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On the Green Scene: Magazines, Chickens and One Sinful Goat posted 09/26/2007 @ 03:03PM With all due respect to Kermit, but sometimes, it's fairly easy to be green especially if you're a magazine looking to tackle issues. Back in April, PresenTense (for which I am senior edi [3.58 kbytes more ]

Seeing Israel beyond Paul Newman's blue eyes posted 09/07/2007 @ 01:01PM It doesn't take a visit to bastions of British academia or the campus of Columbia University to know that America's relationship with Israel is, let's nebulously and comprehensively say, challenging. Is Israel a place that needs American support, and if s [2.84 kbytes more ]

Are educators prepared to use technology? posted 08/15/2007 @ 05:24PM Having spent three days at the annual conference run by the Coalition for the Advancement of Education, I learned lots and met some great people. But having met educators of all ages, one thing was alarmingly clear: Jewish educators fear technology. The [3.44 kbytes more ]

To bully or not to bully posted 08/15/2007 @ 05:15PM One of the entertainment highlights for attendees of last week's CAJE conference was a performance by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary fame. As part of the ‘60s trio, Yarrow was responsible for "If I Had a Hammer" and "Puff the Magic Dragon," among icon [2.02 kbytes more ]

'Orthodox Paradox' redux posted 07/29/2007 @ 11:21AM By now, members of the mainstream and mobile media have had a chance to read and respond to "Orthodox Paradox," Noah Feldman's recent piece in The New York Times Magazine about his alienation from the Orthodox community. Most people react with "You can't [3.99 kbytes more ]

Redefining 'Jews by choice' posted 07/15/2007 @ 06:33AM I just came back from Israel, which seems to be experiencing "conference season." During June and July, there were conferences held by the Hebrew University board of governors, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the ROI Global Summit for Jewish Innovators. [3.73 kbytes more ]

'Knocked Up' and the Jews posted 06/26/2007 @ 06:27PM So you're sitting there in the darkened theater, excited to see "Knocked Up," which has been hailed by pretty much everyone as one of the most hilarious, edgy, envelope-pushing comedies of the year. And you're enjoying it quite a bit when all of a sudden, [2.04 kbytes more ]

Jewish books vs. Jewish campus life posted 06/03/2007 @ 04:57PM On any given night in New York City, there's a wealth of celebrations, galas and receptions celebrating Jewish life in its various forms. One Monday night, I was at the Pierre Hotel for a reception honoring the winners of the Representing American Jewish identity posted 05/30/2007 @ 11:02AM Last Thursday night, I joined a select number of Jewish bloggers (from blogs like Jewschool, BlogsofZion, Beliefnet, the Arrested development: is all activism equal? posted 04/26/2007 @ 03:53PM Jews are vocal people. If we think it, we speak it – either literally, raising our voices to protest human slavery in Darfur, or online, signing petitions and typing our names at the bottoms of letters to elected officials that express our anger, indignat [3.05 kbytes more ]

Va. Tech and a culture of memory posted 04/24/2007 @ 05:23PM It’s been a week since the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, and the world continues to react. We know about the students who died and the disturbed killer. We know how Professor Liviu Librescu, who survived the Holocaust era and years of living under th [2.33 kbytes more ]

Reflection and Remembrance posted 04/18/2007 @ 05:07PM In years past, I've gone to community commemorations of Yom Hashoah out of obligation – kind of what self-proclaimed "High Holy Days Jews" must feel on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But this year I didn't go. Not to hear survivors speak, or to hear people [4.25 kbytes more ]

North American Jewry and the "Mac and PC" ads posted 04/08/2007 @ 03:36PM From the minute we saw them, we were entertained, and the marketing message was clear. PCs are stodgy and so yesterday;today is the era of the shiny, all-inclusive Mac. PCs require maintenance and upgrades; Macs are always au courant and ready for action. [2.27 kbytes more ]

Virtually Jewish: Second Life's Jewish community now open posted 03/29/2007 @ 01:47PM If you aren't a regular reader of tech mags like Wired and Business 2.0, you might not know what Second Life is. But people in the know are aware that Second Life is a 3-D virtual reality world that lives online – it's completely user-generated and is [2.71 kbytes more ]

Rabbis make the list; let's check it thrice posted 03/27/2007 @ 05:41PM Now that 50 rabbis have made Newsweek's list of "Most Influential Rabbis," let's check that list thrice – first by concept, then by criteria and finally by content. (Casting call for TV show on interfaith identity posted 03/26/2007 @ 12:29PM One could argue that religion has made a comeback the last several years -- what with a commander-in-chief who sometimes claims God is whispering to him, and with entertainment offerings like "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Lion, The Witch and the Wa [2.94 kbytes more ]

Jewlicious festival draws student enthusiasm and communal questions posted 03/21/2007 @ 10:53AM [See below for full disclosure on the blogger's connection to Jewlicious.] Last weekend, a group of 500 undergraduates, graduate students, presenters and performers descended on the Alpert JCC in Long Beach, CA, for Jewlicious Festival 3.0, [5.46 kbytes more ]

Which Jewish story to ban? posted 03/05/2007 @ 11:57AM According to CNN, the AP imposed an experimental blackout on news about Paris Hilton last week. (This is because, of course, very little that she does [2.50 kbytes more ]

"For the Sake of My Brother" posted 02/27/2007 @ 01:30PM This past summer's Lebanon War claimed many lives, precious to the people who knew them, sad to those who didn't but who feel human loss acutely. The faces of the abducted soldiers may be familiar to those "outside the immediate family," and there are ind [2.47 kbytes more ]

Intermarriage: Why Not? posted 02/05/2007 @ 04:08PM Demographers are concerned: According to simpletoremember.com , among non-Orthodox American Jews, "72% of the Jewish people today are intermarrying, and we lose appro [2.72 kbytes more ]

Dealing with Difference posted 02/01/2007 @ 03:00PM If worrying about intermarriage, dwindling birthrates and "the singles crisis" isn't providing enough neurosis for American Jews, we can always look to our dual identity--being Jewish and American--to provide us with ample conflict and agita. Ame [3.38 kbytes more ]