Uncategorized
A fashion show in Tribeca attempts to capture ‘The Jewish Uniform’
(New York Jewish Week) – Hip-hop music blasted through loudspeakers as about a dozen models strutted up and down a makeshift runway. Some of them wore cream knit loungewear, while others were clad in modest but elegant dresses accessorized with silk scarves.
The models, many of them student volunteers from Chelsea’s Fashion Institute of Technology, were donning “The Jewish Uniform,” at least as defined by the minds of Havurah, a cohort of self-described “frum” (religiously observant) New York-based 20-somethings aspiring to create a “renaissance of Jewish art.” In addition to the fashion show, Havurah has hosted readings, Torah study and concerts, and the group recently launched “Verklempt!,” a Jewish literary magazine.
Last Thursday evening, “The Jewish Uniform” highlighted 13 Jewish designers whose levels of experience ranged from amateurs to well-established brands like Batsheva, whose signature modest dresses and ultra-feminine womenswear first made a big splash in 2016. Directed by Havurah co-founders Daniella Messer and Eitan Gutenmacher — both 20-year-old students at New York University — the show’s looks were curated by Ashley Finkel, a 26-year-old e-commerce coordinator at La Perla and styled and staged by Lily Paige Sausen, 26, who runs an online vintage store.
Havurah’s motive is to create Jewish art and to understand the intersection of art and Judaism. The fashion show, in particular, aimed to celebrate and explore what makes an outfit Jewish — at least through an observant lens.
Ashley Finkel, left, one of the show’s curators, speaks with designer Elke Reva Sudin, May 11, 2023. (Saul Sudin)
“The intention of the show was to use fashion as a medium to bring together a community of creatives in NYC,” Finkel told the New York Jewish Week. “We’re very happy with how the evening turned out.”
Around 120 people attended the show, which took place in the outdoor space underneath the bulbous curve of the architecturally unique Tribeca Synagogue (49 White St.), an Orthodox congregation. The downtown neighborhood is now known for its hip loft buildings, but it was once a center of the textile and cotton trade industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The show’s creators, from left to right: Eitan Gutenmacher, Daniella Messer, Lily Paige Sausen, Ashley Finkel and Kayla Mantell, at the show on May 11, 2023. (Julia Gergely)
“I thought it was really cool to be able to show my looks in a Jewish show,” said Yarden Sopher-Harelick, a 24-year-old designer and FIT graduate who had three outfits in the show, including a blazer dress fashioned out of bubble wrap and a seatbelt.
Batsheva Hay, the Orthodox designer who runs the eponymous brand, donated four dresses to the show, though she wasn’t able to attend herself.
Each “Jewish Uniform” runway look had a tongue-in-cheek title and description that was presented in an accompanying program for the show, allowing the creative directors to build on their thesis about what makes an outfit Jewish — and to poke some lighthearted fun at Jewish customs as well. Take “The Yenta,” who wears a white blouse, pearls and a long black skirt: “She attends shul for one purpose: the tea. It’s piping hot, just like her outfit,” the program read.
The “Shabbat Snoozer” — a loose, comfortable, matching set in navy — was described as “the classic combination of a food coma and a few hours to spare before Havdalah,” while the “Cholov Yisroelnik,” described as “the kosher version of a milkmaid,” consisted of a headscarf, a pink gingham skirt and white top, with the model carrying a carton of milk instead of a clutch.
For first-time model Tara Dietzel, an 18-year-old first-year student at FIT, walking in the show and seeing clothes designed by Jewish designers was a way for her to envision how she might combine her Judaism, her love of modeling and her professional goal to become a fashion designer.
“It was so much fun and a good first step to figuring out how I can accomplish all of these dreams at once,” Dietzler told the New York Jewish Week after the show.
Tara Dietzler, left, models a design from Yarden Sopher-Harelick, right, May 11, 2023. (Julia Gergely)
Guests included many of the designers’ friends and family, who cheered enthusiastically as their models walked the runway. After the presentation, everyone came together over wine and seltzer. The designers posed with their looks and models walked through the crowd to show off their clothes’ texture and details up close.
At the event, Elke Reva Sudin, a Brooklyn-based designer and painter, launched “The Crown Collection,” a limited collection of silk head scarves. Nearly a decade ago, Sudin ran a similarly-missioned organization to Havurah called Jewish Art Now before founding Drawing Booth, a non-Jewish arts vendor where artists live-sketch guests at events. The scarves are her first foray into fashion.
Elke Reva Sudin, middle, stands with two models who donned her new line of headscarves, the Crown Collection, May 11, 2023. (Saul Sudin)
Sudin said that designing scarves — an item popular among Orthodox women, most of whom cover their hair after marriage, as per Jewish law — was a way for her to explore her own Jewish identity and spirituality as a married Orthodox Jewish woman. She found out about Havurah through a mutual artist friend.
“I’ve been out of the Jewish world for a while now and I appreciate that there was a Jewish space I could turn to launch my scarves, which are sort of my return to Jewish art while entering into the world of fashion,” Sudin, 35, told the New York Jewish Week. “Both my designs and Havurah have the same intent, which is to be inclusive and to create something not only beautiful, but meaningful to the Jewish community.”
—
The post A fashion show in Tribeca attempts to capture ‘The Jewish Uniform’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
The one Jewish value everyone should hold dear in the age of AI
As friends, relatives and even colleagues dive headlong into our AI future, I’ve been stuck nervously on the platform’s edge. I’m not a skeptic of technology by nature, but by experience. I’ve watched too many shiny new toys come along, promising to make society smarter or better connected, only to become superspreaders of confusion, alienation and disenfranchisement.
So when you tell me a machine can summarize any book, draw any picture or write any email, my first thought is going to be, What could possibly go wrong?
This, too, was the reaction of the Haredi rabbis who declared a communal fast over AI last month.
“If at the push of a button, I can get a hold of a d’var torah for my Shabbos meal from AI, to us, that’s a problem,” a Haredi leader told me at the time. “No, no — I want you to open the book and read it and come up with a question and come up with an answer. That’s part of what’s holy about learning Torah. It’s not just end result. It’s the process.”
Curious about their logic, I spent some time tracking down Lakewood’s gedolim to learn more. This was no straightforward task — I found it easier to get a hold of their wives than the great rabbis themselves. Even at dinner hour, these titans of Torah study were still in the beit midrash. But eventually I got through to three — thanks to my cousin Jeffrey, who knew a rav who knew a rav — and that was fortunate, because I came away with the Jewish skeleton key to our brave new world.
That key is the Jewish value of עֲמֵילוּת (ameilut), or toil. As far as Jewish values go, ameilut is an obscure one. It lacks the celebrity swagger of its better-known peers like chesed and tzedakah or the political power of tikkun olam. It was never associated with a biblical matriarch or carved into a golem’s forehead. Yet I believe it is just as crucial. Yes, toiling is a mitzvah. And in the age of AI, ameilut can be a human road map.
The word’s root appears a couple dozen times in the Hebrew Bible — unsurprisingly, it’s a recurring theme in Job — but its salience comes not from the Torah but from commentary on Leviticus 26:3, which establishes ameilut as a sacred endeavor. When God implores Israel to “walk with” the commandments, Rashi, an 11th century rabbi whose commentaries are considered authoritative, reinterpreted this to mean that God wants Jews to be ameilim b’torah — toiling in Torah study. He is reinterpreting God’s command that we walk and move forward to also mean that we should take time to stand still, turn over (and over) the same words to find new meaning and view getting stuck as a sign of progress.
For Haredim — who pronounce it ameilus — the notion that struggle can be its own reward underpins a life spent poring over sefarim in the beit midrash (and missing phone calls from the Jewish press). It follows that ChatGPT, which transforms knowledge from something developed to something consumed, is anathema to their approach. They’ve realized that making learning easy has actually made learning hard.
To be sure, the goals of the Haredi world are not exactly the same as mine. Those communities are famously insular, wary of the internet and especially cognizant of secular society’s pernicious influence. I’m basically the opposite: I love to mix it up (including with Haredi Jews) and am extremely online. A little narishkeit is good for the soul, as far as I can tell.
But I’ve found that ameilut-maxxing translates pretty well to non-religious life, too. It’s an imperative to embrace the challenge. As a notoriously limited chef, I’m now toiling in cookbooks; as a writer, I can cherish the blank page. Reframing the hard part as the good part, then, is a reminder that the toil is actually our divine right. Because ameilut is something AI can’t experience, replicate or understand. It is the very essence of what it means to be alive.
The post The one Jewish value everyone should hold dear in the age of AI appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Mistrial Declared in Case of Students Charged After Stanford Anti-Israel Protests
FILE PHOTO: A student attends an event at a protest encampment in support of Palestinians at Stanford University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Stanford, California U.S., April 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
A judge declared a mistrial on Friday in a case of five current and former Stanford University students related to the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests when demonstrators barricaded themselves inside the school president’s office.
Twelve protesters were initially charged last year with felony vandalism, according to prosecutors who said at least one suspect entered the building by breaking a window. Police arrested 13 people on June 5, 2024, in relation to the incident and the university said the building underwent “extensive” damage.
The case was tried in Santa Clara County Superior Court against five defendants charged with felony vandalism and felony conspiracy to trespass. The rest previously accepted plea deals or diversion programs.
The jury was deadlocked. It voted nine to three to convict on the felony charge of vandalism and eight to four to convict on the felony charge to trespass. Jurors failed to reach a verdict after deliberations.
The charges were among the most serious against participants in the 2024 pro-Palestinian protest movement on US colleges in which demonstrators demanded an end to Israel’s war in Gaza and Washington’s support for its ally along with a divestment of funds by their universities from companies supporting Israel.
Prosecutors in the case said the defendants engaged in unlawful property destruction.
“This case is about a group of people who destroyed someone else’s property and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. That is against the law,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement, adding he sought a new trial.
Anthony Brass, a lawyer for one of the protesters, told the New York Times his side was not defending lawlessness but “the concept of transparency and ethical investment.”
“This is a win for these young people of conscience and a win for free speech,” Brass said, adding “humanitarian activism has no place in a criminal courtroom.”
Protesters had renamed the building “Dr. Adnan’s Office” after Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian doctor who died in an Israeli prison after months of detention.
Over 3,000 were arrested during the 2024 US pro-Palestinian protest movement, according to media tallies. Some students faced suspension, expulsion and degree revocation.
Uncategorized
Exclusive: FM Gideon Sa’ar to Represent Israel at 1st Board of Peace Meeting in Washington on Thursday
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar speaks next to High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas, and EU commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica as they hold a press conference on the day of an EU-Israel Association Council with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will represent the country at the inaugural meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday, i24NEWS learned on Saturday.
The arrangement was agreed upon following a request from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will not be able to attend.
Netanyahu pushed his Washington visit forward by a week, meeting with US President Donald Trump this week to discuss the Iran situation.
A U.N. Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the Board of Peace and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza and build on the ceasefire agreed in October under a Trump plan.
Under Trump’s Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.