Short Takes

Riding ‘Beasts’ To Hollywood Acclaim

07/31/2012 | Gary Rosenblatt | Editor And Publisher

Dan Janvey, a 28-year-old New Yorker and producer of the film sensation of the summer, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” was part of a team that spent three and a half years making the movie in southern Louisiana for less than $1.5 million, astoundingly low in today’s world of movie making. What’s more, it stars two people with no professional acting experience – a captivating five-year-old girl and, playing her father, a local Louisiana baker who had to be persuaded to take the role.

Ramah’s Blind Spot Fuels Inclusion Debate

07/24/2012 | Adam Dickter | Assistant Managing Editor/Online Editor

The painful story of a blind 15-year-old who was asked to leave Camp Ramah in Canada because he was too hard to accommodate has touched off the latest debate about the inclusion of people with special needs in organized Jewish life.

The Conservative camp movement admits the Ontario camp — one of eight overnight camps in the Ramah network — made mistakes, but says it’s being unfairly maligned in the aftermath.

City Countering ‘Inaccurate’ Bris Story

07/17/2012 | Hella Winston | Special To The Jewish Week

City health officials are pushing back this week after an article in the religious publication Yated Ne’eman seemed to cast doubt that an infant recently contracted a fatal herpes virus from metzitzah b’peh, the controversial bris technique of oral suction.

The piece, published last week, contains “a number of inaccurate statements and omissions,” according to a spokesperson from the city’s Health Department.

East Village’s Musician Rabbi To ‘Beat’ It

07/17/2012 | Adam Dickter | Assistant Managing Editor/Online Editor

It’s curtains for the Jazz Rabbi’s tenure at the Sixth Street Community Synagogue.

Greg Wall, the tenor sax-playing, part-time spiritual leader of the embattled East Village Orthodox congregation with a diverse membership and a history of conflict is moving on, he announced on the congregation’s Facebook page Tuesday.

Federation’s Fundraising Dips A Bit

07/12/2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

UJA-Federation of New York raised slightly less in donations this year than last in a campaign that reflected a trend toward fewer donors in difficult financial times.

Shamir And The Kohanim

07/11/2012 | Michele Chabin/Jerusalem | Special To The Jewish Week

The death of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir over the weekend and the government’s decision to have his body lie in state inside the Knesset building presented a religious problem for the country’s kohanim.

Generally, deceased Israeli leaders lie in state in the Knesset’s courtyard, but the summer heat necessitated that Shamir’s body be placed indoors, officials said.