it’s a mitzvah!

Welcome to It’s A Mitzvah! This blog is in its developmental stages, is subject to change at any time, and may arbitrarily become more or less Jewish in between visits. I advise you to check back often to see for yourself.

In the meantime, I’m Jordan. I’m in my twenties. I live in Toronto, Ont., Canada. I do photography and website maintenance for a major sporting goods chain, and attend journalism school. In spite of the relatively Semitic qualities conveyed by the title of the site, I’m Jewish in name only — and in my unabashed love of Philip Roth, from whom I stole the subhead. So, to save you the trouble: I don’t hate Palestinians, I’m not going to try to sell you Israel Savings Bonds, I do think Sarah Silverman is funny, and matzo is fucking gross.

So why does this site exist? Because I would like to write professionally, and it’s becoming increasingly evident that just about anybody who’s half-literate, mildly interesting and occasionally witty can get paid to write a blog; this seems like a reasonable rite of passage en route to whatever the hell it is I want to end up doing. That said, I wouldn’t exactly kick writing for a print magazine out of bed, either. That is to say, I am a shameless self-promoter.

What will I be writing about? All kinds of things! I like to think that I’ve had some noteworthy things happen to me in my life, so stories from my past may very well end up on here. Dating, family, travel — you name it, I’ve stressed out over and made a mess of it.

What else? I have a lovely girlfriend who lives in Brooklyn, whom I visit fairly often. These trips typically involve me riding a Greyhound bus through the Armpit, Asshole, Taint and Woolly Ballhair Forests of Western and Central New York State with a bunch of mutants who have little more to offer society than cheap meth and an abundance of chromosomes. It’s safe to say that these jaunts will come up from time to time.

And sports! I love sports. Predictably, I’m a Toronto homer, aside from my fandom of the Arizona Cardinals — a team I came to support after a rigorous elimination process — which I regret more and more with each passing day. Comments on current events, personalities, books and other media are also likely to pop up. Basically, anything that I think is funny and interesting that I can write about in a way that, in turn, makes me sound funny and interesting.

So enjoy. Tell your friends. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and God willing, you’ll give me a job.