"Thou shall not steal bases"

Red Sox players provide more evidence of the escalating growth (and influence) of evangelical cristianity:

The Boston Globe:

...As the Sunday baseball crowd streamed into the park less than an hour before the defending world champions played their 128th game of the season, a dozen members of the Red Sox -- the largest group of evangelical Christians on any team in Major League Baseball -- joined an equal number of coaches and staffers in sharing a bond of faith that is fast becoming the stuff of national renown among religious figures in sports...
Trot Nixon, Mike Timlin, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Curt Schilling, Doug Mirabelli, Bill Mueller, Matt Clement, John Olerud, Mike Myers, Tony Graffanino, Chad Bradford: Each Sox player considers himself an evangelical Christian who believes in the sacred authority of the Bible and the promise of J- C- as his savior...
''Everyone is very respectful of one another and what they choose to believe in," said Gabe Kapler, who is Jewish. ''The guys in this clubhouse live in harmony when it comes to that kind of stuff."...
''Some of these guys get everything they think they always wanted in life at a young age and then find that it still leaves them a bit empty," he said. ''They become more open to spiritual things and it can lead to a personal relationship with God."...

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/08/31/faith_binds_many_on_sox?mode=PF

One headline you're not going to see any time soon: HOLLYWOOD BECOMING RELIGIOUS,- is that because of the influence of secular jews?

Than again if the red-sox could win the world series...

Settling some monkey business

Financial Times:

..The first detailed genetic comparison between humans and chimpanzees shows that 96 per cent of the DNA sequence is identical in the two species. But there are significant differences, particularly in genes relating to sexual reproduction, brain development, immunity and the sense of smell...

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/43445728-1a44-11da-b279-00000e2511c8.html

Now I could brake up with my Monkey, we have significant differences.

"Gay aveck!" ; Profaning the Holy Land

Defining deviants down:

Jewish Exponent:

As part of a pioneering American initiative aimed at forging links between gay and lesbian Jews in America and their Israeli contemporaries, a group made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land last month, both to visit the traditional litany of tourist attractions and to take in sites specifically significant to the homosexual community.

What benefit does "forged links" between sodomites accomplish? What site in Israel is "specifically significant" to them? I'm afraid I don't want to know.

So which organization is this "group", condemned by the Torah in a land inextricably tied to it, together:

Dubbed "Pride in Israel," the Aug. 15 to Aug. 21 mission brought together some 50 participants, aged 23 to 65, from across the United States under the auspices of the United Jewish Communities, which represents 155 North American Jewish federations and 400 independent communities.

http://www.jewishexponent.com/ViewArticle.asp?ArtID=815

This is why federations are not well thought of among G-d fearing Jews.

Condo Board vs. Mezuzah

Decoration?

Chicago Sun Times:

Lynne Bloch was in a state of shock when her husband of 33 years died of a heart attack in June.
When she returned from the cemetery to find the mezuzah missing from her front door -- forcibly removed by a condominium association that banned hall and doorway decorations after a remodeling -- she almost had a heart attack herself..
"We had known the doorman for some time. For cooperating with us and giving the mezuzah back, the building fined him two days of work. Can you imagine this? We put it back up and they sent someone back up to take it down again," she said...

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-mezuzah31.html

Rockland's chassidim below poverty line

Rockland's Journal News :

..The 2000 U.S. census found the county had pockets of extreme poverty, which could have skewed the countywide numbers. In New Square and Kaser, which are home exclusively to Hasidic Jews, nearly eight of every 10 and seven of 10 children, respectively, lived below the poverty line.
Those villages also have among the largest household sizes in the nation. While Rockland's average household size remained flat from 2000 (3.01) to 2004 (3.07), the county still ranked 16th out of 236 counties surveyed nationally in that category, placing it first in counties in New York state...

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050831/NEWS03/508310311/1019

Does poverty hinder or enhance the enduringness of these growing communities? Judaism unlike Christianity has no vows of poverty, doesn't look at money as an inherent negative. But perhaps struggling financialy keeps people tight and equal and well grounded.

Recovering Jewish Iraqi money an Asset?

Jerusalem Post:

Leaders of the Iraqi Jewish community from around the world are to meet soon in London to plan a strategy to demand compensation for lost assets, potentially in the billions of dollars, from the Iraqi government, The Jerusalem Post has learned...
The Iraqi Jewish community was among the largest Jewish Diaspora communities in the Arab world, numbering some 140,000, but most of the community left Iraq between 1950 and 1952, after the creation of the State of Israel. They left behind homes, businesses and large pieces of land. Most of those assets were frozen, some were taken by the government and some were sold... http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1125368484967&apage=1

Let's hope this is not going to reinforce the stereotype of jews as beholden to money. Assuming we have the moral right to collect our money from a new iraqi regime, if we're resented for it the smart calculation would be discretion.

Cheap oil on the other hand...

N.Y. Times the paper of broken records

N.Y. Times "alternate universe" update:

Their editorial advising Likud to keep Sharon includes this paragraph:

Make no mistake: Ariel Sharon is no peacenik. It was Mr. Sharon, as defense minister, who orchestrated the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which cost more than 17,000 lives, most of them Palestinian and Lebanese. It was Mr. Sharon who - in posts like minister of trade and industry, minister of housing, and minister of national infrastructure in various Likud governments - expanded and fortified Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, building roads, negotiating water rights and defending clearly illegal settlements. And Mr. Sharon was again the defense minister when Israeli soldiers stood by and did nothing as Christian Phalangists raided the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, killing hundreds of civilians.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/opinion/31wed2.html

After handing over Gaza and parts of the West Bank, how does the Time's (diminishing relevant) editorial writers define "Peacenik"? - Hugging Hamas? Sharon has proven he's moved far beyond all the history the Times chronicles which makes it hardly relevant.

For Israel and the Right, you can never do enough to satisfy a Leftist philosophy.

Flooding our space: Turning the destructive into constructive

Recent years has taught us just how fragile is our immediate world. From terrorism to "natural disasters" one directional change of wind, one group of humans intent on destruction can make what was, no longer.

Hard hats and safety belts are our daily life's precautions. We go about making our life as sustainable as possible. We're constantly in survival mode.

Sadly the larger forces those we don't have control over we put little preparation into. We merely remark at its size and scope and sigh helplessly.

Yet those are the ones that speak loudest pleading for us to to take shelter- under the tent of heaven, looking upwards beseechingly.

Hatzolah member in custody briefly

Hatzoloh member arrested:

N.Y. Newsday:

A member of a volunteer ambulance corps was taken into custody by police Monday night after he interfered with a response to an emotionally disturbed elderly woman in a Lower East Side apartment, a police source said...
Police officers, who were also called to the scene along with paramedics from the fire department, told the members of the ambulance corps that they were handling the situation.
At that point, one of the members of the Hatzolah ambulance became "extremely indignant" and demanded to attend to the patient, a police source said.
During the confrontation, one of the fire-department paramedics on the scene called and reported that "Hatzolah is giving the unit a problem about transport."Despite repeated requests to leave, the Hatzolah member allegedly refused. At one point, he placed his foot in the door, preventing officers from closing it, according to the police source.
The Hatzolah member, whose name was not released, was taken into custody and moved to the nearby Seventh Precinct. Initially, it appeared the man was going to face charges of disorderly conduct, but after several hours of questioning, no charges or summonses were issued. The matter remained under investigation...

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-hat0830,0,2499649.story?coll=nyc-topheadlines-left

Police and Fire units are always clashing so this too is inevitable. Coordination and dialogue is the key.

Bibi is back; who's backing Bibi?

Once you've held the highest office there's a magnetic pull drawing you back. Peres, Barak and Bibi are all seeking Israel's top job.

N.Y. Times:

JERUSALEM, Aug. 30 - Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister, today announced his intention to topple the current prime minister, Ariel Sharon, as leader of the ruling Likud party, a move that threatens the government and increases the likelihood of early elections in Israel...

So what is- the man who gave up Hebron and more (after promising not to) in the Wye Agreement- message?:

Mr. Sharon "has abandoned the way of Likud, and chose another way, the way of the left," Mr. Netanyahu said in Tel Aviv press conference, accompanied by a number of Likud legislators. "Sharon gave and gave and gave some more, and the Palestinians got more and more and more. And what did we get in return? The answer is nothing, nothing and nothing."...

Nothing? The peace process is predicated on land for peace. Whether peace will ensue will take more than a week to determine. Besides the strategy of Gaza had to do primarily with the worthless expense of maintaining the place.

Several recent opinion polls have shown Mr. Netanyahu, 55, well ahead of Mr. Sharon in surveys of Likud party members...

Bibi is running to reverse his own withdrawal from office. He has no core principles other than to get elected. The Right will use him as he'll use them than get rid of each other at their own conveyance.

The more things change the more Israel stays the same.

Mrs. President

Presidential "08 race update:

Rasmussen poll:

August 28, 2005--In a hypothetical match-up for the 2008 Presidential Election, Democrat Hillary Clinton leads Republican Condoleezza Rice by six percentage points--44% to 38%.

Despite this poll Rice clearly has hit her stride. With a background of bad Iraqi news to contend with, using her southern charm traveling the globe she's stating clearly America's positions. Running for president would mean cutting her stay as secretary of State in half something she is most certainly not eager to do.

Hillary is showing an intention of running and until a Clinton loses an election you can't bet against her.

"Chaping" the Chaplain

Orthodox Rabbi denies he is a deserter:

Washington Post:

TORONTO -- The U.S. Army has listed Rabbi Jeffrey Goldman as a deserter, making him subject to arrest if he returns to the United States. But he maintains that he was driven out of the military chaplaincy by anti-Semitic harassment from Christian colleagues.
Goldman, 33, left Fort Stewart, Ga., in January 2002 to return to his native Canada after just one year as an Orthodox Jewish military chaplain. He said that he believes he resigned legally from the Army and that the desertion charge was a vindictive response to his allegations.
While he was posted at the Georgia base, Goldman said, he worked in a "poisonous atmosphere" created by three Christian chaplains. One of the men taunted him by displaying Nazi guard uniforms, he said. His supervising chaplain told him, "Rabbi, if you want to survive down here, this is the South, and you'd better forget you are a [expletive] Yankee rabbi from up north," Goldman said...
Goldman's complaints led to an Army inspector general's investigation. Officials at Fort Stewart declined to discuss the case or disclose the results. Goldman said the inspector general's report "was trying to make this look like I was afraid to go on deployment and I fled and used the anti-Semitic allegations to cover it up."

The army has been besieged of late of allegations by enlisted Jews of proselytizing. Now this!

When society changes we suffer

The battle to preserve our traditions, customs, way of life:

From the jta:

Fervently Orthodox officials are refusing to abandon a ritual circumcision practice that may have caused the death of an infant.
The officials refused despite months of meetings with New York City health officials, The New York Times reported. Health officials believe three New York-area newborns got herpes; one of them fatally, from the practice of metzitzah bpeh, in which the mohel places his mouth directly on the wound.
The Orthodox Jewish community will continue the practice that has been practiced for over 5,000 years, said Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organization in Brooklyn, after meeting with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.We do not change. And we will not change.

From Christopher Hitchens noted gadfly and maverick in Slate:

..The continuing scandal of this practice, which most Jews abandoned many years ago, is newly illustrated by the death of one little boy from type-1 herpes, and the infection of two others, in Staten Island and Brooklyn, after they had been subjected to this ritual by the same mohel. Let's be clear what's involved here. The Times refers to an article published last year in the journal Pediatrics that argued that metzitzah b'peh carries a serious health risk and is, for that reason alone, a violation of Jewish law. ("We suspect … that this entity is underreported for cultural reasons and that the studies described here are only the "tip of the iceberg" of the true incidence of the disease," the authors note). None of this should be hard to comprehend: If it risks the life or health of an infant, then no religious allegiance is or should be required for its condemnation. Q.E.D., as you might say... Let's by all means hear from Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organization in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who emerged from his meeting with Bloomberg to inform us that: "The Orthodox Jewish community will continue the practice that has been practiced for over 5,000 years. We do not change. And we will not change." You can preach it, rabbi, but you have no more right to practice it than a Muslim imam who preaches the duty of holy war has the right to put his teachings into effect. And Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, the 57-year-old man who ministered to the three boys in question, is currently under a court order that forbids him from doing it again—pending an investigation by the health department. What "investigation?" If another man of that age were found to be slicing the foreskins of little boys and then sucking their penises and their blood, he would be in jail—one hopes—so fast that his feet wouldn't touch the ground. If he then told the court that God ordered him to do it, he would be offering precisely the defense that thousands of psychos have already made so familiar. Preach it rabbi. Preach it to the judge.

The obvious solution to the health issue is Mohlim be checked. Though I suspect health isn' t the only issue rather society's changed attitude, now percieving this practice as being an anachronisim. Since our culture has newly defined and sexulised the human body, contact to it is no longer deemed innocent.

Changes in society affect everything in it. To our detriment.

Oops!

From the N.Y. Times "Corrections":

An article on Aug. 19 about a peddler at the bungalow colonies in the Catskills where many Orthodox Jews spend summers misstated the length of Tishah b'Ab, the observance of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem, when the faithful wear plastic sandals to abstain from leather. It is a single day - the ninth of the month of Ab - not nine days. The article also misspelled the term for a head covering sold to some Orthodox women. It is a tichel, not a tickle. (Go to Article)

Shabbos their day of mingling

Sad and depressing is the single scene in the Upper West Side.

N. Y. Times:

On a midsummer Saturday afternoon, the Great Lawn in Central Park is the best place - perhaps the only place - for these modestly dressed eligible bachelors and bachelorettes to meet, so much so that by 5 p.m., the lawn has been transformed into a unmistakable singles scene for the Sabbath-observant Jews of the Upper West Side....
Someone unfamiliar with the scene might have trouble distinguishing those searching for potential dates from the masses who have simply come to stroll. But this day the park is filled with more than 100 modern Orthodox Jews in their 20's and 30's, most of them single. It is that status they eagerly seek to change....
"Look, this is it," a young man announced while giving an impromptu tour with his wife to some acquaintances who were apparently in town from St. Louis and had seen nothing like this in their Midwestern Jewish world. "Welcome to the scene of the Upper West Side," he said. "This is the scene you've heard all about." ....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/nyregion/thecity/28chase.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1125288231-zGt8k0cA0O5EiFpaF93PAw

I have mixed feelings about the Scene. Singlehood to too many Scene-members has become an ends not a means, a convenience not a pursuit, an entrenched lifestyle not an end to one.

While it's lonely being single it's lonelier staying that way.

When failure knows no boundaries

Why is it so important for Torah Jews to support are brethren in the former Soviet Union?

Baltimore Jewish Times:

Despite their ideological differences, the Reform and Chabad movements in the former Soviet Union share a shortage of buildings and spiritual leaders to serve their growing communities... Jewish activists in the former Soviet Union say Chabad and Reform are the two main ideological choices in the region there are no Conservative rabbis in the former Soviet Union, and just one part-time modern Orthodox rabbi, in Kharkov, Ukraine.
The World Union for Progressive Judaism, the international body of Reform Judaism, budgeted $1.6 million for its activities in the former Soviet Union last year. There are six Reform rabbis serving 67 Reform congregations across the region, according to movement officials. The Reform movement owns seven synagogue buildings, none of them in major cities....
For what Oseran calls the "periphery," the World Union is depending on graduates of its two-year Machon program in Moscow, which trains young para-rabbinic lay leaders for Russian-speaking congregations in smaller cities. It is also depends on a new "rabbinic infusion" program out of the movement's seminary in Jerusalem, which sends nine Russian-speaking rabbis and rabbinic students to Reform congregations in the former Soviet Union every six weeks and for the major holidays...


http://www.jewishtimes.com/News/4974.stm

Europe has not been plagued by the Reform movement to the extent as has the U.S., thank G-d. We all shouted let our people go - the American Jewish experiencee has shown that if it's to a Reform Temple - they're gone!

For this he rejoices

Leon Wieseltier former flatbush yeshiva boy, author of Kaddish (great book), in the New Republic:

Even faced with the idea of Greater Palestine, it is impossible not to rejoice in the defeat of the idea of Greater Israel. It was always a foul idea, morally and strategically. It promoted the immediate ecstasy of the few above the eventual safety of the many; it introduced the toxins of messianism and mysticism into the politics of a great modern democracy; it preferred chosenness to human rights; it subordinated laws to visions, and the Jewish state to the Jewish millennium; it worshiped soil in a primitive, almost un-Jewish way. The settlers of the West Bank and Gaza are not a Jewish vanguard, they are a Jewish sect; and in their insistence that the destiny of their state and their society should be held hostage to the fulfillment of their metaphysical and historical conceptions, they have always displayed a sectarian self-love....

While Wieseltier conclusion of the wrongness of the settlements is sound, his flowery verbiage is his display of self-hate. The Settlers are living a Jewish life in the Jewish land while the author spew his venom from Georgetown U.S.A..

Oy veys Mir; Student murdered

One Mirrer bochur killed another injured, lots of American parents worried.

Jerusalem Post:

A massive police manhunt was underway Thursday for an Arab man who stabbed 21-year-old British yeshiva student Shmuel Mat to death and seriously wounded a classmate with a large kitchen knife in a terror attack in Jerusalem's Old City...
The two victims of the stabbing attack, who studied at the city's Mir Yeshiva, were rushed by Magen David Adom paramedics to Hadassah University Hospital at Ein Karem and Jerusalem's Sha'are Tzedek Hospital...
Mat died on the operating table in the intensive care unit of Hadassah Hospital just over an hour later, having never regained consciousness...
Mat came to Jerusalem from Britain to study about a year and a half ago. Rabbi Binyamin Carlebach, head of the Mir Yeshiva, related that he would get up every morning at 4:00 to study. He was engaged several months ago and was planning to marry in three months.
According to an initial police investigation of the 8:20 p.m. attack, Sammy Weissbard, who was stabbed while walking with Mat just inside the Jaffa Gate on David Street managed to make his way to a nearby Old City police station to report the stabbing. Police officers rushed to the scene, on the edge of the Muslim Quarter, and found a second, critically wounded victim -Mat- lying on the ground with a stab wound under his stomach...
A hospital spokeswoman said Thursday that Weissbard was in stable condition and was expected to make a full recovery...

May Hashem avenge his blood.

Not your father's "rabbi"

A misguided compassion and strong Christian"turn the other cheek" influence among the Man made branches of Judaism is once again illustrated by this disturbing story of a Conservative temple's response to its "rabbi".

Today's N.Y. Times:

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y., Aug. 24 - The congregation's leaders were like disappointed parents. Earlier this month, their widely popular rabbi had been charged with possessing marijuana and driving while his ability was impaired by drugs, both misdemeanors. Now, the board of trustees at Congregation Sons of Israel had to decide on the proper punishment.
In the end, after a meeting that began on Tuesday night and lasted until 2 a.m. on Wednesday, they decided that the rabbi, Steven C. Kane, 50, should receive a 30-day paid suspension....
Several local Jewish leaders, including Rabbi Lester Bronstein, the president of the Westchester Board of Rabbis and the leader of Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains, called Rabbi Kane a respected colleague and sent letters of support to the synagogue board. Rabbi Bronstein called the board's decision "impressive and mature."

The Torah is malleable to them, so is all other standards. When you interpret all things using today's culture as the yardstick well a 30 day suspension is what you get.

If their leader would be looking High he wouldn't be getting high!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/25/nyregion/25rabbi.html

Standing Pat against the evacuation

Minister Pat Robertson is a close friend of both the State of Israel and the President.

From the jta wire:

Televangelist Pat Robertson reportedly said God will judge Israel for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.
The almighty God said he was going to judge the nation which has parted from his land and that he was going to bring judgment upon that nation,the Jerusalem Post reported, citing the Christian Coalitions Web site. Robertson long has been a supporter of Israeli settlers.

First he's confusing Israel with Jews which is interesting by itself. Second I don't recall any lobbying by him against the evacuation.

Hagel's presidential decision

Presidential "08 race update:

Chuck Hagel, Nebraska's maverick and outspoken Viet-Nom Veteran senator is considering a run as an Independent. He has no niche to get traction, other than that as a maverick and McCain will fill that role, so seeking the Grand Old Party's nomination would be a waste of his time.

Don't be shocked however if he becomes the democratic nominee for vice president for his strong "security" credentials.

Pro Israel forces will no doubt work aggressively to trip up his run, as his bluntness has run them a fowl.

http://www.anklebitingpundits.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2196

What realy is Israel?

Amos Oz, Israel's intellectual, secularist, and highly influential scribe writes about "Israel's struggle between synagogue and state". A compelling read.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1747807,00.html

Perhaps this what the evacuation debate is largely about: Is Israel inherently religious or just another State?

The Times aren't changin'

A tale of two N.Y Times editorials. First today's praising Sharon :

"This page has never been shy about criticizing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But this week the last Jewish settlers left Gaza, completing Israel's withdrawal from the desert it took control of 38 years ago. And yesterday, Israeli soldiers completed the evacuation of four much smaller settlements among the hundreds on the West Bank. This is the first time Israel has abandoned communities in lands the Palestinians claim for their future state, so it is incumbent upon us - and all of Mr. Sharon's many critics - to reflect on this extraordinary accomplishment.
Mr. Sharon can take pride in his own actions. He was resolute in the face of condemnation from extreme right-wing members of his own Likud Party, which may well fracture from the strain of the Gaza pullout. As the father of the Israeli settlements and a member of the bloc that has always favored a greater Israel, Mr. Sharon has nevertheless demonstrated that he is able to carry out a territorial compromise, a necessity if there is ever going to be any chance for peace.."

Now last week's making the point: Don't be so proud of yourself Israelis:

"Ever since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced plans to remove nearly 9,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, the withdrawal has been certain to be an emotional scene. Images beaming from the desert this week are bearing that out. As Israel moved to leave land it has held for 38 years, soldiers carried crying and screaming residents out of their homes. Some Gaza settlers pinned orange stars to their chests in a reference to the Holocaust. One West Bank settler grabbed a security guard's gun and opened fire, killing several Palestinians - an act that Prime Minister Sharon rightly denounced as "Jewish terror."
Without denying the genuine grief of many of the protesters, it's perhaps helpful to do a historical reality check. Gaza, a 25-mile-long, 6-mile-wide strip of land, was part of Mandatory Palestine, which was ruled by the British after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. It was never part of the Zionist state intended by the United Nations partition plan that led to the establishment of Israel in 1948. At that point, five Arab nations immediately attacked the new nation, but Gaza wasn't even part of the territory Israel got in signing truces in 1949. It became the home of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing Israel, and Israel's armistice with Egypt in 1949 put it under Egyptian rule...."

After the Paper Of Records "historical reality check" they certainly got a lot of flak for their untimely "perspective", and so today Mr. Sharon gets a pat on the back.

Leave your honey and your sting.

Will rest, in peace

Cindy Sheehan might just be a passing phenomenon but the genuine anger that produced her certainly isn't and don't expect the lefts' anger to subside by counting to 1,800 dead.

There's genuine anger out there. Anger from what many feel is being lied to by their Commander in chief. Anger can't be held in for too long before one begins to explode and express himself. Bolton's treatment in congress is one result of this anger the continued Rumsfeld attacks on Capitol Hill is another.This anger is only going to increase as American soldiers are buried with no end in sight.

Our Super-Power size military defeating the insurgents is the one and only prescription to turn this anger into healthy debate. For President Bush to implement his agenda, more importantly than have a meeting to provide answers to a grieving mother must sit down with Military Brass and ask tough questions.

Russian to the Catskills

Jewish immigrants from Russia come to the Catskills. From the Times Herald-Record:

August 21, 2005 A world away, right next door Russians find 'good air, good price' in Sullivan You hear the strong accents of Russia wherever you go this Sullivan County summer. In the still, gray mist of dawn, Russian men fish for pickerel and chatter about their catches. At a bright Sunday-afternoon farmers' market, Russian women bargain for the beets they turn into borscht. Today, more Russians than ever are calling Sullivan home. They're buying cedar-sided houses and building $400,000 lakeside condos. But as they settle here, they face a new challenge one they never imagined back in the U.S.S.R. To understand it, you first have to know about a Russian immigrant named Peter Rey.
The nuclear disaster in Chernobyl? The Jews started it, say the Jew-haters in Russia. The war in Iraq? The Jews started that, too, say the Russian anti-Semites. A Russian submarine sinks? Of course, it had to be the Jews. "No matter what happens, they blame it on the Jews," says Russian-American Jew Peter Rey. Rey is one of the tens of thousands of Russian Jews who grew sick and tired of that racism, sick and tired of seeing books blaming everything on the Jews, sick and tired of hearing his kids yelled at on the playground because they were Jews. All this in a country where the 1,000 rubles that once bought him a nice "datcha," or summer home, came to be worth so little, they could only buy a couple of packs of cigarettes. So, like the 51,000 Russian Jews who immigrated to America in 1979 during President Jimmy Carter's human rights campaign, Rey packed his suitcase to the maximum 40 pounds allowed by the Soviet authorities. He chose the five grams worth of jewelry he was permitted to carry from his country. Then he and his family flew to New York City. But the man who now wears Calvin Klein stars-and-stripes shorts couldn't leave his Russian traditions behind. So he did what so many Russians did in their native land left the steamy summer city for the cool mountains of the country. Rey discovered the leafy paradise that another wave of Russian immigrants had discovered decades before the Sullivan County Catskills. He rents a bungalow for $2,400 for the summer. "Good air, good price," he says. REY HAS PLENTY of company. In front of him, lining a winding, tree-lined street, stand about five Russian bungalow colonies with walls of peeling paint. Across the lake sit two housing developments with some 50 homes owned by Russians. On a hill above them stands a co-op bungalow colony with 52 neat, white buildings, all owned by Russians. On the other side of the lake, a luxury town house development is rising, owned by the son of Russian immigrants. In this world, many Russian adults carry on their old traditions drinking buttermilk in the morning, sipping tea sweetened with strawberry jelly in the afternoon, swimming in big, blue White Lake for its reputed healing powers. Some older men even use the lake's mud to ease aches and pains. But while Russians like Rey now own New York City taxi cabs instead of driving them and their children build $750,000 homes instead of renting two- room bungalows, they must confront a challenge that means so much more than money: stepping into a new future of freedom, while preserving what makes them who they are. "In Russia, we are Jews," says 30-year-old Tanya Burt, who rents a bungalow in the Eilat colony in Kauneonga Lake. "But in America, we are Russians who want to be Americans." THAT IS THE dilemma of this summer world. Older Russian men wake before dawn and cast a line into misty Lake Superior, hoping to land a pickerel. Their grandchildren stay up past dawn and speed over to the same lake to blast boom boxes and throw a party for a friend who's heading to college in Colorado. The grandparents at the Carpatian Homes co-op in White Lake eat borscht and salinka (a meat stew) and speak Russian, while their grandchildren only speak English and crave burgers, fries and baked ziti. "And that's all they'll eat," says 32-year-old Victoria Kogut, who was born in Russia and has streaked blond hair, pink toenails and an SUV with Jersey vanity plates. The adults see entertainers like "famous Russian vocalist" Marina Bukhina in a casino with vinyl tablecloths and chandeliers. Several of them at the co-op did something that would have been impossible in their homeland they built a new synagogue. But their kids, with names like Vlad, Nikita and Alla, call themselves the "Russian posse." They hang out at an ice cream stand and flirt much to the chagrin of older Russians who long for at least a part of their past. "They talk back to adults, they watch TV all day and the girls and boys kiss on the street, or worse," says Klara Kuchment, 73, surrounded by Russian books and videos at the Campbell Inn in Roscoe, where about 80 Russians rent rooms and cottages. ALL OF WHICH is bad enough for these Russians. They may have heard taunts of "Jew, Jew, Jew" at home, but they managed to teach their children about their religion, about their past, about how they must stay together as Russian Jews to survive. Here, in their new land, it is different. "They are not interested in our traditions," Kuchment says as she walks past Russian kids who don't speak Russian and wear tank tops and torn jeans. "They are interested in becoming American."

How important is Shuvu and its like! We wish them well.

Walmart to come to Monsey

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/BUSINESS01/508230352/1066/BUSINESS01

Watch for the fierce protest led by the local businesses.

Save the Date?

An influential Jewish newspaper recently had a column urging mixed seating for singles at weddings.

First let me state I don't know the halachic implications, which takes precedence over everything.

Now: I've come to the conclusion that the more interaction there is between the sexes reduces the overload of pretense and perceptions that are part of today's dating game. So two singles happening on each other around a chasuna table simplifies dating too its truest form: you meet, you talk, you see...

However let's be realistic: Charedim, certainly those under thirty, are not ready both individually and as a community for such a break of custom(?) . But for the more leftward crowd this is an not an idea to readily deflate like a punctured tire.

Understandably at this point and time, Rabbinic leaders will be resistant to this not insignificant break from tradition. Separate seating after all has served as a visible and distinct separation between our community and those that are Man-Made.

If not all else the newlyweds most certainly can use the shadchanus!

Peering past Ms. Pirro

Presidential "08 candidate news:

"Generally, you like your candidates to talk about convictions, but not their husband's convictions."-- Republican strategist Nelson Warfield, quoted by the AP, discussing New York U.S. Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro.

Enough said.

If you throw a Party and no one came...

Corazine and Forrester are the candidates New Jerseyans no doubt deserve.

We sadly are about to elect as Garden State Governor either of the following:

1. a mega wealthy man who purchased his nomination by throwing around money to all party heads and interest groups across the state or
2. a mega wealthy man who purchased his nomination by throwing around money to all party heads and interest groups across the state.

The caliber of our elected officials are falling, as fast as property taxes and auto insurance rates are rising due to the fact that the candidates are chosen up on top (party bosses and elected officials) instead of from on down (idealist and concerned citizens).

When New Jersey's hard working (and tough driving) citizens get more involved- remember Florio?- , they'll have an inspiring choice come election day.

Otherwise they'll get Corzine and Forrester.

My favorites (links):

My favorites run the gamut, and feed different passions of mine:

http://politicalwire.com/,

http://chaptzem.blogspot.com/,

http://jta.org/,

http://refdesk.com/,

http://vosizneias.blogspot.com/

"A man is his favorites"

Book these books

Blink; The Tipping Point; and Freakonomics are essential reading. How the human mind works- or thinks, and how we come to make assumtions and decisions daily is laid out, in an enjoyable manner, compellingly.

Written for the mass public these three books will alter the way you think and approach things. Rarely does a book do that.

If you don't include these major bestsellers to your reading list you'll be a blink behind those who have. Don't wait.

Justices aren't blind and neither are we

The Robert's nomination looks too safe to be true. Being conventional wisdom usualy doesn't pan out, you have to be skeptical about an easy confirmation. Schumer is a tiger.

In today's high pressured and morally polarized environment if a seemingly: pro-choice pro-gay equalization, were nominated by a Democratic president, you think conservative senators would be as supportive as they were with Clinton nominees?

The world has changed, or rather our view of it has. Sadly.

who will live who will die

The Time's Metro section today has Mortimer Zuckerman dishing out 14 million dollars, along with his friends who have more money than many countries, to purchase the greenhouses in the Gaza, so that the many Palestinian workers there can continue on working.

High level U.S officials recruited them.

Now the White House is happy as the Palestinians, preserve living organism in Jewish owned nurseries, while their kids are taught to end life in Palestinian nurseries.

No one knows; the One knows

Disclaimer (morally and halachly): The internet should be avoided at all costs. I'm using it; wrongly. A Yiras shmayim (G-d Fearer) doesn't let contaminated items in his house much like surgeons protect the surgery room!!

Can something be sad and necessary? Of course. The pictures in the Gaza are painful, so is root canal. We can't determine the future but we plan. Planning is in itself a gamble.

The N.Y.C Democratic primary is less than a month away (yeah you didn't know, no one does.). N.Y. C. will have a Republican mayor for 16 straight years- can you foresee the future?

Man plans and The Almighty laughs.