Rabbi Daniel Brenner

This past week was one of those ‘only in brooklyn’ types. Thursday night i got to see Batsheva Dance Company’s MAX at BAM – a magnificent display of athletic dance which was enhanced by factory sound effects and some proto-Romance language voiceovers. Then Sat night we went to St. Anne’s Warehouse in DUMBO to check out Mabou Mines Dollhouse (which cast dwarves for all the male parts) it was ‘avant-garde silly.’ Most compelling was the casting of a primordial dwarf…

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Nothing better than watching a journalist pull a quote out of context. My latest blog on Phelps (which was published in Beliefnet and then got the headline ‘cereal killer’ in the New Jersey Jewish News (excellent stroke Andy) was extracted to make “Idiot Rabbi of the Day” on Luke Ford. Read my piece and then see his truncation. He basically cuts me off during the prologue. Please, Mr. Ford, run my piece rather than pulling a quote out of context,…

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Birthright’s 11th Day There have been 1,500 NEXT Shabbats, sponsored by Birthright, to help Birthright alumni celebrate Shabbat, often for the first time in their lives. by Carolyn SlutskyStaff Writer Not a week has gone by since she went on Birthright Israel last March that Jillian Tengood hasn’t poured through her online photos, e-mailed and chatted through Facebook with the American and Israeli friends she met on her trip or thought about the intensive experience in Israel.“Before I went I’d…

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Just saw this, the cover of the book I have a little piece in. Here is the blurb from Beacon Press: Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith (July 2009) Jeff Sharlet, Peter Manseu, and the editors of Killing the Buddha An engaging collection of ambivalent confessions, skeptical testimonies, and personal revelations of religion lost and found and lost again. This new collection by Beacon Press, to be released July 1, 2009, features the best from the first…

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Why I am Boycotting Kellogg’s By Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner I love Special K cereal – it was my mom’s preferred brand when I was growing up (dad likes Shredded Wheat) and I continue to eat it and buy it for my kids. Two of them love it. But daddy isn’t buying it anymore. When I heard this morning that Kellogg’s was pulling their endorsement relationship with swimmer Michael Phelps because of a photograph of him smoking marijuana I knew…

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Birthright Exec Seeks to Tap Into ‘Energy’January 29, 2009 – Michelle Mostovy-Eisenberg, Staff Writer Each year for the past 10 years, thousands of young people in their late teens and early 20s have participated in one of Birthright Israel’s free, 10-day educational trips to the Jewish state. The hope has always been that, by the end of the journey, these Diaspora visitors will develop strong ties to the Jewish state — and to Judaism as a whole. But what happens…

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this was truly one of the most beautifully crafted and stirring and heartwrenching films I’ve ever seen. Waltz With Bashir is on the level of artistic and narrative brilliance of Speigelman’s Maus – it takes a genre that you think that you are familiar with and it takes it to the places of tension, paradox, hurt, attachment, and tragedy of the human spirit. It is about memory and about responsibility. It is also about the fires that have forged the…

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many things to be thankful for, especially seeing Al Green live at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ. Not since James Brown have I seen such an electrifying performer. Green is a master – of- ceremonies/preacher/soul singer/dancer/conductor — you have to love a guy who passes out red roses to the fans in between songs. The Wellmont is beautifully restored, and the sound is good if you sit in the balcony. I heard that the sound on the floor was…

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This genius has youtubed his record player. he plays old 45s.i was searching for an old Howlin’ Wolf tune and came across this treasure trove. enjoy One beauty: Shufflin Shoeshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_JT56Z3nfk