New Yorker Cartoon: God's Funny Blog

WSJ: When Orthodox Rabbis Burned a Sabbath Prayer Book

An Orthodox rabbi neighbor of mine likes to use the epithet, "naval birshut HaTorah (the degenerate within the Torah’s framework)" to demean and disparage people he does not agree with.

We were reminded of that phrase when we read this recent article which recalls what some "degenerate" "rabbis" did to the prayer book of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan in 1945.

Invented the Bat Mitzvah, Rejected a Supernatural God
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan and his Reconstructionist ideas.
By DIANE COLE

In June of 1945, with memories of Nazi book-burning still vivid, a group called the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada excommunicated Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, after which they burned his newly published Sabbath Prayer Book. Although Kaplan is less known (and less read) today than his contemporaries Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel, he was in many ways the most radical Jewish philosopher or theologian of his era. So it is good to see that his first book, the influential "Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life," has just returned to print. Published by Rabbi Kaplan in 1934, it is a masterpiece of 20th-century Jewish thought...more...

Charity Appeal for JFS

It's coming up on Pesach and time for us all to make an extra effort to give to charity.

We recommend to you our most favorite tzedakah, the Jewish Family Services of Bergen County.

Give a tribute or a meal or just give.

• Kosher Meals On Wheels
• Friends Campaign
• Tribute Cards
• President's Emergency Project

Is Howard Stern Jewish?

Yes, Howard Stern is a Jew and his Hebrew name is Tzvi.  Here is Wikipedia, saying he calls himself "half-Jewish."

Howard Stern was born on January 12, 1954 in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City. His parents Ben and Ray Stern (née Schiffman) are children of Austro-Hungarian immigrants. Ellen, his elder sister of four years, is described by Stern as "completely opposite" though they maintain a good relationship. Though born into a Jewish American family (his Hebrew name is "Tzvi"), Stern claims on the radio that he is just "half-Jewish". Five months after Stern's birth, the family moved to the suburban area of Roosevelt on Long Island.

As E Online reports, Howard does not like Jay Leno.

Times' Frank Rich: Is the Tea Party a Terrorist Organization?

They crossed the line and the Times' Frank Rich has called them out for what they are, "The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged," concluding,

...In his Times article on the Tea Party right, Barstow profiled Pam Stout, a once apolitical Idaho retiree who cast her lot with a Tea Party group allied with Beck’s 9/12 Project, the Birch Society and the Oath Keepers, a rising militia group of veterans and former law enforcement officers who champion disregarding laws they oppose. She frets that “another civil war” may be in the offing. “I don’t see us being the ones to start it,” she told Barstow, “but I would give up my life for my country.”

Whether consciously or coincidentally, Stout was echoing Palin’s memorable final declaration during her appearance at the National Tea Party Convention earlier this month: “I will live, I will die for the people of America, whatever I can do to help.” It’s enough to make you wonder who is palling around with terrorists now.

Is Paul Krugman Jewish?

Yes, Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics is a Jew.

He is the subject of an insightful March 1, 2010 New Yorker article, "The Deflationist - How Paul Krugman found politics" by Larissa MacFarquhar.

A Newsweek cover story about Krugman appeared in the April 6, 2009 issue titled, "Obama’s Nobel Headache" with the tag lines, "Paul Krugman has emerged as Obama's toughest liberal critic. He's deeply skeptical of the bank bailout and pessimistic about the economy. Why the establishment worries he may be right."

Exclusive: Celebrity Purim Party Picture

Mel Gibson, Madonna and Elton John 

attend a Purim party in Brooklyn.

Times Letter: George Washington Did Not Believe that America was a Christian Country

Among the great letters in the Times Magazine, a comment on, How Christian Were the Founders? (February 14, 2010):

It would come as a surprise to George Washington to learn that the Texas State Board of Education is considering requiring students to learn that the United States is a Christian nation founded to advance Christian ideals.

In his letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, R.I., of 1790, Washington described our nation as one in which “all possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.” Washington went further: “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights,” he said. “For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens . . . while every one shall sit under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

The Texas State Board of Education should note that Washington invoked this phrase from the Bible (Micah 4:4) to extend religious diversity, not to favor any particular religion.
AMBASSADOR JOHN L. LOEB JR.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, Chairman of the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, New York

Is Depression Good for You?

Some hilarious Purim Torah. Billions of dollars of research have been sunk into understanding the diseases (plural - there are many forms that we have seen) called depression and yet it's like they are constantly starting from square one. What do they spend all that research money on? Seems the more they spend on it, the less they know about depression.

Let's see. You suffer from depression. Should you take pills? Should you go to talk therapy? Should you just grit your teeth and bear the pain? And now the clincher -- Is depression good for you?

We've Got Snow and it reminds us of Leprosy, of Sin and of God's Clothing

Yes, we do have snow in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible.

• Exodus 4:6
• Again, the Lord said to him, "Put your hand inside your cloak." He put his hand into his cloak; and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.
• Numbers 12:10
• When the cloud went away from over the tent, Miriam had become leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam and saw that she was leprous.