Is Facebook chametz? An interview with two rabbis about their
Facebook group, encouraging Jews to consider giving up Facebook for Passover
next week. While the word
"chametz" strictly refers only to leavened bread, which is prohibited during Passover, the group is inspired by a Chassidic interpretation that connects the leavening of bread to an "over-inflated sense of self."
posted by albrecht
on Mar 24, 2010 -
77 comments
“We got a bit excited because we realized that people have
collected lots of
dybbuk stories, but
our fragment describes a real event, where you see how they come together and pray in order to exorcise the ghost from a widow,”
[more inside]
posted by ServSci
on Dec 21, 2009 -
11 comments
Chanukkah is the story of a group of warriors (the Maccabees, later the
Hasmoneans, led by Mattathias) who rose up against the Greeks (the
Seleucids), united the Jews, reclaimed the Temple (
Beit HaMikdash), and then lit one day's supply of oil which miraculously lasted for eight days, started a brand new holiday called Chanukkah, and brought Jewish sovereignty and peace to the land of Israel. Except that almost every part of that story is either wrong or completely misleading.
[more inside]
posted by andoatnp
on Dec 21, 2008 -
66 comments
Sadie tells Maurice, "You’re a schmuck! You always were a schmuck and you always will be a schmuck! You look, act and dress like a schmuck! You’ll be a schmuck until the day you die! And if they ran a world-wide competition for schmucks, you would be the world’s second biggest schmuck!" "Why only second place?" Maurice asks. "Because you’re a schmuck!" Sadie screams.
Some Jewish humor.
posted by serazin
on Dec 7, 2008 -
27 comments
For Orthodox Jewish mothers with small children, the
Shabbat can
be challenging. The answer, for many communities, is the establishment of an
eruv (discussed previously
here, in passing).
This San Francisco Chronicle article details the history behind Berkeley, California's
unique instance. This isn't the first time an
eruv has been attempted in the Bay Area: the failed effort to create one in Palo Alto
was covered by the Chronicle, as well as
the Jewish News Weekly. Berkeley isn't the only United States city with an
eruv—the
Boston eruv maintains a
large list of domestic and international eruvim—nor is it the city with the
most unusual eruv, or even the
largest. Inevitably, perhaps, there's a
blog entirely dedicated to the subject of
eruvim, and
vigorous commentary on the subject from
several others.
posted by scrump
on Jul 7, 2006 -
60 comments
"They are demanding that I kill the children of my people with my own hands"On October 4, 1939, a few days after Warsaw's surrender to the Nazis,
Adam Czerniaków was made
head of the 24 member Judenrat, the Jewish Council (write "Czerniakow" in the linked page's search box) responsible for implementing German orders
in the Jewish community (interactive map of the Warsaw ghetto). On July 22, 1942 --
Tisha B'Av, the "
saddest day in Jewish history" -- the Judenrat received instructions that
all Warsaw Jews were to be deported to the East (exceptions were to be made for Jews working in German factories, Jewish hospital staff, members of the Judenrat and their families, and members of the Jewish police force and their families. Czerniaków tried to convince the Germans at least not to deport the Jewish orphans). Czerniaków kept a diary from September 6, 1939, until the day of his death. It was published in 1979 in the English language as the "
The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniaków: Prelude to Doom", edited by one of the
most prominent Holocaust
scholars,
Raul Hilberg. More inside.
posted by matteo
on Feb 17, 2006 -
23 comments
Bar Mitzvah Disco • When We Were Shtetl Fabulous
"If you are Jewish, there would have been a golden year when it seemed like you attended a bar mitzvah disco almost weekly. Each one was like a pee-wee Studio 54, a potent cocktail of ritual, acne, insecurity, and hormones run amok."
Help the
folks at Bar Mitzvah Disco gather
photos, stories and details from Bar/Bat Mitzvahs from the 70s and 80s to publish in their forthcoming book on the subject.
posted by dhoyt
on Jul 31, 2003 -
23 comments
The
Shmaltz Brewing Company out of San Francisco is the brewer of He'brew, the Chosen Beer. Be sure to try the Sammy Davis, Jr., which is a cocktail of Guinness floating atop He'brew Genesis Ale. L'Chaim!
posted by tdecius
on Oct 10, 1999 -
0 comments
