Salvador Dali’s “The Land at the Start of Jewish Settlement.” Image courtesy Jconnect.

Last night a good showing of Jew-ish Seattleites turned out for the opening of Salvador Dali’s “Aliyah” exhibit at the UW Hillel. The collection of lithographs is one of only a few that’s still in tact, others having been broken up, though no one can say for sure how many complete collections are out there or what happened to the original washes.

The UW is fortunate to have in its Jewish Studies department Dr. David Blumenthal, who owns one complete collection. Blumenthal loaned the images to the Hillel, where they’ll hang until June 8. The paintings have already toured in a couple of US cities, and the fact that they’re here in Seattle for the next few months is huge. Even if you’re not a big Dali fan (which I’m not), you should still stop by Hillel to check out the 25 images that depict the life of the Jews out of the ashes of the Holocaust to the foundation of the State of Israel.

This series diverges from…

This week, the day before Valentine’s Day, gays and lesbians earned the right to marry in our state. At least, after June 7, and that’s no guarantee. Regardless, the G-L community and its supporters have great reason to celebrate.
This political measure was strongly backed by the Jewish community, including by the Federation and the JTNews. As usual, the Orthodox community was mum. While most people accept this as nothing new or exceptional, as a member of that community that silence was just so…loud.
I shot off a question to Modern Orthodox Rabbi Marc Angel, who runs the Jewish Institute for Ideas and Ideals. Angel hails from Seattle and his family comes from the same little Sephardic island enclave (Rhodes) my family-by-marriage does. Angel’s MO is to merge a traditional, Torah observant way of life with modernity and the world of mixed multitudes that we find ourselves in. His organization is described as offering “a vision of Orthodox Judaism that is intellectually sound, spiritually compelling, and emotionally satisfying.” It spurns a narrow, flat, superstitious and increasingly extremist version of Orthodoxy. It’s a much-needed approach, but unfortunately it requires critical…

Creds: guy-gomel

Israeli fashion magazine BelleMode recently published a series of photographs depicting the bus system’s sexuality crisis. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the back-story is that all these Hareidi guys want women to ride in the back of the bus, another example of the extremification of tzeniut (modesty) going on in ultra-orthodox circles.

What do you think? Is this really an edgy response? Or is it another example of Israeli pop culture trying to be France, and falling short?

Does anyone else get embarrassed to walk down the kosher aisle of the supermarket? Do Latin American and Asian people feel the same sense of shame in that same row? Like, “oh, when will the tortilla company get a newer look and stop marketing to the old lady who lives at the end of a dirt track with her entire family, and start marketing them to us, the hip new generation?”

I am mortified by our gelatinous gefilte fish, egg noodles and “matzos” that sit on the shelves all year round for the two old ladies who like to eat it in August with a shmear of shmaltz. Not that I don’t love these foods. The genetic palate is slow to change. But I was excited when I got an email from a Manischewitz marketing company advertising a new line of “healthy” and diet-specific classics. Maybe they would finally “rebrand” as something kind of cool? Maybe they’d make the products actually kind of healthy?

I opened up my box of samples with anticipation. Alas! What do we have? Sugar-free macaroons (second ingredient: xylitol, seventh: partially hydrogenated shortening, last: preservative). The can proudly says, “low sodium, no cholesterol, no sulfites.” Really? How…

Photo cred: Postaletrice/Creative Commons

I wrote this when I lived in Israel a few years ago. I was inspired by Joelle’s “pistachio petit-four consciousness” and decided to post it.

In Hebrew, like many languages, nouns are masculine and feminine. Hebrew uses a root system, meaning that most words are based on a tri-literal (three letter) root. “Lehakir” means to know, but in a personal way as opposed to a knowledge way (the French equivalent is “connaitre” vs. “savoir”). I can “know” someone or something in the sense that I am familiar with it. I use a different word when I want to say that I “know” a fact.

From there, myriad nouns spring from this root. Each one may use a slightly different form of the root letters to express a slightly different meaning, the way in English a word can be put into different forms for different purposes. For instance, I can “taste,” go to a wine “tasting,” find something “tasty”…