Now, people keep asking me, "Who is this Yair Lapid guy we keep hearing about?" Well, he is an Israeli talk show host and newspaper column writer (journalist?). He started a new centrist political party called Yesh Atid (There Is a Future), and he won 19 seats in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), which put him in second place, a big achievement for a brand new political party. It remains to be seen whether Yair Lapid and his party would be willing to join in Bibi Netanyahu's coalition and become part of the government. A lot of people seem to think that he will, since it is in his best interest if he wants to have a shot at winning the next election. The last centrist party that won a lot of seats, Kadima, did not join the coalition and is now more or less irrelevant.
These last couple of weeks have honestly been a bit stressful. Just have had a lot to think about. We have a Debbie Friedman memorial concert coming up. I was asked to give a speech on behalf of the students, probably because of my Hava Nashira-ness (i.e. I actually got a chance to know Debbie). I was reluctant. I was in Israel leading a Birthright trip when she died, and it was very hard to mourn for her properly. I reacted by locking myself in my room for the night, not really talking about it or anything, not knowing what to do while I was so far away from home and didn't even have very good internet access. It was honestly hard to write a speech. Most of my Debbie anecdotes don't really belong at an HUC concert speech. I have a lot of really funny ones, but I thought it was best to keep those to myself. I didn't really want to talk about the time that we had an argument over the merits of cantorial music versus congregational music. Or the time she complimented my political views as expressed through my rain boots, which totally cracked me up. Or countless other stories that are better kept in my memory. (Hey, remember that time we were singing Oseh Shalom, and Debbie stopped us to correct us?) And I'm really not good at the sentimental stuff. I'm not going to write here what I did choose to talk about in case some of my classmates are reading this; maybe I will later. The writing process turned out to be kind of cathartic. I guess it was a chance to finally mourn properly.
It is the middle of our mid-year colloquium, and all sorts of faculty from all of the American campuses are currently here. It's nice. The head rabbi of the New York campus met with all of us who are going to New York and brought us American candy. In a CVS bag. Rock! We've had all sorts of lectures and discussions on the topic of "Jewish Peoplehood." Not even going to start going into that because it's super complicated and doesn't make any sense, but it's been interesting. We heard from an Orthodox comedian tonight who had converted to Judaism through three different movements. I am usually wary of standup comedy, but this was the funniest thing I've ever seen. His name is Yisrael Campbell. Go hire him.
Well, I'm off now. Here's to the start of a great semester!
These last couple of weeks have honestly been a bit stressful. Just have had a lot to think about. We have a Debbie Friedman memorial concert coming up. I was asked to give a speech on behalf of the students, probably because of my Hava Nashira-ness (i.e. I actually got a chance to know Debbie). I was reluctant. I was in Israel leading a Birthright trip when she died, and it was very hard to mourn for her properly. I reacted by locking myself in my room for the night, not really talking about it or anything, not knowing what to do while I was so far away from home and didn't even have very good internet access. It was honestly hard to write a speech. Most of my Debbie anecdotes don't really belong at an HUC concert speech. I have a lot of really funny ones, but I thought it was best to keep those to myself. I didn't really want to talk about the time that we had an argument over the merits of cantorial music versus congregational music. Or the time she complimented my political views as expressed through my rain boots, which totally cracked me up. Or countless other stories that are better kept in my memory. (Hey, remember that time we were singing Oseh Shalom, and Debbie stopped us to correct us?) And I'm really not good at the sentimental stuff. I'm not going to write here what I did choose to talk about in case some of my classmates are reading this; maybe I will later. The writing process turned out to be kind of cathartic. I guess it was a chance to finally mourn properly.
It is the middle of our mid-year colloquium, and all sorts of faculty from all of the American campuses are currently here. It's nice. The head rabbi of the New York campus met with all of us who are going to New York and brought us American candy. In a CVS bag. Rock! We've had all sorts of lectures and discussions on the topic of "Jewish Peoplehood." Not even going to start going into that because it's super complicated and doesn't make any sense, but it's been interesting. We heard from an Orthodox comedian tonight who had converted to Judaism through three different movements. I am usually wary of standup comedy, but this was the funniest thing I've ever seen. His name is Yisrael Campbell. Go hire him.
Well, I'm off now. Here's to the start of a great semester!
Love your video, and the cat at the end!
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