Huh?? Ukrainian Women That I Know Series – Part I
Miss Platnum (not a typo) is not actually Russian. She’s based in Germany and is Romanian. But her horn section is called Fanfar Kalashnikov. Also Romania was a Warsaw Pact nation back in the dizzay (their intelligence agency tried to kill Pope John Paul II, remember? Sigh… Cold War memories…) and most Americans don’t know Bucharest, from Bratislava, from Byelorussia from uh… Petrograd. Finally, have you been to Brighton Beach lately? What’s with all the Benzos?? Miss Platnum’s combination of Hip Hop, R&B and traditional Eastern European rhythms makes her music sound like a hip NYC Jew band signed to JDub. Now, she’s probably not Jewish (real name Ruth Maria Renner… not so Jewish) but that’s kind of telling innit? Our hipster shteiblach Jews in Manhattan may be all sophistimicated and cosmopolitan, but really, they’re not that far removed from the shtetl, eh?
So this is all a rather longwinded and kind of ridiculous introduction to an event organized by a former resident of Beit Jewlicious here in Jerusalem, Evgenia Solovyova. Evgenia is originally from Khmelnytsky, Ukraine – a city named for a Cossack leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who killed buttloads of Jews between 1648-1656. We had a great time with Evgenia at Beit Jewlicious in Jerusalem and now she and her crew at Chicago Hillel are putting together what looks to be an awesome Russian Shabbaton Weekend extravaganza!
So… if you’re a Russian Jew, a Jew of Russian extraction, or you just wanna party with Former Soviet Union Gals and Guys, click on the more link below for all the details! Before you go on, I should also add that we all miss Evgenia here in Jerusalem and we know that if she’s involved, it’s gonna rock!
Russian Shabbaton 2009!
Are you a Russian Jew? Than this the biggest event of the year FOR YOU!
The 6th annual Russian Shabbaton will take place on Weekend, February 20-22, 2009.
Russian-speaking students and young professionals from ALL OVER the USA are invited to participate. The topic of this year Shabbaton is “Yesterday, today, tomorrow: our history, immigration and identity”. The weekend will include a beautiful Shabbat dinner on Friday night, discussions about our history, immigration and identity, inspirational group workshops, songs, guitars and more songs, and funniest comedy improv show. We are inviting an excellent key speaker David Shneer and other professionals to lead our workshops.
Our hotel has huge guest rooms, a state of the art fitness center and a swimming pool with hot tub. Check it out http://indianlakesresort.com/
Registration cost is $85* (Final Deadline is Sunday, February 8, 2009). Cost includes all meals and hotel accommodation. Spaces are limited. Priority is given to first-time participants. Participants must be between the ages of 18-32 years old.
Registration and payment online here: http://www.juf.org/college/shabbaton.aspx
Find us on Facebook too!
Contact:
Genia Solovyova
Program Director
Hillels Around Chicago
312-673-2351
[email protected]
Hillels Around Chicago
www.HillelsAroundChicago.org
30 S. Wells, Suite 216-600 Chicago, IL
Good luck y’all!
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Those wacky evangelicals!
OK, totally off-topic.
But important breaking news, and something all of us can learn from:
“Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard described Thursday as ‘fundamentally true’ an assertion that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a 20-year-old male volunteer in 2006.
“The incident occurred when the two men were in bed together, Grant Haas said in a videotaped interview played on CNN’s ‘Larry King Live.'”
It’s called “Balkan Soul” here. 🙂
You mean, there’s actually a genre? What is it?
Her voice isn’t actually great; she’s just fun. Refreshingly fun in a genre that tends to take itself pretty serious.
I figure it’s a bad sign when you think it’s camp, but you’re not sure…. To her credit, she threw in some black people. But not nearly enough.
Dave, you awesome!!! I love this post! and a video))
Miss you and your Beit Jewlicious in Jerusalem!
Tom, I know you know your Nostra Aetate. 😉
Jesus was Jewish?
One more cause she’s so much fun:
Renner’s a German name, and the roast pork as well as the priest in her “Marry Me” clip should be enough of a clue she’s not Jewish. Maria can indeed be a Latinized version of Myriam. Just for the record, Jesus is generally considered Jewish, too.
“Now, she’s probably not Jewish (real name Ruth Maria Renner… not so Jewish)”
Huh? They give me that sh*t every time at Ben Gurion airport. Yes, I am Jewish, and my second ‘first name’ is Maria, named after a Jewish-Hungarian grandaunt. Maria was Jewish, only her son went off-the-derech. Yad Vashem’s database of shoah victims has more than 1,000 entries for the name Maria. Renner is not unheard of amongst Jews from Central Europe, including Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Romania.
The problem must be Ruth then. Yep, that is really a name which is not so Jewish…
So, she’s probably Jewish (you can never tell from a name), and, in any case, she rocks.
Wasn’t it the Bulgarian intelligence service that tried to kill the pope? As bad as Ceausescu was, the Soviets didn’t trust him; he insisted on pursuing decent relations with the West (even inviting Nixon to visit in 1969). In fact, the Soviets let him screw around in foreign policy as long as he kept an iron fist at home– the reverse of their approach to Hungary, for example.
I hope she’s good, but I wouldn’t toss out my Dona Dmitru Simonica or Toni Iordache records just yet…
Genia Rocks!
I got myself a Russian picture dictionary (to extend my vocabulary beyond the curse level); anything for the chance of getting Russian salads I love so, so much.
I adore Genia, but really I wanted an excuse to put up that Miss Platnum video. So sue me…
Only if pass the test with me first 😉
I can curse in Russian. Do I qualify?