Here’s Tzdaki (lead) , Elijah (drums), Navi (guitar) and Jesse (bass) with “One Mitzvah At At Time”:

I don’t know whether to bang my head or daven. Instead of teeny little bras, do their fans throw snoods?

The article mentions Fool’s Gold as well as a jazz reed blower Jacques Schwarz-Bart and the crazy cool Afro-Semitic Experience (how can you not love a song about a torah afloat in a leaky boat?), but I was completely surprised to see hep-to-the-moment band Vampire Weekend in there. Turns out lead singer Ezra Koenig is an Upper West Side brutha, and sees the Jewish-African connection as perfectly obvious:

“Growing up Jewish, you are presented with three images of your people. Desert nomads building pyramids. Eastern-European shtetl-dwellers with big beards. American liberals who eat Chinese food all the time. Now do you see where I’m coming from?”

I think so: Hipster Jews are having a collective identity crisis, and that’s a good thing for people who like to dance.

Rock your Shabbos with Vampire Weekend’s new album, which debuted at #1 in the UK last month.

I’m not sure what a Jewish Teamster looks like, but many thanks to the new Jewnion Label for organizing some new shmatas for the Yenta to share. Say, can you folks help me negotiate some blogger’s benefits?

Be sure to rise up and join the International Order of Challah Makers and the mighty n’ able Union of Jewish Handywomen (or Handymen, as it were.)

It’s always been one of my favorite holidays, a fine excuse to pop lots o’ pomegranate seeds and shlep my Shalom Schoolers out to the square for some arms-to-trunk action on an oak tree, but for some reason this year I don’t feel so rah-rah about it all.

Judaism teaches us that we are responsible for our environment, and so many of us do our very best. We wash out the cream cheese container and put it the plastics pile for recycling, we buy organic produce that comes from a sustainable farming system instead of the stuff blanketed in pesticides and flown across the world, maybe we even compost our dinner scraps and take five-minute showers and bring own our bags to the store every single time.

On an individual level, most of the people I know deeply care about the planet, take responsibility for reducing their waste and would sacrifice just about anything to ensure a healthy, clean planet for their children and grandchildren and beyond. If there’s anything more we could do to stave off climactic chaos, we’d do it, right?

The thing is, it wasn’t individuals who created the disaster — of biblical proportions, according to some — that we’re headed for. It’s the cumulative effect of corporate greed, bad governmental policy, industrial short-sightedness and a cultural tide of consumption that reusing a Ziploc bag can do very, very little to reverse.

Even James Lovelock, the superscientific dude who hypothesized the concept that the planet is its own organism and warned about global warning 40 years ago, says there’s not a whole lot that can be done at this point — we’re basically just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

“Enjoy life while you can. Because if you’re lucky it’s going to be 20 years before it hits the fan.” ~ James Lovelock

I know, I know, I’m a downer today (if you really want to get depressed, check out the list of the world’s worst human-generated disasters.) Maybe I took yesterday’s JEA viewing for the kids of Dr. Suess’s “The Lorax” too seriously — the part when the last truffula tree falls always brings a catch to my throat — but I can’t help but feel a bit hopeless about it all. It seems to me the that the mustachioed munchkin’s legacy of “UNLESS” is going to come with a much bigger cost than any of us are prepared for.

But you know what? Our tradition says we should plant a tree, and more trees couldn’t hurt. And I’m already in the habit of recycling and carrying my own bags to the market. I might as well finish the grant I’m writing to fund an organic garden at the kids’ school. Even if it doesn’t matter a lick of the fire that’s gonna come up from hell, it’ll keep me busy.

Ironically, it’s beautiful day in Savannah — that’d be Zone 8b for those of you in the planting mood after all this doom n’ gloom. Not too cold, perfect for turning some soil in the backyard to prepare for some seeds we’ve gotten started in the kitchen window. Think I’ll roust myself out of this apocalyptic torpor and grab a trowel.

Sheesh, if we’ve only got 20 good years left, I’d sure rather spend it outside, with the trees and my kids and the birds and the bees, than anywhere else.

Here’s a tour of an outdoor hospital run by the IDF, with a spontaneous op-ed speech about why and how the Israelis managed to be the first responders after the disaster:

For more of Dave’s on-the-ground videos including street footage, check out PrimeTime’s YouTube Channel.

I personally have not heard from my Brother the Doctor, who was deployed as part of a FEMA international medical response team last week as well, but according to this piece in the Arizona press, he is hard at work performing trauma surgery at a facility right outside the city.

He did manage to text our mother yesterday with the following image of his accommodations:

My mother forwarded it me, with the message “Well, I guess we can’t call him ‘The Prince’ anymore…”

For reals, we are kvelling to have a family member who has the skills to provide so much help to people in need. In the Yenta house we’ve made some donations, but El Yenta Boy has decided on his own that there is one form of tzedakeh that’s going to fulfill his deep and sincere need to serve: We need to adopt a Haitian orphan.

“Please, Mom? I’d take care of it and feed it and let it sleep in my bottom bunk…”

I told him that he can barely keep the snake cage clean and that generally, we don’t refer to human beings as “it,” but that I’d discuss it with El Yenta Man.

In the meantime, a wish for a peaceful, sheltered, delicious Shabbat to all.

Though I’ve known what a biathlon since watching an 80s afterschool special starring Tracy Pollan as a winter athlete who gets kidnapped by some creepy Deliverance guys while training in the snowy backwoods, but here’s a little education for those of you who missed that one: A biathlon is any sport that involves two disciplines, but Olympically-speaking, it usually refers to a race that combines cross-country skiing and rifle-shooting.

Since Laura hails from chilly Massachusetts, I can understand the skiing part, but just how does a nice Jewish girl get involved with big guns? I don’t know, but maybe she’ll give me an interview when she’s returned from Canada, perhaps with a medal! Until then, here’s the Dartmouth student explaining her love of the sport to USA Today:

Cheer Laura and the rest of the American athletes on during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver next month — from the comfort of your sofa and with the convenience of your DVR, of course.

Now, I have many reasons to not to see Mel’s film. First off, he’s a cheating douchebag. Second, his Jews-killed-Jesus directorial direction in The Passion of the Christ made all the old people in America scared to go to the mall. Third, he’s never apologized for his 2006 anti-Semitic drunken spewfest when he accused Jews of being “responsible for all the wars in the world.”

Look, I’m a forgiver. It’s been a long time since Mel has shone his bigoted colors. I mean, after three years a reporter should be ashamed to even bring it up, right? Watch KTLA’s Sam Rubin try his damndest:

Yup, Mel’s still a douche. But I’m not going to tell you not to see his movie because it’s bad for the Jews. I’m telling you not to see it because according to the reviews, it sucks.

Better you should rent 500 Days of Summer, a very cute and inoffensive film with a kicky soundtrack starring sexy mensch Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Plenty of folks belong to all three, which means playing local Jewish geography is a deluge of acronyms: “My parents belong to the B.B.J., but we’re associate members of the A.A. because my grandparents were founding members, but I like to go to T.M.I. ’cause the services are shorter.”

Though I pay some dues, I’ve never liked the term “unaffiliated” to describe those who can’t find a spiritual home among the available choices. Thanks to Adam Solender, the big man at the JEA, there’s now an acronym for those of us who don’t need no stinkin’ labels: “J.J.”

Stands for “Just Jewish.” Dig it.

I also have Adam to thank for letting me know the outlaw Jews of Berkeley have gotten officially organized. I heard about Chochmat Halev back when I was working as a copywriter at San Francisco’s J. Weekly but I never made it to one of their famous stomp-your-feet Shabbat services.

Now that the little-meshugge Jewish meditation group-that-could is a full-fledged synagogue, it gives me great hope that “alternative Judaism” — that which aspires to inspire the soul using the ancient texts in a context that makes sense in the present moment — might have a fighting chance as a widespread movement.

In “How A ‘Jewish Rave’ Grew Up to Be A Synagogue” at Forward.com, Zeek editor Jo Ellen Green Kaiser examines how a loosey group of 40 has gained momentum and given rise to a movement that almost transcends definition, let alone affiliation:

Drawing from the Jewish meditation movement, the Renewal movement (particularly its embrace of Hasidic chant and dance), feminist liturgy, and African and Middle Eastern music, the new Jewish spirituality defines itself as an alternative to both formulaic davening and rationalist, English-based, sit-in-the-pew prayer.

Meditative Feminist African Dance Judaism? Sheesh, I thought that was something I made up after inhaling too much besamim. Now I find out that not only is it a recognized tendril of modern Judaism (it doesn’t get more validating than the Forward) but that there’s an actual synagogue I could affiliate with — if I still lived in the Bay Area.

*sigh* Sounds dreamy. Still, I know enough about Jews and opinions to figure out that it’s not easy to harness a community of unorthodox observers. Chochmat Halev is trying to find the balance of containing itself within a “traditional” congregational format while maintaining its freethinking mission, and there’s also a paradoxical problem of what was fringe moving into the mainstream, kinda like when punk music actually started selling albums. Green Kaiser rightfully asks, “What happens when an anti-establishment movement establishes itself?”

Although, really, when spinning like an ecstatic Sufi during the Amidah becomes mainstream, I will likely be far dead and gone. But could we be on our way towards (or back?) to a more authentic, connected form of worship that would bring all those “J.J’s” home?

Can the new Jewish spirituality be institutionalized? Chochmat’s example shows that a very different kind of Judaism can exist within the four walls of a synagogue … a sign that American Jews are ready to change the content of their worship, if not the institutional structure in which it takes place.

Well, at least they are in Berkeley, anyway. Here in Savannah, I’m not sure the Jews are ready to change the tune of “Adon Olam” to something that doesn’t put everyone to sleep. But Udi the Shaliach and I are plotting to get this Havdalah rave thing off the ground with a family-friendly dance party, disco lights and some Israeli acid jazz (Infected Mushroom roolz, yo!) so who knows — perhaps the new Jewish spirituality might sneak its way into the deep South.

Until then, a meditative, bumpin’-beat Good Shabbos to all!

*T-Shirt available from LonelyDinosaur.com.

No matter, ’cause in the next few weeks Savannah’s gonna get ELECTRIC with cul-chah as 12 Jewishy-themed films are screened for the public. The mensches in charge of the Savannah Jewish Film Festival have a little sumpin’ for everyone — and by that, I mean I’d better see y’all’s tushies at Yoo Hoo Mrs. Goldberg, which basically proves that balabusta Gertrude Berg invented the sit-com, and at Jump, starring Mr. Patrick Swayze in one of his final roles. Browse the full line-up for other super-juicy treats.

Listen, nowhere else within 500 miles are you gonna find Israeli sumo wrestlers, Filipino drag queen homecare workers and most shocking of all, happily single observant Jewish women.

Full festival passes are only $50 for JEA members (which all you locals should be because now that the DAC is closed where are you working out?) and $65 for non-members or $7/$9 per screening.

Check out an excerpt of “Yoo Hoo Mrs. Goldberg” — why, YES, that IS Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

Most showings will take place at the JEA. See you there!

After PTA President David Goldfarb filled up his trucks on South Beach all weekend with your generous donations, he was recruited to accompany said goods to the beleaguered island yesterday. Dave himself arranged everything on palettes to ready it for delivery, and his experience driving forklifts to move his giant 700-lb. arcade games was a huge asset when packing the 40-foot container full of thousands of pounds of water, medical supplies and non-perishable food. He’s been put in charge of logistics for this mission, which means he’ll be distributing the supplies after making contact with the University of Miami medical team.

One thing that you should know about Dave is that not only is he a savvy businessman with a heart of gold, he’s a trained UFC fighter with monstrous muscles. OK, maybe he’s not a professional kickboxer spilling blood on TV on Saturday nights, but really, even if someone likes to fight in a ring with no shoes and no rules as a hobby, that automatically of makes them a huge bada**, don’t you think? I once went to a club with Dave and he made the bouncer cry. When Chuck Norris needs a pep talk, he begs Dave to roundkick him in the head to set him straight. I’m telling you this because no one, no one, is gonna be looting these supplies when this mensch while the iron fists is guarding them.

This just in: My man in Miami, my Columbian source for all news related to these relief efforts, has just informed me of more incredible news for the people of Haiti. Another sweeping organizational force, that weapon of mass construction, My Brother the Doctor, will be flying out on Saturday to Haiti to join Dave in triage work and other logistical endeavors. Everybody better put down the machetes and stand in line, nice and orderly-like — if they know what’s good for them.

Stay tuned to Yo, Yenta! in the few days for the latest in PTA Haiti Relief news…