JewishNews Roundup, Week 12: Menachem Begin Killed

So much Jewish news to catch up on today…

Haaretz reports that Menachem Begin was killed in Lod this week! You mean he didn’t die over a decade ago? No. They mean the other Begin. After the US-Egypt peace accord was signed, Ibrahim and Hitam Kidasa named their triplets for Sadat, Begin, and President James “Jimmy” Earl Carter. Sadly, the child, now an adult, named for Begin was murdered this week in Lod. Like his brother, the child named for Sadat also served time in jail, and is currently completing a term in jail for killing another prison while serving time.

While AIPAC prepares for its annual meeting in DC, where is Josh Block, AIPAC’s spokesmodel? He is naked on the front page of today’s Washington Post. ….Sort of.

The Washington Post writes about the sauna in the basement of the Finnish Embassy to the U.S. in Washington DC. It is perhaps the steamiest place in town. It is there that naked men (and others) meet, near DuPont Circle, and power schvitz their nights away. In the story, Block asks Kari Mokko (pictured above), the embassy’s press secretary and former anchor of “Silminnakija”, whether schvitz is a Finnish word. The author, Jason Horowitz, goes on to report that saunas make for strange connections.

In other news, MIT’s Hillel in Cambridge Mass, is getting a new crop of potential members on Pi Day. It was on Sunday, March 14 (3.14) and 1:59 PM (3.14 1 59) that applicants to MIT were able to find out, online, if they received offers of admission. 1,611 students were accepted, a record low admission rate of 9.70152648 percent. Did you know that Albert Einstein (the scientist, not the Albert Brooks comedian) was born on 3/14? Mazel Tov to all those accepted.

A group of American rabbis are tweeting Passover and the Exodus ( @TweetTheExodus ) for children and teens. Taking on the roles of Pharoah, young_Miriam, Moses, slaves, and others, each day they are tweeting real time as if they are in the heat of Goshen and the midst of slavery and the Exodus from that narrow place called Mitzrayim. (It’s not the heat in Goshen, it’s the humidty, and clay pots of garlic and cucumbers) (I hear Israelites are into bondage?)

What’s can we expect next? @TweetTheIntifada3 ? Tweet The Golden Calf ? Calling Edward G Robinson… Mister Edward G. Robinson? Can I play Korach and lead a rebellion?

On a more serious note, newspapers are reporting on three recent possible suicides on the campus of Cornell University and its gorge. The school is taking action, and Cornell’s Hillel and AEpi fraternity are also organizing interventions and events to open communications and reduce those things that can lead to depression and suicide. The fraternity also held a memorial for one of its members who passed awy. Cornell’s Hillel is seeking a new Executive Director, by the way.

And finally, in a kippah-nod to Palm Sunday and Passover, The Simpsons animated series will air a special new episode in the US, in which the Simpson family goes to Israel. Their tour guide is played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. In the episode, Homer contracts Jerusalem Syndrome and thinks he is the messiah.