Forward.com

American Apparel to Woody: We’re Sorry (and We’re Parodists)

American Apparel is apologizing to Woody Allen after he filed a $10 million lawsuit against the trendy T-shirt monger for its unauthorized use of an image of him dressed in Hasidic garb on a pair of billboards.

“We deeply admire Woody Allen as a filmmaker and an inspiring social and political satirist,” the company said in a press release. “We sincerely regret offending him in any way.”

But, given that words are cheap and lawsuits are expensive, American Apparel also tried to cover its tuchus from legal standpoint, claiming that the billboards featuring the image of Allen (filched from his film “Annie Hall”) were not, in fact, intended to sell underwear, but were rather “meant strictly as a social parody.”

The question, of course, is what aspect of society, exactly, were the underwear-purveying parodists parodying?

Could it be, given that an American Apparel rep had originally told the Forward, “Woody Allen is our spiritual leader,” the billboards were an ever-so-ironic commentary on the company’s own social and spiritual shortcomings? But that would be more satire than parody.

Woody Allen v. American Apparel

The holy rebbe is pissed.

Last spring, trendy underwear maker American Apparel, known for its sexually charged advertising, put up a pair of billboard ads that were unusually tame.

The billboards, in Los Angeles and New York, featured an image of Woody Allen dressed as a Hasidic Jew from his masterpiece Annie Hall, alongside Yiddish script that read “der heyliker rebe” (“the holy rebbe”). At the time, an American Apparel spokeswoman explained to the Forward, “Woody Allen is our spiritual leader.”

Only one problem: It seems American Apparel didn’t get Woody Allen’s permission first — and so the ads came down as quickly as they went up.

Now, the Associated Press reports, the nebbish-y movie-maker is getting even: He’s filed a $10 million lawsuit in federal court against the edgy shmatte maker.

We’ll have to see how the folks at American Apparel feel about their spiritual leader now.

Hat tip: Brad Greenberg’s God Blog.

Jewish Burka Booster Busted

For the past couple months, I’ve been following the story of a small number of Israeli ultra-Orthodox women who have recently taken to wearing burka-style clothing in a display of over-the-top modesty. They were being encouraged to dress this way — in defiance of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis — by a charismatic female guru who lives in the wacky haredi stronghold of Ramat Beit Shemesh.

Now, it appears, the burka-booster of Bet Shemesh is in hot water with the secular authorities over alleged child abuse.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

A fringe sect of Jewish women with a Taliban-like dress code will be overcome by a major spiritual crisis after the arrest of the group’s leader on charges of child abuse, haredi sources in Beit Shemesh predicted Wednesday. [The woman who allegedly…]

According to haredi media and a well-informed source in Beit Shemesh, the 54-year-old mother of 12 who is suspected of serious child abuse and failing to report multiple cases of incest among her children, is none other than the head of a sect of women who adhere to a dress code more stringent than that of the most extreme Muslim sects and a rigorous health food diet.

“We always knew those women were crazy,” said Shmuel Poppenheim, a spokesman for the Eda Haredit - one of the most zealously religious groups in Israeli Orthodoxy - who lives in Beit Shemesh. “Now we have been vindicated, and those women will have to stop their insane behavior.”

The Post also has some interesting background about the sect. Apparently, a reporter from Ma’ariv attended one of the weekly meetings at which the sect leader addressed her followers. The reporter described the sect leader — who was reportedly wearing 10 skirts and eight headscarves — as “a pile of clothing lumped in the middle of the small living room.”

The ultra-Orthodox rabbinate seems to have been pretty clear in its disapproval of this fringe group’s extreme fashion statement. Still, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that this trend has something to do with the increasingly obsessive (and repressive) mores when it comes to female modesty that prevail in some segments of the haredi community.

Meanwhile, the latest revelations from Ramat Beit Shemesh have fueled criticism of what some call the haredi community’s “code of silence” when it comes to abuse.

While these issues are certain to spark vigorous debate, one thing, at least, is clear: Life in the burka cult is not nearly as cool as this imagining:

Hat tip for the video: The Muqata

The Jewish Burka Comes to Brooklyn

In Israel, as I noted earlier this year, a renegade group of Haredi women has taken to one-upping the already increasingly severe modesty standards of their community by donning Muslim-style burkas. The trend was apparently initiated by a female spiritual leader in the ultra-Orthodox stronghold of Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet. The fashion trend, which has reportedly dismayed husbands and rabbis alike, has spread to other ultra-Orthodox enclaves in Israel.

Now, Hasidic rapper/blogger Y-Love reports they’ve made their way to Brooklyn:

Not too long ago, I had my first abaya-sighting.

For the first time, I saw one of the followers of veil advocate Rabbanit Bruria Keren decked out in hijab sal and abaya…in Boro Park, walking down 13th Avenue with her friend, chatting and schmoozing in frumspeak.

The first thing I thought to myself was, “Oh no, they’re here. They’re here in Boro Park.”

Y-Love also links to a story in last week’s Times of London profiling a pair of Israeli women who have taken to wearing Muslim-style dress.

Beatings and Burkas in Beit Shemesh

Something has gone horribly wrong in Ramat Beit Shemesh.

Zealots within the haredi community in that Israeli city near Jerusalem have engaged in sometimes violent confrontations with their secular and Modern Orthodox neighbors, as well as other ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Even The New York Times has taken notice. Back in September, the paper of record reported that a Ramat Beit Shemesh kosher pizzeria was apparently pelted with tomatoes, hot oil and gasoline — all for daring to seat both men and women.

The latest incident was an attack on an ultra-Orthodox American immigrant by a gang of crazies. “A bunch of goons, maybe 20 or 30 guys, attacked me — it was like a pogrom,” the victim told Ha’aretz. “They kicked me, beat me, and then just left me there. Luckily, I am a strong guy and was able to get up and go to the hospital.”

The victim, Ha’aretz reports, had previously been involved in efforts to stop the violence that has plagued Ramat Beit Shemesh’s Haredi neighborhoods. In response to the latest attacks, ultra-Orthodox residents finally came out and protested the violence of their more fanatical brethren.

The strangest story to have come out of Ramat Beit Shemesh, however, seems to have largely escaped attention here in the United States. A small group of ultra-Orthodox women, apparently influenced by a female religious guru in Ramat Beit Shemesh, have — to the dismay of rabbinic authorities and even their husbands —in an over-the-top display of modesty, taken to wearing burkas. Ha’aretz ran an article (unfortunately available only in Hebrew) on this phenomenon a few months back. The story has, however, in recently received a little bit of attention in the American blogosphere, thanks to earlier posts from the Muqata blog and Israeli blogger Tali Shapiro.

Reportedly, only a handful of Jewish women are donning the burkas. But the Muqata blog says the trend has already spread to other Israeli cities.

Any trend, no matter how small, deserves a name. And so I hereby dub this item of apparel “the Jurka” — the Jewish burka!

Read the Muqata’s take here, and Shapiro’s here.