It’s been well documented that social networking sites have been key in spreading pro-democracy messages and bringing people to the streets in the Arab world. Now, people are even being told they can choose their government on Facebook. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has asked his Facebook friends to help decide who should serve in…
When I saw this blog post, about attempts by some ultra-Orthodox authorities in Israel to ban Facebook from Haredi homes because the ubiquitous social media site “greatly damages families,” I thought it just another example of the community’s ongoing effort to build the shtetl walls high enough to control people’s behavior. Then I read this…
Playing “Farmville” on Shabbat isn’t a great idea if you’ve told the Israeli army you’re too frum to serve. That’s one of the lessons about a thousand Israeli women have learned after the Israel Defense Forces used Facebook to check out claims of religious observance. By using the hugely popular social-networking site, the military managed…
In a surprise decision, Time magazine today disregarded the people’s choice of WikiLeaks’s Julian Assange for Person of the Year and opted for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The accolade, awarded to the individual who has “for better or for worse…done the most to influence the events of the year,” according to the magazine, would have…
Kate Middleton, fiancée of Prince William, is old news. The British public is fixated on another celebrity Kate — a 24-year-old Jewish woman named Katie Waissel. Rarely in the history of television talent shows has so much attention been focused on a single contestant. Waissel is a singer on the television show “ X-Factor,” the…
Sarah Seltzer came away from watching “The Social Network,” the movie about the founding of Facebook, peeved about its (non)portrayal of women. In her post, “The (Male-Only) Social Network,” she quoted Maya Dusenbery about “the wall of giggle and boobs that composes the film’s background.” I, too, came away miffed about this, but also thinking…
Everyone’s talking about “The Social Network”, the movie chronicling the founding of Facebook. It was the weekend’s #1 movie and is an Oscar favorite It’s also attracted notice for its (non) portrayal of women. Feminist writers have weighed in thoughtfully, explaining that the movie’s women are mere props, that the creators of the film loaded…
Like the song on Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” says, “the show must go on.” That’s the word from ex-Pink Floyd honcho Roger Waters, who has forcefully rebuffed accusations his new solo stage show includes anti-Semitic imagery. As the Shmooze reported this week, the Anti-Defamation League lashed out at Waters for an animated stage sequence where…
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