Jewlicious

(this blog post was originally written for Jewlicious.com)

This weekend, while visiting a friend in D.C., I ventured for the first time to the Newseum, a 250,000-square-foot colossus that offers a window into hundreds of years of news headlines, news history and of course, the people behind the news. For a journalist, visiting this place is like unleashing a wide-eyed child in Disney World. Among other exhibits was a floor-to-ceiling wall of front pages following 9/11, a transplanted memorial version of Tim Russert’s office and the News Corporation News History Gallery — which features front pages from major events that occurred anywhere from 1455 to the present day.

Front page of The Westerly Sun, 1948. I apologize for the poor quality of the image. The room was dark, the newspaper was behind glass, using flash was prohibited and I only had my point and shoot camera.

As far as Jewish things go — because this is a Jewish blog of course — I was particularly impressed by one choice made my museum curators. In that News Corp New History exhibit, the front page chosen for 1948 was thankfully a commemoration of Israel’s statehood. However, the page chosen wasn’t from The New York Times, or The Washington Post or any other major world news outlet. Rather, it was from The Westerly Sun, a regional daily based in the southern tip of Rhode Island.

Being the Zionist I am, I was of course instantly filled with pride the moment I saw that headline, “New Jewish State Proclaimed in Tel Aviv.” But after giving the yellowing newsprint a second glance, what was even more meaningful to me was the choice of that specific Rhode Island paper. Selecting a small paper from a town in the smallest state of America shows just how omnipresent Israel’s independence was in 1948. At that moment, people everywhere, from major cities to rural towns, were recognizing the sovereignty of that tiny democratic Middle Eastern Nation — that Jewish nation. Jews throughout the Diaspora, from those in Tel Aviv to those in Rhode Island, had reason to celebrate.

And hey, Rhode Island is home to Touro Synagogue, the oldest American synagogue still standing (erected 1763), so the choice might be that much more significant.

[[This blog post was originally written for Jewlicious.com]].

(I know I live in New York, but today I need to comment on an issue surfacing across the Atlantic Ocean — in the United Kingdom.)

If a new bill passes next month in the United Kingdom, British same-sex couples will soon be crushing glasses and signing ketubahs with the official blessings of their rabbis and families.

A group of Liberal Jewish rabbis and Anglican ministers have come together in favor of an amendment to the country’s 2010 Equality Bill, which would allow same-sex civil partnerships to take place in British synagogues and other religious institutions, writes Jessica Elgot, a reporter at The Jewish Chronicle in London. The Equality Bill, she continues, will be up for debate in the House of Lords next month, and currently has the support of Liberal Jews, Unitarians and Quakers. You can read through Parliament’s discussion of the bill here, by scrolling down to the paragraph just above sub-head “25 Jan 2010 : Column 1199.”

“[The amendment's] intention is to remove the prohibition against civil partnerships taking place in religious buildings,” the document reads. “I shall repeat that: it is to remove the prohibition against civil partnerships taking place in religious organisations. It is a straightforward amendment. It does not seek to force religious institutions to host civil partnerships and I would not intend it to. It simply has to be a matter for them to decide whether or not they wish to do so.”

As in most of the United States, gay marriages are still not recognized by law in the United Kingdom. But in Britain, where church is not separate from state, the government can take this prohibition one step further. Civil unions may be permitted throughout the country, but at the moment, these same-sex partnerships cannot occur within the boundaries of a house of worship.  That’s right, it’s currently illegal for a rabbi to unite two men or two women under a chuppah in England.

And now, at the behest of some forward-thinking Quakers, the House of Lords is aiming to repeal this ban.

While same-sex marriages are only legal in a few select states here in America, all religious institutions have the power to conduct same-sex civil unions if they so choose, and many have been doing so for quite some time. Synagogues all over the US perform same-sex marriages, like Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco, where marriages went from being not recognized by law, to being recognized, to now unfortunately not being recognized by law once again. In New York, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah performs many marriage ceremonies, even though gay marriage has never ever yet been legal in New York State. Even in Israel, where laws are strongly influenced by an Orthodox rabbinate, is doing a very good job welcoming theLGBT community into its fold.

Although the laws should certainly be changed to make same-sex marriage legal both here and in the United Kingdom, a religious institution should always be a place of refuge for every congregant it serves — no matterwhat the law says.  I hope that when the House of Lords takes this bill to the floor next month, the British government does decide to allow for marriages to occur within the synagogues, whether or not they are officially recognized by the country.

And in yet another progressive move for Britain, Schools Secretary Ed Balls recently decided that all secondary schools, including parochial schools, will be forced to teach “full, broad, balanced curriculum on sex and relationship education” — which includes topics like sexually-transmitted diseases, contraception, pregnancy, abortion and homosexuality, The Telegraph reported today. This means that religious schools — even Orthodox Jewish schools — will need to address topics like civil unions and same-sex parenting without any homophobia whatsoever.

I wonder how Britain’s haredi communities are going to respond to this…

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Sharon Udasin is a staff writer at The Jewish Week. Follow her on Twitter or e-mail her at sharon@sharonudasin.com.

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I also posted a lengthy comment in response to Jessica Elgot’s article here, on The Jewish Chronicle’s Web site.

(blog post written for Jewlicious.com).

He’s not quite Kim Kardashian, her sister Khloe, or even John Edwards – but he’s pretty damn sexy.

You know, those sagging man-boobs, that voluptuous beer gut (wait, Muslims can’t drink?) and that carpet of thickly matted chest hair – what more could a secretary desire on her first day of work?

“Do I turn off the light or do you?” the man says in a video, aired on Israeli television earlier this week. ”What is the procedure?”

Rafiq Husseini, a now former top aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas slides completely naked slide into bed, calling an unseen woman to join him, in what was allegedly an effort to trade his political influence for sex  This morning, however, Abbas dismissed Husseini from office and has formed a special committee to investigate allegations of corruption in his administration, West Bank-based Ma’an News Agency reported earlier today.

Along with a full-fledged video crew, former Palestinian intelligence official Fahmi Shabaneh had planted hidden cameras in the apartment, after being tipped off by the woman in question. Through a stream of text messages and meetings, Husseini had allegedly informed the potential secretary that if she wanted to be hired, “she needed to meet him in the bedroom for a little manual labor first,” according to FOX News. Shouldn’t politicians be smart enough by now to understand that if they are stupid (and/or horny) enough to engage in a sex scandal, there’s always bound to be irrevocable evidence?

After the news became public in Israel  through reports by The Jerusalem Post and Channel 10’s Tzvi Yehezkeli, even the editor-in-chief of Ma’an News Agency, Nasser Laham, wrote an editorial urging Husseini to step down, calling Husseini’s indecency an “embarrassment” to the Palestinian people – though, Laham does go on to call for Shabaneh’s arrest and makes sure to highlight all of Israel’s own financial and sexual scandals. In fact, the Palestinian Authority actually has a warrant out for Shabaneh’s arrest for his so-called “collaboration with Israel,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

And just when we thought Israel might be in the clear for once, relatives of Husseini and top aides to Abbas are naturally calling the tapes an “Israeli conspiracy”  blaming the Israeli government, Mossad and Shin Bet for the incident.

I’m sorry, but if a Palestinian politician can’t keep his pants on, it’s absolutely absurd to blame the Israeli government. Did Israel instruct this man to peel off his clothes, slide sexily under the covers and beckon an innocent woman to his bedside? I don’t think so. Likewise, did a team of Republicans conspire to film John Edwards’ extramarital tryst? I don’t think so.

I hope that for once, the media will give Israel a break and not assign blame where blame is so obviously not due. Blame belongs in one place in this scenario, and that place is below Husseini’s forestial belt-line.

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Warning, the video below is quite explicit and disturbing to the eyes, in more ways than one.

Sharon Udasin is a staff writer at The Jewish Week. Follow her on Twitter or e-mail her at sharon@sharonudasin.com.

(blog post written for Jewlicious.com)

The countdown to Super Bowl XLIV (that’s 44, people) is exactly 2 days: 2 hours: 42 mins: 2 secs, but since the Giants aren’t involved, I honestly couldn’t care less. What I can’t help but wonder, however, is what Chabad is doing about the game this year.

You see, it’s been two years since Eli Manning’s “miracle drive” — the 38-yard seemingly impossible pass to David Tyree, followed by a game-winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with only 39 seconds left. But that same day, some avid fans credited the Giants’ Super Bowl success to a source far mightier than Manning’s nimble arm and Tyree’s solid grasp — these fans felt that their newfound tefillin addiction had given the Giants that extra wind. After the team began that season with a lousy 0 and 2 record, lifelong fan Jay Greenfield finally caved to his Chabad rabbi and friend, Yisroel Shemtov, who had been pestering Greenfield about wearing tefillin. If the fan would strap on the prayer boxes just three times each week, Rabbi Shemtov would add the New York Giants to his prayers and ask for a little divine intervention on behalf of the beloved team.

This Sunday in sunny Miami, the New Orleans Saints face the Indianapolis Colts, led by Eli Manning’s older brother Peyton — also known to be a miracle-worker of sorts. As usual, Chabad is getting in on the action.

Rabbi Zev Katz, director of Chabad of Miami Beach (also known as “Chabad on Wheels”) has been at it all week — wrapping tefillin on visitors and locals alike who are gearing up for Sunday’s game. Throughout the week and all day today, Rabbi Katz says he’s had his mitzvah tank parked on Lincoln Road, a thoroughfare for shopping, dining and tourism in Miami Beach. And he’s had no trouble getting Jewish passers-by aboard the Chabad mobile, doing everything possible for just one more mitzvah. He even went so far as to invite anyone reading this post to attend Shabbat at his Chabad House, located on 309 23rd St.

Until then, he’ll continue to get football fans to wrap themselves with tefillin.

“We had one guy who was 13, and he wasn’t really religious at all,” Rabbi Katz said. “But he said he would do it for the Saints.”

Also in the region, Rabbi Shuey Biston (Chabad of Parkland – North Broward and South Palm Beach) is hosting a kosher Super Bowl party with over 100 guests at a community member’s home, where fans will gather first for a service, and then to watch the game.

“We always have a Super Bowl party every year,” Rabbi Biston said.

Of course, not every Saints or Colts fan will actually get to the Miami region this weekend, but Chabad in Louisiana is bringing together Jewish Saints fans for some social action. The Chabad Jewish Center of Suburban New Orleans is striking up a Super Bowl pool, where local fans have the opportunity to win up to $1,800 ($450 per quarter) just by donating $36 or $72 to the center’s educational programming.

I guess we’ll see on Sunday whether or not that 13-year-old Saints fan’s prayers were strong enough to give New Orleans’ Drew Brees the edge he needs to defeat a seemingly invincible Peyton Manning of Indianapolis.

Speaking of Mannings, let’s rewatch those final moments of Super Bowl 42, especially since the Giants were certainly not interested in offering us New Yorkers anything similar this year. And hey, maybe if a few more Giants fans (Dad?) try strapping on tefillin at their tailgating parties, next season will be a different story.

Sharon Udasin is a staff writer at The Jewish Week. Follow her on Twitter or e-mail her at sharon@sharonudasin.com.

(blog post also written for Jewlicious.com).

For David Saranga, Twitter and Facebook remain the best weapons in an ongoing battle to maintain a positive image of Israel and make the Jewish State easily accessible and approachable to everyone.

Saranga, the former consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, brought this mission to full speed just over a year ago, when he held live Twitter debates on behalf of the Israeli government during the Gaza war, opened Israel’s YouTube channel and revamped Isrealli.org, the State of Israel’s official blog. His latest task, now serving as a faculty member of the Asper Institute at IDC-Herzliya’s Sammy Ofer School of Communications, is to launch this year’s 10th Annual Herzliya Conference on social networks for the first time and reach out to a broader, ideally younger audience.

“If we want to approach young people as well we have to bring it to the language that they use,” Saranga said.

In the past decade, the Herzliya Conference has become an increasingly vital stage for Israel’s leaders to gather and discuss government policies and national security issues.  This year’s conference begins tomorrow (Jan. 31) and ends on Feb. 3, hosting a wide range of leaders such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Foreign Minister and MK Tzipi Livni, Deputy Foreign Minister and MK Daniel Ayalon and World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder. One of the newest speakers to confirm attendance is Dr. Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, who will join Tuesday evening’s panel: “Prospects of Peace: The Israeli-Palestinian Track.”

In addition to streaming the various panels in real-time throughout the week, Saranga and his team will also be editing and uploading shorter, more user-friendly versions of each panel, which will remain available online after the fact. Conference enthusiasts can meanwhile receive play-by-play updates about the various speakers, panels and issues addressed via Twitter and Facebook.

“People can see the essence of the conference,” added Saranga, who said he’ll be working with a team of 10 people, predominantly students, to accomplish this mission. He has also been working closely with Dr. Noam Lemelstrich-Latar, director of the Asper Institute and dean of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications.

Saranga’s hope is that viewers and readers all over the world will repost and “ReTweet” conference updates to their friends, giving Israel a bigger voice all over the world, and a continued chance to make a positive impact.

“One of the goals of the project is to enlist organizations and private bodies in Israel and abroad, for whom Israel is both relevant and important,” Saranga said. “This is one of the first projects ever undertaken, whose purpose is to enhance the message emerging from the Herzliya Conference, by allowing organizers to tap into the potential of the social network.”

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For live updates, follow @HerzliyaConf and @DavidSaranga on Twitter, or become a fan of the Herzliya Conference on Facebook. To see the preliminary PDF version of the conference program, click here to download. Further details about the new media launch are available here.

Sharon Udasin is a staff writer at The Jewish Week. E-mail her at sharon@sharonudasin.com, or follow her on Twitter.

I will now be blogging for Jewlicious.com, in addition to writing posts for my own Web site. I’ll cross-post everything I blog for them here on my site as well.

There’s me on their “Who the hell are you guys?” page:

Sharon
Sharon Udasin is a lovably neurotic 25-year-old journalist, who is currently working as a staff writer at The Jewish Week in New York. After being ridiculously afraid to set foot in Israel for over 22 years, Sharon finally went on a Birthright trip in June 2007 and found such a deep connection to the country that she’s been back five times since. Sharon graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007 and then received her M.S. in journalism from Columbia the following year. She has seen Les Misérables seven times and could probably host a one-woman performance of the show if it wasn’t for her horrible singing voice and inability to dance. Some of her other guilty pleasures include the Harry Potter series, the television show Gossip Girl and an inordinate addiction to Tasti D-Lite. See all of her work here, follow her on Twitter or write to her at sharon@sharonudasin.com.

Well, I still love Israel — no surprise there. Apologies for the lack of blog post the entire time I was in my favorite country, especially since I was so fastidious about writing while I was in France. But Israel is my home — well, for now my second home, but hopefully my primary home one day — so I just felt like relaxing and totally unwinding during my six days there. Six days which definitely were not long enough. I got to spend time with so many wonderful people as always and definitely was not even able to see every person whom I had intended to spend time with. But Israel is Israel and it waits for me, so I will surely be back very very soon. Ben Gurion Airport staff must really be tired of me by now!

This time, I saw some things that I hadn’t expected to see — thanks to David Abitbol (@jewlicious), I was able to spend essentially an entire day touring Eastern Jerusalem, where the air smells like the most amazing spices in the world. We saw the Church of the Sepulchre and the many spots where Jesus did x, y and z, and we also walked around a lot in the Muslim quarter shuk — taking in the spices, as I said, and the knaffe. My stomach even behaved and I didn’t get sick at all after the knaffe, which is this indescribable amalgamation of sugar, cheese, honey and flour, served best in a dingy hole-in-the-wall Arab cafe that has flies swarming around the sweat-drenched tables. I also walked as close to the Dome of the Rock as possible for a non-Muslim during that hour of the day, and we chatted with the Islamic federation guy who was guarding that territory. He was surprisingly friendly and didn’t seem to mind that we were Jews, but I definitely would not dare try to cross that line. No games with these guys.

As the sunset, we all (our group now had grown to include some new friends, the Weil sisters, their uncle and Talya) made our way up to the roof of the Austrian Hospice, where you have the opportunity to see one of the most beautiful — albeit hidden — views of Jerusaelm. Such a nice and welcoming group of people, and such a nice way to spend an evening. After checking out the Green Tea Style brand soap in the Mamila Hotel bathrooms, we parted with the rest of the group and joined my amazing friend Cori Chascione (@coric) for some sushi and unforgettable conversation. Cori is 100 percent sure that I’m going to end up making aliyah, so we’ll see if I prove her right or wrong. Cori is doing some awesome work in Israel now, working as a leader for the Nativ group of American 18-ish-year-olds who are here to spend the year in Israel. In fact, we ran into a group of them on Ben Yehuda Street, where they shouted to Cori and waved their Burger King crowns at her. Now that’s love. Well, actually, that Ferrero-Rocher gelato we had at Aldo — despite the need for multiple LactAid pills, that’s love.

And then of course, there’s Liat Levy, who with her boyfriend Dotan were such generous hosts to me in Jerusalem. I’m so glad that we became such close friends, and I regret that we didn’t hang out more when she was actually living in New York. But hey, she, like Cori, is another firm believer in Sharon’s future as an Israeli citizen, so we’ll see if that happens. Liat has an amazing new apartment in Beit HaKerem, near the  science campus of Hebrew University, where she just started this past Sunday. In addition to just chilling out and watching Gossip Girl — yes, I do believe that Gossip Girl is reputable, intelligent television, seriously! — we just spent lot’s of time catching up and hanging out with her friends. Oh yeah, and there was one trip to the Jerusalem Malcha Mall (my first time there), where I have to say we looked totally out of place without floor-length skirts. On the way out though, we saw a couple of guys that were perhaps even more out of place — two 7-foot African Americans who must be basketball players in Israel (I’m saying this because of their basketball attire and mannerisms, not because I’m saying that all 7-foot African Americans in Israel are basketball players).

Another proponent of a Sharon-move to Israel is Liron Mark, who has become one of my best friends ever since we met on Taglit now nearly two and a half years ago. I’m really happy I got to spend some time with her and with the entire Mark family in Haifa as usual, even if it was for far too short of a time. In retrospect, I should’ve stayed in Israel longer a couple days longer. Next time, I certainly will. I miss the entire Mark family already — they are my Israeli family after all. In addition to having an amazing dinner with them, Liron and her mom took me to a lecture and screening of the Woody Allen/Larry David movie “Whatever Works” on Friday morning. Though I was seeing it for the second time, it was still funny, and even funnier was that the three of us were probably the only ones under 80 in the room.

I also had the chance to see my friend David Saranga (@davidsaranga) in his homeland, and he brought me with him to IDC Herzliya’s Sammy Ofer School of Communications, where he delivered a lecture to first-year students about using Web 2.0 in Israeli public diplomacy. I might pretty much know his stuff by heart, but this time, it was in Hebrew — so I needed to make friends with some of the students sitting next to me to understand completely. But I have to say, the students were really, really receptive to his lecture, and I think he should continue on the professorial track, even if it’s not full-time. That same day, I also made my way to Kfar Saba to visit Momo Lifshitz and Todd Edelman at Oranim (@oranim), to hear some more details on their latest ventures — many of which I hope to write about soon. My favorite part of their office — the humongous fish tank and killer catfish inside, as well as the mural collage behind Momo’s desk.

And I leave Tel Aviv for last because despite what Mr. Jewlicious says (he calls in “Hell Aviv” for some reason, grrr!!), Tel Aviv is my absolute favorite city in all of Israel, perhaps in all of the world. When I do move there (wow I said “when” and not “if”), that’s where I will live. One of my best choices in Tel Aviv this time was invading the Haaretz offices, where I got to hang out with both my J-School buddy Raphael Ahren (@cologneboy) and Cnaan Liphshiz (@hebrish), who together essentially man the paper’s entire English edition, Anglo File. It was great getting to see them and then getting to explore lot’s of old Yafo and Florentine — an amazing South Tel Aviv neighborhood with a really friendly trio of dogs who tend to roam the streets at night. I also fit in my beach day, of course, because Tel Aviv wouldn’t be Tel Aviv without its beautiful beaches. : ) Beautiful beaches complete with nice warm water, dead eel caracsses on the pebbly sand and awkward Arab teenagers staring down at you from the tayelet. Haha, that’s Israel for you.

The trip to the airport was not without its own hilarities, as the driver proceeded to sing me American oldie love songs in broken English. What a perfectly Israeli way to end my trip there, even though I really wish it didn’t have to end. Well, as I typed in my Facebook photo album, that just means I’ll have to be back very soon. Don’t worry, you know I’ll find a way.