As the 30 year-old former publisher of Jewschool, Jerusalem distributor of Heeb, webmaster of JDub Records, viral marketer of Matisyahu, and a current friend and colleague of Danya Ruttenberg’s, I can attest that the only time that I’ve ever met anyone whose identity went no deeper than “the assurance that it is cool to be Jewish” was at a Fuel for Truth rally. On the other hand, my friends — the ones who founded, or currently run, or are otherwise deeply involved with these reviled “hipster” projects — are religiously engaged, well-read, vastly knowledgeable Jewish communal professionals who, at a certain point in their practice or careers, decided the status quo wasn’t working for them or their peers.

The horror!

Funny that the same folks leading a religious renaissance with independent minyans and the like are accused of being “secularists” that are “hostile” or “ambivalent” to religiosity. Hell, even Heeb’s Joshua Neuman, who himself isn’t particularly faithful, has a masters from Harvard Divinity School.

But Myers isn’t just out of touch with America’s sub-40 Jews, he’s also apparently out of touch with current events. That’s because he’s about four years late to the party. The Jewish hipster backlash has, indeed, already come and gone. In 2005, former NY Sun contributor Gabi Birkner, writing then for the Jewish Week, assailed Heeb, Jewcy, JDub, and the usual assortment of characters, for failing to save the American Jewish future (as if that were even their charter). She wasn’t the first, nor, apparently, would she be the last to do so.

Here we are now, four years later, though, and the verdict is already in: These efforts, which Myers terms “doomed to fail,” have, in fact, already succeeded tremendously in increasing identification, affiliation and participation among younger Jews. Hence the altogether recent drive by the Jewish funding establishment to support the innovation sector. But hey, since when does Commentary concern itself with facts? (See: Operation Iraqi Freedom.)

Speaking of which: The fact is that unlike earlier criticisms of the Jewish innovation movement and contrary to what he seemingly wants you to believe, Myers’ issue isn’t with our alleged lack of substance. His issue is with the fact that our Jewish identities have substance — substance of our own. His attack, much like everything else in Commentary, is motivated by political interest, not by reason. Thus he complains that our generation disliked Bush and voted for Obama, that we are too multicultural, that we identify with the struggles of the oppressed, that we ally ourselves with minorities, that we are feminist and queer-conscious, that we’re environmentally aware, that we don’t make bedfellows with Christian fundamentalists, nor desire bombing Iran. In effect, he dislikes that we are liberal.

Of course, only a Jewish conservative would claim our liberal values to be antithetical to either the Jewish tradition or Jewish interests. Never mind that Judaism has always been a diverse meritocracy in which the best ideas thrive, whether left, right or center, religiously or politically. Because we’re not merely uneducated miscreants “rewrit[ing] Judaism [to be] in line with the current fashions,” we are aware of and confident in our connection to our heritage and its legacy of ideological counterculturalism, spiritual universalism and social activism. We are empowered, as a generation, to look towards our ancestors and our textual sources for validation.

That is ultimately what Myers and his neoconservative academic ilk find threatening: Our “self-creation” unencumbers us from control by the Jewish religious and political establishments. We no longer feel it necessary to conform to the status quo — to adopt the mandates of rabbinic authorities or the Conference of Presidents — in order to have meaningful Jewish experiences and to be connected to Jews, Judaism or Israel. We no longer need the likes of Commentary to tell us how to be Jewish.

The horror!

If you aren’t following me on Twitter or, if you’re my friend but not my friend on Facebook, you’re missing a lot.

Last week we rolled out a bunch of new UGC features on JTA’s website. First there’s Readers Report, which, like CNN’s iReport, allows users to upload original news content. Then there’s JBlogs, your run-of-the-mill Jewish blog aggregator, but one which will expose Jewish bloggers’ content to JTA’s quarter million readers. Finally, and most exciting of all, there’s Kavod, a Pligg-based social news site for Jewish content.

The need for Kavod is obvious. Since Jews only make up less than 1% of the world’s population, they also make up a small percentage of users on popular social media sites like Digg and Reddit. Therefore Jewish content tends to either get buried or lost in the fray. Kavod will bring attention to media that may otherwise go unnoticed, help foster a community-wide dialogue, and identify the content which matters most to Jewish media consumers.

And considering JTA’s significance as, essentially, the official news organ of the North American Jewish community, and thus considering its readership which includes the leadership of America’s preeminent Jewish organizations, Kavod, JBlogs and Readers Report combined move us communally towards the democratization of Jewish news gathering by providing users the ability to share with JTA’s editors and community of readers the Jewish content which matters most.

Remember my shtick from Jewschool about “prying Judaism from the lifeless fingers of the Jewish establishment and serving it up to the public with the insistence, ‘This belongs to you?’” If I’ve truly contributed anything valuable to the Jewish community in my service to JTA thus far — which has been my only aim in serving in a professional capacity at a Jewish institution — I believe this is it.

So with that said, please go fill these suckers with content and show us which Jewish issues matter most to you!

I’ve got a piece up on Jewcy this evening regarding the relative success of Avigdor Lieberman’s far-right party Yisrael Beiteinu in today’s Israeli elections and the impact his proposal to disenfranchise Israeli Arabs will have on pro-Israel advocacy efforts.

As ludicrous as [his] policies may seem, the party’s strong showing in today’s elections evidences that Lieberman’s ideas are gaining traction among a war and peace process weary Israeli electorate hungry for new ideas that adequately address Israel’s oldest challenge: maintaining both the Jewish and democratic character of the state.

In their biggest polling victory to date, Yisrael Beiteinu won 15 seats in the Knesset, coming into third place ahead of the once dominant Labor party. While the party has seen moderate electoral success in the past, neither Yisrael Beiteinu nor its chairman has ever enjoyed so much public support nor media attention. Now Yisrael Beiteinu may very well decide whether Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima party or Benjamin Netanyahu’s moderate right Likud party forms the next government coalition.

What this means for Lieberman’s proposed agenda remains to be seen. It’s quite unlikely that such policies would ever see the light of day under a Likud or Kadima administration. Yet the fact that a prominent Israeli politician is gaining ground on such a platform itself gives cause for concern, as it risks further undermining an already considerably weakened pro-Israel position. Should such policies ever come to pass, experts say that defending them would be untenable.

Read the full piece here.

I’ll hopefully have another piece up soon here on OA regarding my thoughts on some other incidents that transpired in the last few weeks.

[Update] Jim Besser’s on the same page.

Sometimes I’m just too lazy to blog and too exasperated to discuss politics.

• This month’s “Harper’s Index” offers an illuminating and horrifying retrospective of the Bush era. [Harper's]
• Designers Thomas Fuchs and Felix Sockwell deconstruct the RNC elephant logo. [Thomas Fuchs]
• From Andre’s posse to the Smithsonian: Street artist Shepard Fairey’s now archetypal Obama portrait has been inducted into the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.. [Supertouch]
• In an international effort entitled “Buy my street art,” artist Mr Talion responds to the ongoing commodification and commercialization of street art. [Flickr]
• Where do you want to wake up tomorrow? [Fifty People One Question]
• Al Farrow’s collection of sanctuaries and religious articles sculpted from weapons includes a menorah made from handguns and ammunition. [Al Farrow]
• Monty Python’s content-rich YouTube channel increased their online DVD sales by 2300%. [Mashable]
• L.A.’s Gallery 1988 is hosting an exhibition of dopetastic artwork inspired by the Beastie Boys through Jan. 29. [Under The Influence]

I hate to rehash this because the last thing I desire in life right now is to find myself entangled in an interblog flame war. But I feel it necessary to point out that some of the same folks who vilified me and my friends for raising money for both Lebanese and Israeli war victims in 2006 are now promoting a similar effort in southern Israel to provide relief to Gaza.

Shortly after our fundraiser made headlines that summer, The Middle, an anonymous contributor to the popular weblog Jewlicious, accused my friends and me of being motivated in our actions not by a belief in “peace, brotherhood among all people, the Jewish imperative to act in certain ways, [...] etc.,” but rather by “personal insecurity and a desire not to be perceived negatively by the larger society that surrounds [us].”

Because I was personally outspoken in my objection to the nationalistic fervor that was sweeping the Jewish community at the time, excoriating my fellow Jews for their callous disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians and their fevered calls to extend the battlefront to Iran, The Middle claimed not only that our effort was disingenuous, but that we were providing aid and comfort to the enemies of Israel.

In reality, my friends and I were motivated chiefly by immense feelings of powerlessness and desperation. The Prime Minister of Israel himself, Ehud Olmert, had said numerous times throughout the war that the battle was directed against Hezbollah, not against the Lebanese people. And yet no efforts were being undertaken to demonstrate that. We wanted to do something that would express the empathy we felt towards all victims of the war, and yet there were no means available by which to accomplish that.

We thus chose to commit an act of loving-kindness, inspired by the teachings of our rabbinic elders, who emphasized our obligation as Jews to love all of G-d’s creation and to have compassion for and mercy upon the weak and downtrodden. And so we raised money for victims of the war in southern Lebanon as well as for victims in Israel’s north.

We did not desire to show that we were the “good Jews,” as opposed to the “bad Jews” who supported the war, as it was alleged. In fact, one of my co-organizers supported the war. Rather, we sought to show all Jews that there is more than one way to respond Jewishly in such a situation. We also wished to show that compassion and empathy can be powerful agents of change and that they can go a long way in healing the rifts between the Jewish and Arab worlds. And to the non-Jewish world — particularly to the Lebanese — we wanted to make it clear that Israelis and Jews do, in fact, care about the suffering of innocent people. Especially the ones we’ve made suffer.

For expressing this sentiment, we were derided, humiliated and bemoaned. And yet now, two-and-a-half years later, in the interest of rebuffing those who demonize Israel and the Jewish people, the folks at Jewlicious are upholding an Israeli campaign to raise money for Gazans as evidence of Jewish and Israeli compassion and humanitarianism.

In a post this morning, publisher “CK” Dave Abitbol writes (sarcastically):

Those tricky Israelis. Those dastardly Jews. Throughout Operation Cast Lead, Israeli propagandists and apologists kept insisting that theirs was a war against Hamas Terror and not against the residents of Gaza. Now comes news that a grass roots initiative, launched by Qassam battered residents of the South, seeks to collect urgently needed humanitarian materials to help alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza. Is there no end to their hubris? Have these genocidal maniacs no shame?

How is this statement not an overt expression of the “desire not to be perceived negatively by the larger society that surrounds [us]?” Are CK’s remarks not explicitly motivated by the desire to portray Israel in a positive light so as to improve its image among non-Jews who look upon Israel with ill-will for its recent actions in Gaza?

If so, where are The Middle’s recriminations now? Is there truly a difference between our desire to show Jews positively and CK’s? Only if you ignore every statement that I had made on my blogs and in the press about the motivations for our concert at the time and instead choose to believe that my conflicted relationship with Israel and Zionism and my distaste for Jewish nationalism are evidence of a secret desire on my part to see harm befall either Jewish people or the state of Israel.

But if you’re more honest, more decent and more civil than that, and you see that there is truly no difference between our 2006 support for the Lebanese people and the present Israeli effort on behalf of those suffering in Gaza, you must admit that the Jewlicious crew seems to accept that such efforts are truly in Israel and the Jewish people’s best interests.

If that is indeed the case, don’t my co-organizers and I deserve an apology?

[UPDATED] This post has been updated to correct erroneous information.

I’m at the Nevele Grand Hotel in the Borscht Belt for Limmud NY, where the boiler went bust on the eve of the conference leaving hundreds of attendees with limited heat and hot water throughout the duration of the weekend.

As of Saturday evening, only some bedrooms had working heat (attendees have been squeezed into a limited number of heated bedrooms, with, in some cases, 5 to a room) and most classrooms are being heated by electric space heaters.

According to organizers, roughly one-third one-fourth of the participants (700 out of 900) — including some featured presenters — have either left or didn’t bother showing up. (This official estimate is based not on the number of check-ins, but the number of empty seats in the dining room during one meal. This, to me, seems to be an exceptionally flawed system of measurement.) And on Friday, event organizers sent frigid Shabbat-observant participants home with whole roasted chickens to compensate for the time they would not have to prepare dinner.

Seeing as how organizers say that refunds will not be issued, it better have been the tastiest chicken ever. After all, it cost about $1000.

[UPDATE 1/22] Limmud organizers have told The Fundermentalist (who will have a story up on the subject later today) that some refunds may be issued once matters are rectified with the Nevele, against whom they are pursuing legal options. They also deny ever stating that refunds would not be issued, though I must then wonder why I witnessed a Limmud board member explicitly tell one indignant attendee that they would not. I also think that whichever LimmudNY staffer spoke to Lilit at Jewcy didn’t help matters when he or she expressed hope that no one would request a refund because Limmud “is a fundraising organization.” That said, I do apologize for giving the impression that I had received an official statement from LimmudNY on the matter, because I did not.

I also apologize for previously mentioning only the downside to this year’s LimmudNY in my tweets and in this post, because despite the craziness, there were a lot of great people, great classes and fun times to be had. Though I froze my keister off for a day-and-a-half and was disappointed with the turnout to my first two classes — which I chalk up to unintentionally crummy scheduling — I still had an enjoyable time and appreciated the efforts of the LimmudNY staff to make the best of an extraordinarily shitty situation. I did not leave this event with a negative impression of Limmud so much as a negative impression of the Nevele, and I am sorry if my posts came across otherwise.

I hope they’ll have me back next year so that I can experience Limmud under normal circumstances, whereas I’d prefer to spend a weekend blogging only about how awesome it is. I still think they’re a great organization and that Limmud itself is a fantastic event. The situation this weekend was just incredibly unfortunate. I hope they come out on the other end of this a stronger organization, with more experience in handling such difficult and unexpected scenarios.

The Israeli media is swimming in pronouncements from anonymous Israeli defense officials that the Gaza offensive has accomplished all it can in Gaza and yet has not dismantled Hamas’ infrastructure. Hamas has played it safe and is still capable of shooting just as many rockets per day as previously. Senior defense ministers back an immediate ceasefire. Meanwhile Israeli diplomats are beginning to worry about the long-term impact of the lost media war, EU relations are freezing, the northern front with Lebanon simmers, anti-Semitic incidents the world over are increasing, and the Arab world is inflamed.

The Gaza mission’s stated objectives have failed. From the very, very beginning I said it, we said it and publically: The military option never worked in Gaza, even when soldiers were stationed inside day and night for years. Why would it be different this time? There is no military solution to a political problem and the military operation will not bring Israel security.

Full post here.

In 2001, a group of antifascist activists connected to the anti-German movement occupied the long-abandoned Topf & Söhne factory grounds in Erfurt, Germany, where the crematoriums for the Nazi death camps were manufactured.

From the decaying shambles they forged a dozen apartments, a free kitchen, studio & rehearsal spaces, a performance space, a free store, and a museum documenting the crimes that occurred there. They also succeeded in building a community which has become a locus for organized resistance to resurgent fascism in Germany’s east, which is an ever-present and ever-growing threat.

Next Wednesday, January 21, local authorities intend to evict the Topf & Söhne squatters. A new owner has acquired the property and plans to demolish the site — erasing both historical evidence of the Nazi atrocities and an important community resource — so that the land can be redeveloped into a commercial complex.

Only one structure, the administrative offices, will remain as an official historical site — a concession earned through the continued agitation of the squatters and allied local citizens to preserve the entirety of the site.

The squatters themselves, who have struggled nobly, will be left without a home. They nonetheless intend to stick it out, awaiting the inevitable showdown.

Stand up to defend community, historical memory, and grassroots resistance! Please contact your local German consular and ask them to intervene to stop the eviction and demolition of Topf & Söhne.