Today's Fresh Blogs...

• The Long Tzitzis

  Published: August 9, 2007, 9:06 am

  Tags: Establishment Jewry, Indie Minyanim, Identity Affiliation, Media, Denominations

  So I’m here with the gang at NHC ‘tute, and not surprisingly there’s been a fair bit of discussion on “our generation” and why our Judaism looks so different from the previous generations. Day before yesterday, 40 or 50 of us looked at The Continuity of Discontinuity, a report about just that. We discussed the

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• *YAwn*

  Published: August 9, 2007, 7:15 pm

  Tags: Jew It Yourself, Counterculture, Establishment Jewry, Indie Minyanim, Identity Affiliation, Ancient

  Boy, I’m feeling cranky today. Is it the news, or just the weather? Yes, indeed, we are all to stand in awe of another Bronfman project to lead the Jewish world into the Future. According to JTA, “three dozen Jewish intellectuals are put in a swank ski resort for 48 hours and let loose on the question ‘Why be

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• Reform Teens Revolt

  Published: August 12, 2007, 2:15 pm

  Tags: Establishment Jewry, Identity Affiliation, Ritual, Denominations

  From The Jewish Week: Warwick, N.Y. The sun was setting at the Reform movement's teen leadership camp in this picturesque upstate town, and in the dying light of a sweet summer day it was time for the evening prayer service. In the lakeside pavilion that serves as Kutz Camp's synagogue, the visiting musician who led the evening service on the

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• YOUR HEAD A SPLODE

  Published: August 13, 2007, 9:33 pm

  Tags: Establishment Jewry, Kiruv, Music, Ritual, Denominations

  (Crossposted to Mah Rabu.) This Jewish Week article, which LastTrumpet already posted, is making my head explode for all kinds of different reasons. So I’m posting a line-by-line fisking of the article, to attempt to enumerate all the things wrong with it, though I’m probably just scratching the surface. Unlike previous articles

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• Jewcy Protests Anti-Defamation League Director Abe Foxman at the 92nd Street Y

  Published: September 5, 2007, 8:18 pm

  Tags: Activism, Establishment Jewry, Antisemitism

  From the folks at Jewcy: WHERE: Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, New York WHEN: Thursday, Sep 6, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. (The event starts at 8:15 p.m.) As reported by Jewcy Senior Editor Joey Kurtzman, Abe Foxman has refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Weeks after Jewcy called for his ouster, Foxman issued a mealymouthed press

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• Anti-semite or just making statements that no one likes?

  Published: September 10, 2007, 2:33 pm

  Tags: Middle East, Washington, Establishment Jewry, Aipac, Gop, Israeli Palestinian Conflict, Occupation, Neocons, Israel, Antisemitism, Politics, Diaspora, Coexistence, Media, North America

  the Jewish organizational establishment is in protecting its own turf to the detriment of the Jewish community, let alone the safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel; to me it seems very difficult to see how they can believe that what they are doing actually protects Israel, but I am sure that they do. I say this wihtout a touch of

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• Heter, shmetter

  Published: September 25, 2007, 3:29 pm

  Tags: Hareidim, Establishment Jewry, Zionism, Food, Politics, Halakha, Israel

  A recent essay in the JPost by Isi Leibler writes how the Orthodox in Israel have become triumphalist and how the voices of moderation have become extremely eroded, to the point where decisions made by halachic greats a generation or two ago are now no longer stringent enough. OK, so far, not news. However, today the voices of moderation are

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• Yet more on heter, shmetter

  Published: September 26, 2007, 5:53 pm

  Tags: Hareidim, Establishment Jewry, Business, Coexistence, Food, Politics, Ethics, Halakha, Israel

  Another addendum According to the JPost, a group of religious Orthodox rabbis affiliated with the group Tzohar, a group working for coexistence with secular Israelis (a mighty good idea; we’ll see if they’re any better than the other lot), announced on Tuesday that they will be issuing alternative kashrut certificates to restaurants

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• Another Bitch-slap to the Rabbinate

  Published: October 18, 2007, 11:03 am

  Tags: Kiruv, Establishment Jewry, Hareidim, Identity Affiliation, Denominations, Israel

  According to Ha’aretz, another challenge to the Chief Rabbinate has popped up. Last month I blogged on the reaction to the scandalous no-heter for shmitta matter(and here); a group called Tzohar had announced that it would simply go around the Rabbinate. Well, they’re at it again. 45 rabbis from Tzohar and an unspecified smattering of

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• Money talks for state-of-the art new buliding: Goodbye Rabbi Akiba, Hello Barrack Family

  Published: October 28, 2007, 1:49 pm

  Tags: Establishment Jewry, Activism, Philanthropy, Post Denom, Regional, North America

  The country’s oldest community Jewish day school finally gives in and changes it’s name to satisfy a major donor. Read on to learn about the outcry of alumni: At a private Jewish day school outside of Philadelphia, school long called Akiba Hebrew Academy, alumni are outraged about a donation from an alum that mandated a name

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• NYU Hillel Launches No-Impact Week

  Published: October 29, 2007, 12:27 am

  Tags: Establishment Jewry, Activism, Environment, Hillel, New York City, Social Action

  Mazal tov to the ever-fabulous Becca Oshins for organizing this important program. It is so exciting to see active, passionate students using the resources of the established Jewish institutions to make an impact. (Well…okay in this case, through no impact…) Footprint Forward, NYU No-Impact Week 2007 Presented by the Bronfman

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• God protect the brave man .

  Published: November 5, 2007, 11:51 pm

  Tags: Establishment Jewry, Ethics, Israeli Palestinian Conflict, North America

  I’ve already heard people begin to smear him on various fora, so it’s only fair that someone say something nice: God bless the man for taking the risk. JTA regurgitates an article in the LA Jewish Journal last Friday in which he breaks two holy icons of both the Orthodox and mainstream Jewish institutional thought. Rabbi Yosef

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• Another Shocking Revelation; Federations: change or die

  Published: November 6, 2007, 10:17 am

  Tags: Establishment Jewry, North America

  I don’t know that there’s so much more to be said about this. It seems to me that this topic has been pretty well mined out, but it keeps coming up again. How many times can we hear that Federations are not thriving today; they pander to the wealthy and the elderly, and exclude - more or less by accident, which doesn’t reveal

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• Chabad & Reform Have It Out

  Published: November 7, 2007, 1:24 am

  Tags: Chabad, Denominations, Education, Establishment Jewry, Identity Affiliation

  In the last issue of Reform Judaism Magazine, R. Eric Yoffie, the president of the URJ, cited Chabad’s willingness to celebrate the Bar/Bat Mitzvah of any Jewish child as problematic: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox synagogues routinely require families that want their child to have a bar/bat mitzvah to meet certain requirements the son

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• Chabad & Reform have it out

  Published: November 7, 2007, 1:22 am

  Tags: Chabad, Denominations, Education, Establishment Jewry, Identity Affiliation

  In the last issue of Reform Judaism Magazine, R. Eric Yoffie, the president of the URJ, cited Chabad’s willingness to celebrate the Bar/Bat Mitzvah of any Jewish child as problematic: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox synagogues routinely require families that want their child to have a bar/bat mitzvah to meet certain requirements the son

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