Musical selections to put you in the mood for atonement
| 12:00 PM Sep 24, 2009
The Day of Atonement is a few days away, and tradition requires us to ask each other’s forgiveness for sins, slights, and other snafus we may have committed during the past year. If you’re in need for a bit of inspiration with all this sorry business, here are some musical examples of Jews apologizing in ...
‘Esther’ looked like a rebbetzin at last night’s VMAs
| 4:00 PM Sep 14, 2009
Maybe we’re extra-alert after Madonna’s recent visit to Israel and column in Yediot Ahronot, but we’ve noticed something unusual about the star’s wardrobe lately. In her outfit from last night’s MTV Music Video Awards, she looked like the edgiest rebbetzin at the sisterhood meeting. Combined with photos of her birthday swimming excursion, in which she ...
Exodus to cable, kosher ovens, and a bar becomes a mitzvah
| 5:04 PM Sep 4, 2009
• To cap off her visit to Israel, Madonna visited the tomb of revered kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, which was worthwhile if only for this sentence: “Madonna was accompanied in her visit by Rabbi Michael Berg, her own rabbi’s brother, as well as her partner Jesus.” (Also, check out these lively comments.) [Haaretz]
• GE has ...
Milk, more Madonna, charity, and the lack thereof
| 5:00 PM Sep 2, 2009
• Mark Siegel, who wrote a New York Post op-ed explaining that he’s against health care reform because he follows “the Oath of Maimonides,” apparently didn’t realize that the 12th century rabbi, philosopher, and physician had already weighed in on the topic. [NYP]
• In an article about the tendency of Cholov Yisroel (kosher milk certified ...
And into Israel, seeing sights, meeting with pols, and bugging a kabbalah macher.
| 4:00 PM Aug 31, 2009
It’s finally happening: Madonna is in Israel, and she’s hitting the sites—and the politicians. Having gotten the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall out of the way, Her Madgesty will visit with Tzipi Livni later today and with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. Also, her “Kabbalah-related celebrity friend[s]” Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, ...
Olmert under fire, Arkansas pride, and more in the news
| 9:00 AM Aug 31, 2009
• An aide says that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not resume talks with Israel without a full settlement freeze, no exceptions: “Mr. Obama, we love you … but I am sorry this is not enough to bring us to the peace process.” [Reuters]
• Former Israeli P.M. Ehud Olmert has been formally indicted on charges ...
For anti-discrimination comments
| 4:53 PM Aug 28, 2009
So Madonna got booed in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, last night. Why? Well, because she took a moment in the middle of her “Sticky and Sweet” show to tell her fans that it made her “very sad” to learn that Roma, or Gypsies, are still discriminated against in Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe. Though ...
Organ harvesting, Lady Gaga, and an Orthodox woman cop
| 4:00 PM Aug 21, 2009
• Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman is furious at Sweden’s foreign ministry for declining to denounce a recent Swedish newspaper article claiming that the IDF harvests organs from Palestinians it kills. [CNN]
• A British tabloid says Madonna got good-luck bracelets from her boyfriend Jesus Luz from his native Brazil for her birthday, but says she ...
Has zeal of the sort-of converted
| 10:32 AM Jul 31, 2009
In the first of her “Exclusive” columns for Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, Madonna narrates the road-to-Damascus—or, in her case, dinner-party-in-L.A.—moment when it became clear to her that, because of Kabbalah, the ancient strain of mystical Judaism, “my life would never be the same.” It was 14 (yes, only 14) years ago. She had just finished ...
Madonna the columnist, the Coen Bros., and more
| 5:00 PM Jul 30, 2009
• Israel published a 160-page report justifying last January’s three-week military incursion into Gaza and reporting the results of several related investigations. The report comes in advance of two United Nations papers on the action that are expected not to be so kind. [JTA]
• Madonna, pop mega-star and Hollywood-style Kabbalist, will publish the first installment ...