I've been reading a goyisha discussion on a site I can't link to for moral reasons.
Listen up Romans and Jews
Brujah writes: I just saw Passion of The Christ and I'm not happy with your s---. You got some splainin' to do.
Excita writes: It's a hard movie for me too - cruelty, violence and etc. I don't like it - in our lifes is too much same s--- and i don't want to see it in movies.
Boobmaster replies: But it shows exactly what Jesus had to endure to die for the sins of mankind.
CET writes: That's never made any sense to me. God is omnipotent, so why did anyone have to endure anything? Also, why does god have to sacrafice himself, to himself, to appease himself from being so pissed off about man breaking a rule he made? Sorry, the whole thing just never made any sense to me, even when I was a christian.
Boobmaster replies:
If it never made sense to you, why did you become a Christian in the first place?
(1) Rebellion (as manifested by violation of God's laws) separates man from God.
(2) Man cannot reconcile himself to God through the law because he cannot keep the law.
(3) If man violates one part of the law, he violates the whole law.
(4) The wages of Sin (violation of the law) is death.
(5) Redemption is only possible through blood sacrifice (i.e., through the blood of Christ).
(6) Salvation is freely available to all who accept Christ's sacrifice as payment for their sins.
So, everybody who went to see the movie is a moron? How can you trash someone who loved you enough to go through all that when he didn't have to?
Does having faith in something automatically mean that you lack intelligence? Maybe people are buying the DVD because they are looking for answers. Have you ever considered that?
Heymatty writes: Jesus loves me. But is very disappointed with Boobmaster.
The bit about Lubavitch advertising is typical. Are we supposed to start turning down ads from certain groups within Orthodoxy? For better or worse, Lubavitch is such a driving force in Jewish communities across the country and around the world. Of course they're going to advertise their activities in an Orthodox paper like The Jewish Press. And of course we'll cover many of those activities. Look at the JTA's coverage of Jewish life in foreign countries. Almost invariably when they quote an Orthodox rabbi in south America, Europe, Asia, etc., that rabbi is a Lubavitcher. You can't cover the Orthodox world without giving Lubavitch an inordinate amount of ink. And by the way, contrary to some dumb rumor posted by an ignorant twit on some blog recently, there is not one Lubavitcher in any editorial decision-making capacity at The Jewish Press.
As for the "Kahanist rag" comment -- obviously a retort made by a retard. There may be some columnists we feature who share some of Kahane's views, but they're in a minority -- and certainly don't reflect the official editorial positions taken by the paper in recent years.
As to the comment about our being heavily feature - and commentary-oriented at the expense of hard news, of course that's true. A weekly publication in the age of the Internet and 24-hour cable news must by necessity focus more on background and features. Time and Newsweek realized this years ago and began to go more in the direction of lifestyle-type features. It would be presumptuous for us to think that most readers look to a weekly of any kind as their primary news source. It's even more ludicrous to expect a weekly newspaper -- one that goes to press Tuesday and that most people don't read before Friday and Saturday -- to contain breaking news stories.
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Luke says: I particularly seek feedback on these comments from the morally and psychically retarded as well as those who are just nitwits (I really wanted to use more colorful language here but my religious beliefs prevent me).
Shmarya writes: It appears that George Tenet ("former high-ranking CIA official") is 'talking.' Wanna bet HE is the source for the original leak? This is turning into Revenge Against the Neo-Cons and Israel. After all, Tenet & Co. screwed up pre-9-11 intelligence and the lead-up to the Iraq War. Israel claimed BEFORE the war that Iraq had moved their WMD into Syria. The CIA ignored Israel's claims. Now, most analysts believe Israel was correct and the WMD's are in Syria. Tenet and the CIA look like shit. Answer to looking like shit? Israeli-AIPAC 'Spy Scandal.' The American Dreyfus Affair continues . . .
Chakira is blogging up a storm: "While the Jewish Press is busy upholding nonexistent standards of Orthodox propriety, the Forward is doing the two things newspapers are supposed to be doing. The Forward is making money and engaging in effective, hard hitting journalism. These are both things the people over at the Jewish Press should be doing with their newspaper."
Chakira writes: The newest edition of Beit Yitzchak has hit the shelves. BY is the YU Talmud publication. It comes out on a yearly basis and is always filled with interesting ritual-hermeneutic casuistries. Many of the articles are by prominent YU Rabbis.
I spent 90-minutes on the phone Thursday with Jason Maoz, editor of The Jewish Press. He and his publication struck me as isolated from the mainstream of Jewish weeklies.
For two or three years, Jason submitted a bunch of articles to the AJPA (American Jewish Press Association) awards process. Nothing even merited an honorable mention.
Sources say that that the AJPA is in Gary Rosenblatt's thrall, and that it would never honor The Jewish Press in any form.
So I emailed Rob Eshman of the Jewish Journal, Gary Rosenblatt of The Jewish Week and J.J. Goldberg of the Forward:
Jason Maoz, editor of The Jewish Press. Do you regard him as a peer?
It seems that few journalists for the mainstream Jewish weeklies accord The Jewish Press any respect?
He complained that The Jewish Press was not taken seriously for AJPA awards. He regards the AJPA as in the thrall of Gary Rosenblatt.
Would prefer an on-the-record response but will settle for anything.
................
Rob Eshman, editor of the Jewish Journal, replies: I've read it all the way through maybe twice, so it wouldn't be fair for me to offer an opinion. (Now, here comes
my opinion): The times I have flipped through it, my impression was it seems to cater to a certain niche of American Jewry, and it seems to do that quite well. I have no idea what its verified circulation is out here. I'm just no authority.
I don't think anybody is in Gary's thrall, handsome and funny and brilliant as he is-- uh oh, maybe I AM in his thrall. Seriously, Gary's a very good editor and he puts out a very good paper. There are a lot worse role models out there for editors of any paper, but he's not the boss of anyone at AJPA.
The Jewish Week serves its audience, and certainly has taken on tough stories in a responsible way. No one editor or one community Jewish paper is going to please all the Jews all the time. Papers like The Jewish Week and The Jewish Journal have to appeal to a large and broad Jewish audience to fulfill their missions and stay solvent. We don't have big backers, endowment, niche Jewish markets or relatively Jewish populations. We try to serve the needs of hundreds of thousands of Jews in each issue: smart Jews, simple Jews, wise and ignorant, right, left, rich, poor, traditional, freaky. The result can be articles that are sometimes too safe and
predictable and middle of the road, but all of the good editors I know push
beyond that as much as possible.
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Joe Schick writes: Maoz deserves a lot of credit for significantly improving the JP. He thinks outside the box in seeking to improve the paper's content. Who else would have taken 2500 words from Robert Avrech's blog and devoted the front and back pages to it, and done the same with Steven Weiss' piece about the Israel Policy Forum's pro-Geneva Accord party? No other editor takes blogs seriously, either.
Shmarya writes: It is important to keep in mind that the two factions have been fighting for some time and the video (which, again, I have not seen) is hosted and promoted (and, perhaps, edited) by one faction -- Chabad. (I think SIW wrote a piece on this dispute for the Forward.) It's important to note that Chabad is blaming the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (known commonly as "The Joint") for causing this problem and for discrimination against Chabad. What Chabad doesn't tell you is that the Joint gives millions of dollars to Chabad-sponsored programs in Eastern Europe every year and that is despite old allegations from early in the Rebbe's tenure of Chabad misusing Joint funds slated for North Africa; allegations strikingly similar to the allegations leveled against the Freidiker Rebbe's misuse of American funds in 1920's Russia.
Is this a dispute over money? Most likely true. Is Chabad blameless? Hardly.
The quuestion is as follows: Should control of pre-WWII community assets be held locally, or should Chabad control them through its local shaliach? It's important to remember that Vilna's shaliach, Rabbi Krinsky, is a) Boston, MA born and raised and, b) the nephew of Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, the defacto leader of Chabad worldwide. The Vilna community has much to fear. Chabad's track record in these areas is poor. When you add to that Chabad's customary trampling of local minhagim -- especially when this happens in Vilna, of all places! -- it is easy to see why the Vilna community leadership is afraid of Chabad, even though they admit that Chabad has done much good in its ten years there.
Ask youself this question: In Chabad's regular schedule of classes over these last ten years, how many hours were devoted to the works of the Vilna Gaon or Chaim Volozhiner, and how many were devoted to Chabad hasidut? How many events were sponsored by Chabad to commemorate yartzeits of the Gaon, Chaim Volozhiner, etc.? How many to commemorate the yartzeit/birthday/etc. of the Ba'al HaTanya, the Mittler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, the Maharash, the Rashab, the Freidiker Rebbe, and the Rebbe? If the numbers are not equal, if classes of Chabad hasidut and commemorations of rebbe's yartzeits far outstrip classes on the Gaon's work or commemorations of Litvisher Gedolim's yartzeits -- and most assuredly, this is true -- then you can understand the setting for the current dispute and its motivation.
Gary Rosenblatt writes: "Most important, then, is to recognize and value that while the younger generation may not want to duplicate their parents’ ways, it doesn’t mean their interest in bringing Jewish ideals into their lives is any less."
Put me down as skeptical about these types of things, and the Birthright Israel trips etc. Unless Jews have a vibrant relationship with Judaism, I don't think these conferences and gimmicks will count for much a generation or two down the line.
Another reason I am skeptical: What people say doesn't matter much. You have to analyze what people do. When Jews in their 20s give reasons in focus groups about why they are not more involved in Jewish life, it doesn't matter much because most people don't have clarity about their motivations.
Which group of Jews in their 20s is doing the most to perpetuate the Jewish people? The Haredim without doubt. Most importantly, they are getting married and having kids. They are the teachers in our day schools. They are sacrificing the pleasures of our secular society to lead fervently Jewish lives. We should be learning from them, not from Jewish secularists in their 20s. Secular Jewish life, though it produces some terrific art, is condemned to the toilet bowl of history. When the prophets spoke about leading a Jewish life, they probably didn't mean folk dancing, says rabbi Mordecai Finley (R).
Protect writes: It has come to my attention that Rabbi Ephraim Bryks who has had serious allegations involving the sexual molestation of young children (see above webpage) will be speaking tonight at Young Israel of Briarwood.
The Bukharian Jewish Organization of Youth has a scheduled program tonight,
Thursday, September 2, 2004 at 8:30PM at Young Israel of Briarwood, 74-85
Daniels St., Briarwood, NY 11435.
Topic: Rosh Hashanah and how to secure Hashem's forgiveness
Rabbi Bryks is being billed as one of the Bukharian Jewish Organization of
Youth's favorite speakers. One of the promoters of this event is Natalie
Niyazova who is involved in the Bukharian Jewish Organization of Youth (
www.bukharian.com ).
Luke says: I can't think of anyone more appropriate to talk about Hashem's forgiveness than Rabbi Bryks who has evidently experienced such grace first hand. The ground is level at the foot of Mt. Sinai. We're all sinners.
Do you feel that the Rebbe is communicating with you? Is he 'answering' your questions and giving you advice? Are your feelings strong? Are you positve the Rebbe is answering you? Do you believe that there is security in numbers and that so many people with these feelings could not be wrong? That G-d would never mislead us in this way?
Please read the remainder of this post and think again.
1) Rabbi Leib ben Ozer, a witness at the time, wrote:"And [Sabbatai Zevi's Messianic advent] is one of the greatest occurrences, clearly supernatural . . . It happened in many places, in Izmir and in Constantinople and in Adrianople and in Salonika, that prophets [proclaiming Sabbatai Zevi the Messiah] arose in hundreds and thousands, women and men, boys and girls, and even little children; all of them prophesied in the holy tongue and in the language of the Zohar as well, and none of them knew a letter of Hebrew and all the less so of the language of the Zohar. And this is how it would be: they would fall to the ground like someone struck with epilepsy, foam would come from their mouths, and they would have convulsions and speak secrets of the Kabbalah in the holy tongue concerning many matters, and what they said, each in his own way was this: The reign of Shabtai Zvi, our lord, our king, our messiah, has been revealed in heaven and Earth and he has received the crown of kingship from Heaven . . . And wherever you went you heard nothing but that Mr. So-and-So had become a prophet and that Miss So-and-So had become a prophetess; and here there was a company of prophets, some prophesying in one way and others in another, but the sum of the matter was always that Shabtai Zvi was the messiah and our righteous redeemer." (Quoted in The Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee to Crown Heights, Professor Harris Lenowitz, Oxford University Press, 1998.)
2) Gershom Scholem writes:"Unexpected propagandists [for Sabbatai Zevi] appeared on the scene: for example, several [Bektashi] dervishes prophesied the fall of the Turkish empire and the return of the kingdom of the Jews [through him]. . . . This particular detail seems to be confirmed by a letter sent to Amsterdam in July, 1666. R. Tobias Kohen also reports that there were Muslims who believed in Sabbatai and that the Turkish authorities were alarmed at this." (Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, Princeton University Press, 1978, pp. 631-632)
3) Rabbi Leib ben Ozer again:Shabbetai Zvi was particularly prone to singing Psalm 118 -- "Here is the Gate of Righteousness that the righteous may enter" -- when he was in states of extreme mystical ecstasy, punctuating it with the exclamation (in Hebrew), "I shall rise! I shall rise!"
I went to a "Spiritual Bootcamp" at Temple Sinai (C) in Westwood Wednesday night.
At 7:05, only Sinai rabbis David Wolpe and Sherre Hirsch (eight months pregnant) appeared present. Then Reform rabbi Richard Levy walked in.
The panel began. At 7:15 p.m., Orthodox rabbi Elazar Muskin walked in.
I thought something had to be wrong. Rabbi Muskin is a yekke (of German descent). He is normally punctual and organized.
It turns out he was told yesterday by an organizer that the program would not begin until 7:15 pm or so.
As is the trend in these interdenominational dialogues, the rabbis all agreed and complemented each other. Unless the evening is pitched as a debate, rabbis these days seem terribly eager to get along.
There was one disturbed man in the audience who'd clap and speak out at the most inopportune moments.
Rabbi Levy always looks tired and distracted. He's not a compelling speaker. Rabbi Wolpe was witty and eloquent. Rabbi Muskin passionate.
Every seat was filled.
It's a frightening thing to watch social darwinism at work, to see low status guys trying to hit on hot young women who had no interest in them.
Shmarya writes: Today is the 65th anniversary of the beginning of WWII and the Nazi invasion of Poland. In the months before the start of the war, as Germany's intentions became increasingly clear, a group of American students prepared to leave for Poland, to study at the main Lubavitch Yeshiva. The Fiediker Rebbe, who was then based in Poland, was asked by the prospective students' parents if it was safe to send their sons to Poland when war seemed so imminent. The Friediker Rebbe responded by saying that there would not be a war, and it was perfectly safe to send the students.
Needless to say, the Friediker Rebbe was wrong.
The students found themselves under heavy bombardment. The Jewish orphanage across the street from the yeshiva took a direct hit -- injured and dying children and their body parts were scattered on the street in front of the yeshiva. The Friediker Rebbe and his entourage fled, leaving instuctions for the students to make their way to Warsaw as best they could. American hasidim would later rescue their rebbe and his entourage. The Friediker Rebbe then rescued his daughter and son-in-law, the Rebbe.
The Friediker Rebbe's strident anti-Zionism and pre-war don't-leave-Europe-theology had led to the deaths of thousands of hasidim and the enslavement of tens of thousands more.
To forget history is to be doomed to repeat it. The Friediker Rebbe was not perfect. Neither was his successor. Learn from that.
"The one clear fact that can be agreed upon is that there was a malicious and targeted leak that is more damaging than the actual allegations of Israeli spying - allegations that in all likelihood are baseless," said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the ADL, in an exclusive interview to Haaretz.
"The ADL will demand appointing a commission of inquiry to make every effort in identifying which official or officials are behind the leak," said Foxman, who is known to have close relationships with administration officials and the White House.
"A leak directed against a friendly country like Israel causes grave damage, and the current suspicions of spying damaged Israel, the local Jewish community, and relations between the two countries," Foxman said.
The latest issue of Pediatrics contains an article written by a Ben-Gurion University/Soroka University Medical Center team reporting on eight babies who developed genital herpes - one of them suffering serious brain damage as a complication - because the mohel (ritual circumciser) sucked the blood directly.
Shmarya comments: Note doctor's name. One could write a novella based on this alone!
Shmarya writes: Notice that the charges listed here seem to be very close to the
standard behavior of certain charities we're aware of. California Chabad, for example or, as noted on this blog, the Wiesenthal Center in LA. The scope of alleged abuse may be smaller, but it should be investigated nonetheless.
As Allison has pointed out, members of the Jerusalem Post 'Diaspora' – which of-course includes me – are 'reeling' over a new Hollinger report, showing that Conrad Black and David Radler’s corruption went further than anyone ever imagined.
Over the past few years, they stole over $400 million of Hollinger money. Black charged his wife’s handbags ($2463), birthday parties ($42,870), jogging clothes ($140), opera tickets ($2785), and stereo equipment ($828) to the company. The Jerusalem Post was part of David Radler’s patch, and he used the Jerusalem Post's Charitable Funds to get a trauma unit named after himself, and to fulfil a personal pledge to donate $25,000 to Haifa University.
It was also revealed that Radler’s daughter, whom the company was forced to hire as its New York Correspondent, was earning $62,000 a year and received a moving allowance of $16,000 – unlike the Washington correspondent, who did not have a rich father, and who received a big fat nothing.
Now, these are pretty astounding figures by any account – and most of the reports have focused on what this meant for the Hollinger shareholders, who were deprived of their rightful earnings, and to the Hollinger companies, which, with the exception of the Daily Telegraph, mysteriously never had any money for anything.
An angle which, to my knowledge, hasn’t been covered is how Black and Radler’s actions impacted their employees’ personal lives. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the saddest part of the story.
Salaries at the JPost tended to vary wildly, according to when you were hired and who hired you, and some people were very well paid. Still, while Melissa Radler was earning $62,000 in New York, a good Jerusalem Post reporter was (and still is) extremely lucky to be earning NIS 8,000 a month, which works out to approx. $21,000 a year before tax. Most earned far less.
If you were single like I was, that was hard to get by on, but it was possible. If you were married with children, on the other hand….
About a year and a half ago, everyone was told their salaries were going to be cut – because the company was going through ‘tough times’ (read: Barbara Amiel wanted more handbags). Immediately and ever since, a main topic of conversation became how stressed and sleepless everyone was because of the enormous financial hit they’d taken to already stretched resources. For at least one person I know at the Post, this meant stopping heating their house some days in the winter. Other people, adults with families who had been living in Israel for 20 years, had to start asking their parents in the States to cover their rent. I will also never forget a senior employee telling David Radler, on one of his infrequent visits to the building, that she was terrified every time she got on a bus because of the security situation.
“Why don’t you take taxis or get a car?” he asked.
“I can’t afford it,” she answered.
Radler basically shrugged in response, and at the time, we commented about how this was simply beyond the comprehension of such a rich man. Now I wonder whether the shrug covered a flicker of guilt? Probably not.
These, of course, were the lucky ones. Other employees got fired because the paper ‘did not have any money.’ Freelance reporters, some of whom were regulars and others who had never worked with the Post and were simply naïve, had payments delayed by months on end. Others were never paid at all.
You might argue that full-time employees did not have to stay at the Post, but most people stuck with their jobs because they felt that in the recent economic climate, they were lucky to have a job at all. Others were dying to get out of there but were trapped by their age or by the lack of journalistic options out there (unless you wanted to go freelance, which not everyone could).
The point is, however, that Black and Radler sucked many of their employees dry, financially and mentally – completely needlessly, out of sheer insatiable greed, in the worst possible faith. It makes me sick to my stomach to realize that all that suffering was not because the company was 'in trouble,' as we were told -- but was because we were being robbed.
I wonder, had they not been rumbled, would the thefts ever have stopped? Again, probably not.
Personally, I hope that Black and Radler get put away for a long, long time. My sources tell me that since their departure, conditions are already much improved at the Post. For the sake of its generally decent and hard-working employees, I hope that the paper gets an honest new owner, and that its Black days shall brighten soon.
Gandhi's grandson Arun is on a solidarity mission to the PA, and naturally is attracting a lot of press attention by calling for the Palestinians to resist Israeli occupation by non-violent means.
What exactly does he mean by this? He explained yesterday:
"A massive peaceful march of Palestinians to the locations of their ancestors’ homes in Israel would shock the world into taking notice if Israel ended up killing a couple hundred marchers," he told an audience in Ramallah. “Maybe the Israeli army would shoot and kill several. They may kill 100. They may kill 200 men, women and children. And that would shock the world. The world will get up and say, ‘What is going on?’... “That is the kind of electrifying action that needs to be taken.”
In other words, Arun Gandhi is encouraging Palestinians to become Shahids. Probably not what most of us associate with the words, 'non violent'; but that hasn't stopped half the world jumping on the Arun Gandhi bandwagon.
If I were looking out for the Palestinians' best interests, however, I'd think twice before paying as much as lip-service to Arun's rhetoric. It's not dissimilar, after all, to the advice his grandfather gave to the Jews in Palestine during the Mandate, about how to react to Arab pogroms:
...if only they would “discard the help of the British bayonet” for their defense, and instead “offer themselves [to the Arabs] to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger,” the Jews would win a favorable “world opinion” regarding their “religious aspiration.”
We all know how well that would have worked out.
And it's not dissimilar, either, to the advice Gandhi gave to the Jews of Germany before WWII (summarized from the same excellent article in the NRO):
Were he a German Jew, Gandhi pronounced, he would challenge the Germans to shoot or imprison him rather than “submit to discriminating treatment.” Such “voluntary” suffering, practiced by all the Jews of Germany, would bring them, he promised, immeasurable “inner strength and joy.” Indeed, “if the Jewish mind could be prepared” for such suffering, even a massacre of all German Jews “could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy,” since “to the God-fearing, death has no terror”....
Through their strength of suffering, he promised, “the German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German Gentiles in the sense that they will have converted [them] to an appreciation of human dignity.”
We all know how well that worked out, too.
The fact is, Arun Gandhi's message will bring more violence, not less, to the region. Whereas the Arabs and the Nazis were committed to destroying the Jews either way, Arun seems to be suggesting the Palestinians actually goad the Israelis into violence that they would not otherwise commit. If Arun Gandhi really wanted to help the Palestinians in a 'non-violent' way, he would not be urging them to physically sacrifice themselves where no sacrifice is necessary.
What he could have done is ask the Palestinians to lay down their weapons, prepare to make some real concessions, and return to the negotiation table. That way, we could avoid bloodshed altogether; which might not be what Arun means by 'non-violence,' but which sounds like a much better option for all parties involved.
I offer some harsh words for Bob Herbert's latest at the NYT, and some really worthwhile links along the way. They're really funny. And educational, actually. This time you kids will eat it.
Chakira writes: Exposing JSS students to the haredi world seems silly to me. Sillier still is the idea of exposing the haredi world to JSS students. There are already enough stereotypes of YU floating around in Lakewood and New Square. Instead of trying to fight these misperceptions, YU seems intent on buttressing them. One would be hard pressed to think of a way to reinforce negative stereotypes more effective than bringing in your worst students by the busload. Now, when Lakewood guys decry the weakness of YU’s learning, they can point to those talmudically inept dunces they had over for Shabbos.
Moshiach Info Center has recieved a number of blessings from the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlit"a thru His Holy Letters see: Igrot.com as I understand the Rebbe King Moshiach Shlit"a wants this project to be expanded online and offline. You can be a parthner in this great mitzvah of spreading the light of Moshiach worldwide. Anyone who will donate $18 or more will recieve an excelent book advertised bellow "Living in the Age of Moshiach" simply the best book in English (that I know of) writen in a lights oh "tohu" in vesels of "tikkun" - awesome spiritual concepts in a simple terms (as per Moshiach's instructions on best way to teach Torah in our generation.). $25 value absolutly free. Get a premium $180 membership and reserve your spot on Moshiach Info Center advisory board (This means you can call me 24/6 with your ideas and I promise to give you my ear for up to 30 min of my time unless I have an emergency call on another line, plus your name title and bio and link to your site (pending my aproval) will be added to the advisory council members list page of this site and more "perks"are to be added in the future.$180 can be paid in cash, pledge barter or even an idea worth at least $180 in my eyes.Your contribution ensures the continued viability and dynamic growth of Moshiach Info Center. Payment is fast and easy. Your credit card is secure and your privacy is protected by PayPal Long Live our Master our Teacher and our Rebbe King Moshiach Forever and Ever!
WASHINGTON - High-ranking officials at the Pentagon (news - web sites) and State Department have been interviewed or briefed by FBI (news - web sites) agents investigating a Defense Department analyst suspected of passing to Israel classified Bush administration materials on Iran.
How many hours do you spend watching TV shows with her you would rather not watch (per week)?
How many hours do you spend doing other stupid things with her you would rather not do (per week)?
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I found the above hilarious because it mirrors my life experience. I've watched a lot of stupid TV shows with girls to achieve higher objectives - keruving them into Orthodox Judaism (haven't succeeded yet but I'm still trying).
Reb Yudel writes: The survey ommitted a few important questions:
* How many hours does *she* spend watching TV shows she would rather not watch?
* How many of those TV shows are more fun because of her comments?
* How many hours of wonderful discussions do you have a week?
* How many hours spent doing stupid things you would rather not do are more bearable because you are doing them together?
I made my weekly 90-minute visit to my healer/biofeedback guy. He said I need to wear lighter colors. That my perpetual black attire holds in my negative energy.
I wondered what Judaism's sacred texts have to say about this matter.
From Jewlicious: I’m never quite heartbroken when I miss reading the latest In Montreal. I think it really embodies most of Luke Ford’s criticisms. Fluffy and unsubstantial, In Montreal seems to appeal more to the community poobahs who commissioned it. It’s reflective of what they’d like young Jewish Montrealers to be like rather than what they are actually like. No wonder no one I know reads it. It is completely uninspiring and totally unenlightening and if anything, stands as a testament to how deeply the organized Jewish community has failed its next generation.
Cathy Seipp writes: Cecile and I went to see Ruth Shalit's fiance, Rob Barrett, convert to Judaism Friday night [at a Reform temple]. They're getting married in New York in a Jewish ceremony this coming weekend. The New York Times Sunday Styles will have an item about the wedding on Sept. 5, which Cecile is especially looking foward to reading, as she loves those wedding announcements. Because Ruth and Rob moved to L.A. a little over a year ago they don't know that many Jews here who can, as Ruth put it, "joyfully welcome Rob into the community," so we were happy to be there, along with some other friends.
It was a lovely, moving ceremony, and Rob looked very fine carrying the Torah around the outdoor chapel. But he didn't look any more Jewish than he did before his conversion. He still looked exactly like who he is: Henry Robertson Barrett IV. We got him the paperback of "Goodbye, Columbus" as a joyfully-welcoming-him-into-the-community conversion present.
Afterwards we all went to Canter's, one of those not terribly good restaurants that I'm nevertheless very fond of because I've lived in L.A. so long and have been there so many times.
SBris writes on frumsex about the Capitol Hotel in Lakewood: "Oh its true there was alot of drugs going on there and prostitution.They knew about it for a long time but never did anything until there was a drugbut and one of the rosh's grandsons was busted then they made it assur to go there etc. And yes the owner is trying to sue the rosh."
From JPost: "Temporarily it certainly has an impact," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "Long-term, I'm quite confident this will be resolved." Nevertheless, Hoenlein added: "It's now a time to get this behind us and limit the damage by having the truth get out. If there are charges bring them. If there are arrests to be made, let's see them, not deal with leaks to the press."
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Hoenlein said the case "doesn't make sense on a lot of levels. This investigation has been going on for 18 months. They [leak it] before there are any arrests. The allegations already have changed from espionage to mishandling of information. Knowing the people involved, they are certainly loyal, patriotic Americans who would not fall into this kind of trap," he said.
In December 2002, I read two articles online from the Miami Herald about Dwight Owen Schweitzer. He was the editor and publisher of the now defunct The Jewish Star Times. He'd been arrested [but never prosecuted] for allegedly kicking a hooker, whom he had befriended three days before.
Here's an article by Dwight Owen Schweitzer. You can find more of his Jewish work here on FloridaJewish.com:
Yad Vashem. Like the mantra of a Buddhist monk, those words, repeated again and again by Jews all over the world, evoke a spiritual connection with our past
whose meanings are as varied as the millions whose unfinished lives are commemorated on that hilltop in Jerusalem. To visit there is to be reminded not simply
of the horrors of the Holocaust, but to be reminded of thousands of years of Jewish history; a history of persecution, of statelessness and powerlessness. A history too of false hopes and foolish securities and of love, so much love.
It is more than simply a memorial. It is a complex of buildings that comprise a museum, a picture gallery and a stark memorial hall with the names of the death camps
in relief on the floor, and a hall where the countries of Europe are listed and the numbers of Jews taken from each are inscribed.
Places where those still alive to Remember, can recall a richness of Jewish culture and institutions that had reached its zenith in post-World War I Europe.
Vienna, where the hallmarks of Western civilization were polished and tended by the Jews. From that center radiated a richness of Jewish life and culture which
would find its home in Yad Vashem. On that dark and rainy winter day when I first walked its halls and galleries, seeing faces frozen in lenses long since
discarded on the trash heap of technology.
UNEXTINGUISHABLE SMILE
A family at a train, smiling at the food they were just iven, relieved at the thought that if they feed us they certainly aren’t going to kill us. Not my aged mother. Not my little girl with the stuffed animal she refuses to let go of. It is just a ride on a train. .“Smile for the camera, darling .” But now we know that that smiling child will smile for a thousand years, although she never smiled again. “Go with your grandma, darling, they would never hurt an old woman and a little child. Please, sir, let her keep her toy. She has always had it. Please, sir.”
They were allowed to bring 20 kilos of their possessions with them, 44 pounds. It was a wisely chosen amount, more than enough to add some luxuries to the necessities so that when the bags were searched something of value was sure to be there. And in that little child’s trusting eyes, gazing at a camera she was too young to understand but with all the open wonder of any 4-year-old, are the eyes of the one-and-a-half million children who died in the Holocaust. How do we come to grips with such a thing, such a number? They did it there with six candles. Six candles and a hundred mirrors, or so it seemed, and all of a sudden those six candles were one-and-a-half million points of light in a darkened room; and ever so softly their names are read, those children of the trains. Read in their native tongue and in Yiddish along with the place from which they came — name after name, day after day. How long, I wondered, did it take to repeat one-and-a-half million names, each twice and from whence they came?
Athens police sources identified the intruder as Cornelius Horan, who has been barred from practicing as a priest for the past decade. He once published a book called "A glorious new world very soon to come" that predicted the world would soon end.
The attacker Sunday night had a piece of paper attached to his back bearing the message: "The Grand Prix Priest Israel Fulfillment of Prophecy Says the Bible.
In July 2003, Horan, in a costume similar to Sunday's, ran onto the track at the British Grand Prix in the middle of the race and stayed there for more than 20 seconds, forcing Formula One racers traveling at more than 200 mph to swerve around him. He was carrying a sign that said: "Read the Bible -- the Bible is always right."
British authorities said Horan also attempted a protest on Wimbledon's Center Court during a rain break, and tried to disrupt cricket and rugby matches.
On Sunday, Horan jumped from the crowd, ran across the street and grabbed Lima. A policeman following the leader on a bicycle jumped off and helped free the Brazilian.
Lima, whose once-large lead had been slowly shrinking, was able to get back into the race. But he lost several seconds as a result of the attack, and eventually was overtaken by Stefano Baldini of Italy and Mebrahtom Keflezighi of the United States. Lima finished third.
When the incident occurred, dozens of flag-waving Brazilian fans at the stadium that marked the marathon's end, watching the front-runners on a giant screen, suddenly went silent and the huge crowd gasped.
The police sources said Horan arrived in Athens just before dawn Sunday aboard a British Airways flight. They said Horan apparently acted because he believed that Christian Judgment Day was coming.
YU student Chakira writes: The newest YU Commentator is now online. There is a special section on Judaica, edited by someone who refuses to talk to me. Besides this, there is some news about Joel’s reshuffling that doesn’t acknowledge it as such. I do not see any Wecker articles. I do not see anything about Kenny Brander. That is a big omission.
The Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, a midlevel analyst who works in the policy office of the Defense Department, has been in contact with investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, officials said. It could not be learned whether he was talking with the bureau directly or through a lawyer.
Government officials say they suspect that Mr. Franklin provided classified documents to officials at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington, and that the group in turn handed the materials over to Israeli intelligence. Both the lobbying group and the Israeli government have denied any misconduct.
Reb Yudel writes: The place to go for coverage of this story is Laura Rozen's blog, http://www.warandpiece.com. Rozen was working with Joshua Micha Marshall (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com) and the Washington Monthly on an article about Feith's rogue Iranian policy.
Amidsts the wildly anti-semitic comments on her blog is a lot of speculation about who leaked this and why,and what the broader background is.
Here are some of my opinions (composed after conducting my interviews) on what is wrong with Jewish journalism.
#1. Failure of imagination.
Jewish journalism is predictable. It rarely catches the reader offguard. You read the headline and you know the story. There’s no need to read more. It’s just the same old actors on the Jewish stage repeating the same old lines. To hold the attention of an infant or an adult, you have to defy expectations.
#2. Lack of courage.
Why would you want to write something critical about somebody you will see again? This particularly applies to fellow Jewish journalists. Not one, except Yossi Abramowitz, was willing to offer me an on-the-record criticism of Gary Rosenblatt, “Mr. Jewish Journalism,” even though the quality of the journalism he’s published has declined dramatically at The Jewish Week compared to his previous employer, the independent Baltimore Jewish Times.
#3. Lack of clarity on mission.
You can be good. You can be truthful. You can be kind. You can investigate. But neither an individual nor a newspaper can do all these things equally well. Jewish newspapers need to clarify if they are primarily in the propaganda game (which is where I would place all Jewish weeklies except the Forward) or in the news game. You need to know what your primary mission is. Is it to report the news in your community or is to act omnisciently in the best interests of the community by frequently withholding the news (the stance of virtually all Jewish weeklies except the Forward)?
#4. Lack of technique.
It is rare to read a Jewish weekly and feel that you are right there in the story. To emotionally rivet the reader, you must:
• Employ scene-by-scene construction moving towards a climax. There must be desire, struggle and realization, the three acts of a screenplay.
• Realistic dialogue.
• Abundant attention to status details.
• Multiple points of view.
#5. Stuck in the past.
Blogs are an increasingly preferred way of getting news, yet few if any Jewish newspapers offer blogs, or use blogging techniques in their print editions. First person news accounts written with attitude can be more interesting and powerful than the old standby objective stance. There’s no inherent reason why the journalist writing a news story has to be less interesting than the people he’s writing on. Jewish journalism could develop stars by allowing those with talent to experiment with different techniques of telling a news story. We need more Yossi Klein Halevis.
#6. Desire to be loved.
Many Jewish journalists yearn to be loved by their readers (or, have greater fear of being hated than they desire to be respected). This attitude rarely makes for compelling reading. We need more J.J. Goldbergs who place their commitment to journalism above their desire to be popular.
# 7. Delusions of grandeur.
Jewish weeklies could do a good job of covering their community if they wanted to, but most of them, particularly the Jewish Journal, suffer from delusions of grandeur. They devote considerable resources to national and international stories where they have no expertise. They are rarely going to improve on what The New York Times has to offer on Israel or national politics, but they insist on publishing second rate material anyway because it makes them feel like they are big time.
#8 Unwillingness to treat religion with the same seriousness and specificity that it treats politics.
That’s where The New Rabbi was revolutionary. It gave a large synagogue the same treatment other institutions of similar size receive routinely.
#9 If you only publish positive book reviews, you don’t take ideas seriously.
The only weekly that takes books seriously is the Forward. All the others treat Jewish authors with kid gloves.
#10 Sensitivity, tact, restraint are only three good traits among many.
Some stories call for insensitivity, tactlessness, and lack of restraint.
ME writes: add:
11) Lack of sense of social justice
How else could legitimate news stories on Rabbinical figures such as Lanner, Tendler, Weinberg, Bryks, Brenner, Gafni /Winiarz been ignored so long.
12) No commitment to a comunity with institutions with accountability/transparency
Just look at the old JNF scandal and the current payroll at the Wiesenthal Center.
13) Arbitrary journalistic criteria for publishing stories
For example, Gary Rosenblatt has some strange criteria he uses for publishing stories about abusive community leaders that ensure that most stories never make it too press. He requires very recent allegations. Although one can question how his expose of Lanner was ever printed (at the time he had no allegatons in the past ten years). Only after his story was printed did the recent victims (who helped convict Lanner) come forward.
Certainly, papers like the Washington Post and the Boston Globe have no such criteria in exposing abusive priests in the Catholic Church.
All this arbitrary criteria does is ensure that the worst abusers who prey on the youngest of victims are protected. As the younger the victim, the longer it usually takes for them to disclose their abuse. That's why Lanner, Tendler and Weinberg are ultimately exposed by the Jewish press but Bryks, Brenner and Gafni/Winiarz (to some extent, as the more serious allegations involve children) are not.
14) Poor research and fact-checking skills
15) Failure to do thorough stories.
Most articles raise more quesions than they answer and give very poor background to the players and situation.
For example, the Forward story doesn't address many facets of the Tendler story that a reader would want to know about, his background, why groups in the Orthodox community/his extended family have nothing to do with him, his involvement in the agunot organizations and the knowledge/reaction of the agunot leadership to the allegation.
Shmarya writes: Did you see Born on the 4th of July? Remember the 'ranch' in Mexico where disabled veterans used to go for 'therapy'? My close friend was the 'proprietor' of that 'ranch'. THAT is a really wild story . . .
My friend (sadly, since passed on) was JEWISH. He became close to Orthodoxy on a trip to Israel (as a quad, in a wheelchair, with one helper) in (about) 1980. I used to help him daven. I'd go to his house, put his tefillin on him, hold the siddur so he could see it easily and turn the pages for him. I used to do the same for him (minus the tefillin, of course) in shul. We were close for 20 years. He had a blues band, and used to play gigs once or twice a year. In the early 90's I lived in Israel and while there learned how to play blues harp from an 8th generation descendant of the first Chabad rebbe. He was a Ph.D. candidate from San Francisco in Israel for a week or so to do some research. Wasn't at all frum. He looked just like the famous painting of the Ba'al HaTanya, except without the beard and the gray
hair. Had a blues band in San Francisco. Anyway, he taught me the rudiments of blues harp, and, with the further help of a blues musician (now an Aish rabbi, Tzvi Glukin), I got pretty good. I used to call my friend from the pay phones in the Old City square and do blues riffs for him . . .
Oh, I suppose if you brainstormed for a hundred thousand million billion zillion years you might be able to come up with one lame reason not to marry Luke. But you don't have the time. Your biological clock is ticking, and Luke isn't getting any younger (or thinner) either.
Where to begin your quest to become Mrs Luke Ford?
These days a (good) man is hard to find, and a (very good) man, like Luke Ford, is especially rare. To snare such a man will take lots of initiative, dedication, and saleswomanship. Let's face facts, ladies. When it comes to romance, it's a buyer's market and you're selling.
Preparation is the key. This means reading everything you can find on Luke Ford.
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