August 30, 2012 | 4:39 am

This week in power: GOP convention, Tennen, Corrie, Edon’s got talent

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Convention convenes
Mitt Romney will officially accept the Republican nomination on Thursday evening at the GOP convention in Tampa. For some, though, the spotlight is on the location as much as the man. The chairman of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County recently said he was “very optimistic” that Romney could win the state with a big push from his county. Republicans have been eyeing the Florida vote for some time. But polls tell a different story, as many of the locals remain Obama supporters. And Romney’s VP pick may not have earned him new fans. “Efforts that do disproportionate harm to the elderly, the poor and the needy conflict with our tradition’s commitment to worldly justice. Ryan clearly does not share our values,” wrote three women in a Jewish Week editorial.

Rabbi invocation
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik was privileged with the giving of the invocation at the opening session of the convention on Tuesday. Not everyone was supportive of the selection. Aryeh Cohen in The Daily Beast said, “Rabbi Meir Soloveichik’s vision for modern Orthodoxy seems to be to embrace the literary and philosophical tools of intellectual discourse in the service of a program which ultimately oppresses the poor, marginalizes women, erases gay and lesbian people, and criminalizes undocumented immigrants.” Still, he earns his defense form others. “But despite his staunch conservative views, Soloveichik does not present himself as a fiery ideologue. Instead, he is known for making his arguments affably, with a disarming sense of humor and wry self-awareness at the controversial nature of many of his stances,” said Tablet’s Yair Rosenberg.

Michigan State hate crime?
Over the weekend, teenage college student Zachary Tennen was beaten unconscious and had his mouth stapled by two assailants, according to reports. After the men discovered that Tennen was Jewish, they reportedly raised their right arms in a Nazi salute and proceeded to beat him. But police said on Tuesday that the incident probably isn’t a hate crime. “Anti-Semitic violence — if it turns out that’s what this was — is always abhorrent. The fact that these attacks happen rarely in the U.S. can’t be much comfort to the families of the victims. Every single incident is one is too many,” said Alana Goodman at Commentary.

Corrie verdict
An Israeli court this week rejected accusations that Israel was at fault for the death of activist Rachel Corrie. Corrie died in 2003 after an army bulldozer pummeled her at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Gaza. The court called Corrie’s death a “regrettable accident”, but labeled it an accident. The verdict inspired outrage. “In a country where the military is considered sacred and investigates itself, and where the judicial system has enabled occupation for over 45 years, could one have seriously expected a different outcome?” asked Ami Kaufman in The Guardian. “The ruling in Ms Corrie’s case epitomises the neglect of the Israeli state in dealing with its rulings fairly and in a manner that critically examines reasons for both the Israeli military and Ms Corrie to react in the ways they did,” said an Express Tribune editorial. “The tragedy of the Corrie case is not only that Corrie’s parents have lost their daughter, but that they now fan the hatred and racist anti-Semitism that was the cause of her death. How sad is that,” said Jonathan Danilowitz at The Propagandist.

Edon sings
The kipah-wearing Jewish day school student continued his inspiring run in the semifinals of “America’s Got Talent” on Tuesday night. Edon Pinchot got a standing ovation, and judge Howie Mandel called Pinchot “the best singer of the competition.” The winner of the competition will receive a $1 million prize. During his run, Edon has picked up quite a following. “We at the Shmooze are dreaming of being able to wrestle with 14-year-old girls to get tickets to hear Pinchot sing live,” said Hannah Rubin at The Jewish Daily Forward.

August 23, 2012 | 4:34 am

This week in power: Zion Square, skinnydipping Congressmen, Austria cartoon, Western Wall women

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Violence erupts
Recently, a 17- year-old Palestinian boy was beaten unconscious by a group of Jewish teenagers, prompting denouncements from the Israeli government and outcries from Palestinian groups. Reports indicate that the teenager was trying to speak to a Jewish girl. “Some commentators have suggested that the riot in Jerusalem may presage a new wave of terrorist acts carried out by Jews. I hope this prediction is wrong,” said Jill Jacobs in The Jewish Daily Forward. “That story would be troubling no matter the ethnicity or religion of the people involved—no matter what country it took place in,” added Amy Davidson in The New Yorker. In an already charged area like Jerusalem, this calls more attention to the attack.

Romney gears up
Florida’s 639,000 Jews are up for grabs in the upcoming election, and both candidates are trying their best to appeal to them, according to reports. “In addition to being older than the average American, Jewish voters are also well read and interested in ideas. That’s why Ryan, the intellectual leader of his party and the most able advocate for fundamental change in the way the government operates, may turn out to be more attractive to Jews than liberals think,” said Jonathan S. Tobin at JNS.org. In response, Obama has stepped it up by forming a new list of “Rabbis for Obama,” similar to an effort his campaign made in 2008.

Congress gone wild
The Sea of Galilee was the focus of an ever-so-brief political scandal over the weekend when Politico reported that dozens of Congressmen last year went for a latenight swim, with some of them disrobed. “The fact that this incident happened in August 2011, and is only just now coming to light probably points out how embarrassing the Republican leadership found the whole episode,” said a Courier Press editorial. “Good grief. These U.S. leaders were representing America, supposedly on serious government business in a foreign land—a situation requiring protocol and dignity—but they acted like rowdy conventioneers. It’s embarrassing for America,” said a Charleston Gazette editorial. Others had a sense of humor about the incident. Conor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic proposed “an annual Congressional skinny-dip in the Potomac. It could serve as an antidote to official self-importance, remind the public that these are just flawed humans governing us.”

Cartoon sparks outrage
A cartoon posted on Facebook by Austrian politician Heinz-Christian Strache has some in a frenzy as it promotes Jewish stereotypes akin to propaganda from the 1930s by Austrian Jewish leader Oskar Deutsch. Strache denied the cartoon is anti-Semitic. That didn’t stop Jewish organizations from lashing out at the Austrian leader for posting it. “Anti-Semetic in intention or not, Strache’s controversy isn’t helping the political right,” said Jordan Valinsky at The Daily Dot.

Women with tallits
Four women were arrested on Sunday for wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall. They are all members of Women of the Wall, a group that holds special prayer services each month for Rosh Chodesh, or the beginning of new month. It wasn’t their first foray into controversy either, as several were arrested back in May. “This morning’s arrests serve as an escalation and continuation of the wave of women’s exclusion with in the public sphere, a struggle which started at the Western Wall and has spread all over Israel,” the group wrote on its website over the weekend.

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August 16, 2012 | 4:27 am

This week in power: Paul Ryan, Hungary Jew, Temple Mount, Blurry glasses

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Ryan’s selection
Like many American organizations, Jewish groups are figuring how how they feel about Mitt Romney’s VP choice, Congressman Paul Ryan. The National Jewish Democratic Jewish Council (NJDC) and The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) are unsurprisingly at odds with one another about the running mate. “Romney’s best hope for reversing the GOP’s declining Jewish fortunes would have been to remind American Jews of the cultural and economic moderation he showed as Massachusetts governor,” said Peter Beinart at The Daily Beast. And Ryan doesn’t do that. “Jews will still vote overwhelmingly Democratic again this year and it is questionable whether the GOP can draw off enough of their votes to make a difference in battleground states like Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Medicare-sensitive Florida,” said Douglas Bloomfield in the Jewish Journal. Who would have been better, though?

From Jobbik to Jew?
Csanad Szegedi has had quite a week. The Hungarian known to rail about the “Jewishness” of the political elite just found out a harsh reality: He’s Jewish. The irony of the saga wasn’t lost on anyone. “We have no alternative but to ask him to return his EU mandate,” said Jobbik president Gabor Vona. “Jobbik does not investigate the heritage of its members or leadership, but instead takes into consideration what they have done for the nation.” Szededi apologized to the Hungarian Jewish Community for all the “bad things” he did and is reportedly planning to head to Auschwitz to try to make it better. It is coming up on the forgiveness season, after all.

Temple Mount flares up
Israeli leaders are mulling a bill that would designate separate hours for Jews and Muslims to pray at the Temple Mount, according to reports. Really, three religions could then share the site. “Is the State Department out of it’s mind?  Do you honestly want there to be equal, or even semi-equal time for non-Muslims to pray, or even whisper words of prayer, on the Temple Mount?” asked Jameel Rashid at the Jewish Press. “The State of Israel repeatedly declares its sovereignty over the Temple Mount, and no ruling party has ever called publicly to transfer control over the site to another entity. But in practice, 45 years on, in modern Israel, there is no sovereignty over the Temple Mount,” said Yoaz Hendel at YNetNews. Yet some have been critical of the Israeli media for picking sexier stories like this one ahead of substantive ones.

Sacramento and Ashkelon
The Sacramento City Council voted unanimously this week to make Ashkelon their sister city, even in the favor of protests. “One thing that stands out is that in our community, no matter who we are, no matter who we represent, we stretch for one another,” Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said. Defenders chimed in to support the measure. “Sacramento cannot bring peace to the Middle East. It can, however, bring a small bit of comfort to our brothers and sisters in an embattled city, one that is under constant attack not because anyone disputes its sovereignty, but because its people share our commitment to peace – so much so that they are willing to risk their lives to realize that dream,” said two proponents in a JTA editorial. Many are relieved now that the measure passed with flying colors.

Special glasses
Ultra-Orthodox men afraid of seeing immodestly dressed women can now pay $6 to save themselves—via special blurry glasses. “The glasses provide clear vision for up to a few meters so as not to impede movement, but anything beyond that gets blurry — including women. It’s not known how many have been sold,” said initial reports. “One of the biggest challenges for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men,” said a Las Vegas World News blogger, “occurs when they are traveling.  They are forced into tight confines with WOMEN. Oh my.” This is the solution, we presume? “How long before the hipster kids jump on this bandwagon,” joked another.

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August 9, 2012 | 4:49 am

This week in power: Egypt, Romney and Israel, IOC, Lollapalooza

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Egypt attack
New Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has a problem on his hands after a “deadly cross-border assault in the Sinai” that resulted in Israeli forces killing eight of the gunmen who tried to breach the border area. For their part, Hamas said that it was intended to disrupt Morsi’s new Islamist government. Mosi acted quickly, firing his intelligence chief on Wednesday and promised to get things back to normal after the attacks that left 16 Egyptian guards dead over the weekend. Will that be enough?

Latest on Iran
“Iran is more than a threat to a piece of geography called Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the greatest threat to Jews to emerge in the past 70 years,” said Colbert King in The Washington Post. And there’s reason to worry, said Michael Young at The National. “The merits of the discussion are imposed by the stark reality that Iran, if it does indeed pursue nuclear weapons, will not be dissuaded from doing so whatever the political and economic pressures, assuming there is no change of regime. Nor will a military attack, Israeli or American, necessarily halt Iran’s nuclear programme, even if it delays it for a time.”

Romney’s return
Back from his recent trip to Israel, Romney is stumping for the Jewish vote, an area his staff thinks Obama is weak, according to reports. “Romney needs to chip away at the different voting groups that helped Obama win. Obama needs to hang on to every single one.  That’s why a brief detour to Israel makes all the sense in the world,” said Ana Navarro at Politic365. “Perhaps everyone should stop playing coy,” said Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post. “Obama couldn’t go to Israel because he’s wildly unpopular there (at one time, his approval rating was under 10 percent in Israel) and the last thing the U.S.-Israel relationship needed was for there to be protests, booing, etc.” He’ll have to find other ways to win back his Jewish constituents.

Raisman’s stand
Even in the second week of Olympic play, some people are still fuming over Jacques Rogge’s decision not to honor the Munich 11 at this year’s Games. “Shame on you, IOC,” said Ankie Spitzer, widow of fencing coach Andre Spitzer, who died in the 1972 attack. “You have forsaken the 11 members of your Olympic family. You discriminate against them only because they are Israelis and Jews.” Erica Morris agreed in her editorial in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “The tragedy happened on Olympic grounds and was a direct assault on the very ideal the games are meant to purport ; that differences can, from time to time, be put aside. For this reason, the Olympic Committee’s voice should have been loudest of all,” she said. But one gymnast rose to the occasion—Ally Raisman. Raisman’s performance to “Hava Nagila” rang true for many Olympic enthusiasts.

Yofi, Lollapalooza
Perry Farrell announced this week that the musical festival will take Tel Aviv next year. “When I was (in Tel Aviv) last year, I saw an international music community that knew all about the music that we all listen to, and the artists weren’t traveling there,” Farrell said in a recent video interview. “It was an opportunity for us.” It will happen from August 20-22 in Yarkon Park. Farrell could run into some difficulties in lining up bands, some warn, as musicians have been criticized for their scheduled performances in conflict areas. Others are genuinely excited. “It looks like both this August and next one are going to be hot ones, and we’re not just talking about the weather,” said an Israelity blogger.

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August 2, 2012 | 4:08 am

This week in power: Romney trip, Florida vote, Olympics moment, Raisman routine

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Romney in Israel
“Though his remarks Monday morning later threatened to prove otherwise, it appeared that Mitt Romney got in and out of Israel with what he’d hoped for:  No gaffes, no real headlines — nothing so substantial as to risk a clear view of the image he had traveled halfway around the world to produce: footage of a U.S. presidential candidate and Israel’s Prime Minister standing side by side as if they actually liked each other,” reported TIME. So what was the takeaway from this stop on Romney’s world tour? “Purely in terms of preparing remarks, Israel is the sort of rhetorical space Romney takes to well. So many phrases come pre-coded, already ideologically inhabited; the list of requisite gestures is so well established,” said Amy Davidson in The New Yorker. Others weren’t as optimistic. “The good news, such as it is, is that both Romney and Obama are probably lying. No matter how many times each of them talks about the ‘unshakeable commitment’ to Israel, or even of their “love” for the country, they don’t really mean it,” said Stephen M. Walt at Foreign Policy. What’s clear is that the Jewish vote could be a gamechanger this fall.

Next up: Florida?
Almost as soon as Romney left Israel, the focus went to how the presidential candidate can win Florida. “It doesn’t necessarily presage a major drop-off in the Jewish vote for Obama, but it does suggest that GOP expectations in Florida can’t be as easily dismissed as in past years,” said a Politico blogger. “As progressives, Jews will be tempted to stick with Obama. As Zionists, they’ll be tempted to switch sides,” said Lawrence J. Hass at The Commentator. And Florida is a battleground state, said Ben Adler at The Nation. “There are more than 600,000 Jewish voters in Florida. It doesn’t matter to Romney if the millions of American Jews in blue states like New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey vote for him. But a few voters switching sides in Florida can make all the difference in the world.”

Moment for Munich
After the Olympic committee refused to have a moment of silence during the opening ceremonies on Friday night, NBC commentator Bob Costas went ahead with his plan to do it anyway. “It’s that the IOC wanted to pick and choose which tragedies to remember. The fallen from world wars and the deceased relatives of people with opening ceremony tickets made the cut. The victims of a terrorist attack that occurred at the Olympics four decades ago did not,” said Slate’s Jeremy Stahl. Some went even further. “The Olympics is supposed to be about the spirit and the people. That moment of silence that didn’t happen rang louder than any cheer that will come out of the stadiums in the next 17 days,” said Paula M. Stern at the Jewish Press.

Siyum HaShas celebration
Tens of thousands of Jews gathered Wednesday night to celebrate the finishing of the Talmud, one page a day for over seven years. “The ability for Jews all over the world to study the same sections of Torah every day from the same tractates and traditional commentaries is a glorious way of preserving our heritage and building a Jewish future together,” said Rabbi Yona Reiss at YU.edu. “We applaud and honor those men and women who inspire us by their love of learning, and encourage each among us to find even a few minutes a day to do likewise, delving into the wisdom of our sages, past and present,” said a Jewish Week editorial. And even those who didn’t make it all the way through took home valuable lessons. “Although I open the Talmud less frequently these days, when I do it’s something I can get lost in, with no pressure to finish one page and move on to the next. I have time to ask all the questions I want,” said Miriam Krule at Slate.

Raisman rises up
Jewish Gymnast Aly Raisman won the hearts of her peers around the world by performing her Olympic routine to the traditional “Hava Nagila.” (It was actually Raisman’s parents who became the talk of the town.) “The sense of pride among Jews everywhere watching the performance was palpable, and a reminder that throughout history our people have found that survival and the pursuit of excellence are the best revenge against our enemies,” said a Jewish Week editorial. “It’d be one thing if Raisman had just shocked the entire gymnastics world by beating out her world champion teammate Jordyn Wieber, but to do it to a song that not only set off manic bouts of kvelling from Brookline to Needham to Sharon, but earned the attention of even newspapers in Israel, uch, Aly!” said Jason Schwartz in Boston Magazine.

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