Superbowl Alert: Hebrew National Hot Dogs Still Kosher

Lawsuit Claiming Hebrew National Hot Dogs Not Kosher DismissedBy ReutersFLICKR: VOTEPRIMEConAgra Foods Inc has won the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by consumers claiming the company’s Hebrew National hot dogs and other products are not kosher.U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank in St. Paul federal court ruled on Thursday that he does not have jurisdiction over a dispute that he described as “intrinsically religious in nature.”...44 New Talmudic...

Read More

Are mannequins kosher?

From The New York Times we found a Purim article published just a bit early: Modesty in Ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn Is Enforced by Secret Squads: "Shadowy committees have threatened shop owners over mannequins they don't like, and reportedly have invaded homes to seize computer equipment." The Brooklyn shopkeeper was already home for the night when her phone rang: a man who said he was from a neighborhood “modesty committee” was concerned that the...

Read More

You are as young as the woman you feel

From The New York Times OPINIONATOR | DRAFT come an essay on translation, a subject we detest, "The Treachery of Translators." The Times reports how, A translator learns that the law of karma can be unforgiving.We suffered for years translating and publishing rabbinic texts, Mishnah and Talmud. Oh yes we pretended it was fun. And sure it gave us daily puzzles to solve and limitless opportunities to be clever. It was in fact wretched and tormenting work. We don't do it any more. And we don't miss it even for a nano second.The Times essay uses the...

Read More

Are Legumes Kosher for Passover for Ashkenazic Jews?

From Haaretz - the "legume revolution" has begun and many are saying that yes, legumes are kosher for Passover for Ashkenazi Jews, under certain circumstances. We find this debate and discussion to be a caricature and burlesque of the meaningful human, social and philosophical purposes of religious theology, law and custom.Efrat rabbi tilts against Passover food restrictions for Ashkenazi Jews. Others, unhappy with holiday legume laws, launch Kitniyot Liberation Front.By Raphael AhrenTrying to ease the life of Ashkenazi Jews who observe the dietary...

Read More

Roman Vishniac Photographs Exhibit at the International Center of Photography

The photographs of Roman Vishniac are on display at the ICP at 6th Avenue and 43rd Street. We don't expect that Vishniac's portrait of our dad is in the exhibit.Portraits of Albert Einstein and Marc Chagall made it into the exhibit.    The portrait selections in the exhibit are just one part of a larger collection. The catalog describes the portraits this way:Portrait Studio and Nightclubs, New YorkUpon arriving in New York in 1941,...

Read More

DNAinfo.com Exposes Worst Scandal of the Brooklyn Yeshivas - Lack of Education for Boys

They tell us who they are, "DNAinfo.com is New York's leading hyper-local news source, covering New York City's neighborhoods. We deliver up-to-the-minute reports on entertainment, education, politics, crime, sports, and dining. Our award-winning journalists find the stories — big or small — that matter most to New Yorkers." And in a series of reports by Sonja Sharp they expose the biggest scandal of all at Brooklyn's Yeshivas:English...

Read More

Is Yair Lapid Jewish?

Yes Israeli politician Yair Lapid is a Jew. David Remnick wrote about him in New Yorker, and evaluated his performance in the 2013 parliamentary election, "...the great surprise was the second-place finisher, a television celebrity and political novice named Yair Lapid, who leads a brand new—but impressively greased—centrist party called Yesh Atid (“There is a Future”). Lapid appealed largely to young, middle-class, secular voters, and he concentrated...

Read More

Is Naftali Bennett Jewish?

New Yorker has a long rambling article ostensibly about Naftali Bennett, who is a Jew, and a right wing politician in Israel. The article is by David Remnick, editor of the magazine and also a Jew and politically a liberal. Remnick throws into the article his historical narrative about how Israeli politics has veered further and further to the right over the past decades.Full of back-stories and color, as New Yorker articles must be, we wondered...

Read More

כל מה שקורה, רק ביידיש - חינוך וחברה - הארץ Bella Bryks Profiled in Haaretz

כל מה שקורה, רק ביידיש - חינוך וחברה - הארץ Our Manhattan Day School elementary school classmate Bella Bryks-Klein has been profiled for her work in promoting Yiddish culture in Israel.פסטיבלים, הרצאות או שירה. אם זה ביידיש זה נמצא בעיתון "וואס? ווען? ווו?", שהוקם על ידי בלה בריקס-קליין ונודע כעכבר העיר של חובבי השפהHat tip to our mutual classmate Faye for letting us kn...

Read More

Book Serialization Part 14: Six People You Meet in Synagogue

Book Serialization Part 14:  Six People You Meet in SynagogueFor 2013. We present our book in serial format on our blog - God's Favorite Prayers...The Mythic Priest J ust above, we saw how the mystic vividly employs and deploys her mythic narratives of heaven.Priests, whom we meet formally as synagogue archetypes a bit down the road in our journey (in the chapter “The Priest’s Prayers”), get in on a mythic mode of their own by imagining...

Read More

Book Serialization Part 13: Six People You Meet in Synagogue

Book Serialization Part 13:  Six People You Meet in SynagogueFor 2013. We present our book in serial format on our blog - God's Favorite Prayers...Mythical Discourse H annah left me with this thought, reminding me that only one letter changes the “mystical” into the “mythical.” I ought to spend some time investigating the role of the mythical in the synagogue, she suggested. Maybe I will find another identifiable archetype, like...

Read More

Book Serialization Part 12: Six People You Meet in Synagogue

Book Serialization Part 12:  Six People You Meet in SynagogueFor 2013. We present our book in serial format on our blog - God's Favorite Prayers...Mystical Experience T o inquire further into the spectrum of religious experience in Judaism, let’s return now to the Har-El synagogue in Jerusalem, the mystical place I spoke about in my opening chapter above. As you may recall, that small shul was where I once found the perfect davening.At...

Read More

Book Serialization Part 11: Six People You Meet in Synagogue

Book Serialization Part 11:  Six People You Meet in SynagogueFor 2013. We present our book in serial format on our blog - God's Favorite Prayers...The Mystic’s PrayersKad·dish[Ashk. Heb. kah-dish; Seph. Heb. kah-deesh] –noun, plural Kad·di·shim [Ashk. Heb. kah-dish-im; Seph. Heb. kah-dee-sheem]. Judaism. 1. (italics) a liturgical prayer, consisting of three or six verses, recited at specified points during each of the three daily services...

Read More