The Ramones, a bunch of mostly Jewish New Yorkers, invented punk rock in 1974. Ironically, then, the only way to see a great, explicitly Jewish punk band today is to hop on a flight to Australia. There, some mohawk-sporting former yeshiva high-school students have been playing in a band called Yidcore for more than half…
Like all boringly self-congratulatory hipster parents, I force my children to absorb the pop culture I deem groovy. Maxine, at 2, wears her Coney Island Mermaid Parade shirt; Josie, 5, bops around the house to the Ramones. We avoid eye-singeing tacky microchippy toys in favor of the Lincoln Logs and Tinkertoys of my own childhood….
While attending a Jewish day school, Noah Gradofsky, a young fan of the long-running cartoon series “The Simpsons,” had a passing idea to turn an episode into a mock page of Talmud. Years later, in rabbinical school, Gradofsky first put the idea on paper or, more accurately, on a Web site. The Simpsons Talmud, based…
Last week, President Bush promised to give the Palestinians $190 million in aid and another $80 million in security assistance. But it won’t be all that easy — at least not as far as Congress is concerned. Democrat Steve Rothman and Republican Mike Pence started circulating today a letter to the White House calling on…
As the 2008 contest swings into gear, Campaign Confidential is busy collecting some Congressional report cards. Several Jewish freshmen from swing districts are expected to face stiff competition, including Democratic physician Steve Kagen of Wisconsin. Last time around, Kagen beat out the the state’s Assembly Speaker, Republican John Gard, for an open seat in the…
I have a story up this week about the prominent neocons tapped by presidential contender Rudy Giuliani as foreign policy advisers. In case you had any doubt, our headline – “Giuliani Stacks Campaign Staff With a Who’s Who Of Mideast Hawks” – is just the message Team Rudy is looking to send. On Wednesday night,…
**DOLLY PARTON SPARKLES AT SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME GALA ** “You meet the most interesting people in the ladies room,” I said to wasp-waisted, mammary-endowed Dolly Parton. “Even stars have to pee,” was her cheery comeback. Recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award at the June 7 Songwriters Hall of Fame dinner, she was described by…
The Washington Post has a great story today about the record (albeit still pretty miniscule) number of women in Congress with children under the age of 13. The grand total, by the way, is 10. This is in a year when the total number of women in Congress is itself at a record high, with…
The Israel Project took to Capitol Hill toady to launch its petition against Iran’s nuclear bomb. The initial invitation to the event stated that “all presidential candidates have been invited to speak” but none of them showed up in person. Barack Obama sent a staffer with a statement and the rest just emailed in their…
Second quarter fundraising results are in, including for the Jewish freshmen in the House. Here’s the quick summary of year-to-date fundraising totals; Ron Klein: $1.3 million Gabrielle Giffords: $908,494 John Yarmuth: $600,000 Paul Hodes: $550,000 Steve Kagen: $420,000 Steve Cohen: $137,000 While Klein, Giffords, Yarmuth, Hodes and Kagen are part of the DCCC’s Frontline program…
It’s not every day that someone hits the big 9-0, and when the said person is one of the highest rolling (and most loved) Democratic donors, the pols turn out in droves. Bernard Rapoport, a nice Jewish boy from Waco, Texas who grew up to earn a fortune in the insurance business, was feted at…
