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Arrival Day 2005

Jonathan of Head Heeb fame is convening the third annual blogburst for Arrival Day. Arrival Day commemorates the arrival of Jews to old New Amsterdam, and each year, the burst has a theme. According to Jonathan, “this year, the focus is on American Jews as part – or, more accurately, parts – of a larger whole.” After last year’s Arrival Day I read Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock – no causal relationship. In it, Roth’s protagonist, Philip Roth #2 (you really need to read the book) preaches an idea he calls “diasporism,” as a counter to Zionism. Now, regardless of what…

The Joy and Worries of Parenthood

Two of my friends, Rachel the Velveteen Rabbi and Ayesha, Ms. Rickshaw, are both pregnant. They are both blogging about their experiences, and both posted the linked articles very close to one another. I tend not to get too personal on this space, but both pieces brought out powerful memories of when my wife was pregnant. As cliche as the practice hospital run is, we never did it in NY. We had the “go” bag, but we just needed to hop in a taxi. The only limit we had was that my wife could not go into labor during rush…

MLT – The New Cordoba

New Cordoba 1. Reza Aslan a. Daisy quotes from former CEO of HPs comments on Islam after 9/11 as set-up for Cordoba b. PPT presented as written by Shafique Walji (staff volunteer) c. Challenge master narrative of what went wrong i. Islam achieved something great and then went into steady decline d. Introduce Cordoba to get to the discussion i. Basic history of Islamic expansion ii. Expansion of knowledge, and development of institutions of learning iii. Reasons for decline from zenith 1. Seljuq advancement 2. Mongol invasion 3. Advancement of European pardigm iv. Cultural renaissance with Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals,…