If so, you should be informed of My Jewish Learning’s Bad Poetry Contest.

August 18 is Bad Poetry Day! As Jews, this event is of the utmost importance, since Judaism has been responsible for some of the best poetry in the world. The Book of Psalms. The Song of Songs. Barry Manilow. No matter what the emotion, no matter the occasion, some poet has probably captured the sentiment perfectly in My Jewish Learning’s Bad Poetry contestverse form—and, as likely as not, that poet might be Jewish.

MyJewishLearning is determined to fight this disturbing trend. What could be better than bad poetry? Whether it starts with “Horseradish is red/The Red Sea is blue” or rhymes the words “you,” “Jew,” and “snuggle-poo,” it’ll probably make a hit in our Bad Poetry Day contest.

Winners get some free music and a rubber chicken (?). Deadline to enter is Aug. 11. Submit to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Some people on the interwebs have made a video in which the story of Job is retold using hipsters. It is hilarious. Enjoy.

excuse me, what is the Israeli basketball league, Israeli soccer league and that ridiculous attempt at creating an Israeli baseball league?

Or those Israeli tennis players?

What are the Israelis, chopped liver?!?!

This week, Jewcy takes a look at why Jews are well represented in professional baseball, but not in any other sports. ( Hint: It’s because baseball is an elitist sport and Jews are elitists.)

One of Dane‘s friends, Davey, recently wrote a terrific post about Jewish San Franciscans who pressured SFJFF not to screen Rachel, a documentary about the late activist Rachel Corrie, about whom I’ve also written. (It ended up being screened, as JTA reported today.) When Davey refers to

a small but wealthy segment of the Jewish community that is so Zionist that it considers it inappropriate for a Jewish film festival to screen any film that is not explicitly and completely pro-Israeli-government

the word “groupthink” comes to mind, and I feel grateful that I was raised with healthy skepticism in relation to Israel.

When I was growing up, if someone around our family’s Passover table said “Next year in Jerusalem,” as is customary, my father would express ambivalence about that supposedly universal Jewish yearning. I think a source of my own ambivalence with regard to Jewish identity is related to the notion that because I’m Jewish I should believe X, Y, or Z, or should support Israel in this or that particular way. I’m an individual, I have my own mind, and the Israeli government is a government, not something God created, not the 11th commandment. It’s flawed, and when it’s acting as an oppressor, it needs to be called out, especially by Jews.

Some aspects of my skepticism towards Judaism and certain things Jewish may reflect deep-seated ethnic self-loathing, but when it comes to questioning Israel’s actions (and its incredibly suspect “internal investigations” of such incidents as Corrie’s death), skepticism equals common sense.