The Brits have left Northern Ireland. They did so because the IRA put down their guns and bombs. The IRA quit when they had their backs against the wall. Palestinians could learn a big lesson here.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) – The British army marked a milestone of peacemaking Tuesday as it formally ended its 38-year mission to bolster security in Northern Ireland.

The military’s longest-running operation officially was ending at midnight. But the symbolic moment came months after the reality – no British troops have been on patrol on Belfast streets for two years.

As of Wednesday, all 5,000 soldiers remaining in this long-disputed corner of the United Kingdom will be committed to training for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere overseas.

Analysts and ex-soldiers are debating whether British security forces defeated the outlawed Irish Republican Army, which waged a 1970-1997 campaign to overthrow Northern Ireland by force. But all sides agree the IRA’s 2005 decision to renounce violence and disarm has permitted British soldiers to beat their own retreat…..

Intelligence agents eventually built a detailed picture of the IRA, and undercover army squads wiped out several IRA units in ambushes in the 1980s and early 1990s – a brutal strategy that Dewar credits with spurring the IRA’s cease-fire.

The Israeli’s can learn a valuable lesson too. No concessions to terrorism, and ruthless pursuit and disruption of the terror infrastructure.

Of course one can argue that the West bank and Gaza are not Northern Ireland. Its true. But the Palestinians can get what they want when they stop terror.

Bustan is a non-denominational, multi-cultural, independent NGO that focuses on the intersection between health and environment in Israel’s Negev desert region. Founded in 1999 by Devorah Brous, the organization is in the process of undergoing some wide ranging changes. Key amongst those is Devorah’s passing the helm of leadership to Raed Almickawi, an Israeli Bedouin from the village of Tel Sheva (Israel’s first government planned Bedouin Village). Bustan’s activities are also going to be run out of their newly opened Green Technology Center in Beer Sheva. This Center’s mandate is to promote sustainable resource use in an area of the country that can be best described as Israel’s toxic toilet. The main beneficiaries of Bustan’s work will continue to be Bedouin villages that are off the grid as well as on the grid villages wishing to reduce their dependence on non-renewable resources. Bustan uses state of the art technology, resulting in affordable and easily replicable tools for sustainable resource use. Their work has attracted international attention and their new Center already boasts a cast of volunteers from several countries including South Korea, West Ghana, the US etc.

Devorah and Raed are pleased with their success but they do concede that this happened despite their old skool Web site. That’s how I met them – they called me to consult on the production of their new Web site, which they hope will be more user and search engine friendly. I couldn’t help but be moved by the scope of their work – environmental issues affect everyone regardless or race, creed or political orientation. Sure, they kind of exude this hippie vibe, and I hate all things hippie-esque, but they are just too damned effective to be real hippies – well at least the kind I loathe. Heck, Raed with his fancy glasses and neat-o jeans, would not look out of place at any Tel-Aviv high-tech startup! But I digress…

Bustan stands at the congruence of community development, social justice and environmental consciousness. The Israeli government and North American Jewish philanthropists have a big hard on for Negev development. Bustan reminds us all that such development ought not come at the expense of a sustainable future for both the land and its inhabitants. Right now, residents of the Negev are suffering from the effects of unenlightened development – Bedouins are reporting diminished sperm counts, Russian kids are experiencing increased cardio pulmonary disease and cancer rates are higher across the board. Of course, the correlation between development and disease hasn’t been conclusively proven – but come on, I’m not stupid. When you have people living amidst toxic sludge, shit’s going to happen. Bustan is encouraging the use of alternative resource use in that exact part of Israel that is being wantonly exploited for its resources. These are issues that ought to be of concern to anyone who cares about the continued viability of Israel. And let’s not even discuss the geo-political, let alone environmental implications of undue reliance on and addiction to oil…

Stay tuned for the launch of Bustan’s new Web site – and if you are in Israel you can attend any of Bustan’s activities. The Green Technology Center’s official opening is on September 6th, 2007 in Beer Sheva. Visit Bustan.org for further details! The open house will be very serious of course, featuring presentations by all kinds of very serious activist types – including Devorah who will recount the lessons she’s learnt from her 13 years of hard core, frontline activism – but it will also be fun and will include yummy organic food and traditional Bedouin music.

The center will feature films and workshops and seminars, and anyone interested in attending or even giving a lecture can simply contact Bustan at info@bustan.org. The center features an outdoor and roof top garden utilizing water recycled from sewage (grey water system – neat!). The garden will give Bustan the opportunity to discuss and implement Shmita-related issues (talk about sustainable development!). They also offer occasional Negev Unplugged tours giving you a real view of Bedouin culture. I mean, what the hell? Raed just told me he’s never been on a friggin camel, unlike pretty much every kid on birthright and every American tourist on a “Genuine Bedouin Experience!” Anyhow – go check them out!

And before you write that comment… I know you’re about to – Bustan is an organization that deserves our support. Bustan deserves the Israeli government’s support. Western countries are spending billions on research aimed at diminishing their reliance on carbon-based energy resources. Israeli Bedouins, loyal citizens who serve in the IDF, are allowing themselves to serve as research subjects into the implementation of the sorts of tools and technologies that will serve exactly those goals. This transcends politics and serves everyone’s best interest. So there.

Oh and I wanted to thank Devorah and Raed and Mike Dacks (Canadian/Israeli lawyer and Bustan Green guide) for taking the time to shoot the shit with me.

Okay, I have to say that these past couple of weeks have not been all that pleasant. Things always get a little adversarial when you express opinions and especially when those opinions take a particular side. Man, these posts, month after month, year after year, just keep drawing lightning. But there also has to be some pleasantness out there. We can’t always be in adversarial mode. We can’t always be in conflict about who believes what and what the right beliefs are, or engaged in political debate, or about the truth of this or the truth of that, or somebody’s conspiracy theory versus somebody else’s facts. We do it enough.

This is the post where we all go back to those childhood days where a lollipop was a precious treat and the sun coming out after a storm was magic and we didn’t yet know how right we are and how wrong they are. Everybody is good in this post, and the world is sunny, and the air smells fresh, and the trees look alive, and the lollipop tastes just right.

This is, officially, the NICE POST.

(image source)

This has been edited

The killing and genocide in Darfur is not the result of the Muslim government or its militias, according a new and shocking report from Sudan’s Minister of Defense, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein. (See below: I think he is the Sudanese Interior Minister)

Apparently, Jews are behind this whole thing, ynetnews reports:

The Darfur issue is being fuelled by 24 Jewish organizations, who are making the largest amount of noise over the issue, and using the Holocaust in their campaigning,” the Sudanese defense minister replied.

“Yes, they provide political and material support through their control over the media and across American and British circles,” Hussein said, adding that Jewish groups were using “all means to fuel these conflicts.”

He added that Western reports of 200,000 people dying in Sudan were false, and said: “We talk about 9,000 dead as a result of either government or rebel actions.”

There is just one big problem: This man accusing the Jews of behind behind the crisis appears as a Sudanese interior minister official in this article in the New York Times where
he did not blame the Jews.

Also an article in the Sudan Times names him as a Sudanese Interior Minister.

We also have reports that Jews are behind global warming, the rise in the price of noodles with beef in Western China, and bad television.

Well, at least we know that Sudan has become part of the Axis-of-blame-the-Jews-for-everything.

From one of the stars of Jewlicious Festival 3.0, in Long Beach, Eric Schwartz aka Smooth-E.

L-I-N-D-S-A-Y (Career Suicide)

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If the statistics are accurate, American Jewish men are not that much more likely to be married to non-Jews than are American Jewish women. We must then ask why ’shiksa’ is a household name, while ‘goy’ has no overtly sexual connotations, and is not used in reference to Jewish women specifically.

1) Stereotypes: The stereotypical Jew, in America, is smart and clever, rich if not all that attractive, coarse-featured and dark-haired. The stereotype works more to the advantage of Jewish men than Jewish women. Even if phrased in the most flattering way possible–’intelligent, raven-haired, petite’–the Jewish stereotype is not tall, blonde, and naive. Which is not to say that plenty of Jewish women do not fit that description. But it makes for a less involved plot line for movies and such if the gender roles mesh with the ethnic ones.

2) Storytellers: If both men and Jews are overrepresented among writers, directors, and so forth, we are hearing a disproportionately large number of stories about what Jewish men find sexy. Since observant Jews who stay within their communities are probably underrepresented among writers, directors, etc., there will be more stories about intermarriage than you’d get from a random sample of American Jewish men. Since we are also hearing more about what non-Jewish men like than we are about what any women like, it might seem like there’d be more about non-Jewish men and Jewish women. However, non-Jews of both sexes are probably less concerned with adding Jewish themes to the entertainment they produce.

3) Continuity: This is more about the Jewish community than movies. According to religious law, a Jewish woman’s children are Jewish, no matter who the father. So unless the father is devout, the panic is minimal. A Jewish man ‘led astray’ is seen as repopulating the gentile world at the expensive of the Jewish one.

4) Last names: The mother may determine if the child is Jewish or not within the Jewish community, but to all who have not discussed matters of faith with the mother, a child with a last name like Cohen or Rabinowitz is assumed Jewish, and will be referred to as such even if by some technicality this is not the case, even if this name comes from a great-great-great-grandfather. So much for matrilineality. When in conversation people (Jews or non-Jews) attempt to determine who is a Jew, they go by name, as the stereotypes mentioned above do not, of course, say much about reality. So in day-to-day life, you are more likely to find out that an acquaintance whose religion you do not know is the product of an intermarriage between a Jew and a non-Jew if the father is the Jewish parent than if the mother is. Thus it seems like there are tons more products of Jewish man-gentile woman pairings than the other way around.

5) Lust: Men are assumed to be making the decisions when it comes to initiating romantic relationships. More to the point, they are also imagined to be led by something other than their minds when making these decisions, whereas women are assumed to be more rational, if not pragmatic, in these matters. The community thus comes in to tell men where they should or should not put their anatomy. It’s seen as less acceptable to blame women for failing to lure Jewish men; a non-Jewish partner is presumed to be the result of no Jewish man having done any pursuing. The thought that Jewish women are lusting after non-Jewish men in particular is as unthinkable as the thought that women are lusting after men, period.

6) The ‘Singles Crisis’: It is said that men– of all faiths and ethnicities– have more options as they age than do women. Thus there are going to be more women than men at 40-plus Jewish singles events, as would be the case at a non-denominational version of the same. Since the Jewish community is preoccupied with ’singles’ and the inevitable accompanying events, it looks as though Jewish men don’t care, while the pious women remain. When it fact the men may simply be in relationships, quite possibly with younger Jewish women.

Cross-posted at WWPD.

Despite a string of unparalleled scholarly and professional successes, Noah Feldman has been ostracized by his former yeshiva. He decided to pair off with a non-Jewish woman (specified as Korean-American, as if race, not faith, were the issue, and Annie Hall would have been just fine) and the school’s official alumni newsletter cropped his fiancée out of a group photograph. He still has friends from his yeshiva days, but does not have the school’s blessing.

Considering that I wrote an article advocating an end to the war on intermarriage in the United States, you might expect that I would be appalled by the yeshiva’s actions. The weirdness of photo-cropping aside, I cannot say that I am. Orthodox Judaism has its interpretations of Jewish law, and no one ever claimed that they were fun to obey. Feldman’s complaint that the Orthodox establishment hasn’t welcomed his fiancée, petty matter of religion aside, is akin to someone choosing to attend a school with a core curriculum, then decrying the injustice of being forced to take certain classes. The difference, of course, is that Feldman was born into this community, and thus never chose to enter it. But while it is reasonable for Feldman to ask for his family’s acceptance, and perhaps that of his close friends, he’d be better off cutting his losses and being glad that the country in which he is thriving is not one run by Orthodox Jews. The problem is when Jewish organizations or individuals order other Jews not to intermarry, as though this in itself is all that matters, as though ethnically or halachically ‘Jewish babies’ are the end in themselves. There is nothing wrong with Orthodox Judaism making this demand in the context of so many others, so long as there are options for those who choose to disobey, as there are in contemporary America.

As Gary Rosenblatt points out on the JTA website, there’s something missing from Feldman’s tale of woe. “For all of Feldman’s candor in the essay, he has nothing to say about where he fits into the community, if at all; whether he wanted his wife to convert; whether they are raising their children as Jews or not; or his feelings about all this. He only owes us such information if he wants our understanding and empathy, which clearly he does.” This is key. Feldman never mentions how he came to having a non-Jewish fiancée in the first place. Was he open to the idea all along, or was this just the woman for him? Does he feel that in intermarrying he is doing something immoral, and if not, would he go as far as to suggest that Orthodox Judaism sanction it in all cases, not just those of law professors who’ve done their yeshiva proud?

One aspect of Feldman’s essay was predictable. (more…)

Not long ago I posted on New York’s hottest Jewish web video scenester Ilana Donna. This week, the Amaldo.com vlogger steps it up a notch this week with her pop culture round-up, once again giving us All the news that’s fit to capture on video including talk of Spice Girls reunion, Nicole Ritchie’s fertility, and Lindsay Lohan’s latest DUI. And for naysayers proclaiming you read all this in last week’s “US Weekly,” when’s the last time you saw Spice Girls hit single “Wannabe” sung freestyle?

Wait. Did I or did I not use “freestyle” correctly here? Eh. Who cares. Just watch the video, k.

The following is an explanation of my post which appears below.

The following is an explanation of my post which appears below.

Sherwin Wine did not believe in Heaven. For that matter he did not believe in Gehena either. So if Wine was right—he is not around in body or soul to see the great mourning that has accompanied his death by his followers and admirers. If Wine was wrong—his soul is now being judged, and he can see all of his co-religionists in their earthly dimension mourn his passing. If Wine was wrong, his soul is still alive, yet he cannot communicate his error to his flock. Wine will go to heaven – Kol yisrael yesh lahem chelek l’olam haba – I am not implying anywhere that he will not go to heaven.

The irony of Sherwin Wine’s fiery death last week does not stop there, and perhaps due to my writing was clearly lost on our readership and for that I apologize.

In synagogues across the world – except for Israel which is a week ahead of us – we read the Ten Commandments and the Shma. The Ten Commandments are part of the basis for Western Civilization. The Shma is part of the foundation for monotheism and Jewish belief. Sherwin Wine disposed of the Shma, and revoked the special nature of the Ten Commandments.

Students of Jewish history cannot escape the realization that belief in the oneness of God, and rejection of worship of many gods, is at the root of Jewish identity and belief. Whether you eat rice on Passover or not, celebrating Passover is evidence of a historic Jewish belief in God. Even the Jews that rejected the authority of the Rabbis, and became separated from the Jewish people – believed in God. The Jews that lived in pre-mishnaic Ethiopia, held fast to their belief in the oneness of God. The Jews that were sent into exile, the Jews that survived the centuries of subjugation and estrangement – held fast to their belief in God, even as their observance undulated.

Many Jews do not believe in God, and I do not judge them. We have free will to believe in whatever we want. We have freedom to do and say and practice as we please. We also have the responsibility to be intellectually honest.

Sherwin Win did not found the “Society for Humanist Jews.” In other words, a group of Jews that deny the existence of God and want to organize themselves around principles of Secular Humanism.

Wine founded the “Society of Humanist Judaism,” which created a new set of religious beliefs in stark and obvious contradiction to Judaism, and labeled it Judaism. In fact he believed it replaced Judaism. He denied nearly every pillar of Jewish religious belief— whether part of Reform, Conservative, Orthodox—and substituted fundamental elements of Judaism for his own version of Secular Humanism. Then using his great charisma and oratory skills attracted many followers and adherents to his new religion.

Many Jews, ignorant of Judaism, latched on to Wine as a spiritual leader. He inspired deep affection, loyalty, and admiration among his adherents. In the 1999 he started to “ordain rabbis.” [The previously published assessment of his rabbinic training has been removed —why bother trying to prove that these humanist rabbis do not have proper training when they are being trained in Sherwin Weinism – and not Judaism?]

Growing up in Detroit, I had a very good view of the entire endeavor. I watched as Wine’s Temple took in Jews and non-Jews with broken families, intermarried families, and families of Jews who had no affiliations, and converted them to his religious convictions. He told them they were part of a New Jewish movement that had transcended the need for the Torah and God, and evolved into a “new and improved” form of Judaism.

I cannot escape the deep irony of what happens when a leader of a secular movement that rejects the very history of the religion they’re trying to represent reaches heaven. Kol Yisrael Yesh Lahem Chelek L’Olam Haba – Everyone is Israel has a part of the world to come.

I have no way of knowing what the contents would be of a actual conversation but just as Wine would have believed that there is no such conversation, I have every right to believe that such a conversation would take place and it would be dripping with irony.

If you have an open mind – consider reading further.

Sherwin Wine was killed on Shabbat while riding in a Taxi in Morocco. He was 79.
Here is an imagined conversation of Sherwin Wine at the Holy Gates.
(more…)

ROI 2007 Alumna Inbal Freund and her group held a demonstration today as part of the ICAR coalition for agunot and mesoravot get which includes 25 organizations. From Inbal at Mavoi Satum:

The ministerial committee dealing with legislation has approved a proposed law to broaden the authority of the rabbinic courts. It aims to increase the court’s mandate by giving it jurisdiction over matters of property as well as regarding issues applicable after the get (religious divorce) is given… As it stands at the moment, giving a get is used as a form of blackmail. The broadening of the court’s authority will simply increase the use of this blackmail with the backing of the rabbinic courts. The proposed motion is part of a worrying process giving extended powers to the rabbinic courts at the expense of womens’ rights.

According to Inbal, the proposed law was passed by the ministerial legislative committee but an appeal was lodged against the law by MK’s Herzog and Aharonovich. A decision regarding the appeal will be made today at the Knesset. In opposition to this proposed law, Inbal and her group held a demonstration today opposite the Prime Ministers office in Jerusalem. About 50 people showed up, most dressed in white and many bound to each other in handcuffs, symbolizing the plight of religious women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce, thus preventing them from remarrying and having more children.

This sort of thing makes me nuts. It reminds me about what a hit the Jewish people took from the Holocaust. How many bold Torah scholars did we lose? How many true Gedolim were reduced to ash, thus leaving the evolution of religious Judaism to lesser individuals – individuals too scared of clearly anachronistic tradition to make any real progress in an issue as clear cut as this. Surely if they can determine to scientific precision what length of sleeve or skirt constitutes tznius (modesty) – how much flesh can be exposed before surrounding men’s imaginations go into lust inspired hyperdrive – well then surely a halachic solution to this issue can be found.

Now I’m no Torah scholar, but it seems to me the mitzvah of going forth and multiplying takes precedence over whatever retarded rationale allows a woman of child bearing years to have her womb remain fallow while her asshole husband remarries and refuses to grant his first wife a divorce. The Rabbis say there’s nothing they can do about that – perhaps instead of bringing handcuffs as props, Inbal and the protesters should have brought limp dicks.

Anyhow, lots of press was there, both domestic and international and I am sure you’ll read more about this issue in the coming hours and days. You should also visit Mavoi Satum’s Web site for more info.

No, the title of this post isn’t a cheeky reference to that Israellycool feature that pits images of two random international personalities side-by-side for facial comparison. It’s an homage to Scottish singer Paolo Nutini and the psycho who compiled this image gallery of a video on Youtube. Right. So what does this all have to do with Jewish culture? It just so happens that the Nutini video montage also features audio of the singer doing a cover of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab. And after listening to this cover, you’ll be hard-pressed to find two other white people (and one Jewish at that) who do Soul as well, at least in today’s emerging music scene.

So whatcha gonna do tonight now that the Sabbath Queen has departed us for another week? Well, Shemspeed is about to launch some kind of bad ass (Jew?) Web site. In order to celebrate this launch, they are inviting people to party with them at at Joe’s Pub with the most amazing Jewish roots reggea/afro beat band around, Shem’s Disciples (that’s what they claim…). Yuri Lane, Jake Break, dj handler and Y-Love will all be performing as well. Check out this youtube video for some pretty interesting beat boxing (click here). Oh, also the show will be aired on the CBS Morning Show, so don’t miss it if you wanna see yourself on TV. Fun-O-Ramma! Joe’s Pub is at 425 Lafayette St. in NYC, the doors open at 11pm and the cover is $12.

But I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “What do I do afterwards? You know, like if I don’t score with some hottie?” You can go to a real, genuine “Hip Hop and Urban Art Party” at Adam Courtney’s loft. The rooftop party will involve some “verbal graffiti” and some hip hop MCs. Collision Machine, the dudes running the party promise the following:

Weather Permitting we’ll be partying rooftop style with TONS of MC’s, DJ’s, poets, rappers and musicians, and visual artists. The event is free, but we’ll be selling of beer to raise money for future events. Please help spread the word. Also, feel free to bring a natural instrument for the slammin freestyle jam session/ drum circle. Much love and we’ll see you there.

Slammin Freestyle! Who can resist this last chance to get laid and or shnackered in the Big Apple? Here’s how you get there:

Directions: L train to Dekalb Ave. Walk 1 block to Hart St. We are on the
corner across from the Ctown grocery. 97 Wyckoff Ave 2nd flr and the roof!

Good to see our little yiddles make the most of their Networking Opportunities. And I really mean that – I’m not being snarky, because like hip hop unites man. “It unites people, breaks down barriers, empowers youth, and instills vision. Through education, tolerance, and communication we encourage a lifestyle of selflessness to create an environment of peace for worldwide communities.” Man. I wish I was in New York tonight!

Tel Aviv being founded in 1909

Shabbat shalom everybody.

Cross-posted at WWPD.

It’s promising news that Sarkozy wants to bring Israel into the monde francophone. Given the rates of French Jewish emigration, someone’s bound to write a super-important Israeli novel in French, one worthy of lengthy discussion on one of those intellectual TV shows for which France is renowned. If such a book already exists, by all means let me know.

This, along with Sarkozy’s involvement in the case of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whose French citizenship was up till now considered a minor detail, is a sign that the new administration is willing to acknowledge a new, if ambiguous, French-Israeli identity, rather than forcing France’s Jews to choose either-or. That one could be both French and Israeli, not just according to paperwork but also culturally and linguistically, challenges what it means to be either in some interesting ways. French, because of France’s aversion to hyphenation, and Israeli, because what does it mean for the Zionist idea of aliyah if you can spend half the year in Paris?

From the European Jewish Press:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy assured Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, that he would continue to strive to enter Israel into the International Organization of French-speaking countries.

Prasquier had a meeting with the president earlier this week at the Elysée palace.

The Paris-based 63-member Organization of Francophone Countries, or Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, is headed by Senegal’s former President Abdou Diouf since 2002.

After serving as a politician in his native country for more than 40 years, the 71-yar-old Diouf replaced Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt.

The next summit meeting of the organization will be held in Quebec, Canada in 2008.

Most of the organization’s members are former French colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, though it has expanded in recent years to countries in Eastern Europe that have traditional or cultural ties to France, like Romania, Bulagria and Macedonia.

Some 400,000 French-speaking live in Israel.

Sarkozy also confirmed that he has invited Israeli President Shimon Peres to Paris in March 2008 in the framework of the opening of the 28th book fair. Israel will be the guest of honour at this annual event.

We survived the three weeks but are not out the hot water.

Israel continues to finance Hamas’s deposed Prime-minister. Polluted beaches keep swimmers out of the Kinneret. Divisive religious and political issues continue, denying domestic harmony to couples that want to marry. Tony Blair has been appointed as a Mid-East Peace broker. Syria occupies over one hundred square miles of Lebanon, but no-one cares. Hizbullah has rearmed with serious missiles. Hamastan continues to fire rockets into Israeli homes. Bets are on Hamas to take over the West Bank too, meaning that all the money and arms that have been shipped to Fatah in the West Bank will fall into the hands of Hamas — just like the armaments in Gaza did. The Union for Reform Judaism and others are against a bill in Knesset that would keep JNF-KKL lands for the Jewish people (more on that soon).

However there is good news on the horizon, it seems: American Pension Funds pressure Oil Companies on Iran links, The USA says it is actiging against groups aiding Hizbullah, and a new book predicts that Israel will, against all odds, survive.

Imagine a day where armies pause from fighting, where warring factions have a day of truce, where aid and help can be transported into war-torn areas without fear, and you start to understand the idea behind Peace One Day. Then try to convince the United Nations to adopt a single day to promote peace.

No blame. No pointing fingers. Not a day of protest. Check out the video for more.

If you need help or ideas for creating a Peace One Day program in your shtetle you can check out PeaceOneDay.org or holler back at your Rabbi Yo here on the comments.

Get out of bed, cry out in the night; pour out your heart like water before the face of Hashem…(Eicha 2:19)

Todays is a national day of mourning observed for nearly 2000 years on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem. Basically, both Temples were destroyed because of human error. There was no computer malfunction. There were no acts of “god”. There was no overloaded control systems, and no faulty wiring.

While human nature is to always blame others when things go wrong – the Jewish way of remembering the human error which destroyed the Temples is to accept responsibility for what happened. And I don’t mean in the “I take full responsibility for what happened” way that public figures say when they are caught cheating, which almost sounds like they are sorry, but they are not. No, we actually accepted responsibility for the errors, established a day of mourning and fasting, and seek atonement even today.

And while much attention is rightly focused on the destroyed city of Jerusalem and other national tragedies over the last 20 centuries, the only way to go about fixing the errors is with corrective action today and in the future. The past human errors cannot be erased. Only future human error can be avoided. The human error which caused the hard drive to crash and meltdown, the security breach, the data loss, and the system malfunction, can be fixed with a simple do-it-yourself patch, and software upgrade.

The patch is Ahavas Yisroel aka love your fellow Jew i.e. network sharing and open sourcing , and the the upgrade is available by free download. Simply pour out year heart like water before God about so much trouble in the world – your own, your peoples, the world’s – and the software will be installed automatically.

Gawker takes a swipe at…
Here’s the time line… the Associated Press ran a story last Tuesday about the release of the latest and final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Like previous releases, all the bookstores that sell the book have to agree to release it simultaneously, and in Israel that was on Saturday at 2:01 am – on the Sabbath. The article noted that Israeli law requires most businesses to remain closed on the Sabbath (obviously the author hasn’t been to Tel Aviv or Haifa…) and that the usual suspects from the Israeli ultra-Orthodox political parties took great offense at this desecration. Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai, head of the Orthodox Shas party, threatened to fine any book store that opens Saturday in order to sell the Harry Potter book. Avraham Ravitz of the United Torah Judaism Party, who probably never read a Harry Potter book, stated that “We don’t have to be dragged like monkeys after the world with this subculture, and certainly not while violating our holy Sabbath.” OK, Fine. That reaction was to be expected. Steimatzky, Israel’s largest chain of book stores planned a big Friday night blowout at its Tel Aviv location, but as far as I know, none of the Jerusalem stores were open.

Then along comes Gawker… Gawker is one of the leading New York-based blogs. Gawker is also arguably the biggest, baddest Jewish blog – last year the Forward listed Gawker Editors Jessica Coen and Jesse Oxfeld amongst its 50 most important Jews in America. Anyways, the Wednesday following the AP story, Gawker editor Alex Balk wrote a post on the whole Harry Potter, Sabbath in Israel thing, adding a typical New York secular Jew slant:

Some stores are planning to open anyway—these are Jews, let’s remember, and a buck’s a buck—which has resulted in predictable outrage from the more Adonai-adoring elements of Israeli society. Avraham Ravitz of the United Torah Judaism Party slammed the Potter books for their “defective messages.” … Not to get all Hitchens on you, but isn’t this exactly how some of us feel about, you know, the Bible and its subculture of weird, tallis-wearing followers? Give us this wizard any day. (Actually, don’t, we’re fucking grown-ups, but you get the point.)

So along comes Mark Caro, an entertainment columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He cited the Gawker piece, which he found to be “stupefying in its casual offensiveness,” and concluded that the folks at Gawker could be real schmucks sometimes. Of course Heeb magazine, cited in Caro’s article, quickly took the bait and joined in the fray (gotta love RSS and Google alerts – as if anyone at Heeb ever reads the Chicago Tribune!). They predictably chided Caro for being a fuddy duddy. And Heeb Editorial Director Rebecca Wiener lusted over Caro’s cool photoshopped clip art icon. Gimme a call Rebecca, we’ll whip something up for you… but I digress.

Gawker responded to Caro’s criticism by stating that they weren’t being ironic at all – they were in fact “writing about life in a theocracy … But now that you mention it, yeah, we really hate the Jews too.” Given that Gawker isn’t exactly Judenrein, this time around I think they were in fact being ironic, unless of course you go by what one of the commenters on Caro’s column stated:

I read Gawker daily and enjoy it – but yes, it frequently veers into anti-Semitism. That’s because its editors believe its readership are leftwing, self-hating Jews, for whom anti-Semitism equals self-affirmation. In reality, however, its readers are not nearly as leftwing (and hence anti-Semitic) as they think.

Later that day, Gawker responded to the Heeb post, and more specifically to the negative comments it inspired, and issued a tongue in cheek apology:

Dear Jew,

We are sincerely sorry for offending your delicate Jew sensibilities. Yes, it’s true, there are a few Jews here in the office—we’ve crunched the numbers, and four out of five Gawker editors have at least some Jew blood in them (not on them!)—and we do think that gives us the right to make Jew jokes. But you know what? None of us are Irish, thank God, and we still knock the micks every now and again. We’re kinda of the opinion that the idea of ethnicity and its accompanying stereotypes are inherently hilarious. So, sure, we may not know a lot about life in Israel—do you guys still eat the Palestinian kids after your tanks run them over, or did you stop that once Rabin came into office? Do we still send Israel billions of dollars a year?—but, guess what, we think the comical ways in which your Jew country kowtows to the craziest Jew elements of crazy Jewiness could not be funnier. Hope that’s okay!

Shalom,
Balk

Finally, on Friday, as if to milk this issue for all it was worth, Gawker followed up with a diagram that shows things about the Jews that are funny – included in this brilliant, self-deprecating list were the following: Giant Noses (6/10 on the humor scale), Cheapness (8/10), Domineering Mothers (5/10), Comical Hats and Beards (4/10), Constant Bitching about Anti-Semitism (9/10), Love of Chinese Food (4/10), The Holocaust (2/10) etc.

Nice! Balk, brought in by Gawker owner Nick Denton to replace Jesse Oxfeld and broaden Gawker’s user base, doubtlessly scored points with the boss by resorting to crude Der Stürmer-like characterizations of money grubbing Jews with their weird rituals and observances. I like a good self-referential joke as much as anyone, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at the cluelessness of my holy brothers in New York who have no idea what Israel is really like. Thousands of copies of the latest Harry Potter book were sold on Saturday throughout Israel – not that I approve, as Balk noted, we are fucking grownups after all. The Jerusalem Post correctly noted that Jerusalem residents wishing to purchase the book could do so in east Jerusalem from an Arab-owned book store. It was also reported that an unnamed Jerusalem Rabbi stated that Sabbath observant Jews could get the book if it “is paid for before Shabbat, no Jews work in the store, and the store did not open specifically for Jews.” But how could one really expect Gawker to resist poking fun at their weird Jewish co-religionists living in that odd, shitty little country?

Never mind that in this theocracy, if you wanted to, you could have easily gotten the friggin book. Afterwards, while the whacky Jews wore their tallises and recited their Sabbath prayers, you could have gone and enjoyed breakfast shrimp and bacon at Bolinat in the center of town. This could then have been followed by a nooner with a non-Jewish Norwegian nympho that you met at a party at Hebrew U. You could have gone at it for a while and still have made it on time for seudat shlishit at the Brodt’s. In other words, Gawker’s humor fell flat. Anyone who knows Israel would not have found it funny as Gawker’s depiction of our country is deeply inaccurate. But whatever, I don’t want anyone to make fun of me! Perhaps what we ought to do at this point, is read about The Coming Jewish Schism by Joey Kurtzman, an editor over at Jewcy. “Coming” Joey? It’s already here.

Too depressing this close to Tisha B’Av where some of us fast and read the book of Lamentations? Well then, you can read another article in Jewcy – Harry Potter Gets Laid, a review of certain choice bits of Harry Potter fan fiction. And the best part? You don’t have to go to East Jerusalem to get it. Well that and the part where Hermione and Draco get it on.

No I’m kidding. It’s awful. It’s all awful.

Dame Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas got it right. Big Girls Don’t Cry

But do they get piss poor drunk (for the umpteenth time), forget their lines onstage, proceed to say “F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!” while repeatedly hitting their head with a microphone, and then proceed to spit at the crowd after being a no-show at several other scheduled live gigs in the past few months?

So Amy Winehouse is back in the media whirlwind for her behaviour while onstage at the Eden Project this week. While Amy’s actions have been linked to the two bottles of Champagne, two bottles of Jack Daniels, and two bottles of red wine found in her trailer, one has to wonder if she’s trying to conceal something a bit bigger. Like maybe this girl with the amazing voice is simply a manufactured product of a British recording studio. Conspiracy theories aside, the self-destructive rockstar diva bit is getting old.

Until I attended the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in San Diego, I had never heard of David Harris. There is a photography gallery on the top floor of the museum which includes the work of some photographers like Neil Folberg, Dubi Tal and David Harris. A number of Harris’s photos were historical in nature and very interesting.

According to his CV, Harris has spent many years of his life as a professional photographer in Israel. For 1961, he lists Special assignment as head photographer to the Judean Desert excavation, Head of expedition prof. Y. Yadin. Trying to find out what Yigal Yadin was doing then was challenging but Google brought up the Israel Antiquities Authority Website which describes the excavation as a survey of the Judean desert.

Thanks to the inexhaustible energy of J. Aviram, the director of the Israel Exploration Society (both then and now) and the connections of Professor Yadin, the survey project of the caves in the southern Judean Desert was undertaken in 1960 and 1961. Ben Gurion was convinced of the importance of the endeavor and instructed the Israel Defense Force to lend its full support to the success of the project. Four expeditions led by Professor N. Avigad, Professor Y. Aharoni, Pesach Bar-Adon and Professor Y. Yadin carried out the survey and it was not long before numerous finds were revealed. In a cave in Nahal Se’elim they uncovered many papyrus fragments and an ancient tefillin scroll; in Nahal Mishmar the hoard of copper implements dating from the Chalcolithic period was found; In Nahal Haver, the Cave of Horrors was excavated where many artifacts were discovered dating from the time of the Bar Kokhba uprising, including numerous skeletons that belonged to the last of the rebels; in the Cave of Letters located in Nahal Haver, scroll fragments were uncovered, but by far the most important find from there is an archive of the residents of Ein Gedi that included a packet of fifteen documents of Bar Kokhba and the personal letters of Babata Bat Shimon that have contributed so much to our understanding of daily life in southern Judea and Transjordan during the period between the two revolts. And finally, in the extensive excavations conducted by Professor Yadin on Masada, they discovered scrolls in the different excavation areas, among them parts of the Books of Genesis, Leviticus, Chronicles, Ezekiel, Psalms, the Ben Sira Scroll, the Thanksgiving Scroll and the Book of Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice.

One of the scrolls at the exhibition was of a contract from the Bar Kokhba era and while I wouldn’t swear to it, I am pretty sure I saw signatures on it below the contract script. David Harris was the official photographer for the survey which would have discovered that scroll.

As Harris’s website shows, he has captured some seminal moments in Israel’s history and when I saw one of them in the gallery (I don’t recall the price), I immediately thought about posting it here one shabbat.

This amazing image shows the first shabbat at the Western Wall after the 1967 War ended. The Jordanians who had controlled the Old City since 1948 lost it in the Six Day War to the IDF. In 1948 the Jordanians and Palestinian units fighting alongside them conquered east Jerusalem and the Old City. The remaining Jews, of what had been less than half a century earlier a Jewish majority, were evicted from the Old City and east Jerusalem. Through 1967 not a single Jew was permitted to enter east Jerusalem and therefore none had access to the Western Wall, just outside the holiest site in Judaism.

This photo shows the first shabbat since 1948 when any Jews would have been able to visit, see or pray at the Western Wall since the War of Independence. From my research on the ‘67 War, I have to think that prior to the War, most young Israelis wondered whether they’d ever see the Western Wall in their lifetimes and older Israelis probably thought they would never see it again. This photo was taken about 40 years + about 6 weeks ago.

The second image by Harris I discovered by browsing his site. I find it interesting not because Yadin was balding, but because it shows Yigal Yadin with what I am guessing is a wrapped scroll before they opened it. This is probably taken around the time of the survey in 1961. For all we know, this could be one of the Bar Kochba era documents.

Shabbat Shalom!

Over 1 million words and 43,800 comments…
But you’ll have to wait until after Shabbat for a thoughtful post on that issue. Suffice it to say it’s been a trip. Thanks for putting up with us. Shabbat Shalom…

Folks Songs for Far Out Folk – Fred Katz
Let me begin by stating the following – I don’t like Jazz. I don’t like Communists. I don’t like secular Jews, and I sure as hell don’t like the fucking cello. That having been said, I can’t stop listening to this CD. Reboot Stereophonic’s 4th album release is a reissue of Folk Songs for Far Out Folk, conducted by this crazy man called Fred Katz, first recorded way back in 1959. In theory, this is an album that offers Jazz renditions of classic American, Jewish and African folk songs. In reality this represents a mindfuck of unparalleled proportions. What else can you expect from the mind of a guy who is described as a Kabbalist, a recovering atheist, part time Buddhist and currently a Deist? He’s an agoraphobic professor emeritus at Cal State Fullerton and like all old crazy guys, he’s clearly lived large – he studied cello with Pablo Cassals, scored Roger Corman movies, worked as an A&R man for Decca Records, worked as the first cellist in Jazz with the Chico Hamilton Quintet, worked on stupid albums with Sidney Poitier (Sidney Poitier??) and Harpo Marx (Harpo Marx????), and hung out with a young Tony Bennet.

Seriously, this is going to be the shittiest review ever because I simply do not have the words to describe the compelling insanity of this record. The liner notes, which include the original 1959 liner notes and accompanying poetry as well as new notes put together by Josh Kun put the CD into some sort of context – which means really, no context. Fred Katz produced music that rocks harder than ACDC, is trippier than the Chemical Brothers and more fucked up than the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Frank Zappa put together. If you don’t immediately love this, you have no soul. I have no idea where those reboot stereophonic guys find this stuff.

Thanks to David Katznelson from reboot stereophonic, who I recently met at a Wexner event in Jerusalem (birthright israel for old people) for zapping this album over to me so quickly. You can buy it from the reboot stereophonic Web site. Do it before it sells out loser. It’s only $12.95!

Just for the falafel of it?
Singer / Songwriter Michelle Citrin, an ROI 2006 alumni, in Israel on a Livnot trip, will be performing in Tel Aviv on Sunday, July 22nd.

Joining her will be Lindsay Litowitz dancing backup as well as folk rocker Amit Erez. The show will take place at Tsuzamen on 25 Lilienblum street. Admission is a measely 20 shekels and based on her past shows in Israel, a good time should be had by all.

For more info on Michelle Citrin, please visit her Web site at MichelleCitrin.com and as for the show, check out the Facebook event page – show starts at 10 pm!

Who? Pay attention. I’m pretty sure this boy is going places. Marty, the author of Generation S.L.U.T.: A Brutal Feel-up Session with Today’s Sex-Crazed Adolescent Populace and a writer for magazines like Penthouse, Rolling Stone, etc. first came to my attention as a participant on our first Jewlicious Taglit-birthright israel trip. Recently he returned to Israel as a participant on ROI120. In the following video clip, we see Marty quip the light fantastic on some dumb ass Fox Television show. He’s got potential I think, can his own talk show be far behind? Stay tuned!

This is not good for any society, but it should cause great worry in a small country such as Israel. This is a social fabric issue but also bad for politics where some people could influence the politicians far beyond their numbers relative to the population.

By comparison, in the US, the top 0.5% of the population controls 11% of income.

Business Data Israel (BDI) reports that Israel’s 19 wealthiest families controlled an aggregate NIS 248 billion in revenue in 2006, 34% of the NIS 722 billion earned by the country’s 500 largest companies altogether. This is BDI’s third annual concentration index on concentration in the Israeli economy.

BDI adds that the aggregate income controlled by the 19 families equaled 88% of the government budget of NIS 283 billion, and over half of the business product of NIS 457 billion.

Business Data Israel (BDI) reports that Israel’s 19 wealthiest families controlled an aggregate NIS 248 billion in revenue in 2006, 34% of the NIS 722 billion earned by the country’s 500 largest companies altogether. This is BDI’s third annual concentration index on concentration in the Israeli economy.

BDI adds that the aggregate income controlled by the 19 families equaled 88% of the government budget of NIS 283 billion, and over half of the business product of NIS 457 billion.

Current exchange is about 4.25 shekels to the dollar.

source: Globes