Shavuot, the forgotten holiday

Unlike most Jewish holidays, Shavuot has no sad undertones. Could this be why 'the Torah’s birthday’ is generally overlooked?

By Yael Miller for Haaretz

I tutor students part time in a somewhat Jewish area outside of Washington, D.C. Most are pretty excited when they find out I’m Jewish, and I usually try to bond with them over their excitement by mentioning holidays or fun facts on Israel. Oftentimes, I’ll ask, “What holidays are coming up?” and see their faces light up when they answer.

This week, I asked several of my students, “What holiday is coming up?” and watched as a blank stare come over their faces. One postulated, “Yom Kippur?” another looked at me as if I were crazy and said, “Uh, Passover was last month, Yael.” Finally, one exclaimed after much thought: “Oh yeah! It’s the Torah’s birthday. It’s important, right?”

Shavuot has always puzzled me. It’s an important holiday, but honestly, for the vast majority of Jews out there, it isn’t celebrated, and if it is, it’s by eating cheesecake. Even the “Jew FAQ” website who lists a “Gentiles’ Guide to the Jewish Holidays” states that “this holiday is every bit as important as Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but most American Jews don't see it that way.”

You’d think that for a holiday that considers macaroni and cheese as appropriate festive food, that Americans would be obsessed with Shavuot (myself included). It’s a happy holiday, celebrating the gift of the Torah to the Jewish people, unlike the somber holidays like Yom Kippur. So why don’t we celebrate it more?

Part of me thinks that Shavuot is a victim of its timing. Coming after Passover, a holiday that literally takes over the kitchens of most Jewish people for about a week, I think most secular folk just feel, well, tired. After thoroughly cleaning our kitchens and suffering from the havoc that matza reigns on our digestive system, the thought of creating a full-dairy meal induces a figurative stomachache (or a very real one for those who are lactose-intolerant).

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For more Shavuot ideas, check out our    page.

Kiyaaa! – Joaquin Phoenix and girlfriend attend Jewish-Muslim karate workshop

by Jared Sichel for JewishJournal.com

About a dozen Jewish and Muslim high school students participating in a martial arts workshop in Los Angeles got a pleasant surprise Sunday – Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix showed up to watch with his girlfriend and renowned DJ, Allie Teilz.

Only two days earlier, Deadline.com reported that Phoenix will be starring in Woody Allen’s newest film, details of which are being kept under wraps. According to Variety.com, actress Emma Stone will star alongside Phoenix. Shooting is expected to begin in July.

Although Phoenix politely declined an interview, he and Teilz stayed for the duration of the workshop, over two hours, and he even walked around handing out bottled water to the small group of participants and observers, introducing himself and chatting with the people sitting next to him and Teilz.

In recent months, the Daily Mail has chronicled Phoenix’s karate habit, snapping photos of him leaving practice adorned in traditional martial arts garb. Sunday, he was dressed down, sporting a black hat, white shirt, and black jeans. The event was held at the Traditional Karate Academy on West Pico Boulevard, which doubles as “The Happy Minyan” synagogue on Shabbat and holidays.

The idea of bringing together Jewish and Muslim students around karate was endorsed by the United Nations Sport for Development and Peace, which aims to bridge cultural, religious, and ethnic groups through sports. UN official and conflict resolution veteran Gay Rosenblum-Kumaropened even kicked off the event via Skype, thanking the students for participating in the workshop.

The River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding supported the workshop as well.

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My Shabbat Dinner with Muslims

by Audra Gamble for newvoices.org

My grandmother tells this story about how a relative of hers who lived in Israel asked her, quite intensely, whether she was an American or a Jew. She didn’t know what to say; why couldn’t she be both?

For many American Jews, including me, this question is ridiculous. I have no problems with the intersecting parts of my identity. I can identify as Jewish, as American, as a college student, as a Cleveland Indians fan, and a whole host of other things without any problem.

But for those who fight for their identities and the validation of them, it is not so easy. When your life is full of uncertainty and fear, it makes sense to desperately cling to the identifying factor that you are fighting for. That thing begins to define every aspect of you.

So, the question posed to my grandmother by a man who lived in a place rife with conflict was not so preposterous for him.

It is impossible for Jews anywhere in the world to ignore events in Israel, and it is foolish to turn a blind eye on the violence – from both sides – of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is a deep and rich history of conflict, and thus hatred, between Muslims and Jews.

But that hatred is not inherent. Each and every Muslim and Jew has the ability to love rather than hate. Each and every Muslim and Jew has the ability to hug rather than hit. Each and every Muslim and Jew has the ability to chat and laugh rather than yell and fume.

And the decision to love and laugh is exactly what happened at Grand Valley State University. On March 14, the GVSU Hillel hosted its second annual Shabbat dinner welcoming the Muslim Student Association (MSA) in honor of Avi Schaefer, a young advocate for peace between Israel and Palestine who was killed by a drunk driver in 2010. Though West Michigan might not be known for its religious diversity, the GVSU students decided to put aside any differences, perceived or real, for an evening to come together for conversation and a meal.

The evening began like any other Shabbat dinner, with Shabbat prayers recited by those who knew them. We all shared some grape juice and challah, and then we grabbed plates of Mediterranean food and sat down at the same table.

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The Closing of the Academic Mind

By William Kristol for The Weekly Standard

From Brandeis on the Atlantic to Azusa on the Pacific, an iron curtain has descended across academia. Behind that line lie all the classrooms of the ancient schools of America. Wesleyan, Brown, Princeton, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Berkeley, Bowdoin, and Stanford, all these famous colleges and the populations within them lie in what we must call the Liberal sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from the commissars of Liberal Orthodoxy. .  .  .

How can one resist the chance to echo Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech? Okay, it’s not a precise analogy. It’s true that liberalism isn’t communism. It’s true that today’s liberals deploy the wet blanket of conformity rather than the clenched fist of suppression. It’s true that communism crushed minds, while today’s liberalism is merely engaged in closing them. And it’s true that most of the denizens of our universities, unlike the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, embrace their commissars. But commissars they are.

On April 8, the admirable human rights campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali had an honorary degree from Brandeis University revoked because some of her criticisms of Islamism—and yes, even (God forbid!) of Islam itself—were judged by that university’s president “inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values.” Apparently two of Brandeis’s core values are cowardice in the face of Islamists and timidity in the face of intolerance. Less than two weeks later, on April 21, an appearance by the formidable social scientist Charles Murray at Azusa Pacific University was canceled by its president, two days before Murray was to have appeared. The administration was afraid Murray’s presence on campus might hurt the feelings of some Asuza students and faculty. The same day, at Eastern Connecticut State University, a professor told his creative writing class that Republicans are “racist, misogynist, money-grubbing people” who “want things to go back—not to 1955, but to 1855,” and that “colleges will start closing up” if the GOP takes control of the Senate this November. If only!

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