“That’s Funny,” Reboot Network member Alex Grossman’s new movie doesn’t overtly focus on religious rituals or cultural traditions. It’s a comedy about a middle-aged man in Los Angeles who believes stand-up comedy fame will bring him happiness. But its exploration of universal themes intertwined with Jewish values made a top NYC Rabbi immediately tag it as an inherently Jewish movie. The struggle for identity, the significance of family, and the pursuit of happiness, are all deeply rooted in Jewish tradition. “This is the most non-Jewish Jewish movie I’ve ever seen,” Grossman’s friend, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue, said when he watched the film before its release. Rather than taking it as a slight, his words made Grossman’s day. Read more about the unexpected Jewish threads here and watch the film on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.
Many Mizrahi and Sephardi Jewish families mark the Jewish New Year with a seder, literally meaning order. The tradition of a Rosh Hashanah seder dates back to Talmudic times. Unlike its lengthy Passover counterpart, it involves much less reading and features nine symbolic foods with one simple line of prayer accompanying each. Learn more about this beautiful – and delicious – tradition, the current ties to the human rights uprising in Iran, and food justice from Reboot Network member Rachel Sumekh on our blog here.
Musician and Reboot Network member Jeremiah Lockwood has a special fondness for ghosts and has been talking about how to bring the presence of the spectral into the experiences of music, ritual and life for many years. In his latest project with his band, The Sway Machinery, he turns to the sonic apparitions of live davening cantorial archives of his grandfather and others for inspiration. He will premiere a new set of songs, titled The Dream Past, September 21 in Brooklyn that will be featured on the Sway Machinery’s YouTube Channel after the show. Get tickets and find out more information here. Get a taste of the music here.
When your kid goes away to summer camp, there is pressure to write them letters. It’s a delicate tightrope. You want them to know you are thinking about them but you don’t want to make them homesick. Add in Jewish guilt and it’s a lot of pressure. So when it came time for Reboot Network Member Larry Smith to write the latest letter to his son Lukas at camp, he turned to ChatGPT. The result was entertaining, although a bit rote. And he’s disappointed that ChatGTP clearly hasn’t watched the movie, Wet Hot American Summer (from a Jew, by the way). He’s decided to take back the job of Dad for the next letter. Read more here.
The Talmud teaches us: “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.” Lesser known is the teaching that directly follows: “That being said, whoever just goes ahead and saves the whole world is considered super menschy and highly to be fived.”
Writer and Reboot Network member Jonathan Bines reflects on a landmark climate ruling in favor of a group of young Montanans that will force the state to confront the ongoing climate catastrophe. As the high holidays approach and we take stock of the year gone by and look forward to the new one, Bines hopes we can all make the commitment to center the climate crisis as the defining challenge of our time.
For as that Talmudic passage concludes: “And finally, whoever has a chance to save the whole world and doesn’t…well, I mean, what a shmuck.” Read more here.