Monday, January 28, 2013

Israel as an Apartheid State


Entertainment personalities, the likes of Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, Ken Loach and Roger Waters show a unique bias when it comes to the Jewish state. Miss Lennox appeared before the television cameras, berating Israel for defending itself against Hamas. Where is she when thousands are being slaughtered in Syria and basic human rights are denied in Iran? Her silence is deafening! Has she suddenly developed a dislike for the spotlight?

An Eye-Opening Experience

By Henry Tobias 

I was recently hospitalized with serious sight threatening complications following cataract surgery. On admission to the ward, a young Arab doctor, his name showed on his I.D., explained that he needed to examine my eyes once again before the upcoming surgery. I was nauseous and vomiting, had hardly kept down any food during the previous week, a side effect of the high optical pressure, and so weak that my wife pushed me around in a wheelchair.

To say the least, I was feeling very sorry for myself, and didn't want to be poked in the eye again. The ophthalmic surgeon, who was to do the operation, had, I thought, done all the groundwork the day before and any more probing was adding insult to injury.

A nurse was trying to calm me down. Very uncharacteristically I said to the nurse, "I feel shit." I don't usually use bad language. She agreed that I was within my rights to feel sick, but another examination was necessary before the operation, an hour or two later. Both the doctor and the nurse were very reassuring. At the behest of my very loving, but worried wife, I stopped acting like a five-year old and let the doctor do his work. I apologized to him profusely, and was angry at my own behavior.

A bed had been allocated, but had not yet been disinfected. The young woman, who was in the process of cleaning, told me that she would be done in a short while. My wife and I waited patiently, and soon I lay on the very uncomfortable hospital bed.

I was aware of my surroundings, but not interested. My initial operation had been distressful, even painful, having been given minimum local anesthetic as no complications had been expected. My apprehension at the thought of another traumatic experience had me close to panic. I told the surgeon how I felt, and he assured me that he would be gentle. I soon found myself lying on a reclining chair, similar to that used by a dentist.

The area around my eye was prepared and then contrary to the doctor's promise, I saw this syringe and needle bearing down on my forehead, looking like an intercontinental ballistic missile and reason was replaced by fear. The pain seared my skull, as the anesthetic was injected. Hysteria overcame me as I writhed and complained. The doctor lost his cool, but only for a moment, and said, "I can't do my job if you don't keep still." Sense prevailed, the anodyne took affect and my head was thankfully numb.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Hasidic Yoga


The end of a sun-scorched street in the Israeli Haredi enclave of Ramat Beit Shemesh is probably not where you'd expect to find a yoga studio. But proprietors Rachel and Avraham Kolberg learned the practice in India before adopting the ultra-orthodox lifestyle of their fellow Breslever Hasids, and now they run a low-profile, gender-segregated yoga studio for Orthodox Jews.

Why the low profile? Many in the Breslever community maintain that the meditative exercise practice (which Avraham Kolberg describes as trying to make a person "aware of his heel") constitutes idol worship. One student, a teenage girl, was recently threatened with expulsion from her religious seminary when word got out about her yoga-cizing. She and other students practically sneak into the Kolbergs' home studio, and many of the women practice in their long skirts and stockings.

Despite constant social pressures, the Kolbergs and their students continue with their yoga studio, saying that for them yoga is not just good exercise, but is a way of worshipping God. "This," Kolberg said, "is spirituality."

On The Chocolate Trail

Several years ago, in a small chocolate shop in Paris, Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz chanced upon a pamphlet claiming that Jews had brought chocolate to France following their expulsion from Spain. It was an intriguing and plausible notion, but was it true? The resulting investigation culminated in Prinz’s new book On the Chocolate Trail, which explores the connections between Jews and chocolate from medieval times to the present.

And no one could be better suited for the task. Prinz loves chocolate so much that she’s coined a phrase for her ability to sniff it out: choco-dar. Whether traveling through Europe, doing yoga in California, or jazzercising to radio beats, Prinz's "internal, serendipitous radar for chocolate discoveries," as she describes it, is permanently on.

Prinz is an engaging storyteller, and the book covers an extraordinary amount of material—from the impact of Spanish Inquisition trials on the chocolate industry to the politics of fair trade Hanukkah gelt—without feeling too weighty. Her passion for all things Jewish and chocolaty is infectious, so make sure you have some chocolate handy when you're reading—you'll be craving it.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Wombfight: Jacob and Esau in Utero


A few weeks ago, synagogues around the world read the Torah portion that introduces one of the most famous twin brother rivalries in the world – that of Jacob and Esau. So it’s kind of eerie that this unprecedented and highly twin-relevant video just got released to the public.

This is not just any twins video. Taken using a new high-clarity MRI technology (also called the "cinematic MRI") this YouTube-ready treasure allows doctors to watch in great detail as twins literally fight for space in the womb. Where a normal MRI would take pictures of thin slices of the body, this newfangled technology takes repeated pictures of the same slice and strings them together to create something like a movie.

Doctors are starting to use cinematic MRIs to diagnose a dangerous fetal condition called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), but it’s also pretty informative when it comes to twin development, and raises the provocative question of whether differing experiences or conflict in utero can impact twins' differences after they're born. According to Jewish tradition, Jacob and Esau began struggling even in the womb, and this new technology is proof of just how true that might have been.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Sephardic Music Festival, Vol. 2


The second Sephardic Music Festival album just dropped, and the only bad news is that you can no longer use Hanukkah as an excuse to buy it (though a little birdie just told us about another winter holiday that may be happening today). This compilation is just as eclectic as last year’s Vol. 1, with 18 new tracks of Mizrahi, Yemenite, and Ladino artists from around the world.

From folk songs to hip-hop, electro to dance music, this is one of the most exciting mix albums to come out this year. Vol. 2 features, among others, artists like DeLeon and their Austin, TX indie-rock vibe, performer-composer Sam Glaser and his Middle Eastern sound, hip-hop artist Y-Love, and of course, producer and songwriter Diwon, who created the festival and the Sephardic and Jewish music empire from which it hails.

Our favorite track may just be Sarah Aroeste's La Comida La MaƱana. It's a perfect combination of Latin zest, Israeli spirit, and feminine fire. The album as a whole moves between genres fluidly, capturing the essence of Sephardic music from a different perspective with each new track.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Kafka's The Metamorphosis: The iPad App


In 1915, Franz Kafka published what would be his most famous work: a curious novella called The Metamorphosis, about a traveling salesman who wakes up one morning to discover he’s a huge, hideous bug.

Nearly 100 years later, a fledgling New York publishing company called Rocket Chair Media is launching an utterly 21st-century take on Kafka’s surrealist tale: The Metamorphosis: for iPad. In this inventive and original app, the now-classic story unfolds through the user’s twists, turns, and pinches, which prompt words to meander through eerily atmospheric pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations. Even without sound effects and videos, the movement of the text and images evokes the tingling sensation of a cockroach crawling across the screen.

Creator Joel Golombeck's vision for the company perfectly describes its debut app: "The goal of Rocket Chair Media is to synergize the beauty of – and nostalgia for – literature’s rich tradition with the new frontier of multimedia reading platforms." The Metamorphosis: for iPad is an exciting way to show book and technology lovers alike what that synergy can look like.

From January 1 – 8 the iPad app is on sale for $4.99 (regular price: $9.99) at the iTunes store. Happy new app!