Wayne Hoffman and Alana Newhouse have left the Forward

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Luke Ford

They now work at Nextbook.org.

Alana was passed over for the position of Editor of the Forward.

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Jewish Journal Uses F-Word

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Luke Ford

Naomi Pfefferman writes:

Saget’s stand-up, in his words, has always been "perverted," but that did not become widely known until he was asked to appear in the 2005 documentary, "The Aristocrats," in which he out-raunched 100 other comedians. Since then, Saget has sold out stadiums and college theaters with an act so over-the-top nasty that it is outrageous even in a comedy zeitgeist already pushed to Sarah Silverman extremes.

His stream-of-consciousness riffs about incest, date rape, snuff films, bestiality and every possible bodily fluid are "a word salad of language so blisteringly blue that a potential diagnosis, as Saget freely admits on HBO, of Tourette’s syndrome cannot be ruled out," the Washington Post said.

The promos for his Comedy Central roast feature Saget admonishing a donkey for trying to sniff his privates.

Even when he’s riffing about his synagogue, Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, an animal somehow enters the picture.

"We have a great synagogue — the rabbi will marry a man to a goat," he said. "It’s Reconstructionist — they’ll do gay marriage if you need it, they’ll do interfaith — and interfaith’s nothing after a goat."

Saget also has the reputation, among those who know him, to be as kind as he can be crude. A few days after the taping of his Comedy Central roast, he publicly protested the vulgar Olsen jokes proffered by roast master John Stamos (another "Full House" co-star) and dais participants, such as Gilbert Gottfried.

"Anybody who talks about my TV kids — that upsets me," Saget said in a statement. "I am very protective. I love them very, very much."

Saget was more measured about the roast several days later: "Some of the comedy for sure crossed the line," he said in an e-mail. "It’s a roast, and they went for it. I also believe in freedom of speech, and the comedians meant no harm."

Saget said he gets to look at the final edit and that "Comedy Central has been incredibly collaborative. The director-producer, Joel Gallen, is very talented … and also has helped to talk me off of ledges over many aspects of this roast.

"I think it’s a very funny show, but it’s not for everyone," he added, delicately."

Saget’s Kehillat Israel shows are far cleaner. He joined the congregation with his ex-wife, Sherri, in 1990, and their three daughters (now ages 15 to 21) had their bat mitzvahs there.

The synagogue’s rabbi, Steven Carr Reuben, is a fan: "Bob has appeared at almost every major event we’ve hosted in the last 15 years," he said. "He once admitted to me that temple shows are the hardest to do, because he has to censor himself.

"Bob is particularly funny because he has this dual, schizophrenic reputation from the G-rated family shows to the X-rated stand-up show," the rabbi added. "I appreciate his humor, because I know where it comes from: a sweet and loving way of communicating with people.

"Some comedy is cutting, but Bob’s humor is always designed for us to see the funny side of ourselves in difficult situations. He’ll be in the hospital visiting someone and making a joke about people’s catheters. It’s uncomfortable but funny, too."

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Lindsay Lohan Defends sister Ali over breast implant allegations

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Luke Ford

From MTV:

Talk of Tinsletown this week is none other than Lindsay Lohan’s younger sister Ali and her alleged breast implants.

Speculation rose when Ali was spotted at a Jonas Brothers concert in L.A with what could only be described as a slightly larger chest.

Hollywood bloggers have gone crazy over the has she hasn’t she argument.

But yesterday Sister Lindsay slammed the paparazzi for quizzing her about her sister’s alleged breast implants.

Writing on her blog, Lindsay said she felt "a bit sick to my stomach" when photographers questioned her about Ali.

Lindsay insisted that she was "not judging" those who decided to have cosmetic surgery, but noted: "All in all, my mother taught us to appreciate what we have been given.

"Nor would she ever encourage or allow a 14-year-old child to alter her body."

From US Magazine:

Did 14-year-old singer Ali Lohan have a summer growth spurt?

The new issue of Us Weekly shows the star of Living Lohan flaunting new curves at a Jonas Brothers concert in East Hampton, NY on August 9.

Just three months earlier, a flatter Lohan hit Fuse for a taping of The Sauce in NYC.

See photos of stars’ smooshed boobs.

Lohan accidentally auditioned for a porn director on the season finale of her reality show last month.

"Ali obviously had no idea about [director Peter Davy’s] past," her rep told Us. "If she did know, she never would have auditioned for him.”

Lohan has long sought fame.

"I want it so bad," she told Teen Vogue earlier this year. "So bad you don’t even know. And now, it’s actually happening. I’ve already been asked for my autograph, and it’s just a really good feeling to have."

See what Ali Lohan and other teen stars looked like two years ago.

Ali Lohan

Jemal Countess/WireImage.com; Celebrityvibe.com

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KNBC Coverage Of Last Thursday’s Rally For Darfur

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Luke Ford

My report Aug. 8.

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Dakota Fanning Stars In Hounddog

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Luke Ford

I saw this movie Tuesday night.

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Luke Ford’s Blogging Headquarters

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Luke Ford

Oh, the glory!

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A Rabbi’s Curious Allegations

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Luke Ford

Nathan Lewin writes for The Jewish Press:

 

In a front-page article asserting that minors had been hired to work in an Iowa kosher meat-packing plant and in an editorial calling the plant the modern equivalent of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, The New York Times joined the media frenzy that has, over the past two months, with very little basis in fact, pilloried AgriProcessors, the country’s leading kosher slaughterer and packer of beef, and driven federal and local law-enforcement personnel to threaten dire consequences to its owner and employees.
 
Insult was heaped on injury when an Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C., published an Op-Ed piece in the Times of August 6, claiming the news accounts "call into question whether the food processed in the plant qualifies as kosher.”
 
This nationally published challenge to the kashrut of the AgriProcessors product contradicts the unanimous opinion of highly respected and universally recognized kashrut-certifying agencies that have repeatedly endorsed – even while the media attack was ongoing – the ritual acceptability of that product.
 
Nonetheless, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Sholom Synagogue in Washington (of which I have been a member for the past 40 years) – a young rabbi who has achieved great success in reviving, for Jewish residents, a neighborhood that had been abandoned by its Jewish population and has electrified the entire Washington Jewish community with innovative programs – raised ”questions” about AgriProcessors’ kashrut for the Times’s large and influential readership.
 
           Rabbi Herzfeld’s column cites the following three grounds for questioning the religious suitability of AgriProcessors’ meat:
 
First, he says "there is precedent for declaring something nonkosher on the basis of how employees are treated.” The precedent he cites is that Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the highly respected founder of the Mussar movement, is "famously believed to have refused to certify a matzo factory as kosher on the grounds that the workers were being treated unfairly.”
 
Rabbi Yisroel Salanter is as gold-plated an authority as one can imagine. If he actually said that unfair treatment of workers renders a product non-kosher, one would have to give that ruling great weight.
 
Second, Rabbi Herzfeld cites allegations in an affidavit filed by the immigration authorities who raided the AgriProcessors plant in Iowa on May 12 to arrest illegal aliens employed there. He says the affidavit alleges "that an employee was physically abused by a rabbi on the floor of the plant.” Rabbi Herzfeld says "this calls into question the reliability and judgment of the rabbi in charge of making sure the food was kosher.”
 
If, in fact, the "rabbi in charge of making sure the food was kosher” did assault an AgriProcessors employee, I would share Rabbi Herzfeld’s doubts regarding that rabbi’s "reliability and judgment” on issues relating to kashrut.
 
Third, Rabbi Herzfeld points to the arrest of "two workers who oversaw the poultry and beef division” for "helping illegal immigrants falsify documents.” He says that if these supervisors "were willing to break immigration laws, one could reasonably ask whether they would be likely to show the same lack of concern for Jewish dietary laws.”
 
            This is a reasonable question if, as one might assume from Rabbi Herzfeld’s description of the arrests, the arrested supervisors had any responsibility whatever for the company’s compliance with "Jewish dietary laws.”
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Is Elizabeth Edwards A Victim?

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Luke Ford

She says she knew he had this affair in 2006 and yet she encouraged him to run for the presidency anyway and she knew he was lying to reporters about not having an affair with Rielle Hunter.

I say she’s culpable for allowing John’s lies and for encouraging his reckless bid for political power that was destined to blow up.

Mickey Kaus writes:

How big a victim is Elizabeth Edwards? A decision tree: Did John Edwards

A) finally come clean in his Friday evening Nightline interview! … or

B) choose, when caught out in a lie, to recklessly erect a second edifice of BS regarding at least 1) whether this was his only affair; 2) when this affair started; 3) when it ended; 4) whether it was going on in mid-2007 when Rielle Hunter’s child was conceived; 5) whether he thinks he might be the father; 6) whether he actually wants a paternity test; 7) why he visited Hunter at the Beverly Hilton; 8) whether he knew and/or tacitly approved of payments to Hunter and putative father Andrew Young. …

If you opt for B–perhaps citing this, or this–you face a second, more interesting speculation: Why did Edwards tell his new lies? Were they

i) the same lies he told his wife, Elizabeth–that the affair ended in 2006, etc.–so the Nightline‘s Story #2 was really an attempt to save his marriage now that his political career is over or

ii) lies designed more to preserve the possibility of a political comeback some time in the future by admitting only to a "short" affair, before his wife’s cancer recurred, that did not involve any questionable campaign practices (such as using contributions to give your mistress a job that allows her to travel with you)?

It’s not surprising that People magazine’s new cover story portrays Elizabeth Edwards as the anguished victim motivated by "her determination to keep her family together." People is basicaly working from script (A), the one John Edwards undoubtedly wanted the MSM to work from when he prepared for Nightline. The Excruciating Anguish of Elizabeth (who "pushed her husband to finally come clean") would be a logical part of that PR strategy whether or not Edwards was telling the truth to Bob Woodruff.

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The Anguish Of Elizabeth Edwards

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Luke Ford

From people.com:

"There was anguish – excruciating anguish – for her in dealing with this," Elizabeth’s best friend Hargrave McElroy tells PEOPLE in its new issue.

Behind the public show of strength, the Edwards’ household has been a scene of turmoil and tension since John, 55, first began revealing the truth about his affair with former campaign aide, Rielle Hunter, 44, after the formal launch of his campaign in the final days of 2006. "He told the truth slowly," according to one source close to the couple.

Elizabeth, 59, faced an agonizing choice: "Do I kick him out, or do we have a 30-year marriage that can be rebuilt?" says McElroy. The fact that she suffers from a terminal disease, one that could rob her children – Jack, 8, Emma Claire, 10 and Cate, 26, a student at Harvard Law School – of their mother, weighed heavily in her decision.

"She couldn’t say, ‘Well, maybe we’ll work through this for years, or maybe we should separate for two years,’" adds Elizabeth’s best friend. "[The cancer] forced her to choose whether to move forward."

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Rabbi Shmuel Hertzfeld & Open Orthodoxy

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Luke Ford

Joe emails:

I think that you should run a piece on Rabbi Shmuel Hertzfeld. His time has come, since he is a quasi-celeb.

Without any previous knowledge, you might think Hertzfeld is some kind of activist, a modern day Heschel — but Orthodox.

That is not the case. Let me give you some background. You can verify the assessment that I am giving you with anyone who was at YU with Hertzfeld.

Hertzfeld was in YU before Yeshivat Chovevei Torah opened up. Today, a person like him would probably wind up at YCT, but that wasn’t an option then.

He was always a maverick, or, if you will a trouble maker. He would make controversial statements in public, just to attract attention.

His most famous line — which he would repeat and repeat and repeat was, "The only reason guys in YU get married early, is because they don’t have premarital sex." Of course, everyone knew that he and his girlfriend were dating a long time, by YU standards, and only got married after three years of dating.

So, Hertzfeld was some kind of cynical YU guy, doing graduate work at Revel (YU’s graduate program in Judaic studes) — until he met Avi Weiss. When Hertzfeld took the job at Weiss’s shul (Hebrew Institute), he got into the whole "Avi Weiss/Hug everyone/isn’t it a wonderful world/so open-minded your brain falls out" thing. Luke, since you live on the West coast,  you are used to such people; in New York, they are a rare commodity. Hertzfeld realized that, instead of making provocative comments that enraged people in YU, you could say the same things, and become the darling of your congregants, because that is exactly what they wanted to hear, a message contra YU.

Then Hertzfeld saw his opportunity. He took a dying shul in the DC area and renamed it "The National Synagogue." What a move! It’s like, there’s a National Cathedral — and a National Synagogue. He got a ton of money from Jonas (of IDT fame) and was soon in business running tons of programing. In a place like Washington, he taped into a niche market for "Open Orthodoxy."

Here’s Hertzfeld, doing his Open Orthodoxy thing, and getting the other rabbis, who belong to the "Vaad of Greater Washington," more and more upset at him. In a sense, he infuriated Rabbi Barry Freundel more than the more right-leaning rabbis. Freundel is a major YU person, very into YU as an institution. Hertzfeld represents a challenge to that.

Rubashkin was Hertzfeld’s coup de grace. He gained two things: first, he presented himself as a social activist, which is exactly the kind of PR that he needs. Second, he "assered," or forbade the meat, which is supervised by establishment groups like the OU. This is a classic trick of rabbis, to forbid something to show your political muscles. Even better, Hertzfeld comes out "frummer" than the other DC rabbis, who are far to his right.

The Times op-ed was a classic Hertzfeld. It brings him back to the days of being a cynical YU smicha guy.

The problem is, that he is nearly untouchable. If YU crucifies him, then he’ll become a martyr for Open Orthodoxy. If they tried to assassinate his character, by bringing out his dirty laundry from his YU days, then Hertzfeld will only gain, since he will become known as "the cool rabbi who allows pre-marital sex." Only time will tell what lies in wait for Shmuel Hertzfeld.

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