• A cartoon poster depicting Israel as a hungry diner carving up Palestinians is drawing fire in Germany, where it was part of a display called the "Wailing Wall." The creator says it is meant as "a sarcastic expression of the Israeli army in Gaza," but Tablet writer Marc Tracy says the poster is a depiction of blood libel. Do you agree?
• This is sad. The Orthodox rabbinical status of Sara Hurwitz is being revoked. [JTA]
• Do you own all of Dalia Carmel's six essential Jewish cookbooks? Carmel has 1,500 cookbooks in her apartment but that's nothing compared to the 10,000 cookbooks she previously owned, about 8,000 of which are now at New York University's Fales Library. [Haaretz]
• "Why are there no works of modern fantasy that are profoundly Jewish in the way that, say, 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' is Christian? Why no Jewish [C.S.] Lewises, and why no Jewish Narnias?" Read one writer's answer here. [NYT]
• According to this BBC article, the eldest son of a founding member of the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, worked as a spy for Israel for more than ten years. [BBC]
• Soon-to-be bar mitzvah boy Scott Ballan won't be having his bar mitzvah at Yankee stadium any longer because of a boxing match between junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman and former welterweight champion Miguel Cotto. But the "entire family will be guests at the fight, and Foreman and Arum have both agreed to meet with the boy." Lucky kid! [ESPN]
• All the snow we've been getting recently is causing problems for Orthodox Jews. The snow has knocked down portions of a ritual boundary called an "eruv," which extends the boundaries of the home and makes it possible for observant Jews to carry things on Shabbat. Without this boundary, it is prohibited to carry anything outside the home. [NYT]

Image via Tablet

The IDF was recently forced to cancel a scheduled military operation in the West Bank after a soldier revealed details about it on his Facebook page. His status update read: "On Wednesday, we are cleaning out [the name of the village] - today an arrest operation, tomorrow an arrest operation and then, please God, home by Thursday." Other members of the soldiers unit reported the update and as a result Judea and Samaria Division commander Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Alon decided to cancel the mission in case it had been compromised. The operation eventually took place and the soldier who updated his Facebook account was kicked out of his unit and sentenced to 10 days in jail. The IDF is responding by starting a campaign to educate soldiers about how they can responsibly use social media while on active duty.

According to this Jerusalem Post article about the incident, it is not the first time that details about military operations have been posted to the internet. In fact, in an earlier case photos containing sensitive military information were posted online. Incidents like these beg the question: should active duty soldiers use social media, especially when "Hizbullah and Hamas... [are] tracking IDF soldiers" on Facebook? What are your thoughts?

Facebook details cancel IDF raid [JPost]

Using sexual innuendo and the old "size doesn't matter" saying, a new tourism ad for Israel compares the country to a small penis. The ad ends with the subtitle: "Israel. Small country. Big paradise." Click here to view the video on YouTube.

According to The Forward, the video is part of a pro-Israel campaign run by the Canadian Federation of Jewish Students and several other Canadian Israel advocacy organizations. The goal is to target college students who haven't made up their minds about Israel and the Middle East. "This [video] will drive people to a Web site that contains valuable facts about Israel... its culture and innovation," said Noah Kochman, chair of political affairs and advocacy for CFJS. The website he is referring to is sizedoesntmatter.ca.

Not surprisignly, the ad is drawing mixed reviews. While some folks find it amusingly tongue-in-cheek, a quick search of the blogosphere reveals that there are also a number of people who find the ad distasteful. What is your opinion?

• Yitta Schwartz, a Jewish woman who died last month at 93, left behind some 2,000 living descendents. She had 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren and many, many great-grandchildren. [NYT]
• Two pieces of a 1,300 year old biblical manuscript were reunited in a joint display last Friday. They contain the text for the Song of the Sea, which was sung by the fleeing Israelites in the Exodus story after the Egyptian army was destroyed. [Yahoo!]
• A late Jewish-British author's estate is suing J.K. Rowling. Lawyers claim that she plagiarized plot elements for her Harry Potter series from Adrian Jacobs' children's book titled The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land. [JTA via Tablet]
• In Finland, Moshe and Miriam Levi have been fined "after British rabbi Yossi Simon did not use an anaesthetic when circumcising their son Aviv." The Helsinki court found them guilty of conspiracy to commit bodily harm. [The JC]
• The Obama administration is not pleased with Israel's decision to designate Abraham and Rachel's burial places in the West Bank as Israeli national heritage sites. [Haaretz]
• An Israeli version of the hit TV show "The Office" is in the works. It will feature Arab and Ethiopian characters. [Haaretz]
• Apparently Martin Scorsese's latest film, Shutter Island, incorporates Holocaust themes. Leonardo DiCaprio's character was one of the American soldiers who liberated Dachau and is heavily influenced by his past. [Tablet]