brooklyn jews

yes, brooklyn jews is a new organization trying to bring more unaffiliateds into the fold in brooklyn, one of the organizations hostingthe dec 24 jewltide celebration in park slope. which you should come to. b/c i'll be there.

but for the purposes of this post:

i'm sitting in the central branch of the brooklyn public library reading a 1996 village voice article about queer/yiddish culture that i found while googling alicia svigals, the klezmatics former violinist, in an effort to try to find out more about her partner ellen and their children. [she's sort of an idol of mine since even before i had a klezmer violin lesson in her apartment when i was in high school.] i just heard her perform in the second floor meeting room of said public library- a highly disorganized chanukah klezmer concert with adrienne cooper, the unarguable foremost female yiddish vocalist at least in the US of A. meanwhile, two men with black kippot and beards sit across from me at this table doing some project on a dell computer while arguing in hebrew.

all of this i find very ironic- you know, the friction between the real jews of brooklyn, the jews that brooklynites of other ethnicities picture when they hear the word "jew," and the new jews of brooklyn, the ones looking for cheap rent in droves, the ones hosting or attending the aforementioned jewltide party at a club in park slope.

[Edit: I just finished the article and it's fucking amazing. you have to read it. it also reminds me of why i'm obessed with tony kushner and portnoy's complaint.]