JawsBlog » Jewish Stuff/Judaism

What’s a Jew to do on Christmas?

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism, New York City — Jaws @ 12:52 pm

Besides patronize the Bodegas and 7-11s (that seem to be the only things open)…the NYT has some ideas

Personally, if the family wasn’t coming to visit today, I’d definitely hit up the 92nd St Y’s screening of The Life of Brian and The Holy Grail!

Comments (0)

Hannukah Competitions

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism, New York City, Wierd Side — Jaws @ 11:25 pm

Two Hannukah (or Channukah) stories that have their origins in New York City and Long Island.

The first is the Major League Dreidel competition–taking place at a bar on the LES. The league with a thankfully short season, features a game of dreidel very different from what previous generations of LES residents played.

Meanwhile out on Long Island, there was the potato latke eating competition. The winner, a 6′2″ bodybuilder, downed 46 latkes (7 lbs) in 8 minutes! (He has to be bulking–but even still, that’s just sick)

Comments (0)

The “hip” holiday

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 7:56 pm

Hanukkah is becoming almost hip

Still have to figure out my gifts for the siblings…

Comments (0)

The Kosher Quandary: Ethics and Kashrut

Filed under: Academia, Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 10:46 pm

An (unofficial) transcript of the discussion at Yeshiva University, titled: “The Kosher Quandary: Ethics and Kashrut” has been posted at my cousins’ blog.

It touches on Agriprocessors/Rubashkins and the fallout from it.

Comments (0)

Cause for panic!

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism, New York City — Jaws @ 11:26 pm

Customers stew as kosher meat gets scarce

Even worse, from the article, from my local butcher:

But Murray Weltz, co-owner of Park East Kosher Butchers & Fine Foods in New York, said Agriprocessors used to supply about 50 percent of the 5,000 pounds of beef he sells on a busy week, about the weight of a Hummer H3. One recent week was bad, he said. He was short 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of meat. And kosher short ribs that cost him $12.98 per pound in May are now $16.98.

/Responsible for purchasing at least 2 lbs of that red meat per week.

Comments (0)

Agriprocessors (Rubashkin's) To Shut Down?

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 10:53 pm

The news that the country’s largest Kosher meat production facility is on the verge of shutting down is not good news.

It isn’t good in the sense that Kosher meat is already expensive, and with a significant decrease in supply, it only means prices will go higher (boo!)

Now, this is not to say that Agriprocessors didn’t have this coming. Hiring illegal immigrants, many of whom were underage to work at the plant is despicable on multiple levels.

I’m personally not looking forward to the price increase on Kosher meat.

Comments Off

Anti-Iran Rall turns partisan

Filed under: Campaign 2008, Israel, Jewish Stuff/Judaism, Middle East — Jaws @ 9:56 pm

Can’t say I didn’t see this coming: Anti-Iran rally turns into anti-Obama rally.

First off, I wasn’t in attendance, not for political reasons, but rather because I had work. [Try getting from the Columbus Circle area over to the UN, on a weekday, mid-day].

Second, ever since the organizers were (politically) pressured/threatened by certain groups on the left to have Palin withdraw, there’s been an uproar.

Fact is, the most vocal, anti-Iran segments of the community are probably leaning towards McCain/Plain to begin with. Second, Palin’s still got that “rock star” vibe going on–and an Alaskan in NYC could definitely draw quite the crowd. However, since the disinvite, there were calls of disapproval from some segments plus other calls for boycott by others. Doesn’t help things.

It’s a shame the rally didn’t get more than the estimated ~2000 attendees.

Comments (0)

McCain polling well with South Florida Jews?

Filed under: Campaign 2008, Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 9:31 pm

So says CNN…therefore take it with a grain of salt.

Personally, I put little faith in polls. Rather, I just wanted to share this Fark headline that came with the article:

Although South Florida Jews are usually loyal democrats, McCain may sway voters. “Obama is too thin — look at him. Like a skeleton. That woman he’s with isn’t feeding him enough. Oy vey.”

Let the kveteching commence

Comments (1)

Thinking outside the bagel

Filed under: Campaign 2008, Jewish Stuff/Judaism, New York City, Politics — Jaws @ 8:37 pm

Very creative article title in the WSJ the other day (I’ll find the link later)

This poll result though, has to be an anomaly…

Shock Poll: Jews Now Favor McCain in New York, 54-32

I’ll assume that most of those polled were not residents of the Upper West side?

Even with 14% either undecided or voting other, those are some suprising numbers. My un-educated guess would be that McCain is scoring higher with the more religious demographic than Obama. The main topics would probably be Israel, charter schools, his “maverick” reputation, etc.

Comments (0)

Hipsters v. Hassids

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism, New York City — Jaws @ 9:53 pm

The ultra-orthodox Jews in Williamsburg don’t seem to be too happy with some new bike lanes going through their part of town.

The main culprits: Hipsters.

Now the ultra-orthodox Jews in question are the extremely insular (could one say “xenophobic”) Satmar sect.

Now this pits two not too popular groups against each other. But in this case the Hipsters may have the advantage–as the Satmar’s need to realize that if they’re gioing to be in Williamsburg, they’ll have to adapt to their new neighbors.

Comments (0)

YU Gender Bender

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism, Wierd Side — Jaws @ 10:11 pm

This is a bit of a surprise:

Yeshiva University riled by Transgender Professor

Odd to say the least.

Going to have to ask my source at YU for more about this story….

Comments (0)

Meat

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 9:44 pm

Had a craving for some red meat this evening. Unfortunately, hte butcher didn’t have any extra lean ground beef or any bison available (awww!).

Settled for some turkey instead…something I’ve not had since, wow, Passover time maybe (come to think of it).

Something new caught my eye however–kosher elk!

Seemed interesting. Anyone ever had Elk before? Care to share opinions?

Comments (0)

Mazel Tov!

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism, Personal — Jaws @ 10:04 pm

Mazel Tov to my cousin who is getting married this evening down in Florida. Mazel Tov as well to her chattan and the whole mishpacha

The sister was supposed to be headed down to the wedding this morning, but the airline canceled her flight. Needless to say, she’s not been the happiest camper today.

Comments (0)

Treif Buisness Practices

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 10:54 am

Looks like another strike against Rubashkins (a/k/a Aaron’s Meats)

NYT: 2 Supervisors Are Arrested After Sweep at Meat Plant

My Rabbi from home has apparently told the congregation to boycott Aaron’s meats until their buisness practices are cleaned up. In doing so, I guess that means more trips for me to the UWS or to the grossly overpriced butcher shop here on the UES (Park East Kosher).

Comments (0)

MP4s–Treif?

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 8:51 pm

MP4s are devil’s device, says [Ultra] Orthodox Court

No word on MP3s or iPods

Comments (0)

Revival of the Men’s Club

Filed under: Interesting, Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 8:16 pm

Where are the men in American Judaism?

Comments (0)

Punked on Al-Jazeera

Filed under: Israel, Jewish Stuff/Judaism, Middle East — Jaws @ 9:01 pm

Great article about how an Al-Jazeera journalist gets -p0wned by an Israeli professor.

Of course, there’s a YouTube clip as well

If only all of Israel’s Hasbarah was this good.

Comments (0)

Afikoman to be more valuble!

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 10:12 pm

In our family, the tradition was that us children (when we were younger that is), would hide the Afikoman during the early part of the Seder. Then when it was time for the Afikoman, we’d “ransom” it back to Grandpa.

Now it looks like the afikoman may have been a more valuble commodity this year–with the reports of a Matzo shortage!

If Matzo sales go down…predict a drop in the sales of prunes as well. (For those of you unaware, excess matzo consumption leads to some GI difficulties).

Comments (0)

Not on Grandma’s Menu

Filed under: Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 8:41 pm

I’ll be in Ohio this weekend for Passover, and will be having Seders with Grandma….meaning all the classics.

Though some are attemping (nobely) to put a modern/trendy spin on the classic staples. Take spinach or tomato matzo balls.

Those definitely didn’t exist in the old country.

Comments (0)

Just in time for Passover

Filed under: Interesting, Jewish Stuff/Judaism — Jaws @ 9:18 pm

The growing backlash against Ethanol production–which is cutting down on supplies of crops like corn…

With rising food prices…one would think it may be a good time to start a low-carb diet. Although, the next major crop maybe the potato…

Comments (0)

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Dec
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

12/25/2008

12/23/2008

12/20/2008

12/10/2008

12/1/2008

11/13/2008

9/22/2008

9/18/2008

9/17/2008

9/12/2008

9/8/2008

8/18/2008

8/12/2008

7/5/2008

7/1/2008

6/22/2008

6/12/2008

4/22/2008

4/16/2008

4/14/2008

Links

Neuroscience

Categories:

Archives:

Meta: