pod it up, yo

LiP magazine has just started a podcast, here. Current topic is “Race, Humor, and the New Black/Non-Black Breakdown,” and features conceptual artist damali ayo. I haven’t had a chance to listen to this thing yet (weird tech issues and laziness–hopefully later) but since the topic is so interesting to me I thought I’d post. If you listen to it before I do, let me know what you think. Also, my girl Lisa is going to be all gender-smart on the next one, so stay posted.

Adar is good, politics are political

Adar, Adar, Chodesh Tov! I am SO over Shevat. I never have a particularly fantastic Shevat, and I’m always a little relieved when it’s over. And Adar! Fun fun!

And it’s like properly springy today, a fitting entrance into spring.

In other news, the election here seems to be heating up. The campaign slogans are starting to be everywhere (though I’ve been informed that this is actually a pretty tame election season here, as all things go). Likud’s (they’re the right-wing party) are of course the most…something, with one that says, “Hazak mul heHamas” (Strong against the Hamas, not sure what that definite article is doing there, but whatever) and Bibi (Netanyahu) glowering menacingly out at us from the side of the bus. This picture got cut off, but it’s the sign:
They also have one that says “Smoelmert Natan Kesef L’Hamas”–Smoel is “left” in Hebrew (also politically), so it’s a nasty way of saying that Olmert, the current Prime Minister (taking over since Sharon is out of the picture) gave $$ to Hamas. Same old right-wing techniques here as back in the States, trying to play people’s fears instead of offering concretely productive ideas.

Meretz is the very left-wing party. “Meretz is on the left, people are in the center.” I haven’t seen much out and about from Labor, the centrally left-wing party, the Democrats to Meretz’ Green Party, if you will. Shas has one about raising the minimum wage, and a whole bunch featuring their Rav, Ovadia Yosef, telling people to (I think I’m remembering this correctly) “Choose life,” or something along that line.

Evidently now-ish they’ll be starting the ads during prime time TV. If I understand this correctly (somebody correct me if I don’t), there’re a fixed number of hours of ad time, and they are delegated to the parties based on their existing representation in the Knesset. So if Shas has 13% of Knesset seats (it’s something like that, I think, not sure the exact number), then they get, automatically, 13% of the total time allotted for ads to use for their own propaganda. And a party can’t buy more air time–they get their percentage, and that’s it. I’m fascinated by this. It’s certainly better than the US system, where rich people can buy more access and all that. I don’t have any deep thoughts beyond that, though. I’m not actually sorry that there’s no TV in my apartment, but I am sorry that I seem to be missing the opportunity to see these ads. Maybe sometime in a week or two I’ll be at somebody’s house on a weeknight evening and I can check it out.

That’s all for now….

Two Jewy feministy things in J’lem this week

Random event listings:

1) Women at the Wall will meet, as always (on Rosh Chodesh, or RC Bet if it’s a 2-day’er), this Wednesday morning March 1, at 7am at the Kotel.

1) There’s a rally on behalf of agunot (”chained women,” whose husbands refuse to grant them a Jewish divorce) on this Tuesday, 28 February at 7pm at the Great Synagogue on King George.

I don’t have all the details, but presumably it relates to a recent decision of the Council of Rabbinical Judges. The Jerusalem Post reported Feb. 1:

The Council of Rabbinical Judges cut off ties with women’s organizations that fight for the rights of agunot. Agunot are women in the process of divorce who cannot remarry because a recalcitrant husband refuses to give a divorce document.

The decision of the council, a body representing over 90 judges of marital law, is a protest against repeated attacks launched by the women’s organizations against the rabbinical establishment that led to media scrutiny of the judges and public criticism….

[And then the superstar quote at the bottom:]

(Rabbinical Judge) Malka admitted that he encourages women to relinquish child support payments owed by the husband or other monetary obligations in order to facilitate the giving of a get (divorce certificate). ‘Listen, this is money that she never earned,’ explained Malka. ‘Only in theory does it belong to her. For instance, according to the law the wife is entitled to half of a man’s pension rights even though she never worked a day in her life. I do not think she should remain an aguna because she is stubborn about receiving her half.’

(Thanks to Out of Step Jew for calling the article to my attention and pulling the quotes so nicely.)

Brr the Rabbinut. The less I get on about what I think about the Rabbinut, probably the better for everyone involved. Suffice to say, I’m at least going to try to be there on Tuesday….

fun and games with registration

First off, I started this process by interviewing my friend E. about what needed to be done, so that I could be prepared, and not need to go through any needless steps.
Continue reading fun and games with registration…

on, like, mysticism and other trippy stuff like that

Another drash up at Radical Torah. Enjoy!

Merton Interlude

I so love love love love Thomas Merton. (He was a mid-century Catholic monk, author of many wonderful books, for those of you not in the know–very reccomended.) A friend just brought this piece of his to my attention, and I thought I’d share. Not that he doesn’t raise the old questions of the theoretical divide between the contemplative and the activist, but–oh, just read it.

—
A Signed Confession of Crimes Against the State
Thomas Merton

I am the kind of person who must sooner or later, inevitably, fill pages of blank paper with the confession of secret crimes against the state. Why not be prepared? There is no time like the present–and who, in such a present, can promise himself the future?
Continue reading Merton Interlude…

another art post

So last night I went to this one-night-only art event where they bring together a bunch of artists to install works in an unusual place around a theme–last year it was in a school, on the theme of education, eg. This year it was at the Science Museum at Givat Ram, the theme “Comments on the Israeli Acropolis,” aka the stretch of turf from the Knesset to the original (and still math/science) campus of Hebrew U.

It was really fun to see art at the science museum (which looks like an awesome place even when there’s no art there, especially if you have kids) and to be in the sort of energy that the place has when it’s such a temporal event–tons of people, lots of buzzing, everybody kind of trying to see everything.

There were some nice pieces. Maybe not surprisingly, I was most drawn to the political ones–a several-computer-screen installation about the house demolitions, a whole thing about hummusim (chickpeas) that turned out to be really about cultural appropriation, and the Arab village, Sheikh Bader, on which Givat Ram was built. A guy making molds of the shape of brick out of which the separation fence is build, onto which he wrote Chinese characters and drew little drawings, and sold for a shekel apiece. There was also a room full of “ask an expert,” ie a bunch of bona fide experts on stuff sitting around waiting to answer questions about how weather works, how to raise bees, gourmet food, or whatever. Cute idea but in execution, my friend waited 45 minutes to ask the weather guy a question, and I tried hanging around the Israeli pop culture expert for a bit, but I wasn’t really impressed.

I’m not sure how much attention was given to what art was put where, but there were some interesting juxtipositions, like the commentary on the Israeli pharmecutical industry in the biology wing (that HAD to have been intentional) or the one on illegal settlements in the world map room.

All in all, a fun evening, but I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t a couple of really knockout pieces in the lot. Or even one: plenty of things that were like a B or B+ (and plenty not that good, as always happens) but not any single piece that really bowled me over.

There are a couple of exhibits up at the Israel Museum, on the other hand, that are fantastic. I went on my birthday. This woman Kimiko Yoshida did a series of lush self-portraits in the gear of various traditional ethnic groups (from Yoruba to Yeminite to Chinese to whatever) that took Cindy Sherman several notches higher–besides being beautiful photos, they asked some really interesting questions about–oh, I don’t know. Race, culture, the ego, insider/outsider, all sorts of things. Very chewy.

There was also an exhibit on contemporary Japanese art that was great, and as an interesting counterpoint, Israeli artists’ imagining of Japan and Japanese culture. It included some photographs that made me fonder of Monet than I usually am and a traditional-style Japanese scroll painting except set after a pigua (bomb), that sort of thing.

If you’re in J’lem, definitely get over to the museum before the exhibits close (I think you have most of the year to do that) and you know, the Heara thing should be on again in about a year.

Museum of Tolerance Building on Muslim Graveyard

A little too ironic for my taste: The Simon Wiesenthal Center “Museum of Tolerance” is building on top of a Muslim cemetary in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mamila.

The Antiques Authority has reported the removal of at least 250 gravesites so far. A Muslim NGO has appealed to the High Court, and is due to be heard in two weeks–but a lot of graves can get dug up in that time.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights reports,

I spoke yesterday with the executive director of the Wiesenthal Center,
Rabbi Marvin Hier. One of our Orthodox founders, Rabbi David Rosen, has
also been in touch with them. To his credit, he almost immediately
returned my call. He indicated concern for the feelings of Muslims, but
said that they have passed a point of no return, having spent large amounts
of money and after plans were published in the newspapers, City Council
hearings were held with no Muslim objections expressed, etc. I told him
that this was very strange, seeing as we have heard concerns about the
desecration of this cemetery for years and that unfortunately bitter
experience from years of work in the field of human rights has taught us
that the authorities may not have been entirely honest with them. Islamic
authorites have told us that they did not know about this specific plan
until the work began.

A Haaretz op-ed in English on the subject can be found here.

A Haaretz article on the building plans can be found in Hebrew here.

The Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information also has some information about the building, under “What’s New”, here.

Register your protest against the desecration of Muslim graves by calling the Wiesenthal center:
310 553.9036,
800 900.9036 (toll-free from within the U.S.)
310 553.4521 (fax)
information {at} wiesenthal(.)net
or use this link to email directly on their website.
Address all correspondence to Rabbi Marvin Hier, Director and Founder of the Wiesenthal Center.

(X-posted to JewSchool)

The Revelation Will Not Be Televised

New post up over on Radical Torah, entertain yourselves as you will, if you will.

magic happy free things

Okay, so I’m hooked. Blingo is the search engine (powered by Google) where you automagically win stuff like iTunes gift certificates and iPods (!!!) if you search at the right time. I wanna win! I wanna win good stuff! Other people searching in your network increases your and their chances of winning stuff. So sign up through me (click link below) and then we can both win stuff. Free stuff! Dude! Stuff!

(Okay, I know I’m supposed to add a rabbinic commentary about materialism and our culture here. And it’s true, as is the probability that half the stuff I’d win I’d wind up giving away anyway. But who doesn’t want to have that magic feeling of winning a prize in the middle of their workday? It’s nothing but a chance to have a little fun, no?)