July 3, 2008 Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!) Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron July 2, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else! JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life July 1, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end? Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient? JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism June 30, 2008 Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew? JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child June 26, 2008 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy June 25, 2008 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky June 25, 2008 Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch? JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III June 24, 2008 Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!? Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence June 23, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma Jeff Jacoby: A world without children JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction June 20, 2008 Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky June 19, 2008 Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub June 18, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher June 17, 2008 Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron June 16, 2008 Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home? Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace' JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire June 13, 2008 Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky June 12, 2008 Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron June 11, 2008 Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say? Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult' JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination June 6, 2008 Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky June 5, 2008 David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend' Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher June 4, 2008 Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster' Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler June 3, 2008 Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher June 2, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator? He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives March 22, 2007 J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !) Oct. 29, 2003 Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Dec. 24, 2007 / 15 Teves 5768 No fury like a Zep fan scorned By Diana West http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | "I don't like old people on a rock 'n' roll stage. What you're pretty much doing is imitating yourself at the age of 25, and there's basically nothing more pathetic." — Grace Slick Finally found people even touchier than Islamic fanatics: Led Zeppelin fanatics. No kidding. I say this after receiving a pretty heavy mailbag on my recent column about the Zep reunion concert in London. It was the "worst" column, a work of "concentrated stupidity," I must have been "stoned" to have written it, my work should be "boycotted." ("Carry your (boycott West) signs on to the streets, hang them in windows and pin them up in your work place cubicle," commented one free-speech enthusiast at the conservative Web site townhall.com.) You see, I had dared to go for a few laughs at the expense of aging (aged) rockers and their aging (aged) fans, most of whom believe you're just not living if you're not 14, or acting like it. And not only is my anti-establishment, alternative point of view verboten, there is also nothing funny about the aging (aged) concert scene, what with Led Zeppelin settling into its set, as one account reported, as "grown men in the mostly middle-aged and male audience began playing air guitar." Nothing funny, that is, if you happen to be a middle-aged male who plays air guitar. I heard from several such air musicians, including the one who reminded me that "the Founding Fathers fought for our freedom to play air guitar at 50." So no jokes. That said, there remains the more serious punch line pertaining to the phenomenon I like to call "the death of the grown-up." In fact, as some readers know, I have even written a book by the same title devoted to exploring how and why we came to a place in the progression of the species where, quite suddenly, adolescence is no longer a phase to pass through, but, in many ways, the endpoint — the culmination — of our emotional and aesthetic development (and why this threatens our liberty). A "heritage rock event" such as Led Zeppelin's onstage reunion is a good place to assess the phenomenon. Here, the erstwhile don't-trust-anyone-over-30 set gathers to retool its creed for its Golden Years: Don't trust anyone who acts over 30 — or worse, imagines there is something amiss in the pretense. For pretense is the name of this game. As Zep fans explained to me, they have substantive jobs, they pay taxes, they hold marriages together, they raise kids. Nothing "adolescent" about such lives of responsibility and care — nothing, that is, except their own deeply ingrained, metaphysical aversion to seeing themselves as ... adults; as the very backbone of a hidebound "Establishment"; as, in the words of a 40ish attorney who reverently reviewed the Zep concert for The Washington Post, a bunch of "corporate stiffs." What is ironic is that the rock 'n' roll soundtrack to which these 21st-century Babbitts live their lives came into existence as the martial music of a youth revolution to overturn the Establishment; to denigrate corporate stiffs; to smash monogamy and push promiscuity; and to mark middle-class duty, whether civilian or military, as a chump's game. So what's it all about? According to my reader comments, there's only one alternative to Led Zeppelin et al: Death by "muzak." There's only one alternative to Robert Plant: Barry Manilow. There's only one alternative to rocking out: Being "a robot." What a choice. But such is the truncated range of human possibility as whittled down in our post-grown-up era by the forces of Hollywood, the music biz and Madison Avenue. They have convinced us to see ourselves as either wild or boring; cool or uncool; unzipped or straitlaced; at least secretly licentious or just plain dull. Give me Zep or give me death! As one 48-year-old Zep fan commented: "I'm about as conservative as they come, but conservative doesn't translate to `Fuddy Duddy'!" Oh yeah? A great irony here is that there is nothing more conventional — dare I say corny? — than, after all these post-adolescent decades, still running with the Zep-loving, air-guitar-playing masses. Mavericks by the tens of thousands, they now conform to the pose of the rebel just as Babbitt once conformed to role of civic booster. In other words, the Babbittry still exists, all right; but today's Babbitts simply pretend it doesn't. Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll rules, dude — even in the "work place cubicle" where my columns are now boycotted. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. BUY DIANA'S JUST RELEASED BOOK ... at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.) by clicking HERE. JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist for The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here. Archives © 2007, Diana West