Call Your Zeyde
It’s The Great Schlep redux.
Taking a page from its 2008 video urging young people to do whatever it takes to get their grandparents to vote for President Barack Obama, the Jewish Council for Education and Research has put out “Call Your Zeyde” with a week to go before the election.
This time, it’s not Sarah Silverman using profane-laced humor to convince Millenials do the schlepping. Instead, it’s cool, young Jewish singer Michelle Citrin doing a clever parody of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.”
You’ll recognize the Brooklyn-based Citrin from her YouTube hits like “20 Things to do with Matzah” and “Rosh Hashanah Girl.” (And you’ll recall that Silverman generously donated her time to JCER to make the recent “Let My People Vote-Get Nana a Gun” video, which also has its share of bubbes and zaydes.)
If you are like us, you have probably sworn to never watch another “Call Me Maybe” parody. But would you really want to miss a granddaughter trying to persuade her undecided grandfather, who has been watching FOX News and “talking to a chair since a convention,” to vote Obama?
t’s worth your overcoming your aversion to the most overplayed song of the year to watch the younger generation convincingly throw around Yiddish expressions for political purposes.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chief