< link rel="DCTERMS.isreplacedby" href="http://www.keshertalk.com/" >

Friday, December 05, 2003

Selling Jewish (pop) culture: Jewcy.com sells T-shirts and hosts events to celebrate ... um... Jewcy-ness?
Gene Simmons is Jewcy. The Beastie Boys are Jewcy. Bea Arthur, still Jewcy. Did you know that Beck is Jewcy? Sammy Davis Jr....forever Jewcy!

Being Jewcy is a lifestyle. It’s pro-Manischevitz, pro-Jewfro, pro-Barneys Warehouse Sale. It’s knishes with a knasty attitude! To be Jewcy is to be bold and visible, vocal and proud.

Jewcy celebrates kosher-style fabulosity. Aimed at today’s members of the Tribe, Jewcy celebrates the life via a new line of lifestyle products and events that sizzle like fresh latkes. As if the stuff weren’t enough, Jewcy is nurturing the next wave of Jewish superstars through a series of live entertainment events at the Ars Nova Theater in NYC. The proceeds will benefit various non-profit Jewish organizations (click on Jewcy Events above for more details).

You don’t have to be Jewish to be Jewcy (although it doesn’t hurt!) – it’s also good for Jew-Lovers, Honorary Jews - and even gentiles. It would be a SHANDA to wear anything else.

posted by William @ 12/05/2003 08:55:48 AM  

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Jews in odd places: Russia: Vodka has long been a cornerstone of Russia’s identity.

Now, a product called Yevreskaya Vodka — or Jewish Vodka — is succeeding with Russians by emphasizing Jewish religion and culture.

Yevreskaya sells in Moscow for about $2 a pint — a medium-priced vodka by local standards. The Urozhai distillery, located in a village near Moscow, first put Yevreskaya on the market six years ago.

Sales have been brisk since then, distillery managers say. “This is one of our most popular brands,” says the distillery’s Valery Gorbatenkov.

Yevreskaya is the distillery’s only brand produced under rabbinical supervision. There are several other kosher vodkas produced by a distillery in Birobidzhan — which Stalin declared an autonomous Jewish region in 1934 — but none sell as well as Yevreskaya.

Yevreskaya features its rabbinical approval and “Jewish content” as part of its marketing strategy. The words “Jewish” and “kosher” are the central elements of the bottle’s design.

The black labels are laden with Jewish symbols and imagery — Hebrew letters, a menorah, a photo of the interior of the Moscow Choral Synagogue and another photo of an Orthodox rabbi and a Jew in a white yarmulke standing next to the portrait of the late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Schneerson.

Gorbatenkov says the distillery is not concerned by statistics, provided by Russian rabbis, suggesting that only about 5 percent of Russian Jews are believed to keep kosher.

“We market this vodka to a broader group of customers, not necessarily Jewish,” says Gorbatenkov.

posted by William @ 12/04/2003 08:45:46 AM  

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Jews in odd places: Poland: Krakow used to be a mecca for Poland´s Jews, a center of cosmopolitanism and Jewish life in what was Europe´s most heavily Jewish country. Now that there are few Jews left in Poland, Krakow still holds some Jewish allure, but for a very different group: With only about 200 Jews left in the city, Krakow has become a center for non-Jewish Poles interested in Judaism and Jewish life.

Students from all over the country come to Krakow´s Jagiellonian University, the country´s oldest, to study Jewish studies.

Approximately 150 students, few of them Jews, are enrolled in the university´s Jewish studies program, studying the history and politics of the Jewish people in addition to Hebrew and Yiddish.

posted by William @ 12/03/2003 09:02:42 AM  

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Jews in odd places: Russia: Apparently, yoga can bring Jews together--at least in Russia.

During Soviet times, Tsylyana Gorbunova and friends convened discreetly every week in the rooms of Omsk’s imposing Red Star Stadium in the early morning hours to secretly fulfill their spiritual needs. No prayers were recited, no candles lit and no sermons were delivered. Instead, the group sat on shabby carpets and practiced a forbidden form of meditation called yoga.

Three decades and one revolution later, Gorbunova’s expertise in exotic yoga is helping to kick start her latest spiritual endeavor in Judaism. Since 2001, the lively director of Omsk’s Hesed center has used yoga to attract the city’s highly assimilated senior citizens, who may never otherwise visit this warm wooden cabin of a community center.

posted by William @ 12/02/2003 08:57:57 AM