JustASC

Oh, please:

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed shock at a “vulgar and hideous” remark by Joan Rivers on her E! Entertainment Television show “Fashion Police,” in which she commented on a dress worn by German-American supermodel Heidi Klum with the quip: “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens.”

Aside from doubling over with laughter, neither Ms. Rivers nor any of the co-hosts responded to the remark, and no apology was offered. The segment first aired on February 25 and has since been shown at least four times on the network, and it appeared briefly on YouTube.

I was with the ADL when it blasted Seth McFarlane’s Oscar routine, especially their argument that jokes about Jewish power might offer aid and comfort to anti-Semites abroad.

But this is, if anything, an anti-German joke, a bit of anti-Nazi revenge told by an elderly Jew. Seventy years on, the fact that you can barely mention a German in a comedy context without referencing their responsibility for the Holocaust is, if anything, a testament to the success of making sure that the world never forgets.

ADL is asking the network to ”prevail upon” Rivers to “issue a formal apology,” which strikes me as a strange and chutzpadik request. How meaningful is an apology wrung out of someone by a news release and a spate of bad press (ask Dov Hikind)?

If I worked for the ADL, I might ask for a meeting with Rivers and an opportunity to discuss why the organization felt the comment was offensive. Then, were Rivers to issue an apology or comment, it would at least be meaningful — the result of a process of engagement, instead of public shaming and reputation protection.

Now all they’ll get out of Rivers is a brush-off — whoops, too late.

JTA’s headline for Oscar night:

Israeli films lose again at Oscars

It took me a few minutes, but this headline from Bloomberg actually makes sense, and is not just a random series of search terms:

Fischer Loan Curbs Fuel Israel Rate Cut Bets as Growth Slows

Translation:

Stanley FISCHER, governor of the Bank of ISRAEL, will CURB the benchmark interest RATE on home LOANS, thus FUELing BETS by investors that the bank will CUT the benchmark interest RATE due to economic indicators pointing to SLOWing GROWTH.

I wrote a column this week questioning the strategy of those who objected to the Boycott Israel event held at Brooklyn College:

But even were the BDS movement unequivocally anti-Semitic, it’s still worth debating the best way to confront it. If ignoring them suggests condoning their message, and loudly protesting risks giving them more publicity than they deserve, perhaps there’s a third way. The best defense, in this case, may be a good offense. Instead of telling universities who should and shouldn’t be allowed on campus, pro-Israel organizations should be offering the kinds of speakers and programs that promote the kind of Israel they believe in.

Apparently I’m not he only person raising this idea: The Jewish Week reports that campus pro-Israel professionals say the confrontational approach only gives the BDS crowd more attention than they deserve, and that instead of transforming these fights into a free speech issue, the better strategy might be to offer pro-Israel counter-programming:

The Jewish professionals at campus Hillel organizations, the Israel Action Network and the Israel on Campus Coalition say the evidence is unequivocal: When Israel’s supporters learn about an upcoming event organized by those who would delegitimize the Jewish state, focusing on the country’s detractors hands that very crowd a victory.

“But when we focus our time on our own mission,” highlighting the positives about Israel, “we win,” said Stephen Kuperberg, ICC’s executive director.

“These things play themselves out over and over again,” said Geri Palast, IAN’s managing director. Her argument, like Kuperberg’s, is that making Israel’s detractors the issue only gives them the publicity they’re seeking, extending the life of their movement.

The piece quotes Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s advice that  ”by speaking out so loudly, [critics] were giving the forum and its organizers more publicity than they would have received otherwise”:

The ICC’s Kuperberg and other communal professionals told The Jewish Week that they agree with the mayor. The Washington-based ICC, an independent organization that provides information, resources and training to supporters of Israel, has researched more than 5,000 anti-Israel events during the past two-and-a-half years, learning that it pays to ignore groups agitating against Israel, Kuperberg said. [Emphasis added.]

NJJN has a story about an Edison rabbi who is demanding that “Hatikvah” be restored to a local Holocaust memorial event, two years after he suggested it be removed in deference to Muslim participants who refused to rise when it was sung. Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg’s reversal and protest have frustrated organizers of the event.

Now, out of Israel, is a story about brand-new Israeli Knesset member Ruth Calderon, who raised hackles by asking, as some progressives in Israel are wont to do, if “Hatikvah” can be made more palatable to Israel’s Arab minority:

Fledgling MK Ruth Calderon of the Yesh Atid party was attacked by Shas chairman Eli Yishai on Sunday after asking on Facebook if there were efforts under way to change Israel’s national anthem to make it more inclusive to Arab-Israelis.

“I was quite saddened when the Arab Knesset members left before singing the national anthem,” Calderon wrote, referring to an incident at last week’s swearing-in ceremony for new MKs. “Does anyone know of efforts to fix the words in order to include all Israeli citizens?”

Her post set off a thread of scores of comments, largely supportive, but Yishai released a statement that he was “shocked to hear this morning that on the social networks, there is a suggestion from Yesh Atid to take out the word ‘Jew’ from ‘Hatikva’ so Arab MKs will not leave while singing the national anthem.”

Besides being a pioneer of yeshiva-style learning for non-Orthodox and secular Israelis, Calderon spent some time in central New Jersey when her husband was the Israel emissary to the MetroWest federation.

(P.S.: Philologos, the language columnist for the Forward, is no liberal, but still acknowledges that “one could hardly expect an Arab to sing a national anthem that begins … “As long as deep within him / a Jew’s soul stirs, / and to the margins of the east, / his eye looks for Zion.”)

Israel Aerospace Industries concluded a preliminary design review for an unmanned spacecraft as part of a future mission to the moon:

Why does this look so familiar? Oh yeah:

Elisheva Goldberg recalls “The Tragedy And Success Of Rabbi David Hartman,” who died Sunday at age 81:

It was a regular NCIS episode around the office today, with me in the role of the guy who stands behinds lackeys at computers and yells, “C’mon, people. I want you to find everything you can get on this guy — where he lives, what he eats, who he sleeps with.” (Is there a guy on NCIS who does this? I’ve never seen it. Maybe I am thinking the Bourne movies.)

Anyway, that was me, after JTA posted a video about a Manhattan synagogue that was evicted and had to store all of its stuff in a storage facility in “the lower level of a defunct train depot” somewhere in New Jersey. Where in New Jersey? JTA didn’t say, and the reporter didn’t remember. But that’s not good enough for the New Jersey Jewish News. So we did a little detective work.

I asked Steve, one of our crack production people, to take a screen grab of the warehouse shown in the video:

We had our visual, but still no positive i.d. So we blew up the photo, and noticed three things: One, we really need more to do on a Monday; two, the names “Lackawanna [something]house” on the building’s side; and three, a door number that could be “679″:

A quick Google search and we had it: the Lackawanna Warehouse Co. at 629 Grove St., Jersey City. According to the Hudson Reporter, the warehouse, conspicuous to motorists driving north past the Holland Tunnel, was constructed between 1929 and 1930 and, indeed, originally used as a warehouse by the Lackawanna Railroad.

So mystery solved. I felt I had to mark the occasion with a David Caruso-like one liner. “You know, Steve,” I said, “we here at the NJJN can’t solve every mystery, but it’s not for lackawanna.” (Cue screaming guitar solo.)

Oy, were we kvelling last night: Jack Antonoff, guitarist for “best new artists” Fun., went to elementary school at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, which my kids attended.

Congregation AABJ&D, an Orthodox synagogue in West Orange, just sent out this advisory for members:

Do’s and Don’ts for Snow on Shabbat

 - One may shovel a path so that they can leave the house, however one is not permitted to chop ice or break up hardened snow.

- One may not shovel unnecessarily on Shabbat. For example one cannot shovel the driveway of one’s home.

- One may pour salt on the snow or ice on Shabbat as necessary.