JustASC

The L.A. Jewish Journal has breaking coverage of the West North Hollywood synagogue shooting:

The Los Angeles Police Department has issued an alert to all Jewish day schools and synagogues after two men were shot early this morning in the parking lot of Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue.

The shooting took place at 6:18 am in the subterranean parking structure of the synagogue, located at 12405 Sylvan Street in North Hollywood. According to LAPD Deputy Chief Michel R. Moore, two shooters approached two men on their way into the synagogue for morning prayers. The assailant fired the first shot, which struck one man in the leg, then fired a second shot.

Police responded at the scene, where the two victims, both Jewish, were stabilized and are reported to be in good condition.  The two shooters were described as older African American males. Police arrested one man for 17 year old male for questioning, but he is not a suspect at this time. Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times announces the wedding of NJ real estate baron and publisher Jared Kushner to Ivanka Trump, and the Forward has a piece by Sylvia Barack Fishman, Judaic studies prof at Brandeis, about what it means when the scion of a prominent Orthodox family marries an equally prominent Jew-by-choice:

In part, the relative nonchalance that greeted this high-profile pairing reflects a sea-change over the last century in attitudes toward Jews in America: Marrying a Jew — even becoming a Jew, as Ivanka has done — no longer means removing oneself from high society. On the contrary, becoming a Jew may mean joining one of contemporary American society’s most enticing cultural streams.

I think that should be Judaism’s new advertising pitch: “One of Contemporary America’s Most Enticing Cultural Streams!”

It sure beats the old one: “Now with twice the guilt!”

I love this: Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, who got into hot water after he was reported making a dicey joke about Jews, will be singing “God Bless America” at the Anti-Defamation League’s  annual meeting. From the ADL release:

 In a meeting with ADL leaders Dr. Tynan unequivocally and sincerely apologized for a comment he made about Jews. The ADL leaders said that “in talking with Dr. Tynan and hearing his life story, it was clear that he is a good man who understood that he had made an inappropriate comment that was hurtful not only to the person who heard it but to the community.”

I think having to sit through a Jewish testimonial dinner is enough punishment for anybody.

Over at Tablet, Columbia prof Jeremy Tauber weighs in on Glee’s recent Jewish story line (studly, mohawk-wearing Noah “Puck” Puckerman  hooks up with fellow “hot Jew” Rachel). Dauber posits that the show added a Jewish storyline in keeping with its “misfit” theme, and this:

The show’s bones are in Broadway; and— in a truth espoused by William Goldman in his backstage classic The Season 40 years ago and more recently and pungently in Eric Idle’s score for Spamalot—you won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have any Jews. Jews are as much a part of the DNA of American musical theater—and, as such, of Glee—as, well, gay men.

Yeah, maybe. But the Jewish stuff also seemed a little lazy. The frequency with which Hollywood injects Jews into plots  — where they are inevitably short-hand for misfits or intellectuals – suggests a lack of imagination and real guts, if you ask me. Going Jewish is an easy way to make your show look ethnic or “exotic” and, let’s face it, doesn’t run the risk of offending studio bosses for obvious ethnic reasons. (For the same reason, Jewish characters tend to be the same kinds of Jews you find in Hollywood offices: secular, ethnic, assimilated, and often confused about and/or mocking of Jewish ritual.)

If you’re a writer and want to push the envelope slightly more (an envelope  that has already been torn to shreds, by the way), then you add a gay character to your checklist. (Again, not likely to offend a significiant portion of the entertainment world.) So Glee doe just that, and also in the safest possible way: Kurt is femme-y and flamey and, get this, loves fashion and musical theater! (Imagine if Finn, the quarterback, was gay, or if Kurt wasn’t gay but transgendered  – now that would challenge stereotypes, not reinforce them.)

Glee wants to be a celebration of outsiders, but its misfits are the 2009 version of the platoon from a World War II movie. Instead of Moscowitz and Roselli and O’Leary and Smith, you have the Jew and the gay and the Asian-American and the overwight black girl and the disabled kid.

But if you want real “misfits,” I can imagine a few un-lazy and un-safe choices the writers could make. How about a Muslim character (Aliens in America, to which I’ve compared Glee before, did this to great and daring effect — it was essentially a mainstream sitcom that accepted the Third World’s critique of suburban American culture, to subtle and devastating effect).  Or a deeply religious kid — Jewish, Christian, Mormon – who isn’t a prude or a hypocrite. Or an Asberger’s kid who genuinely tries the patience of his peers, and isn’t precious in the Rain Man mode.

But I can’t get excited about another deracinated Jewish charcter who eats pork on Simchat Torah while watching Schindler’s List. Enough already.

This is a big moment for me: my first test of Starbuck’s Via.

My whole adult life I’ve complained about instant coffee. How hard can it be to approximate the taste of coffee? Not good coffee, necessarily, but ballpark? They do it in candies, why not a jar? 

I can’t even say that I hate the taste of your average instant — it can be pretty good with enough sweetener. But it isn’t coffee.

Starbucks is promising real coffee taste in its new instant. So here goes. My first taste.

Nothing. No wait — something. Not much flavor up front, but it leaves a little umami and a coffee-like bitterness as it goes over the back of my tongue. No real coffee aroma that I can tell. On the other hand, it doesn’t have the Sanka flavor either, so you don’t feel deceived. Just — let down.

As Mark Twain said, “If this is the coffee, I’ll take the tea. If this is the tea, bring me the coffee.”

I’m still waiting.

We’re working on a story for Thursday about the NJ gubernatorial elections and the issues Jews care about. One thing we’ve been asking people to respond to is the idea (expressed here by Matt Brooks, head of the Republican Jewish Coalition) that for many Jews the election will be a chance to express their disapproval of Obama’s Mideast policies.

In a conference call with Jon Corzine this morning, I asked him if the election was a referendum on Obama. His reply: 

To you and readers I’ll say the same thing I do when others bring that question: Isn’t it great that President Obama supports your candidacy and visits here to advocate it. The voters of NJ are ultimately going to decide who is going to serve their state the best in the coming four years, who is going to get us out stronger from the economic recession, who represents their values and how we  deliver healthcare and provide for a strong educational system.

Many [in the] Jewish community know full well we’ve done more on corporate tax reform and changing the  economic environment to make it more attractive to businesses to come to NJ …

But I think that at the end of the day this vote wil be taken by all communities more based on what they think an individual will do for their families, their communites, their lives here in the state of New Jersey…

In response to my question about whether he’ll pay the price among those who disapprove of Obama’s Mideast policies:

At the margin there may be some who believe that the president is not standing as strong with Israel as they would like to see and they might want to send a message. I think there will be some voters who may want to use that, use the ’no’ vote as a way to send a signal but I don’t think that is very large bloc and I know there are mixed views within the Jewish community about the president’s activities and actions — vocal groups on both sides.

No one can doubt for a moment that both when I was U.S.  senator and within the bounds of what I have the capacity to do as a governor I have been absolutely supportive of Israel’s right to peace with security and will continue to stand in every possible way with Israel as our best ally.

And you know we’ve expanded the number of dollars we have in Israel Bonds, you know about the Iranian divestiture, we speak out against the anti-Semitism at every opportunity we can and promoting an agenda that is very consistent with the vast majority of Jewish citizens in the state. 

Jon Corzine did a conference call with the state’s Jewish newspapers today (it was me and two others)  and was asked about the anti-Jewish, anti-gay Westboro protests. Charitably, I’d  say he wasn’t well-briefed on this one, and answered carefully if dispassionately:

We’ve been about as strong as any administration in writing … civil union laws and standing up for the pushback against anti-Semitic activities  and protecting our synagogues and federation buildings and others. Anytime there is ever a risk along these lines, we do not have the ability to keep people from expressing their freedom of speech but we will be attentive to it , naturally. I know we’re taking steps to make sure it [the protests] is reasonably well controlled. 

The ADL’s Etzion Neuer responds to today’s NJ protests by the Westboro Baptist Church. We’ll have updates throughout the day:

Thumbing your nose at the bigots, as some did three weeks ago in Brooklyn, may have a cathartic effect for some. But in the end it energizes and emboldens the bigots and hands them a publicity coup.

I’m a little late in acknowledging New York Magazine’s big pro and con feature on circumcision. But a piece I wrote on Sept. 2 anticipated Hanna Rosin’s defense by six weeks. Like Rosin, I wrote that circumcision is barbaric, but it’s not that barbaric; that its medical benefits outweigh the myths about trauma; and that folks with justifiedly personal qualms shouldn’t try to ruin it for those of who find it a difficult but profound aspect of Jewish tradition and belonging.

Writes Rosin:

People who oppose circumcision are animated by a kind of rage and longing that seems larger than the thing itself. Websites are filled with testimonies from men who believe their lives were ruined by the operation they had as an infant. I can only conclude that it wasn’t the cutting alone that did the ruining.

Eagleton has its latest poll out on the NJ gubernatorial race, and it has a cross-tab for religion.

Warning: Only 32 of the 543 respondents identified themselves as Jewish. But for what it’s worth, how the candidates stacked up among the Jews:

Corzine 44%

Christie 28%

Daggett 22%

Don’t know 6%