May 26, 2010 | 11:44 am

From Alef:  Alef Interviews: Shmaltz Brewing Company Turns 13

Posted by Heather Wolfson

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Featured in Alef: The NEXT Conversation

For the Jews, thirteen seems to be a lucky number — especially when we’re talking Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. So to wrap up our 13th issue, we went on the hunt for #13. You’ll never guess what we found: Shmaltz Brewing Company, the producer of He’Brew: The Chosen Beer, recently turned thirteen. So, of course, founder Jeremy Cowan couldn’t let the year pass without a Bar Mitzvah celebration and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to chat with him about his company’s coming-of-age.

Alef: Tell us about your Bar Mitzvah, and how it influenced the way that you’re celebrating Shmaltz Brewing Company’s Bar Mitzvah year.

Jeremy Cowan: My personal bar mitzvah was in a suburban synagogue outside of San Fransisco in a reform community and it was very typical of 80’s northern California reform Judaism. Basically, I started He’Brew because I wanted to find a way to participate in the Jewish community in a meaningful and exciting and contemporary way that was relevant for me. But I also wanted it to be fun and a little bit outrageous, for other people to get a kick out of it so that they might also dig deeper into their own identities. So the Bar Mitzvah celebration this year had elements of text and tradition, but we didn’t have too many sacred elements. We got yarmulkes that everybody wore at the Great American Beer Festival and then at our parties throughout the last six months. Inviting people to share their Bar and Bat Mitzvah photos was hilarious, I don’t know if you guys checked out the website.

Alef: We did!

JC: It’s pretty amazing I mean, [laughs] everything from the very traditional and sincere to just ridiculous and silly, bizarre entries. Also, the band that was at my Bar Mitzvah was called “Hot Borscht.” I think I put together my set list for them to play. It was Led Zeppelin and Rush, and then they played the exact same set list from every other Bar Mitzvah and even threw in My Sharona. So when we had bands this year we wanted to make sure that they were kind of riffing off the absurdity of certain traditions — the set list was made up of hassidic surf bands, which was really cool.

Alef: You mentioned that you included a few more sacred elements in the celebration. How did those go over?

JC: Oh, it was awesome. I couldn’t believe how big a hit those yarmulkes were. I did a beer dinner and people were just loving them. I included a little line of instruction on it so that my non-jewish friends wouldn’t use it as a dog chew toy; it said “Happy 13th Anniversary.” Everybody got a kick out of it.

Alef: How would you describe your Judaism growing up? Was your family invested in some sort of specific Jewish community or were you secular, for instance?

JC: Like I said, I grew up in the suburbs of northern California in a reform synagogue. We were Jewish by self identity, not really by knowledge or practice, but I was Bar Mitzvah’d and confirmed and went to Israel on my teen tour when I was 16 so I did everything you’re supposed to do and a lot of things that you’re not. It wasn’t until I went back to Israel when I was about 25 and got a chance to work with an observant community for 3 or 4 months – and eat kebab and celebrate the holidays and learn about Torah – that I began to understand some of the more traditional elements of Judaism and started to argue about some of the more unusual parts of our culture. The experience allowed me to have a better, more multi-layered understanding of Judaism than I’d had in the past.

Alef: So, how would you define your Judaism now?

JC: Eh, personal. I mean, I’m not much more observant than I used to be. I have a deeper appreciation of my own ability to struggle with interpretation and to celebrate holidays and participate in the community. Working on the marketing and sales of the beer, I have no shortage of opportunities to be involved with the community from everybody who’s totally unaffiliated, just some random Jewish kid at a bar, to Orthodox communities that are celebrating Shavuot or Sukkot or doing events with Young Adult Division or Hillel. It’s been a wonderful way to participate and create my own path.

Alef: So we had to ask this question – would you say that after 13 years your beer has finally become a man?

JC: I was thinking that our punchline could be “Today I Am A Man” but, there are so many fun women home brewers so I stayed away from it. Also, half my staff is female and I want them to feel ownership in the company…but yeah, I think we have.

May 19, 2010 | 1:00 am

A Matter of Size

Posted by Rebecca Halpin

Rebecca Halpin (Fellow), Ally Iseman (Fellow), Rebecca Nadel, and Michelle Moltz pose with two sumo wrestlers at the screening

Birthright Israel NEXT LA at the Opening Night Gala of the LA Jewish Film Festival, screening “A Matter of Size”, about a Sumo Wrestling team in Israel

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May 17, 2010 | 12:22 pm

From Alef: Bad Mitzvah

Posted by Heather Wolfson

By Lucy Gillespie
Featured in Alef: The NEXT Conversation

If Torah stories are perfect parables – solid, flawless shells of metaphor to be cracked by brains trained hard in symbolism – then here’s a hard nut for all you would-be Talmudic scholars. Bear in mind that at the end, I am still going to synagogue – proof ultimately that a good deed done in bad faith is still good after all.

My parents offered me £600 NOT to have a Bat Mitzvah. But word in the back pew of shul (where my Hebrew school class huddled to chew the fat during services) was that you could make a LOT more if you actually had one.

“Like, a grand,” said Adam H., two years younger but worlds more sophisticated as a student of the chic Lycee Francais.

I didn’t know what a grand was, but if my parents thought I was such a simpleton as to accept the first offer that came my way, by Hashem I would prove them wrong.

I started late, and with nine months to go, I opted to speak instead of chant, and to omit the haftarah. That was extra work – for kiss-asses and swots. Mine would be a cool Bat Mitzvah, a testament to my laid-back personality and droll sense of humor. Besides, there’s only so much Hebrew jibberish you can listen to before you just have to lie down and die right there in the pew. To fast track me in, Rabbi Helen (aka Demon Lady) made a recording of my portion – some twiddle twaddle about how it was wrong to get tattoos and piercings. Graham got the run-up to Noah’s arc. David got the David and Goliath story. “Whatever, just get it over with,” I thought. I’ll be rolling in grand when the day is done.

Laura, the Israeli giantess who signed on to instruct me, came over once a week. We sat on my bed as I stumbled through the calligraphy, my lack of practice glaringly obvious as I snagged repeatedly over the same thorny points. She doodled penises on my notebook, paying exquisite detail to the pubes. This was the other side of the occasion, she said – becoming a woman. So tall. So gorgeous. So gloriously outspoken – I knew exactly what kind of woman I wanted to be come May 10th 1998, and she was it.

A week before the day, Demon Lady called and asked for a draft of my speech. My speech?

“Your commentary on the portion – your sermon, if you will.”

What? Well, I had pierced ears. Should I say that? My dad came home from the office and we put him to work, cobbling something with gravitas. As a final touch, to showcase my personality, I dropped in a Star Wars quote (only, I hadn’t seen Star Wars, I’d only seen Space Balls, and thus cited Yoda as “Yoghurt”). Done and done.

Hair straightened, be-pearled and wearing a charming lilac shift dress, I mounted the bimah and read my piece. Then it was on to the schwanky Landmark Hotel, where my vast Anglo-American family was feted with a buffet of cold meats and salads, and the dulcet tones of my nine-year-old sister who stole the show, charming the pianist into playing back-up for her repertoire of hit musical numbers.

Back at home, I spread out the goods and took inventory. A few big ticket gifts, to be sure, followed by envelope after envelope containing a £5 note and a meekly confused “Happy Birthday” from the various clueless English relatives. Final count? £400.

The following week – on Graham’s big day – I passed on my cautionary tale to the future men and women of the congregation. Adam looked to the left and right, taking out a mysterious, white, cone-shaped stick from his jacket pocket, setting it alight, and dragging deeply from the narrow end.

“That’s too fucking bad.” He said.

I nodded, with the savvy weight of womanhood. “Yeah,” I agreed, “my family are assholes.”

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May 14, 2010 | 3:10 pm

Jews in ALL Hues

Posted by Heather Wolfson

by Jared Jackson

Growing up, I never thought about how being both African American and Jewish could be deeply meaningful.  The journey to discover and understand my identity began in freshman year of college. By some strange twist of fate, I ended up living on a floor where most of the occupants were Jewish, while the floor director was African American.  This interesting coincidence led my neighbors to seek explanations from me about one side or the other. Yet they never saw me as all that I am. To them I was always the “the other side” instead of just one Jared Jackson composed of multiple rich heritages. 

A few years later in a new school I found myself taking a different course. I became engaged in building a Jewish community at the university. My participation in Hillel and leadership on Birthright trips led me to a crossroads. While sitting on a rock in the Negev and looking out on the gorgeous desert I thought, “How can I help multi-ethnic Jews feel welcome in all Jewish communities?” I realized that there should be something out there for us that is peer driven and built from the bottom up. Moreover, those of us who are products of intermarriage should be at the forefront of this work.  What if I could share my story of being from two separate worlds with others who have similar experiences in an environment created and run by Dual Heritage Jews? What if there were something out there where the “Half Jew” wasn’t told to choose sides? If only we could create a safe environment in which to explore and discuss the issues we faced growing up and in some cases still face. Novel idea, right?

Since that amazing experience in the Negev, I have found myself in the company of individuals who share my vision. Together we are dedicated to make this dream a reality. Our project is called Jews in ALL Hues. We provide safe spaces to come together and explore what it means to be a Dual Heritage Jew in today’s world while being accepted for all that you are. Our first conference was in May of 2009 in Philadelphia. Our next conference will be on May 30, 2010 in San Francisco (co-sponsored by Birthright Israel NEXT Bay Area and Philadelphia).  If you or somebody you know is a Dual Heritage Jew and would like the to join us for our Bay Area conference, please RSVP here! For more information on upcoming events, email us at jewsinallhues@gmail.com.

——-
Jared is a Birthright Israel NEXT Fellow from Philadelphia.

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May 10, 2010 | 2:35 pm

From Alef:  13-Bar Mitzvah Season

Posted by Heather Wolfson

Featured in Alef:  The NEXT Conversation

As we started putting together Alef’s 13th issue, we realized that thirteen often gets a bad rap. Defined, simply, as “a cardinal number; 10 plus 3,” this numeric landmark is undeniably significant. But why? How did “13″ ever come to be associated with the negativity we so often ascribe to it?...

Click here to read more.

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Check out Birthright Israel NEXT’s Alef:  The NEXT Conversation.  It is a webzine that explores Jewish identity. From memoirs on “Why I Eat What I Eat” to a soul-searching narrative on serving jury duty during the High Holidays, Alef showcases the diversity of Jewish identity through stories, pictures, poems, music and more. 

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May 6, 2010 | 10:21 pm

NEXT Shabbat-a-thon

Posted by Sophie Sills

I huffed in my hot car, shelpping to Santa Monica, halted in Friday afternoon LA traffic, but looking forward to breathing the clean beach air, free from the work week’s nuisances. After my Shabbat bereft tenure in San Francisco, getting myself to my host’s house is a small price to pay for inclusion in the special occasion. I live alone, and all too often find myself, exhausted, sorting the junk from my mail, mentally measuring my refrigerator contents against the proper ingredients for a satisfying dinner, while my cat meows hungrily against my legs. Friday night is supposed to feel like precious deliverance, but I often find myself lonesome and hungry, and despite the sunshine, a little cold inside. I agree that Friday night’s receding sun should symbolize a celebration of sorts, but with whom can I share company and a moment of reflection? The Jews!

Birthright Israel NEXT Los Angeles encouraged Birthright alums across LA to host Shabbat in their homes through the NEXT Shabbat program on one weekend in April.  Hundreds participated in Shabbat festivities in various homes across the Southland, from Seal Beach to The Valley. Between Friday and Saturday evening I attended three such events, including a Friday night dinner, Saturday afternoon Seudah Shlishit (the traditional third meal of the Sabbath), and a Havdalah dinner, which brought it all to a lovely close. Extinguishing in wine the burning ends of the intricately braided candle, marking our separation from Shabbat, meant we found ourselves in the darkness of my friend’s apartment. I found this apropos, because, really, we begin in darkness. So, Havdalah signifies not just resuming our ordinary work (walking the dog, reading emails), but actually, a rejuvenation and metaphysical rebirth. Traversing the quiet terrain of the Sabbath, moving from the fall of darkness to the fall of darkness, is, like all earthly cycles, is a completion. With completion comes a fundamental satisfaction and sense of peace.

If Shabbat is about a state of mind, a time to think and exist, then my NEXT Shabbat experience truly succeeded in rewarding me, through friends and an abundance of delicious foods, for all my diligence and endeavors during the week.

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May 4, 2010 | 3:57 pm

Green SoCal Natural Spotlight:  Hollywood Reservoir

Posted by Heather Wolfson

By Joshua Marks

After over eight-and-a-half years of living in the Los Angeles area I had never even heard of the Hollywood Reservoir.

That all changed last Saturday afternoon when I drove up the narrow, windy residential roads of the Hollywood Hills to this urban oasis in the shadow of the Hollywood Sign. I joined other young adults for a walk around the lake as part of the alumni organization Birthright Israel NEXT: Los Angeles.

High above the smoggy city below, this place is the real Pandora. Lush greenery, crystal clear water and spectacular views of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Sign. Read more here.

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