This is too good to be true

Somehow, the Miami Boys Choir, along with the legendary Jewish summer camp "Israeli" dance choreography, made it to China. This is just too much.



I know this dance well enough to vouch that they are doing it perfectly. One of them must have been on rikud staff at Camp Ramah.

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

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.

My Father, My King

I put this video on Jewschool in response to someone posting Phish doing Avinu Malkeinu and I figured I would post it here as well. I think Mogwai does a much better job of expressing the feelings of the high holidays. And not one of them is Jewish!
Shana Tova Umetukah! Have a great sweet new year!

My Rebbe and My Inspiration

Some uplifting images for Elul

Dan Le Sac - Thou Shalt Kill

Agriprocessors Labor Issues

While Agriprocessors is dealing with their legal troubles, they are ignoring the legal issues of their former employees. Not only did Agri put their workers in the position to be deported or to stay in jail for 6-8 months because of social security fraud (even though the workers don't even know what a social security number is) they are leaving the rest of their families to starve. I guess since their workers were illegal immigrants (who Agri imported from their native countries) they have no responsibility to help out their families who now have no one to support them.
As the New York Times editorial on the same subject argues:

No one is denying that the workers were on the wrong side of the law. But there is a profound difference between stealing people’s identities to rob them of money and property, and using false papers to merely get a job. It is a distinction that the Bush administration, goaded by immigration extremists, has willfully ignored. Deporting unauthorized workers is one thing; sending desperate breadwinners to prison, and their families deeper into poverty, is another.

Why I'm Voting Republican

Update: Thanks Jason J. Baker for visiting my site and for creating this hilarious video (which I just sent to my mom who doesn't believe in global warming). If anyone wants more information about the actual issues that they're talking about in the movie, visit this page from their website. Every segment is broken down and explained in order to make people realize that it's not just funny, its true.