The Yenta may share Jewish ancestry and a penchant for tattoos and Manic Panic hair dye with Pink, but the similarities stop there.

The (largely talentless, IMHO) pop singer is going around defending Mel Gibson, saying “Alcohol makes you do crazy things.” Yes, like taking your top off at a fraternity party or shaving your head, dear. But hatred against Jews doesn’t float around the bottom of a tequila bottle.

Speaking of the man who launched a thousand letters from the ADL, Mel’s publicist says he’s too busy with rehab to apologize to an L.A. congregation on Yom Kippur. The rabbi says he’ll take a rain check.

Naomi Alderman, writer for The Guardian, made an interesting observation of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat character and how it parallels the famous obedience experiment by Stanley Milgram. If you’re not familiar with the ground-breaking psychological study by Milgram then check out the wikipedia article to brush up.

In The Guardian, Alderman explains how the very presence of Borat is like a micro-Milgram experiment where the “participants” are prodded to spilling their (racist) beans where they even allow Borat’s anti-Semitism and misogyny to run rampant, sometimes without objection and even worse, with encouragement. The Head Yenta once blogged about Borat’s “Throw the Jew Down the Well” performance at a country music bar, a perfect example where Borat tricks an audience into revealing it’s true colors (and they aren’t pretty).

Alderman writes:

The reason it is unsettling to hear Borat sing “Throw the Jew down the well” is because of the reaction of those listening. Some sit in mute astonishment and horror. But some join in. Some sing along, smile and stamp their feet. One woman even – unprompted, mind you – puts her fingers to her forehead to make horns when he sings, “You must take [the Jew] by his horns.” Borat is unsettling not because his opinions are outlandish but because he reveals how many ordinary people share them.

In the 60’s Stanley Milgram wondered why the German people allowed the Nazis to commit such atrocities to the Jews and performed an experiment that “shocked” the world out of its ignorance. Today, Borat is still shocking audiences and revealing the anti-Semitism that festers decades later.

Who knew that good ol’ Hebrew/English tunes would win out on American Idol’s Underground competition for the faith-based category? The “Underground” branch of American Idol highlights sub genres of music that are not yet ready for the mainstream (read: for teeny bopers). In the faith-based category one can assume that it was littered with all kinds of Christian music, being that this is American Idol!

Its amazing and refreshing (in light of Gibson’s big mouth) to know that Jewish music took the crown among the thousands of entries.

Beth Schafer explains:

“My songs combine the rich tradition of interpreting Jewish sacred texts with the high production values of contemporary Christian music. The themes are universal which appeal to Jewish and Christian fans alike,” said Schafer. She added, “I hope to build bridges throughout the interfaith community with my music and emphasize that we all have more in common than not.”

Congrats to Beth Schafer, her music is available online too, check it out.

Our fearless leader the Head Yenta (who is still in the process of moving) enlightened us a few months ago to the story of a Jewish Millionaire, Sharon Tendler, who married a male dolphin named Cindy in Israel. Sadly this love story came to an end as Cindy turned belly up in the Eliat Reef on Sunday, still floating in his favorite spot. Reef workers say that he was not eating properly or swimming normally in the days before his death. He was given a proper burial at sea by the reef workers.

The article doesn’t seem to mention if Cindy’s Jewish wife Sharon Tendler was even at the funeral. She said she was “the happiest girl on earth” back when they got hitched in December of 2005. The word on the street is that Cindy has fathered plenty of offspring in the Eliat Reef so there are more fellas for Sharon to get acquainted with should she ever find love again with another dolphin.

Photo: c/o Ynet