Oh, I forgot to finish my thought there. Unofficial reasons for funding birthright trips: get young Jewish people to meet other young Jewish people, leading to Jewish marriages and lots of Jewish babies. They were actually rather heavy-handed with this message, though it's not officially anywhere. Most baby-boomer generation Jewish organizations and leaders will talk a lot about how our generation is abandoning Judaism, and how there's too much intermarriage, and how there will be no more American Jews in another 50 years, and all kinds of hand-wringing over that. Unfortunately, the "solution" proposed to most of this seems to be to try to bring us into the Mens Club and Sisterhood organizations that are mostly filled with our parents, and to completely ignore all the really interesting stuff (blogs, spiritual retreats, back to the land programs, innovative services, etc.) that we're creating for ourselves.

Um, sorry. Got a little off-track ranty there.

Hee.

I saw about half of a news segment on Jewish youth trips returning home early from Israel because of the latest conflict. To a person, the kids (they seemed young to me, like 18ish) wished they could have stayed, because they believe living with the conflict ought to have been part of their experience. What surprised me was one mother who was interviewed, whose daughter is not yet home, but whose trip will probably end prematurely. The mother wants the daughter to stay. She might have blown up every stereotype of the neurotic mother, Jewish or Gentile.

too damn hot

t wolf-whistles Hil's ranty panties

Alright, I have to go out. And do two things. And then go home. And I won't see a computer again until monday.

sighhhhh

It's not hot here! Woo! It's 68F. This is quite grand.

Finally got broadband today. I have sucked but not yet skimmed. Had to jump to the end to say Hi! And my family wants to go eat. But I want to stay and catch up. Wah.

Hi Laura, you fabulous creature!

Hey, Laura! 68 sounds WONDERFUL!

I think they also wanted us to be able to go back to the States and be able to speak knowledgably about Israel, as an actual place that we'd seen and experienced, not just as an abstract entity.

This is a good idea.

I got to see my neighbor's granddaughter (who's just about a month younger than Olivia). Her name is Hamutal and she's MUCH teenier than Liv.

68 sounds amazing. I be really thrilled with 78. heck, I 'd even take 85.... as long as the house would cool off.

68 sounds amazing. I be really thrilled with 78. heck, I 'd even take 85.... as long as the house would cool off.

The movie lasted longer than I thought last night, and I didn't get the VCR set. Did I miss anything important on So You Think You Can Dance last night?