Press roundup

Westboro Baptist Church member Margie Phelps rails against Jews and Israel in a protest outside the Washington offices of the Anti-Defamation League on May 8, 2009. (Eric Fingerhut)

 

 

 

Here are some news stories with Jewish angles that appeared in various media over the past eight or nine days that did not make the front pages.

Apparently a Rockland county yeshiva took a hands-on approach to teaching the laws of kosher slaughtering: Cow Slaughtered in Yard of Ramapo Yeshiva. Why didn't they take the students on a field trip to a kosher slaughterhouse?

 

A kinder fate befell an Australian donkey redeemed in a rare Talmudic ceremony: In rare ceremony, Jews redeem donkey in Australia (JTA). The same can not be said of the sheep for which the donkey was exchanged.

 

Doing the right thing: NYC man realizes painting in his living room was looted by Nazis, returns it to Jewish estate (Entertainment Daily). Mr. Feigen is a mensch. Also relating to the Shoah, AFP reports Mystery of message in a bottle found at Auschwitz solved (Yahoo News).

 

On a softer note we find a NY Post article about a Boro Park gas station with a kosher foodmart: B'KLYN GAS STOP A KOSHER DELIGHT.

 

Thank you, President Obama: Obama declares May 'Jewish American Heritage Month' (Haaretz).

 

The Jewish Week and Haaretz both report that Modern Orthodox congregations now have a new siddur that reflects their world view better than the ultra-Orthodox Artscroll siddur: Battle of the Books and Storming the siddur scene. Leon Morris' review of the new Koren Siddur, Finally, A Book Of (Mostly) Common Prayer makes me wish Koren would publish a liberal version with gender neutral God language and the matriarchs.

 

The Forward's Nathan Burstein interviews Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir about the latter's new documentary Defamation in an article entitled Turning His Lens on the ADL. Not surprisingly the ADL does not care for the film: ADL Statement on "Defamation," a Documentary Film by Yoav Shamir. In case anyone thinks domestic antisemitism is a thing of the past JTA reports that the Kansas homophobic church that has been marring soldiers' funerals has now turned its bigotry against us: Militant anti-gay church turns its sights on Jews. Heeb Magazine reminds us that not everything bad that happens to a Jew is the result of antisemitism in a video that appears under the headline: Drunk Jew Arrested at Airport.

 

Haaretz reports that Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli ranked world's third 'hottest' woman by Maxim magazine. The article also reveals that Bar Refaeli is the girlfriend of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

Your NY Jewish Culture Examiner has yet to make the list of JTA's 100 Most Infuential Jewish Twitterers. His TwitterGrader ranking is still only 89 out of 100.