Jews and Judaism

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Voo dat?

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We cover stories about the intersection of sports and religion a lot here, but I had to point out this New Orleans Times-Picayune piece about the strong ties the religious community has to the New Orleans Saints. I’m a huge fan of sports but not a huge fan of the way that some clergy elevate sports to the level of the divine. Still, this story did a good job of explaining how this interplay works in the unique alternative universe that is New Orleans.


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Flying while Jewish

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On Thursday, a flight from La Guardia was diverted after a bomb scare. One of the passengers, a Jewish teenager, was doing his morning prayers and it alarmed the flight attendant. Not because of the prayers, per se, but because of the tefillin he was using. Based on passages from Exodus and Deuteronomy, Orthodox Jews use two small square boxes with straps attached to them and place on on the head and tie the other to the arm. Inside the boxes are parchment with Scripture.


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One is the loneliest number

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I was reading Pope Benedict XVI’s recent speech to the Vatican’s diplomatic corps when I came across this quote:


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FailedMessiah a journalistic savior

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When I was writing for The Jewish Journal, I learned a dirty little secret: Despite the great work being done by my paper, by The Forward, by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, some of the best work in Jewish journalism isn’t being done by journalists at all. While there is nowhere I would rather turn for in-depth coverage about the many facets of American Jewish life than the Big Three (sorry Jewish Week), a good deal of breaking news comes not from reporters but a few bloggers deeply rooted in the Jewish community despite the scorn their blogging earns them.


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God and culture: 2009 remix

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I’ve only been a card-carrying Get Religion-er since August, and in that brief time I’ve been repeatedly drawn to articles that cover the intersection of faith and culture.


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Dylan the mysterious 'true believer'

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So Bob Dylan went and made himself a Christmas album, instead of a holiday album. It ends with him singing “amen” at the end of a non-ironic “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Many will note that the album does not contain a performance, ironic or otherwise, of “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.”


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Behind the Music: Handel edition

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It’s that time of year when concerts of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah occur with seemingly ubiquity. The New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini reviewed one such performance yesterday, remarking that the bass “sang the repeated ‘the dead shall be raised incorruptible’ and ‘we shall be changed’ with such prophetic vigor that the prospect seemed almost terrifying.” I read a review of a different Messiah concert in the same paper a few weeks ago.


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Merry Christmas, Irv Sutley!

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Ah, yes, fewer than two shopping days 48 hours left to fire your salvo in the 2009 Christmas wars! To that end, The New York Times has a colorful little report on an order to remove seasonal religious symbols displayed in a public building and California. Only this time, there was no cross, creche or menorah:


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