Blogging will resume some time after Yom Kippur ends, tomorrow evening Israel time.

And now for US President Barack Obama’s Rosh Hashanah message.

Errr, sorry, my bad. I meant this one.

I’ll be out of blogging action for the next couple of days so please feel free to treat this as an open thread.

No bark mitzvah joke here. Move along.

Update: For those of you wondering what the Rabbi was doing, he was blowing a shofar. You can read more about why Jews do that here.

In this case, the person in question – Aussie rocker Jimmy Barnes – did not know himself until recently.

When Jimmy Barnes sang a few versus in Yiddish before 1700 Jews this week, the rock star had some unexpected news for his audience at the charity event. He, too, was Jewish.

Through the rock of ages, many stars have had Jewish roots: Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, the Ramones, Kiss and the Beastie Boys. Now we can add Barnsey, the Scottish immigrant kid who was raised a Protestant and played in the Salvation Army band before he became Australia’s howling Working Class Man.

Barnes only made his discovery hours before he told Sydney’s Central Synagogue on Thursday night: ”I rang my mother this afternoon, before the rehearsal. And I said, ‘Mum, I remember when I was about 18, you gave me a Star of David. Why?’ And she said, ‘Oh, my mother gave that to me and her mother gave it to her and I thought I’d give it to you.’ And I said, ‘OK, was your mother Jewish by any chance? And she said, ‘Yes, her name was Esther.’ So, if I’m to get this right, my great-grandmother was Jewish, my grandmother was Jewish, my mother was Jewish, so I must be Jewish.”

The audience response was rapturous. Barnes added: ”The only problem with that – it might be a painful process.”

Well, not quite. Barnes explained to the Herald yesterday: ”It is passed down through the mother so, yes, technically, I am Jewish.” But he added: ”Basically, I’m a Buddhist.”

He had meditated in Thailand, attended black gospel in the US, studied Hinduism in India and had Muslim friends in France.

”I like people of faith, and I believe the more people who have spirituality, the better the world will be. It’s about peace and tolerance.”

He thought little about that Star of David as a teenager. His mother was not a practising Jew. In 2003

the Rabbi Mendel Kastel, then at the Great Synagogue, approached Barnes to perform Hava Nagila. ”I wanted something spectacular to get the community in. Jimmy thought it was a joke at first. But then, graciously, he did it.”

Rabbi Kastel now runs Jewish House, a crisis centre at Bondi that deals with homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction and families in need. Barnes has become a supporter, and he and his son, David Campbell, will perform a fundraiser for the centre on December 1 at the Sofitel Wentworth, Sydney.

About a month ago, the rabbi and Barnes were sharing a Kosher meal in Bondi. At the next table, Central Synagogue’s Cantor Shimon Farkas was dining with the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, and he invited Barnes to sing at Thursday night’s concert.

And so Barnes was there to sing My Yiddishe Momme. But not before calling his mother that day. He shared his news before treating his audience to a solo, What a Wonderful World.

Update: For those not familiar with Jimmy (the non-Aussies amongst you – he’s a legend Down Under), here is his one of his most famous songs, and the inspiration behind the post’s title.

For more posts in this series, see here.

Today’s Jew:

• Became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1996
• First gained attention as a Calvin Klein underwear model
• Appeared in Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” music video
• Has appeared in a number of soap operas
• Began starring in his own dating reality show for VH1, which includes his ex-wife and his mother

And the mystery Jew is…

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See here.

Tisha B’Av will last forever,” promised Kamal al-Khatib, deputy head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, to thousands of cheering Muslims at the Temple Mount a few days ago. Even the hearts of Jews far from the mountain saddened. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas mocked us in the same spirit a few months ago when he said, “Call yourself the Hebrew Socialist Republic – it is none of my business.” He refused to accept Israel’s Jewish identity. We, who have drifted away from Tisha B’Av and the Temple Mount, should be grateful to both of them, because sometimes a nation needs its haters to discover its real face in the mirror again.

Why deny it? Only a few of us still feel real pain over the destruction of the Temple some 2,000 years ago. Fewer still are attached to the Temple of yore. Tisha B’Av is filled with events organized by Temple Mount movements and groups interested in negotiations and public discourse, but the general public is not part of all that.

It is doubtful whether legislation would help in this case. It may even be harmful when the public does not feel mere indifference to this day but alienation. Regrettably, many people ignore Tisha B’Av. They wonder what mourning the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple has to do with them, who are living in a sovereign Jewish state.
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But there’s another way that will put not only the loss of the Temple and its existence at the center of this day, but mainly the loss of Jewish sovereignty and freedom and the beginning of the long exile. Were it not for that exile, in which we were banished from our land, persecuted, oppressed and murdered, our history as a nation could have been very different.

Labor Zionist leader Berl Katznelson once said that “had Israel not mourned its destruction for generations … we wouldn’t have had Hess, Pinsker, Herzl or Nordau … Yehuda Halevy wouldn’t have been able to create ‘Zion, Won’t You Ask’ and Bialik couldn’t have written ‘Scroll of Fire.’” Chaim Arlosoroff, one of the most outstanding Labor Zionist leaders, defined Tisha B’Av at the beginning of the last century as “the nation’s greatest mourning day.”

The Kotzker Rabbi of Poland once repented in tears, telling his followers that as a boy of 10 he had been overpowered by arrogance. After his family’s house burned down and its property was lost, he comforted his weeping mother, promising that when he grew up he would write a new family tree beginning with himself, instead of the one the fire had consumed. Too many people see the Temple Mount much like little Menachem Mendel (later to become the Kotzker Rabbi) saw his family tree, believing they can skip the Temple Mount and rewrite the Jewish nation’s lineage without it.

Beside the Book of Lamentations and the traditional laments it is time to call, ‘Arise! Let us go up to Zion,” let us go to the Temple Mount. Within the limitations of halakha and of police directives, not as a provocation or demonstration.

A heritage trip to Morocco or Poland is all well and good, but going to the Temple Mount is the real heritage trip. A trip of consciousness and study, with maps and history books in the company of archaeologists, historians, rabbis, academics, educators and commanders. A trip intended to remind us where the Jewish people’s genealogical record is buried in Jerusalem. And no posters, demonstrations or ritual effects. This minimum, visiting the Temple Mount, is reserved by Israel’s laws to any Jew who wants it, even if he wears a skullcap. The police, despite their balking, must allow it.

Several years ago I went on a fascinating trip of this kind with archaeologist Dan Bahat, and I have returned many times since. Even today, Tisha B’Av, after some 30 years of writing for Haaretz, I will go there. Like many others I will look back knowing that the memory of the past and heritage is in many ways also the history of our present and future, and that only thus will we improve the chance that others, including our enemies, will recognize this continuity and affinity.

• The sin of the spies causing G-d to decree that the Children of Israel who left Egypt would not be permitted to enter the land of Israel
• The destruction of the first Temple
• The destruction of the second Temple
• The fall of Betar, the last fortress to hold out against the Romans during the Bar Kochba revolt in the year 135
• The plowing of the Temple area one year later
• The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492
• The start of World War I

As you can see, most of these tragedies relate to our exile from the land of Israel.

Now I would like you to think about that for a moment. Here we are still mourning the destruction of the Temples and exile thousands of years after these events occurred.*

What does that say about the Jews’ love for the land of Israel?

Assuming you know the answer, why is it that the Jewish aspiration to return to Israel and rebuild their homeland is not considered legitimate by so many, or at least superseded by the spurious claims of those referred to as palestinians?

And speaking of these palestinians, why do people accept their claim to the holy city of Jerusalem, a place they hold in such high regard that it merits having their backsides pointed at it while they bow towards Mecca?

(hat tip for photo: Elder of Ziyon)

The good news is that this has all been prophesied about, and while there are definitely some hairy plot moments, there is a happy ending for the Jewish people.

“Rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn her.”

- Isaiah (Chapter 66, verse 10)

As for those of you working hard to undermine the Jewish State of Israel, I’d hate to be in your shoes.

* I should also point out that the Jewish people yearn for the rebuilding of the Temple and the return of Zion in our daily prayers, and not just on this saddest of days.

In the meantime, you can treat this as an open thread. Just remember the golden rule: be excellent to each other.

Chag Sameach!

I’ll leave you with this Japanese-style instructional video on breaking Matzah clean. An oldie but a goodie.

I would also like to remind Matzo Balls Man that this blog is a public place and is kosher for Passover. So no need for any protests.

Blogging will resume some time after Thursday evening, Israel time. Until then, feel free to treat this post as an open thread.

Lindsay Lohan is converting to Judaism in a bid to prove her devotion to Jewish girlfriend Samantha Ronson.

Although raised a Catholic, the 22-year-old star announced she was planning to change her faith on her Facebook page.

After jetting into London last week, Lindsay joined girlfriend Samantha at the Bar Mitzvah of the DJ’s half-brother Joshua Ronson at the Westminster Synagogue on Saturday.

After taking part in the service, Lindsay then went to the nearby Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge to celebrate Joshua’s ‘coming of age’.

Showing her seriousness about converting, Lindsay had also visited the synagogue the day before with Samantha and her designer sister Charlotte.

Entering the synagogue, a photographer asked Lindsay if she was switching religions, to which she replied: ‘I’m trying.’

Updating her Facebook status this week, Lindsay wrote ‘I’m converting’.

Which begs the question: Haven’t we Jews suffered enough?