At the recent Jewlicious Festival, one of our innovations was the institution of GreenKeit – a manifesto of sorts that merges environmental consciousness and traditional Jewish values. As such, we sought to reduce the festival’s carbon footprint and environmental impact by doing things like using compostable cutlery made out of corn and sugar cane, using American Apparel organic cotton t-shirts – heck even our name tags were made out of old cereal boxes!

You know what would have been cooler though? It would have been cooler if we would have been Catholic. Huh? Yeah, because then we would have been ahead of the curve! I say this in light of the Vatican’s institution of seven new mortal sins, with number three being listed as “polluting the environment.” This new Vatican initiative is meant to appeal to modern Catholics but really it’s a thinly veiled attack against the Jews. How so? Because number six is “becoming obscenely wealthy,” and we know that all Jews are very rich.

Wait a minute. #4: causing social injustice, #5: causing poverty, #6: becoming obscenely wealthy… do these mortal sins apply to uhm… certain institutions as well? Just asking…

crossposted from Jewlicious.com

Madness? You don’t know madness – kind of like the storm before the bigger storm… Jewlicious at the Beach 3.0 is about to begin. Stay tuned… Visit our Flickr page for regularly updated photos.

I don’t know why I keep going on about how great Jewlicious at the Beach 3.0 is going to be. We’re pretty much sold out – if you don’t buy your ticket extremely soon, you’re simply NOT going to get in. Forget about walking in on the day of too. But fear not – this coming weekend will generate gigabytes of digital data that we will be happy to share with you – if only to entice you to come to Jewlicious at the Beach 4. Or the Jewlicious Cruise. Or whatever the hell it is we think of next.

One of the presenters who will make it easy for us to make those of you not joining us feel envious is Kitra Cahana. Her photos have appeared in many international newspapers and magazines, as well as on the covers of the New York Times and USA Today. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including 3rd place in the Pictures of the Year International Magazine News Picture Story category for her photos of the Israeli Disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Last fall she returned from a independent project in Ethiopia and Israel where she photographed the Falash Mura. Some of those photos are shown above and you can see the rest on her Web site, kitracahana.com.

Kitra’s photos have a haunted quality to them and her use of light and her eye for drama are impressive and envy inducing. She studies at McGill University in Montreal, a city that seems to have a tradition of precocious and talented female photographers. We are very pleased to have Kitra join us and her presence will surely be a source of great inspiration to all those attending.

Oh one other thing. Kitra is 19.

Jewlicious at the Beach is as awesome an experience as it is for many reasons. That awesomeness can be attributed in part to the energizing spirit created by birthright israel. Over 100,000 young Jews from around the world have benefited from the free 10-day trip to Israel offered by this revolutionary initiative. Those of you who have gone know exactly what I’m talking about. Those of you who haven’t, well you don’t know what you’re missing!

Jewlicious has recently created a facebook group to unite both people who have gone and want to know about opportunities to return for free/cheap, and those of you who haven’t and want to go accompanied by the people behind Jewlicious.com.

So if you think that’s cool, log on to your facebook account and join our Jewlicious Israel Trip group. Our first order of business is to let you know that if you want to go this summer, registration begins February 15th. To register, visit the birthright israel site and follow the links. If you want to go to Israel for free with Jewlicious select Oranim as your trip provider and then choose one of the three available Jewlicious Trips.

Added bonus? If enough people register, we can get Rabbi Yo and Rachel down to Israel to join us! Israel misses them apparently …

See you at JTB3!!

this trip is a gift from Taglit-birthright israel.