http://www.jweekly.com en Copyright 2011 2011-10-17T19:38:22+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/61568/buckingham-palace-guard-banned-from-royal-wedding-for-anti-semitic-comments http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/61568/buckingham-palace-guard-banned-from-royal-wedding-for-anti-semitic-comments#When:19:41:06Z by rachel leibold | The Huffington Post reported this morning that Buckingham Palace guard Cameron Reilly has been relieved of his duties for the Royal Wedding™ this Friday because of racist and anti-Semitic comments he made on his Facebook page - oh, and also for calling future queen Kate Middleton a "posh [rhymes with witch]." According to HuffPo, the 18-year-old Reilly wrote, among other unsavory things, that he was "watchin a massive jew gathering outside the window at the tower of london!! av never seen so many rabbi's in ma life." We here at j. HQ are a little bemused as to what exactly is anti-Semitic about that (unless using the term "Jew" is inherently anti-Semitic), but nonetheless, the atrocious grammar and spelling alone deserve punishment. Reilly, who is Scottish, is part of the Scots Guard, which is slated to stand along the procession route from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace. Enjoy watching the wedding from your mum's settee, buddy! blogs 2011-04-25T19:41:06+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/61348/marla-gilson-got-sick.-then-she-got-fired http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/61348/marla-gilson-got-sick.-then-she-got-fired#When:19:45:34Z by rachel leibold | Marla Gilson of Chevy Chase, Md., is a longtime Jewish community advocate who has given her career to helping the sick, elderly and poor. How is she repaid for her tireless work? By being fired when she herself is faced with a deadly illness. Gilson actually is quite lucky. Diagnosed with leukemia in January, she quickly found a bone marrow match, something many leukemia patients never find. (Most Jews who lived in the Washington area in the late '80s remember Allison Atlas, the 20-year-old leukemia patient whose ultimately unsuccessful search for a bone marrow match galvanized the community and inspired thousands to join the bone marrow registry.) However, the transplant would leave Gilson vulnerable to infection for several months, and she proposed to her employer, the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Jewish Aging Services of North America (AJAS), that she work from home until September so that she could recover in a less risky environment. AJAS said no. And they fired her. Gilson had been working as president and CEO of AJAS for just nine months. AJAS says that they believe they've already gone above and beyond by paying Gilson for several weeks after she had used up her accrued sick leave, and for continuing to provide her with health insurance coverage. But many in the Washington-area Jewish community are calling AJAS out for the decision. The Washington Jewish Week and JTA have many reactions from community members and friends who call it "unbelievable," among other things. And Gilson's attorney is gearing up to fight the dismissal on the grounds that it's discriminatory. It's certainly understandable that AJAS would balk at having its new CEO out of the office for six months, especially in tough financial times when face time and networking can be critical for a nonprofit. But Gilson seems to have given ample opportunity for AJAS to do the right thing, including offering to take a pay cut in order to have the organization hire a consultant to assist her with her duties. She also promised to return to work by Sept. 1. The question is, would we be making a big stink about this story if Gilson were the CEO of Starbucks? Are we holding Jewish organizations to higher standards - maybe even too high? Perhaps we are, but is that so wrong? Unlike most secular companies, Jewish organizations operate under a set of religious and ethical guidelines - it's called the Torah. When you decide to put "Jewish" in your name, you're agreeing to follow the moral code that goes along with that word. That isn't to say that an organization needs to put itself out of business in the name of the Torah, but there's no indication that that was a risk here. To blatantly subvert Jewish values while calling yourself a Jewish organization makes us all look bad. Bottom line, AJAS may have written their own obituary with their handling of the Gilson case, and it didn't have to be this way. It's incredible to me that companies and organizations continue to make hairbrained mistakes like this one in the age of the Internet. For some companies, a little negative publicity isn't always a bad thing - often just getting one's name in the spotlight can reap long-term benefits, even if it comes with a short-term financial hit. But for a nonprofit that isn't very well known and probably relies on the donations of a few major machers every year, this could be a death knell. Did AJAS think this story wasn't going to get out? Marla Gilson seems to have enough advocates that it's easy to imagine she'll bounce back from this. But will AJAS? Unless they do an about-face, and soon, I don't think so.   UPDATE, April 5: The Washington Post ran a story today about the Gilson case. This story states that Gilson will lose her health insurance coverage once COBRA runs out, contradicting the Washington Jewish Week story that states that AJAS will continue to provide Gilson with health care coverage (although, on second reading, it's not made clear whether that's going forward or whether it was for the weeks when she was being paid beyond her allotted sick leave). If Gilson loses her insurance (which also covers her husband and one of her children), that will just be more salt in the wound in this tragic story. blogs 2011-04-04T19:45:34+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/61267/royal-wedding-watch-2011-jewish-edition http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/61267/royal-wedding-watch-2011-jewish-edition#When:17:33:34Z by rachel leibold | The ketubah created for Prince William and Kate Middleton is displayed. The world is atwitter over the upcoming royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton (who, j. reported back in November, is not Jewish). The wedding is scheduled for April 29 - three days after the end of Passover, which is good news for Jews who, like me, enjoy preparing theme meals for major events such as this. It wouldn't be a royal wedding without a pint of beer, scones and, of course, a proper cake! Earlier this month, reports surfaced that the heir to the British throne would be breaking a glass at the end of the ceremony, a traditional Jewish custom. The Jewish Chronicle had written an article stating that the royal couple would be incorporating Jewish, Muslim and Hindu customs into their traditional Anglican wedding at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the multicultural nature of Britain. While this seems like a rather lovely touch, it turned out to be a Purim joke. (I guess the tipoff was the Buckingham Palace spokeswoman "Esther Calthorpe-Watts"...subtle.) Too bad! In real news, however, British-born Israeli artist Michael Horton created a ketubah for the couple that includes both Hebrew and English text. The Jewish Chronicle reports that Horton "de-koshered" the text so it could be suitable for a couple married in a church, and removed the parts about the obligations of the husband to the wife so that the ketubah could be a purely commemorative document. The JC has lots of nice details about the look of the ketubah, which sounds lovely.The artist then presented it to Matthew Gould, Britain's ambassador to Israel, who assured him it would have an expedient passage to the royal couple.Also, the father of the groom, Prince Charles, this month signed on to become a patron of World Jewish Relief's poverty relief program for families in Ukraine. blogs 2011-03-30T17:33:34+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60976/designer-john-gallianos-anti-semitic-rant http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60976/designer-john-gallianos-anti-semitic-rant#When:20:22:57Z by emily savage | (photo by interview magazine/jen atkin) Odd bird designer John Galliano is in for a world of haute couture backlash following an anti-Semitic and racist rant during a fight at Marais cafe La Perle, Interview Magazine reports. As a direct result of the insulting language, Christian Dior suspended Galliano, who has been with the fashion house since 1996. Dior CEO Sidney Toldano invoked Dior's policy of "zero tolerance...towards any anti-Semitic or racist words or behavior."  The designer, known for his pencil-thin mustache and shiny pony hair, got in the brawl Thursday evening with a female patron and was taken to the police station following the incident. blogs 2011-02-25T20:22:57+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60764/the-problem-with-birthright-israel http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60764/the-problem-with-birthright-israel#When:20:46:36Z by rachel leibold | We've all heard the accolades for Birthright Israel: young adults who take the free 10-day trip to Israel come back jazzed about the Jewish state, are more likely to engage in Jewish life post-trip and are more likely to marry Jews. We've also heard about the controversy: that Birthright is just propaganda for Israeli policies, that it doesn't screen its applicants well enough and ends up with the occasional messianic "Jew" or Palestinian activist, etc. But in an op-ed published today on eJewishPhilanthropy.com, Stephen Muss notes another, more insidious problem with Birthright: It's discouraging younger teens from going to Israel with their peers on high school programs, and the Israeli government's enthusiastic financial support for the program (at the expense of high school programs) may actually be hurting its cause. Muss is chairman of the Alexander Muss High School in Israel program, in which my brother took part after he graduated from high school in 2005. He and I went to a Jewish day school that graduates its senior class in January, then sends them to Israel for the rest of the school year. (When I graduated, my class went to Israel on a Ramah program.) According to Birthright's rules, neither my brother nor I are eligible for Birthright. To be eligible you cannot have gone on a prior Israel trip with your peers. (Family trips are okay.) What's the problem with this? Well, obviously, parents would rather send their children on a free trip than pay thousands for a high school trip. "Who can ever argue with free?" Muss writes. Muss posits that by subsidizing Birthright so heavily, Jewish philanthropists and the Israeli government are missing out on the opportunity to subsidize high school trips, which arguably do better at creating Jewish identity at an earlier age than Birthright. I found myself nodding my head (okay, metaphorically) the entire time I read Muss' op-ed. The problem, of course, is that Birthright does do excellent work. It's impossible to make a good argument against the program entirely. After all, it's better to go to Israel in your 20s than not at all, right? Not everyone can afford the thousands of dollars needed to send their teen to Israel. For young adults who would not otherwise get to go to Israel with their peers, it's undeniably a good thing, and there is no shortage of people whose lives have been changed by Birthright. On the other hand, it's hard to make the argument that making young adults wait until they're 18 and have graduated from high school to go to Israel is better than sending them when they're in their crucial formative pre-college years - and that financially supporting Birthright over other programs makes sense. "Nothing, and I mean nothing, can compare with an education trip to Israel during the high school years, when identity formation is most acute," Muss writes. Going into college with a solid Jewish and pro-Israel background is critical, especially these days, when anti-Israel sentiment is running rampant on campuses around the country. By making people wait until they are in college, and often out of college (Birthright eligibility goes up to 26!), Birthright misses out on that most important window of identity-building. It does seem that Birthright is impacting the enrollment in high school programs. Muss notes that in 2000, around 20,000 teens went to Israel on high school programs. Birthright was founded that same year. Today, only around 12,000 to 15,000 high school students go to Israel on peer programs. And why not? For families who are on the fence - who might be able to afford a high school program, but it would take sacrifice - it does seem far more tempting just to have their kids wait and go on Birthright when they're older. I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing. I'm not writing this (nor, I suspect, is Muss) to make people who can't afford (or can only afford with great difficulty) a high school Israel program feel guilty. Nor am I saying that Birthright shouldn't be supported to the extent it is. What I do think is that the Israeli government and Jewish philanthropists should invest far more heavily in high school programs, and spend even half the energy they spend promoting Birthright on promoting high school programs. Birthright is very fashionable and gets a lot of press, but there are other very deserving programs out there. Birthright is only 10 days. I spent over three months in Israel when I was a teen, and I knew that I had only scratched the surface of what the country had to offer. We need to give more people the opportunity to experience more of Israel at a younger age. High school Israel programs are not cheap. And they'll probably never be free. But with some additional financial support, they can become accessible to thousands more families, and give many more teens the Jewish and Zionist passion they need to propel them into Israel advocacy and religious discovery in college and beyond. blogs 2011-02-07T20:46:36+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60156/breaking-hummus-news http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60156/breaking-hummus-news#When:22:48:05Z by rachel leibold |   It's back! Or, it never went anywhere.   Yes, there is breaking hummus news. First story: The Princeton Sabra kerfuffle. AP is reporting that the referendum calling for the school to offer an alternative to Sabra hummus (which the Princeton Committee for Palestine says tramples on the rights of Palestinians because it's partially owned by pro-IDF company the Strauss Group) has been voted down by students. Thank god, I can now sleep tonight knowing that Princeton students will not be subjected to an inferior hummus. Second story: The DePaul DeBacle. DePaul University in Chicago was probably something of an inspiration for the anti-Sabra forces at Princeton, since their food service recently stopped selling Sabra following a request by a pro-Palestinian group. However, JTA is reporting that the university is asking their food service to bring back Sabra, since the decision didn't follow proper procedures by not going through the university's Fair Business Practices Committee. The request will now go to the committee...any guesses on how that'll turn out? This all seems rather silly, but in actuality, it's quite serious. It's part of the broader-based boycott, divestment and sanctions movement that is gaining traction around the world, and it's scary. We may think, "Oh, it's just hummus, this isn't a big deal, and it's not going to go anywhere." But that is exactly where bad things begin - on a small scale, when no one's looking. Let's all support the very yummy Sabra hummus - I know I'll be buying some this weekend! blogs 2010-12-03T22:48:05+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60071/kiwi-jews-rejoice-new-zealand-will-allow-kosher-slaughter http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60071/kiwi-jews-rejoice-new-zealand-will-allow-kosher-slaughter#When:20:07:52Z by rachel leibold | A New Zealand sheep that may or may not be kosherly slaughtered. (photo/rachel leibold) Being a pescetarian, I'm not a fan of animal slaughter - kosher or otherwise - but I was heartened to read in JTA that an agreement was reached with New Zealand's Minister of Agriculture to allow kosher slaughter of poultry in the island nation. (Lamb, a staple of Kiwi culture, is still being negotiated, while beef will continue to be imported from Australia.)Those who follow kosher stories will remember that in May, the country banned the slaughter of animals that haven't been stunned first (which is antithetical to the process of shechitah, kosher slaughter - which goes for the jugular, as it were). Ag Minister David Carter refused to allow an exception for reasons of kashrut. All of which left New Zealand's 7,000 Jews without the option of eating kosher meat.The agreement was reached just three days before the Jewish community was set to argue their case in New Zealand's High Court. The process cost the community NZ$300,000 (around US$250,000). New Zealand Jewish Council President Steven Goodman said he was relieved, but also irritated that the matter had gone so far and cost the community so much.As I said, I'm not a fan of shechitah, but I am a fan of religious freedom and was pretty skeptical that this ban would have held up in court, in a democratic country such as New Zealand. Still, it's kind of scary that it got this far, and that shechitah has been illegal since May. I feel a special kinship with Kiwi Jews, since my husband and I were married at the Dunedin Jewish Congregation last December. The Jews of Dunedin have a lovely, thriving community and are wonderful and welcoming, and I'm happy that they'll continue to have the opportunity to keep kosher if they so choose. blogs 2010-11-29T20:07:52+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/59905/kate-middleton-jewish-or-not http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/59905/kate-middleton-jewish-or-not#When:18:00:25Z by rachel leibold | Future (Jewish?) royal Kate Middleton (photo courtesy of celebgalz.com) Is Kate Middleton Jewish? I was intrigued to learn that the future princess' mother was born Carole Goldsmith. Could Prince William possibly be marrying an MOT - and how would that sit with the House of Windsor? Technically, according to Slate magazine, royals can only be removed from the line of succession if they marry a Roman Catholic - so Jews are still a-ok. But as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, I think the queen would sleep a little better at night if her line married Anglicans or similar. Sadly, according to fairly definitive online source JewornotJew.com, even if there are Jews in Kate's family tree, at least five generations of the Goldsmith clan have been married in churches, so if there was any Jewish link (and I have a hunch there was...) it was lost long ago. Still, it's nice to think that there might possibly be a couple drops of Jewish blood in the royal family for many generations to come - even if they won't exactly be hosting a seder at Buckingham Palace. There may be, however, at least one Jewish connection to the royal wedding next year: Elizabeth Emanuel, the Jewish fashion designer who created Lady Diana's '80s-tastic wedding dress for her 1981 wedding to Prince Charles. The Jewish Chronicle reports that bookmakers are giving 5-to-1 odds on Emanuel being tapped to design Kate's dress. blogs 2010-11-17T18:00:25+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/59756/judd-apatow-friends-for-ajws http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/59756/judd-apatow-friends-for-ajws#When:22:15:45Z by emily savage | You can file this under: super weird celebrity mashups for charity. Hilarious writer/filmmaker Judd Apatow gathered up some famous friends to make this video celebrating American Jewish World Services. While the video, featuring the likes of Sarah Silverman and Lindsey Lohan, is superfunny, those readers with aversions to saucy language and subject matter may want to avoid it. For those of us who enjoy the crude, watch on. The PSA premiered at AJWS's 25th anniversary celebration on October 28, 2010.   blogs 2010-10-29T22:15:45+00:00 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/59018/so-long-to-the-anne-frank-tree http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/59018/so-long-to-the-anne-frank-tree#When:17:33:09Z by rachel leibold | The dying Anne Frank Tree. (photo by huliana90212) AP is reporting that the 150-year-old chestnut tree that gave comfort to Anne Frank during her family's time in the Annex fell during a bad storm in Amsterdam earlier today. You may recall that the tree was deemed a safety hazard in 2007 and ordered cut down (it suffered from fungus and moths and was mostly rotten), but global outcry and a court battle led to its reprieve. A steel support system was installed to prevent it from falling, but Mother Nature had other plans. Thankfully, many saplings have been taken from the tree that will allow it to live on for the forseeable future. One of them will soon reside in the Bay Area, in the Holocaust Memorial Grove at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park. The sapling arrived in January, but has to be quarantined for two years before planting to make sure it doesn't carry certain plant diseases. According to AP, it's not known whether a new tree will be planted on the spot, since the chestnut tree was actually on the grounds of a neighboring yard. Here's what Anne Frank wrote about the tree in her diary...no matter how many times I've read it, it always gives me chills: “Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs. From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy.” blogs 2010-08-23T17:33:09+00:00