3 Chief Rabbis in Ukraine

So much infighting and confusion, you'd think Ukraine was some Chassidic sect.

Baltimore Jewish Times :

One country, three chief rabbis: Such is Ukraine following Moshe Reuven Azman's election to the post....
Some other Jewish leaders said Azman, 39, technically was elected as chief rabbi of only two Jewish organizations in Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress and the United Jewish Community of Ukraine. Both are headed by Rabinovich....
Three dozen Chabad rabbis representing the Federation of Jewish Communities, the region's largest Jewish group, said in a statement last month that the election was "illegitimate" and "insulting to the feelings of every believer."...
Yakov Dov Bleich, a U.S.-born rabbi and member of the Karlin-Stoliner Chasidic group, has been widely recognized as chief rabbi of both Kiev and Ukraine since 1992.
Bleich, 41, a pioneer of Jewish renaissance in post-Communist Ukraine, was never properly elected, yet he has shown no intention of giving up the post...
Ukrainian Jews got another chief rabbi in 2003 when Soviet-born, Brussels-based Azriel Haikin, 75, was proclaimed chief rabbi by dozens of Chabad rabbis working for the federation in Ukraine.
Those who supported Haikin's election two years ago protested Azman's election last month. Azman, who also is Soviet-born, is a Chabad-ordained rabbi but not a member of the federation.

Orthodox Rabbi named Papal Knight

Knight or wrong?

American Jewish Committee:

Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee will be named a papal Knight Commander for his outstanding contributions to promoting Catholic-Jewish reconciliation. The honor will make Rabbi Rosen the first Israeli and the only Orthodox rabbi to receive the award.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jewry, will decorate Rabbi Rosen with the Knight Commander of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great at a ceremony on Thursday in Jerusalem, coinciding with the Nostra Aetate 40th anniversary celebrations in Israel....

Rosen, who is based at the AJC’s Jerusalem office, also will be honored with the Mt. Zion Award 2005 at the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem...

A Rosen under any name...

Sounds not very kosher.

Lubavither on the rebbe's ZT"L

A Chassid believes.

Charlotte Observer :

...Two years before his death, the Rebbe became my "savior." In a scant 30 seconds, he stroked my arm and offered me guidance at the most dismal time of my life. Those few words, I now realize, marked the beginning of my emotional and spiritual restoration and intervened in my imminent suicide...
...Arriving at the Ohel, my driver recommended that I write a "pan," an acronym for pidyon nefesh, a "redemption of the soul," to place on the Rebbe's tomb. What could it hurt, I thought. So, I prayed for universal peace and for the safety of my family.
One extra request
Then, I asked for something out of the ordinary: Three years earlier, I had departed my congregation in Greenville under acrimonious circumstances. Many congregants were left angry and estranged. Little by little, some had forgiven me, and our relationships had slowly resumed. For others, the anger still burned.
But, the Goldbergs (name changed), with whom we were particularly close and whose friendship we cherished, stopped talking to us and refused all pleas of forgiveness -- would not even answer calls, notes, e-mails, coming to the door or responding to mediators.
So, I prayed on my pan that there would be reconciliation with congregants who were still estranged and particularly for forgiveness from the Goldbergs. I dropped the shredded pan, as is the custom, on the Rebbe's tomb and noted that it was 6:00, time to leave for the airport. Shortly thereafter, I called Linda to tell her that the plane was departing on time.
"You'll never guess who called," Linda announced. "The Goldbergs."
Astonished, I asked her if there had been any particular reason.
"No. An incredible surprise. They just wanted to say hello."
"And do you remember about what time they called?"
"It must have been around 6:05."...

Pictures from Satmar brawl

Many pictures on numerous pages in Hyde Park

Only in Lakewood!

Now selling on EBay:

Rights to name a street in Lakewood NJ

US $152.50
Time left:
5 days 22 hours7-day listing, Ends Nov-06-05 08:54:45 PST
Start tim:
Oct-30-05 08:54:45 PST
History:
18 bids (US $1.00 starting bid)
High bidder:
yishai123 ( 10)
Item location:
Lakewood, NJUnited States

Selling the right to name a street in Lakewood NJ after anyone or thing you want in perpetuity. Developer is building a street of five or six houses off New Central Ave. Houses will be in the $600,000 range. You can choose any name you like subject to Township approval (Forest Ave is take, as is Malka Way for example), and developer approval (we won't approve 'Yutz way' for example). E-mail if you are worried about name approval. Street will be legally known by that name. Beats the 'name a star' program. This is a great gift idea. We reserve the right to withdraw this at any time prior to auction closing.

So how about:

1. Kotler Krossway;
2. AOL Avenue;
3. Computer's Hard Drive;
4. WiFi Y Not;
5. Schneerson Street;
6. Micro Chip On Their Shoulder;

Hurry up to purchase!

Reform to speak out on Iraq

Reform wants to publicly take a strong stand. (No, not on intermarriage)

Baltimore Jewish Times:

A grass-roots campaign to push the leadership of the Reform movement to take a stand on the Iraq war is gathering steam, and is expected to come to a vote next month at the Union for Reform Judaism's General Assembly in Houston.
Spearheaded by Congregation M'kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, N.J., the initiative is supported by about a dozen other Reform congregations, several of which are preparing resolutions to take to the floor of the convention during its plenary sessions Nov. 16-20.
"I think it's a welcome development," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism...
Surveys last year showed that support for the war is lower among American Jews than non-Jews. Yet no mainstream Jewish organizations have joined the antiwar movement, which has been plagued by a strong anti-Israel undertone that has dismayed even long-time Jewish leftists...

Think of the irony: in a war many believe to be facilitated by a cabal of Jewish "Neocons", Jews support the war less than the general public.
It all depends on which Jews.

Chess in the Israeli desert

Where the battles are confined to a board:

The Australian :

...an immigrant town on the edge of Israel's southern desert seems an unlikely venue to host the World Chess Team Championship...
..with a higher percentage of grandmasters per capita than any other city in the world -- one for every 22,000 inhabitants -- Beersheba is firmly on the world chess map; thanks to one man.
In 1972, Eliahu Levant was one of 140,000 Jews who managed to get out of Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet Union. He sold his Leningrad (St Petersburg) villa, his city centre apartment and car to raise the $US25,000 needed to buy himself out....
Here the white-haired patriarch sits beneath shelves of trophies and walls filled with black-and-white portraits of past masters. Levant proudly ticks off the dozen international masters and six or seven grandmasters he has produced, including two of the Israeli team who will line up against Russia -- the favourites -- Georgia, the US, Cuba and China during the 10-day championships at a nearby community centre next week...

Alito upheld Sabbath observance case

Samuel Alito!
On the Supreme Courto!
How sweeto!
Now see if Democrats
can veto!


JTA:

President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court strongly upheld the right of a Jewish employee to observe the Sabbath...
In Abramson v. Patterson College in 2001, Alito strongly supported the prevailing opinion upholding an Orthodox woman’s complaint that faculty meetings held late on Friday afternoons constituted harassment. In a concurring opinion, he wrote that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act “does not permit an employer to manipulate job requirements for the purpose of putting an employee to the cruel choice between religion and employment.”

Music for Hanukkah

top40-charts :

- Craig 'n Co. announces the release of "The Hanukkah Lounge," a new line of instrumental music for the holidays. The CD features an eclectic mix of smooth, mood-inducing holiday classics by world renowned producers and Grammy award winning artists.
Just two of the 12 standout tracks include 'I Have A Little Dreidl' by Stephen Lawrence, writer of Marlo Thomas' 'Free to Be You and Me', and Grammy Award winning guitarist Laurence Juber's track 'Chanutronika'.

Lakewood proposal, Day Laborers

So you are sick of being stuck in traffic on Clifton Ave.?

A.P.P.


...Starting at sunrise, Spanish-speaking men line the thoroughfare's sidewalks from Route 88 to Fifth Street, waiting for landscapers and construction foremen to drive up in pickup trucks and pick out a few men to earn a day's wage.The de facto muster zone has sparked a furor from many merchants, who complain the men impede and intimidate foot traffic and give the township a poor image.
A Republican candidate for Township Committee recently called the problem the most important quality-of-life issue in Lakewood.The answer, township leaders say, may be in a new plan to morph the municipal parking lot between First and Second streets into a publicly funded gathering site that at least one committeeman hopes to open by year's end....
The Lakewood resident has formally asked for more than $80,000 in township funds to turn the parking lot just east of Taylor's Pharmacy at Second Street and Route 9 into a sanctioned gathering place for day laborers, known in Spanish as jornaleros.The proposal — made through Anthony's nonprofit group, Under His Wing Inc. — calls for security at the site from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., two portable bathrooms and at least two employees to run the site's daily registration and traffic flow....
The plan — submitted this summer but not discussed publicly until now — is in the hands of the Lakewood Development Corp., which oversees the township Urban Enterprise Zone, where the parking lot now sits.
Russell K. Corby, the corporation's executive director, said he will recommend some changes to the plan, but declined to elaborate because he has yet to discuss those revisions with the Township Committee."If structured properly, I think it has merit," Corby said. "In some restructured form, we would be recommending moving ahead with this."

If the township is going to spend money on them, let the laborers lower their rates. And let their wife's do windows.

Answer to shidduch 'crisis'?

Marry them while they are still young?

Haaretz:

Rabbi Shlomo Eliezer Schick, the spiritual leader of the Bratslav Hassidic movement in Yavne'el, near Lake Kinneret, is suspected of officiating the marriages of some 20 underage couples, mostly ages 12 to 16. Tiberias police began investigating the case some two and a half years ago, following complaints from the secular residents of the community..
Followers of rabbi Schick settled in Yavne'el, a farming community, in 1986. The Hassidic residents, who are mostly newly religious, comprise just a few hundred of Yavne'el's 3,000 residents.The Hassidic residents of the community are known as "Schickim," or devotees of rabbi Schick, who lives in New York and visits the community every few months.

Ynet :

A Hasidic rabbi is suspected of performing marriage ceremonies for 13 and 14-year-old girls, despite the State Law that prohibits women under 17 years of age from tying the knot. Men are allowed to get hitched after reaching 18.

Why are men discriminated against in age of consent?

Kabbalah head arrested

Not very holy:

Ynet :

Police arrest Sunday Shaul Youdkevitch, head of Kabbalah Center in Israel, on suspicion he extracted money from cancer patient, convinced her donations will make her recover from illness...
Youdkevitch, one of the main figures in Kabbalah studies worldwide and the man behind Madonna's visit to Israel last year, was arrested on suspicion of exploiting and deceiving the woman and her husband...
A devotee of Kabbalah, the ill woman put her faith in the center and contributed USD 36,000 to the organization. When her condition deteriorated, members of the Israeli branch recommended she donate another USD 25,000. Meanwhile, rabbis recommended that she also purchase holy water to improve her condition - at an exorbitant price.
The couple, who soon after extending the donations ran out of financial resources, continued to seek help with the center. The rabbis then suggested that the husband leave his job and devote himself completely to work at the center...

The bail was set for, 150 bottles of holy water, 50 pounds of red string and one can of incense.

What took so long?

R' Elyashev: Ladies out

A ladies place is where?

Arutz Sheva :

Leading ....Torah authorities are decrying the use of Sherut Leumi (National Service) volunteers in hareidi institutions of special education, kindergartens and elsewhere.
The proclamation opposing national service female volunteers is signed by the leading world Torah authorities, headed by Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv.
On Sunday evening, a rally addressed by leading Torah authorities will be held ....The addresses will be carried live via the “Kol Lashon” phone service accessible by calling 03-617-1111.

Driving R' Metzger into trouble

Arutz Sheva :

...The rabbi and his personal driver Chaim Eisenstadt flew to Russia on Wednesday, the day following the Simhat Torah holiday in Israel. In the Diaspora however, Wednesday was celebrated as Simhat Torah and the custom is that an Israeli finding himself abroad on the second day of the holiday, which is only observed out of Israel, observes the holiday publicly to avoid giving the appearance of holiday desecration.
Rabbis around Israel expressed outrage over Rabbi Metzger’s actions, stating that the Chief Rabbi of Israel was seen being driven to and checking into a hotel on the holiday in Russia, creating more than a bit of a stir...

Oops. What was he thinking?

Israeli population

Globes :

...Israel's population stands at 6.955 million, including 5.3 million Jews, 1.4 million Arabs, and 299,000 classified as "other." Jews comprise 80% of the population, while Arabs constitute 20%. During last year, the population rose by 124,000 (1.7%), and there were 19,000 new immigrants, primarily from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. There were 120,000 babies born during the past year, 7,000 more than the previous year.

They should import Chassidim to keep pace with the high Arab birth rate.

Pelham's Hebrew School is guess where

You are looking at the Pelham Jewish Center's Hebrew School!!
NYTimes :

Pelham Jewish Center, a Conservative synagogue with a membership of just over 100 families, began a $1.5 million renovation last January, knowing it would take months - during which the sanctuary and teaching space would be unavailable. (And as with most renovations, this one is taking even longer than originally hoped. Its target completion date, initially this fall is now January or February.) Rabbi Schuck and the synagogue's board members began looking for other places, and it did not take long to find them. By the end of January, the synagogue had moved its classes and administrative offices to St. Catharine's. It was also holding its weekly Sabbath services at Christ Church, which is closer to the synagogue and thus allows Rabbi Schuck to abide by traditional Jewish laws prohibiting driving on the Sabbath.

lakewood arrest in hold-up

Ocean County Observer :

Three Lakewood men accused of robbing a pair at gunpoint early one summer morning were indicted this week....
The trio are accused of holding up two individuals around 2 a.m. July 19 on Lexington Avenue and Ninth Street in Lakewood...
The police investigation led to Wittenburg because of a call received by police dispatch prior to the robbery of a suspicious vehicle on Sixth Street and Private Way, close to the location of the robbery.
The vehicle raised concern, Lakewood Township Police Detective Capt. Robert Lawson said at the time, because of the three black men inside. Several robberies had been committed in the neighborhood recently, he said, all by three black men...

Supreme Court: Altio or Luttig

Chicago Tribune's plugged-in reporter JAN CRAWFORD GREENBURG, informs us:

With an announcement expected Sunday or Monday, administration officials have narrowed the focus to Judges Samuel Alito of New Jersey and Michael Luttig of Virginia, sources involved in the process said. Both have sterling legal qualifications and solid conservative credentials, and both would set off an explosive fight with Senate Democrats, who are demanding a more moderate nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Sources close to the process cautioned that Bush still could pick someone else, noting that he had wanted to name a woman to replace O'Connor. He had considered Priscilla Owen of Texas, another federal appeals court judge, before tapping Miers, and she remains a distant possibility, administration sources said.
But sources in the administration and others involved in the process - outside the handful in Bush's tight inner circle who were weighing the selection this weekend at Camp David - said a nominee other than Alito or Luttig would come as a surprise...
Alito, the son of two public school teachers who grew up in Trenton, N.J., is more reserved and soft-spoken. He often is called "Scalito" because his intellect and Italian heritage draw comparisons to Justice Antonin Scalia. But his personality and self-effacing manner are completely different from those of the boisterous and, at times, bombastic Scalia.
Luttig, who grew up in Tyler, Texas, where his father was a petroleum engineer, is more outgoing, and he still possesses a prominent Texas accent. In some ways, he is more like Scalia, for whom he clerked when Scalia was on the federal appeals court. Like Scalia, his writing style is crisp and clear, and he is willing to confront colleagues head-on when he believes they don't adhere to established law. As a result, he sometimes reaches decisions that cannot be considered conservative...

Get your boxing gloves on!

Who is this Sekulow?

Jay Sekulow, the influential Conservative Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice is everywhere. He hosts a popular law program on Christian stations, has argued numerous cases in the Supreme Court, and as a leading force in the Christian Right is constantly on and quoted in, the media.

So I wondered, is he Jewish? What I found:

A speech he gave entitled: How a Jewish Lawyer from Brooklyn Came to Believe in Je*s:

I was born on June 10, 1956, in Brooklyn, but we moved to Long Island just after I was born and lived there until I was into my teens. My family attended a Reform synagogue in Long Island; it was not a fancy building, but I remember it had thick, plush drapes. It's funny, the things one remembers. I was very impressed with those drapes; I don't know, maybe because my friend's dad donated them. I liked Friday night services, which we attended about once a month, but Hebrew school, well, unfortunately, none of the kids in our class liked Hebrew school. We were not very well behaved. Sometimes I had the feeling the only reason the cantor didn't kick my friend and me out of the class (which he threatened to do) was because that was the friend whose dad donated the drapes!
"Religion" was not a big topic of discussion in our home. Sometimes my father referred to "The Supreme Being," but he usually reserved such references for the holidays. I didn't think much about God either. I do remember that when I was 13 years old, I'd exchange friendly insults with a Gentile friend of mine, a Catholic. We'd tease each other about our different backgrounds. We were never really serious about it, but I do remember wondering for a brief moment whether Shaun could possibly be right about Jes*s. It seemed strange that such a thought would even enter my mind, but it left about as abruptly as it had come. I was pretty secure in my Jewish identity, which, as far as I knew included not believing in jess*s. Although we weren't "religious" we did many things to reinforce our culture and our heritage. I especially enjoyed the many Jewish celebrations: my bar mitzvah, for example.
That was a red letter day. Instead of my usual blue yarmulka with the white lining, I wore a white satin yarmulka with gold embroidery, and a tallis to match. Maybe my performance was leaning toward mediocre, but still, to be bar mitzvah signalled the end of Hebrew school and the thrill of "growing up."
Two years later, my family left New York and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. We joined a synagogue which I would describe as "very Reform." In contrast to our little Long Island synagogue, this one was quite elaborate. An ornate chandelier hung from the center of the beautiful domed ceiling; the ark was made of marble and gold, and we had gold velvet cushions on the seats to match...

Tragically, Jews For jes*s is popping up everywhere. Your read more and more people saying their members.

And say they grew up in Reform Temples.

Reform laud Blue Greenberg

Reform Judaism Magazine:

Profiles of eight women who have transformed Jewish life in the last forty years:

• Blu Greenberg: Since 1973, when she first addressed what Orthodoxy and feminism can learn from each other, Greenberg has been the Jewish community's leading Orthodox feminist advocate and writer, helping to found the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, which works to expand Jewish women's opportunities within the framework of traditional Jewish law. Her influential book, On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition (1981), opened conversation about the possibility of living a traditional Jewish life as a feminist and is still widely read 25 years after its publication.

Exactly whose life has she "transformed', may I ask?

and read the article:

"8 Jewish Women Who Changed the World" ; FRIEDAN, ABZUG, BADER GINSBURG...

Death of feminism

New York Times Magazine has excerpts from Maureen Dowd forthcoming book "Are Men Necessary: When Sexes Collide,".

Dowd, say what you want about her, is endowed with great wit, funny prose; and has her pulse on many new cultural trends.

Trends like Woman coming to the realization that feminism has sold them a bag of goods:

When I entered college in 1969, women were bursting out of theirs 50's chrysalis, shedding girdles, padded bras and conventions. The Jazz Age spirit flared in the Age of Aquarius. Women were once again imitating men and acting all independent: smoking, drinking, wanting to earn money and thinking they had the right to be sexual, this time protected by the pill. I didn't fit in with the brazen new world of hard-charging feminists. I was more of a fun-loving (if chaste) type who would decades later come to life in Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw. I hated the grubby, unisex jeans and no-makeup look and drugs that zoned you out, and I couldn't understand the appeal of dances that didn't involve touching your partner. In the universe of Eros, I longed for style and wit. I loved the Art Deco glamour of 30's movies. I wanted to dance the Continental like Fred and Ginger in white hotel suites; drink martinis like Myrna Loy and William Powell; live the life of a screwball heroine like Katharine Hepburn, wearing a gold lamé gown cut on the bias, cavorting with Cary Grant, strolling along Fifth Avenue with my pet leopard...

Closing Paragraphs:

While I never related to the unstyled look of the early feminists and I tangled with boyfriends who did not want me to wear makeup and heels, I always assumed that one positive result of the feminist movement would be a more flexible and capacious notion of female beauty, a release from the tyranny of the girdled, primped ideal of the 50's.
I was wrong. Forty years after the dawn of feminism, the ideal of feminine beauty is more rigid and unnatural than ever.
When Gloria Steinem wrote that "all women are Bunnies," she did not mean it as a compliment; it was a feminist call to arms. Decades later, it's just an aesthetic fact, as more and more women embrace Botox and implants and stretch and protrude to extreme proportions to satisfy male desires. Now that technology is biology, all women can look like inflatable dolls. It's clear that American narcissism has trumped American feminism.
It was naïve and misguided for the early feminists to tendentiously demonize Barbie and Cosmo girl, to disdain such female proclivities as shopping, applying makeup and hunting for sexy shoes and cute boyfriends and to prognosticate a world where men and women dressed alike and worked alike in navy suits and were equal in every way.
But it is equally naïve and misguided for young women now to fritter away all their time shopping for boudoirish clothes and text-messaging about guys while they disdainfully ignore gender politics and the seismic shifts on the Supreme Court that will affect women's rights for a generation.
What I didn't like at the start of the feminist movement was that young women were dressing alike, looking alike and thinking alike. They were supposed to be liberated, but it just seemed like stifling conformity.
What I don't like now is that the young women rejecting the feminist movement are dressing alike, looking alike and thinking alike. The plumage is more colorful, the shapes are more curvy, the look is more plastic, the message is diametrically opposite - before it was don't be a sex object; now it's be a sex object - but the conformity is just as stifling.
And the Future . . .
Having boomeranged once, will women do it again in a couple of decades? If we flash forward to 2030, will we see all those young women who thought trying to Have It All was a pointless slog, now middle-aged and stranded in suburbia, popping Ativan, struggling with rebellious teenagers, deserted by husbands for younger babes, unable to get back into a work force they never tried to be part of?
It's easy to picture a surreally familiar scene when women realize they bought into a raw deal and old trap. With no power or money or independence, they'll be mere domestic robots, lasering their legs and waxing their floors - or vice versa - and desperately seeking a new Betty Friedan.

Read the entire article to view interesting and informative statistics on educated woman.

Hispanics converting to Judaism

If you were wondering why your Hispanic Help suddenly showed up in four inch heels demanding that you sign a cleaning contract in her lawyer's office; and refused to work on shabbath:

NY Times :

....It is difficult to know precisely how many Hispanics are converting or adopting Jewish religious practices, but accounts of such embraces of Judaism are growing more common in parts of the Southwest. In Clear Lake, a suburb south of Houston, Rabbi Stuart Federow has overseen half a dozen conversions of Hispanics in recent years. In El Paso, Rabbi Stephen Leon said he had converted almost 40 Hispanic families since moving to Texas from New Jersey 19 years ago.
These conversions are the latest chapter in the story of the crypto-Jews, or hidden Jews, of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, who are thought to be descended from the Sephardic Jews who began fleeing Spain more than 500 years ago. The story is being bolstered by recent historical research and advances in DNA testing that are said to reveal a prominent role played by crypto-Jews and their descendants in Spain's colonization of the Southwest.

For more than two decades, anecdotal evidence collected by researchers in New Mexico, Colorado and Texas suggested that some nominally Catholic families of Iberian descent had stealthily maintained Jewish customs throughout the centuries, including lighting candles on Friday evening, avoiding pork and having the Star of David inscribed on gravestones.

The whispers of hidden rituals coming from thoroughly Catholic communities were at times met with skepticism. One explanation for these seemingly Jewish customs was that evangelical Protestant sects active in the Southwest about a century ago had used Jewish imagery and Hebrew writing in their proselytizing, and that these symbols had become ingrained in isolated Hispanic communities...

Father Sanchez has also introduced some Jewish customs at St. Edwins Church in Albuquerque, where he serves; he blew the shofar, or ram's horn, this month during the Yom Kippur holiday. At another parish where he used to work in rural northeastern New Mexico, in the village of Villanueva, he would hold an annual Passover supper....

Rabbi to Iran: I agree!

From Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran :

A prominent Jewish figure in the US said on Friday that when Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israel should be wiped off the map, he did not mean the Jews, rather the 'illegal and illegitimate' Zionist movement and an occupying and immoral government.
Spokesman of the biggest anti-Zionism Jewish organization in the US, Rabbi David Vice (Y.O.: appropriate name!) told IRNA here on the World Qods Day on Friday that the late Imam Khomeini had been right in making a distinction between Judaism and Zionism and they had during their visit to Iran in the past witnessed observation of the rights of Iranian Jews.
Vice said the World Qods Day provides a suitable chance for the world people to voice sympathy with the Palestinian people.
The senior Jewish clergy residing in New York said Iran is not the enemy of Jews and they have led peaceful life in Iran for thousands of years.
"Zionism is a political movement and does not represent the Jewish people," added the Rabbi.
He stressed that there is no difference and dispute between Jews and Muslims and the only source of dispute is Zionism.
He added that Zionist's elimination is the only remedy and the Jews pray for peaceful annihilation of Zionism.
On plots of Zionism to occupy Palestine, Rabbi Vice said that unfortunately, Zionism has been busy hatching plots since the earliest day of its formation about 200 years ago. (Y.O.: 200?)
He said Zionism is misinterpreting Torah and its injunctions in an attempt to politicize the nature of Jewish religion which is a holy religion.
He added that Judaism is a religion based on spirituality whereas Zionism is based on materialism and atheism, which are in complete contrast with each other.
The anti-Zionism figure said that Torah clearly bans Jews from ownership of lands, including Palestine and other parts of the world, but Zionism is unfortunately uses its affiliated mass media to divert public opinion and has distorted Torah to occupy Palestine, which is a disgrace and crime.
Referring to recent hues and cries of Zionism and the affiliated media in reaction to recent statements of President Ahmadinejad, the Rabbi said the protests are disgraceful with an aim to prompt Muslims and Jews hate each other and to legitimize Zionism.
He underlined, "We support the stances of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad." Vice said Islam is a religion that is based on mercy, peace and spirituality, adding that Palestinian Muslims and Jews have been leading peaceful co-existence for hundred years before the manifestation of Zionism.
Despite following two different religions, Muslims and Jews share a single God and whose religion originate from Prophet Abraham, he concluded.

Who is this "prominent" guy who is not even found on Google; what is his real name (Benedict Arnold?), and where does he live? (I'll bet Monsey)

Libby is Jewish

Why did no one know this?

JTA:

Lewis Libby, a member of Temple Rodef Shalom in northern Virginia, resigned as Vice President Richard Cheney’s top adviser after he was indicted for perjury.

Well at least his Temple's name agrees with his philosophy.

Lakewood P. School scandal

Just who is in charge of the school system?

A.P.P.:

...The meeting will also be the first chance for parents and taxpayers to publicly weigh in on news of an Attorney General's Office investigation of Edward Kent, the district's interim business administrator/board secretary. The investigation was first reported last week.Asbury Park school board officials confirmed that state investigators have requested documents and information from the district. One board member, Frank D'Alessandro, said the inquiry may focus on whether Kent billed the board for work done by his consulting firm, when the board believed it was paying only him....
Township Committeeman Robert W. Singer said municipal officials are watching the situation, but they have no authority over the district, which he referred to as the "gang who couldn't shoot straight."
"They can't afford to have anybody having any sense of impropriety," Singer said last week."They can't afford that right now, especially in that particular position."
The position Singer referred to is the head of Lakewood's business office. Kent, who has also worked as interim business administrator in Plainfield and chief of the state Department of Education's audit bureau, was hired to supervise former Business Administrator Kathryn D. Fuoto.
Kent is paid a salary of $600 a day, which equates to nearly $160,000 a year in salary, plus an additional $75 an hour for school board meetings. He said when he was hired that his specialty is "taking a district that tumbled into the low end of the field and bringing it back."

Lakewood doomed housing rally

One person that has not given up:

A.P.P.:

The Rev. Kevin Nunn took deep breaths like a preacher is wont to do and bellowed his introduction at today's sparsely-attended housing rally in Town Square.
"Is anybody here?'' the leader of the Lakewood Improvement Association questioned.Well, no, not really.
A handful of people showed up at the afternoon event meant to be a wake-up call to raise awareness of the need for affordable housing but most of the crowd showed up for the rally's free hamburgers and hot dogs or a nearby clothing and food giveaway sponsored by a local church.
Some activists blamed the turnout on residents who have lost hope...

Kiryas Yoel, election issue

Times Herald-Record :

Orange County executive candidate Michael Edelstein stood beside Route 105 outside Kiryas Joel yesterday morning to accuse his opponent of ignoring one of the county's most contentious growth issues.
Edelstein said County Executive Edward Diana has done too little to defuse tension between the densely populated Hasidic community and its neighbors over the rapid development and potential expansion of Kiryas Joel.
The Democrat also chastised Diana over Kiryas Joel's proposed water pipeline. He said the county should have tried to lead the environmental review for the $22 million project, rather than sue later to correct deficiencies in the village's analysis

Baltimore Mag. on R' Neuberger

His full impact on the remarkable growth of Torah in America can not be expressed in mere words.
The Baltimore Jewish Times mourns the passing of Reb Naftoli Neuberger ZT"L:
...A tribute service for Rabbi Neuberger will be held next Thursday, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m. at Ner Israel.
"The legacy that our father left us was to maintain this preeminent yeshiva for the benefit of the Jewish people, and to always understand that we're part of a greater community," said Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger, the rabbi's eldest son. "We look to continue his legacy of involvement for the benefit of the Jewish community and mankind."
When the funeral service was over, mourners walked behind Rabbi Neuberger's casket, and then a hearse, out of the yeshiva and well onto Mount Wilson Lane. God provided the beautiful, sunny, crisp autumn afternoon. Politicians -- including Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Mayor Martin O'Malley, as well as other state and local officials -- were on hand for the service...
On the evening of his death, Rabbi Neuberger lit candles to welcome Shabbat into his Yeshiva Lane home. Before taking a nap, he told a family member to wake him up in time for evening prayers.
When it was time to get up, it was discovered that the rabbi had already passed away. Just like the light that he brought into the world every day, Rabbi Neuberger left the world with the lights kindled...

Guilty in Pesach Goldberg Homicide

Times Herald-Record :

...Rabbi Pesach Goldberg and his family were driving to a relative's bar mitzvah just before 9 a.m. on July 24. As they approached a rise in the road, they saw the drunken man in the middle of the pavement. They saw him too late. Goldberg swerved to avoid Joseph Olivieri but his car slid into the oncoming lane, colliding with a car driven by Jim Krueger.
Goldberg, 47, of Brooklyn, was killed. His wife Tova was critically injured. Six of his nine children were hurt...
Olivieri, 48, of Fallsburg pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and first-degree reckless endangerment, felonies.
Today, he was sentenced in Sullivan County Court to 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in prison, the maximum allowed.

Africans are stealing from us

NYTimes :

Sunday's vote has greater significance than ever before, with many Zanzibaris viewing the balloting as Western-style democracy's last chance..
Hamad's Civic United Front also plays the religion card. At a rally Thursday, its director of elections, Ayub Mohammed, accused the ruling party of using ''Jewish witchcraft'' to win the election...

Who gave them permission!

Conservative 'Rabbis' on Halloween

Jewish Ledger asked a few Conservative 'Rabbis' if jews should take part in Halloween:

'Rabbi' Robert L. Tobin The Conservative Synagogue:

...Halloween has become one of the most colorful and friendly of American communal observances. Personally, I am more than a little uncomfortable with my family directly celebrating it, because of its pagan origin and the abundance of violent and ghoulish costumes and designs. On the other hand, it is one of the last moments in American neighborhood life when families walk out across their lawns to see the neighbors, instead of driving out of the driveway towards their own private pursuits...

'Rabbi' James Rosen, Beth El Temple, West Hartford(Conservative):

...A better path: emphasize Purim to be sure. Yet, come each Halloween let children gather in their favorite costumes, play games and raise money for a much needed children's charity. Keep out the witches, gremlins and the candy -- they teach nothing positive. Fun and tzedakah are always a winning combination

'Rabbi' Daniel J. Satlow, Congregation Beth ElFairfield(Conservative) :

Yes, please participate in Halloween with a joyful heart and a clear conscience.
First of all, for whatever its pagan origins, Halloween has no religious message today that any average person thinks of consciously. And even if it once did many centuries ago, Jews borrowed lots of rituals from the Romans (such as reclining during the Passover seder), and no one seems to mind their tainted roots today.
Second of all, we do not want to teach our young children that Judaism is frivolously punitive. There are enough restrictions in our tradition that we observe for good reasons; as Rambam said, are these not enough? And if the complaint is spoils our kids or teaches gluttony then you would have to levy the same accusation against virtually every other Jewish holiday as well.
Finally, as Hillel taught in Pirkei Avot (2:5): Do not withdraw from the community....

Is Hillel referring to non jews?

With the varied approaches, I wonder what is the Jewish Theological Seminary's opinion.

Spitzer WJC investigation

The Jewish Week :

Attorney General Elliott Spitzer's investigation of the World Jewish Congress has focused of late on statements attributed to Israel Singer suggesting that the chairman of the group's governing board had a personal $2 million "slush fund" provided to him each year by Edgar Bronfman, the WJC president.
The subject came to light recently through an e-mail written Jan. 9, 2002 by Larry Cohler-Esses, then an investigative reporter with The Daily News, to Singer, who was then secretary general, the top professional post at the WJC.
At the time Singer had offered Cohler-Esses the position of head of the North American section of the WJC, the international defense agency currently under scrutiny for alleged financial improprieties.
In the e-mail, Cohler-Esses summarized his prior meetings and conversations with Singer, and asked him a series of questions.
One of the questions: "Are there any skeletons in WJC's closet of which I should be aware before I take this position?"
Apologizing for any possible perceived "impudence" in the nature of the questions, Cohler-Esses wrote: "As we discussed on Friday, WJC officials publicly describe their annual budget as approximately $5.5 million, but its 1999 IRS tax report lists a budget of $11.1 million on income of almost $12 million. Of this, $8.1 million is listed as going to program services; about $741,000 to administration and management; and $2.2 million to fundraising.
"When we spoke on Monday, you mentioned that Edgar [Bronfman] has established a 'slush fund' of about $2 million for use at your personal discretion. If you subtract this sum and the amount devoted to fundraising, that leaves about $6.9 million, or still an extra $1.4 million." Cohler-Esses then asked if Singer's "personal discretion fund" explained "some of the extra money," where the rest of the money...

Singer is a noble, hard working, frum man devoted to klall work. I sure hope he is cleared.

The WJC has got to be more transparent and less of an extension of Edger Bronfman.

Judge reads riot act to Satmar

Thrilla in Willa cont. If you can keep track.

Times Herald-Record:

An Orange County judge has once again read the riot act to rival factions of Satmar Hasidim after an order he issued on Friday touched off a synagogue brawl.
Acting state Supreme Court Justice Stewart Rosenwasser fired off a fax yesterday expressing dismay at the recent "chaos and lawlessness" and demanding lawyers for the two sides explain it when they return to his court on Nov. 30.
"Be advised," he wrote, "that this Court will take any action appropriate in dealing with any party who intentionally misrepresented this Court's ruling."...
Rosenwasser caused an uproar Friday by demanding proof that Aaron ally Berl Friedman had been expelled from the Williamsburg congregation, where he had been president. Both sides read the order as a decisive victory for Aaron's side. On Tuesday morning, shortly before worship to celebrate the holiday of Simchas Torah, Friedman marched into the Williamsburg synagogue with a crowd of Aaron supporters and security guards...

One tough judge. One huge chillul hashem.

Monsey Council race

Journal News

....Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and his Democratic running mates, Councilmen Harry Reiss and David Stein, cumulatively have nearly 25 years in office.
Their independent opponents, candidates of Preserve Ramapo, a grass-roots group opposing recent rezoning, are Joseph Brennan for supervisor, and Herman Friedman and Michel Vilson for the four-year council seats. Only Brennan, Suffern's deputy mayor, has previously run for office....
That's when the Town Board approved zoning for multifamily housing connected to religious schools in four single-family neighborhoods.
Preserve Ramapo President Robert Rhodes urged residents at the meeting to finance an opposition ticket.
St. Lawrence and board members said they responded to a federal law mandating such zoning, while Preserve Ramapo saw the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 likely to be voided by the U.S. Supreme Court, as previous legislation was.
At a debate this week, St. Lawrence disagreed that he was motivated by the Monsey area bloc vote of ultra-orthodox Jewish residents.
"I'm supported by the largest bloc vote in the town of Ramapo," St. Lawrence answered to a question from the audience. "It's called the Democratic Party."
Ramapo has 28,638 registered Democrats, 12,208 Republicans and 11,775 voters with no party affiliation....

New Satmar tell-all book

Thanks to Chaptsem for alerting us about this newly released book, written by a doctoral candidate in sociology at CUNY, on the Satmarers that we whisper about.

Chaptzem:

.....As a matter of fact one of the more salient characters interviewed by the author of this book is a well known Williamsburg internet poster with the username 'Mindy' who she wisely disguises as 'Dini'. I am actually impressed by how the author of this book was able to get so deep into the secret lives of these people. However there is a lesson to be learned from all this, these so-called 'bums' are frustrated and are anxious to talk and they will talk to anyone that will listen to them. Now here is a message for our Rabbonim, please be the one's to listen to these people and understand them and help them out, or else this will be only the first of such willing public exposes of the inner circle and shmutz of what goes on.

Eichler sure won't be carrying it. Amazon is.

From Booklist:

The Jews that are this book's subjects are members of the extremely insular Satmar in Brooklyn, one of the largest Hasidic groups in the U.S. Responsible for bearing and raising as many children as possible to husbands they have met only once or twice before marriage, the women are expected to focus on maintaining a Jewish home. The men are obligated to study, and they must pray three times daily. The author, a secular Jew whose mother is a Holocaust survivor, wanted to talk to them for her doctoral dissertation in sociology. Some of these people, Winston found, are able to cope fairly easily with the compartmentalization required of such a life. Others suffer terribly, and often alone, not wanting to live as hypocrites, but also knowing that making the decision to abandon the community's way of life would likely cause rejection by their families and community, and guilt about bringing shame on their relatives and abandoning their traditions. An important work of scholarship and an absorbing account of these Hasidic Jews.

Religious groups are facing the gargantuan problem of maintaining community/religious standards in the face of society's precipitously diminishing ones.

Satmar's lifesyle is becoming further and further to the extreme of an outside world that they are forced to live, drive, work and walk in. There lies the conflict.

How and if we can solve this problematic conundrum is a great big question mark; that leaves a feeling of helplessness.

May our prayers and efforts be answered.

Simchas Torah in Lakewood

Two bloggers spend Simchas Torah, in America's Capitol of Torah:

• sweetrose :

...Watching the men dance and sing, I was struck by the joy they felt at celebrating Torah. It was like being at a wedding (without live music) where the Torah was the chosson and kallah wrapped in one. Or maybe each of the men was the chosson and Torah the kallah. It really was beautiful to watch. The kids joined in, jumping up and down, singing and dancing and having a great time...

• primaimpressionis :

...I was in Lakewood (soon to be my parents' new home) for yom tov. I have to say emphatically that Flatbush is better (trust me, it pains me to say Flatbush is good for anything). The hakufos in the shul I davened last only and hour and half, but we still managed to finish at 3:30 (or so I assume since I left after kedusha because the guy was going all out with his Rosh Hashana adaptation). And the other shuls in the area ended just as late...

At one point (about 3) a kid told his father he was hungry. The father responded, "What do you want me to do? Throw up so you have something to eat?" Well, that was pretty much what the baal korei did (right before he had to carried home)....

It depends on your outlook.

Article on R' Neuberger ZT"L

Owings Mills Times :

Almost 2,000 people packed into Sol Levinson and Bros. funeral home in Pikesville Oct. 23 to say goodbye to Rabbi Herman Neuberger of Ner Israel Rabbinical College...
"From my first meeting with Rabbi Neuberger more than a decade ago to my last one only a few weeks ago," said Gov. Robert Ehrlich, "I found him to be a very special person who not only cared deeply about the school he helped lead for so many years but also about the most vulnerable citizens in our community."
"I will always value our conversations and friendship," Ehrlich said....
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who did not attend the funeral, said she first met the rabbi when she represented Maryland's 3rd District in Congress. "He was a man of great wisdom, but also of great kindness and humor."
Mikulski said she looked at Neuberger as a "trusted adviser" who helped her with issues as far ranging as foreign policy issues involving Israel and care for the elderly.
"I feel I have lost a friend," Mikulski added....

WJZ :

"He was a good friend, and while he came to visit me several times in my house, I went a couple of times to visit him at Ner Israel and we had just a marvelous working relationship," Archbishop William Cardinal Keeler tells WJZ's Richard Sher. "I enjoyed the kosher meals there."

Monsey man fined; no permit

JOURNAL NEWS :

...Hatzlocho Mishomaim LLC, owner, 118 Route 59, Monsey, was fined $3,000 for operating a rooming house without a permit and having garbage and debris strewn throughout the property. Tenants told inspectors earlier this week that five people had moved out of the building.

Where jews gave their charity

JTA

The United Jewish Communities was the top Jewish group on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the top 400 charities in America.
But the UJC, the umbrella group for North American Jewish federations, fell from 25th last year to 42nd on this year’s list. More than 25 Jewish groups made the list. The top five Jewish groups include the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee at 60, the Jewish Communal Fund at 82, the UJA-Federation of New York at 83 and the Jewish Federation/Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago at 133.
...Yeshiva University at 192 and Brandeis University at 239; along with Hadassah at 183, the P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds at 229, American Society for Technion-Israel Institute of Technology at 247, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science at 263, the Anti-Defamation League at 302, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews at 325 and the American Jewish Committee at 357. Overview of list

I'd like to see a list of off the books gifts.

Skating through Shabbos

Associated Press :

The full scope of Jewish texts and traditions couldn't help the rabbi sort this one out: Could he inline-skate to synagogue on the holy day of rest and prayer?
Dov Kaplan decided he should go straight to the top for an answer - a religious sage in Jerusalem who rules on what's acceptable, and what's not, under Orthodox Jewish codes. His verdict on the skates? Roll on, including Saturdays...

Any dilemma over Shabbat - like the roller-skating question - will likely find its way to a crammed wedge of offices on a Jerusalem hilltop. The space serves as a kind of one-stop answer factory: its staff responding to letters and e-mails, its head rabbi issuing religious decrees and amateur inventors tinkering on work tables to find Shabbat-acceptable devices. Among the latest projects is a doorbell that uses air pressure instead of electricity.
"We believe the Torah is a living document and needs to address modern issues, especially with the incredible pace of change," said Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Halperin, a shaggy-bearded scholar who directs the Institute for Science and Halacha, the term for the body of Jewish law. "But we are not an institute that is looking for loopholes."...

R' Shapira may head Agudah

Arutz Sheva :

Rabbi Pinchas Shapira has been suggested as the next chairman of the Agudat Yisrael Party as a way of merging the two ultra-religious parties, Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah.
Rabbi Shapira is the son of the former Knesset member, Avraham Shapira, and the son-in-law of the Hassidic leader of the Sadigora sect. As a result, he may be acceptable to both parties...

Until the next squabble.

Chabad fire

Massachusetts's Daily Item :


Officials are releasing few details in the investigation of Saturday's van fire at Chabad Lubavitch of the North Shore...
Earlier this month, High Holy Days were marred by vandals who placed anti-Semitic graffiti on the walls inside Chabad Lubavitch just days before Rosh Hashana. According to police detectives, someone entered the synagogue through an unsecured door. The congregation has only been at that location since the summer of 1999 when it purchased the property, which was formerly a Seventh Day Adventist Church....

Limbaugh dating jewess

What's she thinking: He's on his third divorce, practically deaf, not Jewish, and introverted.

This might help: He's got enough money for an impresive wardrobe, lives in Palm Beach, and has a huge house on the water with live-ins.

Media Matters :

In his September 3, 2004, "Reliable Source" column in The Washington Post, Richard Leiby reported that a spokesman for Limbaugh confirmed that he "is dating CNN anchor Daryn Kagan." And a February 21 article in People magazine noted that "Kagan's romance with ... Limbaugh is getting serious." Kagan, who is based at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta, is the anchor of CNN Live Today, a news show that airs weekdays from 10 a.m .to noon ET and that carried Bush's speech live.

Wikipedia :

Kagan is Jewish. Her great-grandfather was a Russian immigrant named Eiser Cohen who came to the United States through Ellis Island ...
In September 2004 it was reported that Kagan was involved romantically with the conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh....


Now we know why he was popping all those pills.

Limbaugh to Judge: "What do you expect; I'm dating a J.A.P.?"

Another Jewish tragedy of inder-dating.

Satmar brawl: Today's papers

'Thrilla in Willa' cont. :

NEW YORK POST :

More than two-dozen Hasidic men are in a holy mess after allegedly breaking into a Brooklyn synagogue, apparently as part of an ongoing power struggle among warring Satmar sects.
Cops arrested 26 men who allegedly celebrated a holy day Tuesday by burglarizing a reading room at Yetev Lev Bikur Cholim on Rodney Street in Williamsburg.
The men, ages 18 to 25, destroyed a podium, scattered papers and smashed three walls on the holiday of Shmini Atzeret, officials said.
When cops arrived, the men were sitting on the floor, laughing and smoking cigarettes, sources said. It was unclear if they were drunk...

Daily News :

..."We view the recent events as part of a continuing tactic that arises from their failures to succeed in the courtrooms," said Scott Mollen, lawyer for supporters of Zalman Teitelbaum. The lawyer added that documents were believed stolen from the office.
Aaron Teitelbaum follower Abe Klein contended the men were "targeted" simply for gathering in a second-floor reading room, where they quietly studied religious texts until private guards called police to remove them.
"There was absolutely no sensitivity by police," said Klein, 29. "Their rights were taken away. This is a holy day, and there was no sensitivity."....

Israel suicide bombing

N.Y. Times :
A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up Wednesday at a falafel stand in an outdoor market in Hadera, an Israeli coastal town, killing five other people and wounding more than two dozen, the Israeli police said...
May G-d avenge their murder.

A Cardinal sermonizes on Kippur

Another tragic account of Jews, Christianizing Judaism's holiest day.

By "RABBI" LEIGH LERNER in the Canadian Jewish News :

On Yom Kippur day, a failed Hydro transformer cut the electricity to Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom. As rabbi of the congregation, I had to change the line-up and substitute a cardinal Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, Archbishop of Montreal.
Heres how a member of the College of Cardinals came by a strange twist of fortune, or was it the hand of God? to give a sermon to a Jewish congregation on Yom Kippur, Judaisms holiest day.
Cardinal Turcotte had agreed to speak at the temples afternoon study hour, for those who stay at the shul between the morning and afternoon services. He was to discuss the impact of the...
...He also agreed to attend Yom Kippur morning services the first time for him.
As those in the anteroom donned their tallit, the cardinal released all tension when he took out his traditional red biretta and said, I have to put on my kippah.
The cardinal sat between me and Dr. Victor Goldbloom, whose leadership in interreligious amity led to Cardinal Turcottes visit. Occasionally I explained prayers sotto voce to our guest: These are from the time of Je--s, this from the era of the Crusades, these public confessions unique to Yom Kippur.
It was all new to Cardinal Turcotte.... (Y.O.: and to Judaisim)
Dressed in the white of Yom Kippur, standing at the platforms edge, with profound silence filling the synagogue, more a linking of souls than a mere lack of sound, I explained the situation, delayed the sermon to later, and introduced Cardinal Turcotte, who brought the same Hebrew greeting that Pope Benedict XVI used at the synagogue in Cologne: Shalom aleichem, peace be upon you. Unfamiliar with our custom, he was taken aback by the open-hearted warmth of an entire congregation responding, Aleichem shalom....
Cardinal Turcotte stressed key points of Nostra Aetate for Catholic-Jewish relations, like the Churchs spiritual bond and origins in Judaism. He referred to the first covenant, a term acknowledging the continuity of the Jews covenant with God. He said mutual respect will arise from study and dialogue, and noted that Jes*s death cannot be charged against all the Jews, then or now. The Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by G-d. The Church decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
Then Cardinal Turcotte repeated the moving prayer for forgiveness placed in Jerusalems Western Wall by Pope John Paul II....
For a moment, all was silence, and then unimaginable on Yom Kippur a spontaneous and sustained outburst of applause, evincing honour, acceptance, and thanks to have witnessed tshuvah, return, repentance, the essence of the Day of Atonement. And if a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church could stand humbly before 1,200 Jews on Yom Kippur and speak of his Churchs faults and desire for forgiveness and reconciliation, how could they not offer the same themselves?
At service intermission, the blackout at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom ended, but the spiritual power in those electric moments of a cardinal Yom Kippur would never be forgotten.

They sure won't be forgotten!

Orthodox riot in Jerusalem

YNet

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men rioted Tuesday night in Jerusalem's Shabbat Square, stoning police and injuring four officers.
One officer was taken to Shaare Zedek hospital in the capital, and four people were arrested, including three teens. Several civilians were hurt promptly treated at the scene...
Police believe the riot was in protest of plans to build the trans-Israel highway over ancient Jewish graves.
Following Tuesday's Simchat Torah holiday, hundreds of people gathered in Shabbat square, in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, and began throwing rocks and burning garbage dumpsters...

Times on Bernanke's Jewishness

Times :

...He applied to Brandeis University, which was founded by Jews and named after Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish justice of the Supreme Court. Harvard, which he ended up attending, was an after-thought. His parents still keep kosher, and their son learned Hebrew partly from a grandfather who lived with the family - enough Hebrew to officiate at the bar and bat mitzvahs of his children, Joel and Alyssa, without the help of a rabbi.
The synagogue in Dillon was too small to support a full-time rabbi, so a student rabbi conducted services on the High Holy Days and stayed at the Bernanke home. One evening at dinner, the visitor suggested that Ben apply to Harvard.
"We were talking about Brandeis," Mrs. Bernanke recalled, "and the rabbi said, 'If he can get into Brandeis, he can get into Harvard.' "
Ben Bernanke thought he would major in physics. He soon switched to math, and then to economics, which mixed math and people, as his parents put it. He went from Harvard to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received his Ph.D. in 1979, and also married. After graduation, he and his wife, Anna, the daughter of refugees from Europe...

Baalei Tshuvah issues

Good discussion in the Canadian Jewish News :

...A host of other questions also arise: Do baalei tshuvah tend to remain overly or exclusively attached to the institutions that may have nurtured their initial interest in Judaism and subsequent growth? Does this attachment hinder their religious growth in any way? From a psychological perspective, how do baalei tshuvah contend with the different parts of their experience (their life before versus their life after, so to speak).
But perhaps the most challenging issue, from an educational point of view, pertains to the children of baalei tshuvah. Recently, Rabbi Yaacov Haber, the former national director of Jewish education for the Orthodox Union, wrote that the challenge of being a member of the second generation can lead to grave problems. Some even end up rejecting the very lifestyle their parents struggled so hard to attain, often with a disdainful retort such as, You rejected your upbringing, now its my turn. Often the baal tshuvah remains quite alone to handle these dilemmas, caught between their Orthodox co-religionists and their secular relatives who, respectively, either can't relate to the problem or may not see it as a problem at all...

And they sadly have a hard time with shidduchim.

Newsday Satmar update

Continued coverage of " The Thrilla' In Willa' ".

Newsday:

The clash between warring factions of the Satmar Hasidic sect in Williamsburg just got more heated, with 26 people arrested for allegedly wreaking havoc inside a school adjacent to a synagogue."It looked like a hurricane came through there," a police source said. "Everything was just busted up and thrown around."
The school was stormed by the suspects Tuesday night, police said.The suspects, all men ages 18 to 25, walked into the Yetev Lev Bikur Cholim synagogue on Rodney Street, then broke down a wall to access the school affiliated with the synagogue and started breaking and throwing anything they could get their hands on, the source said.The suspects were charged with burglary, criminal mischief and petty larceny....

Israel Sukkot business up

Globes:

“Retail trading was intense during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday,” Gama Management and Clearing CEO Ariel Genut told "Globes"...
Gama’s figures show that the number of those making credit card purchases during the Sukkot holiday was 40% higher than during the holiday last year. This year’s holiday purchases averaged NIS 604, compared with NIS 598 during the intermediate days of both last Sukkot and last Passover.
Gama added that total purchases rose by 20% on the eve of the Jewish High Holy Days, with purchases averaging NIS 695.
Gama also reported that 156,000 credit card purchases amounting to NIS 94 million had been made at over 6,000 retail businesses around Israel during the Sukkot holiday.

Bill Gates praises Israel

JTA:

Bill Gates praised Israel´s hi-tech sector. "Israel is doing fantastic things in the technology field and I am excited to be among you. You have may extraordinary talents," the Microsoft founder, who is visiting Israel, said in a Yediot Aharonot interview Wednesday.
Gates said he would hold talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Trade and Industry Minister Ehud Olmert later in the day with a view to advancing Israeli hi-tech....

Microsoft? What's that? If Google's Sergey Brin would praise Israel that be something!

Reform (Liberalism) Judaism

Abortion access all the time, whatever the moral, cultural, halachic implications.

You can count on them.

Press Release :

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, in conjunction with the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights, has drafted comments submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration condemning the FDA’s delay in approving an application to provide the emergency contraceptive Plan B as an over-the-counter medication. Four other faith organizations: NA’AMAT USA; Presbyterian Church (USA) Washington Office; United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries; and the United Methodist Church, General Board of Church & Society, signed on to the remarks. The full text of the comments follows:

As religious organizations committed to protecting women’s health, we are dissatisfied with the Food and Drug Administration’s continued tactics to delay approving the emergency contraceptive Plan B as an over-the-counter medication. We believe that the FDA has an obligation to make decisions that promote public health and are based on sound science. FDA’s drug center, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) reviewed the application for Plan B and concluded that “the available scientific data are sufficient to support the safe use of Plan B as an over the counter product, but only for women who are 17 years of age or older.” By over-ruling the Agency’s own scientific panels, the FDA leadership has both compromised its mission and raised serious questions about inappropriate political influence. The current 60-day comment period regarding packaging and marketing issues sidesteps the FDA’s mission to promote public health. Suitable packaging and proper distribution of the product will best be determined by Plan B’s manufacturers, Barr Laboratories, and appropriate FDA officials.

Access to emergency contraception is critical to the health and wellbeing of all women. Many faith groups consider using birth control and bringing children into the world with planning and preparation to be morally responsible. For example, the Presbyterian Church (USA) states, “Unintended pregnancies lead to higher rates of infant mortality, low birth weight, and maternal morbidity and threaten the economic viability of families.” The United Methodist Church’s Resolution on Responsible Parenthood declares that in order to “support the sacred dimensions of personhood, all possible efforts should be made by parents and the community to ensure that each child enters the world with a healthy body, and is born into an environment conducive to realization of his or her potential.” The Episcopal Church teaches that human life “should be initiated only advisedly and in full accord with this understanding of the power to conceive and give birth that is bestowed by God.” The Unitarian Universalist Association believes that “the inherent worth and dignity of every person, the right of individual conscience, and respect for human life are inalienable rights due every person; and that the personal right to choose in regard to contraception…is an important aspect of these rights.” The Reform Jewish movement has long advocated that women receive “coverage of all reproductive medical needs.”

While we acknowledge concerns about minors’ use of emergency contraception, we are convinced these are best addressed by education about proper use. The current delays on the over-the-counter application—namely that increased access to contraception will result in increased sexual activity—are based on unfounded assumptions about teen behavior that reflect the influence of a narrow, religious worldview. Numerous studies have shown that increased access to emergency contraception does not increase promiscuity in teenagers.

Women must have better access to this medication. Improved availability of Plan B will decrease the number of unplanned pregnancies and therefore reduce the number of abortions – a goal shared by many religious organizations. We ask that the FDA commit itself to bettering the health of women and approve Plan B as an over-the-counter medication.

Satmar update; ABC video

To watch the nauseating ABC video

What message is this sending to the children?

2 hours ago: WABC-TV :

Thousands of congregants were involved in the fight in Brooklyn. It was so bad that police in riot gear had to be called in...
There are concerns tonight that the violence isn't over and so police will have barricades up as the community moves around the neighborhood and there are police officers basically surrounding the synagogue.
This was a clear case, some say, of Jews attacking other Jews and it's all over a family dispute.
It happened inside the sanctuary. People were praying. That's when hundreds of Satmar Hasidim stormed the synagogue. Suddenly two opposing Jewish groups were locked in a violent brawl.
Sol Wertheimer, Witness: "This is the end of the holidays and we have to finish it with happiness and it's the opposite, people were crying."
Police rushed in, one detective called it chaotic. Fist-fights, beard-pulling, congregants literally tossed into the street.
Joel Gold, Witness: "When the police came up, I can believe dead bodies being pulled out of the synagogue."
...But this week there was a new court ruling that sides with Aaron.
His followers say they were just going in to reclaim the temple, and deny any wrongdoing.
Joseph Hershkowitz, Williamsburg Resident: "Can we please go into our own synagogue that we got legally, by the court?"
Jeff Rossen: "Did you storm the temple?"
Joseph Hershkowitz: "There were probably people that came into the temple but definitely not stormed it, no. I'm sure that there are violent people on both sides."...
Sol Pearlstein, Williamsburg Resident: "We have the police here and there have been warnings to all sides saying 'just behave and don't do anything stupid.'"
There were minor injuries in this brawl, as many people say it was. Twenty-six people were arrested and tonight both sides say the fight is not over yet.

Pulling beards? Ouch. If you have to fight, fight like a man!

Judge to Satmar Rebbe:Appear!

Why is Satmar not in a Din Torah like Bobov?

Times Herald-Record :

An Orange County judge drawn into a high-stakes power struggle between two factions of
Satmar Hasidim has demanded clarification from the one party who can't be disputed: the grand rebbe...
Acting state Supreme Court Justice Stewart Rosenwasser, presiding over one of three pending Satmar court cases, declared that a critical issue in his case could be best resolved by none other than Moses Teitelbaum, the ailing, 91-year-old leader of the world's largest Hasidic movement.
"The best evidence would be the testimony of the Grand Rebbe himself," Rosenwasser wrote in a ruling Friday. If the spiritual leader can't appear in court, he ordered, "some alternative method will be provided, giving due consideration and respect to the dignity of his sacred office."
"Some alternative method" appears the likely course. In five years of relentless court fighting between the two factions, neither side has called the ultimate witness to the stand. Bruce Dunn, one member of an expanding cast of lawyers involved in the case, said yesterday that the Williamsburg side will bring evidence to court on Nov. 30 to satisfy Rosenwasser – without the grand rebbe coming in.
Other language in Rosenwasser's order caused such turmoil over the weekend that the judge returned to court yesterday to issue a stern statement to the lawyers.
"This court will not be sucked into the Brooklyn litigation," he said, referring to a five-year-long battle for control of the Williamsburg congregation.
"This court cannot control the spin that the parties give to various decisions and orders and statements by the court."

Lakewood Heritage Museum

A.P.P. on the, very important, smart use of tax dollars , museum.

Efficiency or idiocy?

Times Herald-Record

Monroe-Woodbury schools might close after the Satmar grand rebbe dies because of the traffic expected when tens of thousands of mourners pour into Kiryas Joel to attend his funeral, district officials confirmed yesterday.
Concerned that buses will get stuck in traffic and students will be stranded at school, the district will either cancel classes or dismiss them early if police advise them to, school board President Claire Perez said.
"We certainly don't want to be in a position where we start the day and then can't get the kids out of there," she said.
Nininger Road, a main route to the high school and middle school, also leads to Kiryas Joel. A crush of vehicles headed to the Hasidic village would likely jam that road and other thoroughfares, including Route 17.
Perez dismissed rumors that the schools were closing to free their parking lots for visitors....

I find this completely distasteful and abhorrent. Only the Rebbe's children can prepare for his death!

Sickening Satmar 'Simchas' Torah

Read Gothamist, NEW YORK POST , DAILY NEWS , Newsday, account of the disgusting, nonsensical, self-destructive, desecration of G-d's name, Yom Tov brawl.

L'Shaim Shmayim?

UPI :

A long-running feud between factions of the Satmar Hasidic Jewish sect erupted into a New York brawl involving up to 1,000 people, reports said.
Police closed streets for blocks around the Yetev Lev synagogue to break up the melee Tuesday that included punches, slaps, beard-pulling and at least one injury, The New York Post and Newsday reported.
The fracas broke out when people aligned with Aaron Teitelbaum, who leads the Kiras Joel congregation in Orange County, N.Y., reportedly forced their way into the New York temple headed by his brother, Zalman Teitelbaum....
While a New York judge last year refused to get involved in the dispute, an upstate judge's decision last week sparked Tuesday's confrontation, the reports said.
The ruling reportedly named an ally of the older brother as the corporate leader of the New York congregation.
Seven supporters of the older brother were cited for acting illegally as security guards.

A Plea: Can some smarter wiser heads gain control please, fast?

When UPI is covering it it goes from a local Chilul Hashem to a global one!

Independence Community Bank 'sold'

Independence Day!

Why did you sell it! (Don't be sad it was Bashert.)

MarketWatch:

Sovereign Bancorp Inc. (SOV) is expected to pay $42 per share, or a total of $3.5 billion, for New York-area Independence Community Bank Corp. (ICBC) , the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Monday afternoon.
The Journal earlier reported that Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano SA (STD) was in advanced negotiations to take a stake in Philadelphia's Sovereign Bancorp. Sovereign was then reportedly expected to use the proceeds of the Santander investment to buy Independence Community Bank....

Do I hear a $45?

Its' IPO was 10$ it is now at $32.45.

Lakewood misuse of tax $

What are they really doing here? with your tax money?

A.P.P. :

The Lakewood Heritage Museum has hired its first museum coordinator...
Vallone's duties will include applying for grants, helping to build a Web site for the year-old museum and trying to move the one-room museum to its own building.
The museum currently uses one room in the Board of Education's Princeton Avenue administration building.
Sheldon Wolpin, the chairman of Lakewood Heritage Commission, which hired Vallone, said the museum needed someone in charge."It's a lot of work running a museum,'' Wolpin said. "You can't depend upon volunteers.''


Why not use people on public assistance to save the tax payer money.

I'm still locating the Boro Park Heritage Museum.

Living a thousand years

Don't sneer; it just might happen:

Chronicle:

..By these measures, Aubrey de Grey is indeed a prophet. The 42-year-old English biogerontologist has made his name by claiming that some people alive right now could live for 1,000 years or longer. Maybe much longer. Growing old is not, in his view, an inevitable consequence of the human condition; rather, it is the result of accumulated damage at the cellular and molecular levels that medical advances will soon be able to prevent or even reverse allowing people to go on living pretty much indefinitely. We'll still have to worry about angry bears and falling pianos, but aging, the biggest killer of all, will cease to be a threat. Death, as we know it, will die....

Ending paragraph:

The question is whether that stuff will prove to be true. Gregory M. Fahy, a biologist and vice president and chief scientific officer of 21st Century Medicine, a biomedical research company, was very skeptical at first. While they still do not agree on everything, Mr. Fahy has been largely won over. And, like Mr. Finkelstein, he respects Mr. de Grey for his courage in the face of ridicule. "If you think you're right, you have to stand up and say what you believe even if people think you're nuts," says Mr. Fahy. "Now, if they prove you're nuts, you have to shut up. But that hasn't happened yet."

Do I still have to take my vitamins?

New search engine: "Ask Methuselah".

Sukkah at the game

Philidelphia Daily News:

WITH AN Eagles jersey wrapped around his stocky frame and a yarmulke perched on his dark curly hair, Rabbi Yisroel Rappaport arrived at a tailgate party near the stadium yesterday and set to work.
"Have Sukkah, will travel," he cried, as he assembled a closet-sized structure made of metal poles and strips of fabric.
When he finished putting the small blue and gray fabric hut together, about 20 green-clad fans of all ages gathered in and around it to say a prayer.
"In all directions, we'll pray for the Eagles," Rappaport said. "Akers should get it in high; they should catch low."...
I've done it on the turnpike, I've done it at amusement parks but I've never done it here," said the rabbi of the Sons of Jacob Congregation in Vineland, N.J.
So with their Eagles gear and collapsible Sukkah, the Raab and Edenbaum kosher tailgate party mixed faith and fandom yesterday. The regular gathering is attended by a lively mix of family and friends who enjoy the kosher chicken wings, hot dogs and, of course, plenty of beer...
The owner of the parking lot, Max Cohen, 81, a small snowy-haired man, went over to check it out and ended up saying a prayer inside.
"It was the first time I've done the Berakhah [blessing] since I was a kid," he said, smiling as he walked away.

Another jew as Fed Chairman

Shhh, don't tell anyone.

Preident Bush has nominated yet another Jew as Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Shalom Bernanke.

But who's counting?

(Me and every other jew!)

Yale sponsors a racist

Double standards in college, you're kidding?

members of the Yale Friends of Israel in the Yale Daily News:

Imagine sitting in a room with respected Yale professors, listening to a Yale-invited speaker humiliate fellow students and deride American Jewry's "level of mental hysteria" about Holocaust denial. You needn't stretch your powers of imagination too far; such a scene unfolded last Thursday night in Linsly-Chittenden Hall, where Norman Finkelstein expounded on "Israel and Palestine: Misusing Anti-Semitism, Abusing History."...Finkelstein's recurring theme was exploitation. He accused American Jewish organizations of exploiting the Holocaust for monetary gain and political influence, and alleged that Israel uses the Holocaust to deflect criticism. But the ultimate irony is that it is Finkelstein who is the one doing the exploiting. Thursday night, Finkelstein never failed to remind us that he is Jewish and the son of Holocaust survivors, in an effort to inoculate himself against any charges of anti-Semitism and racism. Finkelstein has made a career out of the Holocaust; he counts on his controversial claims to garner publicity and speaking engagements....Would a Yale department sponsor a speaker who criticized the African-American community for "exploiting" slavery and segregation? Would the YCIAS sponsor an event in which Bosnian Muslims were condemned for using the genocide in Yugoslavia for monetary gain?The answer is clear. But the YCIAS apparently felt compelled to affiliate itself with an irresponsible demagogue and a fringe group. Student tuition funded this event, and YCIAS must be held accountable.

Will Jewish facility members and donors have anything to say? They would if a Hispanic vegetarian single mom lesbian were under attack!