(Photo by Joel Magalnick)
Sorry I’m a couple days behind on this, but here Elias Kass protests the California Supreme Court’s decision on upholding that state’s ban on same-sex marriages at a demonstration Tuesday at Westlake Center. While speakers requested that the crowd not sign a proposed initiative that would overturn this state’s recently enacted domestic partnership law, organizations such as the Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel applauded the court’s decision.

If you look at the bottom of the homepage right now, you will see that our “Jew-ish Recommends” event for this week is a reading tomorrow night at Elliott Bay Books by humorist Simon Rich. I have blogged about Rich a couple of times in the past; specifically about the delightfulness of his first book, Ant Farm, as well as my desire to Jew-marry him.

His new book, Free-Range Chickens, is, like Ant Farm, nothing more than a slim collection of tiny, hilarious vignettes (is it redundant to call a vignette “tiny”?) on the topics of childhood, work, religion, and love. If your life is lacking the pleasure of uncomplicated humor, I very much encourage you to attend this reading.

This week, the Forward has an article called Jews in Space about….Jews in space.

Are there features of Judaism that make it adaptable to space and other planets?

Turns out we have been orbiting the space theme for quite some time. The future has long been contemplated by rabbis, Jewish writers and scientists, and so has the Jewish people’s ability to adapt to it.

About six months ago, our own Sean Roach broached the very same topic in an article with the very same title. Plagiarism? Nope, just good old fashion we-were-here-first. Why do I mention this? I dunno…just kind of like to brag, I guess.

In this week’s issue of the Stranger, Erica C. Barnett has put together a piece for the books section about the things (six things, specifically) she’s learned over the course of the last year during which she read more than 8,000 pages on the topic of Hitler. Well, everyone needs a hobby, I guess. Actually, I don’t begrudge Barnett her curiosity. I’ve never been one to geek out on history for fun, but I can appreciate the idea of a good academic obsession and Hitler’s a pretty damn compelling subject. What just kills me about Barnett’s article though is the last paragraph which begins:

Constantly reading about horrors makes every part of your life a little horrible. For the first six months of my year of Hitler, I didn’t relate the symptoms I was having—the grisly nightmares, the lousy moods, the sudden, random bouts of despair—to the fact that I had immersed myself voluntarily in one of the darkest periods in recorded human history.

Well, duh, reading about nothing but genocide and war for a year is going to be a downer. Here’s what I think is intriguing about this – when we become all wrapped up in a topic, so much so that we want to study it, and only it, for 12 whole months, is it because we like the facts and figures of said topic? Or is it because we like the way the topic makes us feel? When we hear or read something that really grabs us and pulls us in, there’s almost a visceral element to our captivation. Studying a favorite topic is energizing. Humans rarely do things voluntarily if there isn’t a pleasurable emotion attached to it. But here’s the complicated thing about people: Sometimes we like it when things make us feel bad. It feels good. My point: The feeling of despair is part of the draw of Hitler studies. For those among our own ranks who become consumed with learning about the Holocaust, is there something about that feeling of horror and unease that is…not satisfying, but perhaps, consuming? 

Yesterday’s Big Jewish Show at Folklife was awesome! And so so so many of you came to see it! JTNews/Jew-ish.com publisher Karen Chachkes and I had a swell time giving out Jew-ish.com shwag at the front door and chitchatting with alls y’alls. Klez Katz, Sasson, Hora Tzigane, Erev Ravs and Kosher Red Hots basically rocked the Charlotte Martin Theatre as it has perhaps never been rocked before. So much accordion….

Ah! Photos!

A nearly packed house.

Karen minds the store. Did you get your Jew-ish.com button?

Daniel Erlich and his tiny son Lev show their love for klezmer music and Jew-ish.com. (see, even babies like banana buttons.)