Slouching towards Bushwick, posed a few questions to me. It’s been a while since I had time to blog, but I felt guilty for not responding, so I sat down and wrote….here goes…. A blog wherein Rabbi Daniel Brenner answers Samantha’s Questions. (or attempts to do so) Does “being Jewish” mean having a daily practice? Do you do things each day to “be” Jewish like praying before eating, after going to the bathroom, performing mitzvot, etc. or can you just…
Leaving for Tel Aviv this week…with a stop-over in Paris. Looking forward to speaking English in a French accent the entire time…a la inspector cluseau. .Here’s two quick movie reviewsAway We Go: Loved Maya Rudolph.Took me a while to get into it, but once I did, fantastic.stroller scene is a gem. Up! What is it with Pixar and “cute” fat people?
We need Grandpa Boris’ wisdom now more than ever. WWGBD? Noone ever comments on this blog, but maybe a few brave souls will play screenwiter for the next zinger from Boris’ chapped lips…..
The good people over at Nextbook have launched an online magazine of sorts with the chisl-icious title “Tablet” — check it out. The style is clean — more texty than photo-heavy and relaxing on the eyes. But if you stare at it too long it becomes white fire on black fire.
The New York paper The Jewish Week is running a piece I penned about the last two years of my professional life. (has it been that long?) Here goes: Reaching Birthright Alums: The Follow-Up Dietby Rabbi Daniel BrennerSpecial To The Jewish Week Shimshon Shoshani, the man tapped by Prime Minister Netanyahu to steer Israel’s educational system back on track, is about as direct and honest a critic as you can find. A year and a half ago, when I was…
“Shocking, exhilarating, and never dull…. Highly recommended.” — Library Journal, starred review. “Smart, candid, and insightful… The voices are refreshingly honest.” — Publishers Weekly Read more of what they have to say at our special feature:Praised Behttp://killingthebuddha.com/mag/dogma/believer-beware/ Believer, Beware lands on July 1, but no need to wait. Pre-order now at Amazon.com.http://www.amazon.com/Believer-Beware-First-Person-Dispatches-Margins/dp/0807077399
Newark Mayor Corey Booker wished Judith Jamison a Happy Birthday at NJPAC this past Sunday and the crowd sang a round of the traditional birth anniversary tune. The company opened with a Sweet Honey in the Rock piece that lacked coherence, but followed with a fantastic piece set to Otis Redding’s music and parts of Revelations, which is now almost 50 years old, but is as strong a piece as I’ve ever seen.
I ran into two of the Dardashti sisters last Shabbat and when Galeet told me about her latest project I checked out her website. Dardashti’s music has tremendous depth — intense, haunting stuff. She also manages to reclaim Middle Eastern Jewish musical traditions and rework them without sounding contemporary or world music-y.