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Sundown: History is the New Evolution

Reality TV, class consciousness, and grace under water

by
Hadara Graubart
July 14, 2009

• Some conservative Christian members of an educational review board in Texas think the state’s elementary history curriculum needs to be adjusted to reflect the fact that “the foundational principles of our country are very biblical.” But don’t look at the guy named Jesús—he’s the one advocating for multiculturalism. [WSJ]
• On tonight’s episode of TNT’s Saving Grace, Mayim Bialik guest stars as a Hasidic mother of seven. The former Blossom star was impressed by the show’s commitment to an authentic portrayal of religious Jews: “I think there may have been a mezuzah facing the wrong way on one of the walls, but that’s about it.” [TV Squad]
• For those who find the mikveh too mundane a way to bring water into their spiritual lives, Florida cantor Debi Ballard is training to perform Jewish weddings underwater. [Sun Sentinel]
• A Jewish congregation generously offers its sanctuary to a black church whose building was recently damaged; the Baltimore Sun leaps to remember the rosy past when Jews were “disproportionately active in the struggle for black civil rights,” sullied now by things like “a perception, whether fair or not,” that Jewish slumlords have oppressed their black tenants. [BS]
• In a public service announcement, comedian Carol Leifer says she became vegan because she felt that “as a Jewish lesbian, I wasn’t part of a small enough minority.” [PETA]

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