The fact that Drake is Jewish is only part of the reason that he released what has now been dubbed a controversial “re-bar mitzvah” video. Or at least that is what I argue in my latest scribble for Huffington Post. The commentary was also featured in Vibe Magazine….that’s right, ye olde reb blog is redefining hip hop! Here’s the video for those that missed it…
This week I was in Chicago (O.K. truth be told, Suburban Chicago) at the iCenter www.icenter.org to visit their “ideas incubator.” This is a forum where educators from every sector – camp, day school, Federation, JCC sports, synagogue life – learn from one another and from outside folks who focus on a particular issue in education. Great idea and great execution – and their well-designed website is worth a visit.
My friend Jenna, who is a grad student in religious studies at UNC, posted a photo of a Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea communion from the Kairos Church in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin. (see above) I loved the sentiment, and this got me thinking about what we might do in the Jewish community to mark the latest tragic display of injustice and disregard for human life as we remember our time of enslavement in Egypt. (According to…
Not sure how or why I wrote this song, but I started with the line “Tried to friend you on Facebook” and the rest kind of poured out. Thanks to my friend and neighbor Ben Weiss, who liked the “hashtag sigh” line and encouraged me to write a few more verses and to my friend Richard Stern who liked it when I said “cellular phone.” You guys inspire me – I hope you like the results.
Thanks to the editors over at the Huffington Post, my latest piece on contraception is up in the blogosphere. You can check it out here.
At the end of Bill T. Jones’ new piece “Story/Time” he tells a story about the Jazz artists Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach. The two were working on a song by Thelonius Monk, rehearsing it so that Monk could drop by later and listen to their interpretation. They play the song for Monk and he listens intently. They look towards him for his reaction and he says: “Next time make a mistake.”
O.K. – this is not really about Tim Tebow. But the conversation about Tebow, and his near miraculous play, and his prayer pose, and all that, got me to look at an essay I wrote about ten years ago. I post it below for all folks who mix prayer and sports to enjoy. If God Ain’t A Tarheel Fan, Then Why Is The Sky in Carolina Blue? By Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner Nothing drives me more crazy than when I…
8:10 AM, Arch Street, Center City Philadelphia. Clicked it while stopped at a red light.
I am a fan of Rabbi Boteach’s books and essays and seeing that he had a piece up on the Algemeiner website on one of my favorite topics (the Yakov and Esav story) I stopped to read. But when I got to this line of Boteach, I nearly fell out of my chair. He writes: “Had the leaders of the Allies taken the advice of Einstein or Gandhi, the Nazis would have taken over the entire world, and the Jewish…
With a warm December day (thanks global scorching!) I suggested to the familia that we take the dog for a walk to a new park. Having exhausted most of the wooded areas nearby, I consulted Reb Google and then rallied the troops into the car to a destination in Paterson, NJ — a spot a mere 17 minutes from Montclair. After driving through an old factory district (with a beautiful brick something or other that has been converted into a…