Wiley on Get Out LB reports that it was good!

Last weekend proved to be yet another epic year for Jewlicious. For those who have never been or never heard, Jewlicious is a three-day festival at the Long Beach JCC that happens every February, bringing Jewish people together from all over the country for music, food and chutzpah! This is my fifth year. It’s possible that I will be a lifer.

Caroline Kessler in In The Moment provides the first of two reviews:

There were about 450 people at Shabbat dinner that night–nearly everyone joined in for Shalom Aleichem. At the head of our table was the infamous Matisyahu. As we were breaking and passing the challah, our table ran out. Our friend Marc yelled, “Hey Matis! Throw me a piece of challah!”

Miraculously, he did. There was an exuberance in the air that tonight, and I think a lot of it came from using our voices at a volume that we don’t normally practice. There were so many different kinds/types/labels of Jew there–and to see everyone raise their voices in the same song was something bordered on extraordinary. The next morning, (Saturday), there was a reggae-inspired Reform service. I missed it to attend Marcus Freed’s Shabbat Strength sequence–and there was music even in the heavy breath of everyone in the small exercise room, the stomping of our feet on the floor when Marcus said, “Just let your body play,” and there was music in our chanting of ’shalom.’

Over a week later, I still have something that my friend Bri taught me on the trip: kol ha’olam kulo, gesher tzar m’od, v’ha ikar lo l’fached klal, which translates to ‘the entire world is a narrow bridge, but the main thing is not to fear.’ I love the translation, but what I love even more is singing the song all the way to John Wayne Airport, all the way back to Pittsburgh.

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.

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.

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

Dear Friends,

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 Ray 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, is an advertising executive and LA Jewish Journal Columnist, is founder of OLAM magazine, Meals4Israel.com and Ads4Israel.com. 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 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 online at jconnectla.com/gala/ , and tickets & 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.

HOST COMMITTEE IN FORMATION
Tom 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 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

2010 JEWISH FILM COMPETITION NOW OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS — FOR AMATEUR FILMMAKERS 18-26 – FILMS ON JEWISH SUBJECTS

Seeking the best in Jewish themed short films!

Have you already made that masterpiece? Do you have a great idea a film that you want to make? Want your name to join the ranks of Spielberg, Allen & Coen?

Enter a short film on a Jewish subject and you could win $500.

This nationwide film competition is for young, “amateur status”* filmmakers . All films will be eligible for the the Grand Prize, 2nd place and 3rd place. Winners will be chosen by a panel of veteran filmmakers from Hollywood and New York. Selected films will be shown at Jewlicious Festival and Jewish Film Festivals around the world.

COST: FREE! – limit one film per filmmaker.

ELIGIBILITY: Films up to 30 min. in length.

* Principal filmmaker must not be a working professional in the field.
* Entrant must be aged 18-26 during the Jewlicious Festival.
* Film’s subject must pertain to Judaism, Jewish Identity or the “Jewish Experience”

PRIZES: $500 prize for winner or trip to festival, plus 2nd and 3rd Place prizes

ENTRY: Submissions will be accepted until Midnight, February 11th, 2010.

‘TO ENTER:

1.Send an email to JewishFilmCompetition [at] gmail.com with “REGISTER” in the headline.

2.In the body of the email, put your name, email address and film title.

3.Attach Registration Document.

Have questions? Contact: jewishfilmcompetition [at] gmail.com

I have enjoyed now for the second time in a week the most delicious breakfast: Eggs and Bacon.

Now hold a second, Rabbi, bacon is trief! Or so I thought.

Jewlicious Festival veteran, and supervisor of culinary arts at the Festival’s VIP wine tasting, Chaim Davids, delivered to me as a house warming gift a package of his home-made Lamb Bacon. LAMB BACON!

Davids is the chef behind The Kitchen Table in Mountain View, CA:

The Kitchen Table serves California Artisinal cuisine with a twist: We are the only certified glatt Kosher restaurant in northern California. We dairy-free and peanut-free, and use only the freshest ingredients. All breads are baked on premises, and the pastrami and corned beef are cured and smoked in-house.

I have not made the pilgrimage to TKT, but those who have – including many of the guests I met at Herzog Wine Cellar’s Tierra Sur Resturant for the Lorne Mackillop & Tomintoul Whisky Dinner last week – rave in superlatives about TKT.

I came across a quote by Anthony Bourdain: “If you want to make people happy, give them bacon.” I get it now. The umami alone is enough to beg for more.

Thank you Chaim Davids, thank you TKT, thank you Rachel. Good Shabbos.

If you are anything like me, you hate pretty much all Israeli t-shirt designs that you see at Shuk HaKarmel.   I think the one I hate the most is

Don’t worry.  Benji Lovitt, from What War Zone,   is remedying the situation by selling his own wittily-captioned t-shirts based on some content from his blog and Israeli life in general, which you can buy here and which are wittier than anything currently available on Ben Yehuda.  I should take this opportunity to mention that Benji is my favorite Israeli comedian, aside from Avigdor Lieberman.

My favorite shirt is this one :

But he has a bunch of great shirts available, so check them out and support!

I received this note from Becca Neril, a very active member of Jewlicious during her tenure as an undergrad at the Claremont Colleges, and one of the Jewish leaders on campus. She brought nearly 50 students to the festival last year, thanks to her organizing. Becca is working in Chicago, with AVODAH. Needless to say – we are very inspired by Becca and her work.

Dear friends and family,

Two blocks away from my apartment, on the street where my grandfather attended high school, there are eight deciduous trees whose flaming red and golden yellow leaves rustle in the Chicago autumnal wind. I woke up on Saturday morning to bare ivy vines lining the outside of our apartment windows and to the last remaining leaves, now auburn and dusty brown, solitarily swaying on the now bare tree branches. O how I love the fall here!

This email has been in the works for the past…two months. I have only recently gotten around to finishing it, hence the delayed update on my post-college adventures. In late August, I moved to Chicago to be part of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, which is an intensive Jewish learning program that seeks to educate the Corps Members about how Judaism relates to social justice. I am working full time at a Jewish anti-poverty organization called The Ark, which provides vital human services to the Chicago Jewish community. The Ark has a free community medical clinic, dental clinic, pharmacy, kosher food pantry, job placement and legal services, transitional housing for the homeless, psychological services, and intensive day program for mentally ill patients. Let me just say that I LOVE my job. My boss is so so so wonderful and everyone is really friendly at work. Because I am the youngest person on staff, some of the staff consider me like their own daughter. One case manager, for example, has already tried to set me up with her friend’s son!

My days at work focus mainly around food and drugs. The Ark is home to the largest kosher food pantry in the Midwest and I get to spend two hours every day filling clients’ orders and unpacking and checking hechshers on donated food items. I also have my own caseload of clients who I help prepare for their visit to the food pantry. I often reflect on how for many of these clients, handing us their shopping list strips them of some of their dignity. They are not able to complete one of the most basic tasks-that of supplying food for their family-and have to submit to other people to pick out their food for them. Whenever possible, I ask clients if they want crunchy or creamy peanut butter or whole wheat or white pasta in an attempt to give them back some autonomy that I feel they have lost. I often mull over these ethical issues and would love to discuss them with you! In terms of drugs-I work to secure free medications for our clients by enrolling them in patient assistance programs. I don’t have too many juicy stories about the pharmaceutical companies.

In short-I LOVE my job and I LOVE being part of AVODAH. If you are ever in the Chicago area, please give me a call or email! Also, I would love to hear any updates on your life adventures, whatever they may be.

Warmly,

Becca

We are in the final hours of a contest that I never thought I would be in—let alone be leading. However, thanks to amazing support from around the world, we are a couple thousand votes shy of our goal.

The winner of the UJC Heroes Contest receives $25,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. I have pledged to expand Jewlicious Festival if we win, doing more than ever before.

Can you spare a few seconds to vote? To post a link on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace?

Jewlicious Festival is a place in time for young Jews to gather, to explore, to celebrate being Jewish. It’s an event unlike any other in Jewish history, uniting people from across ethnic, social, religious and political lines.

Jewlicious is Woodstock, Jewish Summer Camp, Mt. Sinai and Burning Man rolled into three non-stop days. We had 1,000 participants last year in just one location – we hope to bring the experience to 10,000 more.

Please – take a second to vote, and spread the good news – Jewlicious Festival, a place of unity that we so badly need in the Jewish world today, is leading the UJC Hero Contest and only a few votes from our goal of 100,000.

Please – pass the word. Don’t delay – we have only until tonight, 9pm PST.

Vote now! http://bit.ly/18HEXA

Check out this Tribute Video also placed below: http://bit.ly/2rMwyy

May all your dreams and prayers this year be realized.

As you may or may not remember (probably not because it’s not like I’ve already been a contributor here for a couple months and have pretty much told you about my life history in order to give you a better understanding of the Suffering of Russian Jews, except that now probably you hate us even more,)  my Hebrew name is Vered and I am pretty depressed that I don’t know any other Vereds. (Vardot?)

So it was uber-exciting when I found out that not only is Vered Guttman named Vered, but is also a caterer in the Washington, DC metro area, owner of Cardamom and Mint Catering,  specializing in Mediterranean food, and my favorite, Palestinian lamb dishes (I was sad to find out that Bamba is not considered a cuisine choice.)  Although I was fearful that I would be impinging on froylein’s take of the Jewish food beat, I haven’t seen her post any cakes in the past couple of weeks, so the ball’s totally in her court now.

I  immediately plied Ms. Guttman with questions about Israeli cooking and the relationship between food and family, and begged her to teach me how to make something that would prove my worth as a housewife to Mr. B once and for all so I could quit my job and just do my housewife thing and watch The Tyra Show at the actual hour it comes on every day.

When did you start catering?

I started catering after moving to the US and not being able to find a job as a software developer. Coming from Tel Aviv, a foodie’s paradise, where many consider themselves as potential chefs, it fulfilled my dream as well.  I’ve been catering for almost 5 years now. I was happy to find that people in DC were open and excited with the new palate. For example – a dry fava bean salad, with only garlic, cumin, olive oil and parsley became a big hit. Who would have thought?

Is there such a thing as Israeli food?  Or did we  just Xerox Lebanese cuisine?

We did not steal  from Arab cuisine.  Jewish families that lived in Arab countries adopted the local traditions under the Kashrut laws, and then brought those traditions with them to Israel. So did my family – on my father side they brought the wonderful Iraqi cuisine, and on my mother side – the Polish.  Israeli cuisine is a fusion between the different cuisines the Jews brought with them from the Diaspora plus a strong influence from our Palestinian neighbors. What we got is a kitchen that’s rooted in its area, using the olive oil, dates, figs, lamb and fish and a bountiful variety of vegetables. Israeli chefs and home cooks feel comfortable mixing traditions from Morocco with spices from Iran, French baking with Yemenite dough (no, seriously). Or serving Chrayme (spicy fish in tomato and paprika sauce) for Rosh Hashanah, followed by chicken matzo ball soup.

The one unique Jewish element you can see in many of the different origins is the Shabbat dish. A dish you prepare on Friday afternoon and cook it all night on low heat, until Shabbat lunch. This was, and still is, done so not to work on the Saturday, and produced brown, moist dishes that fill the house with their wonderful smells until they’re finally served.  The Iraqi Tbeet – a chicken stuffed and covered with rice and chicken’s inner parts becomes so tender that you can eat its bones. The Eastern European Cholent – potatoes, beans, meat (plus numerous additions, I can’t even begin to describe here). The Yemenite Jachnoon - rolled dough that becomes sweet and brown, usually accompanied by tomato salsa. These are just a few.

What Israeli dishes can I make at home for Mr. B without having to buy a shwarma rotating thingy and some guy named Avi from Bat Yam to turn it?

The one Israeli dish I would recommend for every family is the Israeli salad (by the way, in Israel we call it Arabic salad or vegetable salad. It got the Israeli title in the United States). It’s easy to make, it’s colorful and delicious, healthy and my kids fight for it. I hope you’ll have it almost every day, as we do.

• Get tomatoes, Israeli cucumbers (the small greenhouse cucumbers) and an onion. No quantities needed.
• Chop the vegetables and mix. If you’re using the Israeli cucumber you don’t even need to peel it.
• Add kosher salt and a little strong flavored olive oil.
• Fresh lemon juice is also welcomed.
• Now you can add other vegetables to your taste – chopped green or red peppers, hot pepper, shredded radish, cut lettuce.
• Let the kids dip a good slice of bread into the juices accumulate at the bottom of the bowl, and they’ll be happy.

Here’s my Israeli salad from a couple months ago.  It’s the only thing I make that doesn’t poison Mr. B!  Shana tova u non poisonous-a to everyone.

Benji Lovitt – who entertained us at Jewlicious Festival 5.0 – in his latest hilarious video for the New Year.

OctoDad Press Conference @ OctoMom’s House

A man claiming to be “the real OctoDad” surfaced outside the circus that is Nadya Suleman’s home carrying a turkey baster and three test tubes filled with white liquid. Did someone order takeout?!— TMZ.com

Smooth-E, a veteran of several Jewlicious Festivals, has written a song about the Octomom. Meanwhile, check the video for a really good laugh during this “Octodad Press Conference.”

It’s been a week since the Jewlicious Festival ended. I thought some kind of broad recap would be in order and might even prove to be somewhat instructive to those of you out there who are into that sort of thing, like readers of eJewish Philanthropy or the Fundermentalist. Both of those aforementioned blogs deal with issues related to Jewish philanthropy as well as with organizations and projects they fund. Both have also expressed an interest in issues related to youth, innovation and social entrepreneurship – buzz phrases that one often hears uttered by Jewish organizations both large and small.

As far as the Festival goes, it was in almost every respect a smashing success. We had nearly 1000 Jewish students and young adults enjoy a weekend full of fun, food, music and over 120 individual programs. Our success was due in no small part to a grass roots effort by a large crew of volunteers who helped guide almost every aspect of the weekend’s programing. Add to that both local and national philanthropists and organizations who allowed us to keep costs down while still offering a world class event and you have a supposedly simple recipe for success. Yup, as simple as uniting close to 1000 young Jews representing every denomination and orientation in Judaism for a spirited, fun, educational and inspiring weekend… so much for that whole “2 Jews, three synagogues” malarkey!

Of course nothing is ever quite that simple. Raising funds for this event is a difficult job – to say the least. Most of the large grant making organizations out there do not fund us at all – it’s kind of difficult to compress the totality of what the Festival is into 5 double spaced pages faxed in triplicate by 9am EST. Who even uses fax machines anymore? Very few people in the organized Jewish community really get what we do. Of course we try to be as transparent as possible – you could have tuned in to our UStream channel and watched a live video stream of the madness that was the unofficial Jewlicious office the week before the Festival. Or you could have followed our #Jewlicious tweets. Or read our blogs. Ever try explaining to Fred and Francine Federation what a tweet is? Good luck…

Given the current economic climate, fundraising is even more difficult for an organization like ours. As was mentioned in the recent Jumpstart Survey of New Jewish Organizations, startups like ours “succeed at attracting the exact demographic that established Jewish institutions struggle to reach, at a fraction of the cost in time and resources.” Conversely, the study correctly noted (at least in our case) that Jewish start-ups are feeling the effects of the economic crisis and need collaborative sector-wide support to survive. It is no wonder that 59% of the respondents to the survey reported having already taken action in response to the economy. So yeah. We certainly took action. Thanks to the hard work of Festival Director Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, Long Beach Hillel Director Rachel Bookstein and an army of volunteers, we managed to do more – serving 40% more students than last year – with less money. And it wasn’t easy – the fear and stress in all those late night phone calls and heated meetings was palpable.

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Good lord. Talk about hyper connected. I have to remind myself NOT to pick my nose…. So the Jewlicious Festival starts February 27th and we’ll broadcast the prep as well as much of the Festival as we can, including the live show Saturday night (9:30 pm PST). You’ll see frazzled organizers, delirious attendees and lots of cool stuff I am sure. I’m probably going to regret this… enjoy!

Free video streaming by Ustream

LimmudLA was a terrific success and the organizers and their sponsors should be thanked again and again. LA brought out its best and brightest for this weekend retreat. The program was alive, the vibe good, and the entertainment first rate. Sunday’s concert featured a variety of Jewish performers for a PBS style showcase. It was a unique feat, created by Robbie Helperin. Kudos to Linda Fife & Shep Rosenman, conference co-chairs, & Ruthie Rotenberg, Executive Director of LimmudLA, and all the dozens of volunteers.

The LA Times covered the Limmud LA conference, where Rabbi Yonah, Festival Director and Rachel, Program Director, taught sessions this past Presidents Day Weekend. Jewlicious Festival presenters MATISYAHU and Adam Weinberg brought the crowd to their feet with an inspiring acoustic set on Saturday night, then invited everyone to join them at Jewlicious for another round. The LA Times interviewed another JF5 presenter, Avi Averbach, of Jewish World Watch:

“It’s been an amazing weekend. It’s very relaxed, and you’re meeting all these new people from different areas and different parts of Judaism,” said Ari Averbach, 25, who works with Los Angeles-based Jewish World Watch, an organization focused on ending genocide…. Most of the conference sessions were rooted in Jewish traditions with modern adaptations and messages. Read More,,,

Thanks LimmudLA — it was a great weekend.

Best watched in High Quality Mode.

Festival Tickets are selling very fast for our amazing weekend of music, feasts, and thoughtful investigations into anything Jewlicious. You can buy for the whole weekend, or for just a Saturday night concert, or a Sunday day pass. Anyway you go – you love it.

Buy tix now at BrownPaperTickets.com before they sell out.

OK, so today’s holiday of Tu B’Shvat is in fact about the trees – it’s the new year of the trees in fact. Customs related to this holiday include planting trees, eating dry fruit and nuts – especially almonds which are in bloom in Israel at this time. Tsfat Mystic Rabbi Isaac Luria instituted a Tu B’Shvat seder where special meaning was ascribed to the fruits and nuts of the land of Israel.

So clearly we can see an ecological element to this holiday. Thus this is an opportune time to mention the various green initiatives that will be taking place at the Jewlicious Festival. First of all, in keeping with our Greenkeit Manifesto, the Jewlicious Festival will be run in the most environmentally friendly way possible. Our Sunday morning event is a very “green” bike ride to the beach where breakfast will be served. Do check out the Greenkeit manifesto as it contains tips that you can use even outside the context of the Festival – like the suggestion that you uh… shower with a buddy…

Of course with all this talk of trees blooming and sap running and people showering together, one cannot ignore the bootylicious aspects of this season. I know that in most of the US and Europe it’s still very cold but here in Israel, even in Jerusalem, the weather’s been positively balmy. Everyone seems to be in a good mood and it might not be a bad opportunity to, you know, fill your dance card.

One of our long term supporters, JMatch.com has certainly been doing its share to make it easy and fun to find Jewish activity partners of the opposite sex. A recent visit to their site shows services like live chat, live video conferencing and a bevvy of babes with whom you can uh… share a shower with. Less water for you, more water for agriculture! Check out JMatch.com – do it for the trees! I’m not kidding. There’s a facebook group for people in Israel who want to preserve water resources by bathing together. This is serious you guys!

See you at Jewlicious Festival 5.0!

Are you the next Spielberg, Brooks, Allen or Cohen Brothers? Want your film be seen around the country? Submit a short film on a Jewish subject and you could win $500 or win a trip to Jewlicious Festival in Long Beach, CA this winter. Winning films will be shown at Jewlicious Festival and film festivals around the country. This nationwide film competition is for young filmmakers age 18-26. Submissions will be accepted until Sunday Night, February 22nd, 2009. All films will be eligible for the Jury Prize, chosen by panel of veteran filmmakers from Hollywood and New York.

DEADLINE: Extended until Feb. 22!
COST: There is no cost to enter – one film per filmmaker.
ELIGIBILITY: Films up to 20 min, made by filmmakers aged 18-26, pertaining to Jewish Identity
PRIZES: $500 prize for winner or trip to festival, plus 2nd and 3rd Place prizes
ENTRY: Entries must be submitted through the official channel only. See below:
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More Orthodox Rap. For a change…

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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.

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

Jewdyssee, a German music project integrating traditional Yiddish music (aka Yiddishe Mama) into club beats, is will be taking the stage at Jewlicious Festival. Before their departure to the US I had a chance to interview them about their music.

Here is what they had to say about why they rock.

Your music fills a niche not only in Germany, but internationally, as this genre of traditional Yiddish music with club is pretty innovative. How do you hope your audience will react from listening to your music?

We want the people to leave our performance completely sweating, emotionally uplifted, excited and exhilarated after dancing all night long! If, as well as loving the music, having been exposed to something they have never heard before and it has raised their curiosity as to what the songs were about, then this would be a great sense of accomplishment.

“Jewdyssee is not about making a political or religious statement,” says Maya and Eina of the group. “We just want to show that our culture not only has a tragic history, but that there is a great wealth of music and culture to be celebrated and that this culture is a current part of our lives that we want to express and share.

We just want people to see that our Jewish culture is alive and strong. By giving the youth a voice, by bringing this music to new people, it is going to keep it alive.

Jewdysee will be playing the late slot at Jewlicious Festival’s Main Concert Stage, Saturday night, February 28th, 2009. For tickets and information visit JewliciousFestivals.com

Read the full interview on The Jew Spot here. While you’re at it, check out the music at www.Jewdyssee.com.