"Shoshana, Shoshana, Shoshana..."

The title comes from a familiar Hebrew folksong.

The association?

From the New York Times' wedding section:-

Shoshana Berger and Tony Saxe

THE projects in ReadyMade, Shoshana Berger's do-it-yourself magazine for the MTV generation, are rated according to difficulty, with instructions that should be easy to follow. But sometimes it's easier to build a chandelier from old wine glasses — an idea from a 2005 issue — than it is to build a relationship. Just ask Ms. Berger.

When Ms. Berger met Tony Saxe eight years ago through a mutual friend, she recalled that he had registered as a faint ping on her future boyfriend radar screen. But she was busy incubating her magazine and, as she put it, "flogging a six-year on-and-off relationship to death."

The two crossed paths in the Bay Area several times over the next few years but never dated, partly because Ms. Berger was intimidated by what she perceived as the "glamorous" lifestyle of Mr. Saxe, a financial analyst turned documentary film editor.

The clincher for Ms. Berger, now 36, was when Mr. Saxe, 35, sent her an e-mail analysis of one of her favorite poems, Wallace Stevens's "Restatement of Romance," which emphasizes lovers' maintaining separate identities even while together. For Mr. Saxe, who says he spent his time at Barclay's "formulating a critique of global capitalism," the moment of truth was when Ms. Berger told him about her childhood dog.

"We had a German shepherd, and as Berkeley families are apt to do, we named her after a radical Marxist revolutionary," Ms. Berger said. And since her family is Jewish, she added, "we picked a radical Jewish Marxist feminist named Rosa Luxemburg. Tony got a real kick out of it because he had been reading all this Marxist theory."

Ms. Berger and Mr. Saxe's wedding on April 2 in a barn at Bar-or Ranch in Point Reyes Station, Calif., was true to their ReadyMade taste, which is to say, more funky than refined, with a ranch theme that included cowboy-printed tissues and dark chocolate horseshoes — not to mention the outhouses rented for the occasion. Guests kept their sweaters on in the unheated barn, sipping mojitos out of Mason jar mugs as they listened to a local bluegrass band called the Jewgrass Boys

And yes, there really is a Jewgrass Boys.

Did the Pope Really Say This?

Pope: Judas a greedy liar

Well, this publication claims so.

Judas was a greedy liar who put his desire for money ahead of his relationship with Jesus and his love for God, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Exactly a week after the National Geographic Society put the sympathetic Gospel of Judas on display, Pope Benedict reasserted the traditional Christian view that Judas betrayed his friend and Lord after the Last Supper.

The document that went on display in Washington April 6 is a third-century Coptic translation of what had originally been written in Greek before 180. The text portrays Judas as Jesus' closest disciple and says Jesus asked Judas to hand him over to the Roman authorities so that he could fulfill his mission.

But during his April 13 homily at the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper, Pope Benedict said Judas is the clearest example Christians have of someone who refuses God's saving love.

For Judas, the pope said, "only power and success are real; love does not count."

"And he is greedy: money is more important than communion with Jesus, more important than God and his love. He also becomes a liar, a double-crosser who breaks with the truth," Pope Benedict said.

Purposefully ignoring the truth, he said, Judas "hardens, becoming incapable of conversion ... and throws away his destroyed life."

=============================

UPDATE

On Good Friday, the preacher for the papal household denounced theories which he said made huge profits in denying the teachings of the Catholic Church.

"Christ is still sold, but not any more for 30 coins, but to publishers and booksellers for billions of coins," Rev Raniero Cantalamessa said in a homily at St Peter's Basilica.

Someone Not Disengaged from Reality

Sever Plotzker (who spells his name Plocker for some strange reason) published a reappraisal of what was "disengagement" entitled Disengagement Lessons which appeared here.

In it he claimes that flawed pullout predictions should make Olmert rethink his plan.

Some excerpts:-

Eight months after the withdrawal from Gaza, or what was referred to as a "unilateral disengagement," things are not developing according to the early scenario marketed to the public. Almost nothing has materialized in the way pullout supporters promised us would happen.

The Gaza Strip did not calm down and the Palestinian Authority did not take matters there into its own hands in order to establish the Middle Eastern Hong Kong. Gaza is a no-man's land, the country of nobody. The Strip lacks a civilian regime, no currency, no enforcement of law and order, and most of the system tasked with providing the population with basic services is paralyzed, aside from the one run by the United Nations.

The handing over of the border crossing with Egypt to Palestinian control also failed to lead to the expected results. The border is rather porous, checks are inadequate, and smuggling is rampant. There too, the Palestinians failed to implement their sovereignty.

We didn't disengage: What is happening, and particularly what is not happening, in Gaza, continues to haunt us.

Even the removal of the settlements is no longer perceived as such a huge victory by the Palestinian people. The thousands of good jobs at the settlements have disappeared, and instead unemployment and poverty grew. The ruins of Israeli communities were not cleared, even though the Israeli government pledged (or rather, was forced to) pay for the clearing. It's unclear who the guilty party is, the PA, or Egypt, or International groups.

Did Israel gain from the disengagement? Less than what its planners hoped. The United States didn't grant us even one cent in economic aid, even though in various phases of preparation for the withdrawal and upon the pullout, much was said about a special USD 2 billion grant. As of today, there's no grant.

For a short while, Israel enjoyed international sympathy, with the pullout perceived as the start of a large-scale unilateral withdrawal.

Was there a disengagement? Was there a (Gaza settlement of) Netzarim? The fact that the post-disengagement reality does not resemble the earlier scenarios and predictions should make Ehud Olmert rethink his diplomatic plans.

Would Israel really be able to unilaterally set its border vis-a-vis the Palestinians, a border they or the world would not accept? Would Israel be able to "converge" into "settlement blocs" in the West Bank and annex them? Who would finance such a move, which would cost tens of billions of shekels and not be perceived as a solution to anything? Who would prevent a tragic rift among the people? And what would be left behind in Palestine following a pretend-Israeli-withdrawal coupled with pretend-annexation?

A Bete Noir Film

While the searching for, and the burning of, chametz is over and done with, this film is worthwhile looking at.

An "arty" approach to the subject.

A Better Term

Many are uncomfortable with the extrajudicial killings of terrorists and more are uneasy about the proper English term.

Here's a suggestion:-

public service murder

n. the killing of a person who is perceived to be bad for a community or society. Categories: English. Crime & Prisons. Law.

How Much?

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says

he intends to finalize plans for a large pullout from parts of the occupied West Bank within the next 18 months, and that he will travel to the U.S. next month to try to secure Washington's support as he sketches the plan's contours.

In an interview yesterday at his Jerusalem office, Mr. Olmert said his planned meeting with President Bush in Washington will mark the onset of efforts to secure international support for the pullout, including financial assistance. Under his plan, Mr. Olmert intends to evacuate as many as 70,000 Jewish settlers from their homes -- a move that some rough estimates say could cost more than $10 billion -- while annexing large chunks of disputed Palestinian territory.

I am thinking of finding a MK who will sponsor a bill to assure that in any future retreat and yielding of territory which would entail expelling people out of their homes and businesses adequate and equivalent recompense be arranged, including coming to terms with community village needs.

More on this later.

Fooey FIFA

The latest Qassam attack at Israel hit a sports stadium in a kibbutz in southern Israel Friday night, causing damage but no casualties.

So?

Well, will FIFA protest?

To remind you:-

FIFA to pay for rehabilitation of Palestine Stadium in Gaza

Zurich, 11 April 2006 - In order to show its strong commitment to the development of football as a unifying tool in the region, FIFA will cover the costs of the rehabilitation of the football pitch of the Palestine Stadium in Gaza after it was damaged in a recent bombardment.

"In the world of today, which is disrupted by long-lasting disputes and violence, football is one of the very few universal tools mankind can use to bridge gaps between nations and peoples, and to symbolise what unites our planet over what divides it. FIFA's role is not to reprimand, but to help create bonds and ensure that the young people of the region have hope and the possibility to enjoy the school of life that football represents. Therefore, I call on the relevant authorities to do everything they can to allow Palestinian and Israeli football to develop," commented the FIFA President.

FIFA, a non-political organisation, has as one of its main objectives the promotion of friendly relations between its members and in society for humanitarian objectives, as stated in the FIFA Statutes. The defence of the right of both Israeli and Palestinian football to develop has been unequivocal on the part of FIFA in the past and will remain so in the future.

In 2003, FIFA adopted a very strong stance to ensure that Israeli football could develop and play international matches at home. Whereas in some competitions Israeli clubs and the national team were not allowed to play at home because of a series of terrorist atrocities, FIFA made sure that Tel Aviv was able to host qualifying matches of the Israeli national team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™.

Similarly, FIFA has defended the right of Palestinian football to grow, play internationally, enjoy good infrastructure and organise unified competitions between the West Bank and Gaza.

To implement this philosophy, FIFA has awarded Goal projects to the Israeli FA in order to lay a new pitch in Nazareth, and to the Palestinian FA so as to construct headquarters in Bayt Lahya and to finance the installation of three artificial turf pitches in Gaza, Ram and Ramalla.

Further information from:
FIFA Media Department
media@fifa.org

The "Holy" Spark?

Muriel Spark died Friday at a hospital in Florence, Italy. She was 88.

Ms. Spark's death was announced Saturday, The Associated Press reported, by Massimiliano Dindalini, the mayor of the Tuscan village of Civitella della Chiana, where she had lived for almost 30 years.

But what's my interest in this?

Well...

She was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh on Feb. 1, 1918, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, an engineer whose Jewish family had settled earlier in Scotland, and his wife, the former Sarah Elizabeth Maud Uezzell, a Protestant from a country village near London.

Later in her life, the issue of her religious heritage became a persistent irritant.

The AP skips the Jewish parentage of the father.

And...

In 1965 she published "The Mandelbaum Gate," a heftier book and one that seems overstuffed by her standards. Set in Jerusalem against the backdrop of the war-crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, "The Mandelbaum Gate" tackles questions of religion, memory and history superimposed on a torturous plot.

The Mandlebaum Gate is a novel by Muriel Spark set in the territories of Jerusalem and Jordan during the Eichmann Trials. Within the novel there is a character "Barbara Vaughan" who is a Gentile Jewess (oh, really?). She travels within Israel and Jordan on a pilgrimage to see the holy shrines and has various adventures and encounters during her trip. It is clear from the first few pages of the novel that Jewish identity is a key theme and continues to be as such throughout.

But, there's more...

In her later years it became clear that she and her son, Robin, were irreconcilably estranged over various issues, including what he referred to as her abandonment of him, as well as her opinions about his ability as an artist and his public statements about their heritage.

Ms. Spark was harsh in her public criticism of his work and open about their estrangement. She told a newspaper: "He can't sell his lousy paintings, and I have had a lot of success. He keeps sending them to me and I don't know what to do with them. I can't put them on my wall. He's never done anything for me, except for being one big bore."

Robin Spark, an Orthodox Jew, survives her. Their public feud spilled into letters to newspapers and became a part of her literary history when she donated letters from her son to the National Library of Scotland. The issue was whether Ms. Spark's mother was a Jew. If she was, then Robin Spark's matrilineal inheritance would make him a Jew by birth. Ms. Spark maintained that she was half-Jewish and that she had nothing to prove.

======================

UPDATE

Muriel Spark was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in the genteel Edinburgh suburb of Morningside. Her father, Bernard Camberg, an engineer in a rubber factory, was a Jew whose family had settled in Scotland. Her mother, Sarah Uezzell, was an English Presbyterian from Watford, who was later to take to drink.

The religious divide in her parents’ marriage was to influence Spark’s imagination considerably. In her only long novel, The Mandelbaum Gate, set in Jerusalem during the trial of Eichmann, a Roman Catholic woman finds herself in peril because of her part-Jewish ancestry.

In later life Spark was to become involved in a bitter feud with her son Robin (a painter) about her Jewishness, and the quarrel snowballed in a blizzard of birth and marriage certificates, claims and counterclaims. (Spark’s relationship with her son was not improved by her comments about his paintings: “He always wanted me to say they were good but I didn’t think they were”, she said. “Art is important to me and I’m not going to commit perjury

.”

Metzger Satire

Here is an Israeli TV program's view of the Rabbi Metzger affair. [Hebrew listening skills necessary]

No, not this affair.

No, and not this one either.

There are a few others but this is the one the satire refers to.

In The Face of Terrorism

The EU Observer reports:-

'Islamic terrorism' phrase to be banned from EU lexicon

The EU is working on a public communication lexicon which blacklists the term 'Islamic terrorism.' The 'non-emotive lexicon for discussing radicalisation' should be submitted to EU leaders who will meet in June, according to press reports. EU officials drafting the guidelines hope that the European Commission and the European Parliament will also endorse the linguistic code of conduct, which will be non-binding.

The aim of the guidelines is to avoid the use of words that could unnecessarily offend Muslims and spark radicalisation. 'Jihad' is another term under review, said an EU official, explaining: 'Jihad means something for you and me, it means something else for a Muslim. Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within yourself.'

The lexicon initiative comes in the wake of a row over Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohamed, which led to outbreaks of anger and violence throughout the Muslim world. The European Commission currently employs 20 terminologists, one for each official language, to advise translators how to handle not only EU policy jargon such as 'subsidiarity,' but also sensitive words like 'terrorism.'

Those Europeans are so helpful when it comes to defending its citizens from the viciousness of terror.

So sensitive.

The Olmert That Used To Be

Here's what he once thought:-

...we Israelis are painfully aware that we have achieved little in these 10 years of direct negotiations with the Palestinians...

...Like most of my former Likud colleagues, then in the opposition, I was fearful of the swift diplomatic path the government of Yitzhak Rabin had embarked upon. Giving recognition to the terrorist PLO, turning over land to armed guerrillas and shaking Arafat's hand, seemed at best to be a perilous and naïve endeavor. In my own private conversations with the Labor party leaders, I expressed my serious concerns over the dangers the Oslo Accords would bring to Jerusalem and to Israel, the lives and security that were being gambled with. Yet they assured the Israeli public that the entire process was reversible; that if Arafat and the PLO did not live up to their obligations, Israel reserved the right to take the necessary measures against the Palestinian leadership and the Israel Defense Forces would re-enter the conceded territory...

...The Oslo process wasn't the path I'd have led the country toward, but faced with a fait accompli we Israelis had no choice but to pray that the government showed wisdom in attempting it.

...The continuous march of peace initiatives from Cairo to Sharm al-Sheik to Wye to the Red Sea, from Zinni to Mitchell to Tenet, haven't succeeded.

At the recent Red Sea Summit, in which I participated as a negotiator, we told our Palestinian counterparts that they had to choose between Hamas or us. They would have to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure or we would be forced to do it ourselves...On a national level, we can no longer allow ourselves to believe in the myth that the moderates on the Palestinian side will be capable of mustering the political power and military support necessary to assert control over the terrorist groups...

...The latest round of failed diplomacy has shown that an enduring peace agreement cannot be built on the rotten foundation that is the current regime. Palestinian leaders will neither dismantle the terrorist infrastructure nor allow anyone else to do it...

...Oslo has taught us that there are no proxies to fight in our stead. If we are not prepared to undertake the task of dismantling the terrorist groups that infest the Palestinian Authority, our civilian population will continue to be targeted for murder...

...But for the moment we will place our trust in our own ability to confront the terrorists directly...The Oslo decade has shown us what is the incorrect and foolhardy way to try to make peace between Arabs and Jews. Armed with this new clarity, we can now attempt to rectify our errors--and set out down a safer, better-calculated road.

Where was this printed?

End of the Road Map
BY EHUD OLMERT
Monday, September 15, 2003

The Problem with being a Jewish Feminist

This story I came across at The New Republic and the original post is here.

It was to be Torcuil Crichton's journalistic transfiguration...Crichton had gone there to interview the American feminist author Naomi Wolf, on tour for her new book, The Treehouse: Eccentric Wisdom from My Father on How to Live, Love, and See...Hoping to draw her out on her recent divorce, he spouted about his own breakups, a tactic that only yielded clichéd sympathy. As his time drew to a close, Crichton remembered Wolf's radio appearance, and he asked if any of Greer's insults had wounded her. Staring off into the distance, Wolf replied that critics' barbs no longer mattered, because now she answered to a higher authority.

"Are we talking about God?" Crichton asked.

"Yeah, God," Wolf said. She elaborated: "I actually had this vision of--of Jesus." And that, needless to say, is when the interview really began.

Wolf's story went like this: Several years ago, while in therapy for writer's block, Wolf was asked to try a classic deep relaxation technique, where she imagined walking down a flight of stairs. When she reached the bottom and opened the door, there he was: Jesus, with a holy light radiating out of him, the light of absolute perfection and powerful love. In the vision, Wolf wasn't her usual zaftig, constantly commented-upon physical self, but rather a 13-year-old boy. The vision taught Wolf several lessons: that God cares about each and every one of us; that we are born with knowledge of our own soul, which, like Plato once taught, we forget and have to re-remember in order to realize our life's mission (in her case, to spread the gospel of feminism). That we can all, if we try, be like Jesus--radiant, loving, perfect. The revelation made tears run down her face, she confessed to Crichton...

...Though Wolf apparently remains a Jew, at least by her own reckoning, Crichton predicted that her admission might even "trigger a theological battle between the American Christian right and the Jewish lobby over the ownership of her soul."...Most inscrutable is the vision itself. In her 1991 breakout book, The Beauty Myth, Wolf was a traditional, rigorously academic, angry feminist polemicist. Now she is a bar mitzvah-age boy visiting with Jesus. What the hell happened?

Gee, this is really weird.

Is it being Jewish in a non-Jewish world?

Being Jewish and feminist?

Being Jewish and not wanting to be Jewish?

Moses Jewish? Hebrew?

Jack Englehard has a great blog on the new multi-cultural Moses of ABC.

Excerpt:-

As played by Dougray Scott (Charlton Heston, not), Moses has been homogenized, pasteurized, sanitized and dry-cleaned so as not to offend any race, religion or creed. This Moses (as opposed to the Moses of the Bible and even the Moses of Cecil B. DeMille) is not Hebrew, and in fact he’s not anything but multi-cultural.

Along both parts of this series (new and improved over DeMille!!!) that ran Monday and Tuesday, April 10 and 11, the word “Hebrew” never came up, neither attached to him or to his people, yes, the Hebrews. The best this fat-free, low-calorie script could do was refer to Moses as a “slave” and later, as the “leader” of a “people.”

What people?

Getting in Backward at The Forward

One Vita Bekker published a story on the Kfar Chabad vote for Baruch Merzel ("Kahane Activist Wins A Big Vote") in the April 7 edition of The Forward.

It is a bit puzzling that the story ran as it did - big vote?! - (well, not really, but bear with me).

As she herself notes there, Merzel's support dropped from 73% in the last Knesset elections to about 30% last month.

In other words, the real journalistic theme was that he lost big among his potentially most enthusaistic advocates.

Why was this fact misreported?

Was she or her editor trying to fool the readers or just plain malign Chabad?

NPR Interview

Linda Gradstein's NPR program on the future of Shiloh:-

As many as 70,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank could be forced from their homes if Prime Minister-Designate Ehud Olmert goes ahead with his plan for more unilateral withdrawals from occupied territory. West Bankers say that, unlike their counterparts in Gaza, they will fight to stay in their homes.

Listen here to hear my wife, my neighbor Yaakov Yarden and myself.

Update on Dr. Yossi Olmert

Update report on one of his appearances.

If They Did this in Israel, There'd Be No More Media

If they eliminated gossip reporting, as the NYTimes is doing, most of Israel's media would collapse.

You see, gossipping is the main structure of all, I repeat, all reporting in Israel and not only the social, entertainment, scandal-mongering that goes on.

Neturei Karta Follow-up

I am a member of the MailJewish list since 1990, I think.

Recently there was some discussion about the theological and political underpinnings of those Jews calling themselves Neturei Karta.

Since I have related to them recently, I figured the following would be interesting for some people reading this blog.

From: Yisrael Medad
Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:04:31 +0200
Subject: Neturei Karta

SBA provides us with the source for the claim that:

>>the Satmar Rebbe in the abovementioned sefer CLEARLY writes against any
>>idea of handing Israel over to the Arabs

which can be found in
>>"the Hakdomo [p. 8 column 2 - at the bottom]" of "VaYoel Moshe"
{here's a selection of it}

I checked. And yes, this appears (original Hebrew followed by my translation):

"elah sh'tzrichin l'rachamei shamayim sh't'chalah ota hamalchut ach v'rak al y'dei koach m'l'malah m'et Hashem Yitbarech Shmo, lo al y'dei ha'umot ki im chas v'chalila yihyeh al y'dei ha'umot hi sakan g'dola l'yisrael kamuvan, v'Hashem Yitbarech Shmo y'rachem aleinu v'al kol ami Yisrael"

[however, we need the grace of heaven that would do away with that regime but only through the power of G-d, not by any of the nations for that, G-d forbid, would be a great danger to the Jewish people certainly, and G-d should have pity on us and all of Israel]

On the face of it, quite clear. Of course, just a few lines above, Reb Yoelisch notes that the extistence of the state of Israel is delaying Redemption and the coming of Mashiach, which would seem to be a very serious charge of guilt. He further stipulates that we Jews have no right to leave the Galut to attach ourselves to that state which is linked to the Samech-Mem. Nevertheless, I am not quite sure that someone could not interpret his words as that the danger is not specifically to Jews living in the land of Israel but foremost for the all of Jewry, which someone could take to mean Satmar Jews living in Brooklyn and Stamford Hill and Antwerp but I leave that up to the listmates.

If, though, we turn to page 126, first column, Reb Yoelisch becomes ambiguous again. There he defends the right of his followers to protest, fociferously, the existence of the state of Israel even by involving other nations. This, I would suggest, comes close to granting permission for NKers to assume that they can go to Iran and Durban, etc. After all, all is in the hands of Hashem.

Here's the source (he is referring to protesting over the monies that the state gets by raising funds for the Bonds that is done in all the countries and we might fear to protest publicly because of the nations and that all parties, including the religious ones, receive and therefore all partake in the abomination) I am starting from the 17th line from the top with necessary skips:

"v'zeh mo'il lifamim...v'chol ha'umot yodin sh'b'yisrael ein Torah v'ein Emunah...v'lachen k'shyesh tza'aka u'mech'ah bachutz neged zeh ad sh'shom'in gam ha'umot...v'ein chashash klal sh'yagi'ah eizeh nezek mizeh...v'ein safek sh'yesh lachshov efsharut sh'yiyeh ulai ktzat to'elet b'mech'ot ka'eleh".

[and this, at times, can be helpful...as all the Goyishe nations know that in Israel there is no Torah nor Faith...and therefore, when there is a shout and protest outside against this (fundraising) until even non-Jews become aware...and there is no concern that there will evolve any damage as a result of this...and there is no doubt that one can presume that there is perhaps some benefit in activities such as these]

In addition, on page 338, 5th line of second column, RY writes, alluding to the Talmud that one who can protest but doesn't, is called Wicked.

In my very humble opinion, any average NKer and even a few Satmars could easily presume that going to Iran, in addition to demonstrating on the streets of Manhattan, is sanctioned by Reb Yoelisch's thinking and philosophy. After all, all they are doing is arranging for HKBH to destroy the state of Israel and He will probably save all the Jews anyway, as long as those non-Jewish nations before whom the NKers shout and protest won't do anything about Israel that has no Torah nor Faith.

I Don't Know About the Music But...

...the picture of the Temple Mount is great!


Explanatory note:

What is Kosher-Gospel?

A lot of confusion arises from this seemingly dichotomous name. Some think, incorrectly, that this maybe some how linked to the Jews for Jesus movement, but it is not. In fact, the soul in Gospel Music, as it is known today, pre-dates the Christian religion. African tribes have carried soul for generations and Jews have been no strangers to this. A visit to a Yemenite synagogue or perhaps an Egyptian or a Moroccan synagogue, and rhythms indigenous to some of the people who inhabit the great continent of Africa will be heard. Before slaves were transported to the so-called New World , they had soul. Many of these Africans spoke many different languages, and represented a plethora of religions and musical styles including Muslims, Bantu, Jews etc…

Many of these slaves would try to communicate as best they could with each other until they had a common language. They developed what would be called a work song, a preamble to the blues. As they were introduced to Christianity, they incorporated this soul into the new hymns that they learned from their slave masters as well as the spirituals. Spirituals were also a form of communication, since slaves were not allowed to talk while they worked. However, the slave owners did like to hear them sing. For instance, “Down by the Riverside ” was a spiritual that the slaves used to communicate a location where they could meet secretly.

From the 1750’s until the mid 1800’s the term applied to this a cappella soul music was spirituals. And, in the 1800’s it developed into jubilee songs. It was not until the late 1930’s early 1940’s that people termed the new bluesy sounds of the urban religious life, gospel music. This was the style spear-headed by Thomas Dorsey, the former pianist for Ma Rainey. The word, gospel, is a Greek word meaning, good news. It is a wonder that later on in history; many descendants of the slaves remained Christian. Especially when many slave owners tried to use the Bible to validate their belief in the slave system. However, there was a number of blacks who returned to Islam and there also was a small wave who return to Judaism, the religion of their ancestors.

Joshua Nelson has spear-headed a new revolution in Jewish liturgical music. Like Thomas Dorsey, Joshua has taken the dull melodies of Jewish liturgical music and added the sounds of soul. But Joshua does not take full credit for this phenomenon. He acknowledges that the black synagogues organized in the late 1800’s and particularly The Commandment Keeper’s Synagogue organized by Rabbi Wentworth Matthew in the early 1900’s has had a long tradition of soul Jewish music. Located at 1, 123rd street in Harlem , NY , It is still a functioning synagogue. Like Mahalia Jackson did in the Christian world of gospel music, Joshua has taken the sounds of soul in Jewish liturgical music to the broader community.

SO… Hashem is the soul and nefesh in our Jewish Gospel Music. The soul of suffering speckled with joy from Hashem above. Jews of European background are no stranger to suffering, as well as Jews from around the world. And although we shall never forget Slavery, the Holocaust, prejudice, or injustice, we cannot continue singing sad songs. As it is said in the book of Psalms: “Weeping may endure for a night, but Joy comes in the morning.”

So let the singing begin…Gospel style!

Bon Appetite!

The trailer for the new Hollywood Pesach movie, "When Do We Eat?".

"When Do We Eat?" is the story of the "world's fastest Seder" gone horribly awry. It's about an old school dad (Michael Lerner) who's as tough on his sons as his father (Jack Klugman) is on him. On this night, however, one of the boys (Ben Feldman) slips Dad a dose of special, psychedelic Ecstasy in order "to give him a new perspective."

Meanwhile, Mom (Lesley Ann Warren) brings a handsome stranger to dinner and the kids take sides. By the end of the night, however, Dad's visions turn him into a modern day Moses intent on leading this hungry group to the promised land of family forgiveness.

Of course they're all so stubborn, it'd be easier to part the Red Sea.