Tag: Just for Fun

The Morning Routine

Since the Gaza Operation began, here’s what I do every morning.

  • Up before 6AM.
  • Turn on computer
  • Review Ha’aretz newspaper for news from Israel. Then Jerusalem Post, Ynet and others.
  • Hit the blogs, starting with Jack’s Gaza Round Up Part Three, following links all over the blogsphere. A Soldier’s Mother, reminds me of the importance to call my niece in the IDF (army)
  • Review my Rabbi Listserves for updates from Israel.
  • Then onto NYtimes, Wall Street Journal, CNN and Fox (gotta love how on every issue they see the world through different eyes).
  • Blog updates and links…

Then back around again and again. Until my wife or kids pull me away.

Some say I’m a news junkie.
Others believe it is just that I am an Oheiv Yisrael, a lover of Israel.
My wife and kids think I have become a blog addict. I once wrote an article about being a recovering Crackberry addict (the gist of it is here). Have I substituted one addiction for another? Or perhaps its just because I’m on vacation and I’m concerned about what is happening in Israel…

Of course, I’m loving blogging. Blogging daily was one of my top 4 things to do on my vacation.

Here’s why blogging is fun, from Eddie’s Rainbow of Thoughts.

Lego Torah: Bible for the Baby in Us

Remember when legos were so simple all you could do was create buildings?

First there was Legoland. Now there’s Lego Torah.

Here’s some Torah study for the child in us.

The Brick Testament offers its rendition of the Torah using only legos. Its amazing. Each story has 10-15 different lego scenes with explanation.

From this week’s Torah portion, Miketz, here is Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams.

Thanks to the God Blog for bringing it to my attention.

Cohen-Cutler Considers Hyphenation Clash

There I am, surfing the web, early in the morning with my youngest, when I stumble upon a posting on RJ.org by Or Ami’s Donnie Cohen-Cutler (and his intended Abby), chatting about how to choose a new family last name when one of the parties is hyphenated already. Donnie, as many know, is an Or Ami graduate, who went onto greatness as a macher in the Union for Reform Judaism, before getting hired out by some important company. (That’s Donnie on the right, circa 2000, still youthified.) This is a great post, reflective of a challenge for children of hyphenation. It also serves as a tribute to, among other things, his tradition busting parents who, ahead of their time, hyphenated.

by dcc (and az)
First some background: Once upon a time, in a magical land known as Newton, Massachusetts a boy named Andy Cutler fell in love with a “feminist in law school” named Olivia Cohen. After years of courtship and these two high school sweethearts tied the knot at Temple Ohabei Shalom in June of 1977. Like in all fairy tales, the two lived happily ever after in a wonder-world of pluralism and progress as Andy and Olivia Cohen-Cutler. These two tradition bashing creating newlyweds went on to bring Donnie and his very smart and funny sister Sally into the world with this new family title. Thus the Cohen-Cutler family was created. Jump to present day. Read on.

Scrubs Star Falls in Love with Tel Aviv

My kid loves the TV show Scrubs. One of Or Ami’s former interns so loved Scrubs that he proposed to his wife on the same bench in Los Angeles where Turk asked Carla to marry him.

I enjoy Scrubs too. And I love Israel. So how cool is it when to favorite things come together. Yes, Dr. J.D. Dorian, aka (in real life) Zach Braff visits Israel!?!

Haaretz reports that ‘Scrubs’ star Zach Braff falls in love with Tel Aviv:

Braff says that when you come here, “you just feel this amazing sense of community. We hear so much about Israel and politics with the Palestinians and you feel so separate from it. So I really wanted to see for myself.” He says he was “lucky” to be able to come and see things firsthand and to talk to Israelis. “As a Jew I think it’s really important to come to this place. There is such a tremendous sense of community, tremendous bond for obvious reasons. I don’t know if Israelis have a sense of it because they live here, but I love it.”

The Israeli experience made such an impression on him, he says, he is thinking of his next film touching on a story about an American Jew who visits Israel. Braff, who wrote and directed the successful “Garden State,” which also starred Natalie Portman, says a story like what he has in mind is something he’s never seen in a movie and thinks it will be really interesting.