Anti-Semitic ‘Elmo’ Ran Cambodian Porn Site

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward.

It turns out that the anti-Semitic “Elmo” from recent news might also be called the pornographic Elmo.

Anti-Semitic Elmo is back in business in Central Park following the release of a viral video of him spewing anti-Jewish vitriol and his subsequent psychiatric evaluation at Metropolitan Hospital Center. But Michael Wilson of The New York Times has done some digging and discovered some even more disturbing information on the man behind the big, red, furry mask.

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© 2012 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Jewish Music Comes To Tatarstan

This post first appeared on The Arty Semite blog at the Forward.

We can now add Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan Republic in the Russian Federation, to the list of cities that host international Jewish music festivals. Early in June, the city was the site of Tatarstan’s first-ever Jewish music festival, which featured performances by artists from the U.S., Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Austria and Cuba.

Tatarstan is located about 500 miles east of Moscow, and Kazan is considered one of Russia’s largest cities. Most of the 3.8 million people living in the republic are either ethnic Tatars or ethnic Russians, and over half of them are Sunni Muslims.

Organizer Boris Lvovich, who put the event together along with Edward Tumansky, explained the importance of a Jewish music festival in predominantly Muslim Tatarstan, to The Kazan Herald. “I am first of all a native Kazan resident. I’ve worked with so many Tatar musicians and performers I can even understand some Tatar, yet I think it is paramount to understand that for a Muslim Republic such as Tatarstan to hold a Jewish Music festival is very symbolic of the peace we enjoy here,” he said.

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© 2012 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Andrew Garfield Speaks Out Against Bullying

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward.

“The Amazing Spider-Man” movie is not yet out in theaters, but its star, Andrew Garfield, was out doing some amazing work with New York kids on Tuesday. Garfield, along with other members of the film’s cast, participated in “Be Amazing, Stand Up and Volunteer” events, sponsored by Columbia Pictures and “The Amazing Spider-Man,” throughout the Big Apple.

On a visit to the Albert Shanker School for Visual and Performing Arts in Long Island City in Queens, Garfield, 28, told kids during a discussion about bullying that he had been teased when he was a school boy in England. The actor admitted that, at the time, he should have spoken up about it to a trusted adult, according to a report in The New York Daily News.

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© 2012 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.