It started as a patriotic thing, but became very fast "I love my country and I think it's right and should be favoring Jews so it can do whatever it wants".

That's pretty much the history of flag lapel pins here.

Sunday's paper had an article about an Atlanta native who is a member of Blind Boys of Alabama gospel group. The headline was "He’s climbed to unseen heights." I thought that was in questionable taste at best, although as a person involved in writing the headline "Everyone wants to get into Heaven" for an article in my college paper about a stripper named Heaven Lee, I really don't have room to talk.

I can't generalize, but let's just say you would rarely find leftists (or people over the age of 22) wearing it. It started as a patriotic thing, but became very fast "I love my country and I think it's right and should be favoring Jews so it can do whatever it wants".

Interesting. At the university where I went for undergrad, which had a pretty big Jewish population, generally (though not always) the preppier Jewish girls wore a star, and the less preppy ones wore a hamsa. (I was a hamsa person. Mostly, I liked the way it looked, but I think that, as a group, there was a sort of "Oooh, Middle Eastern Jewish symbol -- that makes it way cooler than my usual American / Ashkenazic / suburban Judaism" motive behind why we were all wearing them.) The really preppy Jewish girls wore this star.

OK, sorting through my jewelry box, I've got way more Jewish jewelry than I'd thought. I've got Jewish power beads (ugh -- fad that lasted about a week), a mezuzah necklace (made by a Judaica artist in New Orleans), several star necklaces of various sizes and metals, one star necklace with colored stones in the triangles (the one that started the discussion with my mother -- I liked it for that day, because the colors of the stones matched the colors in my skirt), one silver hamsa necklace, a few little hamsa and eye pendants that used to be on a red string bracelet that I got at the Kotel and are made of some metal that turned my skin green, and a silver necklace with my Hebrew name on it (birthday present from my mom a few years ago -- ordered from an Israeli artist at a "Support Israel!" fair at her synagogue.) And I almost never wear any of this stuff. I ought to wear some of it more often. Well, except the power beads, which are silly, and the ones that turn my skin green.

I looked up Hamsa. I find it interesting that both Islamic & Jewish traditions share it.

although as a person involved in writing the headline "Everyone wants to get into Heaven" for an article in my college paper about a stripper named Heaven Lee, I really don't have room to talk.

Oh, we ALL wrote seriously questionable headlines in college, didn't we? I mean, I did.

There was never anything as good as Headless Body Found in Topless Bar, but what really is?

I never wrote any questionable headlines, but I did get in a few questionable photographs. My favorite was one for a story on a Newcomb College tea with the Dean. Photo showed the white-columned academic building in the background, and a student with a cup of tea in one hand, a plate of little tiny sandwiches in the other hand, and an "I t heart Porn" t-shirt.

I looked up Hamsa. I find it interesting that both Islamic & Jewish traditions share it.

Yeah. I've seen some things saying that there's evidence that it predates either.

Whoa. They're estimating that Jewish charities lost at least $600 million that was invested with Madoff. And that's not counting the people who usually donate each year who also lost money. In the past week, at least two charities have shut down entirely, and a bunch of others are hugely scaling back. It seems like a whole lot of Jewish communal institutions -- schools, community centers, retirement homes, stuff like that -- also had a lot of money invested with him. [link]

t edit: probably getting into way too many stereotypes here, but a friend of mine in NYC said that her therapist was running really late for his appointments this week, because all his clients who'd invested with Madoff had made emergency appointments with him that he had to squeeze into his schedule.

That's scary economic news, Hil.

This country is going to need a cute little curly-headed triple threat to keep our spirits up, n'est-ce pas?

I can probably say the in the U.S. Jewish jewelery would relate to religion, while here they relate not only to specific type of Jews, but also to specific political stand. I don't have any Jewish jewelery: hell, I find it hard enough to wear my heart necklace (which I find very pretty) in case people would mistaken to think I'm a romantic fluffy person.

Jewish power beads (ugh -- fad that lasted about a week), a mezuzah necklace (made by a Judaica artist in New Orleans)

What are Jewish power beads? And the mezuzah necklace sounds awesome - could you take a picture of it? I can't imagine it.

Also, for those who are interested: Tom Purcell, the head writer on the Colbert Report, would be tomorrow (your today, already?) on a radio show I'm usually listening to on 1pm PST, on this link. A word of warning: the show has it's share of offensive humor.

Jewish power beads -- OK, regular Power Beads were a fad about five years ago. They were bracelets made of beads of semi-precious stones -- amethysts, coral, turquoise, a bunch of others -- and each one came with a little card explaining what sort of mystical power that stone had -- like some were relaxing, others were invigorating, others would bring luck, and so on. Then someone started selling Jewish power beads -- similar-looking bracelet, but the beads are light blue glass, and there's a Hebrew word written inside each one. There are four different bead words -- Mazal (luck), Chai (life), Ahava (love), and one that I spent a while puzzling at before realizing that it was Gelt.

I don't recall buying this, so I'm guessing my mom got it for me. There's a picture here [link] .