Havel Havelim no. 7

Welcome to the seventh edition of Havel Havalim, otherwise known as 'Ye Weekly Roundup of What's Been Going on in the Jewish Blogosphere.'

Top of the list, of course, is the JIB Awards, graciously hosted by Dave at Israellycool. After thousands of votes, the polls are now closed. With some sucking up to the people of Micronesia, hyperbole, demonizing the competition (literally) and some plain old begging, competition has been tough. And that was only the preliminary round!

Next, we have some family news. Naomi Chana has announced to the blogworld her engagement. From the description of the courtship, sounds like Birkat Hamazon will be a particularly special event at the wedding. Mazal Tov!

In the meanwhile, there is a new voice on Jewschool: Mobius's sister, Holy Terror. Kishma Ken Hi, as they say in Hebrew -- the name of this "Kachnik Metalhead" is rather indicative. Yikes; must make for interesting Friday night family dinners.

Last but not least, RenReb is recovering from the shock of having one of her children (known as 'Phillies') almost being hit by a car. We wish them both well.

In entertainment news, Shawn analyzes the Passion's Oscar nomination (putting it down bringing one source which attributes it to 'the export of Catholic guilt' to Hollywood), and points to a new movie about the Crusaders as the next potential hotspot for Jewish-Christian relations.

Jewlicious thinks the Mossad is behind that fake VW suicide-car-bomb ad (whose creators have mysteriously disappeared).

And according to Prodly, Matisyahu's latest concert was a success ('even some elderly folks turned up'); Psychotoddler says it was "the most unapologisingly [sic] goyishe shows I've ever seen a frum yid perform." In other words, also a success.

Onto Israel. As usual, Allison knows what people on the Israeli street are really talking about (hint: it ain't the upcoming Sharon-Abu Mazen summit). Oh, and she's launched a Challah recipe competition. When's "Doctor Bean" getting back to us about that Chocolate Chip Challah? We'll accept recipes from anyone.

Gilly is blogging from Miluim -- or at least was until "technical difficulties" -- I wonder if that's code for "My Commander" -- stopped him.

Harry blasts the Jewish Agency for creating competition for birthright, while Nushyman wonders whether birthright is all it's cracked up to be in the first place (although IMHO, her sister's question is by far the more reasonable). Andrew Silow-Carroll, on the other hand, defends Abe Foxman and the ADL against accusations they're too zealous in their fight against anti-Semitism.

I guess that puts us firmly back in the Diaspora,where we also have historian Deborah Lipstadt blogging from Air Force 2! Not too shabby.

In the religious controversy corner, we have Barefoot Jewess wondering whether the Mechitza is sexy (!), DovBear pondering the life of an Orthodox Jewish lesbian, and Gil Student bringing a number of examples of respected rabbis who, at the very least, do not object to the idea of evolution and do not consider it heresy. There's also PaleoJudaica on the neverending mystery of the Shroud of Turin, which is now assumed to be 'between 1,300 and 3,000 years old,' and not definitely medieval. He links to an interesting post about Judean burial rites, but doesn't clarify for me how the image on the shroud can possibly be the historical Jesus, seeing as (amongst other objections...) it looks like a 75-year old European saint, and not the much younger, olive-skinned man we know Jesus was.

Talking of mysteries, Ari has stopped writing about men, but is a little coy about why. And Lisa has left her readership hanging as she works on the fifth installment of her series on how she came to live in Israel. All we have is this teaser... Just hold on, folks!

And that concludes the seventh edition of Hevel Havelim. Next week at It's Almost Supernatural. Thanks, as usual, to SoccerDad for the organization and the idea.