Shmuel Rosner and Dr. Shlomo Fischer discuss the Israeli Haredi population and its unique challenges.
Dr. Shlomo Fischer, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, teaches sociology in the School of Education at Hebrew University and at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is also currently a research fellow at the Van Leer Institute.
Along with his extensive academic research, he was the founder and Executive Director of Yesodot – Center for Torah and Democracy which works to advance education for democracy in the State-Religious school sector in Israel. He was also one of the founders and is on the Board of the International Summer School for Religion and Public Life which is based in Boston, Mass.
Gene Simmons is in rare company in many aspects. As a musician, he is a co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group KISS, which has earned more gold records than any other band. As an on-screen performer, he has not only starred in movies but was a star of the popular reality series “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” which produced 167 episodes. Simmons has also found tremendous success as an entrepreneur within many industries, including runs as a book and magazine publisher, artist manager, television and film producer, and record label executive.
This has not been a slow year for the native New Yorker. Not only has Simmons announced the End of The Road tour with KISS but it has also seen Simmons release a new book (“27: The Legend And Mythology Of The 27 Club” via powerHouse Books), launch a line of sodas (MoneyBag Sodas, in cooperation with the Niagara Falls-based Rock Steady Sodas Inc.), continue to grow his Rock & Brews restaurant chain, and become “chief evangelist officer” of Invictus MD, a Vancouver-based cannabis company.
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Simmons himself, along with Rock Steady’s Paul Janik Jr., at New York City’s Loews Regency Hotel for an in-person interview. In-person, Simmons not only comes across as intelligent, honest and insightful, but the legendary singer and bassist is also full of amusing one-liners, hence all of the denoted laugh breaks. Simmons also manages to be animated and hands-on, demonstrating things on his iPhone and ultimately inviting other people dining at the hotel’s Regency Bar & Grill to try one of his MoneyBag sodas. Highlights from our chat are below.
More on Gene Simmons’ various projects – including the already-sold-out seventh annual KISS Kruise, as done in partnership with Sixthman Cruises and hosted on Norwegian Cruises’ Norwegian Jade cruise ship – can be found online.
Jewish Journal: The introduction of your new book mentions that your son helped you find empathy that you did not know you had.
Gene Simmons: There’s footage of me waxing poetic and prolific, “These guys are just trying to get attention. These guys threaten to get on top of a building and jump and kill yourself, go in a corner and stop bothering us.” I’m on TV going, “You want to jump? Jump…” But it’s judgmental, uninformed and arrogant. I didn’t know.
I didn’t understand because I’m a happy guy, I’ve always been happy, appreciating everything I’ve got. “What are you complaining about?” I didn’t know about the chemical… It could be in your DNA, all sorts of things. Not just in your DNA, the 1929 stock market crash, a lot of people went to the top of buildings and jumped. They’d lost their fortune because they defined themselves by their fortune, nevermind the fact that you can go back to work and build it up again.
So I was wrong, I was an arrogant [expletive] and there needs to be understanding. More people need to understand what this thing is. I don’t mean just depression. When somebody is having a bad day, it’s not a big deal to listen.
Gene Simmons and author Darren Paltrowitz.
JJ: With this book, given how prolific you’ve been, not just as a musician but as a businessman and…
GS: Have you had our soda?
JJ: I was telling your publicist last year that when I was interviewing you last year at The London [Hotel], you had a box of the soda in the corner and I was told it was embargoed information about your line of sodas
GS: I was so proud. [asks his publicist and business partner] What flavors have we got? [Simmons finds out the flavors] You like cream soda? Now you should know, there’s no sugar, no processed sugar, it’s cane sugar. As you can tell, [there’s] the MoneyBag logo.
How about this? I’ll make a deal with you before you taste it. I’m too rich to care. [laugh pause] Honest appraisal. Drink it, tell us if you don’t like it, what’s wrong with it, because we want to learn. You tell us if it’s spectacular, just say spectacular.
JJ: [tastes the soda] It’s great. Definitely less carbonated than what I would expect from a cream soda.
GS: There’s no cheap stuff on this. It’s more expensive to do cane sugar. This is vintage stuff, the champagne of sodas. People should go to GeneSimmonsMoneyBag.com and order cases because it’s too much of a pain in the (explicit) to go to 7-Eleven or Wegman’s, where we’re being sold. That way you can have a party and rock out… No after-taste, you notice? You can taste, it’s real vanilla.
JJ: Was this the first time that you put your name on a food product or a beverage?
GS: No, if it counts KISS, we’ve had other things. Cereal and all kinds of stuff.
JJ: But you personally?
GS: I think so, but that’s not the end.
JJ: Tell me more.
GS: This is a little early, but I’ll give you a sneak peak. [Simmons shows images of new products on his iPhone] That logo, I designed it.
JJ: Is this soda and those products you just showed me…
GS: No relation.
JJ: But Rock and Brews, as well.
GS: No cross…
JJ: So this soda is not available at Rock & Brews?
GS: Not yet. There are 20, 30 [restaurant] sites. When we move, we move big, so we debuted at 7-Eleven, Wegman’s is coming in, and this other product is gonna be a natural at Whole Foods and all that stuff. That’s gonna creak the door open.
Often food distribution is who you know, very political. You find somebody who’s a nice guy and he introduces you to Joe Blow and 300 stores of all of sudden do it… Shelf space, they would rather give their stuff away for free than to allow you to come in.
JJ: Obviously the “Gene Simmons” name helps you get your foot in the door, but you have to have a great product behind you.
GS: You have to deliver the goods.
JJ: Were you hesitant in any way to enter the food space?
GS: I’m delusional. When you think about it, I can’t read or write music, musical notation, but I’ve written a few hundred songs. We’re a big band. I can’t cook but I have a restaurant chain. But teamwork is what it’s about. Different sides of the same coin. Somebody who can do one thing…
Look, could Apple have happened without Steve Jobs? Probably not. Could Apple have happened without [Steve] Wozniak? Probably not. But they did completely different things, two different sides of the same coin. One guy was a techno-freak and the other guy saw the big picture and didn’t know how things worked. He was not that techno guy at all, but he got all the kudos.
It bears repeating that maybe the secret is to have a relay race. At the outset you have the techno guy that can do the techno thing, he’s the guy who knows how to do it. Then you hand it over to the next guy, because invariably – which is a big word like gymnasium [laugh pause]) – a religion, a rock band, a political party, a new soda, you have to convince the masses that you’ve got the goods. And Wozniak was not the guy to do that. Every religion needs a messenger, a prophet.
JJ: Another area of something that you are not in favor of reputationally, but have worked on, is the KISS Kruise. I say that because you have often stated that you have never taken a vacation, but you are doing the seventh KISS Kruise this year and I believe it’s sold out.
GS: You’re right. We get paid a lot of money. Is that what you mean?
JJ: What I was getting at is that after going on a cruise six times, even if it is work, did that ever change your mind about taking a vacation?
GS: No, because you’re working you’re a** off. It’s harder there than anywhere. You’re constantly busy… Here’s the thing, I don’t shake my finger in anybody’s face who wants to go on vacation. I just, I’m so grateful, first of all, that I’m alive. One day you’re alive, the next day you’re hit by a truck or your heart stops, whatever it is. The other thing is work is a privilege, it’s not an automatic… “I deserve to have healthcare, I deserve to have a job.” You deserve nothing, (explicit). Roll up your sleeves, you’re a grown-up, now work for it.
We live in a semi-socialist environment. Of course, it’s nice for everybody to have health care, but the country can’t afford it. Of course, everybody should have a job, but Finland just got rid of a guaranteed weekly salary for all the people in Finland, they’re going broke. There’s no incentive for somebody to go to work. So I’m so grateful that I not only have a job but continue to work.
JJ: On the religious end, in old interviews, I remember you talking about interest in starting your own religion, KISStianity. Had that ever come close to happening?
GS: I didn’t want to go there. You could… There’s a Church of Elvis [Presley] in Las Vegas. People get very upset… So the answer is no.
JJ: When I last saw you, you were promoting the Gene Simmons Vault. In terms of KISS…
GS: Oh it continues, it’s huge.
JJ: In terms of unreleased material from KISS, is there more being planned? Another Kissology release? Another vault?
GS: There may be a KISS box-set coming. A big one, because I’ve been collecting everything. I even have some more material that hasn’t gone onto the Gene Simmons Vault — 167 tracks. I’ve been delusionally a fan of myself ever since I was a kid, and I mean that seriously. I collect every report card… Everything. To thine self-be true, the Greeks said. A good piece of advice is, “be your own biggest fan.” It’s a good idea. I am, oh boy.
JJ: So finally, any last words for the kids?
GS: Work. Without that, your heart stops, your motivation stops, girls don’t like you. Work. [Simmons points to his beautiful and well-dressed publicist Terry Wells] She does not want a guy without a job.
Alexa Smith, the University of Michigan student who first brought to light a slide from a required lecture that compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, revealed another anti-Semitic slide from the lecture.
University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel issued an apology to Jewish students on Oct. 9 about the two instructors who denied writing letters of recommendation to students who wanted to study abroad Israel as well as the slide. However, Smith said in a statement to the Journal that Schlissel’s apology was not sufficient.
“It is perverse and profoundly offensive for President Schlissel to play down the seriousness of our community’s concerns by declaring that the slide equating the Prime Minister of Israel to Hitler was ‘one of nearly 200 slides’––as if, in context, this was ‘no big deal,’” Smith said. “President Schlissel is not recognizing the unequivocally anti-Semitic content of this entire lecture, or the effect it had and continues to have on U-M’s Jewish students––some of whom were REQUIRED to sit through it in order to obtain our degrees. Either way, his indifference and misrepresentation is unacceptable.”
Smith also mentioned that she has another slide that “shows Jews drawn as pigs, drinking from bottles of money and holding a wand with a Jewish star, as if they have supernatural control and power.”
The Journal has obtained a copy of the slide:
The YouTube video of the lecture doesn’t show the Star of David wand and cuts out “the Zionist Puppet State” text:
Screenshot from YouTube.
“These images come from the playbook of Hitler and Goebbels,” Smith said. “They invoke the most classical––and most genocidal––anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”
Smith added that the lecture “dehumanized an entire group of people.”
“This is not thought-provoking. This is not educational. This is university-endorsed bigotry,” Smith said. “The University of Michigan must define anti-Semitism so an incident like this does not happen again under their supervision.”
Smith has been leading students into calling for the university to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. The university has said that they’re reviewing the matter.
Rick Fitzgerald, the vice president for public affairs at the university, pointed the Journal to the video of the event when asked about Smith’s comment. When pressed further, he said that the university had no additional comment at this time.
Journalist Lisa Daftari has rejected an attempt from Rutgers to reschedule her Oct. 16 speech, stating that she felt the university’s offer lacked “integrity and respect.”
Daftari was invited by Rutgers Undergraduate Academic Affairs to talk about free speech on college campuses; after some students accused her of Islamophobia, the event was canceled.
John Cramer, the director of public and media relations at Rutgers, sent the Journal an email from Rutgers Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ben Sifuentes-Jáuregui to Daftari in which he offered a chance to reschedule her event.
“I want to write to clear up any confusion regarding your invitation to speak at the University,” Sifuentes-Jáuregui said. “To the degree that I may have contributed to the confusion, I hope you will accept my apology.
Sifuentes-Jáuregui then proposed four possible dates in November for her to reschedule her talk.
“I am certain that in the course of your comments and follow-up questions from our students, your views will be fully articulated and will generate respectful and vigorous discussion both by those who agree and those who disagree with those views,” Sifuentes-Jáuregui said. “Our position on the free exchange of ideas is clear; the ability to respectfully present, discuss and debate matters in the public interest is at the heart of what every great university does. Such free and respectful discussion is fundamental to Rutgers’ core values and is practiced every day at Rutgers.”
In a text message to the Journal, Daftari called the timing of Sifuentes-Jáuregui’s email “curious” and that it “only further supports the truth of what happened. She sent the Journal her response to his email “since the university felt it necessary to share our correspondence publicly without my knowledge.”
“With all due respect, in all our previous correspondence and communication, it was clear that the university unilaterally decided to cancel the event,” Daftari wrote to Sifuentes-Jáuregui. “To come back after the damage has been done to my reputation and suggest that this was some misunderstanding and to continue with the premise that the event was merely postponed, lacks the integrity and respect that I would have hoped from my alma mater.”
Daftari said, “Just as the university was sensitive to the concerns of a group of students who slandered my good name based on falsified quotes, I would hope that the university would now demonstrate the same level of consideration as we move on.”
Every five years, on the eve of his internet startup becoming a “Unicorn” company, entrepreneur Mahbod Moghadam gets a brain tumor.
His first website, Genius.com (formerly “Rap Genius”), interprets the meaning of song lyrics. Moghadam got a benign brain tumor which required surgery in 2013, months after legendary internet investor Ben Horowitz invested $15 million dollars into his brainchild.
Moghadam received brain surgery three weeks ago – months after his second company, Everipedia, raised $30 million dollars from Wall Street titan Michael Novogratz’ Galaxy Digital Fund.
“The second tumor was a big wake up call,” Moghadam said. “With my first tumor, I always knew that I was still weak and frail. This was a tremor that hung over my brain since I was born – two weeks ago, a cloud was finally lifted from my mind.”
Moghadam is angered and says that his professional obligations at Rap Genius caused a disorder after his first brain surgery – his work didn’t allow him to properly heal.
“I was obligated to go to Kanye West’s engagement party three weeks after my 2013 brain surgery. I was on “Keeping Up WIth The Kardashians.” The cameraman had to avoid me because I had an extra-swollen right side of my skull.”
Rap Genius is widely-considered a “unicorn” company – worth a private valuation of a billion dollars. The “Behind the Lyrics” feature is integrated with many of Spotify’s songs, giving selections of the song lyrics’ meaning.
“Rap Genius is famous, but it’s a failure to me”, says Moghadam. “At some point, the site’s mission was to move beyond song lyrics and to interpret all of text – the Torah, everything.”
“I had a second brain tumor two weeks ago, and now I realize: Everipedia will succeed. It will not just be a unicorn – Everipedia will be a trillion dollar company.”
Everipedia is the newer, more inclusive version of Wikipedia. Moghadam was inspired to build the company because he was unable to get a Wikipedia page about his life – although he actually got one a month ago.
Last year, Everipedia raised $30 million dollars in order to build the “cryptocurrency Wikipedia” – where contributors are rewarded based on tokens called “IQ”. However, the brain tumor has inspired Moghadam to think bigger. “Everipedia is going to be the “Facebook of crypto” – it will be a trillion dollar company,” he said. “Knowledge projects like Wikipedia and social networks like Facebook aren’t so different – both sites can now use cryptocurrency to incentivize people sharing information with others.”
With Everipedia Chief Operations Officer Suchet Dhindsa and Advisor Sean Sarbaz the day after brain surgery
Everipedia was inspired by his first website, Genius. “The Everipedia President Sam Kazemian was a senior at UCLA when he met me in 2015. He was basically thinking – why is there this awesome “Wikipedia of Rap Lyrics,” but just a plain old Wikipedia website from 2001?” The two raised a seed investment in 2015 and brought their company to fruition.
Since his brain surgery, Everipedia has moved from a Westwood location into a new office in Santa Monica, a block away from the beach. “It was kind of weird, it was like a movie – the same day I had brain surgery, we moved into our new office, after staying at three years by UCLA, where the company got started in 2015.”
Moghadam says his brain tumor has given a renewed vigor to his community building efforts. “I think this is going to be the ‘Facebook of Cryptocurrency’ – our President Sam Kazemian is known as the ‘Persian Zuck’ – he’s going to make the internet better by giving everyone a cryptocurrency stake.”
Moghadam believes in God and says his two brain tumors give his companies their Jewish, philosophical roots. “Sam (Kazemian) is actually one-sixteenth Jewish and 15/16ths Muslim – he is a special Persian breed. I think knowledge projects and social networks are a lot like the Talmud – we are all using the internet to make people smarter.”
Big changes are in store for “Transparent” when it returns to Amazon for its fifth and final season next year.
As previously announced, Jeffrey Tambor, who starred as the transgender head of the Pfefferman family, was fired in February following sexual harassment allegations by a crewmember and an actress on the show. The Jewish family saga will continue without the Emmy-winning star in fall 2019 and will end with a two-hour musical episode.
“It will hopefully feel like ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ mixed with ‘La La Land’ mixed with ‘Flight of the Conchords’ with something more Jewish thrown in,” series creator Jill Soloway told the New York Times. “A little ‘Yentl.’”
Soloway is collaborating with her sister, Faith, and actress Shakina Nayfack on the music, and the Times printed a sample lyric:
“How do I say this delicately? We all have closet Jewish ADHD, plus there’s guilt and shame…We need to sit in it, sit in all of it. So many feelings that you have to unpack…All this karma sitting square on your back. But here is the bottom line. You need to give it time.”
On October 11, Kanye West devastated the mainstream media when he professed his love for President Donald Trump. Just two days before, another event of equal devastation took place in Germany: German Jews professed their love for Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), which the German mainstream media has long peddled as a neo-Nazi party much in the same way they have peddled Trump as a “racist” (or worse, the second coming of Hitler).
Media analysts came out against Kanye West with as much passion as the German Jewish establishment came out against the “Jews in the Afd” (JAfD). As I reported in my JNS article covering the inaugural conference of JAfD, 17 Jewish organization united against the AfD, baffled at how Jews could join such a party, which they labeled as “antisemitic,” “racist” and “no party for Jews.” While the German Jewish establishment considers its anti-Islam stance as “racist,” JAfD views it as position that will guarantee their safety. An oft-refrain at the conference was “Judaism belongs to Germany”—Islam, not so.
The AfD is the only party whose platform strongly criticizes Chancellor Merkel’s policy to open the borders to over one million refugees (and their opportunistic piggy-backers) since September 2015. Illegal asylum seekers were responsible for murders of two Jews on German soil (although not antisemitic in nature): Dalia Elyakim at the Christmas market truck-terror attack of 2016 and, earlier this year, 15-year-old Susanna Feldmann from Mainz (who was also brutally raped).
Defying Jewish warnings, about two dozen Jews finally came together to say: our political home is the AfD. They allege that the German Jewish establishment tows-the-line of the Merkel government since it receives government funding and is essentially a public institution.
The founding of the AfD caused a political earthquake in Germany, with almost every major international outlet covering it, in part because it breaks the narrative of the AfD as a neo-Nazi party. So too, the literal warm embrace that Kanye gave to Trump has damaged the narrative of “Trump is racist.” The mainstream media rely upon entrenched narratives and talking-points to push a left-wing agenda. No wonder the similar venom against Kanye (with CNN analysts going so far as to call him a “token Negro”) and JAfD alike, with accusations they’re being “instrumentalized.” If Republican blacks liken leaving the Democratic party to “leaving the plantation,” Jews joining the Afd could be likened to Jews “leaving the ghetto.”
The ridiculousness of calling AfD a Nazi-party is best illustrated in this satiric video filmed at the event, originally published with German subtitles on the German political blog, Die Achse Des Guten (The Axis of Good). Watch with English subtitles below:
