Shouting Out

Giving props to people I know.

David Segal, prestigious alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and Rabbinical student at HUC, created this hilarious video for the HUC Purim spiel (thanks to David Goldberg for the tip). In spite of not getting all (most? any?) of the inside jokes, I'd like to state that my favorite parts are the "if it is your custom" and the Talmud professor who seems to be entirely too proud of himself. Segal's debut as a stand-up comic is also on YouTube. Not sure why there aren't further videos of David's comedy, but with humor like this (particularly the subway and potato salad bits), he could definitely be an above-average Rabbi. David and I struck up a friendship of mutual-admiration (I think; it's possible I just stalk him and he thinks I'm weird) at our first institute together and he is on the list of people who's synagogues I plan to join when I grow up.

Etan Bednarsh, prestigious brother-in-law and sure-to-be-appreciator of Segal's Andy Samberg inspiration, published again on The Huffington Post, to go along with his humor blog which, if not updated as often as I might like, is still wicked funny.

Emilie Botbol, dear friend and CRW alumna, has begun blogging from Nepal. Turns out that not only does the country have the highest mountains in the world and the most unique flag, but is also a fascinatingly 3rd-world kind of place.

My father, Rabbi Eric Cytryn [that picture's a little smushed], was featured in a (massive?) picture on the front page of the religion section of Friday's Harrisburg Patriot-News in the newly refurbished main sanctuary at Beth El Temple. Of course, the Patriot-News's website doesn't have the picture (but it does have the lame-o article), and dad hasn't yet sent me a final version of the sanctuary to complete my post about the impressive work that he, Executive Director Mike Schatz, President Alan Schein, and others have done to raise significant sums of money to give the synagogue a much-needing and (by all accounts) remarkably impressive facelift. Props to dad and as soon as I get the final pictures I'll pass them long.

If you're doing something else cool, be in touch so I can shout out to you too.