Our Comics Don't Eat Brains
By Dan Friedman
When we at the Forward run articles the world listens carefully. When we choose not to run pieces, apparently, the world jumps to attention and blogs it.
Forward columnist Eli Valley’s biting cartoons about Evangelical Zionists, Jewish Social Entrepreneurs, Abe Foxworthy (the accidental scientific melding of Abe Foxman and Jeff Foxworthy) and the moral communal context of Bernie Madoff got some media play. But when “Dawn of the Chimpanzee! (Don’t Worry Folks, It’s Only a Metaphor)” (his satire on how American Zionist education projects fantasies of Israel) failed to run, the blogosphere went crazy.
First of all Gawker ran it in their Unspiked series provoking a range of comments underneath it.
Then Tablet caught the Eli bug and blogged the Gawker publication. Former Forward staffer Marissa Brostoff, after calling for comment to no avail as we rollercoasted towards deadline, caught the mood nicely with her “So, for now, the answer to why a Jewish newspaper refused to run a comic in which Israelis are depicted as non-brain-eating primates must remain a mystery.”
Soon Jewlicious were up on the game, proudly printing the comment despite, probably judging from the comments there, largely disagreeing with everything in the cartoon. “He Mocks Us — But We Love Him”: their magnanimous title (and who wouldn’t love him?!).
And, where Jewlicious leads, Jewschool follows. Well, not necessarily, but sandwiched in between a piece on Quaker meetings and healthcare reform, comes their “Fuel For Chimpanzee Truth.”
Finally, at least for today, the diaspora satire on diasporic educational projections of Israel have wended their way over to the land of chimpanzees itself (just kidding — not even a metaphor). Haaretz posted the cartoon in their Hot Topic section as an example of cucumber season hubbub. Cucumbers and chimpanzees seems like a mixed metaphor to me, but perhaps it’s just a new reality show.
Anyway, thanks for the attention guys. I’m thinking of spiking a 5,000 word piece on the interaction between Jewish accountants in nineteenth century Latvia — can’t wait for the blogs to get hold of that!
Birthright's New High-Profile Flak
By Rebecca Dube
Birthright, a respected organization that sends young adults ages 18-26 on educational trips to Israel, recently hired the public relations firm 5W Public Relations. The fast-growing firm’s CEO, Ronn Torossian, is among the ranks of celebrity publicists who sometimes make the news — or at least the gossip pages — themselves.
5WPR, as it’s known, gained notoriety last summer after posting fraudulent blog comments aimed at making its client, Agriprocessors, look better. Once the nation’s largest kosher meat supplier, Agriprocessors was the target of a massive immigration raid in May of 2008, and the company and its owners face charges of immigration and child labor law violations, as well as bank fraud, mail and wire fraud charges.
Torossian acknowledged — eventually — that a senior executive had made the fake blog posts. First he denied the charges outright, then the firm blamed the misdeeds on an intern. Only after evidence surfaced that the fake blog posts could be traced to the home of the Agriprocessors account manager at 5WPR, Juda Engelmayer, did Torossian come clean. Engelmayer no longer works for 5WPR.
Torossian is a frequent target of mockery at the popular Gawker media gossip web site, where he is consistently referred to as an “incompetent superflack.” He was also profiled recently in the Jerusalem Post.
Despite his controversial reputation, Torossian is an ardent supporter of Israel and represents many reputable Jewish organizations, among them American Friends of Magen David Adom, the American Jewish Congress and the Zionist Organization of America.
“We are thrilled to represent Taglit-Birthright Israel,” Torossian said in a press release. “Personally and professionally, we feel very strongly about the mission of Taglit-Birthright Israel and are excited about the challenge of continuing to build the organization’s profile.”
The Historic Partnership Between the State of Israel and Maxim Magazine
By Daniel Treiman
As we noted earlier this week, not everyone in Israel is pleased with their government’s collaboration with Maxim magazine on its “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces” photo spread.
But that didn’t put the kibosh on the New York Israeli consulate’s plans to co-host a celebratory bash Tuesday night with the raunchy lad mag.
Gawker was there, and its correspondent wasn’t too impressed: He wrote that he “fully expected to find a platoon of ultra hot IDF commandos,” but instead “it seemed more like your everyday UJA meeting.”
Sexy semitic sightings: Miss Israel 2004 Gal Gadot and Israeli Consul General Arye Mekel.
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