LimmudUK
hello!
We are all here in LimmudUK and loving it. Although Paris is a bit hard to beat. There are over 2000 Jews as part of this years Limmud and we have nearly taken over the University. The program guide looks more like a text book just because there is such a wide variety of diverse programming throughout the week. The food sucks, but the accomodations and presentations are top notch. In fact I’m staying in my own room which is a loft and not a loft like the ones in Williamsburg that you have to walk up makeshift stairs and pray to not fall all while getting ready to duck your head down and hope to not scare away your date because you cant fully stand in your own “bedroom”. I’m always suprised at bumping into people at these sorts of things because for some reason I am still convinced that I am not “that Jew”. You know, like “that guy”. The guy who always knows everyone and says the wrong things but still has the most fun at the parties. Well, switch “Guy” for “Jew” and parties for conferences and you got that feeling I am now feeling. I did get called out though, on the fact that I haven’t been attending many sessions at all, but I tried to explain that it wasn’t because I thought of myself as too cool, as they had accussed, but because I was simply trying to keep on top of my own as well as Y-Loves schedule that of course went from the scheduled 3-4 sessions to a jumping on tons of sessions daily. We love it, but its also exhausting because this campus is huge and the programming is literally all over.
Last night was the main Y-Love/dj handler show. I was spinning some Israeli Hip Hop to get the crowd all crazy and it worked. Out of the 200 or so people the majority were between 15 – 25 and before I called Y-Love to the stage I told them they had to come all the way to the front of the stage and yell as loud as they could. It worked and the show was incredible, so much so that we ran out of songs way before they ran out of energy. There was a massive break dancing circle which even was inviting enough for a few fake dancers, but the main guys who held it down were incredible (all photos below). After the main performance I djed to the type of crowd who stayed up dancing till 3am, which was great because it has been a couple years since I have seen a spontaneous train dance form and it was just what I neeed at this point in my djin career (or whatever its called). I loved it, these people danced to everything from Baile Funk to Bmore and Balkan music to Israeli dub.
After the party I headed with Nina (my wifey) and Jake (Break) to our hall with a few of the staff. We all thought they were bringing us back to their room, but it was actually a secret, or at least secret to us, meeting type room, with tons of drinks and some food. Everything was cool till I got majorly creaped out. A few of them ran in with a Tree and all the sudden the entire steering commitee broke in to a chear of “Merry Xmas” and started taking wholesome groups shots in front of said tree. They asked me to join, but I think I mumbled under my breath somethign about Jews and something about Jesus.
Oh ..before I sign out, one other really funny thing happened. This one guy here is dressing up like a chabadnik and has a whole shpiel. He came up to us with it, but when it came to his questions where are you from and we said crown heights, he kinda freaked out. So then he told us it was an act and asked us for tips and such, that way he could be more believable. Right after this, I saw him go up to Neshama Carlebach and Noah Solomon, without knowing who they were, and tried the same shpiel. They asked him who his Rabbi was and he said Shlomo! So, they asked who shlomo was and he said Carlebach! So they kept pretending they didn’t know who that Rabbi was and so he kept trying to answer until Neshama was like, “oh really?” … “HE IS MY DAD!!!!!”oh, p.s. this “Rabbi from Crown Heights” also led the “Yeshiva of the Absurd” today which was totally awesome and at times very scary. photos are below.
– Y-Love teaches Torah based on System of the Down lyrics
– Y-Love writes in Hebrew on the board!
– Matthue Roth’s back
– Rachel Rosereid a teacher and storyteller in Yeshiva of the Absurd
– The “Rabbi” from Crown Heights
– The Scary element
– The end of scaryness
– Y-Love, Jake Break and dj handler performs the opening Gala
– Y-Love rocks the crowd!
– the crew
– the crowd
– Break Dancing
– Break Dancing
– Fake Dancing 😉
click below to see the rest of dem photos!
