Justin Bieber on Anne Frank

JUSTIN BIEBER DID WHAT most visitors to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam do. He signed the guest book. It's something I did as well back in February 2011. I remember taking a few minutes to myself to think about what I should write. How could I sum up my feelings after taking a 1-hour tour of the small annex where Anne Frank and her family hid? How could I leave a reflective and meaningful note in this book? I also wondered about who, if anyone, would actually read my message.

Well, Justin Bieber likely gave it a moment's thought too before autographing the book at the Anne Frank House with his signature and a message. His message, however, will be critiqued over the course of this next week until something else he does is able to take the headlines away from this story.

Bieber's message was, "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber." Not really inappropriate or tasteless. Certainly not something offensive. Anne Frank was, after all, a teen when she lived in that annex. The Anne Frank that we all know through her diary is the type of young woman who seemed more into literature than music, but I don't think Bieber deserves to be chastised for his message in the book. To be fair, as the Washington Post reported, Anne Frank’s "bedroom wall was covered with photos of teen idols of an earlier era, like Deanna Durbin and Rudy Vallee."

Photograph: http://www.facebook.com/annefrankhouse

Justin Bieber wrote the message in the guestbook at the Anne Frank House on Friday after his private tour. Museum staff posted his comments on Facebook Saturday, which of course set off the social-media cycle of condemnation. No matter what Bieber says or does, he's going to hear from his detractors. But regarding this matter I think Justin deserves a pass. Sure he could have written something more serious and meaningful, but he shouldn't be judged for his tongue in cheek comment.

Rabbi Jason Miller, co-founder of the PopJewish.com blog, is a blogger, technologist and educator. Follow him on Twitter at @RabbiJason and on Facebook at facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller.

Jeremy Piven Reflects on Jewish Upbringing

ENTOURAGE STAR JEREMY PIVEN will star in “Mr. Selfridge,” an eight-part Masterpiece Classics mini-series that airs Sundays on PBS starting March 31. The mini-series is about an American (Piven) who moves to London and founds a successful department store different from anything the British have ever seen.

In a new interview with the Jewish Daily Forward Piven speaks openly about his Jewish upbringing. (I wrote about Jeremy Piven's reflection on his bar mitzvah on the PopJewish blog in January.) In this interview Piven opens up about the Reconstructionist synagogue he grew up in as well as how his Jewish upbringing influences his acting.

Here are some highlights from the interview with the Arty Semite from Forward.com:

Your online bio says you had a Jewish upbringing. What does that mean?

It means I was part of a Reconstructionist congregation. We prayed “to whom it may concern.” I was bar mitzvahed and my father was very active in his community growing up in Scranton, Penn. We weren’t in temple every week, but we would attend for the High Holidays.

This may be a tough question to answer, but do you bring anything from that upbringing to your work today?

It’s not a tough question. It’s actually a great question. I think I learned a sense of community growing up that I brought to my work. I learned through osmosis that another man’s success will not take away from your own. I felt that in the congregation and I brought that to the workplace — that philosophy wasn’t always embraced by everyone.

(Source: FlynetPictures.com)

Ari Gold was Jewish and often obnoxious. Did you try to protect the character?

Well, yes. Every time I read the script I said, wow, this could be the part where we lose everyone, where the audience turns against the character because he was so offensive. It was my job to give the character as much dimension as possible. The one thing I hung my hat on is that Ari loved his family, was always monogamous and when he acted out it was only because he felt the ends justified the means.

TMZ Notices LeBron's Wedding's on Yom Kippur

FOR THE RECORD I didn't get a save-the-date for LeBron James' wedding. But, even if I did I wouldn't be able to attend since his wedding is on Yom Kippur. It was actually TMZ.com that uncovered this fact when they got a hold of one of the save-the-date cards.

In TMZ's coverage of LeBron's upcoming wedding to his longtime girlfriend Savannah Brinson in San Diego, the celeb gossip site headlined the article "LEBRON JAMES: My Big, Fat... YOM KIPPUR WEDDING!" Nothing wrong with that, but it's the final paragraph that gets right up close to the line of anti-Semitism when they reference the age old joke about Jews and money.

But here's the problem ... Sept. 13 is the beginning of Yom Kippur -- a high holy day in the Jewish religion in which Hebrews and Shebrews are supposed to fast for roughly 24 hours while praying their faces off in temple. And for the record, James DOES have Jewish friends ... including the famous Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto... a man known around New York as the "Rabbi to the Business Stars." The good news ... LeBron will probably save a bunch of cash on the buffet. The bad news ... he won't be able to brag about the savings to the people who would appreciate it. Mazel Tov!!!

TMZ.com

Why TMZ thinks that only Jews would appreciate saving money is beyond me. I don't know many people who don't appreciate a savings. But, I guess they needed to find the hook to the story of the wedding conflicting with Yom Kippur and the Rabbi Pinto reference was the best they could do.

If I worked at TMZ I would have gone with the story line that since LeBron James is getting married on Yom Kippur that means that neither Dan Gilbert (CEO of Quicken Loans), the Jewish owner of his former team the Cleveland Cavaliers, nor Micky Arison (CEO of Carnival Corporation), the Jewish owner of his current team the Miami Heat, will be able to attend. Not that Gilbert would have gotten the invitation.

Fathers Needed: Lebron James at the White House

THIS PAST WEEK THE WORLD CHAMPION Miami Heat made their visit to the White House. These tend to be ceremonial and trite, a tribute to the team’s “perseverance” and “toughness” and a celebration of their success.

Of course, a few predictable jokes are thrown in along the way. Toward the end of his speech, President Obama mentioned a more important theme:


“And I don't know all these guys, but I do know LeBron (James) and Dwyane (Wade) and Chris(Bosh). And one of the things I’m proudest of is that they take their roles as fathers seriously. And for all the young men out there who are looking up to them all the time, for them to see somebody who cares about their kids and is there for them day in and day out, that's a good message to send. It’s a positive message to send, and we’re very proud of them for that.”


The three Heat stars have become very public about their fatherhood. Bosh showed off his kids on Oprah, LeBron’s new Nike commercial shows him joking with his children, and Wade has written a book on fatherhood and spoken about it consistently.

God and the Super Bowl

DOES GOD CARE WHO WINS the Super Bowl? It’s a question that has been asked numerous times in sports and in other areas of life generally considered unimportant. There’s no denying that the Super Bowl, with its half-time show and million dollar commercials, commands a tremendous amount of attention, unequaled by any other sporting event.

In 1985, the public celebration of Ronald Reagan's inauguration was shifted from the constitutionally required day of January 20, a Sunday, to the following day, Monday, so as not to conflict with Super Bowl Sunday. Prof. Joseph Price writes, “fans spend more money on the Super Bowl than Americans spend on traditional religious practices and institutions throughout the entire month.” However, as we all know, God’s policies are not dictated by the spending behavior and attitude of the American public.

Most people laugh at the foolishness of this question and insist that God has more important things to be worried about.  They mockingly tell you that God is busy dealing with major problems like global hunger and world peace and does not pay any attention to trivial matters like sporting events, even one as grand as the Super Bowl. In their minds, the person who believes that God cares about Football is somewhat delusional.In order to provide what I feel is the correct answer to this question, it would be helpful to reframe the conversation. Does God care about each and every human being on earth? I think so. Indeed, the Talmud tells us that a blade of grass doesn’t sway in the wind without God commanding it to. Whether you agree with that Talmudic statement or not, (much ink has been spilled over its theological implications) the point is that God cares about us. We may not like His decisions, we may get angry at Him at times, but God cares.

Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens

Ray Lewis has led the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl matchup against the San Francisco 49ers. I don’t know whether God will grant him a second Super Bowl victory, but he quite loudly and proudly believes that God has granted him these last couple of victories. After the first playoff game he wore a “Psalm 91” shirt and declared that because God is his refuge, he was victorious. After their stunning victories against the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots, he preached the holy words of Isaiah to Sal Paolantonio, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper,” and concluded by claiming that “man cannot change what God has already blessed and destined.” A few years back, I wrote an article defending Buffalo Bills wide receiver, Steve Johnson, who similarly blamed God for causing him to drop a game winning catch against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

These men and many others know that God cares about them and their success. They understand that God desires a close relationship with everyone and appreciates every prayer- from the “mundane” to the “holy.” Three times a day, many Jews recite the majestic words of King David, “God is close to all who call upon him sincerely.” If we care, then God cares. It’s as simple as that.

So does God care who wins the Super Bowl? Well, not exactly. But He will be at that game rooting for each player, owner, fan, and concession stand worker hoping that the experience of the Super Bowl will, win or lose, enhance and deepen their relationship with Him. While some may claim that God has more important things to worry about, I believe that God is everywhere. I don’t place limits on the limitless.

Rabbi Joshua Hess is the co-founder of the PopJewish.com blog. He blogs for the Huffington Post and is an Orthodox rabbi in Linden, New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter at @RabbiHess

Gibson Guitars Gives Belated Hanukkah Gift to Musician

STORIES OF AIRLINES DAMAGING travelers’ baggage are about as common as delayed flights these days, but a particularly dreadful mishap occurred recently. Dave Schneider, the lead guitarist of a Jewish band called the Leevees (with Guster’s Adam Gardner) that produces only Hanukkah-themed songs, was traveling on a flight from Buffalo to Detroit. The Delta flight went fine without any problems, but it was after landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport that the nightmare began.

Schneider, who also is the lead singer of the Zambonis, a band that only play songs about hockey, was told by Delta Airlines that he would have to check his vintage 1963 Gibson ES-335 TD guitar rather than carrying it on the flight with him. He even offered to purchase a seat on the plane for the guitar, but Delta refused. Upon landing in Detroit Schneider shot video footage from his cellphone of the baggage handlers moving his guitar off the plane, but there was no damage then. It was only later that he was informed that his cherished guitar was crushed between a service elevator and a loading dock at the gate in Detroit. Delta authorities quickly offered Schneider $1,000 for his vintage guitar, which was likely worth close to $10,000. Of course he declined Delta’s offer as inadequate. Even to repair the classic guitar would have cost more than Delta’s measly offering.

The Meaning of Lance Armstrong

OPRAH WINFREY'S INTERVIEW WITH Lance Armstrong has come and gone, revealing to the world the open secret that he used a variety of steroids on his way to unprecedented success at the Tour de France. After years of vehement denials, Armstrong is finally coming clean. What created this monster?

In this week’s Parsha, the Jewish people are given the Mitzvah of the Karban Pesach, the sacrifice they performed the night before leaving Egypt. This Karban was a focal point of the entire Seder and we still incorporate aspects of the Karban Pesach in our Seder today.

A prerequisite for a male to participate in the Karban Pesach is having had a Bris Milah. This is a rare circumstance of the fulfillment of one Mitzvah becoming a pre-condition to perform a second Mitzvah. Why would there be such a requirement?

The Karban Pesach served as an opportunity for the Jewish people to publicly declare their faith in Hashem. While they had no responsibilities before the first nine plagues were carried out, in order to be saved from the 10th, the plague of the firstborn, they needed to perform the Karban Pesach and paint its blood on their doorpost. On the precipice of salvation, they needed to be ready and willing to publicly show their commitment to Hashem. They needed to become active participants.

By requiring a Bris, Hashem was saying that the public declaration of faith was only meaningful if it was accompanied by a private declaration of faith. The Bris Milah was a private, and painful, declaration that showed a person’s true colors. The Karban Pesach would be a sham if the public declaration was allowed without the true personal commitment the Bris Milah demonstrated.

We live in a world that celebrates success and ambition. Lance Armstrong became a national hero because he demonstrated an unusual capacity to push himself to succeed. He won seven consecutive races, even after recovering from cancer. A person that driven to succeed will naturally be tempted to do whatever it takes to win. Just look at baseball. How surprised should we be that a large number of high profile players used steroids when there was no steroid testing in place? When dealing with highly ambitious and successful people, the temptation to win at all costs is enormous.

As a society, we need to ask ourselves what we truly value. Do we value success or character? At a graduation, the valedictorian gets up to speak, not the student with the best character. Our winners get lionized as “immortals” while second place finishers become historical footnotes. We’ll forgive our cheaters, be it Bill Belichick or Alex Rodriguez, as long as they win. If they lose? Then they become useless to us, and are labeled losers and cheaters.

The Karban Pesach teaches us that the public, demonstrative acts of faith are only meaningful with the sincere, private ones. By rethinking who we honor and who we consider a success, we can truly make that lesson a reality. We need to make clear that our public winners are only valuable to us if accompanied by private character. Now grab some popcorn and enjoy Oprah’s interview.


Rabbi Josh Strulowitz is the rabbi of the West Side Institutional Synagogue in NYC. Follow him on Twitter at @RabbiStrul.