December 16, 2009 | 6:01 pm

Israel Digital Diplomacy with Deputy Consul General of Israel in LA [LIVE BROADCAST]

Posted by Jay Firestone

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[UPDATE]: This is a recording of live broadcast

Deputy Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles, Gil Artzyeli, will answer your questions in Spanish about Israel and the Middle East, live, on December 16th at 1 pm PST.

The event will be streamed live, at IsraelLA.org .You can submit your questions now via email to questions@israella.org , Facebook, o Twitter.

December 14, 2009 | 6:29 pm

Dad prohibited from taking his baptized Jewish baby to church [VIDEO]

Posted by Jay Firestone

From CBSNews.com:

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A father has been hit with an unusual restraining order: Keep his daughter away from any religion that is not Jewish. After the girl’s parents split up, the father went to a Catholic church and had the girl baptized, CBS station WBBM-TV reports.

Joseph Reyes, 35, had his daughter baptized and sent his ex-wife a picture of the ceremony.

Read the full story about Joseph Reyes and his baptized Jewish daughter

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December 9, 2009 | 5:09 pm

The digital world rules in Smooth-E’s new music video for “Honikah Electronica” [VIDEO]

Posted by Ryan Torok

Read our complete coverage on “Honika Electronic” here

Smooth-E’s new music video for “Honikah Electronica” opens in high style. Clusters of Matrix­­-style computer text fall vertically like rain. It’s pretty cool. It looks exactly like how it did in the Wachowski brother’s 1999 sci-fi blockbuster about inhabiting a digital world, except for one thing: Smooth-E’s characters are Hebrew letters.

In the Matrix, Neo fights to bust out of the Matrix. In “Honikah Electronica,” Smooth-E is having all kinds of fun maneuvering around in the kitschy-low-budget, green-screened terrain of his digital world. Smooth-E’s grandma calls Smooth-E’s iPhone and tells him to hook up with her via the internet for a Hanukah celebration. Smooth-E doesn’t require much convincing. Before he can rap about his Facebook status update reading: “Honikah Electronica!” he’s surfing on a flying Menorah in outer space. The constellations are Jewish stars. Smooth-E avoids a meteor shower of matzah-balls like it’s nothing. He winds up on Mars with Lady Gaga. They freak-dance, spin dreidels and drink Manischevitz. He cooks latkes and exchanges presents with a blockhead robot on a disco space ship. Smooth-E is having a great time.

I had a great time watching the video. I’m not the only one. A lot of people are watching it. Very quickly the video is racking up loads of YouTube views. Only a few hours after it was posted last night, it had up over 500 views. Already this morning, that number more than doubled.

Will it surpass the viewership of “Hannukah Hey Ya!” one of Smooth-E’s biggest hits, which currently enjoys over 60,000 views? Will it be featured on YouTube? Stay tuned.

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December 4, 2009 | 7:30 pm

How to make Potato Latkes - A Chanukah Treat

Posted by Rebecca Steinberger

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