Wow, I am shocked, shocked that this is being allowed to happen!

OK, enough sarcasm. The New York Times has an article about Bukharans building McMansions in the Cord Meyer area. Thank you to Sarah on our forum for posting the link.

In typical New York Times fashion, by the time the story is covered, it is usually about 3 years too late, the issue is usually over, not trendy anymore or there’s nothing that can be done about it.

Merry Christmas! To celebrate, here’s some Jew stuff for you.

Most of you are probably familiar with the saga of the Trylon Theater, the Rego Park landmark that was denied acknowledgment of such by the Landmarks Preservation Commission before being turned into a Bukharian community center. The Bukharian group wasted no time altering the marquee, putting up a hideous, hideous sign entirely in Cyrillic.

Well, a tipster points out that after a coordinated campaign of complaints to Melinda Katz, the marquee now includes the words “COMMUNITY CENTER,” en anglais. Also, precariously perched atop the marquee are the words “OHR NATAN,” which aren’t really English, but hey, they’re closer than the rest.

There’s probably some Christmas lesson to be learned here, about Jews and America and immigration and assimilation and bigotry and stubbornness and the Minuteman Project and the effects of community activism and probably not Jesus, but maybe we can work him in somehow. But whatever; draw your own conclusions. Ho ho ho!

Central Queens never ceases to amaze me by housing communities of Jews I didn’t know existed. Way, way up in the outer reaches of Forest Hills lies the Congregation of Georgian Jews, a synagogue serving an obscure Jewish ethnic group originating in Georgia — the Georgia that produced Stalin, not Newt Gingrich. I already knew about the CGJ, but what I did not know until this weekend is that they participate in the age-old Jewish custom of Kaparot. “Kaparot,” for the Hebrew-impaired, translates as “swinging a chicken over your head, then eating it.” It’s done on Yom Kippur weekend in order to transfer your sins to the chicken and thus absolve you from responsibility.

Now, here’s something interesting about the Kaparot ritual: Pretty much every Jew living today looks down upon it as bizarre at best and barbaric at worst. And some of the great Jewish sages of the past didn’t have much more respect for it — Maimonedes, the 12th-century rabbi and physician whose commentary is found in the margins of every Talmud printed today, hated it; and Yosef Karo, the man who codified Jewish religious law in the 16th century, banned it. But in Forest Hills, you — yes, you — can do it yourself, right here in 2007. At $15, it’s quite the bargain, and assistance is provided for novice chicken swingers.

Yes, things just keep getting more progressive. Happy New Year!