A talking pig, an African goddess, a tribal mythological creature, the spirit of Michael Jackson and Ken and Barbie. It\’s not the set-up to a joke, but a list of characters in Evelyne Tollman\’s play of self-exploration, \”The Pig and I,\” in which a Jewish woman struggles to come to terms with a childhood raised in apartheid South Africa by parents obsessed with external beauty.
So an Orthodox Jew is not the Democratic vice presidential nominee this year, like in 2000. And the wife of the vice presidential nominee is not named Hadassah.
The Democratic Party wants to send the right message to the American Jewish community about its priorities in the Middle East, but its platform fails to include several positions Jewish groups recommended.
Kenny Schnurr and Micah Smith are concerned about Jewish education. \”One of the problems is that students are not interested [in what\’s being taught],\” Schnurr said. \”The students are used to this very engaging visual language [of the media], and the teachers don\’t have anything to compete with that.\”
So Smith and Schnurr, both filmmakers in their 20s, teamed up to create J-Flicks, a series of educational \”trigger\” films that repackage esoteric Jewish concepts in a slick neo-MTV style garb for a media savvy audience.
Faced with a pension shortfall of $20 million, the organized Jewish community\’s largest philanthropy finds itself forced to divert millions of donor dollars to employee retirement benefits, rather than to needed social services.
Even as Ron Reagan makes a case for stem cell research at the Democratic National Convention, Californians may take matters into their own hands. In November, the state ballot will include a 10-year bond issue, which would generate $3 billion for stem cell research.
Before the sermon at each of the three services at Bel Air Presbyterian Church last Sunday, the Rev. Mark Allan Brewer did something unusual — he protested. Speaking in a clear, forceful voice, the reverend denounced the 216th annual General Assembly of the Presbyterian church\’s decision to selectively divest funds from companies doing business in Israel.
\”Yonah has a question and I thought that you would have the answer.\” This was the father\’s sentence that broke the silence of my learning in the empty beit midrash in Jerusalem some five summers ago.
The Democrats have had all week to prove that this election is for John Kerry, not against George Bush, but nobody I know is buying it. I\’ve come across a lot of anti-Bush sentiments among Jews of all sorts, but very little Kerry enthusiasm.
Back in high school, I had a crush on a Protestant girl, Joan Reid. She told me that her mother encouraged her to date — and even marry — Jewish guys because: a) They\’re smarter and work harder; b) They make great fathers; c) They don\’t get drunk and beat you.
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