Two weeks ago Los Angeles was rocked by a Purim party of Olympic proportions. JConnectLA, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and Atid – the young professional group of Sinai Temple and took over the entire Rodeo Collection on Rodeo drive. Music was provided by Moshav, Ram2, DJ Miles, and one of LA’s top DJ’s DJ Felli Fel.

When the party hit about 1000 people, the Beverly Hills Fire Marshall said enough. Purimpalooza party goers filled Purim baskets that were delivered to the Jewish elderly, and a local bone marrow registry swabbed party goers for bone marrow matches.

Purimpalooza in LA was started by Cheston Mizel, when he began the organization that became JConnectLA. The first event drew about 50-75 people. Purimpalooza has grown from year to year, changing venues and designs.

I just want to give a huge mazal tov to all the organizers, and the participants, for making the dream blossom that started seven years ago – an event to draw together Jews from all backgrounds – to help unify, inspire, and connect young Jewish people in Los Angeles. Shabbat Shalom!

Co-Sponsors: Valley Alliance, LEV Foundation, Jewlicious Festivals, Chai Center
Partners: Jews for Judaism, JAMS (of USC), Sephardic Mizrahi Young Leadership (SMYL), LA Jewish Chamber of Commerce, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters
Media Sponsor: www.LosAngelesBlueprint.com

From Seth Cohen at Boundless Drama of Creation Blog – a discussion about a school in North Carolina that is 40k short and will close. The parents created the school from scratch in 2006.

There are nineteen Jewish children in Asheville, North Carolina, far from the Jewish centers of life in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta. These children are getting a daily dose of Jewish education, culture and language, and they are sharing experiences that will help cement their identities for years to come. They may go elsewhere in life, far from Asheville – perhaps even to our own communities. We know this.

So with all we know, let me ask this – will we, the Jewish people, let this school fail? And if we do, what does it mean about what we say?

Please read the whole story if you have a chance. This issue is huge – there are many facets. Perhaps they are better off in a public school with a really good after-school program?

From a halachic perspective it is fairly clear that these children’s education comes before even paying the mortgage on a shul, or any other program, except giving out food and money to the poor – it is that important.

Peter’s show, if you have not seen this, is an extension of Peter, a creative and talented genius. He has been producing this online live music variety show for almost a year. I truly enjoyed tonight’s episode. (perhaps not the chatroullette segment so much.) I first met Trevor Hall when he was playing with Matisyahu at the final Langerado festival. Trevor played a bunch of shows that season with Matisyahu, and is a regular guest on tours.

Check it out after the break

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We all knew that Biden had a serious life-long case of foot-mouth disease. The man cannot help but make guffaws. But this trip to Israel was to be a make nice party, a chance for the US and Israel to rekindle their strong friendship and worry about BIG PROBLEMS like Iran.

Israel announced on the eve of his visit that it was halting the project that was causing so much fuss in East Jerusalem – Sheik Jarrah hood. (Remember that fake Purim video purporting to be Jews celebrating with songs in praise of Baruch Goldstein?)

UPDATE – Apparently the remarks were in response to 1600 homes in Ramat Shlomo, Wiki writes :Ramat Shlomo was founded in 1995. As of 2000, it had a population of 18,000, mostly Haredi Jews. Ramat Shlomo borders Ramot to the west, Har Hotzvim to the south, and Shuafat to the east.

Apparently, that is the “provocation” that was needed for Biden to dump a ton of rotten shwarma on Israel.

Leave it to Joe. This from the JTA:

Biden says Israeli housing starts ‘undermining’ trust

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Vice President Joe Biden denounced a decision to authorize new Jerusalem housing starts as “undermining the trust” that he needs to advance peace while in Israel.

“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem,” Biden said in a statement issued Tuesday, the second day of a visit that had been aimed at underscoring the closeness of the U.S.-Israel relationship. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”

With all the buzz in LA this week about the Oscar voting – here is my vote— Inglorious Basterds should win Best Picture, and many other accolades for Quentin Tarantino and his brilliant cast. Basterds is the most intriguing movie about WWII and the Holocaust to be made in decades.

Writing about the film this week, a few days before the holiday of Purim, I am drawn to a parallel between Basterds and Purim. In the Purim story, Jewish salvation came not at the hands of politicians and power-brokers, but through a Jewish woman who had hidden her identity from everyone including her husband. In Basterds, it is also a Jewish woman, whose past and Jewish identity a secret, and is being romanced by a Nazi poster-boy, who is the heroine.

Basterds is a film about WWII and the “face of Jewish revenge” portrayed by a band of American Jews scalping Nazi behind enemy lines. There is also the Jewish woman who plots to murder the entire Nazi leadership as revenge for her murdered. None of these things actually happened, Basterds is a fairy tale.

The film is brilliant from every angle. It has drama, humor, romance, and suspense. The plot twists are compelling. The story, the photography, the script, the acting, and the drama all are detailed, textured, nuanced, colorful, and captivating.

I was apprehensive. I had never seen a Tarantino film, and heard there is a lot of violence. While Basterds has some pretty graphic violence, it is a WWII movie after- all. The scalping made everyone cringe. Yet the violence pales in comparison to portrayals of mass murder by Nazi death squads or gas chambers.

The Jews are tough in this film. More James Bond than Woody Allen, more Mossad, that Seinfeld. There are no sheep being led to the slaughter. The Nazis are brutal, interesting, grotesque – not unlike the real Nazis. The leader of the Basterds played by Brad Pitt brands Nazis with Swastikas on their foreheads so they cannot escape into regular life afterward. They cannot escape what they have done.

It is clear that Tarantino did a ton of research on his subject matter. He read up on the Nazi film industry, and the war, and real life WWII spy stuff. He digested all the previously exulted WWII movies and hints of them appear in the film

I enjoyed many parts of the film for their poetic justice, suspense, and dialogue – but this one I love to retell.

Winston Churchill, when hearing of the Germans plans to replace Jewish cinema with Nazi cinema, says “You say [Goebbels] wants to take on the Jews at their own game?”

If we cannot laugh we cannot heal. If we cannot dream we cannot move on. Tarantino’s film helps us heal, and move on, but that is not why he made it – he made it because it needed to be made.

If they would have murdered Hitler – millions would have been saved, but it was not the priority of the Allied forces. In fact, the only ones that made a serious attempt at it late in the war were fellow Germans.

The Allies tried to win the war the old-fashioned way, with infantry, tanks, planes and bombs, with propaganda, cloaks, daggers and brute force. I don’t know if this was Tarantino’s goal, but Basterds shows that redemption can come from average people doing extraordinary things. To stop an evil tyrant we cannot depend solely on conventional means, and conventional players, we need to act and hope that we are helped by the hand of God.

I have to say that I initially was very skeptical of the idea of building adjacent to the Mamilla Cemetery. I know that area very well, and thought that the project was going to damage Mamilla Cemetery. Then I went and saw for myself last year the area of excavation and building, and saw that a lot was being done to improve the Mamilla Cemetery. The Mamilla Cemetery has been abandoned for years. Although Jerusalem has a large Muslim community, Mamilla Cemetery was never kept up . It became a place for drug dealing and prostitution, a place you don’t want to be at dark. Where were the Muslim religious authorities when drugs and prostitutes made their home in the place?

But what is MORE amazing is: 1) the efforts the SWC made to reach agreements with parties that were against their project 2) the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem wanted to biuld there himself 3) the amount of money that the SWC is spending to rebury remains from the site of the parking lot, restore parts of the cemetery, and create a needed revival of an unsafe part of the city in need of rehab.

Please be open minded — the SWC has been the latest victim of the deligitimization of Israel and Jewish claims to Jerusalem. LA TIMES –

February 12, 2010
Opinion

A Proper Site for a Museum of Tolerance
The Wiesenthal Center’s project has been approved by the government and the courts, and will be built on property that is not a cemetery but a parking lot.

By Marvin Hier

Listening to the few vocal opponents of our Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem project — among them the notorious Sheik Raed Salah, leader of the extremist Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel — you would never know that the Israeli Supreme Court deliberated for almost three years before unanimously rejecting all their claims and authorizing the Wiesenthal Center to begin construction. Just six weeks ago, Chief Justice Dorit Beinish also rebuked those who re-petitioned the Supreme Court for an “abuse of court proceedings,” ordering them to pay professional costs.

Still, our opponents would have you believe that in the name of tolerance, our bulldozers actually have invaded the adjacent Mamilla Cemetery, desecrating ancient Muslim tombstones and historic markers.

They don’t want you to know the real facts. The museum is not being built on what can rightfully be called the Mamilla Cemetery, but on a three-acre site in the heart of West Jerusalem that, for more than half a century, served as the city’s municipal car park. Each day, hundreds of people of all faiths parked in the three-level underground structure without any protest from Muslim religious or academic leaders or interest groups. Additionally, telephone and electrical cables and sewer lines were laid deep below ground in the early 1960s, again without any protest.

As the Supreme Court noted in its ruling, “for almost 50 years the compound has not been a part of the cemetery, both in the normative sense and in the practical sense, and it was used for various public purposes.” It also noted: “During all those years no one raised any claim, on even one occasion, that the planning procedures violated the sanctity of the site, or that they were contrary to the law as a result of the historical and religious uniqueness of the site. . . . For decades this area was not regarded as a cemetery by the general public or by the Muslim community. . . . No one denied this position.”

In fact, the entire area of the Mamilla Cemetery had long been regarded by Muslim religious leaders as mundras — abandoned. A cemetery not in use for 37 years is considered mundras and without sanctity. That explains why in 1946 the most prominent Islamic religious figure of the day, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, presented plans to build a Muslim university on a large portion of the Mamilla Cemetery itself (a rendering of which we presented to the court). Today, the concept of mundras is widely accepted and practiced in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian territories and throughout the Arab world.

Though Judaism does not have a mundras concept, the Supreme Court noted in its decision that “despite the Jewish religious law prohibitions . . . to prevent the removal of graves or building on top of them, in practice, in cases where public needs required this, an agreed Jewish law solution has usually been found, and this allowed the building to be carried out in a way that minimized . . . the violation of the graves. . . . Jewish religious law also allows, as we have said, the removal of graves in a dignified manner. Balanced solutions of this kind were also proposed by the respondents [Simon Wiesenthal Center], and they even agreed to pay all the expenses involved in them.”

Recent critics such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Americans for Peace Now and the Center for Constitutional Rights argue that the Museum of Tolerance should abide by a higher standard than the letter of the law. We do, as the above quote from the court confirms. When we first heard of protests against our plan, in January 2006, our lawyers attempted to meet with Salah but were rebuffed. Once a legal case was filed, the Supreme Court’s mediator tried, but fared no better. We offered solutions to build without disturbing the bones — also rejected. We offered to restore the neglected and virtually abandoned nearby Mamilla Cemetery — not interested.
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Back by popular demand - buy tickets to see the concert portion of Jewlicious Festival 6.0 while supplies last!
$25 Online Concert Tix Sat or Sunday / $30 at the door.

2/20 Saturday Night Bands (9 p.m.- 1 a.m.)
Kosha Dillz Band (NY)
Rinat (Jerusalem)
Electro Morocco (NY)
Moshav (LA)
and other special guests

2/21 Sunday Acoustic Series (11 a.m. – 3 p.m.)
Basya Schechter (of Pharaoh’s Daughter) (NY)
Rav Shmuel (NY)
Yael Meyer (LA)
Adam Weinberg (Miami)
And other special guests

Now you can bring the Festival home. This first volume of Jewlicious Festival recordings was mastered and mixed under the supervision of Adam Weinberg in Miami, FL, pressed and printed by Rainbo Records in LA, and recorded live with ProTools at Jewlicious Festival 5.0 on Feb 27 and 28, 2009.

I have been listening to these tracks for a week and it feels like you are there at the Festival.

So you want a copy? To get your copy of the Jewlicious Festival Live – Volume 1 all you have to do is make a
modest $36 donation to the Festival, and you will get the CD as a free gift! (If you want you can also get one at the Fest – We are giving away copies of the CD at Jewlicious Festival thanks to Repair the World!)

Featuring music by Moshav, Aharit Hayamim, Y-Love, Diwon, Kosha Dillz, Rav Shmuel, Jewdyssee, Dov Rosenblatt. Enjoy these high-fidelity live recordings that will bring you front and center to the Saturday Night Mainstage Concert.

Again this is not available for purchase. The bands have graciously donated their tracks to help us raise funds and spread the music of the Festival around the world. This CD is your gift with a donation of $36 or more which goes to subsidizing student tickets to the Festival.

Donation of $36 / S & H: $3.99

This CD was made possible thanks to Repair The World.

Ambassador Oren heckled and disrupted by Hamas on Campus at UC Irvine. 12 arrested.

When will University President Michael Drake KICK THE MSU OFF CAMPUS? When will the University take responsibility for this?

We have heard Michael Drake for years DENY THAT THERE IS ANY SERIOUS PROBLEM. He said this publicly.

No problem, huh? The University has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on so-called bridge building which is for the most part totally ineffective. As long as the MSU is allowed on campus, as long as students are not held responsible for their actions, this kind of activity will continue.

Update: the police has released information about the protesters. It turns out that the president and vice president of the UCI MSU were among those who protested and were arrested.

Another video after the jump:

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These amazing performers will be performing at Jewlicious Festivals on the Saturday Concert Stage and the Sunday Acoustic Stage. There is really no other place in the world that you can see this line up except at Jewlicious Festival.

Electro Morocco is a unique mixture of energetic electro beats, middle eastern flavor, with a retro rock and pop edge. Their live performance combines live music with synced video clips that creates an unforgettable visual and musical experience. http://www.myspace.com/electromorocco

Moshav Imagine the jamming of Phish, mixed with the vocal strength of Pearl Jam and the spiritual lyrics of U2, seasoned with a Middle-Eastern influence and you can begin to describe the unique sound of Moshav. They mix it up, injecting reggae and Middle Eastern rhythms into their rock, giving it an edgy ethnic sound that is hard to resist http://www.myspace.com/moshavband

Kosha Dillz Band have been a mainstay in the indie hip hop scene of NJ and NYC for years. Appearing live with everyone from Nas and Lady Sovereign to Asher Roth and The Handsome Furs, hard work has earned him a rite of passage like no other, being the only Israeli New Jerseyan artist who began battling with the likes of Immortal Technique to performing at BET’s 106th and Park and the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. www.myspace.com/koshadillz

http://www.okayplayer.com/..reviews/december-2009/kosha-..dillz-200912169506/

Rinat Gutman is a hip hop MC, based in Jerusalem, she’s a tireless performer, extremely talented, very entertaining and committed to her craft. She’s also a practicing Orthodox Jewess. In a field full of men, like Matisyahu, Y-Love and almost everyone associated with Shemspeed, she stands out as lone female voice sanctifying Judaism through rap. Performing her music mainly in Israel, she is now a rising star and uses words and rhythm to convey her thoughts on everything from the state of western culture to Hasidic tales. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BTwYlCGPZk

Basya Schechter (of Pharaoh’s Daughter) Blending a psychedelic sensibility and a pan-Mediterranean sensuality, Basya Schechter leads her band, Pharaoh’s Daughter, through swirling Hasidic chants, Mizrachi and Sephardi folk-rock, and spiritual stylings filtered through percussion, flute, strings and electronica.Her sound has been cultivated by her Hasidic music background and a series of trips to the Middle East, Africa, Israel, Egypt, Central Africa, Turkey, Kurdistan and Greece. www.myspace.com/pharaohsdaughter

Rav Shmuel Rav Shmuel is a rabbi who hangs out in Greenwich Village and plays original compositions on his guitar. He has a beard and sidelocks and he loves The Dead. He does not see an inconsistency between these two identities. Rather, he thinks of Judaism and music as complementary and often coalescing tools and methods for communication http://www.myspace.com/ravshmuel

Yael Meyer a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, was born in Santiago de Chile and moved to the United States at 19 to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Giving in to a much deeper appreciation for sound and the power it has to change every living and non living thing, she became convinced that music is indeed a powerful tool towards generating a much more loving, understanding, peaceful and respectful world. http://www.myspace.com/yaelmeyer

Diwon multi-genre producer who travels the globe performing, producing and researching sounds.His styles range from Yemenite music blended with electro hip hop beats to cinematic psychadelia .Diwon’s live sets include a diverse mix of singers and live musicians, creating a lively blend of world music, hip hop, and jazz http://www.myspace.com/diwon

SoulSpeak is a live electronic music duo feat. DJ Eric Rosen and Anthony Rogers Wright. Eric’s 12 year resume as a DJ and production/remix artist beats encompass the entire spectrum of dance music, ranging from deep house music to Balearic disco, breakbeats, and classic San Francisco acid house. With a degree in Jazz composition from the Univerisity of Massichustets, Anthony alternates between playing the synthesizer and bass guitar, and seamlessly weaves back and forth between the worlds of electronic and organic music.

http://www.waxdj.com/djs/17/ & http://www.soundcloud.com/keeptheflow

Smooth E aka Eric Schwartz

One of the nation’s hottest rising stand-up headliners, Eric Schwartz aka Smooth-E, is a comedian, rapper, and MC. His music have appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” BET’s “Comic View,” Showtime’s “White Boyz in the Hood,” Mun2, SiTV and more. This bespectacled rhyme spitter wears multiple hats, writing, producing and performing countless characters in his songs and videos. Pulling off funny, authentic-sounding parodies is a tough nut to crack, but Smooth-E cracks away, appealing across the board from hip-hop heads to soccer moms.

http://smoothe.tv/

Kira Soltanovich (Star of Girls Behaving Badly)

A regular for four seasons on the Oxygen and Nationally syndicated show, Girls Behaving Badly, Kira has also appeared on such shows as Jimmy Kimmel Live, 3rd Rock From The Sun, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She has been a winner, finalist and semi-finalist of several comedy competitions, including Comedy Central’s Laugh Riots, NBC’s Last Comic Standing, The Cape Town International Comedy Festival, the Boston Comedy Festival, and the Seattle International Comedy Festival.

http://www.myspace.com/kiracomedy

Simcha Levenberg

Born in Washington DC and bred in New Jersey, Simcha is our only comedian who also doubles as a Rabbi. A self-dubbed spiritual gangster, he draws out the comedic side of sprituality, G-d, world religion, meditation, drugs as well as the counter-culture, music, and everything written by Tom Robbins. We are happy to welcome Simcha back to the festival to once again press the reset button on all stereotypes: Jewish, Rabbinic or otherwise.

http://simchalevenberg.com/

Robin Reiser

Robin Reiser is a stand-up comic and super model. The modeling career is really going badly so she is now a writer. To keep up appearances she writes in full runway make up and does an outfit change every fifteen minutes. http://www.myspace.com/robinreiser

Lizzy Cooperman

Lizzy Cooperman has been featured on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”, and has been featured on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing”, MTV’s “Most Valuable Players”, and The History Channel’s “History of the Joke: Part One”.

She is a winner of the Laugh Across America Contest and her stand-up comedy has also been featured in “New Faces” and “Dating It” at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. Lizzy was a finalist at The Las Vegas Comedy Festival, and featured in “Best of the Fest” at the New York Underground Comedy Festival. http://www.myspace.com/lizzycooperman

Line-up is subject to change.

I came across the inspiring story about Rami Treistman, a 17 year old Israeli boy studying at Boys Town Jerusalem, with a tough childhood who is making people happy through his Simcha Band business.

While many of his classmates spent their summer vacations relaxing at the beach, senior Boys Town Jerusalem student Rami Treistman, a self-described “one man band,” spent the time breaking into the Israeli business world. A talented musician who helped organize a student band at Boys Town, Rami officially established his own entertainment company in June–and the rest is history. From the start, the 17-year-old entrepreneur has done a brisk business in providing background music and singing, equipment, lighting, and further services for a host of Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties, sheva brachot, and other celebrations. What’s more, he’s hired one of his Boys Town teachers to perform as a vocalist and guitarist at various events as well.
Rami, who plays guitar, piano, flute and accordion, is also a singer. After making the decision to open his entertainment services company, “Simcha for Every Event,” he invested in a high-quality keyboard and sound equipment. Simultaneously, he networked with other professionals to offer expanded resources upon request, such as professional studio recordings, floral arrangements, and more. One such alliance is with his teacher, Boys Town’s physical education director Doron Deutsch, who he hired as a lead singer. “Many years before Doron became a sports, Doron did exactly what I’m doing—minus the keyboard,” Rami explained.
Ram’s goal is to expand their repertoire to perform at larger events such as weddings and festivals. Both musicians frequently volunteer their services at Boys Town, where they’ve performed for such campus events as Bar Mitzvah celebrations for youth from Sderot.

Beyond the world of simcha music – Rami is helping to develop ways for using music to help kids with ADHD. The project involves psychology, music, and technology. Rami is testing whether sound processing and musical accompaniment can help ADHD students to focus.

You can keep track of Rami’s through his Facebook group.

Just in time for Tu B Shvat!

This is a fight that has been going on since well before I was a college forest activist, trying to prevent the State of Oregon to preserve the last un-logged watershed in the state. We didn’t succeed.

Today a lawsuit was filed to halt a slate of new clear cutting in the Sierra Nevadas - the forest destroying technique that is commonplace across the third-world and still used in the USA.

The logging companies have a bogus claim that since they will replant more trees than they cut down, it is GOOD for the world to clear cut. This perverted and warped thinking is what guides much of US forest policy on Federally owned land.

Meanwhile, clear-cutting clogs streams and kills fish and causes erosion. It Not to mention that if they are clearing Old Growth, they are destroying ancient forests that cannot be replaced. The LA Times reports:

Today, the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based environmental group, filed lawsuits against the California Department of Forestry in seven California counties to halt logging plans for 5,000 acres across the Sierra Nevada and Cascade regions. The group contends that the agency approved the projects without properly analyzing carbon emissions and climate consequences under the California Environmental Quality Act. “Clear-cutting is an abysmal practice that should have been banned long ago due to its impacts on wildlife and water quality,” said Brian Nowicki, CBD’s California climate policy director. “Now, in an era when all land-management decisions need to be fully carbon-conscious, there is no excuse to continue to allow clear-cutting….”

Today’s lawsuits were filed in superior courts in Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Modoc, Shasta, Tehama and Trinity counties. “By continuing to rubber-stamp Sierra Pacific Industries’ clear-cutting plans, the Department of Forestry is chopping a gigantic hole in the credibility of California’s climate policy,” Nowicki said. He added that, last August, Sierra Pacific withdrew plans to log more than 1600 acres following CBD lawsuits over the greenhouse gas effect. Several dozen new Sierra Pacific plans are pending.

Tonight is Tu B Shvat. This should not be happening, but it is.

Of course the company, Sierra Pacific, claims that the environmental groups know nothing and want to kill jobs. Another lie.

By destroying what is left of the natural ecosystem of the Sierra Nevada we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Many more jobs can be created in sustainable industries like tourism if there are forests there to visit, fish to fish, streams to travel, and vistas to photograph.

There is nothing evil about logging – we need timber. The question is how do we get that timber, and from where? There are sustainable models for logging, and forest management. They are just being ignored by Sierra Pacific and others because they cost more, take more time, and require that forests not be felled in one swoop. They have lobbied for years to keep stricter forest protection from being enacted.

Clear-cutting is just not an option. Not now, not ever. Go to ForestEthics.org for more info.

(photo from http://www.stopclearcuttingcalifornia.org/)

With the world in awe of the Israeli response to the tragedy in Haiti, much energy has focused on the reason that Israel is good at this kind of disaster relief. Yes it is true that Israel deals with these traumatic crisis on a regular basis. But experience alone cannot simply account for excellence.

It turns out that three Israeli officers that are part of the rescue efforts – who trained the people on the ground in Haiti – all went to the same school, Boys Town Jerusalem.

As the world intently watches the horrifying earthquake destruction in Haiti, three Israeli Army colonels are closely following the events from 6,500 miles away—with an eye on gaining know-how that will save lives in future catastrophes. The three officers, experts in human rescue, have worked closely in training and equipping the Israeli rescue team who rushed to the scene in Port-au-Prince, and with whom they maintain 24-hour-a-day contact from afar. All three men are on alert to be dispatched to Haiti at any moment. And all three share a personal bond: each graduated from Boys Town Jerusalem where they developed a mission to save human lives, anywhere in the world.

“The Israeli rescue and medical team was among the very first to arrive in Haiti, even though they traveled a much farther distance than the others. And with each hour, they are gaining world renown for working miracles,” explains Colonel Ben-Tzvi Elyassi, who serves as a commander in the IDF Home Front Command. One of Israel’s top experts in rescue and relief operations, Elyassi’s 25-year military career has provided him with “hands-on” experience in saving human lives in disasters of untold proportions. Col. Elyassi assumed second-in-command control of Israeli search-and-relief missions and was dispatched to the 2002 earthquake in India, the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, and the 1999 earthquake in Greece—in addition to a host of military and civilian disasters in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Rav Shmuel’s annual Jewlicious promo done in stop animation – very cool. Rav Shmuel has jumped around fields, bars, and tables all in the pursuit of the great promo video. Check out his offering for this year.

An if you have not purchased your ticket — do so before the costs goes up on Jan 31!

ELECTRO MOROCCO!

We are just four days away from a watershed moment in our young organizational history. On January 20, we present A Night Of Unity, featuring music, comedy, magic, games, opulent food, drinks, and a special acoustic performance by Grammy Nominated, Gold Record recording artist MATISYAHU.

This benefit will not only support Jewlicious, Jewlicious Festival, JConnectLA, Shabbat Tent, and other programs, but also introduce what we do to America’s second largest Jewish community in a way we have never done before.

We will be honoring David Suissa, founder of Olam.org, columnist for the Jewish Journal, and one of Jewish LA’s great personalities.

This event is a tikkun on the normal benefit dinner. There will be no rubber chicken, open seating, complimentary bar, casino games, silent auction, food from around the world, and desserts from the finest dessert company in Los Angeles. All our performers, vendors, and organizers are doing this for free or for song – because they know that this is an important fundraiser, and want to support our work.

Even if you cannot make this event – consider making a donation, a tribute, or sponsor someone else to go.

From The World:
A hundred-twenty years ago a scholar named Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, took a dead language and started adding words. Modern Hebrew is still a work in progress. The Academy of the Hebrew Language is constantly introducing new words to keep Israel’s national language up-to-date.

Israel apparently without coordinating calenders with the diaspora, has made Jan 7th Hebrew Day. The day coincides with Eliezer Ben Yehudah’s Gregorian Birthday in 1858. In Italy it is Tricolour day (Festa del Tricolore)
and in Japan – Nanakusa (Seven Herbs Festival).

Read this article in YNET — sounds like the good old socialist days in Israel — but it is Bibi in charge!

YNET:

The government announced on Sunday a number of moves for the strengthening of the Hebrew language. As part of the plan the birthday of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, known as the reviver of Hebrew, may be announced as national Hebrew Day.

In addition, the government is expected to establish a team for the maintenance of the language, a Hebrew conference, an annual prize for forerunners of the language, a national medal, and stamps heralding famous names in the Hebrew world.
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Marcus Freed’s Website Hacked :

My website has been hacked by an incompetent pro-Iranian Anti Semite! http://www.marcusjfreed.com/gigs/ – although he has only hacked two pages on the *old* website that is badly due for a relaunch. I’d like to thank the hacker for thoughtfully keeping with my black-background colour scheme, although I much prefer the… muted green in his palette as opposed to the lurid flourescent 80’s tone. Watch this space – in a few days my web wizard Simon is going to HACK THE HACKER and mash-up the site!!! Look out for pictures of the Ayatollah Kho-Freedy coming soon….

Here is the stuff the Iranian Hackers left on the Jewish Yogi’s site:

Our belligerence is religious and does not own any borders, thus we are here as long as atheism and blasphemy exist. We do know that effrontery of blasphemy to Imam Khomeini is what that only you can do. This is just a warning to your governmental sites!

Marcus is taking it in stride. After all, he is on another world tour, and will be in LA for the Night of Unity, and Jewlicious Festival!

On Wednesday, January 20, at 6:30pm, we will celebrate Jewish unity with music, comedy, and poetry at an unforgettable, delicious, cabaret-style event at LA’s famous El Rey Theater. This Night of Unity is our first ever Gala fundraiser. Please join in our effort to make this a night to remember while helping to raise funds to keep Jewlicious Festival, JConnect and our other projects going.

We are honoring DAVID SUISSA with the Jewish Unity Award. Suissa, an advertising executive and LA Jewish Journal Columnist, is founder of OLAM magazine, Meals4Israel.co, Ads4Israel.com and the newly launched OLAM.org. Suissa speaks up for justice, Jews, and israel, bridging communities and cultures. He embodies Jewish unity in bringing together the many parts of our community to solve problems and provide mutual support.

There will be great entertainment at this cabaret-style event, headlined by a special acoustic performance by Grammy Nominated, Gold Record Recording Artist MATISYAHU.

Our Night of Unity Honorary Dinner Chair is STANLEY GOLD, the outgoing chairman of the board, Jewish Federation of Los Angeles

This is no rubber chicken fundraiser dinner. There will be an speak-easy style Casino, Silent Auction, live music all evening, wine and a wide variety of delicious food. For VIP ticket holders there will be bottle service and complimentary drinks as well.

Special appearances have been confirmed by Craig Taubman, Rhoda Weissman, David Sachs, Adam Weinberg, Marcus Freed and others! It is a snazzy night, so dress code is – Black Tie Optional

You can buy tickets, or make a tribute – tickets and tributes start at $180. We have a few sponsorship opportunities for individuals or companies that would like to participate in this event. Please contact us as soon as possible – we have only a few left.

*$50 of ticket cost is not tax deductible.

HOST COMMITTEE
Tom and Jill Barad Brett Barenholtz Stanley & Joyce Black Michael Borkow Etan and Emily Cohen Brad and Amy Conroy Daniel Eisenstadt Rachel Ephron Yosi and Wendy Finn Noah Flom Selwyn & Glynis Gerber Stephen Grynberg Bob Hale Josh and Stefanie Kaplan Mellissa Lewkowicz James and Debbie Lustig Nick Meyer Tahlia Miller Larry and Carol Mizel Courtney Mizel Maxine Morris Dr. Sharon Musher Gal & Rabbi Elissa Ben Naim Harry & Dorit Nelson Mark and Renee Phillips Sheri Porath Rockwell Roz and Jerry Rothstein David and Judy Sachs Dr. Rami and Sofia Sadeghi Evan Schlessinger Lou Sokolovsky Alan and Lisa Stern Dubby Teichman Sari Tuschman Gary and Dana Wexler Shawn Landres Joshua Avedon

When Oregon and Ohio State take the field tomorrow in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl, there will be more going on than meets the eye.

Enter Rabbi Drew Kaplan, newly appointed head of Jewish Student Services and SoCal Campus Rabbi at Long Beach State, and across Orange County. Rabbi Drew is loves Torah, his family, and Buckeye Football. A native of Ohio Drew will be praying for a Bucks victory at the Rose Bowl.

Then there is me, past head of Jewish Student Services and a SoCal Campus Rabbi, and now Director at JConnect. I love Torah, my family, and Duck Football. I am a native of Michigan, and will be praying for a Ducks victory in Pasedena.

Now both of us being Shabbat observant Jews, our passion for our respective college football teams could not help but be tempered by the reality that we cannot watch any of these games live. The only times I seem to ever see the Ducks play football is in a Bowl Game. And this is a big deal — Ohio State (10-2) hasn’t played in the Rose Bowl since 1997, while Oregon (10-2) hasn’t made it since 1995.

If measured in Jewish students, Ohio State has a clear edge. With 3,200 Jewish students approximately, it is the 16th largest concentration of Jewish students at a public university in the country. Oregon, has perhaps 1,000 Jewish students, and doesn’t even rank in the top 30.

The Ducks have a famous Jewish alum who plays now for Dallas, Igor Olshansky. Ohio State has John Frank, who also was part of the Israeli Bobsled team!

We were going to set out and go together to the game. The moment that this matchup was announced, we realized the monumental nature of this contest, and the ramifications for Jewish life in California and beyond.

I had dreams of a kosher tailgate party, where Jews from both sides of this contest, could break bread together, and enjoy harmony before the war of roses.

I imagined the scene of praying mincha at half-time, one part of the minyan in Duck colors, the other in Buckeye colors. Jews, divided by geography, and allegiances, could lay down their vocal weapons and for a moment give thanks to the almighty. I imagined a harmonious moment that could usher in the Messianic age.

But then we realized that this game was being played on Erev Shabbat. I frantically contacted Drew and we began thinking of plans. We could try to get rooms (unlikely) staying at a hotel near the stadium, in case the game was still going on when Shababt arrived. We contemplated making a Shabbat Tent in the Rose Bowl parking lot, but management doesn’t allow overnights.

This once-in-a-life-time contest would have to be watched from the comfort and affordability of home. When the dust settles on the field, we will get back to planning Jewlicious Festival.

Go Ducks, Go Buckeys, Go Shabbos!

A side note — both teams are staying in five-star hotels down the street from our offices on Avenue of the Stars. They arrived on Monday from the airport with police escorts in four large tour buses.

It was widely reported in the press, that Carter asked for forgiveness from the Jews, and I don’t forgive him. The former president, and master of distortions, wrote to JTA: “As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”

In order to seek forgiveness, one has to acknowledge the mistakes that one made and resolve to repair the damage caused. If we Jews don’t forgive Carter, God certainly never will. As our tradition teaches — God will only forgive one who has made peace with those that they wronged. And Jimmy, you have a long, long way to go.

Carter’s admission that he has caused the Jewish community harm might work in confession, but doesn’t work with on Yom Kippur, and it doesn’t work with me.

Carter admitted no specific mistakes. He offered no way of repairing the damage caused by his irresponsible accusations.

I personally heard Carter tell an audience of 3k students at UC Irvine, to the applause of the administration and students, that the US Congress was “in the pocket” of the Jews.

How many other college student audiences around the country heard the same accusations? How many books did he publish accusing Israel of things that have no basis in fact? How many times has he appeared on TV demonizing Israel and backing Hamas?

In order for me to forgive Carter he has to admit to his distortions and lies and publicly renounce his books and speeches. Carter needs to return money to anti-Semitic Middle Eastern countries that back his center. He needs to replace Habitat for Humanity with Hadassah. He needs to go on Birthright Israel. He needs to listen to Matisyahu. He needs to watch G-d Cast, read The Forward, spend the winter in Miami. He needs to study Judaism with Rabbi Telushkin, and volunteer for Challah for Hunger. We need to see Jimmy Carter crusading against the humanitarian track record of Hizbollah, Hamas, and Fatah, and doing brunch at Jeff’s Gourmet Sausage on Pico. While he is on this apology tour, he needs to appear at every campus where he defamed Israel, and give speeches urging that Muslim extremist recruiting groups like the MSU and MSA be banned permanently. He needs to learn Hebrew, spend Shabbat at Beit Jewlicious, and sit at David Abitbol’s feet and learn about the expulsion of North African Jews, Sephardic Jewish culture, and eat chumous. And that is just for starters.

There is a perfect venue for this rapprochement to begin with the Jewish community; the perfect place for Carter to ask forgiveness, renounce his former ways, and promise to live a life free from anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel — Jewlicious Festival 6.0.

Friday Night at Jewlicious Jimmy, stand up in front of a hundreds of young Jews, ask forgiveness, break bread with us, and tell us how you will attempt to undo the vast damage you have wrought.

Pictures from Palestine Today
From today’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed“Despite all the misreporting about a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza as a result of Israel’s blockade, the flow of aid support from Israel to the narrow strip is uninterrupted. In the week of Dec. 13 -Dec. 19 alone, 553 truckloads with 13,587 tons of merchandise reached Gaza from Israel, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.” The article is an important one.

Hat tip to The Daily Alert.

MATISYAHU was on Letterman Thursday night, the seventh night of Chanukah. Check out the enormous custom disco driedel MATISYAHU uses for his Festival of Lights! The crowd at the end of his performance on Letterman go nuts. One Day is a great song – it’s simple, the message is pure and awesome. Repost, replay, download.