EZ Reads 3/2/11

Thanks to all those who sent me information as to why my Gmail has been sluggish lately. For those who are starting to get concerned about losing everything, Lifehacker has some nice options for backing up Gmail.

• I meant to post this yesterday; while I could happily link James Taranto almost every day, Monday's Best of the Web piece was of interest to most of the readership here, as it rips into the "Israel First" myth.
• I'll admit to not really following this story closely, but Jameel has of course been all over it: IDF soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets on civilians. WestBankMama has a great post on the subject, particularly from the point of view of teens who are weighing their feelings against their desire to serve in important IDF roles in the future.
• I've been wanting to write a more substantive post on this, but it just wasn't happening; A Soldier's Mother has a beautiful piece on punishment, learned from a lesson doled out by the IDF on one of its own soldiers.

  How do you punish a soldier who spits at a flag and, in effect, all it stands for? All that soldiers do, every day of their army service, is represented by the flag. [...]
  
  His punishment - he had to create a 2 hour lecture to be delivered to all the soldiers on the meaning of Israel and the flag. To accomplish this, K. explained, the soldier had to travel all over Israel - to the north, to the south, to many of our cities. He had to interview people, Israelis, other soldiers, teachers and Holocaust survivors.

• EoZ is one of a number of people with this short video on women's rights in the Middle East.
• Chana asks if nothing is sacred anymore. Short answer, sadly: Nothing is sacred anymore.

Srugim - Season Two

Nice piece in The Jewish Week about the upcoming second season of Srugim:

“There’s something fascinating about seeing your own subculture, even if it’s the Israeli version, portrayed on screen,” said Washington Heights resident Shayna Weiss, 24.

When she’s not working on her doctorate in Israel studies at New York University, Weiss is an avid consumer of pop culture — and she calls most American screen depictions of Orthodox Jews “shallow” and “inaccurate.”

“You notice certain things are off — the way they say the blessings, where the kipa is,” she said. “Here, it was accurate; it’s my own life.”

Fellow Washington Heights resident Eliot Orenstein, 26, can relate. Much like some women used to bond over episodes of “Sex and the City,” Orenstein would chat about each episode with his friend, Yitz Goldstein.

Rather than looking for designer labels, Orenstein loves spotting moments of Orthodox authenticity — like the final scene of the pilot episode, which follows the characters home after Shabbat dinner.
“The last scene they show is Nati” — the handsome doctor — “sitting on the hallway floor, reading the newspaper, because the only light in their apartment was from the bathroom light they kept on for Shabbos,” Orenstein remembered.

“Anybody who’s Sabbath-observant has done that at some point by the bathroom light.”

That was my favorite part of Episode One, too. Good call. :)

Conan O'Brien hosting a Jewish Television show?....

Yes, it might be true.

So here is the story. I work for JLTV(Jewish Life Television). It's a full time Jewish channel on Time Warner Cable and DirecTV. When the whole Conan vs. Leno vs NBC battle started getting heated up, we sent out a press release that we are offering a hosting position for Conan in case he leaves NBC. So we didn't hear anything, till now....

(que the video)



Thats pretty awesome (for us at least).

So here is where you come in. Go to here and vote that you want him to come work for us. I know its tempting to vote for the porno roll, but try your best.

Thanks
HH
(aka, future boss of Conan)