Life

Eighth Night Yid Vid: What Is This Hanukkah Thing All About?

So we’ve had seven nights of Hanukkah videos. We’ve watched singing cowboys, rapping Jewesses, will.i.am impersonators, melodious philosemitism, a comic spilling the beans on George Clooney, Adam Sandler dropping names, and Lipa Schmeltzer doing his thing. But, a viewer might fairly complain, we still don’t have any better sense of what this holiday is all…

Seventh Night Yid Vid: A Little Bit of Lipa

Ain’t no Hanukkah song like a Hanukkah song sung by Hasidic pop giant Lipa Schmeltzer (alas, it’s only a promo, so it gets cut off a little abruptly): Sure, Lipa may not top the pop charts like Hasidic reggae phenom Matisyahu. But Matisyahu isn’t nearly as much zany fun. (Exhibit A: Check Lipa out promoting…

Sixth Night Yid Vid: When the Zohan Named Names

Before “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” there was the “Chanukah Song”: And here’s his “Chanukah Song,” version 3.0: It should be noted that, while some maintain that the “Chanukah song” is the “single most important Jewish song of the past quarter-century,” Adam Sandler doesn’t necessarily bring academic precision to his song-writing.

Wither the Mega-Donor?

In the wake of Bernard Madoff’s collapse, Forward alumna Lucette Lagnado looks to the decline of the Jewish mega-donor — and the return of a more humble form of philanthropy, replete with a higher volume of “little checks” and pushkes: “For the past several years, Jewish nonprofits had been relying on “fewer — but larger…

Fifth Night Yid Vid: George Clooney vs. Richard Kind on the December Dilemma

Fourth Night Yid Vid: Very Jewish Christmas Wishes

Maybe she can get in touch with this guy, if and when he gets his Christmas wish: So all you want for Christmas is to be Jewish? No problem, my singing friend. While you wait, I’ll leave you with this to tide you over. You should know, however, that there is a counterargument. (The counter-argument…

Billion-Dollar Foundation To Shutter Amid Madoff Woes

A billion-dollar foundation that gave to a wide array of Jewish causes is the latest charitable organization to announce that it is closing in the wake of Bernard Madoff’s financial collapse. The 19-year-old, Palm Beach, Fla.-based Picower Foundation, which distributed more than $23 million in 2007 — including gifts to about two dozen Jewish organizations…