Archive for May 6th, 2009

My contributions to this year’s “36 Under 36″ Section in The Jewish Week –

Juan Mejía: At 15, Juan Mejía was attending a prestigious Catholic high school in Colombia, hoping one day to become a monk. Little did he know that 16 years later, he would actually become a rabbi…

Malkie Schwartz: When Malkie Schwartz first decided to leave behind her native Chabad-Lubavitch community in 2000, she had a strong network of support in secular New York — something that she realized most formers chasidim have difficulties finding. Three years later, she decided to change that by founding Footsteps, a comfortable learning and social environment where people can adjust to their new lives and discuss their decisions. “Unlike a lot of the people who leave, I had a support system and I obviously experienced challenges of my own,” she says…

Leslie Ginsparg: Looking for an outlet to unleash her creative side, Leslie Ginsparg decided to attend her first women’s open-mike event during a trip to Israel 10 years ago. Though she and her friends have always loved performance, their strict observance of kol isha laws have kept them away from public venues where men would be able to hear them sing, she says…

Ran Fuchs: Moving back and forth from Tel Aviv to New York as a child, 30-year-old Ran Fuchs describes himself as the quintessential Israeli-American hybrid. Ultimately, he and his parents settled in New York, but he never felt completely at home in either place. “In the United States I felt very Israeli, and in Israel I felt very American,” he says…

Brooke Goldstein: Brooke Goldstein went in and out of the West Bank for two years to probe some of the most dangerous Palestinian terrorists, compiling the clips that would become an award-winning documentary in 2006 — “Making the Martyr” — which exposes how Islamic militants force innocent children to become suicide bombers…

Deena Greenberg: As soon as she heard that the University of Pennsylvania had cancelled its program for study in Israel for the spring semester, Penn Hillel President Deena Greenberg knew she couldn’t stand still.
So she wrote a guest column criticizing the decision in The Daily Pennsylvanian — Penn’s independent student newspaper — where she had been a beat reporter and senior news writer for the past four years. Despite the ongoing Gaza War at the time, the United States had not issued a warning against traveling to Israel since September, and Penn was the only Ivy League university to shut down its Israel program, Greenberg and her co-authors wrote…

Elizabeth Samson: Frustrated by the way people can manipulate legal systems and demonize innocent victims, young lawyer Elizabeth Samson hopes to make free speech more of a reality in the world and crush a practice that she calls “libel tourism.” Samson equates libel tourism to international forum shopping, where plaintiffs look for a court in the country that will likely provide the most favorable outcomes for their cases. Often, such cases involve terror financing….

Cheryl Vinograd & Sharon Lewin: Over spring break last year, then first-year medical students Cheryl Vinograd (on left) and Sharon Lewin took a weeklong whirlwind tour of Israel – no, not on a Tel Aviv beach vacation, but on a volunteer mission shadowing doctors at hospitals and clinics all over the country…

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Moving between the soulful sounds of “Amazing Grace” and a rendition of the traditional Hebrew melody “Avinu Malkeinu,” three local gospel choirs joined renowned Israeli singer David D’Or and the Israel Defense Force Orchestra Tuesday evening as they united to celebrate Israel’s 61st birthday at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater.

After a standing-room-only pilot event on Israel’s birthday last year, the Israeli Consulate here decided it would again celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut — Israeli Independence Day — with the local African-American community in “A Night of Harmony.” The three African-American ensembles included Harlem’s own Bethel Gospel Choir, a teenage group from The Allen Cathedral of Jamaica, Queens, and Christian soul rocker Hezekiah Walker & LFC.

This year’s concert is part of a recent effort by the consulate to engage with the African-American community and improve a relationship that grew increasingly tense in the decades following the civil rights era. Part of the effort, Media Consul David Saranga said, is taking place in Israel as well, as that government looks to improve the lives of its immigrants from Africa.

“We believe in diplomacy — it’s not only relations between governments, it’s also bridges between cultures,” said Saranga, who has been using various social media outlets — like Twitter and Facebook — in an attempt to revamp Israel’s public image. “We want to get grass-roots support,” he added, noting that Israel needs to garner the support of niche populations around the world in order to bring about a mutual sense of respect for each culture. Continue reading…

by Sharon Udasin

Posing in a black-banded khaki-colored fedora as kitschy klezmer Muzak introduces his routine, Neil Lawner gestures loudly with outstretched arms and tells a joke about newlywed Luigi, who rode a train to Florida with his new bride Virginia, and tragically, mistook the station stop “Norfolk” for a prohibition in his marriage consummation.

Lawner’s routine, along with nearly 30 others, are part of a new collection posted on OldJewsTellingJokes.com, a Web site that features the stand-up routines of everyone’s favorite Jewish uncles, fathers and grandpas. The staged clips were the brainchild of 42-year-old Sam Hoffman of GreeneStreet Films, who got the idea after listening to over four decades of his father Barney’s joke routines. Continue reading…