Everyday I encounter a number of interesting websites, articles, and blog posts that are definitely worth mentioning. I hope you find these as interesting as I do!

• Don't kiss the mezuzah!  You could be spreading swine flu! [JTA] 
• Orthodox women choosing natural childbirth [The Sisterhood]
• 'Family Guy' creator Seth MacFarlane outs Stewie (the baby) as gay, and announces that this season Lois (the mother) will discover she is actually Jewish. [NYDailyNews] Will this be received better than the controversial "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" episode Fox refused to air in 2000?

Jews are generally not a quiet people -- at least not in America in this day and age. We like to speak up, to speak out, to express our opinionated selves fairly loudly. So when the White House announced this year's recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it's not surprising that there was a vocal "Jewish response."

Last week I wrote about the death of a mysterisous 92 year-old homeless Holocaust surivor who left $100,000 to Hebrew University.  I was incredibly troubled by the story, about how little was known about this woman, and about her story being lost forever. Today, we learned her story. 

The American Jewess, published between 1895 and 1899, was a magazine for the contemporary Jewish American woman.  (It also gave us the idea for 'Jewesses With Attitude.')  The magazine covered a range of topics, including Zionism, health and fashion, marriage, travel, and the propriety of women riding bicycles. 

A roundup of links you really wont want to miss.  (Baby Glutton?  Seriously?)

Sixteen years ago today, Ruth Bader Ginsburg took her seat as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. 

Last night comedians including Carl Reiner, Gilbert Gottfried, Greg Giraldo, Jeffrey Ross, and Mario Cantone roasted Joan Rivers on Comedy Central. As she predicted in the clip below, it was a circus of pot-shots about her age, her plastic surgery, and her vagina.

I've got a whole slew of links for you folks today.  Enjoy!

• The Pennsylvania attack is a hate crime against women [Feministing, WIMN's Voices, Feministe]
• The Promise Keepers are back, and this time they are recruiting Jews and women.  Need I say it? Oy. [ReligiousDispatches] 
• Women in Judaism - "It is our religious duty to dismantle patriarchy." [Mixed Multitudes]

Today the Jerusalem Post reported that a homeless Holocaust survivor living in Manhattan passed away at the age of 92.  She left $100,000 to Hebrew University, and $100,000 to the man who gave her a room in exchange for parking his car all over the city.  She did not have any connections to Hebrew University, and according to the report, nothing else is known about her. Will we ever learn her name?

Sonia Sotomayor has just been confirmed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice! Wow. Just, wow.

In honor of Tu B'Av, here is a love and sexuality themed link roundup!

Last night marked the beginning of Tu B’Av, a cool Jewish holiday that I just found out about!  The more I read and discover about Tu B’Av and its possible feminist undertones, the more excited I get.  It seems the Jewish community has, in recent years, began a movement to turn the 15th of Av into a modern Jewish holiday – the Jewish Valentine’s Day. Creating a holiday that celebrates love and sexuality from a progressive, feminist, and Jewish prospective?  Now that is a movement I can get behind!

Forty-five years ago today, the bodies of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael (Mickey) Schwerner, and James Chaney were discovered, buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi. They had disappeared six weeks earlier in Neshoba County, Mississippi, while participating in Freedom Summer, a project of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Everyday I encounter a number of interesting websites, articles, and blog posts that are definitely worth mentioning. I hope you find these as interesting as I do!

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (Dem) has picked Loretta Weinberg to be his running mate for lieutenant governor.  The JTA reports that this "marks the first time a Jewish woman is running for state-wide office in New Jersey."

The JTA article does not paint a pretty picture of the history of women in New Jersey politics.

The most recent issue of Heeb Magazine is causing quite a stir.  The issue features Roseanne Barr wearing an apron and a Hitler mustache, pulling a tray of “burnt Jew cookies” out of an oven.  The Heeb publisher posted an article explaining the editorial choice, which discusses a cultural shift towards acceptance of “Holocaust humor.”  Heeb argues that old taboos are relaxing. Jews are beginning to embrace the Holocaust in a new way - as something to laugh about. Is this true? Has the Holocaust really become funny?

Everyday I encounter a number of interesting websites, articles, and blog posts that are definitely worth mentioning. I hope you find these as interesting as I do!

Everyday I encounter a number of interesting websites, articles, and blog posts that are definitely worth mentioning.  I hope you find these as interesting as I do!

• 10 signs your bubbe might be a vampire! [Bangitout via Yo Yenta] 

Talented Jewish women like Gilda Radner, Roseanne Barr, Gertrude Berg, and many others, have made a significant contribution to American culture through television.  But where do Jewish women fit into our nation’s current obsession with reality TV?  As I began to think about it, I was hard-pressed to come up with well-known examples of Jewish women on reality shows.  After reading Jennifer Pozner’s thoughts on the new NBC reality show “More to Love,” I am convinced that the less Jewish women on reality TV, the better.

Over lunch today, our conversation turned to an article a couple of us had recently read in Tablet about Yiddish words for vagina. (Yes, this is fairly typical lunchtime conversation at the Jewish Women's Archive.) None of us had really thought much about this topic before, but we were all quite intrigued. Why yes, it IS strange, we agreed with the author, Elissa Strauss, that Yiddish slang for penis has been assimilated into general English usage, while Yiddish slang for vagina is virtually unknown.

By now everyone must have heard about the Henry Louis Gates/Officer Crowley debacle in which an African-American Harvard professor was arrested for disorderly conduct after being questioned by police when a neighbor saw him trying to break into his own house.  Now, both Gates and Officer Crowley are headed to the White House to "have a beer" with Obama and chat it out.

Hello, my name is Leah Berkenwald and I am the newest ‘Jewess with Attitude’ blogging for the Jewish Women's Archive.

Everyday I encounter a number of interesting websites, articles, and blog posts that are definitely worth mentioning.  I hope you find these as interesting as I do!

• The Hadassah-Brandeis Institiute releases a new issue of HBI 614 eZINE on the titillating topic of Jewish Sex!  Editor Michelle Cove writes, "Who knew there were Yiddish lesbian poems published in the last century? Or that teen girls were giving oral sex as a gift to Bar Mitzvah boys? Or that the mikvah could be considered part of erotic foreplay? Given the sizzling weather outside, we decided to partner with the entertaining Jewcy (a lifestyle website for young Jews) to look at the heated and fascinating thoughts that Jewish women experience in and out of the bedroom."

Our friends at the National Museum of American Jewish History have recently announced a new project for which they are seeking public input. Their new museum, scheduled to open in November 2010, will include a gallery called "Only in America," that will -- in their words -- "examine the choices, challenges, and opportunities faced by a remarkable group of a token 18 American Jews on their paths to accomplishment."

Everyday I encounter a number of interesting websites, articles, and blog posts that are definitely worth mentioning.  I hope you find these as interesting as I do!

• The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival opens tomorrow, July 23, 2009!  The festival will include a "Salute to Gertrude Berg," featuring her son, Adam Berg, and panelist Glenn Smith, a Gertrude Berg biographer. Check out the festival guest list for other films directed by remarkable Jewish women.