iPhones: Not Just for Kvetching Anymore: A phone that simplifies the life of the modern Jew by Leo Margul JointMedia News Service The new iPhone 4S. Sure it’s great, but what does it do, for Jews? As any young member of the tribe can attest, parents want to stay in touch. Except in 2011, they want more than phone calls. They want e-mail updates, online photo albums, and to yell into the webcam on Skype. If they just learned a new emoticon, their children can expect to receive six in one text message. They want to know what’s going on, and we want to share, but sometimes it gets overwhelming. Fear not, the new iPhone is here to streamline all your parental communications! Apple just announced a new program for the phone, Siri, that responds to voice commands. What they didn’t … Continue Reading
Is There a Future for the New Jewish Culture?
by Jo Ellen Green Kaiser Last One Out, Turn Off the Lights Are we the last ones left? JDub, the Jewish music distributor and owner of the internet-based magazine Jewcy, is closing down. Heeb , the Jewish magazine that put a pig and hunky Jewsus on its cover, closed last year as a print magazine and now continues as a blog. Guilt & Pleasure, the Bronfman-funded vehicle for cosmopolitan Jews, died without telling anyone - appropriately enough, right after its 2009 Death issue. Of all the bright new Jewish media that launched at the turn of this century, the only outfits still plugging away are Habitus, the semi-annual diaspora journal funded largely by a single, anonymous donor; and Tablet, which started out as Nextbook, and is funded (for now) by Mem Bernstein and individuals … Continue Reading
A Review: The Golden Age of Achievement
A Review: The Golden Age of Achievement by Steven L. Pease Published by Deucalion, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-9825168-0-5, $ 32.95 This is an exciting new encyclopedic book about the contributions of the Jewish people have made and continue to make to the development of the world. The uniqueness of The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement: The Comendium of a Culture, a People, and Their Stunning by Steven L. Pease is its comprehensive approach to identifying how individual Jews have furthered a variety fields covering all aspects of life. There is a Jewish belief that man was put on the earth to finish the creation of the world that God started and it is referred to as “Tikun Ha-olam” (making the world a better place). The pages of this book provide examples of how the Jewish people have been striving to … Continue Reading
G-dcast Presents the Ten Commandments
Join Naomi Less for a rockin trip through the Ten Commandments. She's brought the decalogue to life with the amusing exploits of some villagers and their mischievous ways. Created in honor of Shavuot, the holiday when the Jewish people commemorate receiving the Torah (Law) at Mount Sinai. More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com … Continue Reading
Calibrating Darkness
Today we commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Jewish Ideas Daily has published - for the first time - a piece of autobiographical fiction written by Holocaust survivor Henry Tylbor, who passed away in 2009. Reprinted with permission. A child survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and then of Auschwitz and Majdanek, Henry Tylbor (1929-2009) eventually settled in New York where he wrote and taught. A polymath, and fluent in several languages, he was especially interested in the fields of linguistics, neuropsychology, the sociology of culture, and their intersections. The present work of autobiographical fiction is among the manuscripts left at his death. In observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, it appears here for the first time. - The Editors of Jewish Ideas Daily The room was steeped in … Continue Reading
What is the Difference Between Choosing and Being Chosen?
In the classic joke, a man asks a rabbi: “Why do Jews always answer a question with a question?” The rabbi answers: “Do we?” Bay Area artists Ken Goldberg and Gil Gershoni present a contemporary take on the inquisitive impulse with a new media installation at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum now through July 31, 2011. Are We There Yet? combines the latest in intelligent cameras and acoustics to create a reactive sound environment that encourages visitors to reconsider the history and future of curiosity. The ability of the installation to generate a unique auditory experience for each visitor is an exciting first, using new robotic algorithms and software that allow cameras to instantly adapt and spatialize audio to the movements of each visitor. Hundreds of questions … Continue Reading
A New Dayenu
Dayenu, the famous and beloved song, recited around the world at Passover Seders, is one of the oldest passages in the Haggadah. The song details the miracles experienced by the Jewish People from the time of the Exodus to the building of the Temple. Is there a better time than Passover to remind ourselves of the many “modern miracles” of Israelis and Jews around the world in modern times? From establishing the State to our efforts to build a democratic, tolerant and open society, our story continues to one of striving toward a better society. In this spirit and in recognition of the achievements of Zionism, let’s add “A New Dayenu” to our seder tables. If we had returned to Israel after two thousand years and had not established the State of Israel - Dayenu. If we had established the … Continue Reading
The Four ‘Sons’ as Characters From ‘Glee’
by Jay Michaelson On a Tuesday night in April, millions of people will gather together for the tale of four Jewish children, each of whom embodies contemporary Jewish consciousness in a different way. The evening is filled with song, multiple narratives and insights into Jewish identity. I’m talking, of course, about the award-winning Fox television series “Glee.” For those of you not in the know, “Glee” is the TV show of the moment. At once an escapist fantasy and the most realistic depiction of high school angst this side of Claire Danes, “Glee” is also - thanks largely to co-creator Brad Falchuk, son of the current Hadassah national president - among the most “out” Jewish shows to grace the small screen. Like the show’s gay, disabled, multiethnic and differently sized … Continue Reading
Shalom Sesame Presents: Les Matzarables
Shalom Sesame takes on the Broadway Musical! Join the Muppets as they search high and low for "Matzah in the House." For more check out shalomsesame.org … Continue Reading
If Moses Had a Laptop
What would the Exodus from Egypt have looked like if Moses had a laptop, Google Maps and Facebook? … Continue Reading
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