92Y Video: Alan Dershowitz vs. Dennis Prager: The Left, the Right and Judaism in America, Part 2
We previously posted a clip from the debate on October 8 at the 92nd Street Y with Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz and talk radio host Dennis Prager on “The Left, the Right and Judaism in America.” Above is another where they assess the current threat to Israel, thoughts on George W. Bush (as well as his father), and how the Middle East conflict is represented on American campuses.
...Vidal gathered steam as the evening progressed, and Parini showed slides of photos from his book—which Vidal, with some difficulty, turned around to glimpse. In one, a skinny, dysentery-suffering Vidal was sitting against a wall in Guatemala, where he lived for a time—in sin, it is said—with the erotic writer Anais Nin.
“What was she like?” Parini asked.
“Come on,” Vidal parried, “gentlemen don’t answer those questions.”
Another photo showed him standing with Charlton Heston on the set of Ben Hur, on which Vidal worked as a script doctor.
Parini asked about Heston’s acting skills. “He was rather wooden, wasn’t he?”
“Well,” Vidal replied, “if you count balsa as one of the woods.”
In another Hollywood anecdote, Vidal recounted how one of his film projects fell apart when the prospective director, Hal Ashby, “decided to snort all the cocaine in Malibu.”
By this time the audience was fully on Vidal’s side, rooting for him, even prompting him when he had trouble remembering the names of Kevin Spacey, Dalton Trumbo, and President James K. Polk. “Polk, yes!” Vidal said. “His great granddaughter is married to George Stevens Jr. What does this mean? Nothing!”
By the time of the audience Q&A, he was positively on fire. When an audience member wondered why Christopher Hitchens, the formerly left-leaning columnist for The Nation, had become a neoconservative, Vidal gleefully took aim. “Ask him—leave me out of it,” Vidal said, to laughter. The crowd was in stitches for the rest of his answer. “You know, he identified himself for many years as the heir to me. And unfortunately for him, I didn’t die. I just kept going on and on and on. ‘There he is, Mr. Good Guy Liberal, and he just wouldn’t croak.’ So if you don’t like that, he thought, ‘I’ll be Mr. Bad Guy.’ And boy, he is. He’s made a real place for himself.”
David Lehman: A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs
Tablet.com asked author and cultural critic David Lehman to name his Top 10 Favorite Songs. His picks include The Lady is a Tramp, Over the Rainbow, and others. Not afraid to go the extra mile, Tablet has provided mp3 samples for each song in the list. And because Over the Rainbow deserves to be heard in full, here is a YouTube link of Judy Garland signing it in the Wizard of Oz. Though Israel Kamakawiwo’s version is arguably just as great.
So what do the ten songs picked by Lehman have in common? They were all written by Jewish composers. On Nov 10, join David Lehman and guest musicians for: A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs. There will be singing.
92Y Video: Alan Dershowitz vs. Dennis Prager: The Left, the Right and Judaism in America
On October 8, 2009 at the 92nd Street Y, two of the nation’s most provocative voices on issues surrounding Judaism and the Middle East conflict, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz and talk radio host Dennis Prager, debated “The Left, the Right and Judaism in America.” Prager leaves no room for misinterpretation on where he stands by declaring, “there is something wrong with your moral barometer if you’re anti-Israel.” Dershowitz agrees with that of course, but makes a more nuanced argument for the liberal support of Israel. Watch the video excerpt above.
Dershowitz returns on November 21 for a debate with Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, on American Foreign Policy and Israel. Eliot Spitzer will be the moderator. Browse more upcoming lectures of Jewish interest.
The nursery school students at 92Y beautifully decorated the 92Y Sukkah, photographed above, which is on display in our lobby. Thanks kids, we love it!
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What You Missed: Judaism 5770.0: Digital Community and Connection Building
From left to right: Isaac Luria, Sara Marcus, Motti Seligson, and Daniel Sieradski, moderator.
Presented in cooperation with JTA, last night we hosted Judaism 5770.0: Digital Community and Connection Building. The panel featured @IsaacLuria, campaigns director for J Street, @MottiSeligson, public affairs and communications professional at Chabad.org, Sara Schwimmer Marcus (@PopJudaica), and was moderated by Daniel Sieradski, (@mobius1ski) founder of the popular blog Jewschool.
The event explored the ways in which digital tools, particularly social networks, can help build community in Jewish groups and organizations. As such, it was widely tweeted upon by many; check the @replies in our Twitter feed for a selection of those, or search the hash tag created, #djc70.
It wasn’t all a social media love fest however. Early on, Isaac Luria, speaking about J Street’s email list and how effective it has been, noted: “Email is probably the best app ever invented.” Speaking of, you can sign up for our Jewish Life & Culture Email Newsletter.
But Motti Seligson might have dropped the most notable news of the evening when he informed the audience that during the Mumbai attacks, Chabad was receiving enough useful information about the scene via their Twitter that the FBI approached Chabad with a request to share the information.
As we tweeted the event live from the audience, we solicited a question for the panel, via Twitter of course, from William Daroff (@Daroff), Vice President for Public Policy and Director of the Washington office of United Jewish Communities. He asked the panel if Twitter is just a passing fad, and if they believe it will still be around in five years. The consensus was that Twitter might fall out of favor, a la Friendster, but services that provide microblogging and instant publishing is here to stay.
It was an interesting and informative discussion, and Daniel Sieradski has helpfully posted a full audio file from the event on his website. You can listen to that here.
In the video above, Columbia Professor Jeremy Dauber presents a short introduction for his series on Jewish Comedians which focuses on Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce and Mel Brooks. Tickets can be purchased here.
And below, you can listen to a podcast featuring a brief Q&A we did with Jeremy as he talks about the history of Jewish comedy, comics who were important to its evolution and what it looks like today
You can also download the MP3. [7 MB]
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed an audience here last night, after addressing the U.N. General Assembly earlier that morning. Tablet wrote:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a brief homecoming—of sorts—last night at the 92nd Street Y, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he apparently learned to swim as a kid. “This was where I had my first immersion into American Jewish affairs,” Netanyahu joked to the thousand or so people who turned up, at relatively short notice, and waited two hours at security to see him…
Video from David Grossman’s appearance in May, speaking about an inspiration of his, Polish writer Bruno Schulz:
...And every story of Schulz, is a protest. Full of humor and irony, but protest against oblivion and boredom and banality. Against the stereotypical approach to the human being.
If it’s readings you enjoy, we have a great season in store for you. And don’t forget, or maybe you didn’t even know, but those age 35 and under can purchase tickets for $10 to any Main Reading Series event.
92Y Unterberg Poetry Center webcasts and access to our archive are made possible in part by the generous support of the Sidney E. Frank Foundation. View the Poetry Center archive.
92Y Video: Recanati-Kaplan Student Zach Davis and Rabbi David Kalb on Fox 5 Good Day New York
If you missed the segment on Fox 5 Good Day New York last Friday, we’ve got you covered! Watch above as Recanati-Kaplan scholar and trumpet wiz Zach Davis, with our own Rabbi David Kalb standing by, as Zach displays his shofar blowing prowess (like teaching a fish to swim, apparently).
Well, after having some difficulties here with the blog, we are back. Just in time to leave for the weekend and Rosh Hashanah Services. And around the corner is Yom Kippur.
Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine piece on J Street, a new lobbying group with progressive views on Israel founded by Jeremy Ben-Ami (pictured), was a fascinating look at a topic not often given so much prominence. The article clocks in at 4773 words. Describing J Street’s progressive leanings, the Times wrote:
The most controversial and significant of J Street’s campaigns was the one most directly tied to Israel’s security. When Israeli fighter planes first hit Gaza on Dec. 27, J Street issued a press release stating that “there is no military solution to what is fundamentally a political conflict” and calling for “immediate, strong diplomatic intervention” to negotiate a resumption of the cease-fire. The next day, in a message to supporters, J Street’s campaigns director, Isaac Luria, wrote that “while there is nothing ‘right’ in raining rockets on Israeli families or dispatching suicide bombers, there is nothing ‘right’ in punishing a million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the extremists among them.”
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism wrote an op-ed in The Forward describing Luria as “morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve.”
Befitting their new kid on the block status, J Street makes adept use of the internet and other online tools to help spread their message. When several Jewish leaders attacked Donna Edwards, an African-American freshman legislator from suburban Maryland whom J Street supports, for only voting “present” on a resolution supporting Israel’s assault on Gaza, J Street sent out a fund-raising letter for her and raised $30,000 if three or four days.
The New Israel Lobby? Say what you will, but they have Obama’s ear, and that’s got to count for a lot.
On Oct 1, you can continue these topics and ideas at Judaism 5770.0: Digital Community and Connection Building. Join Isaac Luria, the campaigns director for J Street, Daniel Sieradski, founder of the popular blog Jewschool.com, and Motti Seligson of Chabad.org.
92Y Podcast: Michelle Goldberg and Deborah Lauter on The Rise of Christian Nationalism in America
In October 2006, journalist/author Michelle Goldberg (New York Times bestseller Kingdom Coming and The Means of Reproduction) and Deborah Lauter of the Anti-Defamation League discussed "The Rise of Christian Nationalism in America." You can listen to the full program above.
Josh Nelson, 92Y Musical Director and Cantor Rockstar With a Rider
Josh Nelson performaning L’Dor Vador (From Generation to Generation) at the 2007 URJ Biennial in San Diego, CA.
Josh Nelson, Cantorial Soloist and Musical Director for the 92nd Street Y’s High Holiday Services sat down with Jewcy’s Rina Raphael “to discuss whether cantors get more women than cantorial soloists and what Jews can learn from Christian rock:”
Jewcy: What kind of groupies do rock-n-roll cantors have?
Josh: Well, my bubbe is 90 years old… I think she might qualify as my favorite groupie. Seriously, it’s a well-known fact that the ordained cantors get all the groupies. I am a cantorial soloist (i.e., not an ordained cantor). I propose that that’s the reason why my groupie roster is somewhat limited.
Jewcy: Jewish Rock vs. Christian Rock. Thoughts?
Josh: Christian rock is, to be frank, pretty amazing. We have a lot to learn from the Christian community… For some reason, this statement tends to make many Jews uncomfortable. However, I find it to be undeniably true.
While our theologies may differ, we share many of the same challenges. In particular, we struggle to connect our respective cultural and spiritual heritages with an aesthetic that is contemporary and relevant. Christian rock successfully bridges that gap, bringing a modern spiritual approach to legions of young people. It’s made Christianity cool and relevant to the next generation.
We are beginning to see a similar transition in the Jewish community, and it’s both welcome and necessary. There certainly is pushback from the old guard, but it’s shortsighted to not see that this process is cyclical. These same cultural shifts have occurred over and over again in the past. It’s critical to see that this current transition is enabling our young community to find a deeper connection to spirituality and Jewish life.
My great-grandparents prayed in a shul with a mechitza. My parents prayed in a shul with a choir and an organ. I pray in a shul with an electric guitar and a band.
So, Christian rock or Jewish rock? Yes.
Read more, and find out what is on Nelson’s Yom Kippur rider, here.
Opening Reception Tonight: Past Continuous: D.R. Cowles – Photographs, 1993-2008
Past Continuous: D.R. Cowles – Photographs, 1993-2008
D. R. Cowles documents and reinterprets vanishing architecture and traditions using a century-old, nearly-obsolete photographic technique. His images of abandoned synagogues, shrines, and cemeteries constitute the last large-scale photographic documentary done in this medium. This exhibit traces the arc of Cowles’ oeuvre: from a historical documentation of Jewish sites in the Levant to an aesthetic documentation of the context in which they existed; and from an eastern aesthetic tradition to a western and contemporary perspective. Through his work, human history, art history, and the history of photography converge in the present.
From 5pm to 6:30pm this evening, the Milton J. Weill Art Gallery is holding an opening reception of Cowles work that is free to the public. The exhibit will run until Oct 20.
UPDATE: A commenter writes in to say: “You mention an old photographic technique, but fail to identify said technique. Can you please let us know which it was.”
Yes we can. Cowles was was using an 8x10-inch view camera and printing his negatives on printing-out paper (the same process Atget used to document Paris in the early 1900s).
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Lloyd Grove attended Gore Vidal’s talk here last night, and 
And because Over the Rainbow deserves to be heard in full, 
UPDATE: 
Yesterday’s 
