seriously though, if I can’t laugh at the holocaust not only did my people die in vain but I also would have like…no jokes.
New York Knicks Superstar Amar’e Stoudemire Defines the Word “Tov” for Shalom Sesame
Amar’e has been using his time off to learn about Jewish culture and stopped by Sesame Street to teach Shalom Sesame fans the Hebrew word “Tov”, which means …
Last week’s Commenter of the Week unearthed that Lady Grantham, the American-born wife of Lord Grantham in the BBC Masterpiece Theatre seriesDownton Abbey (whose second season is currently playing Sunday nights on U.S. public television), is, according to the program’s official website, “the beautiful daughter of Isidore Levinson, a dry goods multi millionaire from Cincinnati.” In other words: unless she converted—and there is no allusion in the program, as far as I know, even to her background, much less to any conversion—she is Jewish.
But I wanted to know more, including whether Lady Grantham’s mother, too, was Jewish (and therefore whether her three daughters with Lord Grantham—and any children theymight have—are). I wasn’t going to let her being a fictional character stop me. I emailed Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis professor, author of Nextbook Press’s forthcoming When General Grant Expelled The Jews, and co-author of a 1989 book called, yes, The Jews of Cincinnati.
First, Sarna explained, even if Isidore Levinson isn’t real, he’s based on reality. Start from the premise that Lady Grantham is probably in her 40s when the show’s first episode begins in April 1912 (you know the exact date because a certain event has occurred that morning). Meaning she was born in Cincinnati in the late 19th century. According to Sarna, one study pegged to 1860 reports, “The manufacture, distribution, and sales of men’s ready-made clothing and other apparel supplied at least a portion of the livelihood for well over one-half of Cincinnati’s Jews.” Sarna added, “Other Jews were in dry goods. Jews benefited enormously from the Civil War and by the 1870s numbers of them were wealthy. One need only look at Plum Street Temple (the former synagogue of Isaac M. Wise, built in 1867 and now a National Historic Shrine) to get a sense of the community’s wealth.”
So a wealthy Cincinnati-based Jewish dry-goods merchant makes sense. Would a theoretical Levinson have married a Jew? “Most of the Jews who were in their prime in the 1870s had arrived in Cincinnati as immigrants in the 1840s and ’50s,” Sarna continues. “Those Jews had overwhelmingly married Jews. Some of their children, of course, did not. The daughter of Charles Fleischmann (of dried yeast fame) married Christian R. Holmes and one of Rabbi Wise’s daughters also eloped with a non-Jew (but raised Jewish descendants). However, as late as World War I, the intermarriage rate was a paltry 4.5 percent.”
In conclusion? “‘Isidore Levinson’ would have been right at home in Cincinnati in the 1870s, his wife would have been Jewish, and perhaps his daughter was among those who married out—into faded English royalty.” Oh, hooray!
from tablet mag
“What was the theme to your Bat Mitzvah?”
In addition to being an amazingly hilarious first date question, it had me thinking about this phenomenal podcast by my soul mates Ronna and Beverly…
Episode 16: Donna KaganRonna & Beverly talk to, the North Shore’s preeminent “peppy” Party planner, Donna Kagan, about how to celebrate the holidays with an Elegant Touch.
http://ronnaandbeverly.com/2011/12/23/episode-16-donna-kagan/
Are you a single Jewish man in the San Francisco area?
As a single Jewish lady in SF I’ve decided to make a scheme to meet men and help support a wonderful organization… ENTER: The Mensch of the Month 2012 Calendar!
We are looking for sweet Jewish Bay Area men to be in this year’s calendar. Check out the: Blog, Twitter, Facebook page
We also did an awesome interview for the Jewish Daily Forward!
Proceeds are going to the SMART Program a wonderful San Francisco non-profit.
Here is a voicemail my mother recently left me. It’s a little jumpy in the beginning and end because I cut out any mentions of family names etc.
I hope you are able to enjoy this as I have.
#chicken #motherfuckinbitch
*I’ve received questions on what accent this is: Philly Born and Raised. For more on the philly accent see this wonderful fella on the youtubes.
!!שנה טובה Happy New Year y’all! Eat some apples and honaaaay or better yet bake this apple/honey challah from our lady Martha Stewart! To celebrate the New Year tonight I’m going on a date with a Jewish lawyer but tomorrow I will go to shul and hear me some shofar action. Have a sweet New Year little challahs!
I just scored two free High Holy Day tickets to Temple Sherith Israel and STILL I’m not as excited as these guys.
(via urlesque)
Yesterday I had a date with a NJB (Nice Jewish Boy) in Dolores park. We played checkers (I won! Disclosure: I was a heavily addicted, highly ranked Yahoo! Online Checkers player from 1997-1999) and Subjective Guess Who, a fantastic made-up game I learned about at Brandeis. The only thing I love more than board games is prejudicial, shallow judgments…so Subjective Guess Who is by far my favorite board game. Subjective Guess Who: Are you aware of it?
Normal Guess Who uses objective questions, “Does your person have glasses?”, “Do
es your person wear a hat?” It is meant for children and is stupid and easy. But Subjective Guess Who is different, it asks only subjective questions with no clear answers such as “Is your person a pedophile?” “Does your person cry when they get drunk?” “Would your person ever shoplift from Walgreens?”
Most of the time there are no winners, since there are no right or wrong answers to any of the questions. But if you have the privilege to play with a soul mate or life long best friend, you may find that your prejudices align so perfectly that you are able to guess who they have right away.
SGW is most fun when played in a medium size group with about three people on each team that way you can collude together and decide if your person “wants to name their first born Harry Severus Potter”. But it’s also a great game to play on an early date because if your partner isn’t funny enough or is too PC to guess if their person “likes musical theater and gay sex” then it’s best to dump them sooner rather than later.
PRO TIP: I highly suggest the travel version of this board game as it is insanely cheap and, well, travel sized.
Fashionable Anti-Semites in History: Noted fashion icon and Nazi-sympathizer Coco Chanel loved classic style, hated knee caps and also the damn Jews.
A recent book, “Sleeping with the Enemy” by Hal Vaughn delves deeper into this sweet little Jew hater’s history and struggles to learn more about her life and her actions during WWII.
Many people know that Coco shtuped a Nazi and used anti-semitic laws to take over a Jewish perfume company while the owners were murdered. But until recently, these actions were always explained away as those of a politically apathetic fashionista who probably didn’t understand the greater implications of what was going on.
Well with this new book Vaughn screams bullshit. Vaughn declares that Coco’s actions were not that of an ignorant designer, but those of a life-long anti-Semite.
I have to say I’m pretty bummed. I guess I’m naive but I kind of always hoped she didn’t really care about anything but money and fashion…which makes her gross but not evil. Knowing that she wittingly ran missions for the Nazis and wrote anti-Semitic remarks in business correspondence is lousy.
Now you know why I don’t own any Chanel…or drive a Mercedes. Money. Nazis!
View Larger My perfect roommate Katie found a star of david packing peanut amongst a crate of regular ones!
I love Katie, she is the best roommate I ever had. She is mellow, doesn’t invite too many people over but when she does its for cute things like book club and craft night. She gives great advice about my crappy dating history. She thinks it’s funny that I’m into being Jewish and hung a mezzuzah on my bed room door post. She runs IndieMart. She doesn’t mind that I store my bike in the hallway (!?!) and she LIKES me. I know what you are thinking, she must be slow…but she isn’t!! It’s just meant to be. Also she has the best cat ever, Franny, who just wants to smell your shoes.
