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Thursday, June 30, 2011

A more eloquent review of "Ya'alili"

Martin Bodek writes a much more detailed and critical review of "Ya'alili" worth a read.

Ya'alili = What you make of it

We have been hearing this song every day at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, where we are spending our July days and where the campers dance to this song every day (it is one of this summer's theme songs that is to be performed at July's zimriyah).

If this isn't a celebration of Jewish unity, we don't know what is! Loving the blend of different cultures within the Jewish world. Not simply when the band, 8th Day, sing, "Ashkenazi and Sephardi" but when they say "Tanz tanz tanz habibi," a blend of Yiddish for "dance" and Israeli/Arabic slang for "my sweet friend."




The Whole Phamily that is gathered in this video (which, sadly, ends of being a bit of a promo for the Brooklyn kosher food store Pomegranate, which to tell you the truth we were not terribly impressed by contrary to mainstream opinion, although the marketing and cleanliness of the store we recognize is superb) is really a joy to watch!

Great performance, tune, and overall message, 8th Day!

It don't hoit that the Marcus brothers are Lubavitchers...the Rebbe has done his holy work yet again.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Modesty is a virtue

Jewish women and men practice "tznius" which is a way of saying modesty.  Modest in dress and behavior, these will ultimately lead to great blessing and a good life.

Just listen to what Chaya Sari says. Is she going viral in the Jewish world?




Love the blend of Yiddish and English.
Love the whatevers.
Love the story about shoes.
Love the daquiri reference...yes they have "a bissel bronfen" (liquor) in them.
Love that Miami is a beautiful content. Indeed, the geography is just stunning.
Love the tuna salad sandwiches. Mamish like a picnic.

Monday, March 7, 2011

It's Adar, let's get super happy

Not only is today the new moon...

(And in case you didn't already read why this is a Jewish holiday especially for the women-folk, check out that old post of ours just one 'mo time...)

...It's the Jewish month of Adar

That means Purim is sure around the corner!

So, exactly ***why*** did I do those 2 loads of laundry today?  I thought Rosh Chodesh was mama's day off...

Check out Reb Moshe of Tzfat's crazy Purim party last year. 

Friday, February 25, 2011

We believe this firmly...

Thank you to Josh Fleet for your wonderful piece about Phish and Judaism in yesterday's Huffington Post. We couldn't agree more!

Well worth your time.

Let this serve as a reminder to make sure you get in your ticket requests for the 1st leg of Summer Tour!




While you're at it, you can yank on your tunic and dangle your stash.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Jews can be organ donors

Just when you thought it wasn't a Jewish thing to donate your organs, think again.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Freiheit is the Birthright of Our People

Freiheit. Freedom in Dutch, German and other Germanic languages.

And there ain't much of it these days in Europe, according to the testimony of Geert Wilders of The Netherlands.

The Shoah is way behind us, folks.

The Shah (and similar militant Islamists of today) is not.

This is important stuff for peace-loving, world-unity and freedom loving Whole Phamily-niks.

Monday, February 7, 2011

That's right, the women are smarter

We have talked about Rosh Chodesh once so far on this blog.  What we didn't mention there was the reason for why women were given the holiday of the Jewish New Moon as a gift of their own.  The Jews were getting antsy and had the shpilkas.  Familiar story?  We are so anxious and nervous and chatty and just don't know how to wait and listen.  See Woody Allen for more on that.  Anyway, yeah so we just couldn't wait any more when Moses was up on Mount Sinai getting the holy words of the Torah from God.  Believe it or not, but the story goes that they decide to build an edifice of their own.  Forget you, God, essentially is what they were saying, and they built the Golden Calf.  All the gold they had was thrown in to the bubbling pot.  They danced and sang around their very own creation.  Better than waiting, right?

Umm...wait a second, throw in your precious jewelry?  To build an idol?  A God-like symbol?

No, no, said the women.  We will not part with our adornments!  What foolish women would do such a thing?  Not us Jewesses.  No way!  We keep our jewels, God or not.

So the women kept their gold and their mirrors.  They had patience.  They knew that God would eventually deliver.  Just take a deep breath and rely on your intuition.  And, indeed, Moses eventually appears with the written words.  The women are gifted the holiday of the New Moon.


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Independent Prayer Group aka Minyan

Ritually speaking, perhaps the biggest grassroots occurrance within the Jewish community in the past ten years is the Independent Minyan. Folks wanting traditional Hebrew liturgy without the structure of the large synagogue have formed their own prayer groups throughout the States and in Israel.

We are big fans.

We love the Hadar Shavout Retreat.

We'll avert any further writing responsibilities on the topic (since our Journalism degree didn't help us much with our writing skills) and leave it for you to check out this recent blog post on Jewschool about the trend.

And for some more fun, check out Kehillat Hadar's recent move:

Sunday, January 30, 2011

And You Should be a Blessing

Two weeks ago, the Jewish world lost one of its most prominent musicians of our generation:  Debbie Friedman.  We didn't grow up with her songs, but it has become apparent to us over the past days that many others have, especially those who grew up in the Reform movement. We had the privilege of attending one of her women's seders in Manhattan in 1999.

Here is one of her more familiar songs:




She didn't just sing Jewish-themed songs. Here is her Thanksgiving Song:




May Debbie Friedman's memory be a blessing.

Plain White T's: Rhythm of Love

We don't listen to much new music, but we simply love this tune that went live last July.

Plain White T's is the band.
No, we don't think they're Jewish.

And yet there are many reasons why this song earns its spot on the Whole Phamily:

  • The tune itself is feel-good, positive, heart-warming.
  • The band's name evokes minimalism as well as Hanes and Fruit of the Loom.  Simplicity + 100% cotton = A good thing.
  • The video features a vintage Mercedez-Benz:  our dream car (we prefer a '79-'82 300 series, whereas the model in the video looks more early to mid '70s).
  • The tune is featured at the end of the newly-released No Strings Attached, starring the lovely and soon-to-be Yiddeshe mammeh  Natalie Portman (who we saw in 1997 in The Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway).  We were psyched to learn that Ivan Reitman is still pals with our cousin Joe Medjuck who was a co-producer (no, we've never met Joe, have been told he's a great guy, and yes, Grandpa Archie loved kippered snacks and telling stories of his growing up;  affect a Cape Breton accent:  "When I was a little boy in Caledonia....]
  • The length of the video itself is 3:29 minutes, which is a significant number for us as it is the 3 digit telephone exchange we grew up with.  Remember, we like numerical synchronicity?

Now just watch and listen, it's good stuff!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Falafel Chips by Flamous Organics and a man named Sam

At our local greengrocer we came across a delicious snack (although they are not raw like we were touting in yesterday's post) called falafel chips.  They are a corn tortilla chip base with falafel flavor.  The high quality of this product us struck us immediately:  No hidden ingredients (like MSG masked as the word spices, torula yeast or Autolyzed Yeast Extract), lots of certifications (they're kosher, USDA Organic certified, and even tout the Kid Kritics stamp of approval to name just a few), and offered in both spicy and original flavors.  They are the perfect chip paired with hummus.

 Remember when we wrote about why hummus should be found in every town in America




The company's CEO, Sam Shehayeb, appears to be quite a nice man and we wish the company much success.  We know nothing about the name Shehayeb except that obviously it is not Ashkenazic in origin.  We doubt he is Jewish, although it certainly is possible.  We venture to guess he is Lebanese-born. 

Either way, we think that if we all share in some of these healthy falafel chips with a bowl of hummus  (while listening to Michael Franti), the world will move towards a happier, more unified place.  We are, indeed, the Whole Phamily, after all!

Will the Meditteranean Diet save the world?

At least it will get our hearts and brains healthier, which is a very good place to start.



Thursday, January 27, 2011

Getting Raw. Getting Back to the Land in a Final Frontier of our Good Ole U.S. of A.

Getting back to our roots as at least partially a blog about Jewish names, we are currently interested in the last name Safron.

We have mentioned one Safran who has hit popular culture big time.  But we didn't get terribly into its meaning.

We have now come across a Jeremy with the last name Safron, and we venture to think that the names are related and they are simply different spellings. 

(side note:  How can we really trust what we can grab on the Internet?  We need an Onomast.  We also should read this article about Jewish namesDr. Aaron Demsky is the person who could make sense of any of this.  Safran and Safron the same thing?  Does the Jewish version really lead to the yellow spice  (this site states the "Jewish name is mainly ornamental," leading us to believe no connection there for the Jews)?   Umm.. can folks with this family name in the Jewish world lay claim to the Safran family crest?  Nah...that last part doesn't sound terribly kosher.  It's not like we come from Sheffield, Shetland or Stuart stock.  Those are all Other S's.)

Our humble guess is that Safran and Safron are connected to the Jewish name root Shapiro, which comes from the word "sofer," meaning scribe (our trustworthy torah, mezuzah and tefillin writers of yesteryear...add in another item writable on parchment and you get the whole megillah).


The Magilla Gorilla Show
Uploaded by AH3RD. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

(side note:  No, neither Hanna nor Barbera were Jewish, but Barbera was born on the Lower East Side and presumably grew up around many Jews, having been exposed to the word megillah possibly while frolicking the halls of Erasmus Hall High School .  Just our guess....)

Back to Safran-Safron-Sofer connection:

You get variations such as Schapiro (as in the wine), Sapir, Safer (as in Morley), Shufro, Shaefer (as in the beer, but highly unlikely those were Jews), Shaffer (as in Paul)...have you caught on to our groove yet?

Now back to Jeremy Safron.

He's a raw foodist, a pioneer in the raw food world.  He is an inventor.  He is youthful.  He is into video games and martial arts, in a peaceful way, if you can imagine that.  He bottles Living Clay  (reminds us of Dead Sea mud, no?).   He created the most delicious snack food, PowerWraps (he sold his idea), which we are trying to get more New Yorkers to enjoy.  Would you believe you can only get them in one spot in NYC?   Jeremy lives in one of the most beautiful places in our country on the island of Maui.   Like all good hippies, we were there in 2002.  We have visited the town of Paia, picked up necessities for our week, saw the road to Haiku up on the right before the infamous Road to Hana begins, spent time at the Tradewinds Cottages, hiked into the Bamboo Forest, and even ate a fresh meat coconut cut by Mike with a machete (for $5...we were ok with that).  How can we forget the vintage bubble letter name mugs produced by Carmel-by-the-Sea that were hanging at Grandma's Coffee (they aren't for sale, just for use by locals...good thing we still have our own from 1980)

Perhaps we could have simplified the above-written paragraph into a haiku of our own.

Or not.
Amazing stuff way out there. 

And a whole lotta Jews, too.



Further to our point:  we are all linked and and if we seek out the goodness on the earth (as you might know, Ram Dass is doing much better than he had and is running his retreats), the earth will be a better place.  So glad to learn that, indeed, the former Richard Alpert has met with Reb Zalman.

At long last, we present Jeremy Safron, author of The Raw Truth:  The Art of Preparing Living Foods.  We believe very much in illumination, however we do believe that Everything truly is connected.


Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Seedlings Turn Overnight to Sunflowers, Blossoming Even As We Gaze

No, that's not Zeppelin.

Perhaps the above-mentioned quotation doesn't ring as quick a bell as the title of the song in which it appears:  "Sunrise, Sunset."  Seedlings and sunflowers don't right out there scream "Jewish."  And yet, a simple utterance of the two words sunrise and sunset together in one sentence will get most American Jews (and even many non Jews) above a certain age swooning and swaying all at the same time.  Yuck.





We must admit, Fiddler on the Roof was never a big draw for us.  We had little desire to pay attention during a screening in a social studies class at Spanish River High School while visiting a teen tour boyfriend in Boca, instead dreaming up what crazy stuff his fellow Louis Vuitton wallet-carrying-buddies would do at their poker game and BBYO scavenger hunt later that night.  We missed its 2nd and 3rd Broadway revivals, in 1981 and 1990 respectively.  We have seen clips of the film, but never the whole thing.  We figured that gazing down from the balcony on high holidays at the film's lead actor, Chaim Topol, who attended our family's synagogue in the '80s, was enough.

Honestly, the music never really grabbed us (yes, we know it received some Academy Awards.  With music by John Williams.  Yes, we know he's big.  Still, no grab).

Until today.


Driving home from the pharmacy this afternoon, we were listening to our children's Jewish 'till You're Satisfied  CD by the Funkey Monkeys. The CD has a lot of classics you may have heard at camp, Hebrew school, or youth groups, but these versions are updated, funked up, and totally raging.

So, check out this two-year-old soul version (complete with a horns section) of the classic song your grandparents cried to at the silver screen in 1971.  And feel free to tell your Grandma Beverly about it in West Palm.  It will get her rockin'.  Maybe she'll even share it with her Mah Jongg group.

Here's the Zeppelin you were thought you might get.  And it is from just 2 years after Fiddler, no less!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

More on the Fleish...

We're all about the carne...I mean, who didn't love the classic 80's Wendy's commercial?



Just a few days ago we were all about names with Fleish in it...then we came across another Fleischer...and well, whaddya know, here's yet another...this time a Fleischer, purveyors of grass-fed meat with family roots in kosher meat, now full-on treif.

Martha Stewart has hooked in, but she ain't a Yid.

Not that we want to be preachy...

Smashbox Studios and the Factors

Thank you, Max Factor nee Maximilian Faktorowicz, for building a cosmetic empire that enabled your great grandchildren Dean and Davis Factor to have the wherewithall and chutzpah to open the groundbreaking Smashbox Studios in 1990 (the year yours truly graduated from high school!).


courtesy of beverlyhillspeople.com

 
While we are so far removed -- geographically at least -- from LA culture (we feel blessed we do not have to endure freeways...though Bloomberg's roads ain't that well-cared-for), we totally DUG their ad appearing in this month's V Magazine for their Yello Creative Culture Blog they put out with Quixote Studios.

Can't find the ad online...and we're totally dinosaurs without a scanner...but pretty good blog.  We love so many of their connections.  Alphabetized words, written in black on a yellow background, listing all sorts of funky stuff.

Dug it, dig it, we simply thought pretty darn good shtuff.

Now, where on earth are there any Faktorowicz folks left?

Our friend Howard Factor, of no relation to the cosmetic family, was a fine, fine individual.  We're trying to keep the place up. 




Friday, January 21, 2011

Me Gustas Tu to Ahava

We just came across this lovely piece by Manu Chao, which we think promotes world unity through love.



If you haven't heard this beautiful Israeli song called Yachad - Shir La'Ahava by Gaya Band & Din Din Aviv, which is a song of love, together, heart to heart, you should.

We think this one is also universal...



Shabbat Shalom to the Ganse Mishpucha!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Aliyah Revolution...with an antelope sticker to boot!



Just a few posts ago we were discussing the name Fleicsher...

well, Kumah is doing it right, with their eye on the prize...Zion (aka Israel).  And with a Fleisher leading the group.  Let's get to Israel, or at least check out Yishai Fleisher's videos.  He's got a great message and gets it across with fluidity.  We like it.  It speaks to us.  And he even speaks at the conservative shul in Newton!  Didn't you know someone at Newton North?  Or was it South?  Gotta love the library in Newton.  Love that place.  And, one final connected thought:  fig newtons aren't as healthy as you once thought.

Check out that above-listed video - for current heads in the know, that antelope sticker in the first 5 seconds is spot-on!  Love, love, love it!  It surely made us smile, smile, smile.

Here's a great antelope we had the privilege of seeing at SPAC last summer:




Decent sound.

We happened to be outside of the pavillion that you see in this video.  We were on the open grassy field just behind the family section.  This beautiful upstate lawn was devoid of New York City crowds.  Now that's the way to be.  Especially for running antelopes.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Chaiken & Capone

Chaiken & Capone.
Remember them from the 90s?

Some people we knew called them fancy pants.

They were definitely pants for urban young women.

They were too expensive for us at the time, but we found one pair on sale.

We felt like a million bucks, no joke.




We imagine that the Chaiken element is Jewish, the Capone, um...not.

In any event, we are thrilled to hear that Julie Chaiken is back with her fashion label of urban contemporary women's clothing.




Mazal tov, congrats to Julie Chaiken!

In case you were looking for some meaning into the name Chaiken, here's a fun read.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

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Three is, quite indeed, a Magic Number, but 18 is the highest and means Life

We didn't really love to watch TV when we were growing up in the 70s and 80s (strange, right?), but we became acquainted with Schoolhouse Rock's "Three is a Magic Number" at a Gathering of the Vibes outdoor music festival some time in the late 90s or early 2000's.  Its writer, composer, and original performer, Bob Dorough, was there in Bridgeport, Connecticut on a side stage performing some of Gen X's most iconic memories from Saturday morning cartoons.  While the main stage mainly occupied jam bands such as the Radiators (we linked you to their Zeke's copyrwritten "Fish Head Manifesto," a deep piece of prose in its own right), Rat Dog, Deep Banana Blackout and moe, we were drawn to the side stage. We remember getting really down with this song in particular.  And we mean reallllllllllllllllly digging it, grooving to it, and thinking of its meaning other than simple math.

Wait, isn't that what Schoolhouse Rock intended to do?
Get its listeners to rock out?

First, a posthumous thank you to its brilliant creator, ad exec and Yalie David McCall.  and industry exec Michael Eisner (whose Wikipedia entry attributes much of his success to canoe camp in Vermont as a boy...good stuff!), for bringing it to the American people.  Wow, that is pretty early in Eisner's career. 




A little bit of background with regard to the number 3 in Judaism:

1.  The 3rd day of creation (Tuesday, duh) the only day during the creation of the world when the infamous line "and it was good" is mentioned twice.  There is a custom among certain Jews to get married on this day because it offers good luck.

2.  There were 3 patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob)

3.  (Question:  are you thinking, well, there is also the  Holy Trinity in Christianity, so it's not just Jews who hold this number is high regard?  Indeed, you are correct!  Dorough himself said it is an "ancient magic trinity." There is something there, we agree, but this is a site leaning more Jewish but we'll give you that.  There is something there.  Indeed, when a person can be named after their father and grandfather and given the suffix "III" and then from there get the nickname "Trey" that, too, is significant.)  Ok, so there's your answer for number 3.  Meaningful and unifying all the same.

4.  Three is strength, in Hebrew "chazakah."  When something occurs once in the world, this is normal, this is usual.  Two times, now we're talking.  Three times?  Now that is a miracle.  And that miracle is strength.  Check out Askmoses for more on that.  The holiest of holies the Lubavitcher Stango, a concealed great of our time, said as much the eve of his wedding just moments before the start of Chanuka in the year of segula b'yisrael.   For further reference, check the video Makin' it Halachic which is currently unavailable online.  Hoping to upload it one of this many moons (if you read thus far, you should know that we aren't too terribly off on a tangent, but it's not like this is available to put out there for the masses.  Yet).

Ok, we lost you there, let's get back to earth.

A quick check on the covers of this song include a sample by De La Soul, a cover by Blind Melon, and a modern version by Jack Johnson with regard to the environment.

Here is Blind Melon's cover, a nice sound.






Jack Johnson went to Hawaii to discover the meaning of aloha.  (We are big believers in being here, now.  Not sure if Johnson is acquainted with the Ram Dass, nee Richard Alpert.).



He gets to the number 18 (3 times 3 times 3) the 18th letter of the alphabet is R.  He takes Bob Dorough's iconic song and uses it to talk about the environment.

We are only guessing that Mr. Johnson, who is singing the environmental message about reduce, reuse and recycle (very different 3 R's that existed in the mid-century rubric of reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic) didn't realize at the time that 18 is the numeric equivalent in Judaism to life.  and one very important to Judaism and Torah values (indeed, we are approaching Jewish Arbor Day called Tu B'Shvat, the birthday of the trees) ).

Or maybe he did.

If so, he wasn't overt.

In any event, thank you to the Annenberg Foundation for funding this very wise re-writing of this iconic song for us Gen X'ers. 

Back to the number 18.  Or was it the 3 Rs?

L'Chayim!  L'Chaim?
We actually never fully watched Fiddler from beginning to end, but you do remember this scene, we hope:




L'Chayim, that famous word to so many even bagels and lox Jews, is equal in gematria, or Jewish numerology, 18.  To life, as it were, is a combination of the Hebrew letters "chet" and "yud."  You know, "Chai"?  How many Jews have you known to wear a gold chai around their neck (ugh, a bit gauche for us, but maybe that's just a hangup of ours).  A nice, big hairy chest with a nice thick gold chai nestled somewhere in there.  Reminds us of Grandpa Al, whom we loved so much, especially when he was all leathery tan after a winter in West Palm.  Remember the trips to Boca and Delray, and how can we pass up Worth Avenue.  End the day with an early bird special (dinner at 4pm, we are so glad we had grandparents in Florida) and pick up some groceries at Publix, and we're golden.

So essentially, we have been thinking a lot lately about how 3 is a magic number.  It is currently a Tuesday as we write this, and we woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this tune.  We didn't know that Jack Johnson made it into an environmental message.  Our friends' connection to the Jewish concept of Teva, or nature, would appreciate that.  (yes, there is also the Teva sandal company and Israeli-based Teva pharmaceutical company, both worthy ventures in their own rights...we aren't sure if the sandal company's founder, Mark Thatcher, is Jewish, but he spent time in Israel from which he borrowed the Hebrew word for nature).

And it's getting very close, about 2 weeks to go, to the Jewish Arbor Day, aka

Tu B'Shvat

In summing up, the moral seems a little bit obscure (it often comes back to Phish, doesn't it?  Check out this video of their song Cavern where they perform the "in summing up" phrase towards the end of the song):



The moral:


Go hug a tree!

Julia Butterfly Hill , though not Jewish, surely did this in the 90s.

Our tradition has been loving trees for centuries.  Click on the Eitz Chayim/Tree of Life link here for a beautiful expression of this idea by Oy Baby.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Shiva Ambulette in the heart of Da Bronx


Um...is this a morbid joke?

Are they on their way to or from the shiva house?

We thought that ambulettes transport the living.

For the clients of Shiva Ambulette, we wish the following:

1.  Are unaware of Jewish reference
2.  Look at the sunny side of the street
3.  Find good bagels and lox at the shiva house itself.

Oy vey!

A Rubens painting that shows Miriam the Prophetess in Vienna

Phiten, titanium and kabbalah

Fleischmanns and talking mano a mano

There is a town in the Catskills called Fleischmanns, which, loosely translated, means:  meat man.  Likely those with the root "fleisch" in their last name (Fleischer included) were, in the old country, butchers.

1/4/10 *edited to add*:  Why we didn't mention Ari Fleischer is beyond us.  I guess we're just not the politcal type.

And how it is that we just came to learn of the film Zombieland, directed by Ruben Fleischer, isn't too far fetched.  We love Abigail Breslin...as family pholks, we recently watched her in American Girl:  Kit Kittredge.  Joan Cusack was, as usual, superbly entertaining.  No neck brace ala Sixteen Candles, no water fountain, but all of her spunk and pizazz still there.

Back to the Fleisch...

For those of us who grew up Kosher, we are all familiar with Fleischmann's margarine, which as educated consumers now, we believe to be not working towards a positive goal...aside from margarine's proven track record as being bad for the body, they are owned by the corporate conglomerate ConAgra.  Not big fans of corporate food industrialization.  But that's for another day.  Or at least for discussion with the Jew and Carrot folks.

Fleisch = Meat

There is also Fleischmann's Yeast, also owned by a large food conglomerate, albeit smaller-sounding and British-based.

Today we met quite an erudite, helpful man, a real landsman, who grew up in the '40s outside of the town of Fleischmanns.  He is of the JTS-ilk, totally old school seminary style.  Though he said he would never want to go back (he lives comfortably in Manhattan), his upbringing there helped him form solid memories of a good life.  Phone calls were made via picking up their old rotary and connecting to an operator who would then make the connection to a call down in the city.

We were talking about computers that run automobile dashboards.
How they often fail.
How a manual car, with a 6 speed engine and no computer behind it, can run smooth as a whistle for years.
But we need the computers.   We are, indeed, in a digital age, there is no denying that.
But going back to a time when we just connect face to face.

Real, live interactions with our peeps.


Talking about fleisch and meat, did you catch the multi-ethnic Meatstick at MSG on 12/31/10?
Now, *that* is fun stuff!