Haveil Havalim #163 is live. Check out the fine articles. Nothing by yours truly, I got jammed with work and Pesach.

But I'm making up for my laziness by posting the still from Cecile B. DeMille's awesome Samson and Delilah, 1949. It's one of those guilty pleasure movies here at Casa Avrech.

No weddings, music, haircuts or movies during Sefirah, but gee, at least you can look at photos from important movies about Torah subjects!

Don't thank me, I'm just a generous movie geek helping to educate my Seraphic Friends.

Scan courtesy of Dr. Macro.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:28 PM | Comments (4)

April 13, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 162, The Pesach Edition

This Jewish Queen of Egypt commands that you read Haveil Havalim.

Haveil Havalim #162, The Pesach Edition is up.

Our host this week is Esser Agaroth, who provides a lovely and precise introduction:

Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs — a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. The term 'Haveil Havalim,' which means "Vanity of Vanities," is from Qoheleth, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other 'excesses' and realized that it was nothing but 'hevel,' or in English, 'vanity.'

We'd like to thank Esser Agaroth for including Seraphic Secret's look at Barack Obama's Black Liberation Theology AKA Bigotry 101.

Gotta run and toveil (ritual immersion for Passover) my dishes now before the line at shul gets too long. It gets embarrassing on line. Everyone's all frum with their noses buried in some great new sefer about Pesach, or learning gemara, and me, well I'm all wrapped up in a fine biography about one of Hollywood's greatest silent stars—a truly important actress who's now all but forgotten—and my friends from shul peer over my shoulder and say:

“What's a silent movie?”

I'm like totally speechless.

Scan of Elizabeth Taylor courtesy of Dr. Macro.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:56 AM | Comments (9)

April 06, 2008

The Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #161

Haviel Havalin #161, The Pidgeon Break, is up.

Does this mean our gracious hostess sits down and watches movies that feature Walter Pidgeon?

Excellent.

Pidgeon was a durable leading man who has appeared in some of Hollywood's greatest films, and opposite Hollywood's most luminous leading ladies. Like many leading men who were not pretty boys, Pidgeon was taken for granted and never quite given his due.

Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver, 1942.

We'd like to thank JTown Underground for including Seraphic Secret's The Son of Stranger Among Us, in this week's round-up.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:00 AM | Comments (2)

March 30, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 160

I keep telling people that Seven Samurai is a totally Jewish film.

Haveil Havalim #160, The Waffle Edition, is up and running, hosted this week by Life in Israel.

As always, there is much fine material to read and ponder.

We'd like to thank Life in Israel for including my meditation on motherhood, courage, and becoming a grandfather in Seven Samurai and Baby.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:18 AM | Comments (18)

March 23, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 159

One of the women in my shul dressed up as Brigitte Bardot for Purim.
Great costume, huh? And totally modest.

Haveil Havalim #159, appropriately titled The Purim is Over Edition, is up and once again Jack of Random Thoughts has done a fine job.

We'd like to thank Jack for including two of our articles in this week's round-up: Our piece, with You Tube visual aid, Obama's Pastor: Israel That Dirty Word.

The outrageous thing is that Obama—after 20-years passively listening and never once protesting to his racist, Jew-hater Pastor, whoops, ex-Pastor—now believes, along with the, ahem, liberal establishment, that he has the credentials to lecture the American people about race. That's called cynically playing the race card.

But, you know, I'm just a “typical white person”, like Obama's grandmother.

What happens if Obama fails to secure the White House? I can see the headlines in the N.Y. Times: “Angry & Frustrated Progressives Youths Rampage in Inner Brooklyn Heights.”

We also wrote a piece about The Lessons of the Great Syrian Raid. We pointed out that appeasement never pays, that deterrence can be established—and after the Mercaz Massacre Israel needs to hit back at the enemy more forcefully than ever before.

As always, Jack provides his beloved—well, we at Casa Avrech love it—audio introduction where we learn that Jack has a cold. Poor ba-by. Quick, send Jack some chicken soup. But wait, Jack can't be too ill because, yup, there's that old reliable Friday the 13th cackle.

Refuah shlemah, Jack.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:55 AM | Comments (14)

March 16, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 158

Haveil Havalim: The Almost Purim Edition, is up.

If you want to know what's going on in the Jewish blogosphere, this is the place to go.

We also love Jack's nifty audio intro with his signature cackle.

We'd like to thank Jack for including Seraphic Secret's Getting Stoned in Israel in this week's superb round-up.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:50 AM | Comments (7)

March 09, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 157

“This war differs from other wars in this particular:
We are not fighting armies, but a hostile people, and must make
old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.”
— General William Tecumseh Sherman

Haveil Havalim #157 is up.

We'd like to thank My Shrapnel for including Seraphic Secret's profile of Jewish silent film star Theda Bara in this fine collection. Actually, we submitted War is the Remedy, and after the slaughter of the students at Mercaz Harav, our essay is more timely than ever—but, whatever.

We'd like to draw everyone's attention to Rabbi Daniel Gordis's superb essay: The Shame of it All. In which he argues that the morally bankrupt leaders of Israel, and the leftist, chattering classes cannot articulate the reasons for Jewish statehood beyond: “It's a fun place to live.”

Here's how he begins this important profile of the decline of the Jewish State:

There were days, and they were not that long ago, when Zionism was about something different. Days when Zionists could articulate what the purpose of Jewish Statehood was, days when Israelis understood that having a state was about changing the existential condition of the Jew. Not anymore.

Click here to read the entire article.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:17 PM | Comments (4)

March 02, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 156

“You'll feel better once you read Haveil Havalim.” Red River, 1948

Haveil Havalim #156 is up.

This is the best way to find out what's going on the Jewish Blogosphere.

We'd like to thank The Israel Situation for including Seraphic Secret's Movies as Moral Landscape in this fine collection.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:55 PM | Comments (6)

February 24, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 155

I was supposed to donate blood this morning at one of our Orthodox shuls. The local Jewish Health Care Fund runs these programs every few weeks. They contacted me by e-mail, and I dutifully made an appointment.

So I go, fill in all the paperwork, assure them that I don't have AIDS, I'm not testing for AIDS, haven't eaten meat in England or Wales, have not indulged in cannibalism in Borneo, that I'm not a male or female prostitute, that I have not been tattooed, served time in prison, that I'm not homosexual, metrosexual, pansexual, polysexual—all these happy-go-lucky questions I check, check, check in the negative, while humming Singin' in the Rain.

Anywhoo!

Barbara Stanwyck in Night Nurse, 1931

The Nurse—I wish nurses dressed like nurses in the old days, with the starched white cap, squeaky shoes, and those blinding white outfits. I mean, I have no idea who's a nurse and who's a janitor when I step into a hospital these days. So, she calckety-clacks into her computer, frowns and says:

“You can't donate, Mr. Maverick.”

James Garner as Bret Maverick

“Avrech.”

“Says here you donated just a few weeks ago, Mr. Maverick.”

“They called me up, I came. It's Avrech, No M.”

“They shouldn't have called you so soon. That's a glitch in the system. We appreciate your enthusiasm but you can't give until March 9.”

“If I get up and walk out of this little booth without giving blood, everybody is gonna think I have some new and novel sexual disease.”

“Huh?”

“People might think I have, y'know, AIDS or something.”

“Sir, you cannot donate, I'm very sorry.”

“They gave me a free pass to the movies, do I have to give that back?”

Nurse Carole Lombard, Vigil in the Night, 1940

Nurse Ratchett consults with her supervisor. After a moment she returns.

“You can keep the pass since you went to all the trouble to come down here.”

As I make my exit, shoulders hunched, I'm pretty sure that everyone is staring at me, minds whirring away, cooking up elaborate scenarios as to why I've been rejected.

Bunch of yentas.

Sigh.

Home to discover Haveil Havalim #155, The Falling Asleep at my Computer Edition.

Now I can forget my humiliation. Drown my sorrows in Jewish linkage.

My friend Jack, whose thoughts are anything but random, hosts this splendid edition, and listen—literally—he's got an audio message/pitch/whatever at the top of the post. I love his little cackle at the end.

We'd like to thank Jack for including Seraphic Secret's Home Game in this fine round-up of the Jewish blogosphere.

I think we can all agree that since the great Soccer Dad handed the baton to Jack, the highest standards have been upheld, and Jack has managed to stamp the Best of the Jewish Blogosphere with his own unique sensibility. Yasher Koach, Jack.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:02 AM | Comments (21)

February 10, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 153

Our friend Baila has posted Haveil Havalim #153.

I believe this is her first time hosting The Best of the Jewish Blogosphere, and she has done an admirable job.

We'd like to thank Baila for posting two Seraphic Secret stories: Our common sense political analysis pointing out that there is no such thing as Moderate Terrorists, and another chapter about left coast Jewish suicide: Hollywood Kool-Aid.

If you want to get a sense of what the Jewish blogosphere is thinking, this is the place to go.

Yasher koach, congratulations Baila.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:30 AM | Comments (2)

February 03, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 152

Okay, it's up: Haveil Havalim #152, The Patriots Must Lose Edition.

Jack doesn't like the New England Patriots.

Just a wild guess.

Seraphic Secret is neutral on all things football—except for brain damage.

We are definitely against trauma to the gray matter. Concussions are sad.

We plan on DVR'ng the game, and then watching, yup, the commercials.

We'd like to thank Jack for including Seraphic Secret's The War Over the War, and a moving tribute to our late son, Learning from Ariel.

This just in:

The Hollywood Congress of Republicans Board of Directors unanimously endorse Mitt Romney for President:

The California Congress had previously endorsed another candidate, but that candidate has since dropped out of the race. The HCR Board of Directors have therefore chosen to endorse Mitt Romney in a unanimous vote. We believe that he is the only logical candidate who, contrary to what the polls say, has the best chance of beating the Democrats. Also, his agenda and governing philosophy are more in line with ours and true Republican principles. This election is vitally important so make your voice heard this Tuesday.

The following linked article has some great information and is worth a read. It spells out some of the facts regarding McCain vs. Romney:

Hollywood Republicans

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:21 AM | Comments (15)