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Sundown: Mother Tongue

Pundit love, school apartheid, and Zappa’s birthright

by
Hadara Graubart
August 10, 2009

• A new study out of Haifa University says that the more love for Israel you have in your heart, the less of an accent you will have when speaking Hebrew. [Haaretz]
• Last night, the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, had his car pummeled with stones by ultra-Orthodox protesters. [JPost]
• Jon Stewart is “a staunch liberal, but he’s a thoughtful liberal”; thus, neoconservatives enjoy sparring with him on his show. [NY Mag]
• The Israeli Supreme Court ordered an end to policies at a school in a West Bank settlement that segregated Ashkenzi and Sephardic students, including separate entrances, classrooms, and recess times. [Ynet]
• Michael Wrublewski, an Australian son of Holocaust survivors “best known as the man who resuscitated basketball in Sydney,” threw a huge party celebrating his life after finding out he has terminal cancer. [JTA]
• Back in 1979, Frank Zappa was criticized by the ADL for his song parodying Barbra Streisand, “Jewish Princess.” Says former tourmate Napoleon Murphy Brock, “Zappa was the child of southern Italian, Syrian-Greek immigrants with Jewish roots. He had a right to create such texts.” [Spiegel]

Hadara Graubart was formerly a writer and editor for Tablet Magazine.