Jews in the UK rallied in Edinburgh, Scotland last weekend to let world leaders we want to make poverty history and had to come up with appropriate swag, natch.
This simple white kippah is made in Argentina and available through The Association of Jewish Women’s Organisations In the UK. Proceeds benefit those in need in the Argentine Jewish community.

Mima’amakim, the Jewish journal of expressive arts that gets deep without gettin’ all pretentious, has launched a blog. Posts on Dorothy Parker (Jewish? We had no idea, since she was such an alcoholic) and Jonathan Safran Foer have had us occupied all morning.
We’ve decided to think of it as the Nextbook for those who drink too much coffee. Read, people, read!

We can’t believe it was twenty years ago that we spent fifteen straight hours tuned into MTV to watch Sting, Bob Geldof, U2 and Duran Duran promote awareness for third-world poverty via the monumental concert known as Live Aid (available on DVD at last!). The fact that all those artists and more performed this weekend for Geldof’s masterwork Live 8 made us nostalgic for our 80’s hairstyle (Claw bangs? Anyone?) but made us proud of our generation’s music icons. They’re still rockin’ the free world like it’s 1985 but two decades have made them smarter, richer, better-looking and better able to use their power for good.
We definitely got choked up when Geldof flashed a photo of a starving African child named Birham Woldu on the screen, “ten minutes away from death,” who he said was saved by the efforts of the first LiveAid. Then he brought her onstage, all-grown up, alive and beautiful with a smile as big and white as a strand of your bubbie’s pearls. “Don’t let them tell you this stuff doesn’t work!” Geldof cried to the audience.
Woldu remained onstage as Madonna continued to make us weep with her gospel-y “Like A Prayer” in front of a backdrop flashing the kabbalistic names of G*d in Hebrew, which proves we are no less sentimental than we were in adolescence. Or dorky, for that matter. We practically wet our pants when Maroon 5‘s Adam Levine teamed up with Stevie Wonder for “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” We may have to renew our subscription to Teen Beat so we can wallpaper our room with his photo.
While only a few members of Live 8’s all-star line-up may have been Jewish, we view this 10 city, worldwide event as one of the most incredible examples of tikkun olam in 20 years. We hope the music made to the ears of the G8’s world leaders and they heed the first world’s plea to cancel Africa’s debts and increase aid funding. In the meantime, we have music to download.
More photos here and here.

Catholic blogger Fred Martinez discusses skin tone and wardrobe, but we want to know: Why does it have to be either/or?

Reuters reports that the Cleveland, Ohio-based Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame has dropped its lawsuit against the founders of the Jewish Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame in exchange for never using the words “Jewish” and “Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame” together in the same sentence ever again.
Of course, the JRNRHOF dudes are already over it; their new site, Jewsrock.org, is so kickin’ they don’t need no stinkin’ parody of a name. Check out Bible study with David Lee Roth and the Jewish roots of “Stairway to Heaven” for your heavy shtetl fix.

Your Friday night brisket may soon be coming from (way) south of the border: JTA reports that a Nicaraguan slaughterhouse has laid the groundwork to mass produce kosher beef for export to the U.S., which may be good for business, but not so good for the rainforests. One pound of beef requires 16 pounds of grass to produce; forests are clear cut at the rate of a hundred acres a minute to feed the bovines.
Of course it’s all about economics, and the demand for “clean” beef such as kosher and organic varieties keeps growing in spite of its higher price sticker. So far there’s never been a Jewish mad cow, but should meat that’s had the rabbi’s schechitah blessing still be considered kosher if it’s contributing to the decimation of the environment of a country that should be changing its cattle ranching practices on a monumental scale rather than finding more profitable niche markets? It’s a quandary our vegetarian friends have already solved for themselves.
btw, we’re having salmon for Shabbat dinner. Wild, not farmed.

Slam! Sports features wrestler Bob Adessky this week, known as the “Canadian Jewish Wonder Boy” back in the days when nice professional Jewish wrestlers opened air-conditioning companies in their retirement.
Nowadays, they just go to Hollywood.

*Jewschool‘s Mobius (aka Dan Siederaski) goes toe-to-toe with JewishJournal’s Rob Eshman about the importance of Jewish blogging vs. print journalism on the neutral ground of Shma.com. Eshman recognizes blogging as a “boon” to Jewish journalism, but writes “there’s no reason to be enamored of the worst parts of it: the lashon hara; sloppy writing, editing, and sourcing; the snide, predictable anger of sexually frustrated young Jewish men with sharp minds and no one with whom to share their ideas.” And what of the sexually frusturated young Jewish women, buddy? Feel our wrath!

*Esther‘s column, “Friday Night Lights”, from last week’s Jewish Week about Sabbath candles and the single gal got us thinking about how hard it is to be a single Jew in Manhattan, let alone Boise.
For many singles who repeatedly experience the insulated isolation of Shabbat, a shameful truth emerges: Shabbat and holidays specifically, and Judaism as a whole, primarily provides a framework for family faith and community spirituality. Take away the family, community, neighborhood, or synagogue, and how many would still believe and observe from the core of their being? How much personal commitment comes from the desire to belong to a certain community? Why should I light candles if I find them so upsetting?
That’s why love her; she asks the hard questions. We hope she, and you, are surrounded by light and companionship this Shabbat.

*Wishing you a stellar Fourth of July, a Jmerica holiday fer shur. To quote American Jewish Committee Director David Harria, “Freedom is a priceless gift.” Now go out and appreciate it.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that it is perfectly acceptable to display the Ten Commandments on government property in Texas. But not in Kentucky. Or wait, is it the other way around? Whatever. Like, who even reads boring monuments about something the Lord said to Moses like a bazillion years ago anyway? Golly, maybe Dr. Laura can clear it all up for us.
(We thoroughly enjoyed the three seconds it took to rip off this photo from the The Foundation For Moral Law.)

Atid Maor, a 20 veteran of Israel’s secret service Shin Bet, has hung up his weapons to open a kindergarten center in Tel Aviv. He says it has been his lifelong dream “to work with children, teach, change nappies, prepare breakfast and read stories.”
No word on whether Vin Diesel has signed on play him in the movie version.