Category: Celebrities

Pancreatic Cancer

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date March 8, 2009

I haven’t written anything on this blog since the end of last year. There have been several topics I planned to cover, but just never got around to the actual writing part of it. I have also been preoccupied recently with my uncle’s condition. My Uncle Jerry, with whom I was extremely close throughout my life, lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on February 21, 2009. He was diagnosed, at 54-years-old, a little more than three months prior.

Pancreatic cancer gets much less attention than other cancers and the research for pancreatic cancer is funded at far lower levels than other forms of cancer even though nearly as many people die of pancreatic cancer as breast cancer. As a result of my uncle’s death, our family has discovered an amazing organization called The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network or Pancan, where we have set up a fund in his memory.

Pancreatic cancer is so deadly because it is difficult to detect, early to metastasize, and resistant to most treatments. Perhaps with several celebrities currently battling Pancreatic Cancer, the disease will attract more attention and funding. Actor Patrick Swayze, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are all battling the disease. Opera great Luciano Pavarotti and actor Michael Landon both died of pancreatic cancer, as did Prof. Randy Pausch, co-author of The Last Lecture.

Just yesterday, it was reported that former Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly (left), a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The 78-year-old is beloved here in Detroit for leading the Pistons to two NBA championships (1989 and 1990) and a U.S. gold medal in basketball (1992). In addition to being one of the greatest coaches in the history of professional basketball, Daly has always been known as a true gentleman.

I wish Coach Daly the best in his fight against this deadly disease. All I can do is hope that more people, especially our elected officials, open their eyes to this horrific killer and give it more attention and more funding for research. In the meantime, my heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones to Pancreatic Cancer. I can now, unfortunately, speak from experience and say how devastating the feeling is.

Celebrities Israel

Celebrity Birthright

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date January 22, 2008

I realized the importance of having young adult Jews visit Israel when I led a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip in December 2004. By and large, the students from the University of Michigan and Harvard who traveled with me to Israel became more engaged in Jewish communal life and several became more observant of Jewish traditions. With close to 150,000 participants between 18 and 26 having traveled to Israel with Birthright, it is an impressive program that has proven successful of its stated mission.

Several Jewish celebrities have been birthright israel participants as well. A week ago I read about a NASCAR driver who traveled to Israel with Birthright. The JTA recently interviewed Soprano star Jamie-Lynn Sigler (left), who is currently in Israel on a birthright israel trip.

“Everyone assumes I’m Italian,” says Jamie Lynn Sigler, 26, with a sigh, pausing over her hummus lunch at the open-air market in Jaffa, one of the stops on her birthright israel tour. “Even kids on the trip keep asking, ‘Are you Jewish?’ “

Sigler, who played the daughter [Medow Soprano] of Mafia kingpin Tony Soprano on the acclaimed HBO show “The Sopranos,” grew up in a Jewish home in Jericho, N.Y., going to Hebrew school and having a bat mitzvah.

Her father’s family immigrated to America from Greece and Poland. Her mother, who is Puerto Rican, converted to Judaism. But it was only touring in Israel, during her recent visit to the country, that she said she felt a true spiritual and emotional connection to her roots.

“It’s one of the most beautiful, inspiring places I’ve ever been to,” Sigler said. “I now have a greater understanding and motivation about preserving my Jewishness.”

Among the highlights she noted were riding camels in the desert, dining on roast lamb in a Bedouin tent and exploring the back alleys of Jerusalem’s Old City. Sigler said she was especially moved during her visits to the Western Wall, where she was surprised by her tears, and to Yad Vashem, where the Holocaust and its history suddenly felt deeply personal.

“I started to think, ‘What if I was there, what if I had been ripped away from my family?’ ” she told JTA.

Sigler said Israel had been a fairly abstract concept before the trip, with her images limited to the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict portrayed in the media. [Her] group was accompanied part of the time by a small group of Israeli soldiers. Through them, Sigler said she heard about a much different life than the one she and her friends lead in America. She was taken by their sacrifices and the pride they have in their country and history.

“It’s so different but so inspiring to be part of that,” said Sigler, her face dominated by a pair of large designer sunglasses. “I would want to move here and join the army” too.

I met Jamie-Lynn Sigler in the summer of 2003 when she was filming scenes at the Soprano house in North Caldwell, New Jersey — only a couple miles from my home at the time. She was very sweet and personable, even offering to wish my wife congratulations on the upcoming birth of our first baby (right).

I think it would be a fun idea to promote birthright israel trips that included Jewish celebrities on the trip. There would be a long waiting list to go on “Superbad Birthright” with Jonah Hill (real name: Jonah Hill Feldstein) or “Birthright Musical” with Ashley Tisdale. Of course, the celebrities would get to participate for free, but none of the other participants could complain about that being unfair since everyone goes on birthright israel for free!

Business Celebrities Jewish Music

Norman Lear and Starbucks

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date December 6, 2007

With the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike meaning no Daily Show with Jon Stewart or Colbert Report (although the writers are putting funny stuff on YouTube), I’ve been forced to find other TV shows to watch.

One of my favorites has been the Iconoclasts series on the Sundance Channel. I first saw one of these programs several months ago when they featured Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and surfing icon Laird Hamilton. The other day I watched the Iconoclasts episode matching Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz (with me at right) and Norman Lear. The two men are very fond of each other, have much more in common than anyone would imagine, and have teamed up in some very lucrative ways. The combination made this a very Jewish episode.

I actually knew a great deal about Howard Schultz before I saw this program. I heard him speak about his upbringing, influences, and vision at a Jewish Federation event in Ann Arbor a few years ago. Earlier in the day of the event, I happened to be at a local Ann Arbor Starbucks having a meeting with a Hillel donor and Howard Schultz walked in. I observed him doing exactly what he says he does and what is portrayed in the Iconoclasts episode about him. He walked up to each worker (“partner”) in the Starbucks store, shook their hand, patted them on the back, and told them that he genuinely was proud of their hard work. He then made his way over to our table, sat down, and shmoozed for a few minutes as if he wasn’t the busy executive running a billion-dollar corporation that opens eight new stores per day. At the Jewish Federation event later that evening he remembered our conversation without any prompting.

Schultz speaks openly that his Judaism influences his code of business principles and I have used him as an example many times when teaching about Jewish business ethics. Our nanny, who has become a part of our family, moonlights as a part-time Starbucks manager and has confirmed to me that it really is a great place to work (full health care benefits for all part-time staff).

How much I knew about Howard Schultz is how little I knew about Norman Lear, the Jewish creator of all those 70’s TV shows (All in the Family, Good Times, the Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, etc.). As Norman Lear describes in an online interview with Aish.com, Judaism has infused his life’s work. In the interview, as in the Iconoclasts presentation, Lear explains the Talmudic story that he loves and and lives by:

There’s a Talmudic story that I love, that seems to cover everything to me. A man should have a jacket with two pockets. In the first pocket there should be a piece of paper on which is written, “I am but dust and ashes.” In the second, a piece of paper on which it is written “For me the world was created.” That’s mama loshon to me, real common sense. The person who can live between that ying and yang has it made.

The two men appear like a loving father and son that had been separated for years. They share similar ethics and have each revolutionized their own trade (Schultz by selling coffee in new ways and treating his workers in better ways, and Lear with racy TV characters like Archie Bunker to get Americans to think about racial and religious tolerance in new ways). Together, they have teamed up on entrepreneurial initiatives like selling music at Starbucks (the award-winning Ray Charles CD — the last of his life — being their first attempt) and on social and political issues (getting young people to vote).

The highlights of the presentation are in Lear’s home, where he shows his original copy of the Declaration of Independence to Howard Schultz, and in their tour of the Seattle warehouse where Starbucks coffee is produced. Each man shows remarkable pride in the other and the Jewish people should take great pride in these men. It is their Judaism that has made them who they are.

Celebrities Jewish Politics

Examining the Forward 50

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date November 13, 2007

Each year the Forward newspaper compiles its Forward 50 list of Jewish people who are “doing and saying things that are making a difference in the way American Jews, for better or worse, view the world and themselves.” And each year the critics come out to denounce the Forward for its choices. The Orthodox think there should be more Orthodox rabbis on the list. The liberals think there should be more liberals on the list. And so on.

You can read the criticism of the Forward 50 on the comments page at the Forward or at the JTA Blog. I actually think it’s a pretty good list this year with some interesting choices. I am, however, in agreement with most of the critics in my surprise that Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow (“Superbad”) were chosen as Top Picks. They’ve made some funny movies together and are both Jewish, but have they really fulfilled the Forward’s criteria?

It makes sense that Sheldon Adelson was one of the top picks. He’s given away a lot of money this year. I was very impressed with the additions at Yad Vashem I saw this summer that are a result of his mega-philanthropy, and Birthright Israel will be able to get thousands of young people off the wait list because of his generosity. I would have also liked to see Bill Davidson make the list after his $75 million gift to Hadassah Hospital this year, in addition to his financial commitment to the field of Jewish education. Philanthropists Michael Steinhardt and Lynn Schusterman both made the list, and deservedly so. I heard Lynn speak last week in Phoenix along with Sandy Cardin, the president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. With her strategic philanthropy, Lynn Schusterman really is making an impact on the Jewish community.

I also feel that Bob Aronson, Detroit’s Federation chief and the new interim head of the Steinhardt Foundation, is deserving of his inclusion in the Forward 50. His praises were spelled out very well in the paragraph about his accomplishments in the Detroit Jewish community and beyond.

Many of the Jewish leaders who made the list come as no surprise — Abe Foxman, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, Ruth Messinger, Ron Lauder, Rabbi David Saperstein, and Rabbi Steve Gutow. After attending this year’s AIPAC Policy Conference, it comes as no surprise to me that Howard Kohr made the list. AIPAC has been very successful under Kohr’s leadership. Not to mention that he came in sixth (ahead of both Hillary Clinton and Condi Rice) in GQ’s prestigious list of the 50 most influential individuals in Washington, so how could he not make the Forward’s list.

Last year’s Forward 50 had many Conservative rabbis on the list including Elliot Dorff, Sharon Brous, Jill Jacobs, and Irwin Kula. This year, there were not as many Conservative rabbis, but I was happy to see that Rabbi Morris Allen made the list. Rabbi Allen is at the forefront of the Hechsher Zedek Commission, looking into the ethical and environmental implications of kosher food. I think Irwin Kula should have made the list again this year as the response to his book Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life has been tremendous. The new dean of the JTS rabbinical school, Rabbi Danny Nevins, also should have made the list as he was the main author of the teshuva that paved the way this year for gay and lesbian rabbis in the Conservative Movement.

Compiling a list of only fifty Jewish leaders and visionaries is no simple task. Everyone will have their choices for who was not included but should have been. I would have liked to see Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Jon Stewart, and Red Sox Gold Glove winner Kevin Youkilis make the list. I also think that with his autobiography being published, Alan Greenspan should have made the list this year. Also missing were Noah Feldman (NY Times Magazine article criticized Orthodoxy and sparked debate), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder), Jay Michaelson (Zeek creator who criticized Michael Steinhardt in a public memo published in the Forward), and Josh Bolton (White House Chief of Staff).

Many have called Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Arnie Eisen’s inclusion a speculative choice. I think that Chancellor Eisen was a good choice in the religion category as he is truly leading a renaissance in the Conservative Movement. He may still be getting used to his new office in Manhattan, but he has already proven himself over the course of the past year as Chancellor-elect. However, a speculative choice in my opinion was the first individual listed in this year’s Forward 50. Michael Mukasey, who has been US Attorney General for all of two days, really hasn’t had the chance to prove himself yet. But it will be interesting to see what they write about him next year.

I am certainly looking Forward to next year’s top fifty.

Celebrities Movies Television

Larry King Slept Through the 90s

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date November 4, 2007

Larry King forgot that Jerry Seinfeld signed off when he was on top

I’ve always been a fan of CNN’s Larry King, but the host of “Larry King Live” has been making a lot of mistakes lately including calling his guests by the wrong name. Interviewing the living Beatles, he confused Ringo Starr for George Harrison and George Harrison for George Hamilton. Then last week, former CIA agent Valerie Plame-Wilson became “Flame Wilson.” Larry King has admitted that he doesn’t prepare for interviews and just wings it.

On his November 1st show, Larry King interviewed Jerry Seinfeld about his new movie “Bee Movie” in which Larry King makes a cameo appearance as “Bee Larry King.” In what is now a famous exchange, Larry King asked Jerry Seinfeld if his TV show was cancelled when it went off the air in 1998. The transcript is available on the CNN website and here is a video clip:

Antisemitism Celebrities Interfaith Jewish Politics Television

If Ann Coulter’s Going to Be in Heaven, Then I Don’t Want to Be There!

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date October 12, 2007

Like every sensible person I was outraged by Ann Coulter‘s anti-Semitic comments on CNBC’s “The Big Idea” with host Donny Deutsch. Coulter began answering Deutsch’s question about what her ideal United States would look like by stating it would be like it was during the Republican National Convention in New York City. She then went on to say that the Democratic Party would look like Joe Lieberman, presumably because he is the iconic Jewish politician to Coulter. When Deutsch (Jewish) asks if she thinks we (Americans) should all be Christian, she responds in the affirmative and invites Deutsch to church with her. The woman is the textbook definition of chutzpah if not outright Antisemitism.

This is where Coulter really stepped out of bounds:

DEUTSCH: […] We should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or –

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Why don’t I put you with the head of Iran? I mean, come on. You can’t believe that. “Let’s wipe Israel off the earth.” I mean, what, no Jews?

COULTER: No, we think – we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.

DEUTSCH: So you don’t think that was offensive?

COULTER: No.

Oy Vey! What are we to make of this? Clearly, Ann Coulter will say anything to get headlines. Last Spring she referred to John Edwards using an anti-gay slur. I found Shmuel Rosner‘s column about Coulter’s anti-Jewish comments to be most helpful. Rosner (right) is the Chief U.S. Correspondent for Ha’aretz.

Rosner listed the potential reactions people will have to Coulter’s comments. I’ve posted them below:

The shock and amazement reaction

Did you hear what she said? She wants Jews to be perfected? This is anti-Semitism; pure and simple (should be conveyed in an angry tone).

The retaliatory reaction

This is a continuation of the shock and amazement reaction, but is mostly reserved for Jewish organizations calling for Coulter to be punished (purgatory? hell?). Actually, the National Jewish Democratic Council has already done that: “While Ann Coulter has freedom of speech, news outlets should exercise their freedom to use better judgment,” said NJDC Executive Director Ira N. Forman. “Just as media outlets don’t invite those who believe that Martians walk the earth to frequently comment on science stories. It’s time they stop inviting Ann Coulter to comment on politics.”

Another retaliatory reaction

So now I’m going to say that it’s better for all Americans to be perfected and become Jewish, Coulter included (a scary thought, eh?)

The self-hating reaction

I also think Jews should be perfected.

The dismissive reaction

I don’t read her books and don’t care what Ann Coulter thinks, neither about politics nor about Jews nor about anything else.

The forgiving reaction

(Should we call it The Christian reaction?) This is also a kind of dismissive reaction: She just wanted to say something nice for a change and it didn’t turn out so well. She really isn’t anti-Semitic. Her tongue runs so fast that she sometimes doesn’t even know what she’s talking about.

The knowledgeable reaction

Also known as the paranoid reaction: she only said what all Christians think in their heart of hearts but don’t have the guts to say publicly. It?s just like John McCain saying America is a Christian Nation.

The expert reaction

Ann Coulter needs therapy!

The explanatory reaction

She only said that for a Christian it is okay to hope for everybody else to be a Christian. What’s wrong with that? We all want other people to be just like us.

The amused reaction

She was kind of funny wasn’t it?

The feigned ignorance reaction

Also known as the cool reaction: Ann Coulter? Who’s Ann Coulter?

Celebrities Football Holidays Jewish Rabbi Synagogues

Don’t Say Videotape in Your Rosh Hashanah Sermon

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 23, 2007

An embarrassing event occurred at a Conservative synagogue in Newton, Massachusetts. I’m sure that the synagogue’s rabbi had no idea about the NFL’s New England Patriots‘ videotaping scandal when she sat down to write her Rosh Hashanah sermon. She probably also didn’t know that the Patriots’ owner (and her congregant) Robert Kraft (pictured at right) had said that he didn’t know his team was using a sideline camera that caused a $750,000 fine and the loss of a draft pick. The video camera was confiscated at the beginning of the Patriots’ season opener and Mr. Kraft embarrassingly expressed his displeasure with his head coach.

Jason Schwartz wrote about the awkward shul moment in the Boston Magazine’s blog “Boston Daily”:

After a week of Cameragate, you’d have to imagine that Bob Kraft was looking for that type of escape when he strolled into his Newton temple late this morning. But thanks to a faux-pas from a rabbi who’s apparently had her head stuck in a giant blintz for the last week, no such luck.
I go to the same temple as Kraft, so I’m pleased to report that he did an outstanding job chanting a lengthy haftorah portion (a selection from the prophets) before the congregation today, but things got a little bumpy at the end of the service when our rabbi rose to deliver the sermon.Her main trope was that people should act as as though God is always watching them. Not a bad lesson, except that in making her point she must have made an endless number of references to acting like you’re being videotaped. This was awkward.Somewhere in the middle of the sermon, she somehow managed to stumble onto a story about Cal Ripken, Jr. and what a positive role model he is (why she referenced Cal Ripken of all people, I have no idea–this sermon was all over the place). Her basic point was that Ripken always knew he was being recorded on the field, so he behaved accordingly. This was especially significant, she said, in this modern age where “sports scandal” is so prevalent.

Of course, the rabbi at the Newton synagogue really can’t be blamed for her awkward references in her sermon to videotaping and sports scandals. But the old adage that one must consider the audience is relevant here. The last sermon that she gave that made headlines was a couple years ago when she spoke about gay rights in the Conservative Movement causing the synagogue’s cantor, who objected to the sermon, to resign his position and start a new congregation.

I remember being a guest rabbinical student at a Houston synagogue while I was studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary. My visit was immediately following the Enron debacle and, knowing there were former Enron executives at this congregation, I recall scrutinizing my sermons for that Shabbat to make sure there was nothing that if taken out of context would be embarrassing.

I also remember choosing my words very carefully when I delivered a sermon this past June about Princess Diana. Having just read an article about her and the upcoming tenth anniversary of her tragic death, I was eager to speak about her life from the pulpit. It so happened that I gave this sermon on the Shabbat that one of Leslie and Abigail Wexner’s sons was celebrating his bar mitzvah at my former Columbus synagogue. I was hesitant to give this sermon because I didn’t want the audience to mistakenly think I was comparing Abigail Wexner to Princess Diana, although there are several striking similarities between the two women including their marriages to older, public figures and their humanitarian and charitable activities. Of course, one man approached me following the prayer service to tell me how brilliant my sermon was and that he understood the hidden comparison I was making. I told him that was not my intention at all, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

Perhaps the real lesson of this rabbi’s sermon is that rabbis should choose their words carefully… and watch Sports Center before the High Holidays.

Celebrities Jewish Kosher

Celebrities Love the Kosher Restaurants

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date July 29, 2007

My favorite Kosher restaurant outside of Israel is Prime Grill in New York City. That’s where I dined to celebrate my ordination from rabbinical school and also where I took our group of congregants from Agudas Achim when we visited NYC last December. The Kosher steaks are delicious and the ambiance is very classy.

Well, according to a ynet news article, many celebrities are big fans of Prime Grill as well. Madonna brought her dancers and musicians to Prime Grill NYC each night after her concert. Sasha Baron Cohen (“Borat”) and Paris Hilton frequent the Prime Grill in Beverly Hills and Donald Trump and Bono are regulars at Prime Grill’s Solo restaurant in Manhattan.

The article does more than just name drop the celebs who are choosing to go Kosher when they dine out. It raises the question of why Kosher food is now in vogue. Is it akin to the Kabbalah fad? Do people believe it is healthier?

“[I]n spite of the star dust being sprinkled over kosher foods, some claim that making kosher trendy is not a kosher thing to do. Most in the Jewish community are not swayed by star dust and are against turning Judaism into ‘a modern, trendy cult,’ says one of the heads of the rabbinical committee in America, who choose to ignore the phenomenon. ‘This is just a fashion that will soon disappear”, he says. “Everything Jewish is suddenly popular, but after the noise has quietened down and the storm has passed, only the core will remain, but anyway, the core is what’s important in Judaism.“

Celebrities Jewish Music

"Dirty Dancing" Star Sings Klezmer

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date June 6, 2007

I just saw this very funny YouTube video of Jennifer Grey, the star of “Dirty Dancing”, singing a hillarious Klezmer parody song called “Duvid Crockett” on Conan O’Brien. The Klezmer song was actually written and performed by her grandfather, the Jewish comedian Mickey Katz. Jennifer’s father (and Mickey Katz’s son) is the Broadway actor Joel Grey, who was recently in Wicked.

Celebrities Chabad Jewish Music Orthodox Judaism

Matisyahu’s Super Famous but is it Halakhically Permissable?

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date March 17, 2006

I just read an interesting article about whether Matisyahu, the Chasidic reggae superstar, is violating Jewish law according to his Chabad Lubavitch community by performing in clubs and bars where activities occur that run contra to the code of morality held firmly by the ultra-Orthodox establishment.

Here’s a clip of the article:

Matisyahu: Rabbi or Rebel?
By Levi Brackman

Matisyahu is now an international phenomenon; he is a reggae singer with a difference. Instead of dreadlocks he sports a trilby. His beard is predicated on the Kabbalists’ theosophy instead of Rastafarian tradition and his clothing places him in an Ultra Orthodox Jewish enclave rather than a black ghetto. This week he released his latest CD entitled YOUTH and it seems that Matisyahu’s tremendous success so far is about to reach unprecedented heights. Predictably, this man’s singing antics are deeply controversial.

Many have asked the following questions. Is it correct for a Chassidic Jew to be singing in clubs and bars? Is Matisyahu using his talent to bring Godliness to the profoundly unGodly and thus sanctifying God’s name or is he achieving the opposite?

Whereas this article is not meant to give a definitive answer to these questions it does, however, endeavor to explain what motivates a Chassidic Jew like Matisyahu to perform in a bar and club.

There is a fundamental difference between the Kabbalistic and the non-Kabbalistic views of Judaism. Up until the French Revolution in 1789, society was divided into three groups: the church, the aristocracy and the peasants. In the terminology of the post-modern French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), the landowners and the church were the centre and the peasants were the periphery. The two did not mix. Education, money and power were restricted to the elite; the peasants enjoyed no such privileges. After the French Revolution, the periphery was also given some of the privileges that were previously the exclusive right of the centre. With this came the emancipation of the Jews. Although the landowners and the educated were still regarded as the centre, the difference now was that peasants had the possibility of entering this exclusive domain.

The post-modern era, according to Derrida, was a time of “deconstruction.” All things were seen in pairs, one superior to the other: rich and poor, educated and ignorant, powerful and powerless, etc. The deconstructivist view is that rich is not necessarily superior to poor, in fact, being poor can be more advantageous. Seen from this perspective, poor is the new centre and rich is the periphery. Derrida goes one step further and says that hierarchy should not exist at all; rather, all boundaries between centre and periphery should be deconstructed.

Western society is a deconstructed civilization in many ways. Whereas in the past women were seen as inferior, today they are often regarded as superior to men. Similarly, modern human rights laws have ensured that the views of vulnerable minorities are respected and listened to.

Non-Kabbalistic Judaism, in general, does not deconstruct boundaries. According to this school of thought, the centre should be distinct from the periphery. Here we have the concept of ‘enclave Judaism,’ which clearly marks out the boundaries between the holy and the profane. The fact that this type of Judaism disagrees with Matisyahu’s style of music and choice of audience is no surprise, for it regards the mixing of the centre with the periphery as an obvious desecration of God’s name. [more]

By his own admission, Matisyahu is being guided by the Chabad School of Kabbalistic thought. Thus, as long as he adheres to Jewish law and does not get carried away with stardom and the narcissistic celebrity culture of modern-day America, his music may be considered, in my opinion, a sanctification of God’s name.