Last night Hillel UW hosted its annual Jewish Arts Festival, a wrap up party/variety show in celebration of Jewish arts month. Last night’s shindig featured tons of music as well as comedy by Simon Kaufman, belly dancing by Troupe Hipnotica and this wicked fire dancing routine by Leslie Rosen. Oh, and a lot of other stuff too.

Here are some photos.

Ravenna Kibbutznik Joel Rothschild, aka Yoel Natan

Fall City Shakedown with Hillel Social Justice Coordinator Robert Beiser

Troupe Hipnotica plays with swords

This act must make Leslie Rosen’s mother very nervous

The Interfaith Alliance has put together a list of the top ten abuses of religion during this never-ending campaign season, spurred by the picture of Obama in Somali garb sent around the world this week, once again trying to portray him as a secret Muslim. Again, ridiculous. The list is non-partisan — Obama doesn’t escape criticism, incidentally — but, as the alliance’s president, Rev. Welton Gaddy put it in the press release I received: “I have witnessed more abuses of religion in this primary season than in any election in recent memory.  Candidates from both parties seem to be locked in a competition to be ‘holier than thou,’” said Gaddy.  “Incidents like these demean the sanctity of religion by inferring that God has endorsed a certain candidate. Far be it for candidates to run for ‘Commander-in-Chief’ instead of ‘Pastor-in-Chief.’”

10. Mitt Romney is asked if he believes “every word” of the Bible (CNN/You Tube debate (11-28-07).
9. CNN’s Soledad O’Brien asks John Edwards to “name his greatest sin” (CNN/Sojourners town hall 6-26-07).
8. James Dobson tells a reporter he does not think that Fred Thompson is a Christian (3-27-07).
7. Barack Obama distributes a campaign flier describing himself as a “Committed Christian” (1-21-08).
6. Hillary Clinton said we need to “inject faith into policy” (CNN/Sojourners town hall 6-26-07).
5. Mike Huckabee explains his rise in the polls by invoking the Biblical story of two fish and five loaves feeding a crowd of 5,000 people (11-28-07).
4. Tim Russert asks all the Democratic candidates to “name their favorite Bible verse” (MSNBC 9-26-07).
3. John McCain says the Constitution established the United States as a Christian nation and that he would prefer a Christian president (9-27-07).
2. Barack Obama asked a congregation to help him “become an instrument of God” and join him in creating “a Kingdom right here on Earth” (10-17-07).
1. Mike Huckabee tells a crowd: “What we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards” (1-14-08).

Day One.
I have to admit, I was a little nervous about boarding a flight for Israel with 52 other people, especially since I really knew no one going in.  It’s one thing to travel with a large group of people, and quite another to travel with a large group of strangers.  Still, the opportunity presented itself in such a way that I couldn’t say no, and so I found myself on a flight with those 52 strangers, all connected through the Jewish Federation of Seattle, headed due east.  Of course, a schedule had been handed out by the Federation with a day-by-day, blow-by-blow itinerary, but with this being my first time in Israel, none of it registered with me.  Town names like Safed and Sachnin really had no distinction in my mind.  I was going in blind, a new travel technique that I have never experienced before.  Before there were always plans to make, ideas of where you wanted to go once you were there, but with everything planned for me, I decided to let it all be a surprise.  I did no homework, I googled nothing.  All I did was pack and show up, having no idea of what to expect.

The first unexpected moment happened early on, during our flight from Newark to Tel Aviv.  I managed to sleep almost the whole flight, awaking at what seemed to be day break.  As I wiped the drool from my cheek, I felt eyes upon me, and looked up to five Chasidic men davening right behind me, their teffilen wrapped tightly.  I tried to compose myself and not stare, but I couldn’t help it—this never happens on business trips to Chicago!

We arrive and board our buses—we have enough people to warrant two buses—and I am marked on bus two: The Singles Bus.  We head out for our first leg of our journey: The Kaffir Giladi, a Kibbutz in the Golan Heights area. 

Granted it could use a bit more action than Barack pointing at some old guy, but it’s the music we’re about here.

Much more music from this often hilarious group of Jewish Latino hip-hop artists on their MySpace page. But I guess we know who they’ll be voting for…

Remember in 4th grade science class when you learned all about what causes earthquakes and volcanoes? Well, you can just go ahead and knock that information right out of your brain because it’s all wrong. Turns out, earthquakes are actually caused by gay people. Or so Shlomo Benizri of Israel’s Shas party told the Knesset earlier today.

Here are a few delightful and scientifically sound quotes on the subject from Benizri, courtesy of Haaretz:

“Why do earthquakes happen?” said Benizri. “One of the reasons is the things to which the Knesset gives legitimacy, to sodomy.”

“A cost-effective way of averting earthquake damage,” he added, “would be to stop passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the State of Israel, which anyways causes earthquakes.”

Read the full story.