I missed the launch party for the 2012 Nice Jewish Guys calendar in Southern California. The project was started by Adam Cohen (Food Networks Cupcake Wars) and celebrates nice Jewish guys who eat pizza, help people and fry latkas. A menschy calendar… so menschy that a portion of proceeds go to Mazon.

Speaking of mensches, the US government is changing policies for those seeking visas and permanent residency green cards. Alejandro Mayorkas, chief of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will announce several initiatives that give expedited processing to those who will invest in America and create jobs, especially in the high tech sector… (Welcome Technion grads)

The Times profiles a Brooklyn lawyer who is a member of a Hasidic sect who is behind many of the American politicians trying to limit alleged Muslim influence in America. David Yerushalmi (aka David Beychok) of Crown Heights (Brooklyn NY), and formerly of New Orleans, South Florida, Los Angeles, Arizona, and Ma’ale Adumim is leading a movement of Shari’a-related conspiracy theories. The ADL has characterized him or his writings as anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black. It makes for an interesting read.

Speaking of name changes, several rabbis affiliated with the Conservative Movement about their attitudes towards performing same sex Jewish weddings. While Rabbi Schranz does not plan to perform same sex weddings in New York, Rabbi Gordon Tucker, former dean of JTS’s rabbinical school, has officiated at one. Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Manhattan’s Upper West Side is quoted as believing that his Conservative colleagues will slowly come down on the side of same-sex marriage — though for slightly different reasons. “This is going to line up heavily on age lines,” he said. “People in their 50s are simply going to be less likely to reach this sea change, and people in their 30s are going to be much more inclined.”

Another life cycle event, circumcision, is safe in San Francisco. A judge ruled that a measure banning circumcision on minors could not be placed on the ballot this November. The Los Angeles Jewish Journal reports that some… very few… are opting for a non-cutting ritual: brit shalom. They interviewed several LA area mohels and ritual leaders and calculated that their non scientific sample performed 1,400 brit milah ceremonies, and five brit shalom procedures in the past year.

Jon Sheyer at Duke

Speaking of circumcisions, The Associated Press reports that Israel’s basketball teams might be a route to the NBA for American Jewish basketball players. Jon Scheyer, 23, 6’5″, and a standout player from Duke University, has joined the Maccabi Tel Aviv team. Sylven Landesberg (Virginia), David “Blu” Bluthenthal (USC), and Dan Grunfeld are three other Jewish American basketball players who have joined Israeli teams, recently. Many think aspire to the NBA and hope to follow in the sandal steps of Omri Casspi, Will Bynum, Anthony Parker and Carlos Arroyo.

Speaking of passing, running, and dribbling, what is up at the Jewish Funds for Justice? Three senior leaders are transitioning. After an eight-month national search, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, one of the region’s largest advocacy groups for Jewish causes, named Jeremy Burton, 42, VP of the Jewish Funds for Justice as its new head. The JFSJ’s CEO Simon Greer will leave in January 2012 to become president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and Mik Moore, their chief for strategy, is no longer full time.

A note about cycles, The Washington Post Sunday magazine featured a 7 page piece on Hillel’s Angels and Other Kosher Road Hogs. Jennifer Miller covers the current state of affairs of area Jews and their motorcycles, featuring interviews with members of Chai Riders, The Tribe, Hillel’s Angels, and Shalom n’ Chrome.

And if you aren’t working full time, then you will have time to play a new APP: JUDOKO, the Jewish Sudoku. This week, the Apple App Store published Judoku(TM), an educational Sudoku puzzle game aimed at educating Jews and others the basics of Jewish culture. Created by ACME Digital Laboratories LLC, the game, which sells for less that $2 can use Jewish symbols or the Hebrew alphabet in place of numbers. Andrew Charon, a native of Fargo, North Dakota, was the lead developer. He wrote that, “Learning the Torah was competing for attention against Angry Birds and Justin Bieber Tweets. I figured if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! That, and frankly, I really just wanted to create something called Judoku.”

Maybe he can be on the Nice Jewish Guys calendar in 2013?

Modest acrobatic Hapoel Jerusalem cheerleaders in action!

See, it’s like this. Israel’s top basketball league decided that cheerleaders would be mandatory for every team. While teams like Maccabi Tel Aviv took to the ruling with gusto, others like Hapoel Jerusalem objected for fear that gyrating, scantily clad young women would alienate their more religious fans. In the end, the league imposed fines and disincentives such that Hapoel Jerusalem has no choice but to continue using them. While the Maccabi Tel Aviv cheerleaders are best described as, uhm, hoochie to the max, the Jerusalem cheerleaders focus on feats of strength and accrobatics while wearing somewhat modest outfits; “footless white tights and tops resembling maternity frocks.”

This controversy has created some unusual bedfellows. Nineteen women’s groups have shown their opposition and petitioned Sports and Culture Minister Limor Livnat against the imposition of cheerleaders. Joining them are members of the religious camp. Uri Orbach of the religious Jewish Home party, citing feminist reasons, stated that “In my eyes, it is chauvinistic that a crowd of mostly men needs to pass the time-outs watching young girls dancing and shaking. That seems pretty repulsive to me.” Cute!

Maccabi Tel Aviv cheerleaders in a relatively demure pose

But what does God want us to do? As all sports fans know, God shows his approval or displeasure with man via sports teams. During the regular season, with its 21-1 record, it seemed as if God’s countenance was smiling upon Maccabi Tel Aviv despite their really hoochie cheerleaders. However, in the playoffs Maccabi Tel Aviv lost its first game to lowly Bnei Hasharon. The teams are now tied 1-1, and we’ll find out next week if Tel Aviv will advance. In the meantime, Hapoel Jerusalem is set to sweep Maccabi Rishon, leading that series 2-0. So I guess we’ll see right?

PS: One last question though to the frummies amongst us, wouldn’t going to a basketball game be considered, you know, Bitul Torah?

PPS: This story was first broken internationally by Agence France Presse. In France, they call cheerleaders “les pom pom girls” (kind of like “le Big Mac”). Maybe that’s the solution? Really BIG pom poms?

PPPS: The image of the Maccabi Tel Aviv cheerleaders above was taken by Yaniv Ben Simon. The definitive gallery of Maccabi Tel Aviv cheerleaders is located here, shot by Ohad R., links provided for attribution and for research purposes only.

Jon Scheyer

I’m really only posting this because a Duke player is listed on the team. Yes, yes, I have a bias.

University of Tennessee Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl will guide the team, with Harris Adler of Lasalle University and Doug Gottlieb, ESPN college basketball analyst and former Oklahoma State University and Notre Dame player, named as assistants.

Jon Scheyer of Duke University is perhaps the biggest name on the roster.

The 21-year-old is in his third season in Duke University and is one of the team’s best players, averaging 14.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game this season.

Other players to make the team include Derek Glasser of Arizona State University, Steven Gruber from Brown University, Zachary Rosen of University of Pennsylvania and the head coach’s son from Tennessee, Steven Pearl.

Scheyer just received the ACC Tournament MVP award.

Sure the dude that invented basketball was Canadian, but there was a time when Jews dominated basketball the way they now dominate media and finance. And world governments. OK, I’m kidding about world Jew domination, but I’m not kidding about basketball. In fact, the first basket scored in the NBA was on November 1, 1946 by Ossie Schectman of the New York Knickerbockers against the Toronto Huskies. Schectman and his teammates Sonny Hertzberg, Stan Stutz, Hank Rosenstein, Ralph Kaplowitz, Jake Weber, and Leo “Ace” Gottlieb went on to win the opening game 68 – 66.

Now Jews traditionally have never been very athletic. But back in the early days of basketball, they verily dominated. Along with stickball, basketball was the game of choice for the little Jewish ragamuffins living in the tenements of the Lower East Side of New York and elsewhere in the US. The poor little yidden, first generation immigrant kids, freed from their shtetl yoke of religion, needed something to do with their spare time and for many, sports was their new religion.

New York Daily News sports editor Paul Gallico wrote in the mid 1930s that basketball “appeals to the Hebrew with his Oriental background [because] the game places a premium on an alert, scheming mind and flashy trickiness, artful dodging and general smartalecness.” We see how qualities such as cunning and wiliness were posited as the keys to Jewish basketball success and how these kinds of statements were indicative of early 20th century America.

So now comes this great new documentary called “The First Basket” which in discussing the origins of the game of basketball and the Jews in it, is in a sense, recreating the Jewish immigrant experience in America and is no less an exposé of modern Jewish identity than it is the story of some sweaty ball playing Jews.

You can read more about this documentary and watch some clips at their Web site www.thefirstbasket.com or you can watch the film at a theater near you. “The First Basket” will be playing at the following venues and times:

New York
Opens October 29, 2008 for 10 Days!
(Special Events will be announced over the next two weeks)
The Village East Cinema
181 -189 2nd Ave. New York, NY 10003
212-529-6799

Los Angeles
Opens November 14th!
Laemmle’s Music Hall in Beverly Hills
310-274-6869
Laemmle’s Town Center in Encino
818-981-9811 www.laemmle.com

Tuesday, November 11, 7:30 pm
The Skirball Cultural Center
Los Angeles, CA

Monday October 20th – 7:00pm
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and JCCSF
San Francisco, CA

Click here to see clips from the film and visit the Web site for updates and special events.

From Sports Illustrated (when’s the last time we saw a story about Jews in this mag?):

State senators have taken up the cause of a Jewish boys basketball team whose playoff run may be halted because its players can’t play on the Jewish Sabbath.

The Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy team could be headed for a regional championship on Saturday, March 8, if it wins one more game. But the Denver team’s religious beliefs prohibit students from playing on the Jewish Sabbath between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday.

If Herzl/RMHA makes it to the regional championship and refuses to play a Saturday game, another school would be chosen to take its place, CHSAA commissioner Bill Reader said.

Earlier this month, the Colorado High School Activities Association, which governs sports and other high school activities, rejected the team’s request for a schedule change.

At the end of morning debate in the state Senate on Wednesday, Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, called on the CHSAA to be more flexible.

Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, said the CHSAA’s decision was ironic because it has a rule barring games from being played on Sunday for religious reasons.

Sen. Tom Wiens, R-Sedalia, said there must be a way for the CHSAA to accommodate the team.

“It just seems like the bureaucracy has run amok here,” Wiens said.

Bruce H. DeBoskey, mountain states regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said the group was disappointed by CHSAA’s decision.