There's No Place like School

Yep, I'm back! It's been awhile, but with all the crazy things going on in the world, especially after what's happened this pass summer (i.e. major celebrity deaths, (in)famous professional quarterbacks on new teams in a split second, etc...), I felt maybe it would be a good idea to gather some thoughts on more subjects as they eventually happen and express my mind about them as well as other random happenings in my wonderfully unique life. So with that, I welcome you to the continuation of my blog. Let's jump right into the mix.

A couple weeks ago I was asked to write an article for the KOACH e-zine, which is released monthly (on the Jewish calendar, of course) from KOACH every Rosh Chodesh. Each issue focuses on different subjects that have a have significant connection to Judaism in general. This issue's theme happened to be 'Back to School,' so when a friend of mine asked me to write an article on it, I had to jump at the opportunity especially with the thought of returning to Bloomington, Indiana to reunite with some great friends in anticipation of an action-packed semester fresh in my mind. There's something magical about going back to a place so familiar such as the IU campus and the college town all around it. So with all the anticipation of getting back to everything while gearing up for my third year at Indiana University, I think I pounded out a pretty solid article.

See above at the top of the last paragraph for the link. Otherwise, I cross-posted it here if you're lazy. Enjoy!

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When I think of the words "back to school," these are the first thoughts that pop into my mind: the movies Billy Madison and Garden State and my general surroundings of my Jewish community.

First, there's the obvious: In the movie Billy Madison,there's an almost iconic scene where Adam Sandler's titular character, Billy, sings naively about going back to school as he starts school entirely over from the first grade, before the bus he intends to get on drives right past him.

"Back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool. I've got my lunch packed up, my shoes tied tight. I hope I don't get in a fight. Oh, back to school…"

Although hilarious, that scene really speaks to me. Starting a new year off at school is a big deal. There are always major expectations that are set for the year, as well as tons of first impressions to make week in and week out of college. And that's just one year. The main idea here is to be yourself and work hard at what you pursue academically as well as socially. For better or for worse, you may not end up like Billy Madison, but you'll make an incredible amount of progress as a person, and that's what counts.

When making a transition from summer to school, no matter where you live, there will always be some, if not a lot, traveling and schlepping things around, so much so that you truly don't know where you belong anymore. That's where my important connection to Garden State comes in. While I was in high school, some of my older friends were infatuated with this movie because of their emotional connection to some of its main characters and their memorable quotes. Now, after seeing the movie a couple times with family and friends, I can understand why. There's an important quote uttered by protagonist Andrew Largemen (portrayed by Zach Braff) that I, along with a lot of my friends, can deeply relate to when making a transition from the summer home or away to going back to school.

"You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden, that idea of home is gone. It just sort of happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start; it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that's all family really is: a group of people that miss the same imaginary place."

I think that feeling really hits home when we graduate and get ready for other things in life such as college, grad school or a yearlong trip anywhere. When I was with my friends on Nativ, a lot of us shared that same feeling of missing home, wherever it was, even if it didn't really exist anymore. The fact was plain and simple: we were never really going back home because we were starting to move on. It was depressing, but it was also comforting to know that none of us were alone. And the beat goes on. Even today, I get messages and status updates on Facebook and Twitter from friends explaining how much they miss everything in my college town. And I know I feel the exact same way when summer is starting to wind down. To me, on the greater scale, that's family.

And of course, there's the Jewish community. I am currently winding down my fourth summer on staff at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, where I was also a camper for four years. Since my last year as a camper, I've learned about the incredible importance of Jewish community, and it has stuck with me ever since. Throughout my time at Indiana University, I have become more and more involved with Hillel on campus and the Jewish community in Bloomington. That, along with my own circle of Jewish friends, helps create a new sense of home for me, as well as them. And I'm hopeful that that sense will continue very far into the future. That, in its truest essence, is family.

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That's all from me for now. I'll be back with more relevant things to write about hopefully soon. An exciting year awaits us, and who knows what will happen? We'll just have to see and enjoy the ride.

What's Missing?

Throughout my experience in this class of Exploring Today's Jewish Identity, I have been quite fascinated with how much we have delved into each subject of class, and with each topic I've found a need to explore more everyay. I feel like we've explored so much of the contemporary Jewish Identity, but at the same time, there is still so much left to do. With any major topic as broad as say, Halakah, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or even the Holocaust-let alone the theme of Jewish Identity-I feel like I've only scratched the surface of everything Jewishly. However, I probably know a lot more than I think with my experiences in the Jewish world, coming from a strong background and representation of the Jewish world from Camp Ramah, USY, Nativ, and here at Hillel. I have experienced a lot in my Jewish life, and I know that I'll always yearn for more; to do more and to know more in my Jewish life as well. I'm not quite sure what I want to do in my life after school, but I know for a fact that I want to incorporate Judaism into my life personally, if not professionally as well. I know also for a fact that I'll forever hold on to my Jewish aspect of my personal life from my past experiences and knowleges. Those alone have helped shape me into who I am and what I do today, and I'll never stray away from it, no matter what I do in life.

The Holocaust

Even though a small blog entry about Holocaust representation barely scratches the surface of what there is to explore about it, I feel a need to expand upon it as much as possible. Throughout my life as well as the lives of all my peers up until our adolescence, we as a younger, newer generation of Jews view the Holocaust as symbolic event to remind us to always never forget the vile crimes of Hitler's Nazi Germany, the death camps, and the six million Jews murdered. Our generation forms a strong connection to this representation through all of the stories told of survival. What was quite surprising when we all learned about the actual history is that these strong connections from said representations weren't always there. It's shocking to know that it wasn't until almost 20 years after the Holocaust that things weren't set in the right direction in the aftermath of such a horrible atrocity. Up until the Eichmann trials in 1961, Jews were seen as just a statistic of all the victims of the Nazis.

When Eichmann was captured by the Mosaad, or Israel's secret service, it set off a chain of events that eventually turned into a complete and more much more cohesive representation of Jewish identity of the Holocaust, that culminated with 1993s Schindler's List. It was here that our generation really learned about how to understand the meaning of "never again," and it has stuck to us, and stayed true ever since.

I have visited many monuments that are dedicated in remembrance of the Holocaust. I have been to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Israel as well as the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, that reserve an entire square to look like the empty, eerie, barracks of a ghetto, with an underground museum under the entire memorial.

However, nothing can ever-or will ever, for that matter-hold a candle to the real thing.

Throughout my entire life, I have always imagined that the settings of all of the concentration camps in Eastern Europe were set in gloomy places with black and white nightmares of swamps and scary woods. But the summer of 2005, when I arrived with friends-new and old-at such places as Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, and Madjanek, not only was everything in full blown technicolor. But in beautiful open fields, wooded areas and plateaus with sunshine and blue skies with not a cloud in the sight. Nothing was ever what I thought it would seem, and that was the most mind shattering thing for me. As I was sitting at one of the large memorials in Poland overlooking a green valley behind it, I couldn't help but think: how could something so horrible happen in a place that was so beautiful and serene?

Emotions ran high during that week and a half long trip. But it was that entire experience alone, that completely stood out in my summer, moreso than my first ever trip to Israel straight from there. This was because we as a group explored not just the persecution and extermination of Jews in Poland, but their lives and traditions that they had held onto throughout their time in Poland. We often visited and davened in some of the ancient synagouges that still remained in tact after the Holocaust. And when we spent our only Shabbat in Krakow we did as much as we possibly could with help from our staff to celebrate ourselves as Jews in Poland, we celebrated with the absolute, utmost ruach that we could use to the very last piece. As we left that weekend, I felt that we didn't just see how Jewish life was in Poland before and during the Holocaust, but we lived it through our experiences of always holding true to our traditions. That powerfull experience alone stands out in my mind as one of the most powerful in my life, and will always ring true to me for the rest of my life.

Jews in the Christian Image

I was on a bus heading back from Tel-Aviv to my kibbutz that I was residing at during my second half of the year of Nativ, when I got the call from my mom. My family had just come back from a huge event at a local Evangelical Mega-church and were honored at a special benefit for Israel. I couldn't help but be suprised and beam at such a wonderful experience that she kept describing to me. It was at that moment that I truly began to appreciate Christianity for it's support of Israel.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is a very important organization due to the fact that it is a major entity that unites Christians and Jews in the utmost support for Israel. The reason behind all of this support is that Israel is a holy place for both religions. The IFCJ's major goal and vision here is to build bridges between Jews and Christians and develop better relationships between each other through their combined support of Israel, in order to "reverse their 2,000-year history of discord" by replacing it "with a relationship marked by dialogue, respect and cooperation."
I like how much this site stresses the importance of support of Israel regardless of religion or religious denomination through its biblical connection. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein does a great job of describing that importance through his video on one of the tabs on the site in his story about his first trip to Israel, when his roomate, an 86 year old black baptist minister broke down at the fact that he was able to walk in the land of Israel before he passed away.
Although the site stresses the importance of supporting Israel moreso than the vision of building better interfaith relationships between Jews and Christians, I think the IFCJ still does a lot of justice to it's cause by making the connection between the two through Israel-it is the holy land for both religions after all. Through this, IFCJ makes a great team not only for Israel's support, but for support between Jews, Christians, and whichever other religions that pursues a positive coexistance and relationship between one another.

Messianic Judaism

When I was young, I've always thought the concept for Jews for Jesus was absurd and nonexistant. Little did I know that there was and has been such thing since the 1960s. Even though I know it actually exists, I am still befuddled by Messianic Judaism. If one believes in Jesus, wouldn't one be considered Christian, and not Jewish? If Christainity follows the miracle of Jesus, then what exactly is the point of Jews for Jesus? It's something that won't really ever make any sense to me.
Messianic Judaism consists of a Biblically-based movement of people who, as committed Jews, believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Jewish Messiah of Israel of whom the Jewish Law and Prophets spoke, according to the description at mjaa.org. However, the description recognizes this contradiciton and calls itself "Hebrew Christianity" from it's historical descriptions. So why would this entity consider itself anywhere towards Jewish? It is a very confusing subject that I myself won't ever stop questioning.

Exogamy: Intermarriage in Judaism

I'll admit, I am a victim of Jewish parents egging their children to marry Jewishly and to never intermarry. It was a conversation that was frequently brought up with my mother, and at times when I was young, I felt it wasn't fair, and that I could marry whoever I wanted. I realized the importance of marrying Jewish and/or living a Jewish life after marriage as I got older and graduated from camp and my youth group. At the same time, realization was challenged when I got into big relationship at the end of my high school career. As we both knew that marriage for both of our religion's sake-let alone the fact that we were also in high school-wouldn't be an option, but it was still worth it for both of us to take that step of dating each other. And I was so happy to find out that my parents completely supported me at the time-so long as we didn't marry or hypothetically married Jewishly.
However, I won't go without saying that intermarriage has worked in families, a lot of the times resulting in raising Jewish families. A few of my friends that I lived with in my year in Israel were very well Jewishly raised products of
As I checked out interfaithfamily.com, I found some interesting things in regards to working out an interfaith relationship and marriage. I really liked the article on open conversation and arguing within and about an interfaith relationship. I believe such helps within a successive result of how a relationship will play out, and how little or big of a deal it is in the future. But in a hypothetical interfaith marriage and child conception, it should be crucial that the parents and the child(ren) should explore both religions to get a firm understanding on where each comes from.

African American Jews and Jews of Color

A couple years ago, my synagogue welcomed a new family into the community. They were an African American Jewish family that had just moved to Munster and joined my synagogue, and one of their kids was making aliyah later in the year. I remember being there for Shabbat services on one of their first times there. When I met them, I thought it was one of the coolest things I've seen in recent memory, and it was. For a long time I've always wondered what it would be like to have an encounter with African American Jews in general, let alone in my synagogue, and the experience proved to be a great one as I got to take a look at their customs that they brought to our synagogue, mainly what they wore to it as everyone from the family wore fascinatingly bright and large garments for their Shabbat clothes. After services, the entire family came up to give me the most heartfelt compliments about leading a very musical filled Musaf service. I could tell it really struck a chord with the family because that was the kind of ruach or spirit that they were looking for in a Jewish community.
When taking a look at the documentary, Black Israel, it was so wonderful to see so many things that African American Jews brought to the Jewish table. It was a total eye-opener to me in terms of what they did at services, bringing their own unique vibe to it by soul singing along to all the prayers while using various percussion. It was great to see that the Black Jewish community became so involved in Judaism as much as they could and still continue to do so. It may seem very different to whatever social norm that other Jews may be used to, but it's wonderful to see such a unique movement within the Jewish world as well as the African American world.
The family that I met that day years ago still regularly goes to my shul and it always brightens my Shabbat as well as theirs just to get to talk them about anything.

The Meaning of a Jewish Studies Major

When I came to IU as a student early last year, I was quite literally petrified of everything here in Bloomington, mainly because Fee Lane (the street where my dorm is), or the Villas wasn't the same thing as 8 Agron St. (where I lived in Jerusalem) or Kibbutz Ein Tzurim. I didn't even know what I was going to do in school. I was going to become a prospective applicant to the Kelly School of Business, but it wasn't really something that I wanted at all. With that I was an exploratory student for the majority of my first year at Indiana. Throughout the year, when I became more involved in Hillel, I realized that a lot of my friends that I spent time with during the year, were taking many of the Jewish Studies classes that the University had to offer. I felt that not only was it a great social setting for me, but a great educational setting as well, as I would love become a part of the Jewish professional world after I graduate, whether that be working in Jewish communities and organizations, or pursuing the Rabbinate or Cantorial school, it is a field that has been apart of my life for a long time, and it has given so much to me, and I would love to work in it and give whatever I can back to the Jewish world for helping me shape who I am today.
When I was talking about Jewish Studies Programs with my fellow students in class, one importnat topic that has been brought up for discussion of a meaning of a Jewish Studies Major is the legitamacy of Jewish Studies as a cultural experience as much as one of religion. I strongly believe that this type of major must have a cultural class experience within itself, because-let's face it-Judaism wouldn't really be Judaism without it's homeland. When I think a lot about Judaism's studies in school, I cannot go without incorporating Israel into it because that's where a lot of Judaism's cultural origins come from in every sense of it's historical sense. Jews and Judaism wouldn't be what it is today without it.

Queer Judaism

The issue of queer Judaism has been a hot topic for a long time. Only a few years ago, the Jewish Theological Seminary allowed Rabbinic Ordination of homosexuals, which was a huge deal. I have many good friends and close family members of mine that are homosexual that do their absolute best to lead Jewish lives. Some are even major leaders in their community as a few have served on various youth group executive boards. So as time has gone on, homosexuals have become more and more involved and excepted within the Jewish community especially in the Reform and Conservative communities, with the Conservative making more breakthroughs with the entire issue despite the struggles that homosexuals go through.
One film comes to my mind when I think about homosexual Jews, and that is Trembling Before G-d. The movie features many Orthodox Jews struggling with their sexuality in Judaism, and finding it harder to lead a Jewish life, let alone live in their own respective Jewish communities because of their homosexuality. I find it really appalling that the Orthodox comunity blatantly rejects homosexuals in their own community and even families.
There is a site that does support homosexual frum Jews. Which helps bring a lot comfort to those struggling. JQYouth.org is a group for homosexual Orthodox Jews that has frequent meetings and discussions about their respective situations. The site sends probably the most important message to Orthodox homosexuals: you are not alone. One thing that the site capitalizes is the fact that although Orthodox Judaism restricts homosexual acts, specifically penetration, it doesn't restrict homosexual feelings. If anything, this provides somewhat of a better resolution to frum Jews who are homosexual, but such can only go so far for only feelings for homosexual Orthodox Jews.

Zionism and Birthright Experience: Israel=Jewish?

At first it's easy to see that the Birthright experience would be a formiddable topic for debate in Jewish Identity. The explanation for it is quite easy: if you haven't been on an organized trip to Israel, you are elligible to go for free in certain programs of Birthright. The goal that Birthright hopes to get from it's participants is a taste and usual once in a lifetime experience in Israel for ten days, and to bring people together within its own trip while in Israel, creating long lasting friendships.

Don't get me wrong, Birthright is a very structured and great program for people who haven't been to Israel before, but isn't the idea here for people going to Israel a complete exploration and not a vacation? I feel that Birthright tries it's best to get that idea out, but it falls short because of the such short amount of time spent there, so people on the program treat the trip as a vacation rather than an exploration of their Jewish heritage and identity.

The summer youth programs that Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett mentions are a lot longer and more structured than Birthright due to each one's length of six weeks. Those on the program get a more prolonged experience of Israel, through multiple experiences in many more sites in Israel. The programs don't just encourage to explore Israel, but to find oneself as well. Also, a lot of these programs help promote Alyiah as an option from Tourism, as these programs are often considered "the next step" to living in Israel. I have often made that viewpoint an important aspect in life in Israel to me, as I have been on more and more prolonged programs during my time in Israel. In terms of Judaism, I do believe the connection can still be made in Israel, as long as the explorations in Israel and Jewish self identity within Israel are continuously expored.

Jewish Film

Jewish Film, to me, is an always interesting and fun topic to bring about, because it never fails to bring out the artistic talents and visions of filmmakers that have a strong connection or bond to Judaism. When I Googled "Jewish Film Festivals," I found such located in many major cities including Boston, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte, and many more, all usually happening throughout the months of February, March, and April. These events usually take place at the local JCC and the mission of each local festival is to illuminate global Jewish experiences throughout film.

One movie that I watched for this class was The Unchosen Ones, which was a mockumentary short film that was written and directed by (as well as starred) Iris Bahr. This movie was a humorous look at the certain stereotypes of people that are seen throughout Israel such as the lost tourist on a date trip to Israel, or the exploring, bumbling, British tourist attempting to create her own documentary in Isreal, as well as certain Isrealis such as the religious settlers in the land, or secular Israelis who bum around and smoke. I loved the narrative for this story as it was very informal to your usual narration. The crazy adventures that the first two characters that I mentioned consist of the camera man, Dudik, who is the actual narrator of the story. However, the narration goes through his camera of these two characters. There are times where it is shown that he isn't rolling his camera when the actual camera in the movie is in a fixed position of a shot of the where the scene is taking place, as opposed to the shakey camera work of Dudik.

My favorite part of the movie which shows it's true essence of Judaism is when Samantha Goldberg, the girl who is lost trying to find her Singles Tour group, goes to the Kotel, or Western Wall, to meet her group there. It is there where she changes, from her tourist exploring clothes, to a beautiful white dress for the appropriate occaision. When she reaches the Kotel, it appears as if all of her stresses from the past hours have just melted away, and she suddenly becomes more connected or bonded to her Jewish surroundings. After that, while looking out into the city from the Old City of Jerusalem, it's as if all her worries about anything have gone away. It's there that we see Dudik for the first time, and then kisses Samantha. I felt like the lesson of this story was to not always be caught up in what you're trying so hard to accomplish when sometimes it is right there in front of you. Samantha achieved that by gaining a stronger connection to Judaism and Israel through her praying at the Kotel, and in the end, she ended up being with Dudik. That was my defining Jewish moment in The Unchosen Ones.

Jews and The Internet

I visited all of the sites for looking up the web and it's uses for Judaism, and each of them had a different use for Judaism. Shamash: The Jewish Network was the most informative, because it had links and articles with sufficient texts on them. It isn't the most appealing website out there, but when it says that it is striving to be the highest quality central point of Jewish information and discussion on the Internet when it lists so many links along with a database that comes along with it, it's hard not to believe that it can be the central point of Jewish information and discussion. I liked how on the first page you pull up when going onto the site, you are greeted with somewhat of a book club or marketplace that features famous Israeli authors of their time. It wasn't a bad place to start, but it certainly was the best out of all the sites listed for that week.

I remember also taking a look at Orthodox Anarchist. The blog itself is very stylish as well as intriguing. But let's not forget that this is just one person's thoughts. The blogger himself has authority over his blog, but that doesn't mean he has total authority over the issues that he discusses. Sometimes subjects can be very touchy, even though everyone is entitled to their own opinion. These cases is just to be careful what you write.

Jewish Music - BOJAC

It's an odd looking acronym at first from it's initials, but BOJAC (short for The Best of Jewish A Cappella), is probably one of coolest experiences I've had listening to Jewish music. This was the standalone unique pick in our class that I absolutely had to get and talk about for many reasons. Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of traveling to New York with Indiana's premiere Jewish A Capella group, Hooshir (notice the clever Hebrew wordplay...get it?), for which I am a proud member of, and participated in the Jewish Collegiate Festival of the Performing Arts (appropriately named, JCFPA) at The Jewish Theological Seimnary. It was a fantastic experience observing and performing in front of so many people that not only were apart of very talented Jewish A Capella groups across the country, but shared the same passion for Jewish music and performing arts as well.

I have a certain knack for A Cappella muisc in general because it's so incredible to hear what the voice, or in this case many voices from across each range wokring together to create something so extraordinary out of nothing with no help from any other instrumental, except from each other group members voices. BOJAC digs deep to find the best arrangements and performances of Jewish A Capella groups from all over the country.

For starters, Best of Jewish A Cappella is, as it states in the title, Jewish music in A Capella. No other instrument is there to help out with except for the groups voices for melody, harmony, and vocal percussion. BOJAC features many many premier collegiate and professional Jewish A Capella from around the country covering certain songs of Israeli Pop songs, or doing their own original arrangements of songs of Jewish prayer.

The range of styles that BOJAC connects to in terms of Judaism is actually wider than one thinks, due to it's wide range of Jewish music. Each group fires up every style of Jewish music, from religious melodies of Jewish prayer (Six13's Yigdal and Beat'Achon's doo-wop version of Lecha Dodi) to Israeli pop (Tufts University's Shir Appeal's poppy cover of Ani Ohev Otach), in English (Sam Glazer's Shabbas and Sean Altman and Kol Zimra's We Stand As One) , Hebrew (Rutgers' Kol Halayla's rendition of Yaron Hadad's Zodiac)and a bissel of Yiddish (Binghamton's Kaskeset beautifully original parody of Queen in Bohemishe Rapsody, singing about kashered food rather than the journey of a poor boy).

Each Jewish A Cappella group brings something to the table for this and their experience with their own media and performances show it. Many of these groups (such as Kaskeset, The Shabbatones, Shir Appeal, Pizmon, and Six13, just to name a few) have very well structured websites and mention their long history of discography (with sound clips!) and great past performances, along with their own assorted media of past performances from YouTube. The album cover is very appealing to the listener as it shows which group performes which song, as well as let the listener know which university or city each group comes from, as it's always interesting to know that information. In terms of it's corporate structure, a lot of these groups are starting to become, if not already are pretty mainstream on their respective campuses. The collegiate and professional acapella groups are framed under that name, and the music reaches out to basically any Jewish music lover, let alone an A Cappella fan, thanks to their name on campus or in the world.

Each group uses their own style of Jewish A Capella to help promote Judaism through their performances of their arrangements of songs. And every performance is usually very gratifying. I know this through personal experience with Hooshir. We have put some amazing work into the pieces that we've rehearsed for peformances, and each keeps topping the next one.


And for those of you wondering about our performance at JCFPA, I can't even begin tell you how exhilarating it was to be up there in front of friends, family and lots of others who appreciated Jewish A Cappella at JTS. Many people noted that we were one of the best performances in the entire festival. It made the entire trip, regardless of how crazy it was to make a giant step forward onto the map of Jewish A Cappella, worth all the while.


I leave this post with a video of one of our songs performed at JCFPA. This is a cover of Sarit Hadad's K'shehalev Bocheh (A Crying Heart). Apologies in advance for the minor shakey camera.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8RQuYWDfD8


Enjoy!

Jewish Magazines: Jewish Mayhem

I'll be honest, I chose to look at Jewish Mayhem Magazine because of the Mature Content Warning of being 18 years or older, as mature content often intrigues me to it's exploration. From the get-go, Jewish Mayhem Magazine website is a visual eye-opener from it's header of a collage of wads of cash, shaved mohawks, tatoos in Hebrew, up-close shots of scantily clad womens' breasts and bikini bottoms, and finally a Jewish Star to stick to it's roots of a mature Jewish Magazine. The website's image becomes a lot more disturbing as you scroll down the page to see a cover of the magazine, with a picture of a slit wrist holding a a Jewish Star of David. From all this, it's easy to see that this isn't your typical Jewish Magazine.

Jewish Mayhem's editor Josh Andrews describes Jewish Mayhem as a dedication to the coolest, craziest and most comical aspects of Jewish, Israeli, Hebrew, and Biblical culture, from around the globe, presented in a fresh and sexy, proud to be a Jew, balls to the wall style. With many covers featureing beatiful women who are wearing nothing, but bikinis, or the Israeli flag wrapped around their waists, or just nothing at all. Other covers featuring shots of certain prominant artists in the music industry that have Jewish roots such as rapper Remedy Ross, or the renowned rappers The Beastie Boys. One more thing to notice is that a subscription to Jewish Mayhem is very exclusive to paid members. The Magazine is only featured online to mature audiences do it's content of it's interviews with many well known people within the adult entertainment industry (read: Ron Jeremy, Kinky Friedman, Maxine Extreme), as well as underground hip hop artists such as NECRO and Rivera Regime. Andrews' explanation of Jewish Mayhem is a combination of Ebony Magazine, Maxim and National Lampoon, but about Jews. I'd also like to think that the covers pull out a good layout that is akin to Rolling Stone and has great cover shots and headlines that run down the left and right sides. Despite the content, however mature it may be, the designs are in fact very stylish and appealing.

If you ask me, I think it's a little much to put out there in the Jewish world today with all of it's content. However, if you take another look at it, this mature magazine is a necesisity in Jewish society. It may not be the most celebrated, but it is certaily needed. This is because it reaches out to the very secular more aspect of as well as a much more comical and fast-paced look at Judaism as a whole.

Jewish Culture: Limmud NY

In general, Jewish Culture is a very big thing to get involved in. One of the sites that I found appealing in Jewish Culture is Limmud NY. Limmud NY is "a conference and a festival that has a gathering of hundreds of Jews from all walks of life, all Jewish backgrounds, all lifestyles, and all ages. Limmud is four days of lectures, workshops, text-study sessions, discussions, exhibits, performances and much more—all planned by a community of volunteers." Limmud is Hebrew for "learning" which is exactly what the conference/festival is about. From the rest of it's explanation, Limmud NY is a fantastic opportunity to learn and discover connections to Judaism through ideas and tradition. The five day conference has about 8-12 simultaneous sessions per day that span from morning until late night on topics ranging from Talmud to psychology, from film to Bible, from drama to Israeli politics.

I thought limmudny.org was a great site to look to because of it's opportunities to meet tons new people in the Jewish community, as well as learn with them. It's a wonderful network-connecting tool for the Jewish community because it brings together a large group of Jews from Jewish communities around the world, from any and all denominations and all reaches of Jewish culture.

Jewish Philanthropy: Stepping Up in Hard Times

Jewish Philanthropy, especially at times like this of financial crisis is always plays an important part of any Jewish entity, as it helps raise money for it's own cause or other causes related to it (especially for Tzedakah-acts of loving kindness). All of the websites that I have visited have their respective blogs on the current economic situation of the Jewish communities around the world. As of now, they all have one major thing in common: Bernie Madoff, the man perpetrated the largest Ponzi scheme in the history of finance, sabotaging many Jewish foundations that are considered to be the backbone of the Jewish world. There are major organizations that we as college students have been or are apart of (such as Hillel, or Birthwright Israel trips) that have lost so much money because of this fraud scheme, and the damage to their finances is almost crippling

The site that I found most intriguing to me was the blog of The New Jew, which is an individual Jewish Philanthropy blog. The first, or most recent thing that this person talks about in the blog are the questions that have often been asked at the dinner table concerning the Madoff scheme, the issues of the Ponzi scam as well as the future of Birthwright are brought up, but ultimately the blogger asks questions, essentially opening up a forum for the comment pages. This is great way to help become more interactive with Jewish Philanthropy, because the comments are completely open to public opinion and can hopefully garner more attention to the issue of the economic crisis of the Jewish community.

Chabad

I've always had an awkward feelings toward Chabad until recently since I didn't unsterdant much of their traditons. Some I still don't today, and am looking forward to learning more about the Halakha that Chabad follows in general. But what strikes me is that whatever they do, they do so in a righteous way. And the amazing thing about it is that it is ultra-Orthodox Jews that attracts mainly non-Orthodx news. These Jews are the most traditional out of anyone in Judaism, so the non-Orthodox Jews would be really interested in what they can explore, or find out from Chabad. It is usually a great place for answers if one has a question about anything Jewsih.

As Sue Fishkoff says in her essay, Chabad outreach is nonstop (11). Movement activists are everywhere, and if there's something that is missing Jewishly in your life whether you like it or not, Chabad usually comes in and fills whatever void that it might be. The wierd thing about this all is, Rabbi Schneerson was the last leader of the Hassidic movement, but Chabads infrastructure kept increasing and grew faster in 8 years after his death faster than his lifetime (12). Their ultimate goal is to reach every Jew in the world. And you know something? I commend it. They are absolutely not afraid to do anything, and will never take "no" for an answer. And they do what what they do to get kids to appeal to it, a lot of the times using prominant figures in society as we know it to them

Reconstructionist and Secular Judaism

I've always been confused as to what Reconstructionist and Secular Judaism is. It has made me question it's legitamacy, mainly because I was only so familiar with Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism. Reconstructionism and Secularism take Judaism in a different direction, but that's not necessarily a bad thing at all. These two other denominations help bring out other aspects of Judaism that the first three don't capitalize on as much.

Secularism stresses freedom over commandments and they share this belief throughout the majority of Jews in Israel as well as around the world. Secular Jews beleive in more humanistic values and give a more pluralistic and historical approach the concept of Judaism as a culture. The explanation on the belief of God is a little confusing here. Secular Judaism refers to God a s a "literary hero" who functions in the collective reality and history of Judaism. It doens't really explain so much about God being an authoritative force from above, but it did mention, that he was there throughout all of history (Malkin, 2). However, Malkin notes that Secular humanist Jews live according to their beliefs and judge themselves and others by human values that constitute these beleifs. They may not directly believe in God, but rather they believe that man and woman created God, with the aknowledgement that God is central to the Bible. The Jewish humanists believe that these values of humanism are compatible with what they see is Judaism. They believe their freedom of choice for themselves helps them realize their Jewishness (Malkin, 3).

Reconstructionist Judaism is seen as the product of the collective experience of the Jewish people. It also teaches that Judaism is not just a religion, but a culture, and that without anything that Jewish or Israeli culture provides (such as Hebrew, Jewish literature, history, dance, music and visual arts), it wouldn't be able to survive (Kaplan, 1). The Jewish cultural values make us aware of our belonging to the Jewish people as well as the Jewish and Israeli community, and through that Kaplan considers the Jewish community in Israel central to Jewish life because of it's cultures in the country. Judaism wouldn't be Judaism today without it.

These two denominations focus on something very important: culture. Believing in God isn't always a center staple for practicing Judaism. A lot of it comes from the culture of Judaism itself. So long as the value of Jewish culture is kept to be cherished like it always has, Judaism as a whole, will keep on living a good and long life.

Orthodox Judaism

When I was younger, I often confused Orthodox Judaism with Chabad, and thought the two were one of the same. Throughout my years as a kid, I was pretty intimidated by it all and was usually nervous when talking about the subject, because I just wasn't used to or comfortable with it. Now, thankfully of course, those views that I had as a child are no longer there as I have had experiences with Orthodoxy from my stinit in Israel living on a Kibbutz Dati (religious Kibbutz), and I have a handful of good friends that are also Orthodox as well.

While reading the Heilman artical I saw something interesting that I've come to notice throughout my years in college and in Israel, and that is Orthodox Jews are highly affiliated to all things Jewish, and that Judaism is not primarily a personal matter (2). For them, it's a part of everyday life--the normal routine. I don't think I've ever respected something more than that in Judaism in general.

One thing caught me a little off gaurd that I now comprehend a little better: the two types of Orthodox Judaism that are called "contrapuntal" and "enclavist" Orthodox Judaism. Contrapuntal Orthodox Judaism consists of Orthodox Jews that incorporate and involve their religion to the American Lifestyle in which they live in. Many of these Jews that live in society today, feel that even though they follow strict laws, they shouldn't feel odd or different from others in general society today. Enclavists are at the opposite side of the spectrum, and are much more introverted, and exclusive about their Jewish lives. I understand why such a community would exist today seeing as there are many in Israel today, but in a different society, they are viewed as if they are living in their own world (even in Israel, at most times), and I don't think it's necessarry for someone to exclude him or herself from society just to be more religious. But if more religious Jews make themselves a bigger part of their own society in which we live in, I would like to see more knowledge of Judaism spread to the world because of it.

Conservative Judaism: The Middle

It's interesting to think that Conservative Judaism was born from Reform Judaism and not the other way around. It's an interesting denomination that follows more traditional ways of Judaism than Reform Judaism, but still strays away from Orthodoxy. Plain and simple, it's the middle of the Jewish denominational spectum.

When looking at the website, one can notice that the USCJ website is very organized with plenty of links and other information about Conservative Judaism through Jewish education, leadership, social action, as well as Israel. The Israel section of the website was an especially interesting thing to check out as it featured links to programs such as USY summer Israel programs the Conservative Yeshiva as well as the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center for Conservative Judaism in Israel (where I lived for about 5 months in 2006-2007). It also had a complete guide for making Aliya (the move to Israel) for those who wish to, as well as the bulletin entry for support of Israel througout the Gaza war.

Another thing to take note of from this site is the limited explanation of terms. In order for someone to fully understand this site, one would have to have a basic knowledge of what a certain subject may be, such as KOACH being the Conservative Judaism College Outreach Program, or USY (the USCJ's youth program), or Project Reconnect, which is a reunion program that sends out frequent newsletters on happenings of alumni of programs from USCJ. Still, these links, when explored are very helpful to attaining the needed information related to Conservative Judaism.

As alumni and current member of many programs from the USCJ such as USY (Chicago Region), Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, Nativ, and KOACH, I find Conservative Judaism to play an important role in my life thanks to their own laws of tradition. Conservative Judaism bases itslef on moreso of a religious belief on Judaism through observance of Jewish Holidays as well as a bigger and more restrictive structure of Jewish Law. However the beliefs of Conservative Judaism keeps changing everyday in part of the wide range of figuring out certain beliefs or issues within the religion, such as kashrut, or homosexuality in the leadership roles of Judaism. It is a part of Judiasm that takes a more conservative, right-wing departure from Reform Judaism, but also a movement that is not quite completely comfortable with Orthodoxy. Quite simply, it's the middle of the Jewish denominations.

Reform Judaism: What does it stand for?

From the time that I was born until I moved to Munster, Indiana and became a Hoosier at the age of 10, I had always considered myself to be raised as a Reform Jew. My parents raised me that way to the best of their ability and growing knowledge of Judaism. I vividly remember going to Temple Sholom's Gan Shalom in the heart of Chicago when I was just a toddler and having a blast there along with some childhood friends that I still remain somewhat in touch with to this day. I never knew what certain things at the Gan meant such as the Megillah scrolls or any of the Brachot or blessings over anything besides the candles, wine, and challah, or maybe I didn't remember since I was so little, but I knew they had to do with the aspect of living a Jewish life.


But, I digress.

My first actual memory of being a Reform Jew came when I was kid living in Glencoe, Illinois, a suburb just North of Chicago. It was the regular Sunday School routine at Am Shalom, in which we had our select multiple classes or activities, followed by kid-oriented service in the beautiful sanctuary there. What made it so Reform to me? I remembered that we did most of the service in English, with some of the songs and prayers in Hebrew (such as the Sh'ma and the Amidah) with just about everything sung at a campy tune accompanied by guitar. Another thing I remembered: the community in the synagogue was so warm and welcoming! I spent a good chunk of my childhood there, and I enjoyed it a lot.

So why connect these nostalgic childhood memories to Reform Judaism? For starters, Temple Sholom (Gan Shalom) and Am Shalom are both members of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). Second, and more importantly, both of these institutions basically introduced me to Judaism as a whole at first-hand. I wouldn't be the kind of Jew I am today without it.


That's what I feel what Reform Judaism is best for: a sort of Introduction to Judaism to those that are getting more and more into it.

The layout to reformjudaism.org is a very good one. It's a very simple set up with short and to-the-point explanations. It signiture explanation in the 'What is Reform Judaism' section, is that it introduces innovation to the Judaism, while still preserving it's age-old tradition. It also stresses the importance of embracing Judaism as well as inclusion, choice and even diversity, which are all important factors that help make Reform Judaism the largest denomination of Judaism today. The inclusions of homosexuals to actively participate in the community as well as having women larger roles in the communities such as being rabbis, cantors or synagogue presidents. These factors make a huge breakthrough in the thousands of years of tradition in Judaism.

To further bring about the introductory aspect to Reform Judaism, this umbrella website lists and explains many of it's programs really well. It's almost like a Hitchikers Guide to Judaism of sorts, and the layouts of the sister sights that it lists (such as URJ, RJ.org, and AZRA and NFTY, to name a few) are vibrant, colorful and are good attention getters to the younger audience, and they give out simple explanations as to what they stand for as well: to help understand Judaism more. The blogs on the sidebar of RJ.org are awesome resources to look off of in terms of diving deeper into Reform Judaism.

However, problems arise. One major factor to consider is observance. In a commentary given by Jack Wertheimer, he quotes Rabbi Yoffie distinguishing Judaism practiced by Reform from other forms of Judaism (6): "If you take it all upon yourself as an obligation rather than as a choice, you've reached the point at which you are no longer a Reform Jew."

So where would the line (or lines) be drawn here?

If one feels that observance is a choice, than said one is Reform, but when choice becomes obligation, that's where the line is crossed into non-Reform; the line to the right.

On the other hand... are there limits when it comes to choice? Is there a line to the left that goes further? Possibly. That line could be drawn if people choose not to practice, and just drop Judaism, but still keeping the title of Reform Jew. The problem here according to Wertheimer is the lack of Jewish education, or motivation to continue Jewish education (5-6). Most drop out the supplementary Jewish classes before seventh grade, and the "overwhelming majority" shuns religious study when it comes to worship at a Reform temple. When this happens, what can be done?

When it comes down to it, Reform Judaism explains and uses Judaism in a great way because it is so inclusive and diverse, serving as an initial guide to Judaism, and I take that to heart becasue of my experiences when I was a kid. But if you ask me, one can only go so far as to calling it that before the line is drawn past it into something deeper.