• Rabbi Marc Disick, one of our very own "Ask the Rabbi" rabbis, was recently featured in a PBS special. Click here to hear him talk about how God is what happens between people in a community.
• An inventive artist has updated the traditional dreidel by creating the "breidel," which is a dreidel with the letters written in braille.  [via Tablet]
• On the bling-bling side of dreidel inventions, Mervis Diamond Importers has created the world's first diamond dreidel, which costs $1,800. [via Jewcy]
• A friend of mine, Leah Koenig, wrote a great article on the history of Chanukkah gelt for the Forward. Recipe included! [via Forward]
• Chelsea Clinton has confirmed that she's engaged to nice Jewish boy Marc Mezvinsky. Will she become a member of the tribe? [via NYT]
• It's offical: Tootsie rolls are now kosher. [via OU]
• In an article titled "The Rise of the Hot Jewish Girl," Details magazine outlines why Jewish women are the new fetish. "It seems that America can't get enough smoking-hot Semitic tush lately." Yikes.
• A leader of the pro-Palestinian al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is suing comedian/actor Sasha Baron Cohen and NBC Universal for a scene in the recent Bruno movie that shows Cohen mocking an alleged leader of the group. With charges of libel and slander, the suit is for $110 million. [via Tablet]
• An Israeli alcohol importer has hired a pastry chef/bartender to create vodka-spiked sufganiyot this Chanukkah season. Each sufganiyah (Chanukkah donut) contains 90 milliliters of vodka diluted with jam. Definitely not for the kids table! [via Ynet]

Photo of sufganiyot by Ariela Pelaia / Recipe at Baking and Books

According to the Jerusalem Post, a recent poll taken by Independent Media Review Analysis reveals that a majority of Israelis believe Israel's policy of negotiating for captives should be toughened up - but not until Gilad Shalit has been released. Negotiations for Shalit's release have recently stalled over some "70 to 100 names of Palestinian prisoners which Israel is not willing to release," but in the end Israel is likely to free up to 980 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the abducted soldier.

The poll was conducted over the phone and surveyed 512 Israelis. 55% were in favor of adopting new guidelines created by Supreme Court justice Meir Shamgar, which would limit the "price" Israel is willing to pay for captured soldiers. These 55%, however, were only in favor of the new policy taking effect after Shalit has been returned. Only 23% of respondents thought Israel's policy should be toughed up beforehand. 22% thought changes should not be made.

What are your thoughts? Do you think Israel's captives policy needs to be changed?

Photo via JPost / Gilad Shalit in video footage released in September

A new book by Shlomo Sand, a professor at Tel Aviv University, aims to discredit Jewish claims to the land of Israel by "demonstrating that they do not constitute 'a people,' with a shared racial or biological past." Titled The Invention of the Jewish People, the book spent months on the best-seller list in Israel and is now available in English. Not surprisingly, it has sparked much discussion. Indeed the New York Times review of the book is one of the most emailed articles on the entire website.

According to the NYT, the book highlights ideas that are common among historians: that the Jews were not universally expelled from Jerusalem in 70 CE, that converts contributed as much to Jewish genetic ancestry as did ancient Jews and that many modern-day Palestinians can trace their heritage to Jewish ancestors. Essentially, Sand takes the historical narrative of Israel to task. A narrative that holds Jews are descended from the ancient tribes of Israel, were expelled by the Romans in 70 CE and have finally returned to their rightful homeland after 2,000 years of exile. All of this, says Sand, is the result of a distorted and invented history created to justify Zionism.

Yet, according to Haaretz, the book is good for Israel in that it provokes discussion around some serious questions. "The fact that very basic questions about Israel's foundations can be discussed trenchantly shows that Israel is a vibrant, if at times flawed, democracy," says writer Carlo Strenger.

Without having read the book myself I can't say much more about it, though I am curious to hear whether any of you have read it. If yes, what were your thoughts?

Read more about The Invention of the Jewish People:

NYT Book Review - Book Calls Jewish People an 'Invention'
Times UK Review - The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand
Haaretz - Shlomo Sand's 'The Invention of the Jewish People' is a success for Israel

• The 2010 edition of the Nice Jewish Guys calender is now available. And here you were wondering what to get your girlfriends for Chanukkah. [via Jewcy]
• A 700 year old Torah scroll from pre-Inquisition Spain - the oldest complete scroll in existence - was sold by Sotheby's to a private collector for $398,500. [via Tablet]
• The White House has appointed a new "U.S. State Department special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism." [via Forward]
• Dozens of Zionist rabbis are praising Israeli soldiers who refuse to obey military orders to evacuate settlements. [via Haaretz]
• Artist Richard Kamler was barred from displaying a collage made of cut out portions of the Torah and the Koran at an exhibition in New Haven, Connecticut. Said one of the exhibition organizers: "You're not going to cry 'fire' in a crowded movie theater, even if you have free speech." [via Tablet via NH Independent]
• Negotiations for a prisoner swap that would free Gilad Shalit have stalled over the list of top militants who would be handed over in the exchange. [via AP]
• The airline easyJet  is withdrawing all copies of its in-flight magazine, easyJet Traveller, after a fashion spread was published depicting models at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The photo shoot took place without permission. [via NewStatesman]

Photo via Nice Jewish Guys