If you haven’t heard of it already, then you’ve probably been living under a rock (or a sukkah?). The news media is ablaze with a (possibly) tall tale that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be a Jew. Apparently, his parents changed their surname to Ahmadinejad after converting to Islam. The name before? Sabourjian…a Iranian Jewish… Continue reading A self-hating Jew?
A rabbi once told me that talking about intermarriage from the pulpit was a pretty bad idea all around. Too many rabbis have done it and assumed that the audience is homogeneous, a group of Jews that does not include converts, Jewish children of interfaith couples, Jewish children with non-Jewish and intermarried relatives and even… Continue reading Talking about Assimilation
A delicious sampling of the latest news in Jewish conversion! “Shas MK: Ease Conversion for IDF Soldiers of Jewish Descent” (Israeli National News) At some point during the conversion process, I heard that things went a lot smoother if you had a Jewish father or some kind of Jewish ancestry. Too bad I couldn’t unearth… Continue reading Conversion in the News Roundup: Because the "Who is a Jew?" question is now an extreme sport!
“Playing the ‘anti-Semitism’ card (hate that term) against Venezuela” says things between Jews and Latin America are more complicated than the American media is telling us. Could it be true? Well, anything’s possible but….
like a human being. Not an alien from outer-space. And yet… According to some people, getting overly excited about being Dominican just isn’t Jewish. Repeatedly I’ve been told to tone down my Dominican pride because now I’m a Jew, just a Jew. And well, being proudly Jewish, now that gets on the nerves of some… Continue reading I have the right to be treated…
Actress Mayim Bialik is everywhere in the Jewish world! How cool! Check out this recent interview in the Jewish press: “Blossoming into Torah” and “Mayim Bialik Has Some Advice for Forward Readers” Hat tip: Jew in the City
I apologize for some of these articles being more than a week old. I’ve been trying to reacclimate myself to New York life and so the news articles have been piling up in my inbox. “The Zionist Melting Pot Boils Over” (The Forward) “Integration of Ethiopian immigrants, always a challenge due to cultural and racial… Continue reading The Latest News in Conversion, Jewish Diversity and More!
With the debut of “Amreeka,” a film about Palestinian immigrants coming to America, Tablet Magazine asks “Is a film about Palestinians inherently political?” A good question. But don’t people ask the same question movies about Israelis? (Just ask Jane Fonda and Danny Glover who are boycotting the Toronto Film Festival for spotlighting the work of… Continue reading Political?
Kate Bailey is a self-described “young skeptical modern orthodox feminist convert” who writes deftly about conversion, hers as well as those of others. In her awesome piece in The Washington Jewish Week, “On Conversion”, she tackles many of the issues converts face in the Jewish community. Of the stories of converts, she writes: “The story… Continue reading Does someone who converts to Judaism really become “a Jew like any other”?
In an LA Times story, “Ethiopian Israeli filmmaker pulls no punches” as he discusses Zrubavel, a film that looks at the Ethiopian Jewish experience in Israel. And in other news: “‘What does it matter that we’re black?’ ask Ethiopian students” (Haaretz) “Rabbi Amar: Can’t compromise in Ethiopian students affair” (YNET) UPDATE 9/1/09: “Schools to accept… Continue reading Black in Israel
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 