Tablet Magazine » Jesse Oxfeld

Tablet Is Hiring

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:09:34 +0000

Tablet Magazine is looking for two new staffers to join our team, and where better to find them than among our dedicated readers. Pay is competitive, benefits are excellent, and the office is fun and relaxed, with not infrequent bagel breakfasts and delicatessen lunches.

Design director. We’re looking for a top-notch designer and UI/UX expert to oversee the look and feel of Tabletmag.com and related properties. The ideal candidate should be both an art person and a tech person, able to drive the design of the site and keep it functioning optimally. Experience in publication design is key, as is knowledge of online/SEO best practices. You can find the full job listing here.

Digital audience development director. We’re also seeking someone to oversee and execute all audience-development initiatives for Tabletmag.com and related properties. This person will be Tablet’s first and only full-time marketing staffer, responsible for all aspects of audience development, including product development, SEO, SEM, email, re-circulation, social media, partnerships, online traffic analysis, and consumer research. The full listing is here.

No. 25: Ordinary People

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:41:22 +0000

1980, dir. Robert Redford. A young, preppy Timothy Hutton driven to a suicide attempt after the tragic death of his beloved jock brother, Buck, in a sailing accident. (His name was Buck! It was a sailing accident!) Mary Tyler Moore, buttoned up in sweater sets and turtlenecks, as his mother, determined to keep things neat and tidy and settle all problems within the family. And a long, late-night run away from the family’s perfect suburban center-hall colonial and into the arms—literally—of the kindly, besweatered psychiatrist played by Judd Hirsch. Ordinary People is American cinema’s iconic, triumphant case for the life-saving superiority of Jewish emotionalism over WASPy repression. Among its three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, was one for its novice director, Robert Redford—who seven years earlier, as Hubbell in The Way We Were, had abandoned Barbra Streisand’s Katie precisely because he couldn’t handle her Jewish emotionalism. Goyishe kop.

A Fine Concert

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:00:09 +0000

“I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues” is a 1932 pop standard by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. It was also the title of Wednesday night’s concert in Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series—a night of music and commentary produced by the impresario Hal Willner and celebrating A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, David Lehman’s Nextbook Press book on the Jewish composers and lyricists who created much of the songbook.

Rufus Wainwright opened the show, in the Allen Room at Lincon Center, with its wall of windows overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park, with a soulful rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” He was backed by a 14-piece band, playing sultry nightclub arrangements of a dozen pop standards behind not just Wainwright but also Shannon McNally, Jenni Muldaur, Van Dyke Parks, and Christine Olmann, who brought the house down belting a loungey arrangement of Arlen and Koehler’s “Stormy Weather” in a flowing pink ’60s dress and a towering bouffant of blonde hair.

But even bigger names played, too. Sting proved himself a master of the songbook, delivering plaintive, moving renditions of George and Ira Gershwin’s “Love Is Here to Stay” and, later, “”Someone to Watch Over Me.” And none other than Lou Reed showed up to close the show with a hard-rocking, guitar-and-drums-heavy take on Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “One For My Baby (and One More For the Road).”

All photos by Dese’Rae Stage:

Wainwright with David Lehman, author of the Nextbook Press book A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs.

Photos from “I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues?” Music and readings from A Fine Romance, at The Allen Room, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th Street, New York City.

Miep Gies Is Dead

Jesse Oxfeld — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:58:53 +0000

Miep Gies, who with three others sheltered eight Dutch Jews from the Nazis in a secret annex to Otto Frank’s Amsterdam office during World War II, died Monday night at the age of 100. She was an employee of Frank’s business who helped protect the Frank family; another family, the van Pels; and her dentist, Fritz Pfeffer, after the Germans occupied the Netherlands and started deporting Jews in 1942. When the Gestapo raided the annex on August 4, 1944, arresting the hidden Jews and sending them to concentration camps, Gies avoided arrest and saved the papers of the teenaged Anne. After the war, when only Otto Frank returned from the camps, Gies gave him his daughter’s diary, which was first published in the Netherlands in 1947. Gies, who remained anonymous until an American author identified her and helped her publish an autobiography, Anne Frank Remembered, in 1987, was subsequently honored with West Germany’s highest civilian medal in 1989 and knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1996. “I am not a hero,” she wrote in Anne Frank Remembered. “I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more—much more—during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness.”

Miep Gies, Protector of Anne Frank, Dies at 100 [NYT]

Mazel Tov, Chelsea

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:00:41 +0000

Chelsea Clinton has snagged herself a nice Jewish boy. President Bill Clinton’s office announced today that Chelsea is engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky. Clinton is a former McKinsey consultant now studying public health at Columbia University; Mezvinsky is a fomer Goldman Sachs banker now at a hedge fund. The couple sent an email to friends announcement their engagement on Friday. The ceremony will be next summer but no specifics have been set, the email said—including who’ll officiate.

Chelsea Clinton Is Engaged [NYT]

Oldest Spanish Torah Scroll Sold

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:00:05 +0000

The oldest surviving complete Torah scroll from pre-Inquisition Spain was sold at Sotheby’s yesterday to an unnamed American private collector for $398,500—not quite the half-million bucks the auction house gave as the high estimate, but impressive nonetheless. The 700-year-old scroll was put up for sale by Rabbi Yitzchok Reisman, a Torah scribe and repairman on New York’s Lower East Side who bought it for less than $40,000 a decade ago from a Moroccan family of Spanish origin now living in Israel. Not a bad return—and, as is its wont, Sotheby’s did the rabbi the favor of giving him a photograph of the scroll as a keepsake.

Torah Scroll, Kabbalistic Circle of Shem Tov Ben Abraham Ibn Gaon, Northern Spain [Sotheby’s]
Related: Treasure Trove [Tablet]

Tablet’s Kirsch Makes Forward 50

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:00:49 +0000

Excuse us while we kvell for a moment: Adam Kirsch, Tablet Magazine’s book critic, has been named to this year’s Forward 50, the newspaper’s annual list of the most important American Jewish leaders. Here’s what the Forward had to say:

This year Adam Kirsch, 33, has cemented his position as this century’s first pre-eminent Jewish man of letters. A widely admired poet and essayist, his mind is exercised both by Jewish particularity and the broader world of culture. Both are evident in, for example, his biography of Benjamin Disraeli or when reminding readers of the New York Times that Ayn Rand was born Alissa Rosenbaum.… Yale professor Langdon Hammer — writing in The New York Times — praised the Harvard-educated Kirsch as a poet-critic akin to a previous “generation of poets who won positions in American colleges as literary critics” and even traced a lineage back to T.S. Eliot.

Mazel tov, Adam.

Adam Kirsch archive [Tablet]
Adam Kirsch: Benjamin Disraeli [Nextbook Press]

Sundown: Madoffiana, Priced to Move

Jesse Oxfeld — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:18:46 +0000

• Couldn’t afford Bernie Madoff’s Montauk spread? Now his cheaper tchotchkes are up for auction. [Gawker]
• Jewish basketball star Nancy Lieberman becomes NBA’s first female head coach. (And, no that’s not an Onion headline.) [JChronicle]
• Jews continue to wander, now in obvious ways: As U.S. population has shifted south and west, so has Jewish population, says study. [Federations]
• Another study finds that high-school sports do not actually prevent drug use, crime, and alcohol abuse, as they’re often promoted these days. Protective Jewish parents of asthmatic, intellectual Jewish kids let out a (wheezy) sigh of relief. [Reuters]

After Abbas, the End of the Palestinian Authority?

Jesse Oxfeld — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:19 +0000

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who announced last week that he won’t be a candidate for another term in the election he has called for January, is likely to resign his office in the next month or so, Ethan Bronner reports in today’s New York Times. In last week’s reports, Bronner’s sources suggested that while Abbas wasn’t bluffing with his announcement, it was also unlikely that the election would happen as scheduled, keeping the president in office longer. Worse, Bronner’s sources are now speculating that Abbas’s resignation could mean the end of the Palestinian Authority. “I think he is realizing that he came all this way with the peace process in order to create a Palestinian state, but he sees no state coming,” longtime Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the Times. “So he really doesn’t think there is a need to be president or to have an Authority. This is not about who is going to replace him. This is about our leaving our posts. You think anybody will stay after he leaves?”

Palestinian Authority’s Future in Question [NYT]

Abbas Won’t Seek Reelection, He Says

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:27:18 +0000

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced today that he won’t seek a new term in the president election he has called for January. “This is not a bargain or maneuver,” he said, although it’s unlikely the election will actually be held in January—they won’t happen until there’s a political reconciliation between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah party, allowing them to go forward—which means he won’t be leaving the presidency anytime soon. “A top aide to Mr. Abbas said a large part of the ‘despondency and frustration’ felt by Mr. Abbas and the entire Palestinian leadership was due to President Obama’s unrealized promises to the region,” reports Ethan Bronner in the New York Times. “He said he feared that without a stop to settlements, Islamist rivals in Hamas could triumph and violence could break out.”

Palestinian President Says He Won’t Seek Reelection [NYT]

Bacon-Wrapped Matzoh Balls Come to L.A.

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:12 +0000

Ilan Hall, the Long Island-born Jewish chef who won season two of Bravo’s Top Chef, a serving bacon-wrapped matzoh balls at his just-opened Los Angeles restaurant, The Gorbals. That’s really about all there is to say on the matter, though the Los Angeles Jewish Journal has another 1,000 words on it—plus a video!—if you’re desperate for more.

Bacon-Wrapped Matzvah [Sic] Balls With Top Chef Ilan Hall [LAJJ]

Ringtones Rock Ramallah

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:00:44 +0000

After months of delay, Al-Watania, the West Bank’s second cell-phone carrier, began its operations this week, offering its customers the latest in telephone technology. And while the company’s customers won’t be able to pick up their new flip phones and call Israel—bureaucratic restrictions and mutual resentments make communications between the Jewish state and its Palestinian neighbor nearly impossible—they will be able to download ringtones of their favorite songs. The most popular option, by far, is “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “God is great” and a common phrase in Muslim prayer. It is followed closely by pop tunes from around the Arab world, such as the Egyptian singer Saad el Soughayar’s hit, “She Loves You, You Donkey.” Meanwhile, plagued by what it perceived as lack of cell phone etiquette, the Egyptian government took the unusual step of releasing a 16-point guide to properly using the popular technology. Among the document’s most pressing recommendations: “Don’t pick an annoying ringtone.”

Nebbishy Doc Raps Swine-Flu Advice

Jesse Oxfeld — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:00:34 +0000

Know you don’t want to get swine flu but occasionally forgetful of how best to prevent it? Who better to turn to for advice, then, than an bald, dorky, upper-middle-aged Jewish doctor who awkwardly raps about safety tips? Ladies and gentlemen, we present, courtesy of YouTube, Dr. Mache Seibel’s hip-hop “Five Tips to Avoid H1N1 Flu.” Go watch it. You’ll thank us. (Also: Wash your hands.)

DocRock [Healthrock.com]

Taylor Swift Is Not Actually a Nazi

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:00:10 +0000

We’re still not really sure who Taylor Swift is, except that we know Kanye West isn’t a fan, and we have no idea at all who Katy Perry is, but apparently the former went to a birthday party for the latter, at which she had her picture taken with a dude wearing a swastika, and now no one is happy.

Taylor Swift Embraces the Swastika [TMZ]

Two Shot at L.A. Synagogue

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:41:26 +0000

Two people were shot in the legs this morning at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue in North Hollywood, California, the Associated Press is reporting. “Police say a man with a handgun entered the building at about 6:20 a.m. and shot two people,” says the wire service, which notes that the police are treating the shootings as a hate crime. A man has been detained near the synagogue, but a police officer tells the AP he’s not if that is connected to the crime.

We’ll update as more information is available.

UPDATE, 1:55 p.m.: The Los Angeles Times has more detail, including word that the man arrested near the synagogue is not believed to be the gunman.

The two victims, both in their 40s, were arriving for morning minyan when they were shot in Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic’s underground parking lot. The gunman fled; other worshippers inside the synagogue called 911. The LAPD tells the Times that both victims are in good condition at local hospitals.

The police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime, but Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called it “a senseless act of violence.”

Police Search for Gunman in North Hollywood Synagogue Shooting [LAT]
2 Shot in Legs as Gunman Attacks L.A. Synagogue [AP/NYT]

West Bank Labor Pains

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:14:43 +0000

The Israeli settlement Ma’aleh Adumim, which operates as an independent municipality in the West Bank, is expected to be incorporated into Israel in any two-state solution. Home to about 30,000 residents, 99.8 percent of whom are Jews, Ma’aleh Adumin is the settlement that Israelis pointed to the most when arguing against the Obama administration’s now-scuttled “settlement freeze” policy. How can any government stop a city that big from growing? And although the city is all but a de facto Israeli possession, a little discussed problem is how its vanishingly small Palestinian population is governed by a different set of labor laws. Jordan has been responsible for administering labor legislation in the occupied territories since 1965. So the 80 members of the Jahleen Bedouin tribe, who are technically Ma’aleh Adumin citizens, still answer to those policies with respect to their employment. As a result, Palestinians in Ma’aleh Adumin don’t receive the same benefits as Israelis do when it comes to rehabilitation pay, pensions, travel expenses, education funding, and religious dispensations. (It didn’t help that they all signed a separate agreement in 2005 with the municipal authorities reaffirming their alien work status.) In recent weeks, a number of Bedouin workers went on strike after their request for time off to attend Muslim Friday prayers was denied—a right that Arab Israelis enjoy under the more liberal Israeli labor law. “We are not trying to avoid the image of a settlement—this is an image that does not exist,” Eli Har-Nir, the director of the municipality who fired three of the workers, told Haaretz. Roughly translated: 80 Palestinians aren’t worth re-writing the municipal code.

Palestinians
in Ma’aleh Adumim Employed by Israel But on Jordanian Terms [Haaretz]

Neurosis Can Cause Asthma, Study Says

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:00:01 +0000

Is it possible that the Woody Allen stereotype of the neurotic, asthmatic, nebbishy Jewish guy actually has some basis in truth? (Don’t all stereotypes?) Reuters is reporting on a recent academic study (conducted in Germany, stereotypically) that finds a link between neurosis and respiratory trouble. “People who are neurotic—they tend to worry a lot and to have emotional ups and downs—seem to be at increased risk of developing asthma, a new study hints,” Reuters says. “Animal studies have shown that chronic stress alters hormone levels, which can inflame airways making it difficult to breathe. Researchers believe that neurotic character traits may exert similar effects. If so, then helping neurotic people to calm down or ‘chill out’ could, theoretically, reduce their risk of asthma.” Call us neurotic, but that “theoretically” seems like a pretty big hedge.

Neurotic? It Could Lead to Asthman [Reuters]

Tablet Today: Death

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:00:33 +0000

Jerm Pollet on Jewish Body Week from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

It’s the final day of Jewish Body Week at Tablet Magazine, and today’s video testimonial is from comedian Jerm Pollet, who is surprised to find himself hot for Jews. But the other content today examines death. With an audio slideshow, we take you on a tour through a major collection of Jewish funerary objects. Sarah Weinman considers the conflict between religious imperative to leave the body intact and bury it quickly and the occasional legal requirement for an autopsy. And Diana Bletter, a member of a small Israeli village’s burial society, reflects on preparing a young woman’s body for interment. Additionally, in his weekly Blessed Week Ever column, Liel Leibovitz considers this week’s haftorah portion, on praise and kids. And there’ll be more on The Scroll throughout the day.

Chinese Jews Arrive in Israel

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:35 +0000

Wherever you go, as that old Hebrew-school song goes, there’s always someone Jewish—even in Kaifeng, China, as it turns out. The Israeli papers are carrying news of seven Chinese descendents of the Jewish community there who arrived earlier this week at Ben Gurion Airport, made a first stop at the Western Wall, and then will spend up to a year learning Hebrew on a kibbutz and then completing the conversion process. No one is quite sure how Jews ended up in Kaifeng, but the prevailing theory is that they’re all descended from Persian traders who arrived there on the silk road in the 10th through 12th centuries, according to an article in Ynet. The community now numbers about 1,000, Ynet says, and while its members have almost completely assimilated, they’ve preserved some Jewish traditions like avoiding pork and baking matzo at Passover. “My dream is to complete the process of converting to Judaism and become a certified rabbi, after which I will return to my community and serve as its first rabbi since the dissolve [sic] of the Jewish community some 150 years ago,” 23-year-old Yaacob Wang told Ynet, in a statement that suggests he’ll have an excellent career crafting soundbites if the rabbi thing doesn’t work out. “I am excited to arrive to the holy land,” he added. “It is a dream come true.”

Chinese Descendents of Ancient Jewish Community Make Aliyah [Ynet]

Daybreak: Iran Deal Close

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:00:42 +0000

• The United States and allies are close to an agreement in which Iran will ship its uranium to Russia for enrichment, not to weapons grade. But Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, issued a statement saying a must require “the cessation of enrichment by Iran, and not just the removal of the enriched material.” [NYT]
• One month after the Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas meeting in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reported to the president yesterday that almost no progress has been made in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. [NYT]
• But U.S. Middle East Envoy George Mitchell said the talks also aren’t yet a failure. [Ynet]
• Major U.S.-Israeli joint military exercises began in the Middle East this week, but officials insist they are unrelated to current tensions in the region. [JPost]
• And Israeli Foreign Miniser Avigdor Lieberman asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to ensure the Goldstone report doesn’t advance further, calling the world organization “hypocrtical.” [Haaretz

Livni Praises J Street

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:00:21 +0000

Last week Tzipi Livni, head of Israel’s Kadima party and opposition leader in the Knesset, attacked the Netanyahu government for isolating Israel on the world stage. “You have managed to beat the president of the United States, Israel’s greatest friend, or at least this is the impression you and your people tried to convey after the meeting,” she said during the opening of the Knesset. “You have managed to humiliate the only partner for a peace settlement Israel has. In short: We have beaten America, humiliated the Palestinians, isolated ourselves. Raise your head from the small politics and see what has happened, see that Israel is excommunicated.” This week, she’s continuing that line of attack, though a bit more subtly. While Netanyahu’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, very publicly declined an invitation to speak at next week’s J Street conference, sponsored by the left-leaning Israel lobby, Livni made a point of sending J Street’s founder and executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, a letter praising his group and apologizing for missing its confab. (Steve Clemens posted a copy of her note at The Huffington Post.) “In my view, the discussion within the pro-Israel community of what best advances Israel’s cause should be inclusive and broad enough to encompass a variety of views, provided it is conducted in a respectful and legitimate manner,” Livni wrote. In other words: I like you, even if closed-minded Bibi doesn’t.

Tzipi Livni Shows Prime Ministerial Stuff on J Street Conference [HuffPost]
Earlier: Oren Still Undecided on J Street Conference

Tablet Today

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:04:46 +0000

As Jewish Body Week continues on Tablet Magazine, we’ve got an excerpt from the playwright Amy Fox’s novel in progress about a Jewish American that acquires a black-market kidney from a Palestinian child. Jo-Ann Mort writes about tattoos and why she decided to get one in Tel Aviv. In a Vox Tablet podcast from the archives, journalist Masha Gessen reflects on learning that she carried a genetic mutation that put her at high risk for cancer. And in an essay from the archives, Marco Roth tries to recall the day he learned his father was dying from AIDS. There will be more Jewish Body Week tomorrow, plus, as always, more on The Scroll all day long.

Daybreak: Hymietown No More?

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:07:17 +0000

• New York City’s once-formidable Jewish vote “is declining in both significance and cohesiveness,” even as two-thirds are expected to vote for Mayor Michael Bloomberg. [Forward]
• Israeli officials believe Iranian nuclear negotiators are not interested in legitimacy, but in playing for time. [JPost]
• Though China previously voted to endorse the Goldstone Report at the U.N. Human Rights Council, it will oppose attempts to introduce it at the Security Council or any war-crimes trials. [Jewish Chronicle]
• But in an Al Jazeera interview, Richard Goldstone challenged the Obama administration to tell him where he’s wrong. [Haaretz]
• Trade through the estimated 1500 tunnels between Gaza and Egypt has never boomed more; the tunnels’ owners are Gaza’s “nouveau riche,” and are millionaires. [NYT]

Today on Tablet

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:00:40 +0000

A.J. Jacobs on Jewish Body Week from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

In today’s Jewish Body Week video testimonial, author and Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs talks about his big Jewish beard. Tablet Magazine book critic Adam Kirsch considers Benjamin D. Sommer’s new book, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel. Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry talks to author Eliza Slavet about her Racial Fever: Freud and the Jewish Question and the great psychoanalyst’s theories on the inheritance of Jewishness. And we’ve got two favorites from the archives: Emory professor Sander L. Gilman’s essay on the ongoing fascination with Jews and intelligence, and a Vox Tablet interview with poet and professor Joy Ladin, who lived most of her life as a man, Jay. Jewish Body Week will continue tomorrow and Friday, and, of course, we’ll have more on The Scroll throughout today.

Today on Tablet: Welcome to Jewish Body Week

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:00:46 +0000

Marjorie Ingall on Jewish Body Week from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

To kick off Jewish Body Week, here’s Tablet Magazine parenting columnist Marjorie Ingall talking about her Jewish body. Also today, Jonathan Rosen, the general editor of the Nextbook Press Jewish Encounters book series, argues that Jews are as much people of the body as people of the book. Ingall writes about the guilt felt by Jewish mothers unable to breastfeed. Books columnist Josh Lambert looks at new books that deal with the Jewish body. And, in a from-the-archives greatest hit, we’re reprinting Peter Hyman’s essay on his son’s bris and his internal debate on what to do with the foreskin. We’ll have more considerations of the Jewish body throughout the week—and a new video testimonial each day. Plus, as always, we’ll have more on The Scroll throughout the day.

Jon Minus Kate, Plus 5770

Jesse Oxfeld — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:15:44 +0000

ParentDish blogger Susan Avery interviewed reality-TV star-cum-cad Jon Gosselin last week, and we here present a selection from that interview, offered with no comment beyond ParentDish’s headline, “Jon Gosselin Loves His Kids, His Girlfriend and the Jews.” Because, really, what else is there to say?

PD: Let’s try a happy topic. What are your plans for Halloween and Thanksgiving with the kids?
JG: Thanksgiving is tough. Kate has custody on Thanksgiving, but I will stop by to see my kids. Halloween I don’t have custody. Hailey [Gosselin’s post-Kate love interest] handles my schedule. It’s kinda weird, but I can confide in her. She’s my best friend. I lost a lot of friends; people burned me left and right.

PD: And Christmas?
JG: Christmas, yeah. This is the first year I will celebrate Chanukah. Hailey is Jewish. Everyone in my life is Jewish now, my attorney. I love it. I’m now half Jewish and half Korean. The family values are great. On Christmas, I’ll see my kids during the day for a couple of hours. …

PD: Tell me more about your interest in Judaism.
JG: I just went through Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur and learned about the new year and every Friday is the Shabbat dinner. I love challah bread. I’m learning about Jewish food, going to Zabar’s. I love that place. I’m learning about kosher and when not to order a bacon, egg and cheese and make an ass of myself. …

PD: Are we going to see you converting to Judaism?
JG: I talked to Rabbi Shmuley a couple of times. He has nine kids.

Jon Gosselin Loves His Kids, His Girlfriend and the Jews [ParentDish]

Glowing Gefilte Fish Found in U.K.

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:05:59 +0000

We were a bit slow to discover this news, for which we wholeheartedly apologize. But having learned it just today, we’re rushing to pass it on to you: gefilte fish, in certain circumstances, can glow in the dark. TheJC.com, a British online Jewish news source, broke the news on September 24, reporting on the Taylor family of England. “Student Jessica Taylor was shocked to see her late-night gefilte fish snack light up the kitchen of her north London family home by glowing bright green and yellow.” It seems Jessica came home very late and wanted a snack; she didn’t turn on the kitchen light before removing her snack from the fridge, and that’s when she found the phosphorescent fish. She recreated the scene the next night for her skeptical parents. “We all stood there amazed,” her father, Joff Taylor, told the website. “It was brighter than a glow-stick.” A spokesman for Moshe’s deli, where the gefilte fish was purchased, suggested that the fish might have eaten some harmless phosphorus. (“It’s good for you,” the spokesman said.) A representative of the manufacturer, Hoffman’s foods, was less credulous. “I’m a qualified microbiologist, and I have never heard of this,” said Getta Cohli. “I think it was an act of God.” Marcus Dysch, the reporter, had perhaps the best advice: “Best just to check your fish before eating it by turning the lights off. If it glows, throw it away. If it doesn’t, tuck in.”

Glowing Report for Gefilte Fish [TheJC.com]
More on the Glowing Gefilte [TheJC.com]

Jews Lose Nobel Prize

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:00:40 +0000

So it turns out the Nobel Prize for Literature has gone not to the Israeli novelist Amos Oz, as some people were predicting, or to Philip Roth, who others (though fewer others, it seemed) thought was a leading contender. Instead, the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature is Herta Mueller, a Romanian-born German novelist whom none of us had heard of until this morning. She is 56 years old, and she immigrated to Germany in 1987, after years of persecution and censorship in her native country, according to The New York Times. The Swedish Academy, in announcing the award, praised Mueller, “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.” This year is the 20th anniversary of the fall of European communism, and Mueller opposed the Ceausescu regime and was a member of Aktionsgruppe Banat, which the Times describes as “a group of dissident writers who sought freedom of speech.” Also intriguing: the Times notes that her father served in the SS during World War II.

Herta Müller Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature [NYT]

Gilad Shalit Is Alive

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:59:52 +0000

The Israeli government today released a video of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, captured more than three years ago by Hamas, holding a Palestinian newspaper dated September 14 and looking healthy and calm, if thin. This proof of his wellbeing was released in an Egyptian- and German-mediated deal between Israel and Hamas that also saw the release of 19 female Palestinians held in Israeli jails, plus one more to be released later today. After senior government officials viewed the tape, it was flown by helicopter to the Shalit family, in Northern Israel, who then authorized its public release. “I have been hoping and waiting for the day of my release for a long time,” he says in the video. “I hope the current government under Binyamin Netanyahu will not waste the chance to finalize a deal, and I will therefore be able to finally have my dream come true and be released.”

Video Shows Captive Israeli Soldier in Good Health [NYT]
Watch New Schalit Video: ‘I Yearn to See My Family Again’ [JPost]
Gilad Shalit in Video: I Feel Healthy, Being Treated Well [Haaretz]

Anne Frank, YouTuber

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:00:24 +0000

This should be noted: Anne Frank now has a YouTube channel. “The site contains existing and new images, including the only known video footage of Anne—a shot a few seconds-long of her leaning out of an upstairs window during the wedding of a neighbour in July 1941,” reports London’s Telegraph today. There’s also an interview with Anne’s father, Otto Frank, interviews with people who knew her, and a clip of Nelson Mandela talking about reading her diary while he was in prison. This new site, at youtube.com/annefrank, comes on top of annefrank.org, the official site of the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, annefrank.com, the site of the Anne Frank Center USA, and Anne Frank The Writer, a section on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website. It’s an impressive digital presence—especially for a girl who never lived to see Univac.

Anne Frank’s Channel [YouTube]
Anne Frank Channel Launched on YouTube [Telegraph]

On Tablet Today

Jesse Oxfeld — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:00:42 +0000

In Vox Tablet, our weekly podcast, Tablet Magazine’s Sara Ivry talks to author Francine Prose about Anne Frank’s estimable writing skills. Parenting columnist Marjorie Ingall speaks out for great children’s books that have been banned over the years. Book critic Adam Kirsch reflects on the uniquely American Zionism of Louis Brandeis. Book columnist Josh Lambert reads up on the “interpretive chutzpah” of Bible stories, gay Torah commentary, Saved by the Bell, and more. And stay tuned as always to The Scroll, where we bring you updates throughout the day.

Greetings From Washington, D.C.

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:00:58 +0000

In addition to your mother and your grandmother and all your friends with “Yay, 5770!” Facebook status updates, you know who else wants to wish you a happy Rosh Hashanah? Barack Obama. A video greeting from President Barry was posted to the White House blog yesterday afternoon, and he opens with a very well-executed (and charmingly, Obamily cadenced) “L’shana tova tikatevu,” also tossing in a “may you be inscribed for blessings in the Book of Life” to “members of the Jewish faith here in America and around world.” He also gets a chance to tout one of his favorite judicial qualities, asking that we “reject the impulse to harden ourselves to others’ suffering, and let us instead make a habit of empathy.” The rest of it is about what you’d expect: Let us use this time of reflection and reconciliation for families, communities, and even nations to heal old divisions. Let us stand up to anti-Semitism. Let us extend freedom around the world. Let us work to achieve peace and security for Israel. (“That’s why my administration is actively pursuing the lasting peace that has eluding Israel and its neighbors for so long,” he explained.) He winds up by quoting Isaiah, that the Jews are “a light unto the nations,” and by calling Judaism “a great and ancient faith.” And finally: “Michelle and I wish all who celebrate Rosh Hashanah a healthy, peaceful, and sweet new year.” And a good yontif to you, too, Mr. President.

Warm Wishes for Rosh Hashanah [WhiteHouse.gov]

Remembering Teddy

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:28:44 +0000

When Ted Kennedy decided in 1979 to seek the Democratic nomination for president, he recruited Thomas Dine, then a staffer on the Senate Budget Committee, to be his defense and foreign policy adviser. Kennedy lost to Jimmy Carter, of course, and Dine joined AIPAC as its executive director, a job he held until 1993. He spoke to Tablet Magazine today.

The first thing I did on the job, which I remember vividly, was to compile his record on Israel. He’d been in the Senate 19 years at that point, and it was quite a prolific record of matters concerning Israel’s standing in the region. Well, he himself didn’t realize how thick his record was, and when I showed him the document—it was Xerox paper I’d typed on and stapled together—and said, “Senator, this is what you have done,” he just sat down on the couch in his office, and held it in his hands. I can’t tell you what he said, to be honest—that’s not Kennedy, he just mumbled a few things—but it was a lovely moment, because he himself hadn’t recognized all that he’d done.

The first major speech he gave to a Jewish group as “Sen. Kennedy, candidate for the Democratic nomination,” was to the Conference of Presidents [of Major American Jewish Organizations], on January 28, 1980. We flew up on the Eastern Airlines shuttle, and we got into the cars, and I’m with him on the back seat. We crossed the Triborough Bridge, and we’re on the FDR, and the driver got very close to the curb and went over a tin can, or something, and it made a big noise. And he went off the back seat and almost hit his head on the ceiling—he thought it was a shot. And you just say to yourself, “Oh, my, it’s not easy to be a Kennedy.” But he was cool; we went to the speech, and I don’t remember what he said, but it was damn good.

He won the Massachusetts primary, and it was very cute—he called me into his office to thank me, because the Jews in Massachusetts had gone four-to-one for him. I said, “Excuse me, your name is Kennedy, you have this fabulous record, they’ve been voting for you all these years—you should have won it five- or six-to-one!”

Then Carter took his stand at the United Nations [with a vote, later disavowed, in favor of a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories]. We went to New York, and the senator went to Brooklyn and said, “Hey, I’m a friend of Israel, I can prove it.” And there’s a photo of him, at an event with all these bearded guys in black hats—he was cool. This is the Sunday before the Tuesday primary in New York, and that night we went to a synagogue on the Upper West Side. There must have been 500 people in the room. Kennedy was tired—he’d been in the car, and he was getting grumpy because his back hurt. So he got out there and gave a short speech, and then he got all kinds of questions about domestic issues, because that crowd was already convinced they were going to vote for him. The question I remember was, “Who are your heroes?” He took his time, and then he said, “The teachers in the public schools.” Particularly in rough neighborhoods, he said they were his heroes. And you can imagine how many teachers there were in that audience, or how many people related to teachers, and so he was talking about community, about local needs, education, civil rights, all in one answer.

Related: Primary Time: Of Kennedy, Carter, Jews and the Money Gap [NYM/Google Books]

On Tablet Today

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:00:19 +0000

This morning on Tablet Magazine, Senior Writer Allison Hoffman talks to Michael Rosen and Leslie Gruss of Manhattan’s East Village, who effectively adopted five neighborhood kids in their own stab at tikkun olam. Parenting columnist Marjorie Ingall annotates the experience of watching TV with her girls. On Vox Tablet, podcast host Sara Ivry discusses Major Farran’s Hat: The Untold Story of the Struggle to Establish the Jewish State, about the waning days of the British Mandate in Palestine, with its author, David Cesarani. And books columnist Josh Lambert surveys the week in Jewish publishing in his weekly “Reading Around” roundup. Plus, as always, there will be more throughout the day, including regular updates to The Scroll.

U.S. Jews Kvetch to U.S. Catholics

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:20:38 +0000

The AP is reporting today that representatives of the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and rabbis from the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements got together to send an aggreived letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They’re complaining that the bishops issued their own letter in June, which seems to suggest that they think the value of Catholic-Jewish dialogue is to give the Catholics a chance to convince the Jews that they should accept Christ as their savior. If so, it’s certainly a clever gambit by the Catholics. (Indeed, were the miter on the other head, one might even call it crafty.) But we’re less than convinced that a kvetchy letter is necessarily the best countermeasure. So we offer this, instead: Let’s just go proselytize them back.

U.S. Jews Protest Catholic Document on Salvation [AP]

Today on Tablet

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:00:52 +0000

On Tablet Magazine today, Diana Muir Appelbaum takes a look at grand plans for 1920s synagogues, left unfulfilled thanks to the 1929 stock-market crash. James Kirchick profiles Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, the gay-friendly Orthodox clergyman in Washington, D.C. Contributing editor Eddy Portnoy considers the gruesome 1871 death of a young girl at the hands of a immigrant from Plotsk masquerading as a doctor. And art critic Jeannie Rosenfeld examines the work of artist Ron Arad, the subject of a retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. There will be more throughout the day, plus regular updates here on The Scroll.

Barney Frank Swats Down Questioner

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:01:23 +0000

There are many reasons we love Barney Frank, the charmingly disheveled, wittily brilliant, gay, Jewish Democrat who represents Boston’s ritzy suburbs in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the latest is this: At a town hall meeting in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, last night, he provided an object lesson in how politicians should react when confronted by nutso constituents making lunatic Nazi comparisons about President Obama’s health-care reform proposals. “Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy?” asked his normal-appearing but apparently deranged interlocutor. His response, if you haven’t already seen or read it:

When you ask me that question, I am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time? … You stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler, and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis. My answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated. Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining-room table; I have no interest in doing it.

Are you listening, Arlen Specter? (Yeah, OK, granted it’s easier to be contemptuously dismissive of your wingnut constituents when you haven’t faced serious—if any—opposition in a quarter-century and won your last election 68 percent. But still.)

Rep. Barney Frank Slames Women Comparing Obama To Hitler At Town Hall [YouTube]
Barney Frank Goes Toe to Toe at Health Care Town Hall [CNN]

Mexico Is Like Gaza

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:05:44 +0000

You may have learned over the weekend that Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now locked in a primary battle to run for reelection against the state’s senior senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, represents the ideological, hard-right conservative side in the ongoing battle for the Republican Party’s soul. (Apparently it has one.) What you may not know is that Perry—who has recently, among other things, mused about Texas’s secession from the union, over the stimulus bill—was in Israel last week, where he compared Mexico to the Gaza Strip and suggested that Texas could learn from Israel how to better manage its border. Indeed, after visiting the southern Israel town of Sderot, which has been hit by more than 6,000 Gaza-launched rockets since 2000, Perry argued that Texas’s situation might even be worse. “Kassam rockets have killed 28 Israelis over the last eight years,” he told the Jerusalem Post. “Well, 1,000 people have been killed in Juarez since the beginning of the year [in drug-related violence.”

Texas Gov. Compares Gaza to Mexico [JPost]
Governor’s Race Exposes Republican Rift in Texas [NYT]

David Mamet and Anne Frank

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:11:05 +0000

Disney has acquired pic rights to a new rendition of The Diary of Anne Frank,” to be written and helmed by David Mamet. —Variety, yesterday

What we imagine to be the trailer:

INTERIOR, A (SURPRISINGLY SPACIOUS) DUTCH ATTIC. DAY.

ANNE:
The thing is…

OTTO:
Yeah?

ANNE:
It’s that…

OTTO:
What?

ANNE:
It’s that I still believe…

OTTO:
Great.

ANNE:
I still believe, in spite of everything…

OTTO:
There’s a lot of shit out there.

ANNE:
There is. But I still believe.

OTTO:
I know, you believe.

ANNE:
No, what I’m saying is…

OTTO:
What the hell are you saying?

ANNE:
I’m saying that I still believe, in spite of everything…

OTTO:
Yeah?

ANNE:
That people are truly good at heart.

OTTO:
Oh yeah?

ANNE:
Yeah.

OTTO:
Fucking fool.

Mamet Takes on ‘Anne Frank’ [Variety]
Related: Anne Frank’s Diary, As Interpreted by David Mamet [Vulture]

Madoff Aide DiPascali Pleads Guilty, Goes to Jail

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:15:33 +0000

Frank DiPascali, whom The New York Times describes today as “one of [Bernie] Madoff’s closest aides for decades, pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts, including conspiracy and tax evasion, in Manhattan federal court yesterday. He’s been cooperating with prosecutors, explaining details of how Madoff’s long-running scam operated, but, despite prosecutors’ requests, was not allowed to remain free on bail after his plea. (Prosecutors argued that he’d be better able to help them piece together the crime as a free man, and presumably wanted to offer him a reward for his cooperation; the judge pointed out that the guy’s got plenty of money and every incentive to flee before he’s sentenced.) “It was all fake,” said DiPascali, who, it seems, blamed all his wrongdoing on an overabundance of (misplaced) loyalty. “It was all fictitious. It was wrong, and I knew it was wrong at the time.” He’s now the third person to be charged with crimes in the Madoff Ponzi scheme—the other was Madoff’s accountant, who was charged with rubber-stamping, rather than actually auditing, his books—and the second, after Madoff, to plead guilty and go to jail. Most notably, though, he is also—bless his heart—the first gentile to catch any blame for this thing.

Madoff Aide Reveals Details of Ponzi Scheme [NYT]

A Milkman in Winter

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:00:11 +0000

Fiddler on the Roof, the Bock-Harnick musical based on Sholom Aleichem’s stories of life in the Russian shtetl, opened on Broadway in September, 1964, with Zero Mostel in the central role of Tevye the Milkman. But the Israeli actor Chaim Topol—usually billed mononymically, as Topol—has become perhaps even more associated with the character. Topol, then 31 years old, starred in Fiddler’s 1967 West End debut; he starred in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film version; and he’s played the character around the world—by his account, more than 2,500 times. (That puts him well ahead of onetime record-holder Paul Lipson, Mostel’s original understudy, who, according to his 1996 New York Times obit had played the role 2,000 times.) Now 73, he’s yeidel-deideling his way up the West Coast of the United States, part of a two-year Fiddler tour that’s being billed as Topol’s farewell. He spoke to Tablet Magazine from the rooftop restaurant at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where he stayed during a recent, sold-out run at L.A.’s Pantages Theater, about Tevye, Israel, and whether this is really his last hurrah.

You’ve been doing this role for more than 40 years. What has Topol learned from Tevye?

When I first played Tevye, Israelis had kind of detached ourselves from living in the Diaspora, and all the problems that Jews had in the Diaspora, pogroms and so on. We weren’t able to digest the huge catastrophe that happened, the six million killed. People who came from there, the survivors, didn’t talk. We, in Israel, didn’t understand anti-Semitism—what it means when someone doesn’t like you because you are Jewish. Although my father and mother were the only two survivors in their families, because they arrived to Israel from Poland in the early ’30s; probably my great-grandfather was a Tevye.

I’ve always felt like the end of the show—we’ll have to go wait for the Messiah someplace else—makes a pretty clear argument for the existence of Israel.

For me, it’s an axiom. I grew up on that idea. I was there when Jabotinsky and other people were saying that if you want to live the Diaspora, you won’t live. It’s funny, this morning, I hummed to myself a song that my father used to sing. “Sing the song of flowing land…,” a kibbutznik song, and I thought, who would write a song like that today? But for people who came to Israel then, it was such a sensation for them. I thought, what sort of happiness that they made of hard work. And there they were, singing a song to the hard work.

But, then, also, you have that line as the Jews are being evicted from Anatevka, “this corner of the world has always been our home.” It’s a point that could be made about Palestinians in the territories today.

It’s not an equivalent, because we don’t want them out, they want us out. And it was certainly our corner of the world before theirs.

But Israel is the one in control now, issuing edicts.

The stronger force by necessity, because otherwise they would do to us what the Germans did to the Jews, and they are not declaring it, they are hiding it quietly. But that’s what they say, that’s what the Hamas say, that’s what the Iranians say, that’s what Arabs say. We’d better be strong.

Have there been any memorably unsuccessful performances? I imagine it doesn’t translate as well to some—

You’re wrong. It translates to Japanese very, very well. It translates to—

I’ve seen it in New York, and in L.A., surrounded by the descendents of Eastern European Jews. You’d think that’s a very different experience from Tokyo.

I was in Australia three years ago. I was in places where maybe in the entire area there are probably a thousand Jews. It was packed by Chinese, by Indians, by Koreans, by Vietnamese, by Yugoslavs, by Turks. And all identify with it. It’s not that they say, “Ah, this is how the Jews lived.” They say, “This is how my family lived.” In Australia, 90 percent are immigrants. So when you sing, in “Anatevka,” “Soon I’ll be a stranger in a strange new place, looking for a familiar face,” they know exactly the feeling. They cry during “Anatevka” no less than any Jewish family. Everyone, they cry in exactly the same places, and they laugh exactly in the same places.

The audience at the Pantages gave you I think the loudest, most excited entrance applause I’ve ever heard.

I think it’s excitement to see Tevye. Well, probably Tevye portrayed by Topol. But Tevye. You should blame the film for it, because the film was seen by a billion people.

Is there any part of you that’s frustrated that you’ve been so associated with this role for so long years?

Not at all. I’m very thankful and very grateful to my luck to be associated with a role like that. In the whole world, there are probably four or five guys who are associated with a role, and I’m sure they’re very proud of it. I mean, it’s Yul Brynner with the king, Rex Harrison with My Fair Lady, Tony Quinn with Zorba, the James Bonds…

Any truth to the rumor that on your tax return you list your occupation not as “actor” but simply as “Tevye”?

Really? I should try it.

Why are you saying farewell, then?

I don’t think farewell. I think it’s a good way for the producers to promote it.

So you’d consider doing it again.

If they’ll ask me, I’ll do it again.

Chabad Wants Honor for High-Level Nazi

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:00:36 +0000

We’re not sure how we missed this headline in the Jerusalem Post last week, because it’s really an excellent one: “Chabad: Make Nazi Commander a ‘Righteous Gentile.’” Yep, it appears that the Nazis’ intelligence chief—Admiral Wilhelm Canaris—was instrumental in helping Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef Schneerson, the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, escape from the Warsaw Ghetto along with his family and retinue. For this, the Chabadniks have petitioned Yad Vashem, to have him declared an official Righteous Gentile. The director of the Simon Weisenthal Center in Israel is against the move—“it smacks of a certain particularism,” he told the Post—and Yad Vashem has previously turned down a different request for Canaris’s righteousification, because he did not directly risk his life to save Jews, instead merely used his bureaucratic authority as a commander, and because he abetted the Nazi war effort, rather than opposed it. (That he was hanged by SS officers on April 9, 1945, for attempting to assassinate Hitler would seem to undermine both those arguments, but what do we know?) The Yad Vashem people told the Post they haven’t yet received this new request and so couldn’t comment on it.

Chabad: Make Nazi Commander a ‘Righteous Gentile’ [JPost via FailedMessiah]

Natalie Portman, Hasid

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:05:30 +0000

It’s no secret that Natalie Portman, a half-Israeli Long Island girl turned Harvard grad, has long been a favorite crush-slash-fetish object of dorky, smart, devoutly secular boys, the real-world antecedents of Zach Braff’s Garden State smitten doofus. But now she seems poised to perhaps serve the same role for those boys’ more observant bretheren. The newly released trailer for this fall’s forthcoming New York I Love You, a star-studded compilation of short films about love in the Big Apple from the people behind Paris, Je T’Aime, offers a glimpse of Portman’s character, this time a young Hasidic woman. You’ll find her wedding scene at about 1 minute, 8 seconds into the clip.

New York, I Love You-Trailer [YouTube]

Andrew Sullivan Explains His Zionism

Jesse Oxfeld — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:06:01 +0000

We missed this on Andrew Sullivan’s Atlantic blog last week, but Tablet Magazine contributor and Atlantic national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg pointed us to it yesterday. Sullivan, best known as the gay, Palin-hating, Obama-supporting, former-New Republic-editing, British conservative, considers himself a Zionist, and responding to Patrick Healy’s article on the gay scene in Beirut in last week’s New York Times Travel section, he reveals why: “I suspect it was seeing beautiful Israeli soldiers as a teenager on a trip to the Holy Land that made me a Zionist.”

Could Sullivan be onto a way to increase support for Israel among American teens and college students? (Especially among college students, who are of course sex-obsessed but among whom lately anti-Israel pro-Palestinianism seems to be becoming increasingly de rigueur? Suddenly, that whole silly Central Park “Tel Aviv beach”—complete, as you’ll recall, with scantily-clad sabras, of both the male and female persuasions, makes much more sense.

Vacation Time [Andrew Sullivan via Jeffrey Goldberg]
Previously: And the Beach Goes On

Tom Friedman Has Seen the Great Arabic Hope

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:00:31 +0000

Mustachioed New York Times foreign-affairs guru Thomas Friedman trotted to one of his favorite corners of the globe for today’s column, a dispatch from the Palestinian capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank. From there, he recounts the findings of the U.N Development Program’s new Arab Human Development report, which contains all sorts of dispiriting, if not entirely surprising, details. Throughout the Arab world, there’s huge unemployment, huge illiteracy, and stagnant economies, and things have only gotten worse since the last similar report, in 2002. It’s evidence for traditional Friedmanian points: Arab leaders must embrace modernity rather than fight it, they must focus on their own people not their enemies, and other similar ideas, more pithily sloganized by Friedman than by your humble blogger. But, interestingly, this column offers a bright spot—and, even more interestingly, that bright spot is the Palestinian Authority. “The whole report would have left me feeling hopeless,” Friedman writes, “had I not come to Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian government in the West Bank, to find some good cheer.” (“I’m serious,” he adds.) As it turns out, “Salam Fayyad, a former I.M.F. economist, is testing out the most exciting new idea in Arab governance ever,” Friedman writes. “Fayyadism is based on the simple but all-too-rare notion that an Arab leader’s legitimacy should be based not on slogans or rejectionism or personality cults or security services, but on delivering transparent, accountable administration and services…. He is an ardent Palestinian nationalist, but his whole strategy is to say: the more we build our state with quality institutions—finance, police, social services—the sooner we will secure our right to independence.” And, Friedman points out, the strategy seems to be bearing fruit: The number of new businesses in the West Bank is skyrocketing this year, and the economy there should grow by 7 percent, according to the IMF. Who knew?

Green Shoots in Palestine [NYT]

Online High-Holiday Services

Jesse Oxfeld — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:00:30 +0000

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? All of the sudden, just like that, it’s erev Rosh Hashana, and you realize you forgot to pay the synagogue dues and therefore never got your tickets in the mail. The synagogue office is already closed for the holiday, so you can’t make a last-minute payment and pick up tickets, and so you won’t be able to show up to daven. (Well, of course, you could, because you know from experience you can totally outfox those alter kockers from the Men’s Club who work as ushers and sneak in while they’re not paying attention. But that’s a little tacky, no?) What, oh what, is a good but absent-minded Jew to do? Thank goodness, then, for a press release we’ve just received from OurJewishCommunity.org, apparently “the world’s first progressive online synagogue,” according to the release. They’ll be offering a live Internet stream of High Holiday services from Congregation Beth Adam in Cincinnati. There’ll be an erev Rosh Hashana service, a Rosh Hashana morning service, a Kol Nidre service, a Yom Kippur morning service, and a Yizkor service, all easily viewable from the comfort of your computer desk. It’s free, too—but, as the press release also informs us, they’re very happy to accept your donations. Which you can pay online, as last-minute as you’d like.

OurJewishCommunity.org [Homepage]

Jewish Crime Week Continues!

Jesse Oxfeld — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:00:52 +0000

The new issue of Fortune magazine carries a fascinating story on Dina Wein Reis, who amassed a not-so-small fortune—including a lushly renovated townhouse on New York’s Upper West Side, an impressive art collection, and vacation homes in Westhampton, Bal Harbor, and Jerusalem—by running a years-long, large-scale con. She’d trick marketing execs at major companies into selling her big quantities of inventory at greatly reduced prices, ostensibly for her to distribute as samples. Instead, she’d sell them to retailers at full price, pocketing the difference. A yeshiva girl originally from Brooklyn, she frequently donated generously—and anonymously—to Jewish charities. But she was also a vicious boss, firing one employee—a former teacher at Wein Reis’ kids’ yeshiva—after she injured her foot on an assignment for Wein Ries. (That employee, Irith Hayblum, then blew the whistle on the scam, thus serving as a reminder to employers engaged in criminal conspiracies that it’s probably smart to be kind to the help.) Wein Reiss was arrested last fall, after which she spent a week in the federal jail that would subsequently house Bernie Madoff. She’ll face trial sometime next year, but for now she’s out on bail. When she was released, Fortune reports, she “enlisted her rabbi in her bid to convince a judge that she should not be required to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet. Orthodox practice, the rabbi said, forbids women from wearing slacks or pantsuits. Summer was coming, Wein Reis’s lawyer noted, and any skirt or dress shorter than ankle length would reveal the bracelet, which would complicate her efforts to get a new job. The judge agreed.”

The Alleged Grifter Who Duped Corporate Giants [Fortune/CNN.com]

A Guss by Any Other Name

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:00:35 +0000

Last week brought the news that Guss’ Pickles, the stalwart Lower East side vinegared-cucumber emporium, would soon be relocating to Brooklyn. Which was bad enough. But now it gets even worse: As New York’s Daily News reported Friday, a 2007 legal settlement between Pat Fairhurst, who owns the Orchard Street store, and the father-son duo of Steve and Andrew Leibowitz, Bronx picklemakers who had purchased the rights to the name, allows Fairhurst to peddle pickles as Guss’s only at the Orchard Street location. Which means that when Guss’ Pickles moves to Brooklyn, it’ll no longer be Guss’ Pickles. “We have a following, they don’t,” Fairhurst told the News. And yet somehow Fairhurst Pickles of Flatbush doesn’t have quite the same ring.

Lawsuit Forces Famed Pickle Dealer Guss’ Pickles to Change Its Name [NYDN via Eater]
Previously: Guss’ Pickles Decamps for Brooklyn

Send Her Your Tired and Poor Votes

Jesse Oxfeld — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:26:19 +0000

Many years ago, when your blogger was about 13 years and 1 month old, your blogger’s grandmother, to mark the recent occasion of his bar mitzvah, took him to Israel. On that trip, he remembers, they visited the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, in Tel Aviv, and—a cultural critic even then—your blogger was unimpressed. The museum, it seemed to him, was a well-presented, carefully displayed, sometimes-interactive version of sitting around with a bunch of kibbitzing alter kockers in Boca: Benjamin Disraeli was Jewish, you know! And Albert Einstein! And Sandy Koufax, too! And so on. It was, it seemed to your young nascent blogger, simply a collection of narcissistic boosterism, and, as such, more than a little bit distasteful. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that they’re building a National Museum of American Jewish History on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, and they’re letting people vote on which 18 Jewish Americans should be included its “Only In America Hall of Fame” gallery, a sort of Cooperstown of American Jewry. (That Sandy Koufax—such a ballplayer!) So go vote. We’re rooting for Emma Lazarus.

Only in American Hall of Fame [NMAJH.org]

The ‘Forward,’ ‘Brüno,’ and Pickles

Jesse Oxfeld — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:00:44 +0000

We earlier in the week declared a moratorium on all things Brüno, partially because there’s really nothing Jewish about it and mostly because it’s sort of terrible. But we must temporarily lift that moratorium to appreciate the excellent work of the Forward’s art department, as demonstrated by the placement of teaser art on the new issue’s cover. So: nice work. Moratorium now reinstated.

Current Edition [Forward.com]