The (New York) Jewish Week . . .Connecting the World to Jewish
News, Culture, Features, and Opinions – Friday, 27 December 2013
News and Features
It's Time For Us To Say 'Thank You'
Last week, it was the appalling news that the American Studies
Association had voted to boycott Israeli universities. The academic world did
not stay silent. To date, 25 American universities have refused to join the ASA
boycott. In many cases, they have also issued strongly worded protests against
the Association's actions. Here are the names of the presidents or chancellors
of each university, along with their contact information. Jeffrey K. Salkin
We are a community that seems to go from crisis to crisis, and a
part of our communal psyche seems to almost relish it. Whether it’s the Pew
Report, or our fears about Iran, or an anti-Semitic attack, it gets our Jewish
juices flowing. Last week, it was the appalling news that the American Studies
Association had voted to boycott Israeli universities. We screamed. We wrote
impassioned op-ed pieces. Like leftover latkes, we sizzled in the oil of our
collective disappointment at the brazen cooperation of a piece of America’s
intellectual elite in the willful academic ghettoization of the Jewish state.
And we were right to have done so.
However, something was happening behind our backs – something by
no means insidious, but, rather, redemptive.
The academic world did not stay silent. Quite the contrary. To
date, 25 American universities have refused to join the ASA boycott. In many
cases, they have also issued strongly worded protests against the Association’s
actions.
Here are the names of the presidents or chancellors of each
university, along with their contact information. Because it is not enough to
scream gevalt when we have been wounded. We also have to call out “thank you”
to those who are our friends, to those who stood up for truth, to those who
have refused to have their educational institutions seduced by all too common
siren song of anti-Israeli behavior. We need to thank those institutions,
especially if we are alumni of them, and/or our children or grandchildren
attend them. Because the best way to induce people to continue doing good is to
thank them for what they have already done.
Take a look at the list. Yes -- some, even many, of those
institutions of higher learning have significant Jewish populations. Some of
the officials are Jewish. But that cannot begin to tell the whole story.
A larger story exists in the geographic diversity of the
universities’ locations. Moreover, we don’t know how many Jewish students are
enrolled at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Perhaps more than we think.
But Willamette is not exactly located in one of the queen cities of the
American diaspora.
And that is, precisely, the point. There’s an old Jewish joke. A
pair of Jews is walking in a dangerous neighborhood late at night. Suddenly,
they hear footsteps behind them. One says to the other: “We had better be
careful. There are two of them, and we’re alone.”
As it turns out, we are not alone. Not even close.
This is the mitzvah of hakarat ha-tov – recognizing the good.
Thank these university officials for their universities’ courage in standing up
to the American Studies Association. Thank them for their commitment to truth
and to intellectual honesty. Thank them for the generosity of spirit that they
demonstrated towards the State of Israel. Get your children and grandchildren
to write as well – especially if they are students at those universities.
Now that the winter solstice has passed, the days are getting
longer again.
There is more light than we could have imagined.
Boston University. Dr. Robert A. Brown, President. John and
Kathryn Silber Administrative Center, 1 Silber Way (8th Floor), Boston, MA.
02215. president@bu.edu
Brandeis University. Fred Laurence, President. Office of the
President, Irving Enclave 113, MS 100, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02453
Office of the President
Brown University. Christina Paxson, President. Office of the
President, Brown University, Box 1860, 1 Prospect Street, Providence, RI 02912
Cornell University. David J. Skorton, President. Office of the
President, 300 Day Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
president@cornell.edu
Dickinson College. Nancy A. Roseman, President. Dickinson
College,
Post Office
Box 1773,
Carlisle, PA
17013. presofc@dickinson.edu
Duke University. Richard A. Brodhead, President. Office of the
President, Duke University, 207 Allen Building, Box 90001, Durham, NC
27708-0001. president@duke.edu
George Washington University. Steven Knapp, President. Rice Hall,
2121 I Street, NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20052
Harvard University. Dr. Drew Faust, President. Office of the
President, Harvard University, Massachusetts Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138
president@harvard.edu
Indiana University. Michael A. McRobbie, President. Office of
the President, Indiana University, Bryan Hall 200, 107 S. Indiana Ave.,
Bloomington, IN 47405
Kenyon College. Sean M. Decatur, President. Office of the
President
Ransom Hall
Kenyon College
Gambier, Ohio
43022-962.
president@kenyon.edu
Michigan State University. Lou Anna K. Simon, President. Office
of the President, Michigan State University, 426 Auditorium Road, Hannah
Administration Building, Room 450, East Lansing, MI 48824-1046.
presmail@msu.edu
New York University. John Sexton, President. Office of the
President, New York University, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012
john.sexton@nyu.edu
Northwestern University. Morton Shapiro, President. 2-130
Rebecca Crown Center, 633 Clark Street, Evanston, Illinois 60208. nu-president@northwestern.edu
Princeton University. Christopher L. Eisgruber, President.
Office of the President, 1 Nassau Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
08544
Tufts University. Anthony P. Monaco, President.
Office of the President
Tufts
University
Ballou Hall,
2nd Floor,
Medford, MA
02155. amonaco@tufts.edu
Tulane University. Scott S. Cowen, President. Tulane University,
218 Gibson Hall, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118-5684
University of California-Irvine. Michael V. Drake, MD, Chancellor.
University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 chancellor@uci.edu
University of California-San Diego. Praddep K. Khosia,
chancellor-elect. Office of the Chancellor, University of California, San
Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive # 0005, La Jolla, California 92093-0005.
chancellor@ucsd.edu
University of Kansas. Bernadette Gray-Little, Chancellor.
Chancellor's Office, University of Kansas, 230 Strong Hall, Lawrence, KS
66045-7518. chancellor@ku.edu
University of Maryland. Wallace D. Loh, President. University of
Maryland, 1101 Main Administration Building, College Park, MD 20742-6105 president@umd.edu
University of Pennsylvania. Amy Gutmann, President. Office of
the President,
University of Pennsylvania,
1 College
Hall, Room 100
Philadelphia,
PA 19104-6380. presweb@pobox.upenn.edu
University of Pittsburgh. Mark Nordenberg, Chancellor.
University of Pittsburgh,
107 Cathedral
of Learning,
Pittsburgh, PA
15260
University of Texas-Austin. William Powers, Jr., President.
Office of the President, 110 Inner Campus Drive, Stop G3400, Austin, TX.
78712-3400
Washington University in St. Louis. Mark Stephen Wrighton,
Chancellor. Campus Box 1192, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130
wrighton@wustl.edu
Wesleyan University. Michael S. Roth, President. 229 High
Street, Middletown, CT. 06459. presoffice@wesleyan.edu
Willamette University. Stephen E. Thorsett, President. 900 State
Street, Salem, Oregon 97301 president@willamette.edu
Yale University. Peter Salovey, President. President's Office,
Yale University,
PO Box 208229,
New Haven, CT 06520-8229
presidents.office@yale.edu
Jeffrey K. Salkin is the rabbi of Temple Beth Am in Bayonne, NJ.
He is the author of numerous books on religion and Jewish identity, including
Righteous Gentiles In The Hebrew Bible: Models For Sacred Relationships (Jewish
Lights).
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What's Behind The New Iran Sanctions Bill?
A bipartisan group of senators wants to enact a tough new
sanctions bill that the administration says is unnecessary and could
potentially scuttle the sensitive negotiations. Douglas Bloomfield
When I hear senators say they want to enact harsh new anti-Iran
sanctions that the administration says can do more harm than good to the
nuclear negotiations I am reminded of the angry parent who tells a child that
the spanking he’s about to get “hurts me more than it hurts you, but it’s for
your own good.”
A bipartisan group of senators wants to enact a tough new
sanctions bill that the administration says is unnecessary and could
potentially scuttle the sensitive negotiations.
Each side vigorously insists that its approach is the best way
to make sure Iran does not build a nuclear bomb that it could use on Israel.
The administration says there will be no problem passing new and
tougher sanctions if the talks fail, but the interim agreement calls for no
additional sanctions during the six months while a permanent deal is
negotiated. The Iranians have said new
sanctions will be an act of bad faith and they'll walk.
They're just bluffing, said the group led by Senators Chuck
Schumer (D-NY), Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL). If the Iranians are serious about making a
deal -- which most of these senators strongly doubt -- they won't quit. Besides, the lawmakers say, the new sanctions
won't take effect for another six months to a year unless the talks break down.
All they're doing, they maintain, is enhance the president's negotiating
position and warn the Iranians of the consequences of failure.
Thanks but no thanks, said the President at his year-end press
conference. "The Iranians have no
doubt Congress will be willing to enact more sanctions," he said. And if the talks fail, he added, he'd be out
front in pushing to dramatically increase the pressure on Tehran and he
reminded everyone that "all option" (read: military) remain on the
table.
The Schumer group has the backing of most Jewish organizations,
led by AIPAC, which are conducting a full-court-press on Capitol Hill to oppose
the administration. The Israeli
government is taking a low profile but no one doubts it is backing the
campaign.
Read more about this showdown, that could come to a vote in the
Senate early next month, in my Washington Watch column.
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Is Technology Killing Our Chemistry?
Table For One
I recently observed a beautiful blonde in a simple black dress
standing alone near one wall. When men were introduced to her by a friendly,
connector-type guy, they would chat her up with animation, but throughout the
course of the evening, not one man actually approached the young woman. Heather Robinson, Contributing Editor
Recently at an Upper West Side Chanukah party hosted by a Jewish
outreach organization, where singles stood in tight cliques balancing paper
plates of potato latkes and plastic cups of white wine, I observed a beautiful
blonde in a simple black dress standing alone near one wall. When men were introduced
to her by a friendly, connector-type guy, they would chat her up with
animation, but throughout the course of the evening, not one man actually
approached the young woman, whom I’ll call Leigh, on his own initiative.
At one point, I walked over and asked her what she thought of
the event.
“It’s good to get out and meet people,” she said, explaining
that as a doctoral student in psychology, she studies and works long hours and
doesn’t have a great deal of time to socialize. Of the men, she said, “They
seem nice, but the cute guys never talk to me unless they’re drunk.”
Reflecting on her statement, I started to wonder: how many of
these men would probably love to go on a date with Leigh, but lack the
confidence to approach her?
And how many of them, rather than asking her, then and there,
about her interests, her goals, and what she might like to do on a date, will
get her name (or ask someone at the party for it), go home, try to find her on
Facebook or JDate, and initiate a ritual of sending messages that might (or
might not), after several weeks, result in their asking her on a date (at 7pm,
for drinks, not dinner)?
Are men increasingly reluctant to approach women in real life
(as opposed to online) for purposes of dating?
Of course, many people meet online and fall in love. But today,
when cruising JDate has replaced spotting a stranger across a crowded room, the
text has replaced the phone call, the ‘Facebook like’ has replaced face-to-face
flirtation, and drinks at the dinner hour has replaced dinner itself, has the
mystique of courtship been lost?
I grew up on stories of old-fashioned romance. My parents, for
instance, met in a shoe store after my father saw my mother and was so smitten
that he badgered the salesman to find out who she was (after he spoke with her
in person and she declined to give him her name). Because she came from a
protective family, he had to find someone who knew my mother’s parents--a
distant cousin, it turned out--whom he enlisted to call their house and vouch
for him. Since the cousin reported my Dad was a great guy, my mother’s mother
not only approved but also pushed my mother to date him (I’m glad my father
pursued my mother decisively; otherwise I wouldn’t be here).
Many of us grew up hearing stories about how our parents met--in
a coffee shop on Lexington Avenue one rainy afternoon, in line at Coney Island
waiting to ride the Cyclone, or perhaps through friends on that blind date no
one expected would turn into true love.
I can’t help but wonder how much of our current dating culture
is likely to produce these kinds of stories.
Can any woman imagine telling her grandchildren, “When your
grandfather and I were dating, we exchanged text messages for several weeks and
then he took me out for drinks ... It had been a long day at work, and I was
really hungry. By the time he ordered the second round I was nearly falling off
the bar stool, but when our eyes met and he suggested we split an appetizer, I
felt like he just might be The One. He texted me a few days later, and since I
wasn’t sure if he was that into me, I ran out to get a slice of pizza first
(since he’d asked me for drinks at 7pm ...)”
Jewish singles with whom I spoke for this column were divided
about whether online dating - and technology more generally - are killing
romance. Generally, twentysomething singles seemed more positive, but even they
aren’t crazy about it.
Some, for instance, find it stilted.
“With online dating, it seems like there’s this ‘structure,’”
said Jessica, 27, a Manhattan marketer. (Name has been changed). “First date
drinks, then on the second date they try to make out with you, and on the third
date they want to start hooking up.”
Jessica, who is pretty and confident, has decided to take a
“detox” break from online dating and dating in general.
“Most of the guys who have asked me out in person are over 35,”
she said.
(I can’t help but wonder: Where are the guys her age? Sitting
around at home cruising Facebook and JDate in their underwear? Getting drunk
and looking for Ms. Right Now, as opposed to Ms. Right? To paraphrase Vince
Vaughn's character in "Wedding Crashers," they're young, but they're
not THAT young. By the late twenties, shouldn't they have the social skills to
ask a woman out, face-to-face, for dinner, not just to "hang out?")
Overall, Jessica believes that in the era of online dating,
“There’s a different getting-to-know-you process. It’s tougher. It delays
things and is more confusing. But I think a guy will step up when it’s real.”
Of course, dating - like any kind of relationship building -
happens in stages, and no one who invests everything up front is smart.
But unwillingness to risk one’s ego by picking up the phone, or
spending a few dollars and hours to put on your best face and make it clear you
are interested in getting to know someone, undermines any real opportunities to
connect.
Just ask Leigh and Jessica.
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Reaching Out, From Schechter Base
Day school's outreach director looks to make connections beyond
the classroom. Merri Rosenberg, Westchester Correspondent
For someone who didn’t have a bat mitzvah or attend a Jewish day
school, Karen Everett has turned out to be a passionate advocate for day
schools and involvement in the Jewish communal world.
As director of admissions and outreach at the Solomon Schechter
School of Westchester, Everett firmly believes that day schools offer a
compelling answer to current concerns about Jewish identity and affiliation.
“There’s no trade-off to the general or secular experience,” she said. “We
provide a robust experience, with a wonderful Jewish education. We’re a
community more than a school.”
As she sees it, graduates of schools like Schechter are “the
ones becoming Hillel leaders at college, and can answer questions about Israel
when they go to campus. Israel is in the blood of our children since
kindergarten.”
Everett, whose three children are Schechter alumni (and whose husband,
David, recently elected a Westchester County Court judge, had graduated from
the Midwood Schechter in Brooklyn), initially became involved in Schechter as a
parent. She ran the journal and dinner dance, before being tapped for the
school board, where she chaired a marketing committee.
It’s no surprise that Schechter turned to her for her
professional expertise, given that Everett, who earned a sociology degree from
Princeton, had strong background as a marketer (a career that she put on hold
while raising her children).
“My role,” Everett said, “is to make connections with other
organizations and communities in terms of education and to enhance our
programs.” One of her recent initiatives was bringing talks about the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics) program to the school, where the community is invited to hear
professionals in the field discuss “their professional trajectory and encourage
our students to pursue STEM careers.”
Everett admitted that one of her biggest challenges is to
“convince non-Orthodox Jews that day school is worth it. Every non-Orthodox
group is trying to figure out how to do Jewish education better; if you turn
and look at the value and results of Jewish day schools, the answer is in
Jewish day schools.”
She said that at present the Westchester school enrollment
policy is still following the Conservative movement’s definition, based on
matrilineal descent. She pointed out, however, that there are students from
mixed marriages at the school, where the mothers are Jewish, the children have
been converted, or are in the process of converting. Westchester Schechter has
students along the Reform-to-Orthodox spectrum, as well as those who are
non-affiliated, and secular Israelis. The school also offers a program for
children who don’t have a Jewish day school background, through the 10th grade.
Everett was raised in Atlanta in a family that was strongly
connected to the Jewish community there, as well as elsewhere in the South. Her
family was active in the local Reform community, where her parents were
founding members of the Reform temple. Her grandmother in Mobile, Ala., helped
build that Reform community, was instrumental in bringing Jewish refugees from
World War II to the area, and was also involved in interfaith and inter-racial
relationships there.
Recently honored by the Westchester Region of Hadassah for her
leadership, Everett remains involved and is currently serving on the national
board. She first connected with Hadassah in the early 1990s when she and her
husband, with their new baby, moved to Orange County. The Newburgh chapter,
which included a group of young Jewish mothers, offered Everett an outlet for
her desire to work with the Jewish world as well as congenial, like-minded
women.
“Hadassah has been my primary volunteer home ever since,” she
said. What especially appeals to her is “Jewish women from all across the
country and around the world, of all ages and backgrounds, coming together to
heal the world. Hadassah is the only organization where the power of women, in
particular of Jewish women, is brought to bear on some of the most difficult
health and welfare challenges of our day.”
Everett also has a definite soft spot for UJA-Federation.
“My mother encouraged the girls in my family to go to federation
events to meet nice Jewish boys,” said Everett, who met her husband at a
Catskills Shabbaton. “We both have a strong Jewish connection, and an impetus
to do good in the world.”
E-mail: merrijwestweek@gmail.com
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The Arts
Imprisoned For Who She Was
Barbara Kahn fills in more of the Eve Adams story in 'Island
Girls.' Ted Merwin, Special To The Jewish Week
She paid a tremendous price for her embrace of an unconventional
lifestyle. Eve Adams, the Polish Jewish, lesbian owner of a Jazz Age tearoom in
Greenwich Village, ended up in a women’s penitentiary before being deported to
France, and ultimately murdered in Auschwitz. New York playgoers are familiar
with Adams’ arrest, as well as her forced exile in Europe, thanks to two works
by prolific playwright Barbara Kahn, “The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams” and
“Unreachable Eden.”
Now Kahn’s latest work, “Island Girls,” co-written with Noelle
Lusane, fills in Adams’ time in the Women’s Workhouse on Welfare Island (as
Roosevelt Island was called at the time). Lusane composed the music, and appears
in the cast. With Steph van Vlack returning once again as Adams, the play runs
in January at the Theater for the New City in the East Village.
Directed by Kahn and Robert Gonzales, Jr., “Island Girls” has
two interlocking plots, with fictionalized characters in addition to Adams.
In one plot, a young upper-class social worker, Nell Vandenburg
(Anna Podolak), is assigned to the prison, where she falls in love with Adams
and tries to help her as she faces deportation for obscenity, on account of her
book of stories titled “Lesbian Love.” In another plot, an African-American
former Cotton Club performer, Bessie Harper (LuSane), who was arrested after
being brutalized by a group of men, dreams of getting out and making it big in
Hollywood.
In an interview, Kahn told The Jewish Week that her initial
focus in writing the play was on Adams and actress Mae West, who was imprisoned
along with her, albeit for a much briefer period of time — eight days as
opposed to 18 months. But because West’s life and career are so much better
known, Kahn decided to keep the spotlight on Adams.
One of the social workers who attempted to aid the prisoners,
Kahn said, recalled in her memoir that the penitentiary “had no color; the
women had no hope.” Kahn added that most of the women “had everything stacked
against them from the time that they were born.” Adams’ foreign roots,
Jewishness and sexual preference were all liabilities at a time of intense
isolationism, anti-Semitism and homophobia.
Adams regretted having been open about her sexuality. As she
testified at her deportation hearing, held at the prison in 1927, “Had I known
that by telling the truth of these so-called unfortunate people that God has
chosen to create different, that I was committing a crime against this country
which I love with my heart and soul. … Had I known it was a crime, I would not
have told the truth.”
“Island Girls” runs from Jan. 9 to 26 at the Theater for the New
City, 155 First Ave. (at Tenth Street). Performances are Thursdays through
Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. For tickets, $12, call SmartTix at
(212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com.
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Gained In Translation?
The new romantic comedy 'Handle With Care' turns on questions of
language and miscommunication. Gabriela Geselowitz, Jewish Week Correspondent
The husband-and-wife team behind the new play “Handle With Care”
forged new connections with each other working on a script about, of all things, how difficult it can be
for people to forge a connection.
“I basically turned to her one day and said, I’m sick of acting;
I want to start writing,” the play’s creator, Jason Odell Williams, told The
Jewish Week. He was referring to a conversation he had with his wife, the actor
Charlotte Cohn, who stars in the play. “I might as well write a play for you
because you’re awesome and amazing,” Williams recalled saying.
Williams asked his wife what type of role she would want to
play, and her answer was something with themes of language and disconnect.
“I’m really fascinated by miscommunication,” said Cohn. “The
core of the play is about miscommunication and faith and fate,” themes she
says, that are universal.
“Handle With Care,” which marks the New York return of
theatrical legend Carol Lawrence (best known as Maria in the original Broadway
production of “West Side Story”), is actually a romantic comedy built around a
“lost in translation” theme that mirrors Cohn’s own upbringing.
The play tells the story of an elderly Israeli woman (Lawrence)
who brings her granddaughter, Ayelet (Cohn), with her on a trip to the United
States. Ayelet, who speaks only Hebrew, is in her late 30s and still single
(“In Israel that’s like a death sentence,” said Cohn). She ends up stuck and
alone in a small, goyishe, Virginia town on, of all nights, Christmas Eve,
desperate to claim the body of her grandmother, who died the previous night.
The local deliveryman, who lost the casket en route to Israel,
calls in his friend Josh (Jonathan Sale), the only Jew he knows, to try to
communicate with the Hebrew-speaker. Unfortunately, Josh only knows what he
describes as “shul Hebrew” and a sexually explicit phrase. Nevertheless, Josh
and Ayelet begin to establish a connection despite their language barriers,
bonding over an impromptu Shabbat dinner and half-remembered Hebrew phrases.
“The connection Ayelet has with this American man happens to be
their shared religion, even though they don’t really share the same experience
of faith,” said Williams.
The plot loosely tracks some of Cohn’s experiences being raised
in two cultures. She was born in Copenhagen and raised in Jerusalem, where she
served in the army, eventually as a lieutenant. With a childhood and
adolescence spent in Israel, and adulthood in America, Cohn has learned
firsthand the struggles of adjusting to new cultures and languages. She
eventually met Williams when they were both students at the Actors’ Studio in
New York. Today, the Manhattan-based couple has a daughter in the third grade.
Although the play is not based on a true story, Williams
admitted that he put parts of himself in it as well. “I’m a little bit like
Josh,” he said. The child of a Protestant and Catholic, Williams was “raised in
between nothingness… Then when I met and married my wife, she sort of
reintroduced me to her traditions, and I had a real sort of fondness and
respect for them,” he said.
He spoke of his first trip to Israel and understanding his wife’s
past struggles adjusting to other cultures as her family rambled on in Hebrew
around him. “It was an eye-opening experience, a culture shock in some ways,”
he said. He recalled thinking, “People don’t understand me. I’m the one who has
to sort of gesture and learn tiny bits of Hebrew.”
Williams wrote “Handle With Care,” with its own wild
gesticulations and cultural barriers, in 2008, originally titling it “At a
Loss.” That version first premiered in 2011, in Ithaca, and then again in
Florida, where the “snowbirds” from the metropolitan New York area advised him
that the work could run in the city.
Although Williams maintains the sole writing credit, his wife
has served as a consultant of sorts, writing the Hebrew lines of the play. As
the only Jewish actor in the cast, she has also served as the spokesperson for
Israel and Judaism. This ranges from telling the props mistress what “looks”
Israeli, to offering other actors insight into the text by opening up to them
about her personal relationship to God and religious tradition (while fairly
secular now, Cohn was raised more Orthodox).
Williams has since written other plays, even continuing to
utilize Jewish themes. But “Handle With Care” is his first work to make it to New York City.
“I think it’s the same and different,” said Cohn’s of the play’s
New York run. “Off-Broadway is sort of like the mountain.”
“It’s been a long journey,” said Williams. “But also doing any
play Off-Broadway is sort of a leap of faith.”
True, but this show has the advantage of having Lawrence’s name
in the Playbill.
“She’s such a mensch!” gushed Cohn of the 81-year-old Lawrence.
He even admits to serenading the Broadway legend with “I Feel Pretty” during
breaks in rehearsal.
In a step away from the Puerto Rican accent she used as Maria,
the stage veteran adopted a rough Israeli voice to indicate Hebrew while
speaking in English. As Ayelet, Cohn speaks in Hebrew, accented English, and
non-accented English (to indicate Hebrew) in the play. And she can pull it off.
“I have a lot that I bring to the table in terms of that
character and where she’s coming from,” said Cohn.
“She’s absolutely phenomenal and completely right for the part,
and I can’t imagine anybody else doing it,” raved Williams of his wife. Still,
the play is also set to open in as many as seven more productions around North
America, with other women in the role of Ayelet, “So it can be done,” he
admitted.
With the Jewish holiday season more or less over, but
Christmastime in full swing, “Handle With Care” hopes to dip into different
audiences.
“It’s not just for Jews,” insisted Cohn. “The show just makes
people fall in love with [the show].”
“Handle With Care” runs through Sunday, Feb. 23 at the Westside
Theatre, 407 W. 43rd St., Manhattan. For tickets, call Telecharge at (212)
239-6200.
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Plus, if you missed these, make them a part of your weekend
read:
Israel Outreach: Broad Vs Deep
New public relations effort is clever, but superficial.
"The key to success is to find relevant information,
surprise people with it, and in that way engage them...." Gary Rosenblatt
Did you know that Israel is the first country to ban underweight
models? A recent law prohibits the use of ultra-skinny young women and of
altering images in photos and ads.
And a new technology developed in Israel allows people to use
Wi-Fi hot spots at 80 outdoor areas in Tel Aviv, including beaches.
You might also be interested in knowing that Kobi Levi, a
popular Israel designer, has created wearable art for Lady Gaga, who wore his
work in her “Born This Way” video. And that Miss Israel is an Ethiopian Jew.
This information, and lots more like it, is being made available
on popular websites, targeted to reach 18- to 24- year-olds in the U.S., thanks
to “reThink Israel,” the latest entry in the Israel hasbarah (or, public
relations) effort. Its early results have me impressed and depressed all at
once.
I’ll explain why, but first a little background.
For years one of the few things that pro-Israel supporters from
the left and right seemed to agree on was that Israel did a poor job of telling
its story and promoting itself to the world. There has long been frustration
that the lone democracy in the Middle East, the one country championing human
dignity, freedom of speech and women’s and minority rights, is the target of
Western liberals who ignore the lack of those same freedoms among Arab states
in the region.
Rather than call attention to the fact that Arab citizens have
been ruled by despots and can be jailed and even executed for violating laws
that, for example, ban homosexual behavior, these critics of Israel focus
almost exclusively on the occupation of the West Bank, ignoring the history and
complexity of the situation in seeking to delegitimize the Jewish state.
Any number of attempts have been made to highlight this double
standard applied to Israel and the hypocrisy of the international community
through the United Nations, which has condemned Israel as the chief violator of
human rights — while remaining silent on the far more serious abuses of human
rights by countries like Iran, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Some supporters of Israel debate whether to attribute this
outrageous behavior to anti-Israel sentiment or outright anti-Semitism. Others
have chosen to focus on the positive accomplishments of the Jewish state that
benefit the entire world. Israel 21c and NoCamels.com, for example, are
nonprofit groups that provide news about the country’s advances in technology,
health, environment, travel and culture. But who cares?
Jewish organizations here have spent years and significant funds
to find out what Americans think about Israel, and what to do to improve
perceptions of the country. A recent major study that has not been made public
found that most Americans know little about Israel and care less. About 22
percent strongly support the Jewish state, about 8 percent are hard-core
critics, leaving about 70 percent in the middle, vulnerable to anti-Israel
propaganda, and the target of pro-Israel efforts. Supporters of Israel tend to
be older, white and conservative politically, the study found. Reaching young
liberals, particularly among minorities, is an uphill struggle.
To help meet that challenge Gerry Ostrov, a successful
advertising exec for many years at Johnson and Johnson, was recruited by
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations. Ostrov, whose work for reThink Israel is
pro bono, was chairman and CEO of Bausch & Lomb, and he believes that the
tools needed to promote Israel are not unlike those used to promote contact
lenses. “You engage the consumer from
the heart, not the head,” he told me during a recent interview.
The key to success is to find relevant information, surprise
people with it, and in that way engage them, said Ostrov, who has put together
a team for the independent nonprofit that is made up of a few top ad
specialists and consultants, and about three dozen donors, including Las Vegas
businessman and hawkish pro-Israel philanthropist Sheldon Adelson.
Their initial objective is to reach 20 million young Americans
over the next 16 months, largely through social media like Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter. The goal “is to make sure Americans know Israel, because to know
Israel is to love Israel,” Ostrov says.
The news items being posted by reThink Israel range from fluff,
like “From Israel: 3 Dating Apps That Get The Job Done” and “5 Things You
Should Know About Israel’s Nightlife Poster Boy/Girl Uriel Yekutiel,” to
Israeli scientific and medical innovations that comfort people with autism or
help paralyzed people walk.
The material is apolitical and does not deal with religious
issues. “We don’t touch the conflict,” Ostrov says. The results in the early
going of the project are notable, with 300,000 views and 30,000 Facebook
“likes” for the news items posted in the first four weeks. What’s more, much of
it is passed on to friends — heightening exposure and credibility — and can
hold the reader’s interest for about 30 seconds, which is a good sign,
according to Ostrov.
He says he is not worried that young people will respond
negatively if, for example, there is a front-page story in The New York Times
that casts Israel in a negative light. That’s because his target audience
doesn’t read The Times or other mainstream media, he says, and is not so
interested in international news.
That may be a depressing reality for me to get my head around.
But the folks at reThink Israel are onto something with their short-term
objective of providing relevant, interesting and positive information about the
Jewish state, and they have the numbers to prove it.
“We had to break with old modes of thinking” to “staunch our
losses,” said Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents. His organization is
associated with reThink Israel and several other projects to improve the image
of Israel, which is seen by more than half of those surveyed (by a study the
Conference helped conduct) as an apartheid state. “The traditional ways of
reaching people are not going to work with this new generation. This is the way
to engage them,” Hoenlein said.
I appreciate that, but I worry about the shallow aspect of much
of the material, not to mention of the audience — our future leaders. From a
marketing perspective, yes, you can’t engage people in Israel until you have
their attention. But can reThink Israel succeed if it steers clear of the
conflict completely? At least let it provide readers with links to more
substantive information about Israel’s history, society and context on current
issues. Otherwise they may never make the leap from “hey, cool,” to “tell me
more.”
Gary@jewishweek.org
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A Hearty Stew Without Meat
Recipe- Vegetarians and carnivores alike will love this rich,
filling dinner. Amy Spiro, Online Jewish Week Columnist
Serve the stew over couscous, rice, quinoa... or alone! Amy
Spiro
There's almost nothing better for dinner in these frigid, windy
months than a big hearty stew to warm you up from the inside out. When you
think stew, chances are you're thinking beef or chicken. But a thick, delicious
stew can be vegetarian, too, or even vegan.
I'm not a vegetarian, but I do have alot of friends who are and
I don't eat meat very regularly. This sweet potato tofu stew is a perfect
weeknight dinner for me. The touches of curry bring it to the next level, and
carnivores, omnivores and herbivores alike will enjoy it. You might even win
over some tofu haters! You can eat this by itself or served over couscous or
any other grain.
Amy Spiro is a journalist and writer based in Jerusalem. She is
a graduate of the Jerusalem Culinary Institute's baking and pastry track, a
regular writer for The Jerusalem Post and blogs at bakingandmistaking.com. She
also holds a BA in Journalism and Politics from NYU.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons oil
1 large or 2 medium onions, diced
2 large sweet potatoes, diced
3 to 4 cups vegetable stock
1 package extra-firm tofu, diced
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 heaping teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
additional salt and pepper, to taste
Recipe Steps:
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and
stir to coat, then cook, continuing to stir regularly, about 15 minutes.
Add in the sweet potatoes, then 3 cups of vegetable stock, and
stir to mix. Let cook for about 15 minutes.
Add in the diced tofu and the chickpeas, stirring evenly
distribute everything. Stir in the curry, salt, pepper, turmeric and garlic.
Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sweet
potatoes are just starting to break down, 30-40 minutes. Add the additional
stock if desired. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
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Flowing Cups Freshly Remember'd
Kosher Wines- Jewish Week wine critic Gamliel Kronemer, reflects on the
wine he selected for his recent wedding. Gamliel Kronemer, Special To The
Jewish Week
In the eight years that I’ve written The Jewish Week’s Fruit of
the Vine column, I have, as a rule, not brought my personal life into the
column; not because I am against that style of writing, but because I don’t
think that my rather dull, mid-management life would be of much interest to
Jewish Week readers. However, for this column I have decided to make an
exception.
Earlier this year I got married, and from the moment my
engagement was announced, the question I most often heard was not “Who’s the
lucky girl,” but “What wines will you be serving at the wedding?” It’s an
occupational hazard. Frankly, choosing “the right wines” to serve at a catered
event can be difficult. So I’ve decided to share the wines I served at my
wedding, and the process I went through in selecting them.
The first wine to be selected was the one to be served under the
chupah, and I insisted that it had to be a good dessert wine, as I wanted the
first taste of our married life together to be sweet. While the rest of the
wines were selected by my by bride, Jessica, and me together, I already knew
what wine I wanted for this.
That wine is Prix Vineyards’ Late Harvest Chardonnay, Napa
Valley, 2006. Made by Ernie Weir of Hagafen Cellars, this dark-gold,
full-bodied, intensely sweet Chardonnay has a bouquet of apples, caramel,
citrus, and quince and flavors of apples, heather, caramel and crème brûlée,
with a lovely botrytis element on the finish. Well crafted, with a nice level
of acidity to balance the wine’s 18 percent residual sugar, this is the best
mevushal dessert wine I’ve ever tasted. Drink until 2015, or perhaps longer.
Score: A. ($48 for a 375 ml bottle. Available directly from the
winery, www.hagafen.com, [888] 424-2336.)
Our search for wines to serve our guests began as soon as we had
finalized the food menu. Jessica and I had decided that we wanted to source the
wine ourselves, even if that forced us to pay a per-bottle corkage fee, rather
than limit our choices to the caterer’s small list of house-stocked wines.
Since it was to be a springtime luncheon affair, we wanted to
start out with lighter bodied wines to be served at the pre-ceremonial
reception and during the first course, and then move to fuller bodied wines
that would pair well with the braise short ribs we were serving as our main
course.
In order to make our selections we gathered together about 20
mevushal wines (our caterer, like most American kosher caterers, required us to
serve mevushal wine) all priced under $20, and had a blind tasting. We invited
a friend over to stand in my kitchen and pour each of us glasses of each of the
wines and present them to us in a random order. Both Jessica and I took tasting
notes, although hers were a bit terser than mine (e.g., “looks like apple
juice”). It took us a bit of time to come to a consensus, but ultimately we chose
the following four wines:
Herzog, Special Reserve, Zin Gris, Lodi, 2007: I love dry rosés
and very much wanted to serve one with our first course, even though dry kosher
rosés are becoming harder and harder to find. We tasted three, and to my great
surprise this 6-year-old Californian rosé proved to be the best of them. (When
I first tasted it in 2008, however, I thought it would have been long past its
prime after only three or four years.) Dark peach to rose in color, this crisp,
dry, light-bodied rosé has flavors and aromas of strawberries, white cherries
and apples. Drink within the next few months.
Score: B+ (Supplies of this wine are pretty sparse, but it can
still be found in limited quantities online. $12.95. Available at The Kosher
Wine Company, 2052 Lakeville Road [New Hyde Park, L.I.], [516] 352-1100.)
Barkan, Classic, Petite Syrah, Dan, 2011: This medium-bodied
Israeli red was our other first-course wine. Dark garnet in color, it has flavors and aromas of cassis,
cranberries, and boysenberries, with a hint of star anise. Drink within the
next year.
Score: B ($8.75. Available at Skyview Wine & Spirits, 5681
Riverdale Ave. [Riverdale] [718] 548-3230.)
We were surprised to find that both of the wines we selected to
accompany the main course came from the Weinstock Cellar Select series.
Weinstock, Cellar Select, Chardonnay, Sonoma County, 2010: This straw-colored, medium-to-full-bodied
chardonnay has flavors and aromas of apples, pears, quince and toasty oak, with
notes of vanilla and cream. Well-crafted, with a smooth mouth-feel, this
chardonnay is ready to drink now and for the next two years.
Score: B/B+. ($18.29. Available at Elephant Wine, 315 Kearny
Ave. [Kearny, N.J.], [877] 946-3818.)
Weinstock, Cellar Select, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa County, 2010.
Full-bodied and dark garnet in color, this somewhat-rustic Cabernet has a chewy
mouth-feel with a goodly amount of chunky tannins. Look for flavors and aromas
of cherries, cassis, blackberries, and oak with notes of cedar and pipe
tobacco. Drinking well for at least the
next three years.
Score: B/B+ ($22.99. Available at Beacon Wine & Spirits 2120
Broadway [Manhattan] [212] 877-0028.)
In addition to wine, we also served a wine-based cocktail with
the hors d’oeuvres. Few culinary treats are more visually appealing, or more
difficult to resist, than a nicely garnished cocktail glass or bowl of punch;
and serving wine-based cocktails or punches is often as little as half the cost
of serving wine by the glass.
The wine cocktail we served is known as a Pineapple Julep, and I
based the recipe closely on one from the world’s first cocktail guide, Jerry
Thomas’s 1862 book, “How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon Vivant’s Companion.” While
Thomas’s recipe resulted in a bowl of punch for a party of five, I reworked the
recipe so that it could easily be served in pre-filled glasses:
• ½ cup of Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• ½ cup oTo each bottle of dry (brut) sparkling wine (Prosecco
or Cava would be good choices) add the following:
f Bols Genever or other Dutch style gin
• ½ cup of fresh orange juice
• 4 tbsp. of raspberry syrup (Kedem brand is a good choice)
• 4 tbsp. of fresh pineapple juice
Mix all of the still ingredients in a pitcher, then add the
sparkling wine and stir gently. Serve in wine goblets half filled with shaved
ice, and garnish with a slice of fresh pineapple.
Thankfully the wedding wines and wine-based drinks went off
without a hitch, and the imbibers among our guests left the wedding well
satisfied and (moderately) lubricated. About 100 people consumed 40 bottles of
wine, including four bottles OF sparkling wine that were used to make the
Pineapple Juleps.
Eight months have passed, and I am sure that for most of our
guests the wedding has become a vague but pleasant memory. But for Jessica and
me, our wedding shall always be — to borrow a bit of Shakespeare — “in our flowing
cups freshly remember’d.”
Please note: Wines are scored on an ‘A’-‘F’ scale where ‘A’ is
excellent, ‘B’ is good, ‘C’ is flawed, ‘D’ is very flawed, and ‘F’ is
undrinkable. Prices listed reflect the
price at the retailer mentioned.ceditor@jewishweek.org
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