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I Just Moved To The Orthodox Neighborhood And I Weirdly Like It

September 21, 2012 by Patrick Beaulier

My girlfriend and I just moved to Toco Hills, the Orthodox neighborhood in Atlanta, to start a OneShul pilot project called OneShul Atlanta.

OneShul Atlanta is a home-based community where Jews of all ages and backgrounds can come together to experience meaningful connections to God, Judaism, Jewish culture and to each other. OneShul Atlanta offers weekly events like Carlebach-style Kabbalat Shabbat services and vegetarian, kosher dinners, holiday parties, Jewish yoga and text study. It’s like Chabad kiruv meets PunkTorah.

We moved to Toco for a few reasons. First, the rent was cheaper here than in East Atlanta, Grant Park or Little Five Points, the three hipster-ish areas of Atlanta. Here we have a 1,200 square foot apartment for less than $1,000. In our older neighborhood, you could get a 750 square foot apartment and pay just as much. Big difference between “practically a house” and “practically a cardboard box”.

Despite what my more [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Rants Tagged With: Atlanta, atlanta jewish, atlanta judaism, beth jacob atlanta, darshan yeshiva, eruv, jewish atlanta, kosher atlanta, kosher kroger, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, toco hill, toco hills, toco hills eruv, toco kroger

Audrey Galex: “God is so much bigger…”

July 12, 2011 by Patrick Beaulier

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK_2sc-_36k

Audrey Galex from AIB TV talks about how she sees God as being “bigger” than the usually limited definitions.

Filmed at Birthright Israel Next, Atlanta, Georgia.

Filed Under: The G-d Project Videos Tagged With: "Jewish New Media", Atlanta, god project, jewish new media innovation fund, jewish social justice, jnmif, the g-d project, the g-d project jewish, the god project, the god project jewish

Finally, A Cool Bat Mitzvah DJ: Interview with DJ Lil Ray

July 15, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

“A lot can get done with a dance party. If you watch movies from the 80s, how did everyone save the community center? With a dance party!”

DJ Lil Ray is the bat mitzvah DJ you wish you’d had. She’s cool, young, and she knows what you want to hear…and plays it. Top 40 and obscure stuff that NME doesn’t even know about “weaving in and out”, according to Lil Ray, in ways that keep the party moving. “I like electro and hip hop and those things have been intertwined,” says Lil Ray, citing that “there’s no hip hop without Kraftwerk.” I highly doubt that there are serious bat mitzvah DJs that would throw down about German experimental music, and for that, DJ Lil Ray wins the award for coolest DJ ever.

Lil Ray had previously been in Atlanta, where she cut her teeth as a DJ with the Astoria group and a regular Saturday night spot at The Highland Inn Ballroom. But the move from Atlanta’s small party scene to the hub of culture had more to do with career than with art. With a masters degree in Social Work from Georgia State, Lil Ray planned on moving to New York to work in the non-profit sector. Turns out, no one needed her, even “for the lowest entry level job.”

So Lil Ray broke the mold and did something few creative people ever do: she “fell back” on her artistic ambitions. And now, after just a few months of living in NY, Lil Ray has positioned herself as an up-and-coming player in the local dance party scene.

This includes her incredible niche market: DJing bat mitzvahs. It doesn’t seem like a trendy DJ like Lil Ray would want to even go there, but for Lil Ray, DJing to twelve and thirteen year old girls is…well…a mitzvah in and of itself.

“It was a dream come true. I played Top 40 female vocal hits and they were screaming. They were the roudiest crowd I have DJ’d in a long time.”

DJ Lil Ray is proud of her bat mitzvah work. On her website, Lil Ray talks about growing up in “Ft. Lauderdale bat mitzvah scene” and told me that, through her DJing, she hopes that she has a “meaningful impact” or her teen audience, that they, too “can be a DJ or anything that they want to be.”

I asked Lil Ray what, if any, role being Jewish has in her work. Normally Jewish musicians have nothing to say about this, citing that music is universal and that tribalism is meaningless. Lil Ray shocked me with this answer:

“Growing up in an enclave, the value of joy…is always there and important to celebrate. So after all of these years of being an activist, landing on: being a good person…really goes a long away. Religion and culture can give a framework for being a good person.”

In a way, DJ Lil Ray fulfills two amazing spiritual values in Judaism. Through her work as an activist, she has shown an incredible commitment to tikkun olam (repairing the world). And through her hip shaking record spinning, Lil Ray is shaking the branches on the Tree of Life with the mitzvah of simcha, of bringing joy to others through her music.”

You can catch Lil Ray in action at Enid’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Saturday, July 24 for Hot & Sticky, a totally free Hip Hop dance party.

What’s Lil’ Ray listening to? Check out her hot picks…

Aloe Blacc – I Need a Dollar (Pristine Blusters and DJ Mulher ‘Millionaire’ Remix)

Brazillian DJs get all Baltimore on an instant neo-soul classic.

Round Table Knights – Calypso

This song is magic because most people don’t know it but it gets them going anyway.

Get Em Mamis – Shake It All Night

I love sassy lady MCs spitting on throwback club tracks.  I not so secretly dream about doing a show with them.  If Kid Sister was there, I would probably plotz.

Sensato Ft. Black Point – Watagataputisberry

If you like jumping up and down and shouting and having fun, you like this song.

A-Trak – Trizzy Turnt Up

A-Trak, a fellow Jew, is a big inspiration.  His free Dirty South Dance mixtapes are genius.

Filed Under: Jewish Media Reviews, Random (Feelin' Lucky?) Tagged With: Atlanta, bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, deejay, dj, dj lil ray, highland inn ballroom, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rachael, simcha, tikkun olam

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival

May 31, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

I met Russell Gottschalk at the Limmud Southeast Festival last year. One of the few indie dudes at the family fun fest, I was instantly impressed by his love of the Jewish people, his taste in music, and the fact that I had a wing-man to help me with the ladies that weekend.

Russell told me he wanted to start an Atlanta Jewish Music Festival and I was totally into it. I have been watching the progress of the festival (of which I have not been nearly involved as I wish I would have been) and was really excited that Russell wanted to talk with me about the festival. What I learned is that the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival is not just a music festival, it’s a mission.

“I think it’s important to celebrate Judaism culturally. I’ve worked for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival for the past four years [and] unfortunately it hasn’t done the best job of engaging the younger demographic.”

It made me wonder: why hasn’t Atlanta had a Jewish music festival, when cities like Houston, which aren’t exactly Jewish hot spots, are having them? The answer to Russell is not about Jews, but about Southern history:

“The South has a history of delayed social change…it takes chutzpah (courage) to get something started. It’s difficult to start something new, particularly in the South [and] people are going to wonder what this is about.”

This education of the masses is something Russell is engaged in all the time, not just about the festival itself, but the idea of Jewish music all together.

“The biggest issue we’ve had is ‘what does a contemporary Jewish music festival look like’? It’s not what your accustomed to hearing. There are Jewish musicians who are creating music….. that people should know about.”

Russell and the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival have approached this question of “what is Jewish music” by taking a very open policy. “We define Jewish music as artistic expressions that come out of someone’s Jewish identity. [Your music is Jewish] if you’re artistic expression is an extension of your Jewish identity.”

Russell represents the cultural Jew…the Jew-ish person. And in that way, he also represents an entire generation of Jewish youth. “Our identities are very complex…other generations didn’t have that option. That Jewish piece of the pie has gotten a lot smaller. Our peers don’t need to promote [their jewishness].”

This makes the need for things like the Jewish music festival so important. “This is going to be a cool Jewish event and we don’t have enough cool Jewish events in our community. Our demographic … wants to have cool Jewish programming”.

The music festival is going to highlight some awesome artists including Moshav, Deleon, Girls In Trouble and Atlanta’s own Atlanta Afro Klezmer Orchestra. The Jewish south shall rise again, June 5th at the Apache Cafe.

www.atlantajewishmusicfestival.org

Filed Under: Jewish Media Reviews, Random (Feelin' Lucky?) Tagged With: Atlanta, convert to judaism, Counterculture, darshan yeshiva, festival, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, Music, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Punk, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rebel, Religion, Torah

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