No, there wasn’t a spontaneous mincha minyan at Mitt Romney’s religion speech last week at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station. As Rabbi Amy Weiss reported on her blog, there was a mysterious man wearing a tallit and posing as a rabbi at Romney’s speech. The man was sitting in the section…
In Jewish prayer there are some liturgical tunes known as “Mi-Sinai tunes.” Not that they are literally from Mt. Sinai, but the terminology expresses their authenticity. As the Congregation Emunath Israel website explains about the history of chazzanut (Jewish cantorial singing): The Maharil was the Posek (Halachic authority) for the largest Jewish communities of the…
A few months ago, I received an odd e-mail from the brother of a high school classmate. He explained that his synagogue in Traverse City, Michigan had found itself without a rabbi. He asked if I could help. My first response was, “There are Jews living in Traverse City?” That initial e-mail message turned into…
Everyone is talking about the faux pas at Balducci’s, the “food lover’s market” in New York City. Last week, blogger Nancy Kay Shapiro saw that Balducci’s had labeled its hams with pricing signs advertising “Delicious for Chanukah” and returned the next day with her camera in hand. Just about every newspaper in the country picked…
There’s a great new animation from the Jewish Robot (AKA Ben Baruch; AKA William Levin) on the My Jewish Learning website to teach how to light the Hanukkah candles (see below). This is the first in a new series of viral marketing animations called “The Adventures of Todd and God.” It’s great that Levin’s using…
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…
Rabbi David Ari Schuck, my friend and colleague, posted some really beautiful and inspiring thoughts about Hanukkah on his blog. When we give something that we own to someone else, by definition, we lose the object. This means there is some type of loss involved in the giving. Often, the loss we experience is offset…
In today’s Jerusalem Post, Samuel Freedman, the author of Jew Vs. Jew, wrote the best article about the new Hechsher Tzedek that I have yet to see. Freedman does a balanced job of explaining the rationale behind Rabbi Morris Allen’s idea for a “new form of kosher certification, which reflect[s] a commitment to justice on…
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Bienniel Convention commenced yesterday in Orlando and as the Forward pointed out, the Conservative Movement faces new realities. The Conservative movement has struggled in recent years to maintain a sense of identity without abandoning its “big tent” philosophy and to boost its sagging membership. This turmoil has been exacerbated…
I recently created two Jewish movie posters that spoof actual movies. Both are now on the Bangitout.com website. They spoof the movies “Friday Night Lights” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”. In less than one day each of these has been viewed over 25 times. The RoboCop spoof (“RabbiCop”) I made for Bangitout.com less…