JTA Blog: Esther D. Kustanowitz is a freelance writer and senior editor of PresenTense Magazine . She has two blogs of her own, My Urban Kvetch and Jdaters Anonymous, and is a regular contributor to Jewlicious and Beliefnet's Idol Chatter blog. Esther is also the author of The Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Teens Who Hid From the Nazis (Rosen Publishing, 1999), and has contributed to and edited several other books. http://www.jta.org/ en-us Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:03:08 -0500 (c) JTA. Reproduction of material without written permission is strictly prohibited. http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/11574.html 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 editor) publish... Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:03:08 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/11574.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/11470.html 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.... Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:01:17 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/11470.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/10980.html 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. A... Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:27:49 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/10980.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/10798.html 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 ho... Sun, 03 Jun 2007 16:57:33 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/10798.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/10767.html Last Thursday night, I joined a select number of Jewish bloggers (from blogs like Jewschool, BlogsofZion, Beliefnet, the NY Jewish Film Festival blog, and Drew Kaplan's blog) invited to NY's famed Jew... Wed, 30 May 2007 11:02:03 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/10767.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/9767.html 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 letter... Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:53:42 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/9767.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/2118.html 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 upg... Sun, 08 Apr 2007 15:36:54 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/2118.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/1312.html 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... Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:47:00 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/1312.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/1103.html 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. (Read JTA coverage about this list.... Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:41:27 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/1103.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/1020.html 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 Pas... Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:29:12 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/1020.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/978.html Technorati Profile... Sun, 25 Mar 2007 17:14:37 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/978.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/751.html [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... Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:53:06 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/751.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/329.html 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 is actually news.) The site explains that "editor... Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:20:23 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/329.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/328.html 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 is actually news.) The site explains that "editor... Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:57:08 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/328.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/280.html 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... Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:30:35 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/280.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/260.html Demographers are concerned: According to simpletoremember.com , among non-Orthodox American Jews, "72% of the Jewish people today are intermarrying, and we lose approximately 100 Jews everyday to int... Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:08:00 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/260.html http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/posting/259.html 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... Thu, 01 Feb 2007 15:00:00 -0500 http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/blogs/259.html