This Sunday Auburn is hosting a private screening of Hiding and Seeking the new film by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky. I got a chance to see a rough cut of this film a few months ago. In short, the piece is brilliant – it is the journey of a devoted modern Orthodox father to teach his self-ghettoized ultra-orthodox sons to reach out beyond their enclave. The Voice gave it a fantastic review and I hope there will be more…
The Beggar King is a gem of a book. I met Ben Izzy when he wove a few of his tales at Auburn Theological Seminary last Fall and the acclaims his book have recieved speak to the power of this bizzare tale of cancer and coincidence. It is great to see a storyteller make a shekel or two.
As Bill Frist cleans his office he may also be thinking about what he’ll be speaking on at Washington 14, the UJC conference coming to D.C. next month. He and “Hillary!” are the politico headliners. Rabbi Art Waskow and I are doing one of the side-shows “Speaking Truth to Pharoah” on Monday the 22nd. There is a list of all the confirmed speakers.
Last week I met Senator George Mitchell in a closed door meeting concerning Mideast Peace and I heard the Prince of Jordan speak at the Abraham Initiatives. Both events seemed hopefully optimistic in light of the bombing in Jerusalem, but optimism beats the prison building mentality any day. The highlight of the day was in between meetings – sharing a car with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and talking about the Mideast as a big football game. It sounds like a…
Last night I joined Rabbi Leon Morris and Joe Fins, M.D. at Temple Emmanuel for a panel on Palliative Care. The best thing about doing an event at Emmanuel is that they label the cheeses — as in “Belgian Gouda” , “Sharp Wisconsin Cheddar” — written in mock calligraphic letters. Fins had the line of the night “Palliative care means to “cloak” like wood veneer — something you won’t see here at Emmanuel!”
Well, here’s my latest piece in Killing the Buddha — Queer Eye for the Straight God. The tasteful photo and caption illustrating the piece is another example of the creative brilliance of the Killing the Buddha team. Avocado Theology.
I went to the book release party for Killing the Buddha Wednesday night at a swank loft on 28th street (above a furrier) I met the editors and some other fine folk. The book is an off-shoot of the web-zine I’ve been writing for as an outlet for my unconventional religio-literary work. Two of my pieces are in the archive, Please Don’t Kill the Prophet and Behind the Pulpit and I’ve got another piece debuting next week.
Jonathan Mark used a few of my comments on the whole “popularity of Jews on television” craze that appeared in his latest Jewish Week article. Check out- http://www.thejewishweek.com/bottom/specialcontent.php3?artid=659
My friend Marty Pottenger has written me in as a character in her new play, Abundance. The premiere is Thursday night, at the Dance Theater Workshop, W. 19th Street. Check out http://www.dtw.org/2004spring/working_theater_04.htm There’s a piece on it from Playbill — with a picture of the dude who plays me! This was all part of a community dialogue I took part in back in 2002 — The Abundance Project.
Click here for more information on the book I co-wrote with Joseph J. Fins, MD, chief of medical ethics at New York Presbyterian- Cornell Medical Center: http://www.clal.org/palliative_info.htm