Finally, some further criticism of NGO Monitor, this time by Jewcy.com. Writes Moshe Yaroni: A major feature of NGO Monitor’s work is tying their criticisms (which are, to be fair, themselves a mix of distortions with a few legitimate complaints) to the network of governments and foundations that fund NGOs. This has come to the [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Judging How We Judge: Parshat Ki Tetsei
Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19, Isaiah 54:1-10 (An introduction to my divrei torah.) It is now the Hebrew month of Elul, when we shift focus to beginning a new year and atoning. We read this week lists and lists of rules. Ki Tetsei contains some of the most sweeping calls for justice and fairness in the whole Torah: [...]
Aug 29th, 2009 #50 Ki Tetsei and D'var Torah 0 Comments
A primer on my parsha reflections
Jewish tradition has divided the Torah into weekly portions sized to read it beginning to end in a year. A secondary reading is an excerpt from another book in the Old Testament canon, thematically related. The major portion is the parsha, the secondary the haftarah. The dvar torah, “word of teaching,” is the sermon. For [...]
Aug 29th, 2009 D'var Torah 1 Comment
August recap
State of existance: Working Recuperating from an intense July of volunteering and community time Watching Avatar: The Last Airbender until 5 am in the morning Drawing more cartoons of my workplace’s idioms Happy My thoughts up on Jewschool over the past month: The negative response to Salam Fayyed’s plan for Palestinian state-building. My friend Eli [...]
Aug 28th, 2009 General 0 Comments
Occupation LOLcatz, Round 4, Gaza War edition
I am tickled to see the Bereaved Parents’ Circle publish a calendar of political cartoons about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I believe in the power of humor to carve truth from rhetoric and turn the most depressing topics into sources of laughter. I believe in making fun of the Holocaust and anti-semites; Hamasniks and IDF heroes; [...]
Aug 27th, 2009 General 5 Comments
Hadar Susskind
I’ve had this on my Facebook quotes list for a couple years now: “It is the role of everyone to be critical of things that are wrong and supportive of things that are good.” – Hadar Susskind, Washington JCPA, 7/16/07, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom Grassroots Institute ’07 Now Susskind was just hired by J Street. Bravo, [...]
Aug 27th, 2009 Israel 0 Comments
Four DJs from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Social Justice
Soulico – “Exotic on the Mixtape” (30 min, mp3) Soulico – “Put ‘Em Up” (3 min, mp3) Check out the SOULICO clips above, the hip hop crew playing NIF’s 14th annual New Generations Benefit at the Bowery Ballroom (6 Delancy Street, New York) this September 9. Also, if you post a Soulico clip like above, [...]
Aug 20th, 2009 General 0 Comments
Hip hop docu-music-video on Jewish-Arab claims to Palestine!
(Hat tip to Mobius.)
Aug 19th, 2009 General 2 Comments
No sympathy for fighting an unjust war justly
In a comment on former Yad Vashem archivist Yaacov Lozowick’s blog, I found his thoughts on international war ethics insightful. The highlight: The theory of Just War distinguishes between waging a just war (this one certainly is), and waging a war justly. Yet the more I follow the way we report to ourselves on the [...]
Aug 14th, 2009 Israel 3 Comments
“Anti-Israel” is a meaningless term
Quote of the day from Chorus of Apes engaging the fray on his Jewschool post Spiritual Nourishment and Radical Religious Community for the High Holy Days: I don’t think the term “anti-israel” is all that useful. Again, I will not speak for the organizers, but I think of myself as pro-liberal equality and democracy. Israel [...]
Aug 13th, 2009 Israel 1 Comment