is a 3-D virtual reality world that lives online – it’s completely user-generated and is thriving. In October, Second Life registered its millionth inhabitant, and today there are more than 5 million users, with more joining every day.

But what would any alternate universe be without Jews, a minority in numbers, but prominent in business, media and industry? Well, Second Life’s first synagogue opened in September (see Forward article here), and today one can find a replica of the Western Wall, a yeshiva, a JCC and even a Holocaust museum. This April, the Jewish Media Corp. of Switzerland (JMAG) launches the first Jewish media headquarters (insert your own media conspiracy joke here), and 2Life, the first Jewish magazine in Second Life. 2Life’s editor, Kafka Schnabel, has his own blog, where he records his RL (real-life) thoughts about SL (Second Life).

The JMAG office building contains a cafe (The Aufbau Cafe) and an art space (The Tachles Gallery), where monthly events will be held. The first of these will be “PresenText,” a virtual exhibition that mirrors the words-and-image exhibition created by PresenTense Magazine and shown at New York University’s Bronfman Center in January.

What should be really interesting to see, as I noted in the JTA post, is if the online Jewish community repeats the mistakes of its real-world (and blogospheric?) counterparts. Alternately, this alternate reality could also potentially provide some real suggestions that might have an impact on our daily, reality-based Judaism. I guess we’ll have to (join Second Life) wait and see.

Say NO to Chocolate this Passover
With Passover right around the corner, I was thinking about kosher for Passover products. Which ones are good, which ones are so-so and which ones just miss. There’s the cookies which fall under all three categories for instance – the almond based cookies that are (almost) always yum, the macaroons which are mostly uh… feh, and the cakes which are just mostly awful. There’s a sect of HaredimHassidim that consider fish not kosher for Passover because back in the landlocked shtetl days, before mobile refrigeration was invented, fish were transported stuffed with bread crumbs to avoid rot. Haredim being HaredimHassidim being Hassidim, they have refused to alter a long standing tradition despite the availability of all the modern amenities that make bread stuffed fish a thing of the past. So for Passover, they make mock geffilte fish using spices and Matzo meal Potato starch. Thanks, but I’ll pass on that too. Another thing I’ll be passing on this Passover is chocolate.

Yes it’ll be hard what with all the chocolate covered yumminess typically available on Passover. But one of the things we’re supposed to do on Passover, one of the things we read in the Seder actually, is to view ourselves as if we personally, had been freed from bondage in Egypt, as if we ourselves were enslaved. So what does that have to do with chocolate, bitter or otherwise? I’ll tell you.

About 50% of the world’s cocoa is produced in West Africa, and most of that comes from the Ivory Coast. It is estimated that 284,000 children, 64% under the age of 14, work under dangerous and exploitative conditions on cocoa farms in West Africa. Of that number 15,000 are slaves, sold in the streets of places like Mali for under $30. These children to back breaking work for 80-100 hours a week. They get sick, they get beaten, they die and most never see their families again.

The United States consumes about $13 billion worth of chocolate a year and virtually all of it contains cocoa derived from suspect sources. Most cocoa is sold at international commodities exchanges and West African cocoa is mixed with other cocoa making it virtually impossible to tell which cocoa is slave produced and which isn’t.

Eating chocolate that may have been produced by child slaves seems pretty inappropriate, but it is particularly inappropriate on Passover when we celebrate the joys of freedom and the tragedy of our slavery in Egypt. To that end GlobalExchange.org, “an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world” has created a one page Seder supplement which includes, amongst other things, the following passage:

Leader: Once, we were slaves in Egypt. Today, young children are slaves on the opposite side of Africa./ Assembled: Child laborers in the West African cocoa fields are over a quarter of million in number; twelve thousand of them are slaves…We can walk in Moses’ footsteps. We can have the courage to ask the Pharoahs of today to let the children go.

Global Exchange also suggests including Fair Trade Chocolate on your Seder plate to symbolize the sweetness of freedom. If you do this, make sure it’s pareve (non-dairy) chocolate if your Seder plate includes a shank bone and/or you are eating meat for your meal. Global Exchange does sell fair trade chocolate on its Web site, but the only certified kosher chocolate they sell are chocolate covered espresso beans made with milk.

The Seder supplement is a little granolaesque for me, but the message is spot on. There are more slaves today than there have ever been. It’s a $7 billion a year industry that includes over 800,000 women and children. Let’s try to celebrate Passover this year without indirectly benefiting from their slavery.

On a lighter note, an exhibition in New York, featuring My Sweet Lord, a life sized, anatomically correct depiction of Jesus made entirely out of chocolate, was recently canceled after protests by the Catholic League. Made by sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro out of 200 lbs of chocolate, Chocolate Jesus was deemed a direct attack on Christians. Said Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League “All those involved are lucky that angry Christians don’t react the way extremist Muslims do when they’re offended.” So what were they angry about? Something tells me it wasn’t the slavery used in making the chocolate.

The Internet’s a funny place and Jews are a funny people. When the two collide, hilarity is sure to ensue. Let’s look at domain names for instance. You have a Jewish Internet project? Well then, just slap a Jew (ouch!) onto your domain name and you’re ready to go! There’s Jewschool, Jewtastic, DailyJews, Jewlarious, and of course Jewlicious. Those are just some of the active Jew-appended Web sites. Then there are Jew themed Web sites that riff off of existing Internet properties. There’s the longstanding but now dormant Jewhoo, all sorts of varieties of Joogle and even a site run by slimeballs called Jewlicioustshirts.

With the recent news of Google’s acquisition of Video sharing Web site YouTube for a sum equivalent to Uganda’s annual Gross Domestic Product, one would expect the Jewish Internet entrepreneurs to follow closely behind. And I have to say, they didn’t disappoint! Chabad of Somerset County, NJ has JTube.com and MC Rebbe, the rapping Rabbi has jewtube.co.uk/. There’s also a whole host of dreamers and schemers, shleppers and shnorrers who have registered every variant on jewtube except for jewtube.de (de stands for Deutchland where Jews were once packed into tubes on rails and sent to the gas chambers – not so good for the business plan) and a couple others too ridiculous to mention.

But what of the crown jewel of Jewish video streaming future? Namely JewTube.com? Well, back in February of 2006 one Jeremy Kossen of California snagged the attractive domain name. And he has plans, big plans! I had the pleasure of talking to Mr. Kossen and he let me in on them. Basically, JewTube will be a combination video sharing and social networking Web site aimed at Jews. Not only that but JewTube will also feature the work of up and coming Jewish film makers – a sort of online 24/7 Jewish Film Festival. Thanks to the help of a couple of unnamed angel investors, JewTube.com is going to happen and is set to launch some time this summer. We’ll let you know exactly when…

Jeremy Kossen is a cool guy, and apparently an avid Jewlicious reader. Once we got past our requisite discussion on Conservative Judaism, he shared with me some of the experiences he’s had as the owner of a very hot domain name. Of course there were the offers to buy – serious offers in the tens of thousands of dollars range. But more interesting were the chats with the aforementioned “dreamers and schemers, shleppers and shnorrers.” Jeremy was kind enough to share some emails with me – all the names have been deleted or changed so as not to cause anyone undue embarassment.

One standout was the following email:

MR. KOSSEN:
THIS NOTICE IS TO ADVISE YOU THAT WWW.[variant on Jewtube].COM IS ALREADY IN DEVELOPMENT AND WILL BE UNVEILED THIS SUMMER. IT SEEMS THAT WE ARE GOING TO HAVE COMPETING SITES OFFERING SIMILAR MEDIA. GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES WE URGE YOU TO RECONSIDER YOUR LAUNCH.
PLEASE ADVISE.

Uh. I would advise you to not write in all caps if you want to be taken seriously. Then there’s this one – again all in caps. Sheesh:

HI,
MY NAME IS S_, I WAS TRYING TO REGISTER THE WEBSITE NAME JEWTUBE.COM WHEN YOU CAME UP AS THE OWNER. I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SELL IT.

PLEASE CONTACT ME WHEN POSSIBLE.

THANK YOU,
S_

OK. Fair enough. Jeremy responded and S_ replied (this time not in caps) as follows:

Jeremy,
Thanks for the quick response. I’d prefer not to disclose my ideas for a site as they are very ambitious, and I can’t be too cautious about who may steal them. But I’d like you to know I’m willing to go as high as $100 for the domain name.

Please let me know if this is acceptable.

Wow. As high as One Hundred big American smackers. This surely caused Jeremy many sleepless nights, laying awake, wondering how he was going to spend all that loot.

Then of course there was the unintelligible:

I’m so looking forward to JewTube (OK, you beat me to it; I’m sure you hear that from everyone) but on behalf of The Tribe, thank you. I’m so f.. ing sick of all the right wing nutjobs and Christian everything. (Read: dog walking, yoga, mortgage brokers, miniature golf. Miniature golf? Yep! I’m waiting for Christian nose jobs. Sure hope this is a secure line…)

Uh. Yeah.

Best of luck on your new venture Jeremy and thanks for the laughs.

Shabbat shalom!!

(photo source)

In his sefer “Eish Kodesh”, Holy Fire, which was written in the Warsaw ghetto, the Piasetzner Rebbe [Pieseczny] offers a beautifully simple explanation of ‘Shabbat Hagadol’. The Rebbe explained:

Inspired by Rabbi Sholom Brodt.

Reboot LA, Storahtelling, and VeryHotJews.com are celebrating Passover with a twist. IN HAGGADAH DA VIDA is the name of their Passover seder/feast/happening on Tues., April 3 at 6pm at hot L.A. club The Echo. The organizers promise “A hip, soulful, funny, interactive, modern, deeply meaningful seder” conducted by Amichai Lau-Lavie. It has got to be a gazillion times more interesting than a folding chair matzah massacre at a communal wake. Tickets can be purchased online. So if you are looking for a rocking Alt-Seder, replete with hip wine, food, comedy and more shpiel than a megillah reading, check ‘em out.

I don’t “own this bitch,” or any other bitch for that matter, not even literally am I the owner of a female dog. Still, I’m proud to share two publication notes this week with my Jewlicious family.

Firstly, I’ve recently begun blogging over at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which has launched a new Blogs/Opinion section, so feel free to check it all out, subscribe via RSS, leave comments, etc.

Secondly, the new issue of PresenTense Magazine (website to be relaunched in April) will officially be out this weekend–copies will be available for purchase at Saturday night’s Festival of Chametz (Last chance for beer…JOIN US!), or you can view a sample of some of our articles online below and contact us for individual ($5/copy) and bulk/group subscriptions. (Bulk orders bring down the per-copy cost of the magazine, and are a great gift to Hillels, Jewish organizations, offices, youth groups, etc–programming advice and discussion questions available for many of our articles.)

I look forward, as always, to your constructive feedback. Shabbat shalom and hag Pesah sameah!

Don’t break your back to talkradio or NPR cleaning your house this weekend. Don’t wipe out Chometz to dull Jewish rhythms. Put on SoCalled’s Hip Hop Hagaddah for an entirely alternative and enjoyable Passover mood.

JDub is offering this shmaltz-free, matzaness for only $7.99 this week before the chag. Don’t sit there letting your sponge cake harden.

Last year Socalled ripped and rocked on stage at Jewlicious Festival. He is an amazing soul on and off stage. A menchlech yid who is authentic,travels the world, and lives the way he plays.

Hip-Hop Hagadah is a stereophonic journey, a creative and wonderful tribute to the festival of Freedom. Using an endless array of samples from older Passover recordings, original lyrics in English and Yiddish, unstoppable beats and rhythms, Hip Hop Hagaddah is an essential part of the contemporary musical celebration of being Jewish. One note of caution: parental discretion is advised on some tracks. This is not an Uncle Moishe and the Hip Hop Seder.

From the producers:

THE SOCALLED SEDER: A HIP HOP HAGGADAH, it’s newly produced, recorded and mastered in NYC. Features cameos by Wu Tang Clan’s Killah Priest, Matisyahu, Mr. Bungle’s Trevor Dunn, Montreal’s queen of country Katie Moore, David Krakauer, Susan and Elaine Hoffman Watts, and more.

Eliyahu Hanavi has not been sung with this much soul since Yossel Rosenblatt crooned in Warsaw.

I wish SoCalled was on my shuffle as a I jostled in the lines at the kosher emporium on La Brea. I bought organic whole wheat shmura matzos that cost about as much as a pound of gold. I’ll write more when the spirit moves me.

Song links:
Who Knows One? (based on a traditional passover song):

2nd Cup: Bless the Wine:

10 Plagues featuring Killah Priest:

That sounds wrong, I know. But this post is just to wish mazal tov to BangitOut.com co-founder Seth Galena and Montrealer/existential sister Hindy Poupko on their engagement.

And because there’s nothing like sharing your simcha with the world, you can check them out at bangitout.com where you can view the live on CBS proposal, or check in with OnlySimchas.com, or leave them notes on their Facebook walls, where their relationship status has not yet been changed from “In a Relationship/Looking for FriendshipDatingARelationshipRandomPlayWhateverICanGet” (his) and “In A Relationship” (hers). I’m sure it’ll be changed before Shabbat.

And be sure to leave your wishes for BOTB (brother of the bride) Rabbi Avi Poupko of Harvard and TBOTG (twin brother of the groom) and BangItOut co-founder Isaac Galena. Mazal tov to the whole big newly expanded, internet savvy family!

You’ve probably never heard of him unless you are a logician or logic groupie (Muffti has yet to verify the existence of the latter!), but Paul Cohen was a leading logician and mathematician. He passed away at 72. He spent most of his career teaching at Stanford. In his time, he won two of the most prestigious math awards in the world: the Bocher prize (1964) and the Fields Medal (1966). He showed that (augmenting work by Kurt Godel) that the Continuum Hypothesis was independent of Zermelo Frankel set theory, along with other important work (on the axiom of choice, for example). He was inventor of a mathematical technique known as ‘forcing’.

The Stanford obituary can be seen here.

From what I understand (or tried to, for a recent paper) the French have something like neoconservatism. It’s quite a bit like the US variety, except that its proponents are more likely to be referred to as “philosophes” than “warmongerers;” proponents of both get called racist. Something else they have in common: according to this Haaretz story by Yair Sheleg (last name=”snow”–I SO know Hebrew!), “A year ago, the weekly Nouvelle Observateur described him as one of the five outstanding intellectuals representing ‘the new right’ (three of them are Jews: Finkielkraut, Bernard-Henri Levy and Andre Glucksmann), the French parallel to the American neo-conservatives.” Three out of five, huh.

It’s struck me recently (as I’m sure it’s struck others since these terms first appeared) that the terms “left” and “right” are as good as meaningless, at least outside the realm of economics, but perhaps even there. Left and right say nothing about how much government control of domestic life is sought or how much foreign intervention is acceptable. What political slant is a person who believes strongly in “Enlightenment/Western” values, is concerned with liberty and equality, and in favor of a race-blind society? “Classic-liberal-aka-neocon”? Or simply “Jew”?
(more…)

Transliterated, the title of this post reads “Avir harim tsalul ka’yayin…” These are the opening words of Naomi Shemer’s song, Jerusalem of Gold. As soon as I hear that refrain, I immediately start to mist up. What can I say, I’m a softie that way. Last Tuesday, I accompanied a friend to the Kotel who wanted to go and say a prayer for a sick relative. Having no shortage of sick people in my life who needed prayers, the decision was a no-brainer. Also, I live within walking distance of the Kotel and I should go because… I can!

It was late and the mountain air was indeed clear as wine (just like the song!). Crispy cold too. The Kotel Plaza was deliciously deserted – even the small women’s section had available wall space. I went and davened Ma’ariv (evening prayers) with a small group at the wall and then I communed with the Shekhina and sent good wishes to all my loved ones and friends. It was a sublime experience and I felt bad for those who are too far away to share this with me.

Yet as I come today to sing to you, and to adorn you with crowns
I am not as worthy as your youngest child, or as the last of the poets
For your name will scorch my lips like a seraph’s kiss
if I forget thee, Jerusalem, golden in your entirety.

Sometimes, everything is just perfect. I hope to see you all here. Soon.

Last week, the Forward ran a story titled “When Love Is a Casualty of War.” The war in question was the (officially named) Second Lebanon War and the love in question was that shared between a Jewish guy in DC (the author of the story) and his Lebanese American girlfriend. Joshua Gross, the author and apparently a regular Jewlicious reader, sent me a link to the story hoping it could be included in Jewlicious. The story was well written, and I so did enjoy it’s intro:

My Lebanese girlfriend does not want to listen to The Cure’s song “Killing an Arab.” … “Turn it off,” she demands… This is odd. Helen is a huge Cure fan; in fact, I never really listened to The Cure until we started dating. I turn around to face her, my mind racing to produce some witty remark that will make her laugh and defuse the sudden tension, but our eyes meet and I am utterly disarmed. I hear her sigh as she walks away… It’s not that Helen doesn’t like this particular song, it’s that she doesn’t like songs about killing Arabs, especially when in real life, our peoples are killing each other day after day. We cannot enjoy the song’s catchy rhythm or ironic lyrics when bombs fall and Katyushas fly. What used to be a harmless song has become an unwanted reminder of the gulf that exists between us.

Of course, “Killing an Arab” is not a song that advocates the killing of Arabs. It’s a reference to a scene in Albert Camus’ novel L’Étranger (The foreigner). The song is the Cure’s first single released way back in 1979 and it has dogged the band ever since due to criticisms by ignoramuses that it promotes hatred and violence against Arabs.

Joshua Gross seems like a nice guy. He is a nice guy – we shared a bit of a correspondence. His story was warm and at times humorous, an obvious analogy to the Arab/Israeli conflict, containing a message of hope – the hope that just as Robert and Helen can share love despite their ethnic identities, then so too may the people of Israel be able to live in peace with the people of Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world.

And now let’s all sing Kumbaya.

I think the story would have been more impressive had Joshua been dating a Lebanese Shiite. Lebanese Christians have fought as allies with Israelis before and in Montreal, some of my dearest friends were Lebanese Christians. I also think the notion that a couple living in the US, far removed from the bombs and Katyushas can see themselves as casualties of war, is a little, I don’t know… off? I mean people died. Joshua and Helen suffered minor irritation. I don’t see the comparison. Finally, and this has to be said, I don’t think we need any more heartwarming stories about Jewish boys and their love of non-Jewish women. Certainly not in the Forward. This sort of thing, intermarriage and all, has become so common it’s banal.

In fact, let’s forget about Robert dating a Shiite. Let’s have a story of a Jewish man who, despite the ready availability of many nubile and servile Asian women willing to get jiggy with him, conquers his self loathing and Hebrew school inspired disdain for all things Jewish and meets and marries an actual Jewish woman. They then go off and raise actual Jewish children and live happily ever after.

Now that’s a story!

As for the Cure, in 2005 they played the song at several European festivals. However they sang “Kissing an Arab” instead. I’m all for that – you know, in the way you kiss as a sign of respect and fraternity. It’s a middle eastern thing. But let’s not date ok? Here’s the original track from the Cure – and remember – the song is about an obscure literary reference and not a call to violence against our Arab cousins!

As Passover approaches, I find that people seek to explore certain ideas. I found this interesting:

From Rav Kook:
==============

Who is Free?

The main theme of the Passover holiday is, undoubtedly, freedom. But we must understand what this freedom is all about. Does it refer simply to the end of Egyptian slavery? Is it only political freedom – a luxury which has eluded the Jewish people for most of their 4,000 year existence?

True to Our Inner Essence

The difference between a slave and a free person is not merely a matter of social position. We can find an enlightened slave whose spirit is free, and a free man with the mentality of a slave.

True freedom is that uplifted spirit by which the individual – as well as the nation as a whole – is inspired to remain faithful to his inner essence, to the spiritual attribute of the Divine image within him. It is that quality which enables us to feel that our life has value and meaning.

A person with a slave mentality lives his life and harbors emotions that are rooted, not in his own essential spiritual nature, but in that which is attractive and good in the eyes of others. In this way, he is ruled by others, whether physically or by social conventions.

Vanquished in exile, we were oppressed for hundreds of years by cruel masters. But our inner soul is imbued with the spirit of freedom. Were it not for the wondrous gift of the Torah, bestowed upon us when we left Egypt to eternal freedom, the long exile would have reduced our spirits to the mindset of a slave. But on the festival of freedom, we openly demonstrate that we feel ourselves to be free in our very essence. Our lofty yearnings for that which is good and holy are a genuine reflection of our essential nature.

[Adapted from Ma'amerei HaRe'iyah, Celebration of the Soul, pp. 141-143]

Hat tip to cool-as-a-cucumber commenter Habakuk Elisha on Mentalblog’s post.

Muffti believes that we have touched upon this theme before, but here’s an update. Haifa was the site of a public rally held by Arab lesbians. The conference was called ‘Home and Exile in Queer Experience’ and apparently was attended by only 10-20 gay Arab women in a crowd of about 250. Curiously, one of the performers was rapper Nahwa Abdul Aal, doesn’t support homosexuality, claiming

Being at this conference hasn’t changed my mind…I still think it’s wrong.

Aswat is the name of the organization that put on the event. Protesters outside brought the usual signs beseeching God to help: “God, we ask you to guide these lesbians to the true path…” Whatever God decides to do by way of guidance, Muffti is glad to see that there is at least one country where people feel safe enough to do this kind of thing.

So much for using marijuana as Karpas. Yes, it’s leafy and yes, it’s green. But apparently, hemp seeds are not kosher for Passover. That is, if you’re Ashkenazi. The seeds belong to a limbo category of growing things called “kitniyot,” so if your seder has beans and rice, feel free to put the “Yes I Can” in cannabis this Festival of Freedom. Except for that whole “pot is still illegal” thing.

Still, where there’s a will, there’s a way…and clearly this is an issue that many people are passionate about, since I just got an email from Hillel about this, and blogs are also taking this issue seriously. For those interested in taking another hit off the informational bong, I highly recommend this JTA report on the issue.

Going into Pesach, it’s hard to give up your beloved carbalicious Chametz. But maybe if you do it at the Knitting Factory (74 Leonard Street), surrounded by great Israeli culture–music, film and spoken beats–it will be a little easier.

PresenTense Presents: Festival of Chametz! Come one, come all, this Saturday to the Tap Bar at the Knitting Factory (74 Leonard Street) at 10:30. And it’s a little cheaper if you bring a donation of chametz–you’re not using it anyway, so might as well give it to someone who needs it. Advance tix available online. Need directions? Check here. Plus, take advantage of the first post-publication opportunity to buy a copy of the new PresenTense Magazine, only $5!

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Dan Sieradski, also known as Mobius, the founder of Jewschool.com recently wrote a post titled Let It Be Said: We Run This Bitch. In it he does an adequate job of describing the early days and evolution of the JBlogosphere and the role he played in that. The article was inspired by the thrashing he’s been receiving over at the Jewish Press’s new blog. In the blog’s innaugural post, Steven Plaut referred to Jewschool as the “encephelophobic Left among American Jews.” In a later post, Jason Maoz disputed some of Mobius’s allegations against the paper, and Mobius defended himself by saying that he forgot about a particular fact that Maoz brought to light. The details are banal. I’ve provided links for those of you who care. Frankly, when I start hearing terms like “moonbats” and “rightards” my eyes start to glaze…

What this whole hullabaloo accomplished was to inspire the initial post I cited on Jewschool. Mobius himself described it as his “moment of hubris” where he states the following:

But the sheer fact of the matter is that the Jewish Press now has a weblog because of me and everyone else’s other favorite blogger they love to hate, Steven I. Weiss… Jew School and Protocols (Weiss’ original blog and the first ever Jewish group blog), it should be known, debuted within a month of each other… Protocols has long since folded, yet Jew School continues to reign as the longest-lived and still-relevant and going Jewish weblog, six years on.

OK. Fair enough. He then continues:

I can hardly tell you how many Jewish organizations contact me in a given week asking for help in getting started in the blogging world. Many of the most popular jblogs that exist today are, in fact, sites that I either inspired or was hired to build due to my experience in the field… Here’s a trivia question: Do you know why Jewlicious, the most popular and prominent of Jewish megablogs, exists? As CK himself revealed to me, and then affirmed in his ynet interview two years back, he began Jewlicious to stick it to me. He was trolling the threads on Jew School at about the time I started opening up to leftist views on Israel and decided he needed to provide a counterbalance to what he felt was the damaging impression of Israel I was promoting. (He likes to say “other Jewish blogs” — but at the time, Jew School was the only left-wing Jewish blog online, period.) … Likewise, since Jewlicious began, I have been the repeated subject of posts there, both flattering and unflattering. Suffice to say, my biggest competitor is only successful because he took the model I pioneered and sought to do it “better” than me… Thus, the truth is inescapable: Jew School set the gold standard. We developed the jblogging genre. We taught the Jewish world how to blog. We set the agenda.

Now that’s the part I have a problem with. Of course I am flattered by his description of Jewlicious as “the most popular and prominent of Jewish megablogs.” I always assumed that was a description more suited to Canonist or uh… Cross Currents. However, I never created Jewlicious to “stick it” to anyone. I simply wanted to promote the notion that one could be a cool and relevant Jew without being dismissive of Judaism and unduly critical of Israel. I felt that the opposite was being promoted by Jewschool where I was an active commenter at the time. I figured why bother wasting my time and energy arguing on Jewschool when I could very easily start my own blog, as many had already done at the time, and reach a wider audience.

I don’t consider Jewlicious to be in competition with Jewschool or any other blog for that matter. Quite the opposite is true. We have always been supportive of the JBlogosphere in general. We often place and pay for banner ads that we sold, on other Jewish blogs, including Jewschool. Last year, when we helped out on ROI120 we made it a point to include as many JBloggers as possible, including those affiliated with Jewschool. At our most recent conference we even flew in 3 Jewschool affiliated speakers. Does that sound like we’re trying to “stick it” to anyone?

But it gets worst. Mobius claims that “my biggest competitor is only successful because he took the model I pioneered and sought to do it “better” than me… Thus, the truth is inescapable: Jew School set the gold standard. We developed the jblogging genre. We taught the Jewish world how to blog. We set the agenda.”

Well. No. Jewlicious is successful because we transcended Jewschool. The model Mobius claims to have pioneered wasn’t anything unique to Jewschool – not in the Jewish world and not in the world at large. When we started Jewlicious, anyone at all attuned to the Internet knew of the rising popularity of blogging and the promise it held vis-a-vis the democratization of content delivery. Of course I was reading blogs like Protocols which at the time I assumed was being run by Luke Ford. I had no idea that it was actually started by some guy I’d never heard of called Steven I. Weiss and had been effectively hijacked by the very prolific Mr. Ford who posted so often that the other bloggers couldn’t keep up. I imagine that’s why the decision was taken to shut it down, but what the hell do I know. I was also reading a blog by an old classmate of mine called Patio Pundit. His blog, started in 2001 and now mostly inactive, discussed his life and political opinions and often delved into Jewish and Israel related matters. I of course read all kinds of blogs before starting Jewlicious and for Mobius to claim that his blog, and his blog alone inspired Jewlicious, and set some kind of “gold standard” is ridiculous – unjustified self aggrandizement and hubris at its finest!

Jewlicious succeeded to whatever extent it did for a number of reasons. And here’s the part where we give away our secrets, so pay attention.

First of all, we were the first Jewish blog to use WordPress – a blogging program that required installation on a server and some familiarity with PHP, MySQL and other techie mumbo jumbo. At the time Jewschool was using Blogger – a service now owned by Google that allowed anyone to blog with ease, but that did not have the flexibility and power of WordPress. Well after Jewlicious established itself, Jewschool followed suit and switched to WordPress.

Using WordPress it was easy to feature not just our content but also the participation of our commentors and we certainly published links to the most recent comments before Jewschool did.

I could go on and on but I won’t. Instead I’ll tell you the main difference between ours and everyone else’s jblogs. Here it is: We’re not just a blog. Right from the beginning we leveraged whatever success we had, into activities that involved face to face interaction with our constituency. We’ve run 6 Taglit birthright-Israel trips and have three more on tap this summer. We’ve helped organize three annual Jewlicious Festivals in Long Beach California. We have also been very involved in ROI120 in Jerusalem. Right there that’s over a thousand people who have interacted with us personally and have an intimate understanding of what we’re all about.

I don’t know of any other JBlog that does what we do the way we do it. There was no template to follow, no gold standard to live up to. Don’t get me wrong, Jewschool is a fine blog as it were. Bluster and bravado aside, Mobius’s characterization of his influence on us is not at all accurate.

Just sayin’ is all …

OK, so not exactly. But the call has gone out around the world: Israeli TV wants to do a segment on birthright israel, specifically on couples who have met through the program. Despite this misleading, but hopefully humorous, headline, couples will likely not be expected to do anything on live TV other than talk about how being in Israel gave them the chance to meet someone else of similar interests and/or hotness, hence the Hebraic love.

So if you’re part of a couple, and you and your schmoopie met on birthright, and you are TV-appearance inclined, send our buddy Jacob Shwirtz an email: jacob@jacobshwirtz.com.

Hookas, nargilahs, exotic water pipes are everywhere—cafes, homes, dorm rooms. It has become so ubiquitous that Hillel’s have joined the fray, offering “Hookah in the Sukkah.” (Every program title must rhythm apparently.)

Along with its growing hipness and popularity, most people assume that the hookah is “cleaner” than smoking a cig. I’ve heard, “they are more natural,” “The water filters the bad stuff,” and so on, since I was in college. Well a recently released Georgetown University study, however, “suggests that a 30- 60-minute hookah session can pose dramatic health hazards.”

Christopher Loffredo, director of the Cancer Genetics and Epidemiology program at Georgetown University Medical Center, who led the study, compares a typical water pipe session to inhaling a pack of cigarettes.

Blame in on Persians, on hippies, on potheads, whatever. The hookah’s commercialization, coupled with its popularity among college students has made many an unsuspecting, full-fledged nicotine fiend.

The myth that smoking hookah is less harmful than other forms of tobacco disproportionately affects college-aged women who fear the social stigma of lighting up a cigarette and opt to smoke a hookah instead, the study says. .

Some of the delightful chemicals found in water pipe smoke include nicotine, “tar”, carbon monoxide, chrysene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, anthracene and pyrene. One research paper concludes that “narghile smoke likely contains an abundance of several of the chemicals thought to be causal factors in the elevated incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease and addiction in cigarette smokers.”

Jewish organizations that work with college students nationwide have instituted strict policies about drinking, both who drinks and how much if at all. So Hookah is an attractive thing to get students in the door. In fact a recent article promotes the use of a Hookah event as a great time and a great success!

Using a Hookah has even become a way to try to promote Israel! Forget Zionism, the Promised Land, or even the sexy Israeli soldiers. Hook them on Israel with a Hookah night with Israeli food, as is suggested on one organization’s program bank website.

So the fun of hookah might be at the expense of cancer, nicotine addiction, and second-hand smoke.

PS: And we all know that smoking around babies (or any kids for that matter) is bad for their health.

I haven’t written for Jewlicious in a bit, but I do still read the blog regularly, and feel I have to comment: Rabbi Yonah’s post on war and Jewish babies was hopefully tongue-in-cheek, but was disturbing either way. Citing statistics on an upswing in the number of pregnant Israeli women following last summer’s war, Rabbi Yonah gets all natalist on us:

“It means that war IS good for children. Isn’t that just silly? Nasrallah’s war actually brought more Jews into the world!”

Adorable. Sort of like how the Holocaust WAS good for the Jews, since in 1948 we got our very own state! Yay!

Enough about “Jewish babies” already. Natalism isn’t Judaism-specific morality, it’s non-denominational social conservatism often enough (though by no means always) propagated by those who themselves are a bit behind in, uh, propagation. It’s asking women to give up dreams and careers for the good of whichever race or nation, and asking men to refrain from putting on condoms when having sex with their wives. Yes, that sounds about fair.

Even as a joke, the idea that last summer’s war was good in some way because it “made” more babies is disgusting. Wouldn’t a peaceful Israel, one in which women could choose whether to have zero babies or a dozen, be a far more worthy thing to get excited about?

This from JTS Chancellor-elect (yes, amazing that all of this happens before he’s officially even the chancellor) Arnie Eisen, via a JTS press release:

“I believe, along with the great majority of my colleagues on the JTS faculty, that the CJLS, by voting in equal numbers for two teshuvot, provided halakhic authorization for the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbinical and cantorial students. That permission having been given, I believe that the nature of our communities in contemporary America, the moral convictions we hold, and the mission of JTS, argue strongly for accepting gay and lesbian students for ordination.”Moreover, the decision to ordain gay and lesbian clergy at JTS is in keeping with the longstanding commitment of the Jewish tradition to pluralism. That commitment has been all the more central to Conservative Judaism. Pluralism means that we recognize more than one way to be a good Conservative Jew, more than one way of walking authentically in the path of our tradition and of carrying that tradition forward. It means, too, that we respect those who disagree with us and understand that in the context of all that unites us, diversity makes us stronger.”

Chancellor-elect Eisen also stated that JTS has no plans to take up the question of gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies or marriages–that issue will be up to the CJLS and individual rabbis and congregations.

Eisen’s complete letter is here.

The application deadline for the September 2007 incoming class has been extended until June 30, to accommodate any new applications that may be submitted as a result of this announcement. Application information is available by contacting: The Rabbinical School at (212) 678-8817 or www.jtsa.edu/rabbinical and the H.L. Miller Cantorial School at (212) 678-8036 or www.jtsa.edu/cantorial.

(Okay, so it’s not that interesting to see ultra-Orthodox Jews calling out “shabbes” as they watch people doing (forbidden) work on the sabbath. Ahh, the comments explain that they are yelling at non-Jewish Arabs, which makes no sense at all.)

Hat tip to lifeinisrael.blogspot.com.

What do you do for fun if you’re Sony Pictures CEO and Chairman Michael Lynton, Gary Ginsberg, of Newscorp and Jay Sanderson of the Jewish Television Network? Meet every Thursday for Poker night? Spend weekends in costume traveling to different Renaissance fares? Work on that ‘62 Mustang in front of your house, dreaming of the day you and your buddies can cruise down Main Street getting the guys all jealous and the gals all twitchy cuz of your rad new wheels? No. Decidedly not. Apparently what you do do is spend months compiling a list of America’s Top 50 Rabbis. And because you’re such bad asses in the biz, this list becomes news-worthy despite no evidence of you having had much or any prior interest in Rabbis.

Well ok, Jay Sanderson of JTV broadcasts a program featuring Conservative Rabbi Irving Kula (No. 8). On a recent show, Rabbi Kula discussed Jewish Tantric Sex, claiming that Igeret Hakodesh (The Holy Letter) by Nachmanides (Ramban) can function as a sex manual for both Jews and non-Jews. Uhm. Yeah. Ok, but what does that have to do with Tantra? Nothing as far as I can tell.

Back to the rabbis… the scoring system, ranked out of 100 was determined as follows:

Are the rabbis known nationally/internationally? (20 points.) Do they have a media presence? (10 points.) Are they leaders within their communities? (10 points.) Are they considered leaders in Judaism or their movements? (10 points.) Size of their constituency? (10 points.) Do they have political/social influence? (20 points.) Have they made an impact on Judaism in their career? (10 points.) Have they made a “greater” impact? (10 points.) This system, though helpful, is far from scientific; the men revised and rejiggered their list for months, and all three concede that the result is subjective.

This obviously created a final list skewed towards those rabbis from large population centers who are well known in the media, and not necessarily those Rabbis who are most, you know, Rabbinic – modestly toiling on behalf of their community, eschewing the glare of publicity, visiting sick people in hospitals, sharing the wisdom of our religious traditions etc. That having been said, the list is still instructive.

Three of the top 5 and 17 of the top 50 Rabbis are Orthodox. 10 of the Rabbis listed are Conservative while 18 are Reform. Does this list demonstrate the influence exercised by Orthodox Rabbis and how it extends beyond the number of adherents in their communities? Does this list also exemplify the rise of Reform Judaism as America’s top Jewish denomination, a feat achieved at the expense of the seemingly moribund Conservative movement? What do I know? I suck at math, and let’s not even talk about statistics.

The list is comprised of the usual suspects, TV’s own Shmuley Boteach (no. 9), Yehuda Berg of the Madonna Kabbalah Center (no. 4), Chabad leader Yehuda Krinsky (no. 2), author Harold Kushner (no. 5) and on and on, topped off by Marvin Heier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

While the list is top heavy with Los Angelinos, it does not include a single Jewlicious Rabbi – not our Very own Rabbi Bookstein and not Rabbi ck of the Temple of the Ephemeral Jews. besides what’s with this complicated and obviously flawed selection process? What they should have done was get all the Rabbis into a celebrity death cage match, with the last Rabbi left declared the winner. I so would have done that.

Marvin Hier, your ass is mine!

Hat tip to Yoni, the lonely man of faith Cake who tipped me off but clearly didn’t go far enough in his post.

So is Dov Lautman, founder of Delta Galil, one of the world’s largest sock, underwear and other apparel manufacturers, and current president of the Israel Manufacturers Association. He truly is a legend in his own time.

Ms. Shalvi, who is an observant Jew, has been at the forefront of speaking out on behalf of women’s issues for most of her life. Here’s part of what Brown University wrote about her when granting her the honorary degree, “Doctor of Humane Letters:”

Alice Shalvi is Israel’s most outspoken and active Conservative Jewish feminist…

Shalvi founded the Israel Women’s Network in 1984, serving as its director until 1997…the organization has effected legal change – particularly in the workplace – and is taking aim at issues concerning women’s health, battered women and rape.

In addition to being thought of as the mother of Israeli feminism, Shalvi is an accomplished scholar and educator. Last July, she was named acting president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. As principal of the Pelech Religious Experimental High School for Girls from 1975 to 1990, she created a highly respected model for liberal religious education in Israel. She also established the Department of English at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, serving as its founding chairwoman from 1969-1973. She also was a faculty member of the English department of Hebrew University between 1950 and 1990, and was head of Hebrew University’s Institute of Languages and Literature from 1973-76.

Born in Germany in 1926, Shalvi immigrated to England in 1934. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature from the University of Cambridge, and a postgraduate degree in social work from the London School of Economics and Political Science. After immigrating to Israel in 1950, she received a doctorate in English literature from Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1962. She has published extensively on literature, education, women, feminism and Judaism.

Shalvi retired from Shechter in 2003. At the time, she was interviewed by Ha’aretz. In part, she explains why she “left” Orthodox Judaism – she was affiliated with religious Zionism in Israel – and joined the Conservative movement:

“Personally, I no longer felt a part of Orthodox Judaism. I could not pray in an Orthodox synagogue, where I had the feeling that I was being pushed into some obscure corner, particularly on Simhat Torah [on which, in Orthodox synagogues, it is only the men who are allowed to hold Torah scrolls in their arms as they dance in the chapel - Y.S.], which became one of the saddest holidays in the Jewish calendar for me.

“Nor could I any longer countenance the Orthodox attitude toward agunot (deserted wives) and women whose husbands refuse to give them a get (Jewish divorce decree). Even today, despite all the welcome changes that have occurred in the Orthodox world, egalitarianism does not exist, not even in the most open-minded synagogues. There are partitions to enforce separate gender seating, and there are certain things that women are prohibited from doing [such as serving as cantors in central liturgical passages - Y.S.].”

She clearly recalls the moment that made her change her viewpoint. It was when, for the first time in her life, she was given an aliyah to the Torah. That was in 1979, in a Conservative synagogue in the United States: “I had come to see a `women’s congregation.’ Suddenly, I was asked whether I would like to be given an aliyah to the Torah. I was very excited. This was the first time I had ever seen an open Torah scroll close up, and, alongside the joy I was privileged to have bestowed upon me when I was given the aliyah, I experienced an immense sadness – over the fact that I had been forced to wait until age 53 before participating in an experience that is shared by every male Jew from age 13 [the age of bar mitzvah when a Jewish male is recognized as an adult in terms of the performance of Jewish laws].”

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