Jewz in the Newz

By Nate Bloom

Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

JewishWorldReview.com | ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME The 2013 induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was held on April 18 and, on Saturday, May 18, at 9PM, HBO will broadcast ceremony highlights (many encore showings). Three tribe members were inducted: RANDY NEWMAN, 69; GEDDY LEE, 59 (as a member of the three-man Canadian rock band, "Rush"); and LOU ADLER, 79.


Newman, who began as a singer-songwriter, has mostly been a film score composer since 1981. He's been nominated for twenty Oscars (won twice)-- and while he has only had one pop hit ("Short People"), his songs (like "I Think It's Going to Rain Today") have been recorded by a who's who of pop/rock singers. His 1974 song, "Louisiana 1927," about a great flood, became virtually the theme song for Hurricane Katrina (2005) benefits.


Lee, the band's bassist and lead vocalist, is an icon for progressive rock devotees and there's been much grumbling about the band's wait to get into the Hall. Lee was born Gary Lee Weinrib, the son of two concentration camp survivors. He's referenced his parents' experience in a couple of "Rush" songs. In 1995, he accompanied his mother on a trip to Bergen-Belsen to mark the 50th anniversary of the camp's liberation.


Adler, inducted as a non-performer, has worn many hats. His record company discovered the Mamas and the Papas. He was a mentor to CAROLE KING, 71, who sang a song in his honor at the ceremony. He produced the great (for-charity) 1967 Monterey Pop festival, which showcased incredibly talented new faces in rock music, like Jimi Hendrix. On top of all this, Adler had the great sense (and great mazel) to buy up the rights to the stage version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and turn it into a movie. Adler, by the way, is the guy who always sits courtside at Lakers' games, next to Jack Nicholson, and Nicholson was at the HOF ceremony.

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From Amy to Aviva: My Journey From Bullying Target to School Faculty

Two months ago, New Voices published an article about childhood bullying and its life-long effects. We put out a call for our readers to send in their own stories, of bullying and of what that bullying means to them now; of these stories, we chose the one that resonated with us most strongly. That story is what follows.  by Aviva Perlman

Then:

I can’t recall when or how the bullying started. I know something changed when I was nine and I had to start another school for fourth grade. I was finding it difficult to make friends. I was never wanted at lunch tables and in classrooms groups; I was rarely invited to birthday parties and rarely had play dates.  At first, none of this really bothered me.  I figured it was simply from being a new kid and that sooner or later things would fall into place.  But then the whispering started, and the laugh, and then the stares.  I don’t exactly know about of what they were making fun of me, but it didn’t matter.  My sentence had been written. I was marked. Once you are marked, it’s very hard to change that status.

My confidence and self-esteem—things I didn’t even know existed—plummeted, and my paranoia grew.  I no longer wanted to put myself out there or volunteer for anything, and whenever I saw someone whisper, I always thought it was about me.

Along came fifth grade; the whispers and sneering followed me. One summer away from school can’t erase the mark.  I quickly pounced on making friends with the new kids—being nice and offering them a place to sit at lunch.  However, once the other classmates deemed these new kids cool, they disappeared, having learned that being friends with me was social suicide.  I found myself wandering around the playground by myself during recess looking for people to play with.


By this point, the school administration was quite familiar with me, as I frequented their office, constantly expressing the troubles I was having with my classmates, in hopes that something would be done about it.  All I got was a figurative pat on the head and a sympathy smile.  And so, I reached a breaking point that year, writing a letter to my teacher, saying I couldn’t handle it and I didn’t know what else to do.  Naturally, it sounded an alarm and the school’s guidance department ordered me to see a psychologist.

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A House Divided

At apartheid’s end, the dorms of the University
of the Free State in Bloemfontein were integrated.At first it went well, then the students chose to resegregate. A story of the continuing battle against racism in South Africa.

Billyboy Ramahlele heard the riot before he saw it. It was a February evening in 1996, autumn in South Africa, when cooling breezes from the Cape of Good Hope push north and turn the hot days of the country’s agricultural heartland into sweet nights, when the city of Bloemfontein’s moonlit trees and cornfields rustle sultrily beneath a vast sky glittering with stars. The 32-year-old dormitory manager at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein was relaxing in front of a wildlife program on the TV with his door open.

Suddenly, he became aware of a new noise. Could it be the trees, rustling in a gust? No, it was heavier, more like trampling. Could it be his TV? He switched it off. The noise grew louder.

Ramahlele got up and poked his head out the door. There he saw the students of the dorm he managed, which housed about 100 black males, some of the first blacks to attend the historically white university since it had integrated four years earlier. And he immediately saw the source of the noise: His boys were stampeding out of the dorm entryway and running toward central campus. Some of them were singing militant songs from an earlier era, when blacks fought against apartheid rule, including one that went Kill the Boer, a nickname for white Afrikaners. Many were holding sticks or cricket bats.

They said they wanted to confront the white boys on campus. The whites, they claimed, refused to treat them as they should be treated in South Africa’s new democracy, and they wanted to put an end to their insolence once and for all. More than one boy opened up his jacket to show Ramahlele a gun tucked inside.

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With new luxury dorm, Orlando philanthropists offer Hillel evergreen funding model

Real estate developer Hank Katzen has a dream: If you build it, they will come.

Except this is no baseball field in an Iowa cornfield. It’s a $60 million, 600,000-square-foot luxury dormitory at the nation’s second-largest college campus, the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

When it opens in August, the new dorm will push the bounds of cushiness. Every room has en-suite bathrooms and flat-screen TVs. Suites have island kitchens with stone countertops, washer-dryers and walk-in closets. Duplex units feature spiral staircases and two-story atriums.

There is a resort-style swimming pool, 24-hour fitness center, sauna and game room. The parking garage is seven stories, ensuring that no student will have to take an elevator or brave the Florida elements on the way from their cars to their dorm rooms.

But what makes Katzen’s new facility noteworthy isn’t so much the lavishness as the idea behind it: to create America’s first self-sustaining Hillel. The ground floor of the seven-story building will include a 20,000-square-foot Hillel center with operations to be be funded in large part by rental income from the 600-bed dormitory.

The Jewish philanthropists behind this unique arrangement aren’t simply giving the 15-year-old Hillel at UCF a building; they’re giving it a permanent income stream.

“This is a remarkable gesture of philanthropy — the university desperately needs the beds, and Hillel could use this funding,” said Sidney Pertnoy, a Miami businessman and philanthropist who is chairman-elect of Hillel International. “There are some Hillels connected to some housing, but nothing even remotely resembling this model. It’s a unique cash-flow model and we’re super excited about it. We’re hoping this is a prototype for other communities.”

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Meditation in Judaism

Although many think that meditation does not exist in Judaism, they will be surprised to find out that it does exist. Not only does it exist, but it played an important role in the time of the early followers (Chasidim) of the saintly Baal Shem Tov.

Although there are Jewish devotees of Eastern meditation who have turned back to their Jewish roots because they can not find any outlet for meditation in their observance in Jewish ritual, none the less, meditation does exist in Judaism as shall be shown.

The word for meditation in the Hebrew is "hitbonanut" (or hisbonanos as the Chassidim pronounce it). What causes the difficulty for those who have practiced Eastern meditation is that hitbonanut does not resemble the meditation form that they have become accustomed to in their encounter with the Eastern religions but because it is different does not mean it is not meditation.

The problem is that although hitbonanut plays a very important role in Judaism, it has been marginalized by the halachically inspired practices of those who follow the Lithuanian style of Judaic life. They view the adherence to Jewish Law in exactingness as being the only acceptable form of devotion. While this adherence to Jewish Law is undoubtedly important, still it does not supply the inner fire of devotion in prayer. Conforming to Jewish Law is only the external manifestation of prayer but meditation provides the internal aspect which is critical for proper prayer, the connection to the Infinite.

The form of meditation that was advocated by the early Chassidim (and captured so well in chapter 42 of the remarkable book, Tanya, by the first rebbe of Chabad) differs from the Eastern method of meditation not only in form but in substance.

Both forms of meditation claim to bring G-dliness into the person but differ greatly. Without going into the details of Eastern meditative practices, let us get involved in the purpose, place and substance of Jewish Meditation.

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8 Things You Can Only Do After You Graduate

 THE CONSPIRACY BY SIMI LICHTMAN

In yet another of Buzzfeed’s relevant and so-funny-cuz-it’s-true series of list-styled articles, staff writer Arielle Calderon wrote an article entitled “21 Things You’ll Never Do Again After Graduating College.” And while I wouldn’t say it’s one of Buzzfeed’s best articles (now, that would make an excellent list), it clearly hit home with a lot of Buzzfeed’s readers (would you say 90% are probably college students or recent grads?) as it’s one of the top articles on the site right now.

Personally, I only did about 5 things on that list even when I was in college, but then again I went to a fake college that’s more like high school (Stern College, I’m looking at you), so there’s that. My boss, on the other hand, pointed out that he’s done half the things on the list even since he’s been graduated, which made me realize: What are the top things that you only get to do once you’ve graduated college? And so we have this list, to encourage those poor sad babes who saw Calderon’s list and now dread graduating (silly pup!):

1.  Nap during the day.
Okay, you could do this in college, but whoever tells you that you can’t nap anymore after college is very bad at napping. Never have I spent more time in bed during the day than since graduating college, not counting my stint with mono. Where there is a bum’s will, there is a napping way.

2.  Come home and be done for the day.
No more procrastinating, because there’s nothing to procrastinate. You finish work, come home, and watch TV without the guilt of five papers hanging over your head. Or, you’re unemployed and watch TV all day. Or you’re in grad school, have 10 papers, and that’s just your own fault, because why oh why did you go do more schooling?

3.  Have a degree.

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What’s the best Jewish college campus in America?

 By Ben Harris · April 29, 2013

Participate in JTA’s first annual Best Jewish Campus Survey to help us determine which colleges have the best Jewish Greek life, kosher food, Hillels, Jewish studies programs, Jewish a capella groups, and more.

Fill out JTA’s 3-minute survey and get automatically entered to win a $200 American Express card. Forward our contest to all your undergraduate friends.

(Survey open to undergraduate students only. All participants from the winning college will receive a commemorative gift.)