Tag Archive for 'jews'

The Great Schlep

Published
by
Jake
on September 25, 2008
in Politics
. 0 Comments

The Great Schelep is a pretty cool idea/website where Jewish kids sign up to visit their grandparents in Florida and talk to them about voting for Senator Obama in November. From their website:

The Great Schelep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don’t have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schleper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama.

Even better, Sarah Silverman has done a video for them that is 12 different kinds of hysterical and awesome. Enjoy:


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

I think I’m going to buy one of their shirts.

Sweet, I can be buried there after all

Published
by
Jake
on July 18, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

As someone who’s Jewish and has tattoo’s I’ve often heard the saying that Jew’s with tattoos (hey that rhymes) can’t be buried in Jewish cemeteries. The Times though did some investigating (via) and it turns out thats basically not true, and never has been:

But the edict isn’t true. The eight rabbinical scholars interviewed for this article, from institutions like the Jewish Theological Seminary and Yeshiva University, said it’s an urban legend, most likely started because a specific cemetery had a policy against tattoos. Jewish parents and grandparents picked up on it and over time, their distaste for tattoos was presented as scriptural doctrine.

My mom will be so happy. I guess that means I can get another one? Read the article, lots of good stuff in there concerning us Jews and our tattoos.

Good to know but I’ll pass

Published
by
Jake
on June 11, 2008
in Food
. 0 Comments

Awesome news from the Jewish food world: giraffe meat AND milk is now considered kosher:

An Israeli rabbi has declared giraffe meat and milk to be kosher, although his pronouncement is unlikely to have observant Jews clamouring to consume the exotic products, a daily reported on Friday.

“The giraffe has all the signs of a ritually pure animal, and the milk forms curds, which strengthened that view,” the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot quoted Rabbi Shlomo Mahfoud as saying.

The rabbi based his ruling on a recent finding by researchers from Bar Ilan University who took a milk sample while treating a giraffe at Ramat Gan safari park near Tel Aviv.

They found that the milk forms curds as required under Jewish religious law, a finding confirmed by another research institute, the daily said.

Giraffe meat is also considered ritually pure because the animal has a cloven hoof and chews the cud.

“Indeed, the giraffe is kosher for eating,” said Mahfoud, who was present when the researchers made their finding.

Sounds delicious. I think I’ll pass though.

Hagee: too hot for McCain, just right for Lieberman

Published
by
Jake
on May 27, 2008
in Politics
. 0 Comments

My loathing of Sen. Lieberman continues to grow and grow. The latest news is that Lieberman is the headline speaker at Pastor John Hagee’s 2008 Christians United For Israel Washington-Israel Summit. Hagee, of course, being the man who Sen. McCain had to disavow just last week after it was revealed that Hagee had some, uh, interesting things to say about Hitler and the Jews. To wit:

John Hagee, the controversial evangelical leader and endorser of Sen. John McCain, argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis had operated on God’s behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine. According to the Reverend, Adolph Hitler was a “hunter,” sent by God, who was tasked with expediting God’s will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.

So there’s that. To recap, Pastor Hagee thinks Hitler was sent by God to hunt the Jews and Sen. Liberman, WHO IS JEWISH, is speaking at his conference? And has defended him on Fox News? Really? J Street has a petition, go ahead and sign it, but sadly I don’t think it will make much of a difference. Lieberman, Hagee, and all the rest can’t go away soon enough.

all links via benen

Update: Had to post this:

…Max Blumenthal observes that Joe Lieberman will speak before a not-really-pro-Israel-despite-what-they-say gathering sponsored by bigoted preacher John Hagee. Hagee, whose endorsement Lieberman’s friend John McCain rejected, is perhaps America’s most prominent advocate of a theodicy-based explanation for the Holocaust — in other words, the contention that six million Jews were asking for it. It’s repugnant that any Jew, let alone the first Jewish candidate for vice president, would lend his imprimatur to anything blessed by an apologist for the Holocaust.

Spencer Ackerman ladies and gentlemen, bringing the hot fire.

Some Jews, some Christians and a Muslim on a subway car…..

Published
by
Jake
on December 12, 2007
in News
. 0 Comments

Sounds like the beginning of a joke right? Ah, but its not, to wit:

A Brooklyn man whose “Happy Hanukkah” greeting landed him in the hospital said he was saved from a gang of Jew-bashing goons aboard a packed Q train by a total stranger - a modest Muslim from Bangladesh.

…snip…

“A random Muslim guy jumped in and helped a Jewish guy on Hanukkah - that’s a miracle,” said Adler, an honors student at Hunter College.

…snip…

It all began when Adler, his girlfriend, Maria Parsheva, and two other pals boarded the subway at Canal Street bound for Brooklyn and someone in another group wished them “Merry Christmas.”

Adler and his pal Angelica Krischanovich responded: “Happy Hanukkah.”

Apparently, those were fighting words.

“They just came at us so fast. The first thing that came into my mind was, ‘Yeah, this is going to be violent,’ ” said Parsheva, 20.

One of the group immediately hiked up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of Christ.

“He said, ‘Happy Hanukkah, that’s when the Jews killed Jesus,’ ” said Adler.

The group of about 14 men and women then allegedly began taunting Adler and his pals as “dirty Jews” and “Jew bitches.”

Amid a huge scrum, Askari jumped in.

Only in New York.

“Why Jews are so doggone smart.”

Published
by
Jake
on October 30, 2007
in General
. 0 Comments

Post title comes from Dana Milbank’s column in today’s WaPo (via Michelle at the Plank) about a forum at AEI yesterday on the topic of why me and my people are “so doggone smart”:

Entine, author of the new book “Abraham’s Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People,” argued that genetic mutations gave Jews very high IQs. “If you had one of these mutations” — such as those that cause Tay-Sachs disease — “it probably could cause high intelligence,” he asserted.

Fellow AEI fellow Charles Murray suggested that the rigors of Talmudic study drove out the dull Jews centuries ago. “If you were dumb and a Jew,” said the philo-Semitic Murray, “it was a lot easier to be a Christian.” Murray, best known for his incendiary book about race and intelligence, “The Bell Curve,” explored Jewish smarts in an April article in Commentary titled “Jewish Genius.”

I love this line from Charles Murray: “Jews get so embarrassed about Jewish IQ: ‘We know we’re smart but don’t tell anyone else.’” Yes indeed, that must be it.

I myself, it should be noted, have no opinion on any of this whatsoever.

Tom DeLay = scumbag

Published
by
Jake
on April 9, 2007
in Politics
. 0 Comments

I know, I know. The title is a little like saying the sky is blue or the Pope is Catholic but this is really beyond the pale. Here’s former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex) being interviewed on a Boston radio show:

DELAY: I am so outraged by this whole criminalization of politics. It’s not good enough to defeat somebody politically. It’s not even good enough to vilify somebody publicly. They have to carpet bomb you with lies and made up scandals and false charges and indicting you on laws that don’t exist. … It’s the same thing as I say in my book, that the Nazis used. When you use the big lie in order to gain and maintain power, it is immoral and it is outrageous…

It’s the same process. It’s the same criminalization of politics. it’s the same oppression of people. It’s the same destroy people in order to gain power. It may be six million Jews. it may be indicting somebody on laws that don’t exist. But, it’s the same philosophy and it’s the same world view.

Yes thats right, Mr. DeLay is comparing his indictment for violating campaign finance laws….to the Nazi’s efforts to wipe out Jews. Stay classy Mr. DeLay. Its amazing isn’t how this guy became the leading Republican in the House. Some party.

(via The Carpetbagger)