Новости за 13.10.2016

A decade before Nissim and Shyne debuted on the Orthodox African-American hip-hop scene, “kosher” rap had its voice in three major players: Yitz “Y-Love” Jordan, Reuben “Prodezra” Formey, and Raphael “Hebro” Fulcher.

Two years ago, during the closing hours of Yom Kippur, one of the most embittering moments in D.C. sports history occurred. It was worse than all but the most egregious of the Capitals various choke-jobs and perhaps even as horrifying as when the Nats blew a 6-run lead in a deciding Game 5 against the Cardinals back in 2012.

Earlier today, and immediately after UNESCO—the UN agency entrusted with promoting peace through cultural and educational exchanges—adopted a resolution that nullified any Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Israeli officialdom reacted just as you would’ve expected. “With this absurd decision,” thundered prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “UNESCO has lost what little legitimacy it once had.”

The United Nations is infamous for subjecting Israel to a “barrage of obsessive, unbalanced, and relentless criticism,” in the words of Susan Rice, President Obama’s U.N. ambassador for five years. As Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine once put it, the Jewish state is the “perennial punching bag” at the U.N., which “hold[s] Israel to a standard that’s different than other nations.”

In late September 1961, New York Times music critic Robert Shelton visited Gerde’s Folk City, a small (and now defunct) concert venue in Greenwich Village. The headliner that night was a local bluegrass band called The Greenbriar Boys, but it was a 20-year-old folk singer and “bright new face” named Bob Dylan that caught the writer’s attention. “Resembling a cross between a choir boy and beatnick,” Shelton wrote, “Mr. Dylan has a cherubic look and a mop of tousled hair he partly covers with a Huck Finn black corduroy cap. Читать дальше...

The Book of the Covenant (Sefer ha-Brit) was one of the most popular Hebrew books read by modern Jews, as reflected in 40 editions spanning two centuries, including three Yiddish and six Ladino translations. Part scientific encyclopedia, part manual of mystical ascent, and part plea to Jews to embrace a universal ethics, the work was widely influential in an era of radical change and internal debate for Jews as well as for others. The amazing popularity of the author, the Eastern European Jew Pinchas Hurwitz (1765–1821)... Читать дальше...

This week on Unorthodox, we’re partying like it’s 5777.

Our Jewish guest is Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, co-author of the new Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary, an 850-page volume that chronicles and adapts the Eastern European language for the modern world. She tells us about growing up speaking only Yiddish at home (her father, Mordkhe Schaechter, is credited with the invention of modern Yiddish studies), and creating Yiddish words for things Isaac Bashevis Singer could never have imagined, like sexting. Читать дальше...

This week on Unorthodox, we’re partying like it’s 5777.

Our Jewish guest is Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, co-author of the new Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary, an 850-page volume that chronicles and adapts the Eastern European language for the modern world. She tells us about growing up speaking only Yiddish at home (her father, Mordekai Schaecter, is credited with the invention of modern Yiddish studies), and creating Yiddish words for things Isaac Bashevis Singer could never have imagined, like sexting. Читать дальше...

When her 27-year-old son died in Syria, Rima felt more furious than sad. Unfortunately, she could not say out loud what she wanted to say. He was sent to fight in Syria, without her approval, and without receiving proper training. She wanted to blame someone—mainly those who had talked him into joining the fighters in Syria—but she couldn’t. Her community had hailed his death as a sacrifice—a martyrdom.