Shabbat Surfing: Post-Iowa Caucuses

This week, Iowa finally got the ball rolling on the 2012 Republican nomination. While Jews make up just 0.2% of Iowa’s population, the internet was still abuzz about implications for the Jewish community as we get closer to a nominee.

• Mitt Romney won by 8 votes and Shmuel Rosner offers 8 post-caucus comments  that focus on the Jews and Israel.
• Ron Kampeas posits that “there were also (at least) three takeaways for Jewish observers: foreign policy matters, evangelicals matter — and Ron Paul matters.”  
• Rick Perry’s fifth-place finish sent him back to Texas to reassess his campaign. He decided to skip New Hampshire and focus on South Carolina and, along the way, picked up the support of “a ‘New York state veterans support organization’ based in the unlikely precincts of Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn.”  

• It was easy to forget that Democrats in Iowa held caucuses, too. Obama ran unopposed, enthusiastic supporters stressed the importance of organizing, and Allison Hoffman explores what the Obama campaign has done and will need to do to win the Jews.

Next stop, New Hamphire. Shabbat Shalom!

What We’re Listening To: Jews and the Civil War

It’s 150 years after the end of the Civil War and we still struggle with our neighbors about what it means to be American. We argue over what it means to act appropriately patriotic, to act as a proud citizen.

We are much closer to the Civil War than we may like to think, with a Presidential candidate threatening that his state will secede – and gaining supporters because of that threat. Now, just as then, Jews are found on all sides of the political spectrum, and as we get closer to the next election, these divisions become deeper.

Did we join the Occupy Judaism part of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and put up a sukkah in Zucotti Park? Or did we make sure to get on the mailing list for the Jewish Tea Party?

Faith has long been a reason to get involved in politics – tzedek, tzedek, tirdof (justice, justice shall you pursue) is the rallying cry of many Jewish groups, not just one side. 150 years ago, what did we think was justice, and where did we all end up?

Tonight is the opening night for the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival, and the theme is United By Faith, Divided By War: Jews and the Civil War. A series of dramatic readings will recreate the participation of Jews in the Civil War, from statesmen to spies – spies like Eugenia Levy, “a fire-eating secessionist in skirts.”

No, really, there was an incredible amount of Jewish participation; listen to Kojo Nnamdi at 12:30 today on NPR to hear about it, and then see it come to life on stage at the opening tonight.

Because the Civil War’s echoes are still happening all around us.

Shabbat Surfing: Shots Heard Round the World

Meet Pesach Hausfater, one of the leaders of the massive housing protests that have swept Israel this past month. The Forward has an English translation of an interview that ran on the Israeli website Calcalist.

The New Yorker has a short piece from a veteran passenger of Bus No. 392, which runs between Be’er Sheva and Eilat and was one of the targets of a coordinated terrorist attack yesterday in Israel. 8 Israelis were killed in an outburst of violence that threatens to escalate.

David Letterman’s officially a Jew! Well, not really, but Jihadists tend not to make those subtle distinctions.

The story of Ralph Branca’s Jewish heritage has provided an opportunity for one of our community’s favorite past-times: Should we really count him as a Jewish ballplayer? More importantly, does that mean Jews share Branca’s guilt for surrendering the home run to Bobby Thompson, known as the “shot heard ’round the world,” that gave the NY Giants the pennant over the Brooklyn Dodgers?

Finally, Gene Simmons wants to rock n’ roll all night and party every day with Texas Governor and Presidential candidate Rick Perry.