This is an extraordinary hour long forum held at Davos about Gaza. The participants are Amr Mousa, Secretary General of the Arab League, Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the UN, Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is PM of Turkey and Shimon Peres, president of Israel.

The first to speak was Ki-Moon, who was diplomatic but got in a couple of serious swipes at Israel. The next to speak was Erdogan who attacked Israel quite angrily and was then supported by Mousa. Peres was the last to speak and he spoke passionately and at length in response. He loses it a little at times, but his general presence is angry and combative. He starts talking around the 40th minute of this video but I strongly encourage you all to watch or listen to the entire clip.

At the end, Erdogan seeks to respond to Peres and is given an opportunity but when he starts to repeat himself after a couple of minutes, the moderator tries to stop him. Erdogan does not appreciate being told that he’s had his say and storms off angrily, claiming that Peres got twice as much time to speak. Not true. Still, the moment of peevishness is a serious diplomatic snafu for Israel which has has made serious efforts to engage Turkey as an ally in recent years. You can read more about it here.

Also today, a Spanish court has decided to consider whether several Israeli military men and Israel’s former Minister of Defense were guilty of “crimes against humanity” for a plane bombing of a building that held a prominent terrorist by the name of Shehadeh. In the bombing, a building collapsed and 14 civilians were killed and other injured. We will all get to watch now as the world puts Israel on trial.

Make no mistake, these are victories for Iran and for Hizbullah and Hamas. They are victories for undemocratic regimes which are being supported by the benign Western powers that have done little to stop these forces and have done much to support them (Germany supplies Iran with all sorts of technology, the EU gives billions to prop up the Palestinian leaderships, the UN has an entire section ironically focused on Human Rights that focuses on Israel and is run by anti-democratic regimes, UNWRA is the only UN organization focused on the plight of one group of refugees, etc.). These are victories that slowly chip away at Israel and weaken it, weaken its citizens’ resolve, weaken its confidence that it can prevail against the Arabs’ aggression and these are victories that turn Israel truly into a pariah state.

These are also victories for non-state actors that cynically use their civilian population as fodder and cover. They have perfected this system and have proven that if you don’t fight them you lose and if you do fight them, you lose more.

And all this after Israel LEFT Gaza. All this after Israel waited for years to respond to the rocket attacks.

Those of us who supported the exit from Gaza are watching and wondering what will happen if we support an exit from the West Bank. Will the Palestinians start firing from there with impunity as well?

UPDATE: Sadly, Shimon Peres called Edrogan and apologized.

“I am very sorry for what happened and friends could sometimes have an argument between themselves,” Peres told Erdogan during the telephone conversation. “I have always had a great respect for the Republic of Turkey and you as the prime minister. I consider myself as a friend of Turkey and Premier Erdogan.”

What the hell did he have to apologize about? Still, I guess he gets points for not letting ego get in the way of necessary diplomacy.

In the Arab world, the shoe is a very powerful symbol. When Saddam Hussein was deposed and statues in his honor began to tumble, angry Iraqis would take their shoes off and whack the statues in what was then considered the most humiliating symbolism one could resort to. Hitting someone with your shoe was more than just about administering a few good whacks. It was about denigrating the other person with the lowest thing in your possession – the humble shoe. All that changed when Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi hurled his shoes at then President George W. Bush. Suddenly his modest shoes achieved heroic dimensions! This really came home with the recent unveiling of a sofa sized statue of a shoe in his honor in Tikrit, the hometown of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

AP reports that:

Baghdad-based artist Laith al-Amari described his fiberglass-and-copper work as a homage to the pride of the Iraqi people… The statue also has inscribed a poem honoring Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist. Al-Zeidi was charged with assaulting a foreign leader, but the trial was postponed after his lawyer sought to reduce the charges.

N’al buk l’klb indeed…

I spoke to Mike Darnell, man about town, artist and now head of creative marketing at Israeli High Tech start up SemantiNet, makers of a cool new Firefox plugin and online tool called Headup. We had a nice conversation, as we always do. Here’s a video that describes what Headup does and then we will proceed with the interview!

ck: Mike! You always seem to be involved with cool stuff (http://DigitalArtPrintGallery.com). Now I see you’re right in the thick of this whole Israeli High Tech thing with your new job at Tel Aviv-based SemantiNet where you’re pimping this online product called headup. So what’s the deal? I have it installed on my Firefox and love it already, but explain the gist of it to the noobs that have no idea what I’m talking about…

Mike: “So here’s the deal, the original vision that Sir Tim Berners-Lee had for the Web was slightly different from what we got today. Originally it was supposed to be this virtual space where you could traverse freely between related concepts, but instead Tim’s vision got sidetracked by the limitations inherent from how it was executed (HTML, links, websites, stuff).

Good Sir Tim never ceased advocating the “Semantic Web” and being the director of the W3C meant that he was well positioned to champion its cause but even that didn’t really make it happen the reason being that the Semantic Web has two prerequisites:

1. A whole lot of data describing pretty much everything and everyone.
2. A structured system that allows computers to access this data and crunch it.

So fast forward to 2009 we have these two pieces of the puzzle pretty much in place:

1. Over the past six years, and especially ever since web 2.0 exploded, we’ve all been busily uploading, posting and tagging, well…everything.
2. The release of APIs by a steadily increasing amount of online services is making all this data accessible not only to us smart humans but also to dumb computers.

Headup is possibly the very first top-down semantic web application. It’s a Firefox addon (soon to be available on other platforms as well) capable of understanding what “stuff” is and how “stuff” is related to other “stuff”. Believe me, this is a good thing. Sir Tim would be happy.”.

CK: Ok that’s fascinating and all, really it is… what’s it do already?

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More Orthodox Rap. For a change…

>

Find out more about this collaboration between Y-Love and new rapper DeScribe on their MySpace page. You can buy the “Change” single right here right now for iPod listening purposes and, as always, stay tuned for more from Shemspeed.com.

Just a reminder, Y-Love (and Erez) will be performing at this year’s Jewlicious Festival (Feb. 27 to March 1st) in Long Beach. Find out more and reserve tickets today at JewliciousFestival.com.

Huh?? Ukrainian Women That I Know Series – Part I

Miss Platnum (not a typo) is not actually Russian. She’s based in Germany and is Romanian. But her horn section is called Fanfar Kalashnikov. Also Romania was a Warsaw Pact nation back in the dizzay (their intelligence agency tried to kill Pope John Paul II, remember? Sigh… Cold War memories…) and most Americans don’t know Bucharest, from Bratislava, from Byelorussia from uh… Petrograd. Finally, have you been to Brighton Beach lately? What’s with all the Benzos?? Miss Platnum’s combination of Hip Hop, R&B and traditional Eastern European rhythms makes her music sound like a hip NYC Jew band signed to JDub. Now, she’s probably not Jewish (real name Ruth Maria Renner… not so Jewish) but that’s kind of telling innit? Our hipster shteiblach Jews in Manhattan may be all sophistimicated and cosmopolitan, but really, they’re not that far removed from the shtetl, eh?

So this is all a rather longwinded and kind of ridiculous introduction to an event organized by a former resident of Beit Jewlicious here in Jerusalem, Evgenia Solovyova. Evgenia is originally from Khmelnytsky, Ukraine – a city named for a Cossack leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who killed buttloads of Jews between 1648-1656. We had a great time with Evgenia at Beit Jewlicious in Jerusalem and now she and her crew at Chicago Hillel are putting together what looks to be an awesome Russian Shabbaton Weekend extravaganza!

So… if you’re a Russian Jew, a Jew of Russian extraction, or you just wanna party with Former Soviet Union Gals and Guys, click on the more link below for all the details! Before you go on, I should also add that we all miss Evgenia here in Jerusalem and we know that if she’s involved, it’s gonna rock!

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Let’s ignore for a moment the issue of American universities refusing to allow their students to participate in Israel programs or academic exchanges. A bigger issue is the attempt to boycott Israel in general and academia specifically. The movement in Europe, particularly Britain, to boycott Israeli institutions of higher learning has been robust and active over the past several years and it appears to be rearing its ugly head on our shores as well.

Inside Higher Ed, a publication serving academics and universities in North America, has published an article about the encroachment of this movement upon American campuses.

At this point, it is very small, but it is something to watch because campuses in the US already have their fair share of anti-Israel activism among students and faculty.

The U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel, launched last week, enumerates five goals. These include: “Refraining from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions that do not vocally oppose Israeli state policies against Palestine,” “promoting divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions,” and “supporting Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.”

The group’s press release continues, “We believe that non-violent external pressure on Israel, in the form of an academic, cultural and economic boycott of Israel, can help bring an end to the ongoing massacres of civilians and an end [to] the occupation of Gaza and Palestine” — with “Palestine” referring to the West Bank land occupied by Israel since the 1967 war, explained David Lloyd, a professor of English at the University of Southern California who’s involved with the campaign. “We are actually literally following the call of the Palestinian civil society groups that call for a boycott, and what they ask for is a return to 1967 borders.”

Of course, they are not above misinformation:

The campaign’s press release cites “Israel’s ongoing scholasticide” – a reference to its attacks on educational facilities during the war in Gaza, but also to what the writers describe as systematic, 40-year-long restrictions on Palestinian access to schools and universities in the West Bank and Gaza.

Forgetting to mention that before Israel took over Gaza, Judea and Samaria/West Bank in 1967, there were no Palestinian universities. Today there are seven.

There’s more fudge in that article, but it’s well written and covers relevant issues. Read it.

Hat tip to Xisnotx.

Guest Post by David Kelsey.

Note: While I don’t necessarily agree with David’s ideas, he is a buddy and I do feel his concerns merit discussion. Jewlicious is, after all, all about the conversation! -ck

Holland, and of course, its signature city, Amsterdam, is well known as a place of tolerance. Many of us look to Amsterdam as the epitome of libertarian-socialism.

But the Dutch have their problems. And although the Dutch are themselves a tolerant people, they have a history of weakness when confronted by outsiders who seek to install tyranny. The Dutch did not resist the Nazis with the same fervor as segments of other European countries. Once again, the Dutch are demonstrating weakness against an enemy of western liberalism, and the Dutch are surrendering yet more territory and freedom to Islamicism.

Geert Wilders is to be prosecuted for insulting Islam. He is a resistor to the Islamicists’ dark vision of expansive Shariah Law, and at the center of this travesty of justice is a film Wilders produced warning of the true nature of the Islamicists’ vision, called “Fitna.”

The significance of his criminal prosecution is dire. As Rod Dreher wrote,

“The Dutch court’s action goes a long way toward vindicating Wilders’ claim that the Dutch are losing their freedoms and their democracy because of the Muslim presence among them.”

I would note that wherever there is a significant Muslim population in the West, there are significant problems. Jews must stop obstructing those who want to reform our outdated immigration policies. Social-liberals will and do pretend that I am claiming all or most Muslims are a threat. But I am not. It is never all, and it certainly need not be most. But the problems subsist, despite insistence from the Left that it is impolite and unfair to generalize. About non-white people, that is.

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And why, WHY does this have to happen in a German t-shirt store? I mean… what the hell?? Can someone please call Abe Foxman right away? This sort of outrage is probably right up his alley.

Source: Afrojacks

I may live in Los Angeles now, but I still have people in New York who keep me clued in on important articles or conversations – one of them (ok, it was my dad) sent me this article about the New Jewish Times, an iconoclastic publication that used to exist in the 80s, but whose writers, editors and other staff members have gone on to become tremendous cultural influences in the 00s. Oh yeah, and Jewlicious gets a shoutout from author Sam Freedman:

Then eight months after it started, it ended. [...] In its seeming failure, however, New Jewish Times had, in fact, anticipated a later generation of edgy and hip Jewish journalism. It was the wheel that magazines like Heeb and Zeek and Web siteslike jewcy.com and jewlicious.com have reinvented in the 21st century.

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We’ve held a number of successful events at the Presentense space in Jerusalem – most recently a free Photoshop for Beginners class as well as the very fun Barack, Arack and Borekas party held on US election night. But a lot more goes on there than just that of course. For instance, coming up on February 1st at 7:30 pm, you can go and hear Scott Tobin speak. Tobin is an internationally renowned Venture Capitalist who just moved to Israel because he believes the “next big thing” is going to come from here. At his talk at Presentense, he’ll be letting you know why he thinks that. Tobin is a General Partner at Battery Ventures, a VC firm that has raised and invested over $3 Billion in a number of high-profile, high tech startups. Tobin sits on a number of corporate boards, well more than me anyway, and I’m told this is a not to be missed opportunity to get an insider’s perspective on Israeli tech and the state of the current market.

So if you’re in Jerusalem… visit the Presentense Events Section for more info and address. How do you get there? From downtown go to Emek Refaim street and go yashar yasha kim’at ad ha soff…. OK no seriously, look it up. If you can’t find the address then really, you won’t understand the lecture… Also as an added bonus, if you do find the address you’ll please note that the PresenTense space is a veritable hub of activity. You can go there and chill whilst out and about on the oh so cool Emek Refaim strip. They have free coffee and wifi and bean chairs and Ariel Beery and Aharon Horwitz running around! It’s fun! It’s frolicsome! Just go check it out…

ck: We’ve been running some banner ads for this SIACH program that you founded and currently run in Jerusalem. I checked it out and found it actually kind of interesting. According to your Web site, Siach is a pluralistic Jewish program in Israel for post High School young adults. You accept Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and unaffiliated participants, and teach them together all under the same roof. That’s a lot of very different and opposing worldviews.

Rabbi David Harbater (RDH): While the issues you raised are indeed “thorny”, there are many mature, inquisitive and independent minded high school graduates who welcome the opportunity to study and discuss different Jewish perspectives and worldviews. Indeed, these students see the encounter with such worldviews as essential to formulating their own. They don’t want to be told what to think and what to do but rather seek to be part of a framework that respects their freedom and individuality and that provides them with the tools to make their own decisions about their future as young Jewish adults. There is a big difference between discussion and debate and “conflict”. On SIACH, students debate many burning issues but they learn to respect their peers and very often agree to disagree, and they engage in heated discussions and debate one moment and then five minutes later hang out and have a great time together. It has been truly amazing to see how students from such different backgrounds and religious observances bonded as a group and are now the best of friends. I have told them that if only the wider Jewish community would see what goes on at SIACH there would be a lot more unity and a lot less divisiveness and conflict.

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Dear President McCormick:

The cancellation of the study abroad program with Israel resembles a cultural boycott, similar to the academic boycott of Israel that you rightly opposed in July 2007.

You wrote in an op-ed column that, “any intrusion on the free flow of information and academic exchange to serve a political agenda is a violation of the principles we hold as institutions of higher learning.” I could not agree more.

The State Department issued one of their travel warnings about Israel this month that may have precipitated the decision to cancel the program. However, serious danger to Americans is forewarned in other countries where Rutgers maintains programs, such as Morocco and Ghana, and yet that those programs continue.

According to State.gov, “The potential for terrorist violence against American interests and citizens remains high in Morocco.”

Violence against women in Ghana is a massive problem according to human rights groups, and yet there is no prohibition for female students from Rutgers studying there.

Terror attacks by separatist and Islamic terror groups occur in major European cities where you maintain programs. The EU reports that 500 such attacks took place in 2006 alone. Still the programs continue.

In other words, there is neither consistency nor logic in the attempt to protect the welfare of Rutgers students.

Studying in Israel is no more dangerous that studying at Rutgers, Morocco, Ghana or in Europe. It’s probably safer.

The recent war in Gaza did not affect daily life for students at major Israeli universities, except for Ben Gurion University in Beersheba. Yet, Rutgers has canceled all programs to Israel out of “security concerns.”

It seems more likely that staff at Rutgers are angry with Israel for the war on Hamas, and want to pursue a boycott of Israel, under the guise of protecting their students.

Or perhaps the Rutgers staff was influenced by the perception of Israel as portrayed on the nightly news during the conflict with Hamas.

This would be ironic given that the Rutgers Study Abroad website tells students not judge the safety of a country by watching CNN, using the example of the perception of the U.S. abroad, “We have been told by many people abroad that the U.S. seems like a very violent country. How our perceptions of other places are shaped by the media is worthy of reflection.”

Please rescind the cancellation. Students must be allowed to study in Israel on the Study Abroad program and be informed of the risks as with any study abroad program.

Don’t let Rutgers become hijacked by the anti-Israel craze sweeping academia that you so boldly opposed two years ago.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Yonah Bookstein
Campus Rabbi, Long Beach Hillel
Associate Rabbi, UC Irvine Interfaith Center
Director, Jewlicious Festivals

Feel free to voice your own concerns in a civil manner to President McCormickTelephone: 732-932-7454 • Fax: 732-932-8060.

In other words they canceled their study abroad program. There are so many students at Rutgers that are Jewish, and over a hundred were there on other trips this winter.

RUTGERS —Nine students who planned to spend the spring semester studying in Israel had their plans interrupted when school officials deemed the trips too risky because of the conflict in Gaza….

Barry Qualls, vice president of undergraduate education, took responsibility for the decision to withdraw university approval of a program. Three students each would have been sent to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the University of Haifa and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

The decision was made, said Qualls, “Because none of the three sites were considered safe from air attack and from suicide bombers.”

He said he made the final decision after consulting with the chairman of the university’s Department of Jewish studies, university counsel and Study Abroad, a program at Rutgers that sponsors study at universities in 20 countries.

“Even as we recognize that Israel lives under constant threat of attack and that Israeli universities have very thorough security programs to ensure students security, the situation there now is so volatile that we believed that we must suspend the programs for the spring term,” said Qualls.

He added. “Our students’ security is too uncertain in these political conditions. Their security is our first concern as it is our first responsibility.”

Last night was NYC’s “Stand with Israel“, a benefit for victims of terror and a solidarity event for Israel. The event was a follow up to the Mumbai Charity event a few weeks ago. The hosts, YJP & Chabad Loft do an outstanding job of brining celebrities, music, a high class atmosphere and hundreds of your Jews together to raise awareness of some of the tough times that are hitting the Jewish people and to encourage action towards positivity and giving. A few weeks ago Matisyahu and Miri Ben Ari performed and last night was just as amazing. The night began with soulful music from Soul Farm followed by Y-Love and Diwonwho brought Dov Rosenblatt on stage for the first two songs followed by DeScribe performing their single, “Change”. Jaron of Evan and Jaron fame took the stage and spoke about the charity and encouraged people to pledge money to friends of the IDF, he then performed a famous Carlebach tune which was very cool to see. The night was brought to a close by and the world famous rock star, Perry Farrell he performed his signature tunes, “Pets”, “Stop”…it was definitely a different sounding Perry since there was no backing band, but an acoustic version of these songs was a special treat and the powerful world he had to say about supporting Israel was very much welcome. Like he said we need more rock stars supporting what has unfortunately become an unpopular cause. We need events like this to rally people to do good and give charity and much like the success of the Obama campaign, he suggested using the internet and videos and such to spread the support. Finishing off with how Speilberg is Jewish. I’m not sure he was in the room, but if the next Spielberg was, I hope they take Perry’s suggestion.

Check out ALL the VIDEOS from the event at www.youtube.com/shemspeed
Photos will be posted shortly at www.flickr.com/shemspeed
and – zimbio.com

Today’s winner of the Inaugural Week of Giveaways of Cool Jew is S. Decter. Mazal tov all around!

For a chance to win an autographed copy before the week is out, hurry up and sign up at CoolJewBook.com.

Jewlicious Festival is the largest Jewish student and young adult weekend in the country. Now in it’s fifth year, Jewlicious Festival aims to be more than just environmentally aware, but actually takes steps to be “green” and educate participants about being green even after the festival is over. Jewlicious Festival, which non-coincidentally takes place within two weeks of Tu B’Shevat, uses a hands-on approach during the festival to inform its participants about how to heal the Earth year-round. In 2008, students and staff at Jewlicious began meeting to create a guiding set of principals that would involve not only what kinds of programs we did, and the educational green content, but which would impact how we organized and produced the Festival.

Many conferences and festivals today opt for buying carbon credits, and other virtual solutions, but do not make any concessions to use a Greenthink strategy. Our students, alumni, and staff demanded a truly innovative approach and drafted the first version of the Greenkeit Manifesto for Jewlicious Festival 4.0 (2008).

We are updating Greenkeit for our 5th Annual Festival. From the smallest things – that we have been doing all along – to larger steps that we’re implementing this year for the first time, Jewlicious Festival 5.0 will expand our consciousness to show us that there are better ways, and take us one step closer to fulfilling our Jewish obligations to be Shomrei Adamah (to be guardians of the Earth).

This year Jewlicious Festival is taking a two-stage approach to being green. First, throughout the planning process we have worked within a Greenthink paradigm to ensure that Greenkeit is integrated into the very fabric of the Festival. Secondly, we are providing opportunities at the Festival for participants to take Greenkeit into their own hands.

A note about the word GREENKEIT: In Yiddish, Judaism is called Yiddishkeit. Jews are called on to be Shomrei Adamah, guardians of the earth. So, the word GREENKEIT represents our Jewish environmentalism or our environmental Judaism.

We are posting on our website what we’ve done and what you can do to make your Jewlicious Festival experience more green.

BE A PART OF THE JEWLICIOUS GREEN TEAM! Contact the head of our Greenkeit Program, Ezra Flom, today! ezraflom [at] gmail [dot] com

* The above logo for Greenkeit is made using an Eco-Font that uses 20% less ink when printed.

Two years ago, in January 2007, as we prepared our list of speakers for Jewlicious Festival, Barack Obama emerged as a top choice on our list of candidates. Eli Winkelman, an active member of Jewlicious, hand delivered a letter to Barack Obama with high hopes of bringing him to the festival.

Obama’s assistant quickly got back to us with regrets that he had a previous commitment that weekend and couldn’t attend the Festival, but looked forward to the possibility of speaking at a future Jewlicious Festival.

The rest is history.

We congratulate Barack Obama and send our wishes of wisdom, strength, and prosperity as President of the United States.

We can’t promise you President Obama (this year), but we can promise you an event unlike any weekend in Jewish history. Meet leading Jewish personalities, musicians, artists, and writers. Enjoy a world-class concert series, famous feasts, the screening room, and much, much, much more.

Mazal Tov to President Obama on this historic moment for America and the world!!!
Join us February 27-March 1, 2009, for the next historic moment in our People’s history!!!

Tickets at BrownPaperTickets – click here

And Cool Jew was there.

Today’s winner of the inaugural week celebration of multiculturalism in America is Samantha Painter. Samantha receives a free autographed copy of Cool Jew. Mazal tov, Sheebster!

To enter the giveaway for a free book, register on the home page of CoolJewBook.com.

Three Steins Help Launch The New Administration: LookStein, SaperStein, and an EpStein:

One of my favorite Manhattan shuls is Kehilath Jeshurun, and one of my favorite rabbis and teachers is its leader, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein. So it saddened me to learn that although change may have come to DC, change is slower at the RCA, the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Lookstein participated in the National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral. And, the RCA announced that Rabbi Lookstein had violated the organization’s rules by entering a church, and by participating in an interfaith service at a Christian house of worship.

[caption id="attachment_6993" align="alignleft" width="89" caption="Rabbi Saperstein"][/caption]The service also included Rabbi Jerome Epstein of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and Rabbi David Saperstein of the UAHC.

Today marks the official launch of Tolerant Nation. This new blog, which will feature posts from a wide variety of guest bloggers in this inaugural year, celebrates multiculturalism and cross-cultural dialogue. It was inspired by the inauguration of now President Obama.

We’ve formed a coalition of artists, comedians, rockers, actors, writers, thinkers and organizations who will collaborate on Tolerant Nation (tolerantnation.wordpress.com). This includes Jewlicious, Shemspeed, ModernJewishMom.com, ModernTribe, Bookopolis, some awesome bi-racial, multicultural, and passionate thinkers on the subject and much more.

To mark the inauguration, multiculturalism in America and the launch of Tolerant Nation, we’re celebrating with a week of giveaways of Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe. Yes, that loving, irreverent and inclusive celebration of Jewish culture. Cool Jew, the only humor book named among the 2008 National Jewish Book Awards, honors the diversity of the Jewish people with information on Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Hasidim, Reform, and Orthodox Jews and much more. The book also highlights and celebrates Jewish commonalities with other ethnic groups, including Japanese, Native Americans, and Rastafarians, to name a few.

If you’re wondering what else Cool Jew has to do with multiculturalism, my family survived the most extreme attempts to wipe out the Jewish people: the Holocaust and the Spanish Inquisition. My father is a German Jew born in Poland and liberated from Buchenwald by General Patton’s troops in 1945. And my mother was born in Central America to Israelis who spoke the now-rarely heard Judeo-Spanish language known as Ladino. The way I see it, we, the Jewish people, are a proud part of the multicultural fabric of the United States. And the inaugural year of the first person of color to hold the country’s highest office is THE opportune time to promote cross-cultural understanding.

As I write this, it’s almost the end of this historic day here in Washington, D.C. and that means it’s time to announce the first winner of this week’s giveaway of a signed copy of Cool Jew. And just because it’s inauguration day, today’s winner also receives an Obama t-shirt from Rotem Gear with the new prez’s name spelled out in Hebrew. It’s freezing here in D.C. In fact, it’s below freezing. So we’re happy to say this awesome prize package goes to the person registered as “A Little Warmth.” Mazal tov to the Obamas, the Bidens, “A Little Warmth” and all around!

To register to win, sign up at CoolJewBook.com and to join the discussion about tolerance and multiculturalism in North America visit TolerantNation. And if you’d like to guest blog or have suggestions for the site, e-me at tolerantnation (at) gmail (dot) com. Here’s to a new era!

Finally, “Change” is here!

The breakdown:

“Change” single out today (buy on iTunes right now for .99cents – )

* Change Wall on your facebook (click here)

* Change Ringtone (click here)

* MC Duo to perform at World Trade Center: Tower 7
on Jan 21st (info)

* Video out January 27th

Info: The BBC, Italy’s La Repubblica, and XXL magazine have all featured Brooklyn-based MC Y-Love and his multilingual approach to hip-hop. Now, he’s teaming up with Crown Heights collaborator DeScribe to give a fresh musical take on the most powerful word of 2009. Their new single “Change” mixes Y-Love’s militant mysticism with the plaintive urgency of DeScribe’s singing. Combining a driving, radio-ready beat, produced by Prodezra, and subject matter few dare to touch, “Change” truly stands out on the path from old to new.

“Change” is the first in the series of four songs that comprise “The Change EP”. One song will be released per month beginning with “Change” to be released on Modular Moods/Shemspeed.

KEEP UP TO DATE & LISTEN NOW:
myspace.com/describeylove
shemspeed.com/change

Who Couldn’t Have Seen This Coming Part II?

Those tricky Israelis. Those dastardly Jews. Throughout Operation Cast Lead, Israeli propagandists and apologists kept insisting that theirs was a war against Hamas Terror and not against the residents of Gaza. Now comes news that a grass roots initiative, launched by Qassam battered residents of the South, seeks to collect urgently needed humanitarian materials to help alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza. Is there no end to their hubris? Have these genocidal maniacs no shame?

Those of you wishing to participate in this sham may contact Hadas Balas, a student at Sderot’s Sapir College, at 054-3168878 or peace activist Lee Ziv at 050-7245050. Ziv stated that:

“There is no connection to politics,” said Ziv. “We don’t represent a side, we just see an immediate need for blankets for people who have nothing to cover them at night and milk for infants who have nothing to eat.”

Those of you not in Israel wishing to participate in this obvious attempt to derail Palestinian national ambitions may make a donation to this nefarious campaign via our PayPal account (all major credit cards accepted) using the following button:

All sums will be remitted to Hadas and Lee. Please try and make your donation as soon as possible as the first shipment is going out on Wednesday. Click on the link below for more detailed information care of Oleh Girl (thanks Yael!):

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This timing should surprise, uh, no one. Call it Israel’s gift to Obama! From
CNN:

Israel plans to have its troops out of Gaza as soon as possible after the weekend cease-fire that ended three weeks of fighting in the Palestinian territory, Israeli officials said Monday.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that the pullout, which already had begun Sunday, could be finished by Tuesday evening.

The official, who declined to be named, said that the withdrawal could be complete before U.S. President-elect Barack Obama takes his oath of office in Washington at noon ET Tuesday — 7 p.m. in Israel — though commanders have not been given that deadline.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that it had begun withdrawing some troops from Gaza, and Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Sunday that troops would be out in a matter of days, not weeks.

The moves follow separate cease-fire declarations by Israel, which mounted a three-week offensive aimed at crippling the territory’s Hamas rulers, and by Palestinian factions in Gaza that have been firing rockets into southern Israel.

During 22 days of fighting, Palestinian officials in Gaza have reported more than 1,200 Palestinians killed, while Israel has reported 13 Israelis killed. Palestinian medical sources said 23 bodies were pulled from rubble Sunday in Gaza, adding to the Palestinian toll.

In Washington, a top Obama aide said the president-elect would move swiftly to work on the Middle East after he replaces President Bush in the White House.

“The events around the world demand that he act quickly, and I think you’ll see him act quickly,” David Axelrod told CNN. But he refused to promise Obama would name a Middle East special envoy “on Day One.”

There is no mutual cease-fire agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians — each side has made its own unilateral declaration of a cease-fire. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday the Israeli offensive had achieved its goals but reserved the right to respond to any Palestinian violence against Israelis.

Israel said it launched the offensive in Gaza to stop the firing of rockets — primarily the short-range homemade Qassam rockets — from the territory into southern Israel by Hamas fighters. Watch CNN’s Nic Robertson report from an Israeli border town »

But Palestinians fired at least 19 rockets into Israel on Sunday — including at least two after the Palestinian cease-fire declaration, according to Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. At least three people were wounded in those attacks, and Israeli military aircraft retaliated, firing missiles and destroying a rocket launcher, a military spokesman said.

In its declaration, which appeared to cover all Palestinian militant factions, Hamas demanded that Israel remove all troops from Gaza within the week and open border crossings to humanitarian aid and basic goods.

Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006 and wrested control of Gaza from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement in 2007. Abbas, who still controls the West Bank, called for the cease-fire to hold Sunday.

“We hope that it continues and that the situation calms down and that humanitarian aid delivery begins immediately to our people,” Abbas said at a summit in Egypt.

As you may have read on other blogs, there has been some outrage over measures taken by police officers during an anti-war protest rallye in Duisburg last Sunday. Police officers broke into a flat which had Israeli flags prominently displayed on its windows and removed the flags after protesters had started throwing snowballs, stones and other objects at those windows.

Now, unless there would be danger in delay, German police may not access one’s dwelling without a warrant issued by a judge. Since the flat at that point was unoccupied and the actual offenders were those throwing items at the windows and possibly [I've only found one source so far that claims so] threatening to break into the house, it did not quite make sense that police officers would break into the flat and remove the flags – much to the delight of the protesters.

After BD had brought this incident to my attention, I placed an inquiry for a detailled statement on the issue to the ministry of the interior of Northrhine-Westphalia, which I yet have to receive a reply to. I kindly suggested that a detailled response, which would have been to be published on here, would help prevent the notion that Jewish life and a pro-Israel attitude were not safe or possible in Germany.

As I said, I yet have to receive a reply, but I’m slightly relieved to share that in the meantime representatives of the Protestant and Catholic churches in Duisburg have publicly declared they were “appalled and disgusted by this anti-Jewish demonstration that took place at the instigation of Milli Görüs”. Milli Görüs is an Islamic organisation that has been under surveillance by the department of constitution protection.

Also in the meantime: the police chief of Duisburg has apologized, the union of police officers has accused those responsible of failure, politicians have expressed their dismay and have made it a topic for the home affairs select committee, and most noteworthily, another Duisburg police officer has addressed his superiors in an open letter stating, “To me it simply is a scandal if the police of a democratic state under the rule of law gets instrumentalised for the [sake of the] interests of anti-Semitic Islamists by its leadership.”

What do get a film festival on its 25th anniversary? Paper? China? Silver? Mostly, I think, you skip the gift, be eco-friendly, dress warmly, and just show up to the best of the indie film festivals, and as they say, “sit back and enjoy the show.”

Shalom and Blessings from Park City, Utah, where I arrived for my seventh, or is it my eighth, visit to the Sundance Film Festival. I can’t keep track of how many years I have come, but I am not alone. Robert Redford, speaking at the festival’s opening press conference, said that he felt that Sundance has been celebrating its 25th birthday for the past three years. No matter how old it is, the focus remains on indies and storytelling. And of course there is a little swag, but that is peripheral to the official fest.

Sundance, this year, has 19 venues that can seat 6,829 tushies at once (if you count the Salt Lake City and Ogden theaters). And the newest venue that exclusively shows documentaries is the Temple Theater, so named since is it housed in the newly built Temple Har Shalom, a growing congreagtion famous for its kavanah and “ski shul” ski in and ski out Kabbalat Shabbat program.

My trip from NYC was uneventful. There was no ditching of the jet in the Hudson River, although the flight was bumpy. There were no queen bees or loud publicists on flight or people trying to network and self promote their projects in the cabin. There did seem to be a yeshiva ski trip on my flight, which made for an interesting diversity among the passengers. There were no storms as in past trips, no delays, and I only witnessed one loud fight on the jet over overhead luggage space. I sat in the last row, and the last seat, and miraculously the tv offering on my Delta flight was “Napoleon Dynamite,” a Sundance favorite, and the music offerings included two full Israeli CD’s and three Korean Kor-pop CD’s. To top it off, my luggage was the first off baggage carousel. Sweet.

I am really excited about the offerings at the Sundance Film Festival 2009. And why not? The festival opening film is a Jewish one. “MARY AND MAX,“ is an Australian animated feature that is written and directed by Adam Elliot, an Oscar recipient and Sundance veteran. The film features the voices of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna), Eric Bana and Tony Collette.

The claymation film is about a pen pal friendship that has endured for over two decades between Mary Dinkle, an eight year old girl in a Melbourne suburb with an absent father and drunk mother, and Max Horowitz, a 44 year old obese Jewish who lives a black and gray isolation in New York City. Max suffers from Ausperger’s Syndrome, wears a kippah, remains an athiest, and was born on a kibbutz in Israel. His diet consists of fish sticks and kugels.

Some other films with a Jewish / Israel flavor are:

“William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe,” a documentary by two of the late Attorney Kunstler’s daughters, which explores his history of civil rights litigation, but also his defense of a mobster, accused rapists and the murderer of Rabbi Meir Kahane. Saint or sinner?

Zion and His Brothers (Zion ve’ Achiv), an Israeli feature by Eran Merav, who studied at both the Camera Obscura and the Sam Spiegel Film & TV schools in Israel. Merav is best known for Underdogs, an audience favorite of the Jewish and Israeli film festival circuit. It is a sensitive sibling drama set in Haifa, where two brothers are living a dysfunctional life with a single parent. Like Cain and Abel, or better yet, like Jacob and Esau, they do battle under the coastal train tracks which form a sort of post birth womb. The soundtrack is suspenseful and mizrachi.

The Messenger, a feature by the Israeli born writer and filmmaker, Oren Moverman. It stars Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson as two soldiers who work for the military’s Casualty Notification Office, and are “casualties” themselves.

The list also includes a smattering of Palestinian themed films, including “Pomegranates and Myrrh“ by Najwa Najjar; and the Israeli short, “Bait” by Beit Berl teacher Michal Vinik. One world documentary, “The End of the Line,” is about the prediction that the Earth’s seafood will be depleted by 2048. I might see this in order to predict how this will affect the need for gefilte fish in forty years. I will be 88 years old by then, and I hope I can still be alive and enjoying a glass bottle of Manishewitz or Rokeach fishlets.

Worst of all, Park City’s lone hummus restaurant (Reef), is pricey and booked up each night.

Celebrity sightings so far: Robert Redford, Spike Lee, Matisyahu, and Mike White.

As for Redford, he was the highlight of the opening press conference on Thursday afternoon. Redford said that whether it has been 25 or 27 years, it has been a long time. And it isn’t about what birthday it is or the present moment, but what has come before and the time to come. “We take a long term view,” he said. “We have seen the consequences of short term thinking,” he added, taking one of several verbal jabs at the Bush Administration. Asked if Sundance was going to create a festival in Abu Dhabi, Redford said that the labs had gone international and worked in the Middle East, specifically Iran and Jordan, since the Nineties. While still in preliminary discussions with representatives from Abu Dhabi, he expects that Sundance will proceed in creating some lab or event there in the future. Oh, and then there was Spike Lee. After the press conference, I stood at a coffee bar with him and his pure white NY ball cap and discussed the Knicks. He ordered an espresso and just like that film of his, “(s)He’s Gotta Have It (the way he wants it).” He sprinkled some cinnamon in the cup and asked for some milk. Actor / Director Mike White also passed me in a hallway. He sure does say “dude” a lot, but that is easily forgiven. It just gives you the sense that he isn’t acting in his films, but just playing himself. And as for Matisyahu? Well I will fill you in on my next posting