The Jewish Chinese Revolutionary

Did you know that during the Chinese Cultural Revolution a Jewish man headed the Chinese Broadcast Administration? The new documentary The Revolutionary (trailer here) explores the fascinating life of Sidney Rittenberg, who went from Southern Jewish gentleman to Cultural Revolutionary to prisoner, and back again. 

Rittenberg grew up in a prominent South Carolina Jewish family, and spent his student years as a labor and civil rights activist. When World War II broke out, he was drafted, sent to Stanford to learn Chinese, and then shipped off to China. Afterward, Rittenberg stayed in the Far East, where he joined the Communist Party and mingled with legendary figures like Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedung.

Rittenberg's fortunes took their first turn when Stalin accused him of espionage. He was sentenced to solitary confinement, and was released only upon the Soviet Premiere’s death six years later. He quickly made up for lost time, becoming a leading proponent of the Cultural Revolution, and leading the Chinese Broadcast Administration, a position of power never before—or since—held by a foreigner. But everything came crashing down when he ran afoul of Jiang Qing, Mao Zedung's wife and one of the Gang of Four. He was thrown back into solitary for another 10 years.

Now 91 and back in the U.S., Rittenberg and his Chinese wife run a consulting firm for companies looking to expand to the Chinese market. Needless to say, he's no longer a communist.

Teach Children to Be their Own Internet Filters

I learned may things about many things while a Jim Joseph Fellow at the Lookstein Institute for Jewish  Education in the Diaspora at Bar Ilan University. One of them is to "Listen to Dr. Eliezer Jones." He is usually funny and nearly always right. This past Sunday Orthodox Jews did what the New York Mets couldn't - they filled Citi Field. And they did it to hold a rally against the internet (the rally was advertised on the web, curiously. I dismissed the whole thing when I first heard about it as just another example of an insular part of the of the Jewish people becoming even more insular. Today, my friend Eliezer and a colleague of his from Yeshiva University made me think again. And again. They taught me something (more than one something).  Let them tell it as published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency...

By Eliezer Jones and David Pelcovitz 

OPINION

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Tens of thousands of Jews filled Citi Field in Queens on Sunday and heard from haredi Orthodox leaders that the Internet should be avoided in the home at all costs and used sparingly at work, and then only with a filter blocking content that could be damaging spiritually.

Debate as you will what some may see as draconian edicts to protect the Jewish community from moral corruption. But at the heart of the matter is a question that should concern us all: How do we keep our children safe on the Internet?

We know that we cannot work around the Internet. Research from the Pew Foundation indicates that 54 percent of children say they go to Google first when they have a question, as opposed to only 26 percent who say they go to a parent and 3 percent to a teacher. Rather we must figure out how parents and teachers can make this important tool work safely and effectively for our kids.

The difficulty is that even the simple solutions are incredibly complicated. Powerful filters can block illicit images and material, but those filters often block out the good with the bad and limit far too much useful information. This solution has been discussed and debated on our own campus concerning Internet access in dormitories.

Continue reading Davar Acher Blog.

The Black Bar Mitzvah

Rick Ross’ Mixtape ‘The Black Bar Mitzvah’ Gets Release Date & (Ridiculous) Cover Art

 

Rick Ross on Wednesday (October 3) made a surprise announcement to all his Twitter fans: he’ll be releasing the free mixtape The Black Bar Mitzvah on October 8 via DatPiff. In the process, he revealed the iconic-for-its-absurdity cover artwork. Yes, that’s a fur-clad Rozay superimposed on the Star of David. Does it signify a conversion? An inside joke with Drake? We don’t know, nor do we care; we’re just glad it exists.

The Bawse has been busy this year. In addition to brawling at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, he released the mixtape Rich Forever in January, then the Maybach Music Group compilation Self Made Vol. 2 in June and his #1 album God Forgives, I Don’t in July. Ross will also tour with his MMG cohorts beginning in November. Perhaps they’ll break out “Hava Nagila.”

Religion in College: How Has Your Faith Changed?

How does a college education affect one's religious beliefs? Given that college is a period of intellectual engagement and exploration, many scholars have believed that a college education weakens one's religious beliefs. In 1977 researchers David Caplowitz and Fred Sherrow wrote that college is "a breeding ground for apostasy." In 1983 sociologist James Hunter claimed that it was a "well-established fact" that education, even Christian education, "secularizes."

However, the secularizing effect of higher education has come into question in the past decade with new research suggesting that young adults who never enrolled in college are currently the least religious Americans.

In a study published in 2007 by the Social Science Research Council, sociologists Mark D. Regnerus and Jeremy E. Uecker reported on religious service attendance and religious dis-affiliation among young adults. According to their analysis of data collected by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health: 

1. While 64 percent of those currently enrolled in a traditional four-year institution reported a decline in religious service attendance, 76 percent of those who never enrolled in college reported a decline.
2. Twenty percent of those who did not attend college renounced all religious affiliation, whereas only 13 percent of four-year college students did the same.
But behind this hard data lie rich stories of religious and spiritual transformation in college. HuffPost Religion put out a call to our community to ask how their religious and spiritual outlook changed during their college years. Click through the slideshow on the website to see their responses.
If you are a college student or a recent graduate we want to hear from you. Tell us how your religious and spiritual outlook has changed in college. Did you increase in your understanding of your own religious practice? Did you lose your faith? Did you convert to another religion? Submit a 100-word response to religion@huffingtonpost.com along with your headshot and the name of your school, and we might feature your response on our website.
To learn more about the religious engagement of American undergraduates, visit this website.