by Sharon Udasin, Staff Writer

When Caryn Aviv became pregnant with her daughter three years ago, she immediately decided that it was time to go “shul shopping” and began to scour Denver for a place where she would be comfortable as a Conservative-raised, openly gay, professional mom.

She instinctively tried out her local Conservative shul, where it seemed fine for her to show up alone and visibly pregnant — as long as she left any mention of her then girlfriend at home.

“It was painful to see other people’s discomfort with who I was, and not ‘get it,’” she said.

Unable to tolerate a synagogue where she couldn’t be true to herself, Aviv joined a Reconstructionist shul whose board president was openly lesbian and had recently adopted a Guatemalan boy.

“It was such a no-brainer and totally welcoming,” she said. “Every measure of inclusion and diversity actually fit how she lives her life.”

Aviv, the Posen lecturer in secular Jewish culture for the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver, is the co-author of a newly released synagogue survey on “Diversity and LGBT Inclusion,” which she presented at a meeting of more than 50 Jewish community leaders, professors and congregants — many of them clad in rainbow-patterned yarmulkes — at The JCC in Manhattan last weekend. While large numbers of North American Jewish congregations say they want to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews in their communities, this verbal support largely fails to translate into active welcome, Aviv and her team reported. Continue reading…

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

As Chani Lifshitz stepped on an empty stage to address at least 2,700 of her closest sisters here last Sunday, one woman was noticeably missing from the crowd — her very best friend, Rivky Holtzberg.  

courtesy of Chabad.org

Lifshitz spoke to a sea of women gathered at the 21st Annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries — a weeklong convention that concludes with a beautiful banquet after several days of intense learning, training and reconnecting. This was the first mass gathering of Chabad emissaries since the terror attack in Mumbai three months ago, which buried Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg. Addressing the fortitude and leadership of this strong network of Chabad women, speakers led the evening’s proceedings in memory of the slain couple.

Nothing will ever break us — or so I thought,” said Lifshitz, who is in her ninth year as an emissary to Katmandu, Nepal — just a two-hour flight from Mumbai.

“I lost the very best friend I ever had — I lost my Rivky,” she continued. “Since then I have never stopped searching for her.” Continue reading…

Not my own story, but I had to post this. I simply do not know what to think of this article — perhaps some might argue that learning about Hitler’s flatulence and sexual habits is entirely unnewsworthy, but I don’t know, I think it’s kind of interesting. You can investigate someone’s psychology by pinpointing the little details of his/her life — and see where the person’s psychopathy might be rooted. Not that this excuses any of his decisions or makes him any less horrible…

Report: Flatulent fuehrer had foul manners

Documents emerging in Britain feature Nazi official who claimed Hitler was ’shockingly’ uncouth

Ynet

A document discovered in Britain more than 60 years after it had been produced claims that Adolf Hitler, the late fuehrer of Nazi Germany, had horrible table manners and chronic intestinal gas.

The UK’s Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday that the document, currently up for auction in Britain, says the Nazi dictator would bite his nails and twist his moustache incessantly during mealtimes, but that he truly believed that he was the “greatest military genius of all time,” as Josef Goebbels had written of him. Continue reading…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3g2-26UMXA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Translation courtesy of Ha’aretz and blogger Lisa Goldman:

“The clip starts with Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima chair Tzipi Livni claiming that each won the election. In identical speeches delivered simultaneously, both urge President Shimon Peres to give him/her the first crack at forming a government. Then Lieberman walks in, so they switch to ingratiating themselves to him.

Netanyahu tells Lieberman that he’s a “lean, mean sex machine” and Livni tells him he looks fantastic. “Have they told you you’re a handsome man?” she asks. They both clamor to negotiate with him so that he’ll join their government.

In response Lieberman has his goons move them aside by force. When Netanyahu objects, Lieberman shoots a bullet at his foot. “Walla, he’s serious!” says Netanyahu, as the black-clad goons hustle him and Livni into a cell.

The lights dim, the Yisrael Beiteinu banner is unrolled, and Lieberman addresses the nation:

“Good Morning, Israel,” he begins. “Citizens, Class B Citizens, Class C Citizens – and Arabs. I declare the founding of a Jewish state called Yisrael Beiteinu. Applause.” (The audience obediently applauds, then stops as soon as Lieberman raises his right hand)

“The elections were a marvelous experience and they were also a final experience. There will be no more elections. Mina [a famous pollster], your next poll will be called, ‘What do you think of the leader?’ And the answers will be: (a) He is excellent; (b) He is great; (c) He’s totally hot, I’d leave him nothing but his socks and do him right here and now; (d) All answers are correct with the addition of coconut oil. Applause plus whistles.” (The audience obediently applauds and whistles, then stops on command)

“Regarding the rest of the choices, I decide as follows. On planes, regarding chicken or beef – beef. For weddings, garden or indoor event – indoor event. On Galgalatz (Army Radio), Madonna or Shakira – Madonna. Regarding leftists: If you voted Hadash, you will receive a new (hadash) passport (the leftwing party’s name is an acronym of Democratic Party for Peace and Equality, but also means “new”).

“Applause. Now lower the volume of the applause. Raise it again. Now applaud to a jazz rhythm.”

Eyal Kitzis, the host of the show, interrupts and asks, “Mr. Lieberman, would you allow me to ask you a question from the studio?”

Lieberman: “No, I won’t.” (laughter). “Which reminds me, regarding television (he picks up a remote control bearing the Yisrael Beiteinu logo): This is your new remote control. There is one button, and a variety of one channel. You can watch Lieberman TV. The other channels have moved to the History Channel. Regarding Internet – there’s no need. From now on, there’s Yvet Net (Yvet is Lieberman’s nickname). You can send us your questions by email, and one of our representatives will contact you with a notice of indictment. Good morning, Israel.”

Kitzis interrupts again: “Mr. Lieberman, with all due respect, there’s no guarantee that you will even be a senior minister in the coming government – let alone prime minister. And there’s also the matter of the police investigations [into your affairs].”

Lieberman: “Don’t worry, I will investigate the police fairly and firmly (echoing the slogan used by the army to describe the means used to evacuate settlers from Gush Katif in 2005).”

Lieberman calls one of the muzzled German shepherds and hands him a police cap to sniff. “Snoopy, find the chief of police! Catch him! Eat him! Go!”

Kitzis: “Ooookay, with that I must return the broadcast to Yonit Levy (the Channel 2 news anchor).”

Lieberman holds up his hand and says, “Leave Yonit to me!” He brandishes a taxi light (a reference to the fact that Levy’s boyfriend hosts a game show called “Money Cab”) and calls to another muzzled German shepherd, “Roxy! Smell this! Go! Eat Yonit! Go!”

And with that, Kitzis hands the show over to Levy.”

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

When final exams come to a close this June, a group of first-year medical students don’t intend to stop their studies. They’ll chug right on, but in Israel rather than on Long Island.

A team of student leaders at Stony Brook University School of Medicine is now busy reviewing applications for a highly selective trip called Kesher Refuah, Hebrew for “medical connection.”

Led by their first-year peers Kate Wallis and Rachael Grodick, the group of six to eight students will hail from Stony Brook only, but founders Cheryl Vinograd and Sharon Lewin hope to include students from other medical schools in the future. The physicians-in-training will embark on a two-week learning and working odyssey to Israel, where they will trail expert pediatric cardiologists, volunteer n clinics across the country and witness the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We’re trying to understand Israel’s roles in the world and how holistic it is,” Wallis said. “One of the big things we’re trying to do is create this view that Israel is not just for Jews.” Continue reading…

Move over, Tzipi Livni. Another prominent Israeli woman is getting a fair bit of international exposure this week.

As Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition 2009 hit newsstand on Monday, Israel’s image across the world became a whole lot sexier. Bar Refaeli, a 23-year-old Israeli model, graced the cover of this year’s issue, flashing her perfect curves and suntanned skin in a barely-there bikini on a Canouan Islands beachfront in The Grenadines.

Refaeli didn’t know she was selected until Monday, when her agent called her for an alleged audition, she told the Today Show. Instead, she got to fly across America on Monday afternoon in a plane emblazoned with her image. Continue reading…

We all know the most common phrase of the MTA: “If you see something, say something.”  (well, perhaps besides “stand clear of the closing doors, please” and “we apologize for the delay”).

I’ve been living in the New York metropolitan area for nearly all 24 years of my life, and never yet have I seen something scary enough to “say something.” Until last night, that is.

I entered the second car of the R train for my short uptown ride to Lexington Avenue and was greeted by the aroma of a middle-aged homeless man who surely had not bathed for weeks. Shrouded in a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants with holes, the man seemed to be in some kind of dazed slumber, blanketed by his long graying beard. In his sleep, he scratched his arms repeatedly and curled into the corner of the T-shaped seating arrangements found in the old NRW trains. But somewhere between the Fifth and Lexington Avenue stops, his benign body scratching and unintelligible mutterings changed to outright violent threats of fellow travelers. Waking up suddenly, he stared people down, rotating his frightening gaze from person to person. After accusing people of spitting on him, he began screaming that he would kill them and then kill the police officer that would come to their rescue. 

Passengers were frightened, and braced themselves until Lexington Avenue finally came.

That was my stop, so I ran up the moving escalator and went straight to the MTA ticket booth. I was unable to get the vendor’s attention through hand motions, and I definitely should’ve yelled to her (be more assertive Sharon). But this MTA employee had just finished her shift and definitely wanted to leave, so I decided to phone the local 17th precinct. After being put on hold several times and listening to about 10 minutes of confused rambling, the dispatcher there finally gave me two phone numbers for the transit police. The first line was busy. The second connected me to a live person, but it took her another 10 minutes to actually take down information about the man’s description, location at the time and people’s reactions. Then she at last decided that she’d alert Queens platform police that they should take a peek into the second car. By now, however, I’m certain that the R train was probably in Forest Hills, and who knows where the angry man had disembarked.

I guess if you see something, there’s very little point in saying something. Yet really, the police have got to do something.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Less than a year and a half after a British academics’ boycott against Israel failed to take off, 15 West Coast professors are trying to mount the first-ever such campaign in the United States.

In response to Israel’s three-week incursion into Gaza, the American professors launched the US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel on Jan. 22.

Their battle comes only a few weeks after the Canadian Union of Public Employees of Ontario proposed a province-wide boycott of Israeli academic institutions and as groups from countries all over the world threaten to do the same. 

By Monday, the US Campaign said it already had accrued 205 endorsements, 155 from the American academy. But their pro-Israel counterparts around the world are girding for a fight. Continue reading…