FailedMessiah.com

Ex-O Journey: From Being Trapped In Neturei Karta To Becoming A Brooklyn Hipster Artist

Brooklyn artist Sara Erenthal grew up in Neturei Karta, the extreme über-haredi anti-Zionist sect, but left it and Orthodoxy as a teenager. She was 17 when she tried on jeans for the first time. "I remember looking in the mirror thinking, 'Oh my God, my butt!' " she recalls. "I'd never really seen myself in pants."

From Neturei Karta Child To Nude Model And Artist

"As an artist I needed to find a creative way to make ends meet." Removing her bra, [Sara] Erenthal…described how she started working as a nude model in an art school. "It felt very strange to sit up there like that, exposed to a group of strangers, afraid my imperfections were being judged," she said, removing the rest of her clothing. "But I needed to do that for my wellbeing. I needed to let go of that stigma, that shame, associated with nudity. It felt pretty good," Erenthal said, now fully naked. "I felt so powerful. Yet my mind was somewhere else."

Did Two Top Chabad Leaders Perjure Themselves?

At the Royal Commission hearings into child sex abuse coverups at Chabad institution in Australia, Don Wolf, a former chairman of the Committee of Management (COM) of the board of Chabad's Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne and Nechama Bendet, the Yeshivah Centre's former general manager, both testified the COM never discussed a formal plan for compensating victims of child sex abuse at its schools and each leader's testimony (posted below) makes it appear as if compensation was never discussed by Chabad's Committee of Management. But that impression was false – arguably intentionally so.

Cartoon of the Day

A cartoon drawn and written by FailedMessiah.com's publisher.

Robot Writes Complete Torah Scroll - Could It Be Kosher For Ritual Use?

The artist group Robotlab has found a way to to make a robot write a Torah scroll. The working robot and its Torah scroll will be on display at Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany beginning later this month.

Chief Rabbis Protest “Blasphemous” Art, Threaten To Find Ways To Close Gallery

"This shows contempt for holy writings that [according to Jewish law] must be buried in a genizah. I hope God-fearing people will not buy these displays for art, but to bring them to genizah facilities for burial that they deserve. It is inconceivable that a thing like this [art show] could occur in the Land of Israel.”

Painting Of Old Rabbi Identified As Lost Work Of Rembrandt

It is now believed the two paintings are a pair, linked by details of costume, pose and jewellery – particularly the rings on their beautifully contrasted hands. The young woman's smooth flesh is markedly different from the tissue-paper-like crinkles of the old man's skin. The paintings are thought represent the biblical story of the exiled Ruth who married the kindly but much older Boaz.

Photo Of Naked Ethiopian Woman Taken At Suggestion Of NACOEJ Aid Worker, Photographer Says

Ziv Koren published a picture of a Falash Mura woman immersing in a mikva. A firestorm of criticism erupted. But Koren now says the picture was taken at the suggestion of a staff member of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry.

Hasidic Wedding Pictures

A slidehow of photographs taken at a large hasidic wedding in Israel.

Porn, Art Or Journalism?

Is a photographer’s photo of a naked Ethiopian woman immersing in a mikva kosher? And was the photographer within his rights to post that naked picture online?

New Jewish Art

Sometime FailedMessiah.com contributor Uzi Silber shares some of his paintings.

Pictures of the Day: Graffiti In Crown Heights

What would Chabad hasidic kids spray paint on a wall in Crown Heights? Take a look.

Why Are There No Modern Orthodox Painters, Poets, Writers And Composers?

How can an American Modern Orthodoxy that crams the classes of law schools and medical schools barely yield a single poet or painter?

Mad Magazine Artist Works Undercover For The Messiah

For a quarter century, Jewish children have hungrily followed the kooky adventures of the Shpy, the adventurous hero of The Moshiach Times, a family-friendly magazine that is published six times a year in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

An Entire Genre Of Haredi Artists Show Their Work Only One Time Per Year – On Sukkot

They have no connection to the art world or to the Judaica market. Virtually all of them are known only in their own communities and they have never tried to become known in the secular world. That does not mean that they don't yearn for recognition.

Haredi Protest May Evict King David From His Own Tomb

Haredi deputy mayor asks to move donated statue of a modestly dressed, harp-playing King David further away from his own tomb on Mount Zion.

The Great Deceit: How The Baal Teshuva Movement Was Spurred On By Lies

How a fabricated history woven by one of the world's greatest photographers tricked hundreds of secular Jews into becoming haredi.

Only One Synagogue Was Designed By Frank Lloyd Wright – It Is Now Open To Visitors For The First Time

Described as a symbolic Mount Sinai made of concrete, steel and glass, it never received the attention of Fallingwater or the Guggenheim Museum.

Reinventing Ritual: It's Time To Vote

The Jewish Museum wants you to vote. If you do, you could win free tickets and a nice prize.

Haredi Rabbi Rants Against Gays, Gay Marriage

Ger hasidic rabbi blasts gays.

Idan Raichel Project Live NYC

Israel's most innovative world beat musicians come to NYC.

Esti Mamo, Shushan Purim Queen

Ethiopian Jewish model Esti Mamo is our Shushan Purim queen.

Esti Ginzburg, Purim Queen

Exclusive image of FailedMessiah's Purim Queen 2009.