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Sundown: Palestinians Plan September Rallies

Plus, Romanian dictionary edited, Drake rakes it in, Jackson’s Jewish roots, and more

by
Stephanie Butnick
August 10, 2011
Phillip Levine, poet laureate.(Geoffrey Berliner, courtesy Library of Congress.)
Phillip Levine, poet laureate.(Geoffrey Berliner, courtesy Library of Congress.)

• Palestinian leaders are organizing marches and rallies for September, with preparations in place to prevent violence from erupting. Demonstrations are to be kept within city limits inside the West Bank, and settlements and checkpoints are to be avoided. [Washington Post]

• The entry for “jidan” in the official Romanian dictionary will be edited to reflect the pejorative nature of the word, a slang term for “Jew.” [Jewish Journal]

• A look at new poet laureate Phillip Levine, with a shout out to Tablet contributor Adam Kirsch towards the end. [NYT]

• Rapper Drake is ranked 11 on Forbes’ list of the top 20 hip-hop earners. He is tied with Wiz Khalifa, whose Pittsburgh anthem Black and Yellow spawned the (somewhat explicit) parody Black and Jewish. [Forbes]

• Jackson, Mississippi, the setting for the new film The Help, out in theaters today, has a rich Jewish history. A Jewish day school was established there in the 19th century, the first such educational institution in Mississippi. [Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience]

• Feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who famously went undercover as a Playboy bunny, urges viewers to avoid NBC’s new similarly-sexist television series, The Playboy Club. [NY Observer]

And, for your enjoyment, a video of Jersey Shore’s Mike “The Sitation” Sorrentino attempting, unsuccessfully, to woo The Social Network actor Jesse Eisenberg on the Tonight Show:

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.