Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

The Colbert Report, Jim Fouratt and Queering the News

Steven Colbert just gets more amazing every week. He went to Iraq and stood before a cheering crowd of soldiers as he made fun of Don't Ask Don't Tell — proof positive that the troops on the ground are more than ready to end this shameful charade perpetrated by successive administrations, Obama included.

And last night, he had as a guest on his show (after mercilessly hitting Obama for cowardice and duplicity in "stonewalling" the lgbt community) Jim Fouratt, veteran of GLF, GAA, former proprietor of Danceteria - the great 80s disco. (This Danceteria bit made Colbert's comment on surviving the Disco Inferno all the funnier, though if 5% of the audience understood the reference I'd be amazed)

Colbert usually interrupts his guests and they rarely get a chance to really deliver their message. That didn't happen last night, and Fouratt got a chance to tell the story of the Stonewall Uprising as it actually happened (as opposed to the mythology of the event) to a national TV audience (even if it's cable!). Colbert isn't mere satire, he is queering the news. Here is the interview:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jim Fouratt
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Faigele, Feigele, Feygeleh, Shmegeleh - no matter how you spell it, there's a queer film festival coming up at the JCC in NY

NewFest may be ending on Thursday, but next Monday and Tuesday nights, the queer film programs continue with three movies about lgbt life in Israel at the JCC in Manhattan. And all of them deal with the complexities of being queer in a country where religious fanaticism is rising.  This is the 4th year in a row that the JCC has held this short festival during Pride month, and the JCC has become a real resource for the queer community extending beyond just the Jews. Out Professionals has held several events there.

To get tickets

This coming Monday you can see:

Veahavta—And Thou Shalt Love - June 15th, 7pm
Directed by Chaim Elbaum (30 min, Israel, 2008)
Winner of the coveted Wolgin Prize for Best Drama at the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2008. Ohad is a student in a hesder yeshiva who is secretly in love with his best friend. Torn between his homosexuality and his religion, Ohad must struggle between his love for God and his love for Nir.

Zirei Kayitz - Seeds of Summer  - June 15th, 7:30pm
Directed by Hen Lasker - (63 min, Israel, 2007)
Hen Lasker’s feature documentary takes us back to the place where she first fell in love with a woman—the Israeli Defense Forces. Baby-faced teen recruits transform into combat-ready soldiers by day and cry for their parents by night. Lasker takes a close look inside a little seen world, and ends up revealing part of herself.

And on Tuesday...

Jerusalem Is Proud To Present - June 16th, 7pm
Directed by Nitzan Gilady - (80 min, Israel, 2007)
In the summer of 2006, Jerusalem was to host the World Pride events and parade. The planned events stirred turmoil in the politically complex city, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders banding together in an uncompromising battle against what they said would “defile the holy city.” On the other side stood the activists of the Open House, Jerusalem’s LGBTQ community center. Steadfast in the face of anti-gay sentiment, they dealt with threats that extended beyond their right to march.

All this comes at an important time, since the tensions are rising as we approach this year's Pride in Jerusalem. And normally safe Tel Aviv is less so, with the report that  31 year old openly gay actor & singer Yehonathan, was mugged and robbed during the weekends pride events in Tel Aviv.

Celebrating Pride, Jewish Style

It’s Pride Month, and for Jews around the country — and around the world, it’s the time of year that has become traditional over the last couple of decades to celebrate a Pride Seder or a special Pride Shabbat.

This weekend in New York City there are a number of Queer Jewish Pride events. At Congregation Rodeph Shalom on the Upper West Side there is a dinner following Friday night services with Judy Gold as the Guest of Honor, you can register on the JCC site, or at this date best to call 646-505-5708.

At the Village Temple, the Pride Shabbat d’var will be given by Gabriel Blau on this weeks Torah reading, and titled "Building Open Tents, The Jewish Journey and Civil Rights."  I’d like to be at both of these events, but this weekend I’ll be at NewFest, where I’ve marked out about 22 films I want to see — which means I will probably see about 15.

Meanwhile, the Temple for Universal Judaism is screening the film Hineini, a documentary about a young woman coming out in a Jewish high school, following services.

New Jersey won’t be left out — after all, they’re ahead of New York state in partnership rights for same-gender couples. And at B’nai Keshet, a Reconstructionist congregation, there will be a Pride Seder tied to the cause of marriage equality (which was the focus of the last seder at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun). And speaking of marriage equality, there is a great posting on the Jewish case for marriage equality from Australia (where pride seders have been celebrated as well).

Next weekend, down in Miami, at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, there will be a Pride Seder. I am always thrilled when I read about Pride Seders, since we started doing them at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in 1995, based on the liturgy developed by the Queer Minyan in Berkeley. We expanded the text and added a number of rituals, calling it the Stonewall Seder.  And over the years, as the text was picked up at other synagogues with additions and edits, we revised our text to reflect what we liked that we saw elsewhere. I wish there were one place where all the texts were collected so that someone could study the evolution of this new tradition.

Also next weekend in Boston, what is perhaps the oldest Pride Seder in the country will be held at Temple Sinai, and is sponsored by Congregation Am Tikva, CJP GLBT Team, Keshet, Ohel Tzedek of Temple Israel, and the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality.

The text of the Stonewall Seder (which can be downloaded here) was particularly influenced by revisions made by Andrew Ramer and Joss Eldridge at Congregation Sha’ar ZaHav, which this year will be holding their seder on Saturday, June 20, 2009, 6:00 pm. And for those of you who can’t go to a seder, you can see clips from the last Stonewall Seder at B’nai Jeshurun on YouTube, with the complete speech given by the guest of honor, Lisa Kron, and selection from the readings over the course of the night. My favorites include readings about the objects on the seder plate and a very different set of four questions:

And speaking of video clips, also at the JCC in NYC later this month is the Feigele Film Festival, with some great movies about queer life in Israel, including Veahavta—And Thou Shalt Love, Winner of the coveted Wolgin Prize for Best Drama at the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2008 and also inlcuding a documentary about pride celebrations in Jerusalem and how finally all religions of the middle east finally united — around a message of intolerance.

However you celebrate Pride Month — as  Jew, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Jain…may it reflect the deep love that our expression of love in the world stands for.

Gay Marriage Quote of the Day: NY Times

In today's front page story about the disorganization of opponents to marriage equality in NY State is this gem of a sentence that is very telling and extremely sad:

"The state's Roman Catholic bishops have been somewhat distracted, too, having focused their lobbying energies this session on defeating a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to bring civil claims, and have appeared unprepared for the battle over marriage."

Caught with their pants down as it were.

The fountain is back in Washington Sq. Park

It opened yesterday, and the western part of the park looks great — greener than ever, lush and flower filled. But best of all, the heart of the park, the fountain, was surrounded as ever by the denizens of the Village that is all New York (and the stragglers from NYU, not to mention cute cyclists).

Stonewall Seder 2007: Guest of Honor Lisa Kron speaks about Marriage Equality

Three videos, for a total of about 22 minutes, of smart talk that takes the discussion beyond simple same-sex marriage to wider social benefits for others as well, from the award-winning playwright and performer, Lisa Kron. At the Stonewall Seder in 2007, a ritual dinner celebrating what it means to be queer and Jewish.

Day 32: Netzach of Hod, four weeks and four days of the Omer

For today's sefirotic combination, Endurance in Humility, it's good to look at the suit of Pentacles. The 7 card captures the endurance required of a gardener — not only over the course of one season, but over the course of many seasons for a garden to grow and flourish. This is not only endurance, but patience and love.

The 8 card, Humility is often described as an image of an apprentice — someone who works for a master of a trade and learns from that master with true humility. That true humility does not discount that talent and ability that brings the apprentice to the master in the first place. It is an acknowledgment of the need for direction and guidance coupled with respect for the master who gives that guidance as a spiritual path. For both the master and the apprentice are in a spiritual relationship that enables both to grow. In a sense, they are equals — one has simply gone further down a path and can help the other on the way.

I have seen this at work in Japan, where master potters take on apprentices. Like the apprentice in the 8 of Pentacles, these "deshi" make the same object again and again, learning the perfection of the form. Because they work for the master, if the form is not acceptable, it is destroyed. If it meets the standard, the master signs it. When the apprentice is ready, he or she starts out on his own, and at that point will begin the artistic variations that will make the work truly theirs. But first the form is learned from the inside.

Imagine how it might feel to have someone else sign something that was the work and sweat of your hands. And consider how that form is not only the result of your work, but the training you are given by a teacher. That the form would not exist without that training. This is humility that is also gratitude.

So what is endurance in humility. Well, I can only speak for myself here, as a Westerner who has a great deal of trouble with the system I just outlined above. Because while I understand it, and can respect it. And while I have even attempted it in my studies as an amateur potter and ikebana student in Japan, I am a rebellious American, a New York Jew and thus somewhat, uh, argumentative shall we say? I may take on the role of apprentice, and pledge to myself and a master the discipline of humility. But my endurance in this discipline is weak. Which is perhaps why I've never been a very good gardener either.

What is your relationship to apprenticeship and humility?

Marriage Equality in New York: Fighting Faith with Faith...

The advertising in states where marriage rights have been extended to queer couples that opposes this is often funded by what we sometimes call the religious right. Since the 80's the joke about that term is that they are neither religious nor right. And while I think it is essential that this fight be conducted and framed as civil and secular rights, I also think it is essential that our allies in faith communities should be made more of. When the voices from these communities is no longer monolithic in its opposition to our cause — when we have ministers and rabbis from mainstream congregations who speak out in our favor — these are the people who can best reach the hearts and minds of those citizens and legislators who are being misled by their spiritual leaders. At the recent day of lobbying upstate in Albany, Equality and Justice Day, one of the speakers on the Mall was Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein, of Congregation B'nai Jeshurun (where I am proud to be a member). Here is what he had to say to the people, and the legislators, of New York State, on the subject of marriage equality:

The longest running sales promotion in the world: Maxwell House & Passover

A Passover Dessert & Coffee Story

In 1934 the Maxwell House Haggadah was published for the first time by the
Joseph Jacobs Advertising Agency of New York City. At some point, almost every Jew in North America has held a copy of this Haggadah at a Passover table.

Traditionally, Ashkenazi Jews (whose ancestors came from either Central, Northwestern,
and/or Eastern Europe) followed a traditional custom not to drink coffee during
Passover under the mistaken belief that the coffee bean was an actual bean that
therefore fell into the category of legumes, and any food, which fell into this category, was
religiously forbidden to be consumed during Passover.

In 1923, Joseph Jacobs, the eponymous owner of the Joseph Jacobs agency in
New York City, consulted an Orthodox rabbi, Rabbi Hersch Kohn,
to determine if the Maxwell House coffee bean was, in a technical sense, more similar
to a berry - a fruit - than a bean and therefore, kosher for Passover, meaning it would be
permitted by the Orthodox rabbi to be consumed during Passover. After the Orthodox
rabbi issued his approval and certification that the Maxwell House coffee bean was in
fact, kosher for Passover, General Foods, with the help of the Joseph Jacobs
Advertising Agency, started to market Maxwell House coffee for Passover to Jews in
New York City.

Sales of Maxwell House coffee during Passover among the
Jewish population rose dramatically. The success of this strategy led Jacobs to
reinforce the kosher-for-Passover message by developing a Haggadah for Maxwell
House in 1934.

The Maxwell House Haggadah was to be printed and then distributed for free to supermarkets across the United States, with free copies offered to consumers with the purchase of any Maxwell House coffee product.

Since the Maxwell House Haggadah, noted for its simplicity, was given away as a premium with purchase of the coffee, it became one of the most popular Haggadahs in North America.

In fact, the Maxwell House Haggadah is still being produced and offered today, making it
the longest running sales promotion in advertising history.

Over 50 million Maxwell House Haggadahs have been printed, making it the most widely used
Haggadah in the world, and the most widely circulated Judaica item in the world. The
result of this advertising campaign was that Maxwell House coffee became the preferred
coffee in Jewish households. In the mid-1960’s, the Haggadah used a more modern
English-language translation, and in 1997, the color scheme, traditionally a blue color,
was changed to a multicolor scheme. Today, Maxwell House is owned by Kraft Foods.

Recession? What recession? Consumers line up for high priced pseudo-japanese kitsch in Soho.

Okay, I love the Shibuya kawaii aesthetic as much as the next Giant Robot subscriber, but I was shocked, shocked to find a line of eager shoppers a block long yesterday on Spring Street in Soho for the opening of the NYC branch of Tokidoki.

Oddly enough, I was on my way home after spending the afternoon working freelance at a Japanese agency where I sometimes find myself writing English language copy based on copy that's been translated from Japanese but that doesn't quite rise to colloquial English yet.

It was an amazing day. After all, it hit 70°F only 4 days after it had been a horrific 15° with a wind-chill that made me seriously consider snow bird status. So the streets were filled with New Yorkers throwing off the cabin fever of the winter, checking out the street art on West Broadway, and the shoes on sale at 90% off at a shop that, like so many, was going out of business.
I had never heard of Tokidoki. But the crowd felt insinctively familiar. And the line, well, what New Yorker can resist a line. So I went over to check it out. In the window were Hello Kitty handbags. Soccer balls with Tokidoki designs. And inside was the founder and head designer of Tokidoki herself, the very Italian Simone Legno. Hence the crowds of admirers hungry for expensive totems of faux-asian coolness.

I have to admit though, I loved the stuff. Just like I love all the tchatckes you can find on Takeshita Doori. Of course, the stuff on Takeshita Doori doesn't command the prices Tokidoki does. Still, I had $150 to throw away, I'd love one of the soccer balls. However, given today's economic news, it's just not an investment I am willing to make. I'm just in shock there are still so many who can and will buy one.