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Jewish Journal

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August 2, 2013

The importance of ‘Paper’

Leave a Comment / Books, Entertainment, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

A profound irony suffuses this book review.  “Paper, An Elegy” by Ian Sansom (William Morrow/HarperCollins, $24.99) is a celebration of the civilizing function of pulped vegetable matter, but you are reading about the book in the paperless environment of the Internet.  And so passes the glory of the world.

Appropriately enough, “Paper” is a superb example of print-on-paper publishing. The book’s paper stock is a pleasure to the touch, its typography is elegant to behold, its illustrations are exquisitely reproduced and displayed, and the words that Sansom has chosen to express are deeply rooted in what the digital natives among us insist on calling the “dead-tree” tradition of world literature.

Yet the book is slightly mis-titled. To be sure, Sansom has written a sentimental history of paper, but he always reminds us of the ways in which we will continue to rely on this ancient and humble material for things both great and small in our world: “Without paper, we are nothing,” he writes, alluding to the fact that our lives begin with birth certificates and continue to accumulate documents of identity until we are awarded a death certificate. “We are born human, but are forever becoming paper, as paper becomes us, our artificial skin.  Everything we are is paper: it is the ground of activity, the partner to all our enterprises, the key to our understanding of the past.”

So Sansom is not yet willing to concede that paper is obsolete. “Without paper our lives would be unimaginable,” he insists, although he is referring to objects other than books — after all, where would we be without tea bags and coffee filters, toilet paper and Post-it notes, napkins and emery boards.  “Will there be a continuing role for paper? Short answer: Yes.”

Sansom begins at the beginning with the invention of paper-making, the wedding of paper and printing (“[T]hey’re a couple; it’s a perfect marriage”) and the revolution that the printed book worked in history. “Books produced by this sort of method have been accorded responsibility  by historians for everything from the scientific revolution to the Protestant Reformation, to the collapse of the ancien régime in France, to the rise of capitalism and the fall of communism, and just about everything in between.”

But the author does not neglect the more mundane uses of paper; in fact, his argument for the importance of paper is all the stronger when it comes to functions that digitization will never replace, and toilet paper is only the most obvious. Artists, architects, and activists may resort to computer-assisted media, but he uses the famous image of Barack Obama by Shepard Fairey as an example of the unique and enduring power of paper.

“The Obama poster, initially printed by hand in a small batch by Fairey, and eventually reproduced everywhere on signs, flyers, stickers and badges, has an immediate, low-tech, anachronistic appeal: it suggests the workmanlike pull of ink through a screen with a squeegee, and thus the human scale of the Obama project,” he writes. “Paper, somehow, despite all the odds, remains radical.”

One nagging question is anticipated and answered in detail by the author in a passage that I found utterly (and characteristically) charming.

“In total, this book is made from twenty reams of plain white 80 gsm copier paper, fifteen A4 lined, narrow-feint pads, four Moleskine pocket notebooks, six packs of A5 lined index cards, fifty manila folders (green), and three wrist-thick blocks of Post-it notes (assorted colors),” he discloses. “The finished product is printed on Glatfelter’s Offset 70 lb. B18 Antique form a mill in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania — virgin paper with no added optical brighteners, made by a chlorine-free process and using pulp from woodlands that comply with guidelines set by the Sustainable Forest Initiative.” 

To which he adds a coda. “Too much?” he muses. “Too much. Not enough.”  I take his point — every book, but especially a book as full of delight as “Paper, An Elegy,” is itself a winning argument for the survival of paper.

Jonathan Kirsch, author and publishing attorney, is the book editor of The Jewish Journal. His latest book is “The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris” (W.W. Norton/Liveright), published in 2013 to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Kirsch can be reached at books@jewishjournal.com.

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Coming Back to Breath

Leave a Comment / Yoga Breathes /

Some days, it’s all hard. The thing you thought you had taken care of that time still does not work. The thing you wanted, try as you might, feels still so out of reach, and the things that ARE available to you feel not interesting at all.  Your brain starts then to listen in on all the nasty rumors it’s hearing about you. That equanimity you work on diligently is challenged by all the negative messages rummaging about that uncontrollable environment between your ears.

Best to breathe in these moments. Sure, there are other options that might also bring immediate relief, most of them not as safe nor as long lasting. The practicing of yoga is to “sit with tall spine” and breathe. Not “get into a funky position in a heated room and learn contortions.” Nope. Just breathe. So that when that hard day (days) come up, you’ve got some options.

Option: make August your “coming back to breath month.”  We will still flow, but make a stronger and possibly longer commitment to our breath in each of our practices. And in order to make that commitment more affordable, all classes will be $10 until September 1.

I look forward to a lovely month ahead,

Michelle

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RESPONDING TO BIGOTRY

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Books, Entertainment, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

The attached op/ed will appear in the Daily News this Sunday. It is in response to a series of events in the Lancaster community over the past several weeks. As you will see, a leader of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam unburdened himself of anti-gay and anti-Semitic remarks. The response of the mayor of Lancaster was disappointing, to say the least.

 


By David A. Lehrer and Joe R. Hicks

Most adults love magic but know, despite all appearances, that they are being fooled. Sleights of hand and distraction can be amazingly effective in allowing us to delude ourselves into believing that logic defying forces are at work.

Recent events in Lancaster, California, our high desert neighbor, bear a certain resemblance to believing in magic—abracadabra, what really happened is different than logic and common sense would dictate.

Stan Muhammad, a city commissioner in Lancaster and leader of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, recently spoke at a Community Prayer and Call to Action rally sponsored by the Antelope Youth Ambassador Program relating to Trayvon Martin. It was a diverse multi-religious, multi-ethnic gathering.

Whatever positive aims the Coalition might have had were torpedoed by Muhammad. In the space of a few short minutes he succeeded in infuriating both the Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities, the Jewish community and people of good will. He referred to gays as “faggots” and Jews as “the synagogue of Satan.”

The most disturbing thing about the Muhammad incident is not that the head of the Nation of Islam in Lancaster would unburden himself of homophobic and anti-Semitic epithets–that’s par for the course. Rather, that the mayor of Lancaster, R. Rex Parris, would be surprised and respond to the outrageous comments by calling for “sensitivity training” because Lancaster residents “don’t know about each other” rather than demand Muhammad’s dismissal as a governmental official.

The mayor seems to believe that after a few magical choruses of kumbaya Muhammad’s hate will disappear, much like the rabbit in a hat. But in reality the problem is not that Lancaster residents don’t know about each other, it’s that Mayor Parris doesn’t know about his appointee.

A two minute Google search of Louis Farrakhan’s (the leader of the Nation of Islam) remarks about the LGBT community is all it takes to realize Muhammad didn’t “misspeak” or that his remarks were not accidental; he meant to refer to LGBT members as “faggots” because the NOI views the LGBT community with utter contempt.

Farrakhan has decades of homophobic “>click here).

It is magical thinking that would allow an elected official to believe that sitting in a “diversity” training session would somehow cleanse a hateful ideology and teach a bigot how to appreciate the “other.” That’s not how extremism works; it is, invariably, a deeply embedded ideology.

It is also magical thinking to believe that Muhammad’s eventual “apology” was anything more than window dressing and beyond believable. After all, days after the incident he averred that he had “no clue the term (“faggot”) was offensive. I would say that a lot of our community is unaware.” There are few fifteen year olds in America who don’t know that that term is offensive—one doesn’t need “sensitivity training” to figure that out.

His disingenuousness is betrayed by the fact that before he made the odious comments he warned his listeners, “I can’t speak the way I want to speak because sisters is here.” Further evidence of his duplicity was revealed the day of his initial remarks when he was offered the opportunity to apologize but chose to double down on offensiveness, “I have a background in entertainment, and I’ve been exposed to those who have sold their soul to the devil. The likes of Jay-Z, the likes of Lil Wayne…..and they have made a deal with the synagogue of Satan….when I mentioned faggot, it didn’t have any direct impact on the gay community.” Parenthetically, he has offered no apology to the Jewish community for his repeated references to the “synagogue of Satan.”

Sensitivity training won’t make a difference, Muhammad is echoing the extremism and bigotry of his religious leader. He won’t change the substance of his hate because it is an essential tenet of the Nation of Islam’s theology, though he might package it a bit more felicitously.

It is the obligation of leaders and elected officials to reject bigots like Muhammad out of hand and not play their game. Winking at their hate or pretending that the magical thinking of “diversity training” will alter an insidious world view sends a sorry message that bigotry and prejudice are tolerable.

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Citing personal reasons, would-be Bank of Israel gov declines job

Leave a Comment / Israel /

Leo Leiderman, an Israeli economics professor tapped to become governor of the Bank of Israel, has withdrawn his candidacy.

Leiderman on Friday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid that he does not want the job “for personal reasons,” Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced his nomination days after Jacob Frenkel withdrew his candidacy over accusations that he shoplifted at a duty-free shop in Hong Kong.

Leiderman, a professor at Tel Aviv University and former head of its school of economics, is the chief economist for Bank Hapoalim and the former head of the Bank of Israel Research Department, where he worked under Frenkel.

Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel Karnit Flug resigned Wednesday, following Leiderman’s appointment. She has served at the Bank of Israel for 25 years, and has been acting governor since the departure of Stanley Fischer at the end of June.

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Will Ellen Degeneres top her best ever Jewish joke as host of the next Oscars?

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Hollywood, Mobile, News /

New York Magazine's Vulture has limned a list of reasons why Ellen Degeneres is a stable, safe choice for next year's Oscar host. Since last year's pick, “Family Guy” creator Seth McFarlane proved too edgy for the staid Academy, they may be seeking something more traditional with Degeneres, whose straightlaced comedy is more palatable for an older audience. The daytime talk show host last (and first) took the Oscar stage in 2006, when she focused her opening monologue on “the dream come true” of it all, and seemed visibly nervous. It was a far cry from the fraught performance she aced at the post-9/11 Emmy Awards, when she uttered what Vulture called an “immortal line”:

“What would upset the Taliban more than a gay woman wearing a suit in front of a room full of Jews?” [VIDEO]

Something tells me Degeneres's Jewish jokes will land more smoothly than her predecessor's.

Will Ellen Degeneres top her best ever Jewish joke as host of the next Oscars? Read More »

Olive oil poached wild salmon

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Opinion, Rob Eshman /

Wild salmon season is here.

That means we have hit the ethical food sweetspot, where the most sustainable overlaps with the most delicious.   Add one more circle to the Venn diagram– it's kosher!– and you have a Foodaism trifecta in our home.   From June to September, we eat wild salmon until we grow gills.

King, or chinook,  salmon, the fattiest and most expensive, can run you close to $40/pound at Santa Monica Seafood.  But you can find coho or sockeye for $13 or so per pound at Costco or sometimes at Whole Foods.  Sustainable, delicious, kosher and affordable.  More salmon, more!

The only problem, then, is to avoid WSF– Wild Salmon Fatigue.   I don't suffer from it, but my kids, over the years, surely have.  There are worse problems in life, but this one is solvable: switch up the recipes and techniques.  

This week I discovered a new technique.  At the new Venice restaurant Saltair they poach salmon in olive oil.  Saltair  by the way, is the best new restaurant I've been to, and far exceeds Sun of a Gun, Hungry Cat, and other perhaps more chic seafood places.  Their grilled whole striped bass is simply a superb meal,  crispy skin,  fragrant flesh, sense memories of an Italian outdoor beachside lunch.  

The sockeye and coho are especially good for olive oil poaching as they are lean fish, and the oil adds to their richness.  Serve simply with lemon and you have an simple, fancy dinner.  At Saltair they accompany the salmon with fried artichokes, similar to the ones in Rome's Jewish Ghetto.  You would think oil-poached salmon with fried artichokes would be too much oil.  It's not.

I served mine with a timbale of kale and potato topped with goat yogurt and Turkish marash pepper.  The cool, tart yogurt is a nice balance to the oil in the dish.

To poach in olive oil, you'll need a thermometer to help you keep the temperature at a just-bubbling 180 degrees.  Otherwise, all you need is good quality olive oil.   

And wild salmon.

[RECIPE] Olive Oil-Poached Salmon

Adapted from “Salt to Taste” by Marco Canora (Rodale)

Time: About 40 minutes

10 sprigs fresh thyme

4 fresh bay leaves or 1 sprig fresh rosemary

2 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

About 3 cups olive oil, more to cover fish

1 1/2 – 2 pounds salmon fillet, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature

2 lemons, one cut into wedges for garnish

Salt and black pepper to taste

Minced parsley, chives or another fresh herb, for garnish.

1. Combine thyme, rosemary, garlic and oil in a pot just wide enough to hold fish in a single layer without touching. (When fish is added, oil should cover it, so it is better to use more oil than not enough.) Peel 1 lemon, using a vegetable peeler to remove yellow part only, in strips. Add peel to oil. Season fish on both sides with salt and pepper.

2. Fit skillet with a deep-frying thermometer and heat oil to 180 degrees over medium-low heat. Reduce heat and monitor temperature, adjusting until temperature is a stable 180, with small bubbles occasionally rising to surface.

3. When temperature is stable, add fish. Oil temperature will drop, so raise heat slightly (never above medium-low) just until it reaches 180 again; then reduce.

4. Cook fish 13 to 15 minutes, until top is completely opaque and flakes easily with a fork. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels, let drain. Place on serving platter, sprinkle with herbs, and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

4 servings

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Stoudemire seeking Israeli citizenship

Leave a Comment / Culture, Is Featured?, Mobile, News /

Amar’e Stoudemire, the New York Knicks star who claims Hebrew roots and is currently touring Israel, is seeking Israeli citizenship.

Stoudemire’s agent, Happy Walters, told New York magazine that the Knicks’ power forward is in the process of becoming an Israeli.

“He’s getting citizenship,” Walters said. ”He applied, and he’s there now.”

Stoudemire went to Israel for the Maccabiah Games as the assistant coach of the Canadian basketball squad. The games ended earlier this week.

Stoudemire’s Jewish connections have been the source of much media fascination in recent months. At hiswedding last year to Alexis Welch, Stoudemire donned a yarmulke and prayer shawl for the “Hebraic” ceremony. In July, he announced he had become a part owner in the Israeli basketball club Hapoel Jerusalem. And in an exclusive interview in Jerusalem last month with JTA, Stoudemire said he is in regular dialogue with New York rabbis, studies Torah and observes the High Holidays.

“I’m not a religious person, I’m more of a spiritual person, so I follow the rules of the Bible that coordinate with and connect with the Hebrew culture,” Stoudemire told JTA.

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Lost in translation: The Israel-America disconnect

Leave a Comment / Mobile, News, Opinion /

Back when I was growing up, the modern State of Israel was the center of the Jewish universe. It was at the core of being Jewish, tucked inside the greater American-Jewish identity. There were no contradictions. Jews were solid U.S. citizens, equally proud of their American heritage. But the brutal sting of the Holocaust which had hit home more often than not, made the establishment and continuity of the Jewish state a prerequisite of daily life.

Having just spent a semester sabbatical in the United States, I unfortunately have witnessed a different state of American Jewry. Jews have never been so successful; the urge to integrate has seamlessly transitioned into assimilation. The result? Today Israel is a blip on the Jewish-American radar screen, and for many there's a definite disconnect. When I brought this up to one rabbi his response was more troubling than I expected. “The disconnect you sense,” he explained, “is a byproduct of the general disconnect to Judaism.”

A cleric of a flourishing congregation, he confessed that he felt more like an entertainment director than a rabbi. “I have to constantly think up new gimmicks to draw the crowd in,” he elaborated, while admitting that without the constant beat of Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations bringing in hundreds at a time, weekly attendance would be down to a drizzle.

Certainly, similar worries existed when my generation was growing up. Still, back then American Jews understood that with or without Israel, they were part of a nation within a nation. Unfortunately, this fact seems to have been lost in translation over the past few decades. Not with the minority who send their children to Jewish Day Schools, but with the majority shepherding their children to synagogue religious schools, if at all. It's not their fault alone. This latter educational framework either fell asleep at the wheel, or did not have the resources to ignite a sense of pride.

While the holiday curriculum is important, it's become too humdrum and detached from the students' own lives. In this digital age with kids seeking links, what better tie-in for educators than Judaism's contribution to day-to-day living in the Western World.

Believe it or not, there are some techies who do a better job at getting this message across. Take Tiffany Shlain. A filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards, she was cited by Newsweek as “One of the Women Shaping the 21st Century”. Shlain declared sundown Friday to sundown Saturday to be her personal “Technology Shabbat.” She explains on her blog: “The idea of taking one day a week off from responsibilities and work is a very, very, very old idea.” What makes Shabbat so special? Tiffany hits the nail on the head: “Unplugging for a day makes time slow down and makes me feel very present with my family. I not only appreciate this quality time with my family, but it has also made me appreciate technology in a whole new way.”

Succinctly said. A day of rest removes stress, providing time for a fresh and new perspective. That's the kind of “disconnect” Jewish professionals should be promoting; precisely the type of “assimilation” Jewish clerics should be encouraging. It's all about the ABCs of Jewish life and the gifts Judaism has given the world: the concept of a day of rest; the foundation for a socially just legal system; a commandment to respect one's parents and an annual reminder every Yom Kippur not to cast us away in our old age; an ecological love of the land coupled with humane treatment of animals. The list of ancient Jewish commandments and values that are part and parcel of modern day life is impressive indeed! 

And the holidays? For those into meditation, nothing beats the soul-searching of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  Organic produce lovers should be directed to the harvest-dedicated holidays of Sukkot and Shavuot; creatively couple them with the Biblical laws of Shmita and Orlah and you have a show stopper of a lesson.  This is the kind of reverence Judaism deserves if it is to be properly translated into 21st Century life.

And then, once American Jews proudly reconnect with their religious-cultural heritage, bonding with the Jewish state and the greater Jewish nation will be a mere hop and skip away.

Tami Lehman-Wilzig, an American-Israeli living in Israel, is an award winning, Jewish-content children's book author. She has written 10 books and one children's book app. Her 11th book, Stork's Landing, will be coming out Fall, 2014. Visit her website: www.tlwkidsbooks.com.

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