The Jewish Week

The Secret Behind Never Being Single Again

July 30, 2010 | Abigail Pickus | Abigail in Love (Maybe)

Visualization is my new thing.

As in, The Secret, which I just discovered. I know, I know, ‘tis a lot like saying, “Hey! I just saw a great movie. Forest Gump! Heard of it?”

Which is another way of saying, I’ve got my finger on the pulse, people!

The Call Of The Highway

July 30, 2010 | Adam Dickter | Adam Dickter's Continuum

As mentioned earlier, this is the first summer in five that my family hasn't spent under the starry skies of the Catskills, and for me that means about six to eight hours a week back in my life that were often spent on the Cross Bronx Expressway, the New York Thruway, Rt. 17, and various other roadways with which I experimented. At 250 miles round trip, I estimate that I logged in the neigborhood of 10,000 miles in four summers making the trip to the blessed land of bungalows.

Does Amar'e Stoudemire Being Jewish Matter?

July 29, 2010 | Eric Herschthal | Well-Versed

A shock of virtual enthusiasm ripped through the Web this week when Amar'e Stoudemire, the $100-million basketball star who recently signed with the Knicks, announced that he's Jewish. “I am proud to be a Hebrew and embrace my Jewish background,” he told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, shortly after arriving in Israel.

It was his first time in the country, which he was visiting to learn more about his Jewish heritage. But it is still unclear what exactly brought about his newfound interest. Ha'aretz reported that the trip was prompted by him recently learning that his mother was Jewish, but The Jerusalem Post quotes him as saying "I have been aware since my youth that I am a Hebrew through my mother."

Too Much Intermarriage Talk Even For Me

July 29, 2010 | Julie Wiener | Julie Wiener's In the Mix

Whew! The Washington Post’s On Faith blog has invited an exhausting 16 (and no space for yours truly?!) panelists to weigh in on interfaith marriage: thumbs up, thumbs down or neutral. OK, the questions are actually a little more thoughtful:

July 28, 2010 | Gary Rosenblatt | Gary Rosenblatt

Attention Jewish organizations looking to learn more about social media (and who isn’t?): be sure Dave Weinberg is on your radar.
The 28-year-old resident of Silver Spring, Md. single-handedly conceived of and put together an impressive conference in New York yesterday, billed as The Future of Jewish Non-Profit Summit, and attended by about 100 people in person -- and many more on Twitter and Facebook.

July 28, 2010 | Adam Dickter | Adam Dickter's Continuum

The conviction of an Israeli Arab in the bizarre and highly controversial case stemming from a tryst with a Jewish woman evokes painful images of our own country's racially paranoid past and the persecution of black men for having relationships with white women. At first glance it seems that Israel's judicial system abetted a woman's anti-Arab hatred by convicting the man, Saber Kushour, of rape after a consensual sexual encounter because he pretended to be a Jew. That's exactly how some in the media here and in Israel have presented it.

Mega Singles Event for the Mega Serious

July 28, 2010 | Abigail Pickus | Abigail in Love (Maybe)

“Ask yourself this question: Do you really want to get married?” read the invitation for a singles party in Jerusalem.

“If the answer is NO then carry on going to all those parties, Shabbat meals, lectures, supermarket aisles…”

Ahem! Supermarket aisles? Am I missing something here or is this some kind of veiled reference to that cheesy Dan Fogelberg song from the ‘80s where he meets his old lover in the grocery store, as in, “I stole behind her in the frozen foods and I touched her on the sleeve…”

Minister & Rabbi At Chelsea's Wedding?

July 28, 2010 | Julie Wiener | Julie Wiener's In the Mix

My friend Rabbi Jason Miller has scooped me (and apparently everyone else) on this weekend's Chelsea-Marc festivities. If Rabbi Miller's "good authority" is correct, a Methodist minister and a rabbi will be co-officiating at the ceremony.

July 28, 2010 | Julie Wiener | Julie Wiener's In the Mix

I recently spent a lovely day at Eden Village Camp, a Jewish environmental sleep-away camp in which kids get to — among other activities — milk goats, feed chickens, pick vegetables and make smoothies using a bike-powered blender.

July 28, 2010 | Eric Herschthal | Well-Versed

Hats off to Howard Jacobson, often dubbed "the British Philip Roth," who was long-listed yesterday for the Man Booker Prize in Fiction. While his book, "The Finkler Question," a comic novel about three single Jewish intellectuals, has not been released in the States yet, it's already made a big splash in the UK. It's reception is worth noting too, in light of the recent uptick in concern over British anti-Semitism.