Is Caroline Kennedy's Husband Edwin Schlossberg Jewish?

Yes, Edwin Arthur Schlossberg is a Jew.

All four of Schlossberg's grandparents were Russian (Ukrainian) Jews born near Poltava and arrived in the United States at Ellis Island.

In 1986 Schlossberg married Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at Hyannis Port when Caroline was 28 and Ed was 41.

Their afternoon wedding ceremony was held at the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Centerville, Massachusetts and did not include a mass.

How Jewish is Schlossberg? Nate Bloom refers to "American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy" by C. David Heymann as follows:

Heymann writes that Schlossberg was raised in a "devout Orthodox Jewish family" that belonged to a modern Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan. He attended Hebrew School and had a bar mitzvah ceremony.

Thanksgiving Turkey Drumstick Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Pie Table Song - A Lone Pumpkin Grew

Thanksgiving is upon us soon and we sing traditional holiday songs at our Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are the words to one of our classic favorites...

Oh a lone pumpkin grew on a green pumpkin vine.

He was round

he was fat

he was yellow.

"No silly jack-o-lantern shall I make," he said.

"I'm determined to become a useful fellow."

So he raised up his head

when the cook came around

and at once he was chosen the winner.

His fondest wish came true

he was proud pumpkin pie

and the glory of the great thanksgiving dinner...

For the glory of the jack is in the lantern

as he sits up on the gatepost oh so high;

and the glory of the turkey is the drumstick

but the glory of the pumpkin is the pie.

Here we are singing the song in 2006:

Here's a YouTube 2009 home video of the song -- we don't know the folks -- it sounds like our familiar melody and we endorse it.

Who wrote the Haggadah?

They say that the Seder is the most widely observed Jewish ritual. Assuming that is true, the Haggadah then is a near universally used Jewish book. It also is one of the most frequently published Jewish books in history, surpassed perhaps only by the Hebrew Bible and the Siddur and Machzor Prayer books.

Now it behooves me to ask of this book, who wrote the Haggadah?

How did I celebrate 50 years since the reunification of Jerusalem when I was stuck here in NYC?

Fifty years since the reunification of Jerusalem.

How did I celebrate today this momentous anniversary in NYC? In meaningful ways.

(1) Went to see the play Oslo at the Lincoln Center Theater. (Hint: enter the lottery and even  if you lose, you get offered $59 tickets.) 

Fantastic play - worthy of best play and six other Tony nominations.

(2) Went to hear author Dara Horn lecture about Jerusalem: Imagination and Historical Consciousness at the Yeshiva University Museum - and took in their exhibit on depictions of Jerusalem. Pictures here of some highlights from the Jerusalem exhibit and the Oxford rare manuscripts exhibit. Nice museum.

The talk was meticulously prepared and full of insight and originality.

The talk was inspired by City of Gold, Bronze and Light: Jerusalem between Word and Image, the timely and beautiful exhibition on view at Yeshiva University Museum.

The $9.3 million Talmud - Daniel Bomberg's 16th-century printing sold at Sotheby's New York

The video shows the Bomberg Talmud sold for a bid of $8.1 million. All reports list it as sold at $9.3 million. I suppose there was a 15% commission added on.

The Examiner has a detailed report on the auction.

Art Daily has a version of the story:

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby's set a new world auction record for any piece of Judaica today in New York, when one of the finest copies of Daniel Bomberg's Babylonian Talmud sold for $9.3 million (estimate $5/7 million).* The extraordinary volume was purchased by Stephan Loewentheil for the 19th Century Rare Book & Photograph Shop. The Bomberg Talmud led the sale of a selection of extraordinary items from The Valmadonna Trust, which totaled $14.9 million and became the most valuable auction of Judaica ever held.** Together with the auctions of Important Judaica and Israeli & International Art, Sotheby's annual December sales of Judaica and Israeli Art totaled $22.6 million. 

The Talmud, or "Oral Law," is a compendium of hundreds of years of rabbinical discussion and debate which expound upon the laws of the Bible. Daniel Bomberg is responsible for the first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud (1519-1523), universally recognized not simply as one of the most significant books in the history of Hebrew printing, but as one of the great books of the Western world. The record setting Talmud sold today is one of the finest copies of Bomberg's edition – of which only 14 complete 16th century sets survive. 

Yitzhak Zahavy's fantastic book, "Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel"

Preview

A brilliant book. Available in Teaneck and worldwide on Amazon!

Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel

by Yitzhak Zahavy

This book explains how archaeology is used in the politics and nationalism of the State of Israel through its stamps, coins and currency. Taking the reader from the pre-state years to the modern day, Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel catalogs and analyzes the Israeli government issued materials that employ archaeological motifs.


Purchase this excellent book online or pick yours up today at the Judaica House on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, NJ.

שווה צפייה: לא תרקוד - "Thou Shall Not Dance" - a 2011 documentary about Religious Jewish men who study modern dance in Jerusalem

I subscribed to MAKO TV on my tablet and have discovered many TV shows and films in Hebrew from Israel. Through Chrome Cast I can watch the shows on TV in New Jersey as if I am in Israel.

"Thou Shall Not Dance" - is a 2011 documentary that I stumbled across on MAKO about Religious Jews who study modern dance in Jerusalem.

The premise of the film is that this is daring because religious Jews are not permitted to dance. To be technical about this, if you have ever been at a Jewish wedding you know that's not true. Men dance, women dance, not together, but there is a lot of dancing. Maybe not great quality. Also on Simchat Torah Jews dance.

Still there is a lot of struggle depicted in the film since these men decided to take up dance as an art for its own sake.

And yes, there is the big issue of Orthodox gender segregation that gets put on the table by telling this story about three men. They take as a given that they will not mix genders in their dancing because they are holding on to their Orthodox premises - paramount among those is the separation of the sexes. It was uncomfortable to me and odd to watch the struggle of these individuals within narrow constraints of their religion and culture as they grappled with their natural inherent needs to be artistic and expressive and to perform.

Israel 2011, Documentary 50 min
Directors: Eyal Sela, Yochai Shalom Hadad
Producers: Zafrir Kochanovsky , Miri Ezra
Synopsis
This illuminating documentary explores the obstacles faced by three Orthodox men who establish a dance school for religious males. The sensual nature of dance, particularly in a public forum, poses a unique challenge to those who live in a community where modesty is valued as the highest virtue. The film chronicles the struggles experienced by three dancers, as they try to reconcile their desire to express themselves physically while still maintaining an Orthodox life.



"Thou Shall Not Dance" is a heartfelt documentary about Religious Jews living in Jerusalem, who choose - despite a personal and social price they pay - to express themselves through dance. This is the 4 minute official trailer for the film.

רציתי לשתף אותך:  קבוצה של דתיים אדוקים מקימה בית ספר למחול
See the whole 50 minute film (with random ads) on MAKO TV.

Is Sigourney Weaver Jewish?

Now it is far-fetched that anybody would think that actress Sigourney Weaver is Jewish. No, Sigourney Weaver is not a Jew.

The tall actress whom we know and love from Alien, to Working Girl to Avatar, and whom we once met, and told her how much we liked her work, is a Christian of Scottish-English extraction.

But it is noteworthy that IMDB reported that when she was young after graduating from high school in 1967, she spent several months on a kibbutz in Israel.

/repost from 7/16/10/

Is Architect Frank Gehry Jewish?

Yes, "the world's most famous living architect," Frank Gehry is a Jew. The Jewish Journal extols him and his new found involvement in Jewish architectural projects in a recent article.

The secret to architect Frank Gehry’s genius? Grandma’s gefilte fish.

Avoiding the press after a slew of praise, Gehry is now completing a number of projects in his Santa Monica offices, including a schematic design for the $130 million Winnick Institute in Jerusalem, a project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to promote mutual understanding and respect among the world's communities.

It is Gehry's first formal work of public Jewish architecture in his nearly 50-year career, and it has unlocked a host of memories and associations.

"Frank is delving into his Jewish background in a way I don't think he's really done in the past," says Craig Webb, Gehry Associates project designer. Gehry has looked to both the Star of David and the octagonal format of Islamic architecture for inspiration. "We hope this building in any small way can contribute to the resolution of the conflict in Israel and the Middle East."

Considering Gehry's celebrity and Israel's sinking tourism and morale, the project couldn't have come at a better time. The architect's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, single-handedly put the small regional capital of the Basques on the map. A riot of titanium-clad sails and surfaces, the museum was nearly universally extolled when it opened in 1997 as one of the greatest buildings of the 20th century. Already awarded the Pritzker Prize (considered his profession's Nobel) in 1989, Gehry has become the world's most famous living architect.

Is Bruno Mars an Orthodox Jew?

As far as we know, Bruno Mars is not Jewish, Orthodox or otherwise... the pop singer is from Hawaii, part Filipino and part Puerto Rican.

His Grammy winning album is Unorthodox Jukebox and let us make this clear, this music is not suitable for Orthodox Jews (or others) who wish to avoid music with explicit themes about sex or swear words. Other than that, we like the album a lot.

Previously on the subject of Bruno Mars (6/5/12) we waxed Talmudic:

We like the popular music of Bruno Mars. It is mostly happy and upbeat. Even the unrequited love theme in "Grenade" comes out as a positive lyric in some strange ways.

The blog Jewlicious pointed us to a music video that wonderfully draws on a Bruno Mars song, "Marry You."

Dancing Jews, um, Juice: Everybody thinks Bruno Mars is singing “dancing Jews” instead of the actual lyric, “dancing juice” (slang for booze). But who cares, this amazing, joyous video gives us plenty of reasons to post it.

Jewlicious does not explicitly tell us that the amateur video shows some friends of the couple dancing dressed up like "dancing Jews" (men wearing hats and fringes - tzitzit) who appear in and out of the frame at the right times in the song.

Google Glass Joins Caribbean Islanders with Orthodox Hasidic Jews in Crown Heights Brooklyn

Google Glass will change the nature of communications in many ways. Here is an early example.

From the Daily News:

Brooklyn filmmakers (Mendy Seldowitz, Celso White, Ben Millstein and Hannah Roodman) are using Google Glass technology to document long-standing tensions in Crown Heights. Project 2x1 is using the new technology to show what life is like for Caribbean Islanders and Hasidic Jews

Four Brooklyn filmmakers are seeing Crown Heights through rose-colored Google Glass. They employed the newfangled technology to tease out longstanding tensions between the neighborhood’s primary inhabitants.

The four 20-somethings behind Project 2x1 used the camera-equipped glasses to show what life is like for the Caribbean islanders and Orthodox Hasidic Jews who live there.

The mission: “To bring two distinct communities together to form one united neighborhood,” said Hannah Roodman, the project’s director and producer.

The product: A short film that depicts scenes from everyday life — including scenes in a barbershop, a synagogue and the annual West Indian Day Parade — most filmed with a small camera attached to different faces.

Read more

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About Magritte: Ceci n'est pas une Juif

We cannot believe that we never posted anything about Rene Magritte, especially about his "Treachery of Images" series most famous for his this is not a pipe painting circa 1929.

At MOMA you will be able to view "Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926–1938" September 28, 2013–January 12, 2014. "Bringing together some 80 paintings, collages, and objects, along with a selection of photographs, periodicals, and early commercial work, the exhibition offers fresh insight into Magritte’s identity as a modern painter and Surrealist artist."

And that is not us smoking a pipe in our photo. It is a digital photo of an original oil painting of us smoking a pipe, which we posed for a while back.

And second, this is not a blog. This is the image of a blog. And a blog is the image of an idea. And those ideas that you may find here are normally images of other people's thoughts, images and  representations, occasionally interspersed with some of our own original brainstorms.

Last, we always obey our own commandments here: Though shalt not be profound, foremost among them. And we try to heed other people's wisdom of the ages, such as Thou shalt not take seriously thine own press releases. But those too are only images of guideposts. And that was not philosophical.

Should we not ask, as is our wont, Was Rene Magritte Jewish? According to one unsubstantiated post, he was half Jewish. We are not convinced. We gather from our handbooks that Magritte was not a Jew, that he was baptized and practiced the Catholic rite as a youngster.  His art has little to no religious content. Enfin... Ceci n'est past une juif.

The Cool B-and-G Sukkah at Beth Elohim in Park Slope

The Brooklyn Paper reported in 2011 on a cool sukkah in Park Slope, Brooklyn,

"...when the annual harvest festival begins on Wednesday night, the Garfield Place temple will do its outdoor praying in a sleek, modern shelter created by the award-winning architecture firm B-an-G Studio...more..."

Hat tip to Barak for sending this.

Is the author and spiritual seeker Paulo Coelho Jewish?

No Paulo Coelho is not a Jew. He was brought up Catholic and attended a Jesuit school in Brazil. Coelho is not a big fan of any organized religion. He speaks with lyrical disdain and disparagement in his books about the wisdom and ritual of religions.

His current publication, Manuscript Found in Accra, is set in Jerusalem before a battle. The people in the book gather to ask about life so that they can learn enough to save "the soul of Jerusalem." The publisher tells us:

July 14, 1099. Jerusalem awaits the invasion of the crusaders who have surrounded the city’s gates. There, inside the ancient city’s walls, men and women of every age and every faith have gathered to hear the wise words of a mysterious man known only as the Copt. He has summoned the townspeople to address their fears with truth:

“Tomorrow, harmony will become discord. Joy will be replaced by grief. Peace will give way to war. . . . None of us can know what tomorrow will hold, because each day has its good and its bad moments. So, when you ask your questions, forget about the troops outside and the fear inside. Our task is not to leave a record of what happened on this date for those who will inherit the Earth; history will take care of that. Therefore, we will speak about our daily lives, about the difficulties we have had to face.”

The people begin with questions about defeat, struggle, and the nature of their enemies; they contemplate the will to change and the virtues of loyalty and solitude; and they ultimately turn to questions of beauty, love, wisdom, sex, elegance, and what the future holds. “What is success?” poses the Copt. “It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace.” ...

Now, these many centuries later, the wise man’s answers are a record of the human values that have endured throughout time. And, in Paulo Coelho’s hands, The Manuscript Found in Accra reveals that who we are, what we fear, and what we hope for the future come from the knowledge and belief that can be found within us, and not from the adversity that surrounds us.

This book is new age in every respect that we can think of especially in the way that it wanders through spiritual landscapes and themes without a care for a conventional framework of organization or presentation.

One passage struck us because it sounded like the utter opposite of the philosophy of life and values that we heard espoused at Yeshiva University by our teacher the Rav, Rabbi Soloveitchik and by his followers.

We will cite Coelho's passage and leave it without explanation; and we wish that understanding will flow to those who understand:

Beauty is present in all creation, but the dangerous fact is that, because we human beings are often cut off from the Divine Energy, we allow ourselves to be influenced by what other people think... And we become ugly and embittered.

At that moment, we can draw comfort from so-called wisdom, an accumulation of ideas put together by people wishing to define the world instead of respecting the mystery of life. This "wisdom" consists of all the unnecessary rules, regulation, and measurements intended to establish a standard of behavior. 

According to that false wisdom, we should not be concerned about beauty because it is superficial and ephemeral. 

That isn't true. All the beings created under the sun, from birds to mountains, from flowers to rivers, reflect the miracle of creation. 

If we resist the temptation to allow other people to define who we are, then we will gradually be able to let the sun inside our own soul shine forth... (pp. 60-61)

Back in 2011 we wrote about his previous book Aleph saying that the book... will greatly entertain the spiritual seeker. By that we mean if you are open to the concepts of past lives and the mystical energies of the universe, this book will speak to you. But even if you are such a seeker, you may feel, as we do, that at times the book overdoes some of its themes.

Within the story Coelho provides some gems of writing. We identified with his metaphor of the Chinese bamboo plant since we had spent several years putting down the roots of our latest book. And now, that book (God's Favorite Prayers) has sprouted up boldly after its publication.

Coelho explains that the Chinese Bamboo first, “...spends 5 years as a little shoot, using that time to develop its complex root system. And then from one moment to the next, it puts on a spurt and grows up to 25 meters high.”

Within the narrative Coelho casts in what can be wonderful observations, if they resonate for you. On the life-value of mistakes he tells us, “...only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risk and do what you really want to do. Seek out people who aren’t afraid of making mistakes and who, therefore, do make mistakes. Because of that, their work often isn’t recognized, but they are precisely the kind of people who change the world and, after many mistakes, do something that will transform their own community completely”.

He does get this inspiring exhortation partly right. We'd say to seek out people who are afraid to make mistakes -- that is a human trait -- but who nevertheless go ahead and make them. And he does need to differentiate and specify what he means by "mistakes". He surely means the worthy and meaty and bold and creative mistakes, not the foolish ones. And then of course, we all need to know some definition of the notion of "transform" -- but we never do get that from most of those who throw out the idea. We just know that they mean that transformation is something good and different and fresh and original.

It's all in a narrative that is highly intuitive and new age. And we get it and we like it. We also like the title.

Roman Vishniac Photographs Exhibit at the International Center of Photography

The photographs of Roman Vishniac are on display at the ICP at 6th Avenue and 43rd Street.

We don't expect that Vishniac's portrait of our dad is in the exhibit.



Portraits of Albert Einstein and Marc Chagall made it into the exhibit.

    

The portrait selections in the exhibit are just one part of a larger collection. The catalog describes the portraits this way:

Portrait Studio and Nightclubs, New York

Upon arriving in New York in 1941, Vishniac turned to photography to support his family, opening a portrait studio on the Upper West Side. Always resourceful, he mined his connections in the Russian and German-Jewish expatriate communities to secure famous subjects for portraits—Marc Chagall, Albert Einstein, and Yiddish Theater star Molly Picon among them. These photographs of well-known artists, intellectuals, and performers helped establish Vishniac's reputation in New York, attracting a broad clientele to his studio, including Jewish émigré dancers, actors, musicians, artists, intellectuals, and scientists. His success in portraiture ultimately allowed Vishniac to pursue photomicroscopy, biology, and scientific research—fields that would become his primary focus over the next fifty years.

Vishniac also turned his camera to the city's nightclubs, where war- weary New Yorkers, abetted by a swell of immigrant performers and off-duty servicemen, sought distraction at a frenzied pace. His dynamic and skilled work, focusing on jazz musicians, actors, comedians, and dancers, exhibited here for the first time, incorporated highbrow and lowbrow, popular and avant-garde, focusing primarily on three Jewish- owned nightclubs: New York's first integrated nightclub, Café Society, The Village Vanguard in bohemian Greenwich Village, and the burlesque joint Leon & Eddie's. Much like his earlier work in Eastern Europe, Vishniac's portraits of Jewish émigré intellectuals and performers capture the vitality and resilience of Jewish life, this time from the perspective of a different segment of the diaspora, facing its own set of challenges.

Talmudic Books for Kindle | Kindle Talmud in English | Whence and Wherefore | God's Favorite Prayers

Is Talmud Art Kosher?

Art is in the eye of the beholder. Pages from old books are placed in glasses, and voila they become art.

Holiness is also in the eye of the beholder. Old printed books contain words from ancient rabbis, and voila they become sacred.

Ynet reports that in Tel Aviv there has been a, "Gallery threatened over Talmud artwork." They explain that the, "Rabbinate vows to stop exhibition of works created by French artist, using pages of ancient rabbinic writings. Display 'desecrates Holy Scriptures,' says Chief Rabbi Metzger"

And so we have a Talmudic dispute about Talmud art.

Yes, according to the artist, Talmud art is Kosher.

But no, according to the rabbis, Talmud art is not kosher. It is a desecration.

Talmudic Analysis
The photo of the art shows a page from a book of medieval responsa, legal decisions from the rabbis of the middle ages. Sure, it's always dignified to treat books with religious themes (or for that matter any themes) with proper respect. However, the books in question are not "Holy Scriptures." Looking at some of the words in the text in the photo, these appear to be discussions about writing contracts. Nothing holy about that.

Art that intends to desecrate is usually quite up front about it. We recall one exhibit in New York City of Chris Ofili's "Holy Virgin Mary" in 1999, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, "that featured sexually explicit cutouts covered with elephant dung." Other art that could be criticized or censured by religious authorities because it intends to desecrate include, "Piss Christ" by Andres Serrano and Renée Cox's "Yo Mama's Last Supper," all as described with images of the art on a "controversial works of art" web page.

This Talmud art in question does not rise to the level of desecration or sacrilege and does not seem to us to be in bad taste. Hence we deem it kosher. Further we deem the rabbinic objections to the works to be quite out of place and without merit, Hence those rabbinic objections are themselves a desecration.

Talmudic "Art" Books for Kindle | The Amazing "Artistic" Kindle Talmud in English | God's "Artistic" Prayers

Teaneck gets The Shalom TV Channel

Optimum in Teaneck has The Shalom TV Channel on 138 now as a full time channel in addition to the previous On Demand service. Via PR:

Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) today announced the addition of the new Shalom TV Channel to Optimum’s comprehensive line-up. Shalom TV, available on channel 138, is America's Jewish television network with a strong array of shows covering the panorama of Jewish life and of interest to everyone.

Shalom TV programming addresses everyone with a sense of Jewish identity and those seeking their roots. Televised offerings resonate with anyone who has a passion for learning and a desire to gain a greater understanding of Jewish tradition, Jewish life and the land of Israel. Viewers can tune-in to daily news from the Israel Broadcasting Authority, timely interviews with the leading personalities in the Jewish world, live call-in programs, Friday evening Sabbath services and Jewish children's programming every morning and afternoon....

Endless Summer Meets Endless Prayer

We like this pre-storm photo from the Times (Shallow Waters and Unusual Path May Worsen the Surge) of endless young daveners watching endless summer surfers in Long Beach, NY.

This reminds us of the book cover that we designed for our book about our search for the perfect prayer, God's Favorite Prayers.

We are fond of pointing out that we had this poster in mind when we designed that cover.

Talmudic Books for Kindle | Kindle Talmud in English | Whence and Wherefore | God's Favorite Prayers

The World's Most Expensive Bible at $130,000 a copy from St. John's in Minnesota

Partly it's because it's handiwork by calligraphers and artists, and partly because it is a fantastic fund raising device, St. John's University is offering copies of their Bible at the discount price of $115,000. But you have to hurry. The Star Tribune reported in 2006:

Some colleges woo supporters with tailgate parties, others with exotic trips. St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn., is offering alumni and friends the chance to buy a really big Bible for $115,000. That's the price for orders placed before July 1, 2007. After that the tab jumps to $130,000.

If all of the Bibles sell at the introductory price, they would bring in $41.4 million, minus expenses.

At next year's rate, the school would realize $46.8 million before costs.

Two Masterpieces

Moroni’s “Portrait of a Little Girl of the Redetti Family,” from around 1570
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Tzvee’s “Portrait of a Little Girl of the Zahavy Family,” from 2008