Hola

As promised, Kris has updated the pic battle. Here are the new matchups (a few really interesting ones this week) and over here is the playoff tree (after this bunch we’re half way through the first round).

JC found a very nice article, which features some excerpts from the book “Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish”. Just bare in mind that the interview was probably done awhile ago, which could explain the boyfriend=not jewish thing.

Movie star Natalie Portman fasted yesterday for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

“I really like eating,” the 24-year-old beauty tells author Abigail Pogrebin in “Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish,” her new book.

“But a couple years ago, one of my friends got really mad at me and it happened on Yom Kippur,” Portman confides. “It made me go through the actual atonement list on that day, and the hunger associated with it is really helpful. ? You think about how you’ve wronged your friends and how you should change in the future.”

The Israeli-born, Syosset-raised Portman also opines:

– “I know what a JAP [Jewish American Princess] is. ? I wouldn’t want to have stereotypes used in derogatory ways by people outside the Jewish community, but I think it is something from within the community that we need to examine and be self-critical about. ? Do [our young people] know or care about the outside world? Do they know or care about things other than having a nice car or a nice purse?”

– “I think the major problem today with American Jews is materialism.”

– “I don’t think that any one characteristic should be overemphasized in your real life when you’re an actor, because if I play a nun one day, I don’t want someone to be thinking when they see me, ‘Jew, Jew, Jew.’ “

– “I have a very close friend who lately has this European, anti-Israel way of thinking, and it’s very hard to have conversations with him. ? [Being Israeli has] become a much bigger part of my identity in recent years because it’s become an issue of survival.”

– “My dad always makes this stupid joke with my new boyfriend, who is not Jewish. He says, ‘It’s just a simple operation.’ “

That’s it fow now. Have a slightly better than average weekend.