The latest wardrobe gaffe to be ridiculed throughout the world is American: check out our VP Cheney’s winter football rally attire at the 60 anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Maybe he was planning a nice brisk hike around Birkenau afterwards?

Shabbat Shalom, Jmerica!

The following incident happened to a dear non-Jewish friend of ours and she wants some advice:
“I was at the hairdresser todayand there were 8 of us at a small salon. We were having something of a group discussion about vacuum cleaners (pathetic isn’t it?) and one woman, a middle school teacher was talking about how her expensive Orek is always breaking and how she is “always having to call that little Jewish guy to fix it.” That comment made me do a double take. It seemed clear to me that if the Orek guy was Protestant or Catholic she would not have included that information. It seemed ugly and especially insensitive considering that today is the 60th anniversary of the liberation Auschwitz.
I sat there, foils in my hair struggling for an appropriate response: “Hey, don’t say that!” or “Some of my best friends are little Jewish guys!” or “I know a great Baptist vaccum repair guy you can call next time”? I just knew I couldn’t say nothing. Then I noticed one of the other older women looked upset and wipe her eyes.
Who knows, maybe the hair color goop was getting in her eyes, or maybe she was a Jew and felt the sadness of knowing that millions of her people died and school teachers still said things like she just heard.
I worked up all the courage of a cabbage and said how horrifying it is that as bad as the tsunami deaths were that they were nothing compared to the Holocaust death toll. Of course, no one responded.”
So what do you think, Jmericans? What would you have said, if anything? Our friend feels like woman didn’t mean to be malicious, but what else could she have said in the moment? Please post your thoughts; they’ll be deeply appreciated.

With all the recent attention given to the international child obesity epidemic, it’s good to know our Canadian neighbors are on it: Camp Gesher in Cloyne, Ontario has announced the first ever Jewish weight loss camp. Chubby campers will learn how to prepare healthy kosher foods and participate in safe physical activity, but there won’t be any of those awful weigh-ins that any kid would dread. “The program is designed so that that campers will begin to feel comfortable with themselves, because kids who are comfortable with themselves have less tendency to be overweight,” says Shaul Zobary, director of Camp Gesher.
We applaud the Canadian Jewish community for addressing the health of our future Jewish leaders; with nearly 13 percent of American children weighing into the “obese” category we hope we see more programs like this stateside.

In an interview with Newsweek[i]‘s Nicki Gostin, kosher cutie Debra Messing may be leading the trend away from boring, [i]goyishe straight hair:
Nicki Gostin: What is it with Jewish girls and curly hair?
Messing: I think it’s just something we lovely Jewish ladies have to embrace. When I was is high school I literally would spend two hours in the morning trying to straighten my hair because everyone wanted to look like Brooke Shields.”
And now all the shiksas are spending hours with a curling iron trying to look like her, even the boys. Debra’s new movie The Wedding Date hits theaters February 4.

This lapel button from Sticker Giant.com says it all in a mere one inch. At 99 cents a pop, we’re considering shipping a boatload or two to Buckingham Palace.

The Oscar nominees have been announced, and yes, Jmerica’s personal obsession Natalie Portman is on the list for her supporting role in Closer. Can she beat out shiksas Laura Linney and Virginia Madsen? If she does, will that prove Jews really run Hollywood?
The Academy Awards will be beamed to a telly near you on Sunday, February 27.

So in our typically overzealous urge to get back to nature we reported last Tuesday about the wonderful holiday of Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish New Year for Trees. It’s actually today. We apologize for being so farblondgent, but we believe the trees appreciated the extra love.
(Read the first post for links on how to create your own delicious fruits-of-the-earth feast.)

A leading rabbi in Beersheba has ruled that Jewish women should not wear anything red, implying that it makes them look like hookers. In response, several female lawmakers in Jerusalem wore red to work in protest.
It’s not up to a rabbi to tell us to whether to wear black or red or any other color,” said Erela Golan, a legislator from the Shinui party who organized the protest. “Just because we wear red doesn’t mean we are prostitutes.
Of course it doesn’t. But easy on the red fishnet stockings until this blows over.
In other news relating to our second favorite color (the first is orange, the preferred color of the insane), it seems the red bendel might be rescued from accessory hell for a fashion comeback…as long as you have the “authentic” version.

Fallen porn king Al Goldstein was so down and out less than a year ago that he turned to Jesus. But Reuters reports that he’s got a new job hawking bagels and white fish to all God’s children:
I’ve always loved food more than sex, so this is really my first love,” said Goldstein, 69, now a cold-calling salesman for New York City Bagels. “I’ve gone from broads to bagels.
The article reveals that the person who helped get Goldstein off the street is none other than magician Penn Jillette and in spite of alienating anyone he’s ever worked with, sired or spoken to, Goldstein just keeps on generating “poor me” press. Although a little digging reveals that he’s still the same lecherous cretin.

Can you imagine going shopping for a nice set of flannel sheets and turning up with these instead? A son of Holocaust survivors found two sets of sheets patterned with WWII “Jude” stars for sale at a Petaluma, CA Grocery Outlet last week, the same offensive symbol his parents were forced to wear sixty years ago. j. weekly reports that “the stars were made with dotted lines, as if to be cut out and sewn onto clothing” (insert heebie jeebies here.) No one seems to know where the fabric came from or how they could have made it to shelves without a single employee wondering “gee, aren’t these, like, really offensive?”
Ironically, the brand name, Nature at Home, is owned by Sam Salem and Sons out of Manhattan, a manufacturing firm comprised of mostly Jewish and Israeli workers. They’re mystified and embarrassed that star sheets have been traced back to their company.