August 7, 2007 | 2:17 am

E-mail gives Jews the ‘Heebie Jeebies’

Posted by JewishJournal.com

An anti-Semitic Web site is first on Google when you search for ‘Jew,’ and e-mail about the issue is making the rounds again.

Two people here at JewishJournal.com got the e-mail last week and both asked me what was up.  I told them not to worry, it was old news (from 2004), not to get the ‘Heebie Jeebies.’

The Heebie Jeebies—1932—the Boswell Sisters

But it really was new to them, so I thought some of you guys might want to learn more too.

Here’s some background from the Anti-Defamation League and the response from Google.

The gist: We know about it,  we’re working on it, there’s not much we can do about it. Please stand by.

The hate site everyone writes about is only the tip of the iceberg. The Web is filled with everything imaginable (both good and bad), and some things unimaginable.

Sometimes it seems to me there are people (robots?) who do nothing but post hate and propaganda to message boards all day long, all week, like it’s a full time job to blame the Mossad for 9/11 or berate the ‘Jew World Order’ for everything from Communism to Capitalism.

The hate on the venerable Yahoo! News message boards caused Y! (disclosure:  I once worked there) to close down their message boards entirely.

The videos I see every night when I cruise YouTube.com are a swamp of hate.

What to do?

My response is to “represent”—the more I see that bad stuff, the more I want to put the good stuff up on the Internets.

That’s the reason I started our JewishJournal.com YouTube Channel. Positive, fun, interesting videos.  Rabbis, rockers, rebels. 

No hate.  No anti-anything.  Just the wild wonderful world of Jews,  Judios, and Yehudim.

Tell your friends.

—Dennis Wilen

August 5, 2007 | 12:39 pm

Hava Nagila: Funny, you don’t look Jewish

Posted by JewishJournal.com

Music is a universal language, and sometimes it has Hebrew lyrics!

Check out these versions of Hava Nagila from Texas, Bollywood and Thailand:

Hava Nagila Texas Style (Featuring Juan & Pancho)

Bollywood Hava Nagila—with subtitles in Hebrew and Russki

Hava Nagila Thai Style

All these videos are favorites on JewishJournal.com’s YouTube Channel.

Enjoy!

—Dennis Wilen

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August 4, 2007 | 2:48 pm

VIDEO: The Bible Code: hoax or holiness?

Posted by The Web Guy

Video: Michael Shermer scrutinizes the idea of ‘hidden’ messages in the Torah.

It’s just numerology, says Shermer, and serves as a supreme example of pattern-seeking (and finding) behavior of which we humans are so skilled. 

While pattern recognition helps us pick out predators hidden in the foliage, sometimes wishful thinking makes us see things that aren’t really there. So-called ‘hidden messages’ in the Torah, says the publisher of Pasadena-based ‘Skeptic’ magazine, are neither hidden nor messages.

Advocates of traditional Jewish numerology—gematria—don’t care what Shermer thinks.

Here’s Shermer’s argument:

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August 2, 2007 | 2:00 am

Shooting at the Seattle Federation—one year later

Posted by JewishJournal.com

A year ago, Naveed Afzal Haq shot up the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in a rampage that killed one worker and seriously injured five others.

I’d recently started as Web Director for JewishJournal.com and rushed to figure out how to add a breaking news story to our home page.

After I did the news thing (“If it bleeds, it leads”) I began to wonder what kind of security precautions we had at The Journal’s headquarters in a Koreatown office block. Noone knew then if it was an isolated incident (it was) or part of a coordinated attack against Jewish institutions across the country.

Was a combination door lock, security camera and intercom system enough? Should we hire a guard? Was I a paranoid fool with delusions of grandeur AND a persecution complex?

Even paranoid people can have enemies, of course, so I still stop, look and listen when I navigate the building’s eerily silent carpeted hallways.

But I’ve not taken off the GI Star of David I wear on a chain around my neck.

And I never will.

—Dennis Wilen

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