My friend Baruch has been bugging me to write about his friend Gitty for months. Now she’s on the cover of New York Magazine, complete with an online photo array.
Though one wonders if the article will help or hurt her cause — getting her daughter back from the Satmers.
Having not read it yet, I’ll withhold judgment for now.
Posted on July 16th, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Singles crisis due to serial dating. The Jewish Week’s Tamar Snyder describes the shidduch process, and how it’s falling short, to a non-Jewish audience: “Just as the economy is headed to recession, the shidduch system is in crisis mode. Or so the rabbis moan, noting the surplus of women eager to marry and the corresponding shortfall in the quality and quantity of available Jewish men…” [Wall Street Journal]
‘Jewish men don’t always make the best husbands,’ says Rabbi Abraham Twerski. The Jewish community must recognize that domestic abuse exists in the Jewish community and not ignore it just because it’s a “shondeh,” writes Rabbi Twerski: “Abuse occurs in a community that tolerates it. While the aggressor is the immediate perpetrator, the community cannot shirk its culpability if it allows abuse to occur and continue.” [Jewish Action]
On rabbis talking to women. Blogger Menachem Wecker points out a minister’s mistaken impressions about whether rabbis in ancient times would talk to women in public. [Iconia]
Sex — or not — in the Holy City. The hot new show in Israel looks at the love lives of religious singles in Jerusalem. Here’s Esther Kustanowitz’s description of “Serugim’s” first two episodes: “…women roommates have rules about men not sleeping over. But what if your date gets so drunk that he can’t drive home? Can he stay over? And what happens when that guy wants to put on tefillin in the morning, and the only set available is from Stacy, the Reform rabbinical student down the hall?” [NY Jewish Week]
Now women can be rapists, too. “Women may soon be able to be charged with rape. Last Sunday the Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved a change to the criminal code, which would allow women to be charged with the rape of minors or adults.” Progress? [Haaretz]
Jewish divorcess supporting each other. “…the hardest part about being religious and divorced is dealing with the core Jewish concept of strong family unity,” says one Orthodox divorcee, part of a growing demographic looking for support from each other. [JPost]
Non-Jewess’ breast milk is perfectly kosher. According to Jewish law, says Rabbi Aaron Tendler, there’s no problem with giving a kosher-keeping baby breast milk from a woman who’s not Jewish and doesn’t keep kosher, but since “our Rabbis tell us that what a person eats affects his soul,” milk from a woman who does keep kosher is preferable. Breast milk with pork essence anyone? [JewishAnswers.com]
Egyptian Jewess historian predicts dire straits for Europe. The controversial historian Bat Ye’or (a pseudonym meaning “daughter of the Nile” in Hebrew) “explains why she believes the West in general, and Europe in particular, is in state of denial at best, and dhimmitude at worst” in its relationship with the Arab world. [JPost]
Jewesses wed in Australian first. “Two Jewish women will marry in the first Australian same-sex commitment ceremony by a Reform rabbi.” And it gets even better: one of the women is pregnant and her “child will be the first Australian Jew whose same-sex parents were united in a synagogue service.” It’s as good a claim to fame as any I suppose… [Something Jewish]
More single Jewish men than women in St. Louis? Despite all the complaints about how there are so many great single women and not enough men, blogger Y? at St. Lou Jew asks, “where are all the Jewish women at?” Um, New York and Jerusalem would be my first guesses. [St. Lou Jew]
Jewess lacrosse jock in Jersey. “Rutgers rising junior defender Emily Penn (Medford, N.J.) was named to the Jewish Sports Review 2008 Women’s Lacrosse All-America Team.” Let’s dissect the news in that sentence: 1. One of Rutgers’ (presumably) top women’s lacrosse players is Jewish, not earth-shattering but noteworthy since Lacrosse isn’t exactly a sport commonly played in Jewish summer camps, 2. There is a Jewish Sports Review, who knew? And 3. Jewish Sports Review has a Lacrosse All-America Team. Why? [Women’s Lacrosse]
And incidentally, today is my wedding anniversary. I love you, David!
Posted on July 16th, 2008 Filed under: Roundups | 5 Comments »
So Sascha Baron Cohen’s fiance’s conversion is being held up for a film, and her lack of conversion is holding up their wedding? So what?
Something is wrong with the value system when you don’t have a problem having a baby with a non-Jewish woman but do have a problem marrying her. Puh-lease!
Posted on July 16th, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
The Shakespeare-as-Jewess theory is being put to the performance test in a new production of “As You Like It” by The Dark Lady Players:
OPENS THIS SUNDAY JULY 20th at the Midtown Theater Festival“an adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic,20working from the assumption that it was penned by Amelia Bassano Lanier, a female poet of the period with an interest in potty humor” (New York Post)
“the case for Amelia Bassano is as plausible as Shakespeare’s” (The Queen’s Quarterly, July 2008)
“this is not your grandma’s Shakespeare” (nytheatrecast.com, July 16)AS YOU LIKE IT: THE BIG FLUSH performed by the Dark Lady Players
A Jewish toilet allegory written by England’s first published woman poet Amelia Bassano Lanier (1569-1645), the latest candidate for the Authorship
of Shakespeare’s plays.
Performances at MITF, Where Eagles Dare theater at
4.30pm on 20 July,
3.45pm on 26 July
and 7.30pm on 3 August.
Tickets $18
(212) 279 4200 or the box office at www.midtownfestival.com
visit www.darkladyplayers.com for details about the showWere Shakespeare’s plays written as Jewish revenge allegories? Is AYLI a Jewish toilet joke?
Join us for this Sunday’s performance and the opening night party/discussion afterwards!
Posted on July 16th, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Everyone’s talking about Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel’s breakup, even FOXnews.
No comment here on their relationship and its end since we don’t know either of them personally. (If we did you can be sure we’d be gossiping up a storm about it.)
But reading the accounts of the sad news, all we can think is, wouldn’t it be nice if us regular people could have publicists to handle the fallout from our own breakups? No need to make any uncomfortable, depressing phone calls alerting everyone you know of your new single status (though I guess Facebook has taken care of that, too) and no need to answer any questions you’d rather not from the media, or friends for that matter. Just tell your publicist to say, “no comment,” and that’s that.
Anyway, we wish Silverman good luck finding the next Mr. Right (hopefully Mr. More Right next time), if that is what she chooses to do. And if she’s interested, we have plenty of eligible single male friends who keep begging us to fix them up and would be thrilled to date a famous, attractive comedian.
Whether they’d call for a second date, now that’s an entirely different matter…
Posted on July 15th, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Alright. Since this has been popping up on various blogs, it’s only right we include it here, with comment. It’s Gilda Radner touting Jewess Jeans on SNL way back in the 1980s:
The fake commercial (fauxmercial as I like to say) plays on all the stereotypes this blog tries to combat, and one wonders if, in this more politically correct day and age, a segment like this would still be acceptable on network television.
And yet, we can feel confident enough in the fact that these stereotypes do not define us to laugh at the video. Because it’s funny. And because wouldn’t it be cool to have a pair?
Posted on July 13th, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friend-of-Jewess Chana Rothman is making her singing/songwriting debut in L.A. on July 26th, playing a show with fellow Jewess singer/songwriter, California-based Stephanie Pressman. Here’s the 411:
Chana Rothman & Stephanie Pressman – Live on One Stage!
JULY 26th, 7:30 – 9:30 (Chana @ 7:30, Stephanie @ 8:30)
@ Genghis Cohen
740 N. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323.653.0640
$7
www.genghiscohen.com for directions & detailsThese two women create sweet vibes, funny stories, and a participatory approach to music. This is Chana’s LA debut – let’s give her a warm welcome! Check out Chana’s music: www.chanarothman.com and Stephanie’s: http://www.myspace.com/stephaniepressman
Chana Rothman
“Worth checking out” - New York Times
“Bob Marley meets Edie Brickell” - popsyndicate.com
“An urban take on ancient thought. With Funk. ****.” - The Jewish Week
Posted on July 13th, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Cross-posted on the Lilith Blog:
Given my last Lilith post, you might think the above image is of Barbie dolls. But, in fact, those are models — modeling fashions by up-and-coming and eccentric designer Levi Okunov at the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s 3rd annual Emerging Jewish Artists showcase, which featured several stand-out female artists.
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| Catie Lazarus with the evening’s prize, a “schlep” bag containing a can of Meshugge-Nuts. |
Co-sponsored by the Young Friends of the Museum and emceed by the very funny comic Catie Lazarus, the event was another in a long line of exciting programs being held at the museum, and a chance to see some talented artists — many of them women — before they hit it huge.
The evening opened with a great short set by the four-person “punk klezmer” ensemble Luminescent Orchestrii, including an original tune whose refrain went, “Who put the pudding in the punim?” You gotta love any band whose members came together “through their love of Balkan and Gypsy music.” But seriously, their eclectic mix of influences melded together well, and, at least as far as attire went, it was the bands’ female members, Sarah Alden and Rima Fand, who put the punk in punk-klezmer.
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| Eve Lederman telling a story, because that’s what professional storytellers do. |
But the real stars of the evening were emcee Catie Lazarus and fabulous storyteller Eve Lederman, co-author of Letters From My Sister: On Life, Love and Hair Removal. Lazarus kept the show moving along and the audience laughing (along with her jokes, not at her). My favorite lines were when Lazarus referred to the New York Times wedding page as “the Jewish sports page,” and when, while discussing ridiculous-sounding Upper East Side names for children, she said, “Just name the child Visa, it sounds slightly ethnic.”
Next to Lazarus’s energetic comedy, Lederman’s demeanor was calm and quiet, perhaps a deliberate device to make the audience listen all the more closely. And with a perfectly-timed delivery and impeccable writing, her tale-telling was a real treat. Her first story was about her one-time, same-sex sexual encounter with her best friend (a blond bombshell who I witnessed being accosted, loudly, in the bathroom by an overzealous audience member — “Are you the one from the story? Can’t miss you, a tall blond in a roomful of Jews!” — Oy.) The second story was about the aging owner of the Orchard Corset Shop, an old-time Lower East Side bra shop, and her Hasidic son who helps run the store. Orchard Corset is also the subject of Lederman’s documentary “A Good Uplift.”
The work of another talented female storyteller, filmmaker Pearl Gluck (”Divan”), was showcased as part of the big finale, Okunov’s fashion show. An excerpt from Gluck’s in-progress film about the designer kicked off the Okunov part of the night. Gluck’s work has taken a special interest in formerly-Hasidic rebels like the 21-year-old Okunov, who, endearingly, still pronounces clothing as “cloything.”
As much as the evening was about celebrating emerging artists, it was clearly also an opportunity to showcase the Museum of Jewish Heritage and attract a wider audience than the usual Jewish-museum-goers. I, for one, think it worked, bringing together a variety of Jews and non-Jews.
Case in point: At the cocktail hour after the performances, one of Okunov’s African-American models, hobnobbing with the artsy Jewish crowd, suggested Okunov design a bra made of kippot. How strange and strangely satisfying it was to tell her that one already exists.
Posted on July 11th, 2008 Filed under: Lilith Blog | No Comments »
See some great art and support the only Jewess artist in the show “Open To Interpretation,” Siona Benjamin, whose stunning works are interpretations of female Biblical figures, like the above image of Tamar.
Here’s the info:
“Open to Interpretation”
Gallery Reception: July 10th, 6-9 pm
Works on view through July 14th at
A.I.R Gallery #303
511 W 25th Street
New York, NY
Participating Artists:
Mona Kamal
Marium Saifee
Shifaz Usman
Huma Gul
Eric Wenger
Fareen Butt
Asma Shikoh
Siona Benjamin
Mumtaz Husein
Sarwar
Mashkoor Raza
Mo Shah
Works for show and sale…
Read more…
Posted on July 10th, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
