Kosher Food? We got both kinds! Manischewitz and Rubashkin!

A few years ago, I wrote a post to my student pulpit trying to explain the problems of Rubashkin meat and the AgriProcessors company in Postville, Iowa. I knew full well that, in my small congregation, probably only 3 or 4 families out of 45 kept kosher to any degree, but I wrote it anyways, thinking 'Hey, maybe people will think about what they're eating'.

I've been following the Rubashkin scandal for years now. Which one, you ask? The one where their shechita is cruel to animals? Their below industry standard pay and worker conditions? Their slow monopolization of the entire kosher meatpacking industry? Or their demolishing the way of life in a small Iowa town? Rubashkin is pretty much synonymous with all that is shonder. (Is that how it's spelled?)

Back then, in 2004, I suggested to my congregation to avoid eating Rubashkin beef, not knowing that Agriprocessors sold beef under the labels Aaron’s Best, Aaron’s Choice, European Glatt, Nevel, Shor Habor, Rubashkin’s, Supreme Kosher, and David’s (I've eaten 5 of those). I suggested for chicken they switch to Empire, which is still a good alternative, or Wise Organic. But for beef, the options are limited.

Hebrew National is a good option, yet a lot of observant Jews are unhappy with the standards kept by triangle-k. Responding to a student's claim that Hebrew National had switched from it's own hechsher to the triangle-k, one of my rabbaim once remarked 'Solving your kashrut problem with triangle-k is like solving your day-care problem with Michael Jackson'. I don't necessarily agree, but you gotta admit, that is pretty funny.

Regarding their monopolization and it's affect on the rest of the kosher world, the Forward reported

The company's business model has been economically successful. AgriProcessors is the only kosher slaughterhouse in America producing both beef and poultry. While AgriProcessors has been expanding steadily, its closest competitor in the poultry industry, Empire Kosher, recently fired employees and cut back operations. Union leaders at Empire Kosher said that the cutbacks were necessary because Empire pays its lowest-ranking unionized employees close to $3 more an hour from the outset than AgriProcessors' lowest employees, and provides full benefits.

So what's a kosher, social justice-y yid to do? I couldn't go vegetarian. That seems unfair. I grew up not keeping kosher. I've given up so much for this God of mine, but hamburgers too? No way. I suppose I could just start eating only chicken, but, man, that's a tough sacrifice too.

On the East Coast, it seems J.W. Treuth & sons provides kosher meat from their own packing facilities, certified by Star-K. Lastly, I looked on Wise Organic's website; they list under the Beef section the hopeful 'Coming soon'. Not soon enough for me.

BTW, big props to failed messiah and kol raash gadol for writing outstanding posts about Rubashkin abuses. Now if there were only alternatives so I could have some guilt-free brisket.

UPDATE- the Failed Messiah himself gave me two good alternates for kosher stuff:

http://www.premiumkoshermeats.com/
http://www.kosherbison.com/generic1.html;$sessionid$ZMFDKJAAABA4HTZENUGUTIWPERWRJPX0

Of course, the latter is for bison, if you're into that.

I'm feeling self-concious; this is my manifesto

The other day I was watching 'Californication', a truly terrible television show that a friend of mine recommended that I can't stop watching. In the show, Ducovny goes on a rant about blogs watering down the intellectual process and posing as pseudo-writing. In addition, the internet and internet-speak have pared down the English language to a series of acronymical babble: LOL, BRB, etc.

So take this as a disclaimer for those who haven't already noticed: I'm no writer. I'm not posing as a writer. Someday, I might write a book. I will write carefully. I will use a dictionary. I will hire an editor. I might collect my thoughts and cull through them with precision. Until then, I will ramble about things that annoy me, recent sporting events that have no bearing on real life, and sudden flashes of frustration about my selected religious expression. But don't think I'm doing it because I think I'm a 'writer'. I'll be the first to admit: I haven't the foggiest idea what I'm doing. One day, I just decided to write. Someday, I might stop. Till then, I'll do my best to make sense on occasion. Seacrest out.

L'Shunah Tuvah Bubbele

... As my bubbie would pronounce it ('Straight outta Poland'). Everyone go out and have a heckuva year in 5768. Purge those sins, return ye backsliding children, and don't forget that if you come halfway, then the Big Hashem-ster will come the rest of the way for you. And don't forget to floss.

Oh yeah. And hey, keep on reading the Radical Cleric. I'm not feeling the love, people. In fact, since the clearly un-funny Transgendered Bracha Throwdown, I sense my readership has dropped to possibly the low single digits. C'mon, mom, tell Uncle Shecky to give me a bookmark; last year I comp-ed him for High Holidays...

AIPAC, Foxman, and Bush- Just because they all suck does not mean they are in league together

This is something of a re-post from a comment I wrote on jewschool's post from my friend Kol Ra'ash Gadol regarding the NPR Terry Gross 'Fresh Air' point-counterpoint with Stephen Walt and Abe Foxman, which you can catch here.

I agree with Kol Ra'ash that Abe Foxman sounds like a douchebag. More importantly, by his tilting the ADL in the last 10 years away from focusing on defending the rights of all racial, ethnic and religious groups, and focusing instead on defending the Jews, he's really proven to be not only a douchebag, but also a really lousy leader for the Jewish people. Are we so helpless we need a 501c3 that exists solely to refute anti-semitic claims? I know the ADL still does defend the rights of other slandered minority groups, but all I hear about in the past few years is their impassioned defense of the Jews. I'd rather we continued to work in coalition with other minority groups and all work together to end racist hatred of all shapes and sizes.

BUT, more to Kol Ra'ash's point: Walt does make a good point that AIPAC exerts a lot of influence on Washington and that it may not be such a good thing. AIPAC doesn't represent a fair cross-section of US Jewish opinion on Israel and that leads me to feel that when they get criticized publicly for their influence, they deserve it. The US and Israel are both mostly righteous but flawed moral-political states. Their attitudes and relationship can serve sometimes as a system of checks and balances. When Bush I threatened to pull loan guarantees from Israel for building settlements, it was roundly attacked by the Jewish community and AIPAC. But it was an important act: an increase in settlements is detrimental to making peace with the Palestinians.

HOWEVER, Walt undoes any gains in his argument (or at least what I heard on Fresh Air) when he suggests the Israel lobby drove the US to invade Iraq. From day one of the administration the Bush government began to build a case for war in Iraq; the doctored up argument at the UN by Colin Powell, the flimsy CIA and NSA reports to Congress... AIPAC doesn't nearly have the money or power to get Bush II to pull all that stuff together. Bush saw Iraq as a threat, as his father's unfinished business, as a nice little profitable oil opportunity, and a chance to expand US influence in the Middle East by planting a pro-US regime. Pleasing the Israel lobby is an ancillary benefit, at best.

To miss the forest for the trees like that, Walt and Mearschlizzer's thesis comes off to me as pseudo-intellectual dreck at best and veiled anti-semitism at worst.

Avinu Malkeinu, Score us some goals

Great post from my favorite sports blog deadspin about Israel's defeat at the hands of England in the Euro 2008 qualifier this past shabbos. I can't say I was surprised, although Israel did pull a scoreless tie when they played at Ramat Gan. The loss means Israel probably needs a win against powerhouse Russia or the current Group E leader Croatia in upcoming games just to make the field of 16. Israel has never qualified for the European Championship; Israel qualified for the World Cup only once, in 1970.

I've pulled for Israel in all things sport since I could first fake my way through the words of 'Hatikva', which is quite possibly the most depressing National Anthem ever written. My friends and I gathered around the tube every Saturday night motzash to watch Israel best basketball team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, make like a shochet on its way to winning the European Championship. But that was by buying lots of non-yids to help win. An all-Israeli team hasn't won at much in international sports. I mean, shouldn't we at least be dominant in shooting, what with the compulsory conscription and frequent wars and all.

Anyhow. Regardless of this whole loss, I would like to give a shout out to Israeli striker Toto Tammuz. He was abandoned by his Nigerian football-player father in Israel and was adopted by an Israeli. He now plays for my favorite club, Beitar Yerushalayim, and has 10 goals in 18 games. If the KBH can't fenagle the Chosen People into Euro 2008, maybe Toto can do the will of the Borei in God's staid.

Uncontrovertable Proof of the Existance of God

An all-in-one beer brewing device from Gizmodo. I mean, could anything be better? I agree with the muslims: God is great.

Props to my man Zac Johnson for pointing this out.

Ovadia Yosef has left the building

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, former Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel, a Gadol of Torah, who has written voluminously on Jewish Law and has been a source of reason and leniency in the face of a growing trend towards absolutist orthodox stringency, has finally lost his freakin' mind.

In his weekly parsha-address, Rav Ovadia said:

"Is it any wonder if, heaven forbid, soldiers are killed in a war?" he said, "when they don't observe the Sabbath, they don't observe the Torah, they don't pray every day, they don't put on phylacteries every day. Is it any wonder that they're killed? It's no wonder."

It's not the first time Rav Ovadia has said some ridiculous bull sh*t. The article also cites that he blamed Katrina on Bush's support for the Gaza pullout and that he cursed Ariel Sharon with illness for initiating the disengagement plan.

This is the same guy who, back in the 80's, cited pikuach nefesh (saving a life) as to why it was OK to cede land for peace, at a time when no religious leaders would dare suggest giving back an inch of the Holy land. Rav Ovadia also gave a lenient ruling to a meat restaurant in Israel, granting it kosher status despite the fact that it would, on occasion, serve ice cream to customers in-the-know, on the basis that if he did not, the restaurant would go whole-hog traif (pun certainly intended).

It's so sad to see this man say such bizarre things. Ovadia Yosef at one time was the only rabbi to be pro-peace with Palestinians, and this while representing Sephardic Israelis, a typically right-wing group. All his earlier work, both political and legal, is going to be eclipsed by these inane ramblings. So hey, fellow clerics out there, no matter how bad your High Holiday sermon is, at least it won't offend millions of widows and orphans. I hope.

BTW, the AP wire title was 'Rabbi: Non-believing soldiers die', which is inaccurate based on the quote: plenty of Jews believe in God, they just don't believe in wrapping Tefillin. Hey, we Jews might be meshuggenuh for believing that you'll get killed for forgetting to say Minchah, but being smited for not believing? That's just goyish.

Transgendered Bracha Throwdown, Round 2

All my radical chevre:

I got a great private reply to my last posting. Needless to say, some concerns about my being not only a squaresville rabbi but also an offensive, not funny rabbi, were raised. I posted my response below. Feel free to complain or berate: thats what the internet is for.

L'Shalom,

The Radical Cleric



Dear Plonit,

Thanks for taking the time to address your concerns. It's a vessel for growth for all involved.

I think, if you re-read my blog, you'll see that that I pretty much start off by stating that I'm wrestling with this issue, and that I'm being honest in saying that I'm not totally comfortable with Transgendered issues. This is in stark contrast to 99% of individuals who deal with Queer issues, who hide their discomfort and don't embrace it. Everybody is a little gay, a little straight, a little effeminate, a little masculine, a little racist, a little homophobic. I am merely using the blog format to aknowledge an area in which I am, honestly, a little uncomfortable.

Humor is an important part of who I am. Some jokes are bound to offend. I apologize for the remark. But I think it's important not to take ourselves as people so seriously. To me punany is a slang term for vagina, and appending pseudo to it evokes the reality that it was made and fashioned by human hands. It's just a funky twist of the tongue meant to aknowledge the reality that we humans cannot accurately and successfully reconstruct male and female reproductive organs.

You're right, I don't know many transsexuals. I feel I tried to focus the details of my blog on my critiques of the potential for rituals of changing gender, because I wanted to deal with theory and law, not people and events. I agree with the idea of changing genders. We are lucky to live in a world where medical science can aid someone who feels they were mis-assigned their gender at birth. I agree with having a ritual for it. I think mikvah and/or some kind of public ritual is a good idea. I don't think a bracha with shem and malchut is the right way to go; I personally don't make up blessings with shem and malchut, but I will use 'yehi ratzon milfanecha' and conclude with 'baruch ata... shome-ah tefillah'. In fact, as I'm sure you know, the Talmud in masechet Brachot makes it fairly clear that blessings with Shem and Malchut have been reserved for the Tannaitic generation. Of course, the Kulanu book is a Reform publication, so I doubt they care about my halachic observations.

I do the best I can to be open-minded. I accept everybody mostly on their terms, but at some level, we all deal with people and things on our terms. I've always felt that Gay and Lesbian issues were an important fight that the Conservative movement needed to be in, despite growing up with a multitude of influences that pressed me to ostracize Queers. I'm not that far along the curve regarding transgendered/transsexual individuals, and I'll admit that. But remember that I believe in halacha, and I'm a Conservative Jew. I'm about as progressive as progressive as we get, so remember that I'm not perfect but I'm still, at the end of the day, an ally.

Essentially, what I really want is to find an authentic and still Conservative way to affirm transgendered issues. Because until we do, honestly, I believe most Jews will not take these blessings, these rituals, or these individuals seriously.

I really respect your criticicism, and will take it to heart. I still have a way to go, I know, in really being fully comfortable with transgendered individuals. But I'm trying my best to understand and love everyone equally, because at the end of the day, that's what God demands and Torah expects.

Radical Cleric? More Like the Mild Mannered Squaresville Rabbi

OK, so here's the test of whether I'm 'Radical', 'Liberal', or merely 'slightly more open minded than Chief Justice Roberts'.



The Reform Movement has just created a new handbook meant to help affirm Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and trans-gendered individuals with new rituals and blessings. No big deal right?

Well, they apparently included three blessings for your sex-change operation. I couldn't feel more conflicted.

I've felt for a long while that the final frontier of Civil Rights in America is in full inclusion and embracing of Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals into Judaism: sanctioning and officiating homosexual marriages, standing up for partner benefits and affirming the right for Gays and Lesbians to adopt children. I'm proud to say I'm attending my first Gay wedding this weekend. (Shoot, I need to buy a gift and my Visa's maxxed. Anyone want to help keep this blog going by contributing, I dunno, a set of Nambe salad bowls?)

And I recognize that trans-gendered and trans-sexual individuals endure a lot of ridicule, scorn and hatred for being who they are. I can honestly see how painful it might be for somebody to feel that their self-image and identification may be as a woman even though they have a man's body.

And I get that people need their lives and their sacred moments affirmed by Jewish rituals, even new rituals.

But I'm sorry, I just can't go there to that blessing the sex-change place. Let me off the bus, this is where I gotta bail. I don't know what the blessing is that the rabbis came up with(She' lo asani isha might be close), but I just can't see it. It's a major life change, but one completely unfathomable to the rabbis and the tradition. Yes, there were dual-gendered and non-gendered individuals mentioned by the rabbis in the Talmud (androgynus and tumtum, respectively), but nobody surgically changed their sex back then.

I mean, if I were to make up a trans-surgery blessing, it would be uber-tortured and angst-ridden as all hell... something like: 'Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who made me as a man, physically, but then gave me a profound love of makeup and Manolo Blahniks and lots of other stuff that made me depressed and confused, often suicidal, to the point that I paid a doctor a ton of dough to cut off my wang and fashion for me a pseudo-punany, but hey, I'm not bitter, and I'm totally cool with You. Amen.'

I mean, what are other alternatives to a wacky new blessing? Do you go to the Mikvah to symbolize rebirth? If so, do you go before the surgery (like a bride before a wedding) or after (like a convert who's passed Beit Din)? And then, what do you tell the Mikvah lady? For a female-to-male operation, couldn't you just have a Bris? Or are you like, created circumcised (which the rabbis also discuss even though they state that such a thing never happened)?

I fully agree with the right for individuals to have sex changes if they feel it's right for them. I agree with treating trans-gendered individuals with respect, as complete and total equals, just like any other person in society. It's the blessing or ritual-making over the surgery I feel weird about.

On the one hand, I'm at a loss for how to proceed. On the other hand, this is pretty new territory, which needs an enterprising rabbi to investigate its Halachic matters; I see a job opportunity. Post a reply if you're interested in being 'Chief Posek on Halachic Sex Changes'. I think I'm probably too square for the gig.

Hey, my apologies. Maybe I blew it as 'Radical Cleric' and don't live up to the hype. Also, I'm sorry for not giving an impassioned defense of the practice or a complete tirade against it. I know blogs are supposed to be laced with inflammatory vitriol. I think it might be kind of radical to be conflicted in a blog, no?

Ahavat Chinam: Baseless Love

Israeli riot police officers met resistance on Tuesday as they removed Jewish
settlers from illegal residences in the West Bank city of Hebron. As one
settler was carried off near the market, an officer rushed to pick up the
man’s glasses from the ground. - NY Times 8/8/07

I'm no fan of illegal settlers in Hebron, nor is the Israeli Army

always a bastion of righteousness. However, this picture pretty

much embodies to me the highest ideals of the Jewish state.

Everybody has the right to protest, and the cops not only don't

brutalize you for your objections, but rather facilitate the

protesting process.

I mean, granted, the NY Times could have just as easily shown

pictures of settlers spitting on cops (which they did too). But the

standard of behavior between Yids should be this picture above,

no more and no less. The Talmud teaches that the Temple was

destroyed because of baseless hatred. I'm all about the baseless love.

Le Tour de Syringe

I've been a Tour De France fan since '86 when Greg LeMond came from 59 seconds back on the last competative stage of the race to become the 1st ever American to win what is arguably the worlds toughest sporting event. I was then in France at Alp de Huez to see Lance win his 2nd of seven tours. But this year's absolute farce or a drug scarred scandal fest has pretty much made me swear off the sport. I mean, they told these guys they were testing for everything.

And yet still, every day another guy gets the boot for drugs.

It's so bad that they rode off for todays stage of the tour with no leader at all. I can't say in watching the tour the last 20 years I can recall that ever happened.

I like sports, but I like fair play more. It makes me sick. I'm gonna turn to a good, clean, honest, drug free sport. Like professional wrestling.

Pope Benedict XVI? Delicious

The only thing better than Kosher Ossa Bucco or Pizza Quattro Formaggio? German-born pontiff on a stick. Mmm, mmm pope-alicious.

9th of Av Revengitute

Tisha B'Av: 5767. I'm in Rome, and I get to visit the Arch of Titus, the Roman triumphal arch commemorating
the destruction of the Temple during the Jewish Revolt (Jewish sources call it the Great Revolt, which is odd, since we got our asses kicked, but I digress).

And where, I say where are the Romans? They're extinct. Or trying to sell me gelatto, depending on your definition of 'Roman'.

The Daily Oy

One of the most frustrating parts of being a Jew and a Zionist is watching the state of Israel try to navigate those two values, which are admittedly sometimes tough to reconcile, and completely muck it up.

I’m talking about Israel’s recent decision to expel approximately 1,000 Sudanese refugees back to Egypt, and in the meantime, to house them in a prison in the Negev Desert. (Pics from protest at right.)

What’s even worse, Israel stated this was only a temporary solution until Israel creates ‘camps’ to house them until they can properly process the refugees for deportation.

"Avi Dichter, the minister of public security, and his director general last week announced their intention to create a 'campsite' to hold the refugees until their deportation. One of the main purposes of the new site was to allow families to remain together. It will take several days before water, electricity and plumbing can be arranged for the site."- Haaretz English, July 15

I mean, are you kidding me? Camps, prisons and forced deportations? I’m not trying to allude to the Jewish experience of the Sho’ah, but there’s just no way to avoid the obvious comparison. Israel has claimed they are only protecting themselves; that infiltrators from Muslim states are potential terrorists. Be that as it may, any idiot can see that people don’t walk, unarmed, across three countries, with family in tow, to commit terrorist attacks when there are perfectly good (and by ‘good’, I mean reprehensibly, unequivocably evil) terrorists in immediately adjacent territories.

I will point out that Israel intends to exclude 200 refugees from Darfur who fled the genocide currently going on there. Of course, they are also being held in jails until Israel can figure out what to do with them. The other non-Darfuri refugees are mostly fleeing the horribly wretched poverty and famine than engulfs Sudan, which has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world despite have huge oil reserves.

Once upon a time, in the 70’s and 80’s, Israel took in tens of thousands of Southeast Asian boat people. Granted, Israel did a lot of that to deprive Palestinians of low-level jobs in the Israeli economy, but it was still an act of kindness to a people on the brink of catastrophe.

The Torah teaches us no less than 36 times ‘Do not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.’ I always hoped that the state of Israel, while not necessarily becoming a theocracy, could live up to the morals and ethics that pervade the Torah and give Israel its core morality.

Someday, I hope and pray, the words ‘Never again’, will be a rallying cry for us to defend all oppressed peoples, and not just the self-absorbed right-wing rallying cry of Benny Begin or the JDL.

Tall Women: Israeli Bookies Love You

Raise your hand if you’ve been to a WNBA game. No? Nobody? Yeah, that’s because us Americans don’t care about Women’s rights, or Title IX, or the great advances of feminism in the 20th century. We are an inferior people, a lesser species, a bunch of bassackwards hillbillies waiting to reach a higher stage of enlightenment. A stage that heretofore only Israelis have achieved.

Israelis are so enlightened, so forward-thinking, that they care about Women’s roundball, and they don’t even live within 5000 miles of a live WNBA team. What is my proof, you ask? Take a look at this betting stub I got from one of Israel's lotto companies, טוטו (Toto), which has a stand on virtually every street corner. In addition to enabling you to bet on European rugby, Spanish bullfights and even American Major League Soccer, you can bet on the WNBA! How enlightened! Even the lowliest flim-flam man, the back-alley scamster, the shady bookies and Russian mobsters can be a part of the women’s revolution that is the WNBA.

What’s that you say? But they don’t bet on Major League Baseball? Yeah, well then that just makes them eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Me, I'll take Detroit over Chicago with the spread. I hear they've got a bunch of nappy headed hos.

Because then, the Airline passengers win

Terrorism sucks. And clearly, death, torture and incarceration are not deterrents to terrorists. But after having battled my way through the bureaucratic maze that is flying in the post-9/11 world, I have a new suggested tactic for the Department of Homeland Security and its non-American fellow terror-fighters.

Inconvenience the terrorists. I supply the following tactics as a possible yet incomplete list of ways to eradicate terrorism in the 21st century:

• Make the terrorists wait in a line
  
• deny them the ability to bring water through the airport
  
• overcharge them for any water they do purchase
• make them remove their laptops, keys, cellphones, jackets, nose rings and Pokemon cards, placing them each in a separate plastic bin that you must carry
• make them individually bag every semi-fluid item they own
• search their luggage and make them repack everything
  
• make them walk 20m barefoot while holding 26 different items
• have a 300 lb. guy with ass-breath frisk them
  
• make them wait in a check-in line
• make them wait in a security line
• make them wait in passport line
• make them wait in a passport line in Italy
• fly them somewhere random and have them miss their connection
• have them stand waiting in a helpline, then after an hour, tell them they're in the wrong line, then give them bad directions to the new line; repeat
  
• overcharge them for a calling card
  
• give them the wrong number for customer service to rebook their flight
• give them another wrong number
• give them a phone recording in a foreign language
• give them a broken pay phone in noisy, sweaty balls airport
  
• overcharge; for everything. Repeat as necessary.
• All the while, hide a glimmer of hope just around the corner
  

Yes, this is the cure for terrorism. I don't meant to make light of torture or imply that the real victims of terror are inconvenienced airline passengers: they're not. People who get killed or wounded are victims.

I'm just saying that if you imprison or torture or kill a terrorist, they become heroes and martyrs, and get exactly what they wanted in the first place. But turn Guantanamo bay into an foreign airport and make people wander around, waiting in long lines and being misdirected and make everyone rude and incompetent and give them all heavy baggage and make some ridiculous rules and deny them air conditioning and showers and reasonably priced newspapers, and I guarantee terrorism will disappear.

Occasionally, though, we should let them go. Let them get through all the hassle, get them onto a plane, and let them go... to another airport and repeat the process.

The Bush Administration calls it 'Extraordinary Rendition'. I call it 'a connecting flight.'

The Radical Cleric's First Protest Post

Aww, they're so cute when they're young... So its not my first protest, it just the first protest I've been involved in since I had this blog. It only took 72 hours for me to get up in somebody's grill. Listen, you don't get to be a Radical Cleric by pleasantly toeing the party line. They should just be glad I'm not Muktada Al-Sadr or Pat Robertson.

So EBASE and the Progressive Jewish Alliance are locked in a battle with the Woodfin Hotel in Emeryville, CA, just across the bridge in the East Bay, over a Living Wage ordinance. The city of Emeryville passed a law requiring local hotels to pay their workers a living wage, with an exception for unionized businesses. The Woodfin, after much legal wrangling and kvetching, is finally paying their workers a living wage, but still owes them back wages for the months and months they were breaking the law.

Not only that, they ratted out the workers who were in dialogue with the city over the illegal activities to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and ICE sent out the dreaded 'no-match letters' on 12 of them, who were promptly fired. Speak up for justice, lose your job. Yes, the workers were illegal, but it's also illegal to get ICE involved during a labor dispute.

So 13 local rabbis signed on to a letter protesting these action, and yesterday I descended into the belly of the beast to meet our foe, the dreaded GM of the Woodfin. I pictured being led into a dusty back office where a slick businessman in a nice suit and a team of lawyers would deny, threaten and cajole us into giving up our quest for labor justice. But it was just the ten of us; PJA staff, Jewish community leaders, and rabbis, and Hugh Macintosh, the Sitra Achra himself.

OK, the devil, he wasn't. He's a small, polite Irish-Canadian, who brought bottled water for everyone and was quite pleasant. Of course, that was all the more infuriating. To fire low-paid immigrants and then turn around and defend it to a bunch a clergy? That was pretty ballsy, I gotta admit.

Our demands were:
1) Pay the back wages.
2) Rehire the workers.
3) Stop using ICE to intimidate workers

Mr. MacIntosh's response?
1) It's in court on appeal.
2) They were illegal. Illegals are taking jobs from good American citizens.
3) No.

The Woodfin spends more in lawyers fees, lost hotel revenue during pickets and bad PR than the $160,000 the hotel owes, but they refuse to yield. Nor does it matter that workers who take on phony Social Security numbers to get a job are paying into a retirement system they will never draw out of. Although I don't prefer illegal immigration, illegal immigrants themselves actually pay taxes they can never receive benefits from.

Hopefully he'll tell the owner that the Jewish community doesn't like him much and isn't happy. I can't say I have a much power to exert, other than the force of words and my theoretical moral authority. But it was the first time I got to walk into a room and swing the word 'Rabbi' around like it meant something, so I say score one for our side.

Your Shul is on HBO

OK, probably more like 'my shul', but nonetheless. One of those funny things about my liberal Jewish upbringing was that in order to stay motivated to keep learning Torah past the age of 13, my giant uber-Reform synagogue in LA posted your Confirmation photo on the wall in the hallway. And my mother was on that wall. My grandfather was on that wall. So I had to be on the wall. After I made the wall, it seemed kind of silly. Until now.

In HBO's 'Entourage' last week (episode 44 'The First Cut is the Deepest') super agent Ari Gold is trying to get his son into a posh private school. HBO used my synagogue as the location! And my photo on the wall makes it into the scene.

Three years of Hebrew school. All for this. Thank you, Jeremy Piven, for validating my Judaism.

Peace be with you from the Radical Cleric

Musings from Jerusalem and San Francisco on Judaism, Social Justice, Baseball, and the best Shipudim joints around. Stay tuned.