More Jewish Animation

On the topic of awesome Jewish flash videos, this one is a little less Torah study and a little more Torah satire, but its hilarious.
God & Co. is a monthly short animated film from Nextbook that pokes fun of stories from the Torah. They did one about the sacrifice of Isaac and another on the liberation from Egypt and the latest one is about Moses talking to G-d. It's got all the witty awkward comedy and simple animation of Dr. Katz Professional Psychiatrist or Home Movies but its about the Torah!
(I just found out that Jonathan Katz is the main guy in all three of those animated comedies. I should have just assumed there was some connection)

G-dcast Launches!

Get ready for an awesome year of animated Torah study (besides for the Kabbalah Toons)

G-dcast is the newest project to come out of Sarah Lefton, creator of the now defunct Jewish Fashion Conspiracy. I met her this summer at the Mission Minyan, and I've been pumped for Bereishit since then. These great animated parshas come out every week with a different storyteller and a different animator. It's really exciting, right?

I Love You J-Street

Of all of the J-Street endorsed candidates, my favorite is Rabbi Dr. Dennis Shulman. He's running for congress in New Jersey's 5th district (the northern border) and he's up against a tough conservative. He's an amazing fellow: blind since childhood, Reform rabbi, clinical psychologist, graduate of Brandeis, and originally from Worcester, MA (represent!). Could he get any cooler?
He also has amazing views on Israel as well as Iran that are about tough diplomacy and peace resolutions.
J-Street just did a fabulous interview with him and it got me really pumped up. Here it is:





Now he would be the right person to SCHLEP down to Florida and convince all the bubbes and zaydies to vote for the shvartze

מה אני נוהג?

For those of you Hebrew speakers, this is hilarious

Ahmadinejad on the Jews

Don't get me wrong, this guy is a very dangerous man and I worry for the lives of Israelis with him in power. But it seems like he isn't the lunatic everyone thinks he is. He's making some good points and while some of them I strongly disagree with, others make sense.

As Rabbi Lerner puts it beautifully in Healing Israel/Palestine, the creation of the State of Israel in response to the Holocaust was like Jews jumping out of a burning building and landing in another building that already had occupants. Of course the first reaction of both parties would be to play the "I'm the victim!" game (and we all know how good Jews are at that).

Ahmadinejad has the standard Arab view of Zionism: that it is incompatible with Arab countries, but that doesn't mean that he hates Jews. Unfortunately the two often go hand in hand, but it seems that Ahmadinejad can make that distinction and I respect him at least for that.

The Return of Yigal Amir

Or did he ever leave?

(I saw this poster in Netanya, Yigal Amir's hometown. It shows a picture of Marwan Barghouti on top and says, "If terrorist murderers can be freed, then why not Yigal and Hagai Amir?")

In case you hadn't heard, anti-occupation professor Ze'ev Sternhell was targeted with a pipe bomb last week by right wing extremist settlers and sustained light injuries (B"H). It has been a while since right wing Israelis have targeted left wing Israelis and it seems to be the return of the Jewish terrorist. Right wing rabbis also also using the same rhetoric to demonize left wing leaders that was being used in '95 which eventually led to Yitzchak Rabin's assassination.
This is a very scary time to be a peacemonger in Israel. Yariv Oppenheimer, general secratary of Peace Now also was sent death threats and was assigned a whole security crew by the police since he might be next.
But something good may come out of it. Today, 150 left wing protesters appeared outside professor Sternhell's house to stand in solidarity against settler violence targeting other Jews. It was a rallying call for everyone who opposes this deterioration of morality and hopefully it was the beginning of a new movement to end settler violence.
Sternhell spoke to the crowd:

"Your presence here demonstrates clearly that we can do this, that we will not live in fear, that we will not be intimidated,"

Professor Naomi Chazin, former Meretz MK and president of the New Israel Fund also said some inspirational words:

"This is the beginning of a civilian uprising, of those who understand that if violence has become the norm – we have become lost. We must fight for the rules of the democratic game because if there is violence within us we can close up shop. This is what happened in other democracies in the past, which fell for this reason, and we must not allow it to happen here."

Also, the connection was made between the current events and the Jewish calender (which seems to be rare at leftist events). Today is the Fast of Gedalia, a date where we mourn for the righteous Jewish governor of Judea who was assassinated by other Jews because of infighting. We fast because this event culminated in the final exile of the rest of the Jews from the Land of Israel because of lack of Ahavat Yisrael. So as Rabbi Gilad Kariv pointed out, the connection between these two events is somewhat eerie.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.