I always plan ahead with my writing - far ahead. So even though I am still working on a book on Jewish Journalism, I'm thinking ahead to the next book in the series. Right now, I'm leaning to writing a book on Jewish criminals: mafia money men, Russian mobsters, etc. If you know of any Jewish criminals (say from shul, or Federation events), please drop me a note.
"Breakthrough for animal rights" So, how did the Jewish blogosphere miss this story (as far as I know)? According to Gary Rosenblatt, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, rosh yeshiva and rosh kollel at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, had the following to say about women reading the Ktubah at a wedding ceremony: "even if a parrot or a monkey would read the ketubah, the marriage would be 100 percent valid... Yes, a monkey could also read the ketubah!" Rav Schachter was conveniently unavailable for comment, however his colleagues (anonymously) defended him, explaining that "he is naive and meant no disrespect. Others said part of the problem is that Rabbi Schachter is unaware of the negative connotations of his remarks." What a pathetic defense; frankly, I'd rather hear that he meant every word. Because for a leading rabbi to be so ignorant and unaware of the (potential) feelings of half the community is as unacceptable as anything he might have said deliberately.
An Israeli newspaper clarified comments by Jewish official Malcolm Hoenlein that rankled a U.S. Muslim group.
An apparently faulty translation caused the confusion. Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was quoted Monday on Ma’ariv’s English Web site as saying that America is the “ultimate battleground” for Muslims. After the Council on American Islamic Relations saw the remarks and called for Hoenlein’s resignation, the remarks were changed to refer to Islamists, rather than Muslims.
The mistake was blamed on a Hebrew-speaking reporter who did not differentiate between Islamists, a term that can refer to Islamic fundamentalists, and Muslims in general. Hoenlein told JTA that CAIR wasted no opportunity to exploit the situation, making public calls for him to resign without contacting him for clarification.
It is worthy to note that the word "islamist" as defined at Dictionary.com, is an adjective and or noun meaning "a believer or follower of Islam." Merriam-Webster has islamist listed along with Islamism, "the faith, doctrine, or cause of Islam."
posted by Pinchas |
3:59 PM |
Luke's unhinged response to Yossi Klein Halevi proves why YKH was right to be wary of Luke's views on Lashon hara. (Full disclosure: I've met Yossi a few times, but otherwise I don't know him well.) YKH may not approve of Lashon hara, but at least when he engages in it he puts it through the rigors of journalism, which demand that a writer carefully research his case, assemble his research as accurately as possible, and allow the subject of his research to respond to charges and characterizations. That may not fly with the rabbis, but it would with a good editor, and journalism is not the beit midrash. If you want to see the difference between loshon hara and journalism, compare Luke's unsubstantiated allegations that Yossi is in the tank with Sasha Weinberg's rigorous takedown of David Brooks in Philadelphia magazine.
12:30 p.m. -- Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo joins Cardinal Edward Egan and Rabbi Arthur Schneier at the interfaith Appeal of Conscience luncheon calling for action to end the Sudanese crisis; Minskoff Cultural Center, 164 E. 68th St.
That's a failed Congressional candidate who appeared on Sunday's Ali G. episode. His theology:
Several people have expressed concern over my statement that Jews will go to Hell. That was direct response to a direct set of questions about who God will let into Heaven. John 3:16-18 clearly states, as do many other Bible passages, that everyone who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will spend eternity in Heaven, while everyone who rejects Him will spend eternity in Hell, because he has rejected the Only Begotten Son of God. Maybe I should have refused to answer such a pointed question that was designed to cause conflict, but to say that everyone goes to Heaven would be lying, and it would be heartless, giving people a false hope. Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, and millions of Jews over the past 2,000 years have accepted Him as such. It is my prayer that many more will do the same. And, by the way, I seek to bless the Jews (please see Genesis 12:3), and for some time I have had a logo on my website which says, "I am a proud friend of Israel." And I always will be.
Interestingly, he joins the newly government-interventionist wing of his party, hoping for an FCC crackdown:
The Bible says, "Silence the mocker and strife will cease," and this stunt pulled by HBO is just one more reason why I believe that the liberal, anti-God media needs to be brought under the strict control of the FCC, and that as soon as possible.
That's right, he wants the FCC to combat "anti-God media" by controlling such classically protected speech as the non-broadcast, paid-service HBO. Even weirder, he apparently thinks the FCC should also control e-mail transmissions:
I have received several e-mails today - a couple supportive, and five or six bashing me, using profanity, obscenity, and a threatening tone. (The threatening, obscene, and profane ones have been forwarded to the Federal Communications Commission, and official complaints have been lodged.)
Hey, Steven I! What's up, my nizzle? If it weren't Tisha B'Av, I'd welcome you back. Or maybe I can say "Hi," and then say nisht Tisha B'Av Gorelick. Or something. Anyway, Luke pointed out Okrent's piece in the times. My response/critique.
The Destruction That Didn't Happen. Tisha B'av, like some other fast days on the Jewish calendar, is all about historical wrongs perpetrated on the Jewish people, be they slaughters or lootings or what have you. It is appropriate on this Tisha B'av to recall the coming slaughter that just never came, the pogrom from The Passion of The Christ. At one of the syngagogues I stopped by today, I saw a fellow who'd dressed like a concentration camp prisoner in protesting The Passion, an act that seemed to me then, as now, a reflection of an inability to connect with the reality of the horrible, an insult to the memories of those who went through the Holocaust, and a jettisoning of the responsibility that we as a surviving generation hold. There is no moment in Jewish history wherein the nation so broadly and so loudly proclaimed a victimhood that never came, as was the year of The Passion. On a day in which we remember, in part, the atrocities of the Holocaust -- a recollection tainted by the protesting pajama-wearers -- the seriousness of claiming victimhood comes to the fore.
2 p.m. -- Rabbi Avi Weiss and Amcha-The Coalition for Jewish Concerns hold prayer service for Middle East peace and for endangered Jewish communities; Isaiah Peace Wall, First Avenue and 43rd Street.
Larry Yudelson writes: "Imagine if the New York Times treated Orthodox Judaism as seriously as it treats the pharmeceutical business. I think it would be good for the Jews. But I'm not so sure Avi Shafran would agree. Because when it comes down to it, Orthodoxy doesn't want to be treated seriously as a journalistic subject; it wants its claims of inerrancy to be treated unskeptically."
Protocols readers are in exile. Our comments feature is not working.
Thanks to the generosity of Larry Yudelson, you can click here and comment away to your heart's content about the destruction of the temples, needless hatred between Jews, Alana Newhouse, HAFTR girls, and pre-marital sex.
Protocols is mentioned in the latest Jerusalem Report. The cover story is Jew vs Jew. On page 45, a piece in In and Around column says, "...Luke Ford, a convert to Judaism and son of a Christian evangelical, maintains the site's (protocols.blogspot.com) quirky flavor on topics including his conversion and the insularity of Orthodoxy, as this "group of Jews endeavors towards total domination of the blogosphere."
Why haven't we seen divrei Torah comparing the destruction of the Temple to the potential destruction of Greater Israel? Or the delivery of a foreigner's sacrifice to the heart of the Jewish nation? It seems so basic, one wonders that it hasn't happened. Of course, it may have, in which case, send the links.
It is a striking observation, one that might evoke suspicions of historic, theologically based Christian antisemitism. But Soloveichik, a scion of an illustrious rabbinical family, has this to say about the nun: "She was right."
Chakira writes: Gordon Tucker was Hadassah Lieberman’s first husband. He is also the Dean who left JTS, refusing to divulge the identity of a student who had admitted to him that he was a homosexual. Now he is working with a guy named Elliot Dorff (@ the University of Judaism) to craft a teshuva permitting homosexuality.
I know personally half a dozen FFB young women who were so disgusted by the OU's cover-up of the R. Baruch Lanner situation (and by the Rebbe's lack of concern for Ethiopian Jews and by the lack of women's prayer groups in many frum shuls) that they tossed aside considerations of tzniut and went out and had biah outside of marriage. How can we expect our Jewish young people to refrain from relations outside of marriage as long as the Jewish press coddles our corrupt leaders? I know that this Jew, in fact, can not. And what about lashon hara? How can we bother girls about the lengths of their skirts (not to mention the wearing of shorts and mixed bathing) as long as there are persons in authority in the community who speak lashon hara? Frankly, because some of my leaders sin, I feel that that gives me permission to break any din I want. In separate interviews, Nina Hartley and Ron Jeremy told me that the only reason they got into ---- was because they knew Orthodox rabbis who spoke lashon hara.
HAFTR Grad writes: If you're at a school that is co-ed, you're usually there because you don't want the rabbeim that involved with your personal life.
The only time I remember a real intrusion based on tznius at HAFTR is when this very attractive girl did some modeling. She was, from what I know, pressured by the school to stop, and she did.
"Anyone who has any contact with Hebrew Day High School kids understands that the level of morality and modesty in both girls and boys has sunk to the lowest levels in our history.” And then, “In one high school that I visited, the age of sexually active girls was as low as the eighth grade. One young man in a reputable Hebrew Day High School proclaimed that his goal for his senior year was to ‘score’ with every freshman girl. Morality has sunk to levels in which we, as a united Jewish community, must cry out, ‘Will they make a harlot of our sister?’"
Can anyone tell me what Bradford R. Pilcher is talking about here? "That her writing is starkly personal and yet almost baroque in its evocativeness is stunning enough, but Kirshenbaum's storytelling power comes from her sense of narrative. For all its ruthless efficiency, the words are almost beside the point. That's true whether she's writing about the fall of the Berlin wall, as she does in an early story from History on a Personal Note or the travails of high school popularity in the 1970s, as she does in An Almost Perfect Moment. Kirshenbaum simply has an eye for the stories that make us human. Even when they are mundane, they are sublime."
Brad's self-description says he speaks around the country. Anyone heard him?
Steve Brizell writes: One wonders whether Ms. [Alana] Newhouse's classmates actually believe after 12 years of HAFTR that their definition of modesty/tznius is more "meaningful" than that set forth in Shas, Rishonim and Poskim. If this is the case, then this interview illustrates much of what ails Modern Orthodoxy. I would submit that someone who subsitutes their own definition of modesty and tznius in place of and instead of the definition offered by Chazal presumes that they know nore than Chazal. Moreover, the fact that Ms.Newhouse supposedly developed her mind at Barnard illustrates the danger in allowing the average child to attend and dorm in an environment shaped by post Modernism, MTV and and multiculturalism. The average MO HS grad can't handle the shock to their values, even if the kid goes to Israel.
Shmarya writes: I think what Steve is referring to is called moral relativism. But before one gets all worked up about what MO 18 year olds can or cannot withstand, one should first look at what their rabbis can or cannot withstand. Whether we look at the Baruch Lanner case and how the OU rabbinic leadership handled that, or the Helbrans case, or the Fuerst/Thomas case, etc., what we find is a rabbinic leadership that preaches a morality that it does not personally practice. The message to frum teens has been and remains clear: You behave modestly. Any rabbinic deviations from that modesty, especially deviations that effect you personally, are your fault, not the rabbi's. This corrosive attitude has at least as much to do with how teens behave as does the 'post-modern' values of universities. If the underlying message is that the rabbinate is an "Old Boys" network that protects it's own at all costs, it is not surprising to find teens and young adults who do not see the relevance of overcoming their physical desires, especially when the society at large glorifies those desires.
In short, fix rabbinic corruption. That will set a much better example than sweeping rabbinic dirt under the rug, and it will give Jews a real choice: Between a truly holy community where all are judged equal before the law and where the voice of an abused child or a poor man is as powerful as the voice of his rabbinic or wealthy abuser; and society at large.
As an example, look at Rabbi Willig. He himself is not an abuser, but he covered up for an abuser and persecuted his victims. True, he did apologize. But his action deeply and perhaps irreparably hurt many people. Should Rabbi Willig have been allowed to keep his job? Should he have been suspended for at least some time because of his actions? Was YU correct in allowing him to get off with an apology alone? What type of message does that send? That you can cover for a criminal rabbi and torment his victims and if you get caught your 'penalty' will be an apology?
Boy, that just makes me want to follow every jot-and-tittle of every rabbinic ordinance governing the minutia of my life -- not.
That is the rationale for the spin spewed by Avi Shafran, Marvin Schick, and the like. The problem is, eventually the dirt leaks out and spin won't cover it any more. You would think that by now, we would have learned.
"When are you coming back?" Those are the sweetest words you can hear when you leave a house. Particularly when they come from kids, because you know then that they are genuine. I visited a Jewish mom and her two kids Shabbos afternoon. The four-year-old girl and the eight-year-old boy wrestled with me on the couch. Then the girl wanted me to put her on my shoulders and walk her around the neighborhood with her mom and brother and two dogs. I got all tangled up. I left after an hour. As I was walking away, the little girl ran out and asked, "When are you coming back?" Most every time I leave the home, one of the two kids runs out and asks that. I remember my father drilled into me an opposite message from the book of Proverbs: "Remove your step from your neighbor's door lest he grow to hate you." Thus, I try to be sparing in visiting people, or even sending unsolicited email. Most of my social occasions are suggested by my friends rather than by me because I desperately don't want to come across as emotionally needy as I truly am.
Here's the lead paragraph: "When a University of Judaism (UJ) male administrator and a female student fell together from the second-story window of a Pico-Robertson apartment, hitting the concrete below and landing in the hospital, the story made the news and set community tongues wagging."
But there were no further details. The Journal never named names. But I will. The administrator concerned still works at the University of Judaism. His name is Dr. Amnon Finkelstein (an Israeli and a notorious womanizer). Why would UJ employ such a sexual predator?
If I had been the editor of the Journal, I would not have told my reporter to come back with a story about how good institutions deal with scandal. I would've asked her to investigate, among other things, why there have been so many inappropriate relationships between faculty, staff and students at UJ.
I heard from a woman Amnon dated. He was putting the full court press on her. She Googled him. I was the only site that named his involvement in this scandal. She decided to keep her distance from him.
An informed Jewry is a stronger Jewry. Do not place a stumbling block before the blind, Jewish Journal, by refusing to name names when the story calls for it.
"You ran a story about the male administrator [Dr. Amnon Finkelstein, dean of admissions] at the UJ who fell out of the window with a naked female student. Why didn't you name names?"
Long pause. "We've since found out all the sordid details, the names, everything, but at the end of the day, was this a Jewish community story or a story of three people who are Jewish having wild sex? We don't do stories on every Jew booked down at the County jail, or every Jew who commits adultery.
"We just moved on to other things. Gaby Wenig's story reflected the larger implications of the story -- when big institutions that promote Torah values have to deal with scandals that oppose Torah values. The police blotter... It was certainly salacious and would've gotten a lot of people to read the paper but at the end of the day, it was not the story. Now, if it were a UJ rabbi..."
I heard that Hilda Silverman, a peace activist who has taught at Harvard, was persona non grata at the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. Editor Jonathan Tobin says he has never heard of her.
Hilda writes me: Jan Hayden of Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine forwarded your request to me.
I have no particular recollection of having been singled out by the Jewish Exponent. What I remember from the 1980's (possibly going into the early 90's) is that in general, Jews with progressive positions on Israel/Palestine were effectively blacklisted from the paper. One person I know who was directly affected by this was Rabbi Brian Walt, at the time the Rabbi of Congregation Mishkan Shalom. He is now living in Martha's Vineyard, MA, and heads up Rabbis for Human Rights, North America. I believe that Arthur Waskow was also affected by this blacklist. Arthur is the head of The Shalom Center in Philadelphia.
In mid-1987 I was one of a small group of US Jews who traveled to Tunis to meet with Yassir Arafat and the rest of the leadership of the PLO. As I recall, the Philadelphia Exponent even published an article about the trip that wasn't particularly condemning of me for having done that. And I definitely remember that at the end of 1986 The Exponent published a quite favorable article about Sara Roy, a Jew who was knowledgeable about and committed to Palestinians living under occupation, particularly in Gaza, whom I had invited to Philadelphia to give a talk. So I think the more serious problems probably occurred after that. But again, I have no particular recollection that I, personally, was singled out. I wasn't important enough in the Jewish community for that, and I was living out of Philadelphia much of the time from mid-1987 through mid-1991, at which time I moved away permanently.
The most important works of fiction about the American Jewish experience in the past 100 years have been written by Chaim Potok. He tackled the serious questions, such as the ones about Judaism vs art in My Name Is Asher Lev. I think Potok makes later Jewish movelists look like dilettantes with their focus on the personal and their lack of tackling of the big issues, such as Biblical Criticism, Archeology and its challenge to traditional faith.
Smharya writes: "You've made a very important point. Why do you think things are this way?"
Luke replies: "Because of the growing narcissism of the post '60s world. Post '60s Jewish fiction deals principally with what makes the protagonists of their stories feel good (whether it is through secular or religious means, it still boils down to stories about individuals seeking their own happiness rather wider truths and a concern for how their behavior and choices affect the world). I converted to Judaism because I thought it was the best vehicle to making a better world."
This comes to us thanks to roving reporter Chaim Amalek from the New York Bureau:
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com A rite of paws-age BY AMY SACKS DAILY NEWS WRITER Friday, July 23rd, 2004
He didn't get to read from the Torah. But Simon, donning a prayer shawl and yarmulke, was surrounded by family, furry friends and platters of bagels as the Coton de Tulear recently celebrated his "bark" mitzvah.
"It's just another one of those things New York City dog owners do," said Simon's owner Beth Aronson, 27, a Manhattan sales executive. "He's a very socialized dog, and for him it was a happy occasion."
Religious-themed pooch celebrations are becoming increasingly popular around the city, even though they're not accepted in traditional circles.
"This is shtick," said Rabbi Andy Bachman of New York University's Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life.
It's not that Bachman, an animal lover himself, doubts that pets are God's creatures. "I'm just not quite sure they need or want a bar mitzvah," he said.
The ceremony doesn't quite match the real thing.
The dog of honor usually feasts on bone-shaped, all-natural cake and plays with stuffed toy dreidels and menorahs, while the humans light candles or share stories.
Jane Wallace from Syndey, Australia, writes to the Bangkok Post: "Almost half the adult population in Australia is single and the birth rate is declining to zero. We seem to have a huge surplus of extroverted, professional, social, party-loving females with huge amounts of money and a huge surplus of shy, introverted anti-social, unemployed males without any money. How can anyone pair off extroverted social females with introverted shy males? Is Australia creating it's own death?"
Fred writes: This is a testament to the great truth that women everywhere whine about the local males. Every Australian male I ever met seemed like a fairly entertaining fellow. Who the hell would marry the harpie who wrote this letter?
Chaim Amalek writes: The same situation holds for Japan, Italy, and (with respect to its shrinking white, Christian population) France and, I suspect, the rest of western europe. I blame lots of things, but let's start with higher education. It is a well known demographic fact that the better educated a woman, the fewer the children she is apt to have in her lifetime. Time spent in a classroom is time not spend fornicating and making babies. Women are at their peak of fertility the very years we pack them off to school to read Chomsky. Perhaps smart women should be granted tuition free university education - to begin after they have had three children.
That, and the state should act decisively to make television a less appealing form of entertainment. No more than three channels of entertainment, all to end broadcasting at 11 PM with the message "It is eleven o'clock; time for all patriotic people of european descent to begin reproductive fornication." Then there need to be ad slogans: "Ask your neighbor - What were YOU doing last night?" People should be encouraged to wear buttons boasting "I fornicated last night, and didn't use birth control. How about you?"
Those of you who know me know that I could go on and on and on about this. (By the way, all of these problems will vanish along with our numbers once the muslim population gets the upper hand and the code of Sharia is established over the West.)
Alana Newhouse writes in with her list of hot new Jewish authors: Myla Goldberg Gary Shteyngart Michael Chabon Rebecca Goldstein ("The Mind-Body Complex"!! Please read!!!) Allegra Goodman Jonathan Rosen Also, look out for Nicole Krauss. She's unbelievably good.
OK, here's my Jewish Lit syllabus. The list is a combination of work that I personally love -- Grade, Yezierska, P. Roth, Goldstein -- and work that I think is important Jewish fiction.
I.L. Peretz, "Between Two Mountains" S.Y. Abramovitsch, "Fishke the Lame" Sholem Aleichem, "Hodel" and "Chava" Henry Roth, "Call It Sleep" Abraham Cahan, "The Rise of David Levinsky" *** Anzia Yezierska, "Hungry Hearts" (TOTALLY UNDERRATED!) Michael Gold, "Jews Without Money" Chaim Grade, "Rabbis & Wives" or "The Yeshiva" I.B. Singer, "Satan in Goray" Bernard Malamud, "The Assistant" Saul Bellow, "Augie March" Philip Roth -- "Goodbye, Columbus," "The Counterlife," "Sabbath's Theater" Cynthia Ozick, "Envy; or Yiddish in America" Mordecai Richler, "Barney's Version" Michael Chabon, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" Jonathan Rosen, "Eve's Apple" Rebecca Goldstein, "The Mind-Body Complex" Nathan Englander, "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" Gary Shteyngart, "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" (for a great essay, see http://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/shteyngart_sp04.html) David Bezmozgis, "Minyan" from his short-story collection "Natasha"
Dr. Edward Alexander, English professor at the University of Washington, and Orthodox Jew, and former contributor to Commentary, writes:
Here are a few very fragmentary jottings. I am, by the way, reluctantly, against publicizing private problems of Jewish leaders.
Dislikes:
TIKKUN: came into existence as a kind of anti-Commentary, a journal whose motto might be "nothing antisemitic is alien to us." It also affords a relatively harmless outlet for the untidy passions of its founder and editor, the buffoonish Michael (of Meaning) Lerner.
FORWARD: I ceased subscribing to this shortly after Lipsky was dumped for his deviations from orthodox Jewish liberalism and replaced by Goldberg. There is something outrageous about a Jewish newspaper that employs as a regular columnist someone (Leonard Fein) whose great moment in life was being fed breakfast by Yasser Arafat. People do sometimes send me good things in the paper--the occasional piece by Cynthia Ozick or Ruth Wisse or Alan Nadler--but for the most part the Forward seems a Jewish-accented version of NYTimes fundamentalism, evident in its assumption that homosexuality and abortion are the great Jewish desiderata and that Judaism follows an arrow-straight course from Sinai to the left wing of the Democr. Party. Another irritating feature of the Forward is its beggar-like gratitude for any public demonstration of, or even allusion to, Jewishness by celebrities, especially Hollywood airheads.
Likes:
COMMENTARY remains indispensable, though I preferred it before I had become persona non grata there. It is the most potent and articulate voice for Israel, which certainly can use such voices, and for Jewish tradition.
JEWISH VOICE AND OPINION (of Englewood, New Jersey): Although graphically hideous, this paper provides a remarkable amount of useful material in nearly every issue, and its editor also has a winning sense of humor.
Dear Alana, I have a final theological question for you. How many inches above the knee would a dress have to be before you would consider the wearing of such in the Forward office to be a sin?
Alana Newhouse (pictured on top of the Forward office) replies: "A skirt more than four inches above my knee might make the people I work with uncomfortable and, as such, I'd avoid it. Not because I believe it's a sin against God -- I don't think God is scandalized by my thighs -- but because it's a sin against fellow human beings."
Mea Shearim West: Ashore, islanders dress modestly and expect tourists to do the same. (Women are advised to cover their shoulders and wear a long skirt or pants, although a colorful length of cloth wrapped around your waist and covering your knees – Polynesian pareu style – should suffice.) Tongan law, in fact, even prohibits men from walking around topless! . . .
Have you ever had a nightmare in which you accidentally turn on a radio on the Sabbath? I know I have. My other nightmare is that I am having sex with my wife and it turns out she is having her period. Then I race to the mikvah to purify myself and there's a pig swimming in it, wearing slutty clothes. The pig then talks to me, and tells me it will all be okay. What does it mean? What does it mean?
I just finished the biography "Sam Spiegel," who produced the movies The African Queen, On The Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. I could not get enthused about the book because the lead character was so despicable (liar, cheat, manipulator, selfish, extreme womanizer, lousy parent and friend).
I don't like to read (or watch movies or plays) about bad people unless they are terrific writers.
Yet, I find my adrenalin running highest when I'm writing on bad people. I get the most excited when I capture the human condition as its most despicable.
Do Jewish institutions have lower moral standards for accepting money than politicians? Apparently according to this Jewish Week article: "New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine wasted no time returning more than $80,000 of the billionaire developer’s campaign contributions. His New York colleague, Charles Schumer, gave some $4,000 of Kushner cash to charity, according to press reports.
"Kushner, who is known to write seven-figure checks to charity as easily as most people pay their phone bills, is unlikely to see one returned or uncashed in the near future, said Mark Charendoff, president of the Jewish Funders Network, which provides support services for grant makers."
Miriam writes: "If you one day woke up and discovered that by some strange turn of events, you weren't actually Jewish, would you convert back to Judaism? Much to my surprise, the majority said no, and the more religious they were, the more likely they were to say no."
Steven I. Weiss writes: Nice Jewish girls like sex, especially after marriage, so long as it doesn't happen too often, and is always for reproductive purposes. Nice Jewish girls like sex, except when it involves intercourse, or any oral or manual stimulation. Nice Jewish girls like sex, so long as they're not Jewish. Nice Jewish girls like sex, or at least the ones who'd wince at being referred to as "nice Jewish girls" do. Nice Jewish girls like sex, if by "sex" you mean: diamond rings they can be seen with and tell their friends about; flowers; candies; babies; fluffy pillows; teddy bears. Nice Jewish girls like sex, except they don't.
A reporter at a network affiliate TV station in Los Angeles read something I wrote about my first-hand experience with the recreational use of viagra and wanted to interview me. As I have never been married, I fear that if I give such an interview, it will desecrate the name of G-d in front of the goyim. On the other hand, it could be funny as hell, increase my dating prospects, and help me peddle some books. How does one weigh up an averah vs some shekels and shiksas? I need your guidance.
BTW, I used the viagra all alone and in a manner that transgressed no Torah laws. I was just scientifically curious.
"The leaders of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation-Council who were sometimes derided by Brin as machers or big shots responded by converting its monthly house organ, the Jewish Community Bulletin, into a subsidized weekly newspaper in competition with the independently-owned Jewish press of Los Angeles. The Bulletin's successor, the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, still requires an annual subsidy of more than $2 million in charity money."
I email Rob Eshman, editor of the Jewish Journal, about this. He replies: "We don't receive a subsidy from the Federation, not for two dollars, and not for two million.
"The Federation buys a dwindling number of subscriptions from us -- about 5K next year. The rest of our circulation (50-65 K) is distributed through other subs (including shuls and other orgs that also buy subs for donors or members) and free distribution."
Rob replies: "Do we expect writers and editors to familiarize themselves with Jewish institutions and sources, including the Federation, and use them to inform particular stories when appropriate? Uh, yes. Do we have some training agreement or understanding with the Federation? No. Do we train writers to be skeptical and verify and balance information any Jewish institution or source offers, and supplement their interviews with independent research and analysis, rather than just parrot every accusation or statement? Yes."
Dave Deutsch writes: Luke, your question about the elevators on shabbos reminds me of my army days, when after explaining the whole split hooves/cud chewing rule to my fellow Screaming Eagles (I wasn't keeping kosher, but I did not eat the flesh of the swine), they would sometimes ponder it for a moment, then exclaim triumphantly "Wait a minute, chickens don't have split hooves!" thinking that they'd figured out the flaw in the system that would bring the whole thing crashing down. Just as there was an explanation for that (different rules for poultry), there is one for your elevator conundrum.
There is a different between "using" and "making use." You may not turn on a light on shabbos, but you may enjoy the benefits of a light that is already turned on. Similarly, you may not push an elevator button, but if there is a shabbos elevator, which, prior to shabbos, is automatically set to stop on every floor, you may use it. Not all elevators, incidentally, are the same. Some elevators apply different levels of energy depending on the weight that they are carrying, in which case they can't serve as shabbos elevators because you're actually causing the energy to be expended (same principle with walking through an electronically opened automatic door on shabbos, you're not flipping a switch, but your presence is working it). From what I hear of your fluctuating weight problems, at any rate, you should probably just take the stairs.
As always, I'm happy to supplement your moral authority with the halachic authority afforded me by my Orthodox Day School education. Gut Shabbos, and if I don't communicate to you before Tuesday, have an easy fast.
Over the past few months, both Europe and many Muslim countries have claimed the moral highground over Iraq. They've attacked America for 'abusing' human rights, being anti-Muslim, interfering in another country's internal politics and being interested only in oil. So where are they all now, when it comes to Sudan? Has anyone heard the European leaders stand up for these victims of Arab militias? Where are the Arab and African states, defending Muslim villagers who are being systematically raped and driven out of their homes? As the London Timesconcludes,
It has been left to Washington to voice the world’s outrage and warn Sudan to halt its brutalities. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, has made clear America’s readiness to back moves in the United Nations to use military force to halt the attacks. Washington has called for a global arms embargo against the Janjawid and their allies, and would be ready to support calls by Human Rights Watch for sanctions against all Sudanese officials supporting the militias.
I hope the Americans take action, fast. I wouldn't rely on those European and Muslim hypocrites.
Cathy Seipp profiles the husband-and-wife team behind snopes.com, a website devoted to debunking urban legends. I checked out their religion section, and was pretty disappointed to find out that geologists in Siberia have not managed to drill down to hell, that marking 'Jedi' as your religion on census forms will not force your government to grant it official status, and that the physician who once placed dying patients upon a scale in order to measure the weight of the human soul never existed. No, hold on, that one is apparently true. OpinionJournal, by the way, picks up on another part of Seipp's article, in which she talks to folklore professor Jan Harold Brunvand about the media's role in spreading such urban legends.
"Brunvand, whose latest book is Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The Book of Scary Urban Legends (out in October), said that actually the media have been pretty good about correcting these tales. "But Brunvand added that 'Reuters is especially prone to circulating doubtful stories, especially those that have shown up in newspapers in faraway places. The Reuters story will just say, 'as reported in the such-and-such,' which is true enough, but they apparently make no attempt to verify or investigate the item.'
Does the Palestinian Authority qualify as 'faraway places'?
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