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Sundown: Obama’s Jewish Brother

Plus Ponzi fatigue, mother tongues, and a strange souvenir

by
Hadara Graubart
November 04, 2009

• Although President Barack Obama is not actually Jewish, it turns out his half-brother is; in a new novel, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo presents a fictionalized account of his (and Barack’s) father’s abuse of his Jewish American mother, Ruth Nidesand. [WPost]
• The House of Representatives can have its official condemnation of the Goldstone Report—the Palestinian owner of the President Arafat souvenir shop in Gaza has found an entrepreneurial way to show his support: “Today we put out 50 keffiyehs made of white fabric with the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the name ‘Goldstone’ embroidered on them, to honour his work.” [AFP]
• The Forward explains that everywhere in the Diaspora, “prior to the late 19th century, Jews who put the Jewish dialects or languages that they spoke into writing did so in Hebrew characters.” [Forward]
• South Floridian Jews must be pretty fed up with the phrase “alleged Ponzi-schemer,” but they’re going to have to put up with it a bit longer; their local Chabad center is named for conman du jour Scott Rothstein, who once called himself the “Jewish Avenger.” [New Times]
• For those who can’t take it, there’s a new getaway option: Crystal Cruises is now offering tours to cities worldwide, including Dublin, Odessa, and Stockholm, that focus on their destinations’ Jewish heritage. [Reuters]

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