Jewish Scholars in the Deep South

A fascinating article about Jewish scholars in the Deep South during segregation. Thanks Prof. Kenya!

Goldfish in your gene pool

An interesting piece about Jewish genetics and intelligence in the LA Times.

20 Things to do with Matzah & Japanese Passover Tip

Cute...

Haggadah China

Check out this really cool Chinese Haggadah:

This Haggadah is a symbol for the growing Jewish life in China’s Diaspora of the early 21st century. It is as well a desire of many visitors who ask if they can find a Chinese, Passover Haggadah.

The first Edition of this One Of a Kind Haggadah has just been published.

What makes this Haggadah different from all other Haggadoths ?

* The traditional Passover Haggadah that we are all familiar with but with Chinese

characteristics and other surprising features.

* Introduction in Chinese to Passover holiday by Prof. Xu Xin Nanjing Univ.

* Illustrations and Paper Cuttings by renowned Chinese artist.

* Rare historical photographs of the Passover in the Chinese Diaspora.

* Bilingual traditional text in English & Hebrew with highlights in Chinese.

* Historical introduction to the Jewish Diaspora in China.

To learn more about this unique Haggadah and to order kindly visit:

www.shanghai-jews.com/haggadah

Yeah, that's kosher

For all you hungry wandering Jews, a fellow named Dani Klein runs a website called: yeah, that's kosher. It is a blog for kosher travelers, and has all the places in the world you can snack on some kosher nosh. He also has it on twitter.

Modern Haggadah

The ultramodern Haggadah from Facebook. Happy Pessach!

Blackbeard has peyess

Ha'aretz had an article about Ed Kritzler and his book about Jewish pirates of the Caribbean. I emailed with Ed after I found his book online, he had seen my article about the Jews of Jamaica.

Bahrain's Jews

Perhaps this uptick of stories on my Tales blog has to do with Passover being so near. There was an article in the NY Times about the Jewish community of Bahrain. Too bad luck kept me from visiting Bahrain, otherwise that could have been my story.

Obama's Rabbi

An interesting article on a Black Jewish congregation and Rabbi Capers Funnye.

Remembering Jagan and the Jewish State of Surinam

Two fascinating articles about Jewish life in the northern tip of South America. First, Janet Jagan recently passed away. A nice Jewish girl from Chicago ended up being the President of Guyana. Only the second Jewish woman ever elected to such a post, the other being dear Golda.

The other fascinating article is about the plans that existed for the Jewish State of Surinam.

Contributions to the Tales

As is the case, this blog often gets interesting comments from interesting fellow wandering Jews and associates. One person who contacted me was a fellow named Jono, who travels the world photographing Jewish communities.

Meanwhile, these images below come from Thoufeek Zakriya (thoufeekzak@gmail.com)of Cochin, India. He is not Jewish, but rather a Muslim with an affinity for Jewish culture. He does Hebrew calligraphies and makes replicas of Torah scrolls. He found my blog via my Tales piece about Cochin. The top one he recently did for a Malabari Jewish family. Thanks for sharing, Thoufek!
 

 
 
 

Africa-American Passover Haggadah

This comes from my favorite muckraking Black Jewess Sasha, the African-American Passover Haggadah.

Amish and Orthos, interesting

Read about the Orthos and the Amish getting together.

IDF Monday

Some fellow posts pics of hot IDF soldiers for his IDF Monday. Check it out here: http://bloodslides.livejournal.com/

Lohanstein

Apparently, we might be adding Lindsey Lohan to the rolls.

Cosmic justice

So rather than write a scathing article about my Mexico City synagogue experience, I decided to write the synagogue and ask for an apology. They responded with a sincere apology to Harry and me. Case closed.

The Kimberley Project

An interesting article about attempts to make Australia the Jewish homeland.

Venezuela cont

Since Chavez is going to the polls today to try to become president for life, it is important to see who he is using as the bogeyman since Bush is gone: the Jews. The Washington Post has a good piece about it.

Knesset follies

Probably not what Herzl intended when he dreamed of a Jewish State with a Jewish parliament to govern. Here is a list from Ha'aretz of the 33 most embarrassing moments to grace the Knesset.

No words needed

Ok, maybe a few: Bar Rafaeli is proof that G-d still loves the Jews.

The Venezuelan Pogram

There was a disturbing attack on a synagogue in Caracas, Venezuela, that came on the heels of remarks by Chavez. I'm glad I called him an SOB on Argentine TV. These turn of events are disturbing. Chavez is already close with Iran and Hezbollah. He is becoming less a dunce and more depraved as time passes.

Jews of Color checklist

This come my friend Sasha, a black Jewess who I found in Nowhere, PA, working at a gas station. She is an awesome rabble rouser, and does work for an organization that promotes Jews of Color.

Ashkenazi Privilege Checklist
The checklist was created by Corrine Lightweaver, Sasha King, and the Jewish Multiracial Network between 2006-2009. It was used in a presentation on Jews of Color at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in March 2007.

___ I can walk into my temple and feel that others do not see me as
outsider.
___ I can walk into my temple and feel that others do not see me as
exotic.
___ I can walk into my temple and feel that my children are seen as
Jews.
___ I can enjoy music at my temple that reflects the tunes, prayers,
and cultural roots of my specific Jewish heritage.
___ I can easily find greeting cards and books with images of Jews who
look like me.
___ I can easily find Jewish books and toys for my children with images
of Jews that look like them.
___ I am not singled out to speak about and as a representative of an
"exotic" Jewish subgroup.
___ When I go to Jewish bookstores or restaurants, I am not seen as an
outsider.
___ I find my experiences and images like mine in Jewish newspapers and
magazines.
___ My rabbi never questions that I am Jewish.
___ There are other children at the religious school who look like my
child.
___ My child is never questioned by adults or children about whether he
or she is Jewish based on skin color.
___ People never look at me and say "But you don't look Jewish" either
seriously or as though it was funny.
___I am never asked how I am Jewish on Jewish dating websites or dating events.
____I can arrange to be in the company of Jews of my heritage most of the time.
____When attempting to join a synagogue or Jewish organization, I am sure that my ethnic background will not be held against me.
___I can ask synagogues and Jewish organizations to include images, and cultural traditions from my background without being seen as a pest.
___ I can enroll in a Jewish day school, Yeshiva, and/or historically Jewish college and find Jewish students and professors with my racial or ethnic background.
___I am not discriminated against in the aliyah process for being a Jew of a different ethnicity.
___I know my ethnic background will not be held against me in being called to read the Torah.
___ I know my racial or ethnic background will not be held against me if I attempt to join a minyan in prayer.
___ I do not worry about being seen or treated as a member of the janitorial staff at a synagogue or when attending a Jewish event.
___No one at my synagogue will attempt to assign me to a ethnicity to which I do not belong. (Example: Assuming all Jews of African descent are Igbo or Ethiopian).
___ I do not worry about access to housing or apartments in predominately Jewish neighborhoods.

Denied in D.F.

I had planned to write a tale on Mexico City's Jewish community, about its long history and vibrant community. Alas, things didn't work out as planned because the Beit El synagogue in Polonco saw fit to deny my shabbat entrance. I will explain.

This wandering Jew brought a sidekick with him for the trip down to Mexico, as I was joined by my little brother Harry for the adventure. Our first Jewish encounter came in the form of dinner with my friend Dina, a Mexican Jew who I met at the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship. We trekked down to her place for a lovely meal with her and her mother. Harry remarked how much the place felt like home for the judaica around the place, including some things that our parents have as well. We chatted a little about Mexico City (Distrito Federal, D.F.) and its 50,000 Jews, and she recommended a place for us to go to synagogue on Friday night.

On Friday, we headed over across town to get to the shul, shlepping our way two metro lines and a long ten block walk. We wished the Jews we passed on our way a shabbat shalom and arrived at 7pm, when services were to start. We showed our passports to the guard, and he looked at them and asked us some initial questions like where we went to synagogue in the US, then took us aside to ask some more questions about what we were doing in Mexico and why we ended up at this shul. He had us sit outside the shul, while he examined our passports. 10 minutes later, another security guard came out with a two-page questionnaire for us. This questionnaire wanted to know such things like where I went to high school, where my parents went to high school, where I last worked and why I left. We completed the questionnaire and sat to wait longer. At that point, our mood was still joyous as we thought it was just a mere formality. We sat on a bench, singing "L'cha Dodi" and wishing the Jews passing by a shabbat shalom, while cars pulled up and dropped the synagogue goers off, while valets took their cars away.

After a while longer, the security came back and wanted to know who recommended the synagogue to us, and the contact info for our Mexican Jewish friend, since we were coming uninvited to the synagogue. We gave them Dina's info and sat waiting longer. At this point, we were getting a little annoyed because we had been sitting out for 45 minutes and we missing services.

Finally the guard came back and said that he couldn't reach Dina, and unfortunately, we wouldn't be allowed in. WHAT! I tried to talk to him to figure out their reasons. I asked to speak to the head of security, and he came over. He then told me that the community was on "red alert" after Mumbai and some other threat that had recently taken place. He also said that a foreigner coming uninvited to their synagogue with a passport like mine gave them worry. So for me being a wandering Jew, we were being denied entrance for shabbat. I tried to explain that I used to work for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, so I understood the need for security, and that I lived in Argentina, so I understood the need for communities to be vigilant but that that was something too far. I offered to let him search our bags, talk to our rabbi in the US, whatever else he could possibly want, but he remained firm in refusing our entrance.

In all my travels to different Jewish communities around the world, I have never experience anything like this. Harry and I left angry, shocked and saddened. I thought we had left the ghetto, but here were Jews cowering behind the walls they had built to the world, trying to keep the cossacks out. We were in complete disbelief. Here were two nice Jewish boys, with proper identification, being denied entrance into a synagogue on Shabbat! It was if something had died for me tonight- this idea that I could visit the Jewish communities the world over and always be welcomed. I'm still dejected by what has transpired, and it has sadly colored my picture of the Mexican Jewish community as being scared of its shadow.

As Harry and I set off on our journey down to Mexico, I said to him a quote by Eduardo Galleano, "The truth lies in the journey not the port." As we were waiting outside the synagogue last night, still not even remotely expecting to be denied entrance, we laughed about that notion related to our journey to get to services. Harry remarked to me later that night that the quote was even more apropos. We learned a lot last night, more than if we had simply shared a shabbat with the Jews of Mexico City. If we had been let in, it would been simply an enjoyable evening of services of a different variety; instead we learned the sad truth of how scared the Jewish people have become of the outside world, the failures that we still face as a people related to our security in the world- even with the State of Israel. Shabbat shalom from Mexico City, on what was one of the saddest shabbats of my life.

My story has a little addendum. On Saturday, I went to the Museo Mural de Diego Rivera. The museum has a phenomenal mural of Diego Rivera on the first floor, and on the second floor there is an exhbition chronicling the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico. Seeing this flooded me with the realization that the Jewish community of Mexico was born out of the fires of the Inquisitionm and still deep down bears its scars and insecurities. With this realization, I finally was able to recapture my sabbath peace.

On an end note, last night was the first night of Hanukkah (Janukka!). Out of luck, we found an Israeli named Guy, who was staying at the hostel. He just happened to have a brought a menorah, candles and dreidel. We were able to light the hanukkah candles, and we spent the night playing dreidel for pesos.

Israelis at the Mall

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about Israelis at the mall. I should have thought to do a piece on that, but I forgive myself for not coming up with it first since I never go to the mall.

Separated at birth

I think I have a long lost brother. Check out Jono David's Jewish Photo Library