Last Chance To Vote
It’s the last day of voting in the Jewish & Israeli Blog Awards. Pretty please, won’t you?
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Spitzer Ends WJC Investigation
The Attorney General Investigation of Rabbi Dr. Israel Singer and the World Jewish Congress over. In a statement released this afternoon by the WJC, President Edgar Bronfman indicated his satisfaction with the closing of the investigation:
In particular, the Attorney General thoroughly investigated and analyzed the transfer of funds that started this investigation. In the end, there was no evidence to support the central accusation that the organization or any individual had misappropriated, embezzled, stolen or laundered $1.5 million, which the WJC was fully entitled to earmark for pensions. “The World Jewish Congress is stronger than ever,†said WJC President Edgar M. Bronfman. “For 14 months, we worked tirelessly with the Attorney General’s office, providing unfettered access to our entire worldwide organization. Our transparency and cooperation revealed that we had nothing to hide.
According to the Attorney General’s statement, the WJC seems to be guilty of not much more than having been run like a Jewish Organization.
After an extensive review of financial records and interviews with dozens of persons, the Attorney General’s office concluded that the organizations lacked appropriate financial controls to safeguard charitable assets and failed to keep adequate records regarding their fund-raising activities. The investigation did not reveal criminal conduct.
According to the AG’s final full report:
“these shortcomings did not compromise the core mission of the WJC or American Section; nor did they impair the effectiveness of WJC. In addition, they did not result in defalcations or other identifiable losses of charitable assets.”
In other news, Singer and the WJC are filing a Libel suit in Tel Aviv District Court against Isi Liebler, whose accusations had prompted the whole investigation.
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Multifaith Mishegaas
- Now playing on Broadway: Confessions of a Mormon Boy.
- Bible study: Coming soon to a public school near you?
- On TV, Friday is the new Sunday.
- Evangelicals, welcome to the debate club.
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Your chance to be Jewish farmer and live in the woods
ADAMAH: The Jewish Environmental Fellowship is a three month leadership training program for Jewish young adults — ages 20–29 — that integrates organic farming, sustainable living, Jewish learning, leadership, and contemplative spiritual practice. Participants live together at Isabella Freedman: Jewish Retreat Center, located in northwest Connecticut, just south of the Berkshires.
Dates for 2006 Fellowships:
Summer: May 29 to Sept. 4
Fall: Sept. 10 to Dec. 10
Applications are currently being accepted for both summer and fall 2006 fellowships.
Personal pitch: I’ve known many chill Jews over the years who have experienced the Adamah program. It’s a great opportunity to live in a Jewish community outside of the city. People who do the program come from all different religious and educational backgrounds. Oh yeah and you get to milk goats!
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A New Moon for Roots
Keep the Waters Rising
by Shaul Judelman, Yeshivat Bat Ayin
Here rolls a little Jewschool frabrengin…
It’s the new moon of Shevat tonight… according to the infamous outdated and awaited House of Shamai, tonight is the birthday of the trees…Not the full moon Tu b’shevat of Hillel, but right now, in the as yet unseen space. Here in Israel, it was a beautiful sunny day after a cloudy rainy Shabbat- and we hit the hills, digging out new holes for some 4 year old olive transplants. Digging the earth- the preparation for planting… Tu b’Shevat is a holiday in reference to the fruits- and I feel Shammai is more connected to the roots…I and I at the Root… That Bob Marley song, Blood is thicker than water… our Blood, our roots, the place where we come from.. Today is a time to dig into it… for the deeper one’s roots are- the farther out the branches may spread (that was a torah I learned from a Big Leaf Maple in Seattle WA)) the longer we develop our trunk, “That’s why I build my house, on a solid foundation.†Gladiators…
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Color me mine
This is largely idiotic and completely devoid of Jewish content apart from a Color Me Mine menorah, which is a piece of Judaica dear to my heart. If someone wants to make a tighter West Coast response to SNL’s Lazy Sunday clip, let me know. I’ll be on the 5 with a video camera ASAP.
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Yitzhak Kaduri, æ’’ì
Ynet reports,
Leading Kabbalist rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri died from pneumonia aged more than 104 years old, a Jerusalem hospital where the ill rabbi had been hospitalized said Saturday.Kaduri’s personal physical said the rabbi’s family members were at his bedside when he died. Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar, former
Shas leader Arieh Deri, and current Shas leader Eli Yishai also arrived at the hospital and prayed by Kaduri’s bed along with other rabbis and Kabbalists.
“All Israelis are one family today, mourning the man who throughout his life prayed for the people of Israel,” Yishai said.
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The Forward’s J’accuse!
AIPAC’s hubris and its absurd (though convenient) belief in an unparalleled convergence of the interests of two separate nations with very different needs may have contributed to their high-level employees vulnerability to the trap that was laid for them. Because of their positions and their demands that AIPAC cover their legal fees, it is ridiculous to argue that Weisman and Rosen didn’t at least believe they were working under the auspices of AIPAC. But it may not really be about Aipac at all.
It is becoming increasingly clear that this trap was set on orders (of some sort) from the White House itself, apparently to clamp down on leaks, and that Rosen and Weisman specifically and perhaps AIPAC generally were selected in part because they were identified as easy and obvious patsies.
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U.C.L.A. Unbecoming?
The U.C.L.A alumnus who offered to pay students to record lectures of left-leaning professors in order to expose these academics “as liberal partisans who do not tolerate dissent in their classrooms”, withdrew his offer after being told that it violated school policy.
The alumnus’ offer brings to mind the Columbia Unbecoming campaign. The assumption underlying both cases is that academic discourse – when presented to students in the classroom- can always be separated from political discourse and be kept neutral and objective (this ‘always’ must apply to the fields of history, sociology, politics, economics and so on). If this assumption is false, then trying to make teachers “objective” and “non-political” could become a very dangerous project resembling McCarthyism.
I’d love to hear what the Columbia Unbecoming folks, such as Ariel Beery, have to say on the matter.
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The Qalqilya Effect
Ali Abunimah from Electronic Intifada points to the obvious:
Although a Hamas success was heavily trailed, the scale of the victory has been widely termed a “shock.” Several factors explain the dramatic rise of Hamas, including disillusionment and disgust with the corruption, cynicism and lack of strategy of the Fatah faction which has dominated the Palestinian movement for decades and had arrogantly come to view itself as the natural and indisputable leader.The election result is not entirely surprising, however, and has been foreshadowed by recent events. Take for example the city of Qalqilya in the north of the West Bank. Hemmed in by Israeli settlements and now completely surrounded by a concrete wall, the city’s fifty thousand residents are prisoners of a giant Israeli-controlled ghetto. For years Qalqilya was controlled by Fatah but after the completion of the wall, voters in last years’ municipal elections awarded every single city council seat to Hamas. The Qalqilya effect has now spread across the occcupied territories, with Hamas reportedly winning virtually all of the seats elected on a geographic basis. Thus Hamas’ success is as much an expression of the determination of Palestinians to resist Israel’s efforts to force their surrender as it is a rejection of Fatah. It reduces the conflict to its most fundamental elements: there is occupation, and there is resistance.
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Multifaith Mishegaas
- A priest blesses a new Hooters. I guess there’s no Lubavitcher Rebbe dollar bill hanging on the wall there.
- Michael Jackson gets tznius.
- One more reason for Jerry Springer to hate Christians.
- Since when is Jesus in the same category as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny?
- Crusading super Christian Stephen Baldwin takes his holy war to a porn store parking lot.
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Carter Stares Down Hamas
While many of us are secretly questioning our own belief in democracy and are wondering if the belief that “Democracies don’t attack democracies” will be proven a fantasy, the former U.S. president–best known for his bold and daring heroism during the Iran hostage crisis in the late 70′s –is pulling an Ariel Sharon. Boldly reversing his past hawkish stands against Islamic Fundamentalism (he never did draft that memo of ultimatum, but that may have been due to the pressing needs of other national security issues that couldn’t be trusted to underlings, such as the tennis court schedule), Jimmy Carter is calling for world economic support for the biggest hippies to take power in the Middle East since the Shah fled Iran like it was an after-hours bar that ran out of coke.
The Jerusalem Post reports,
Carter, who led an 85-member international observer team from around the world organized by the ‘National Democratic Institute’ in partnership with ‘The Carter Center,’ urged the international community to directly or indirectly fund the new Palestinian Government even though it will be led by an internationally-declared foreign terror organization.
“The Palestinian Government is destitute, and in desperate financial straits. I hope that support for the new government will be forthcoming,” Carter said at a Jerusalem press conference.
He added that if international law barred donor countries from directly funding a Hamas-led government than the US and the EU should bypass the Palestinian Authority and provide the “much-needed” money to the Palestinians via non-governmental channels….
No assurances necessary folks. That’s not humanitarian! Just write a check, and circumvent laws if you have to. Hey, the former president may not be a fan of Rule of Law, but at least he’s honest!
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Visioning Tibet Screening
If any of you haven’t seen the movie Visioning Tibet, I strongly recommend you keep it on your radar even if you can’t make the screening at Makor next Thursday.
“Visioning Tibet tells the stories of two of Tibetans, Karma and Lhasang, who make the arduous journey to a remote clinic in the hopes that Tibetan doctors can restore their sight using technology and surgical training provided by Dr. Lieberman. Filmed over three years, Visioning Tibet uses breathtaking cinematography to provide a view of contemporary Tibet and its people seldom seen by international audiences.”
Thursday, February 2, 7:30 pm at the Makor/Steinhardt Center
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Israeli Poverty Reaches Record Levels
Totally Jewish reports,
The level of poverty in Israel rose to unprecedented levels in the first half of 2005 according to official figures released this week.The revelation sparked alarm amongst politicians, with opposition MKs slamming the government’s economic policies.
The National Insurance Institute’s annual poverty report showed that the total number of Israelis considered poor reached a record 1.6million, up from just over 1.5million in 2004.
According to the study, 738,100 children, more than a third of youngsters in Israel, remain below the poverty line, an increase of 24,500 from 2004.
NII director Yigal Ben Shalom said that the number of families defined as poor rose by nearly 10,000 to 403,400. Anyone earning less than 1,777 shekels (216UKP) a month, half the national average salary in 2004, was classed as impoverished by the report.
During the four years Ariel Sharon was in power the number of poor Israelis increased by 45 per cent.
Thank you Bibi. May you rot for your crimes against your people.
Anyone voting for Likud, Kadima and even Labor is voting for more of this.
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Hamas Takes PA Parliament
Forbes reports,
Israeli officials convened emergency meetings on Thursday to decide how to respond to the militant Hamas group’s upset victory in Palestinian elections, maintaining an outward silence while privately blaming each other for the upheaval.Hamas’ stunning showing in Wednesday’s vote could send tremors through Israel’s own political establishment ahead of March elections by bolstering hawks who oppose territorial concessions to the Palestinians.
Official results in the Palestinian balloting aren’t expected before late Thursday, but leaders of both the ruling Fatah Party and Hamas said that Hamas, which has masterminded dozens of suicide bombings against Israel, won a majority of Palestinian seats in its first legislative run.
Haaretz reports,
Hours after unofficial results indicated Hamas’ clear victory in the Palestinian elections, Hamas supporters poured into the Palestinian parliament amid clashes with Fatah loyalists.The Hamas supporters then raised the Hamas flag over the building.
The two camps threw stones at each other, breaking windows in the building, as Fatah supporters briefly tried to lower the green Hamas banners. The crowd of about 3,000 Hamas backers cheered and whistled as activists on the roof of the parliament raised the Hamas banner again.
It was the first confrontation between Hamas and Fatah since the Islamic militant group won parliament elections on Wednesday.
Dubya chimes in:
Asked if the United States was ruling out dealing with a Palestinian government that was made up partly of Hamas, [Bush] replied:“They don’t have a government yet, so you’re asking me to speculate on what the government will look like. I have made it very clear however that a political party that articulates the destruction of Israel as part of a platform is a party with which we will not deal.”
But Bush also sought to project a positive note on the election.
He said the vote was a sign Palestinians were unhappy with the status quo and showed democracy at work, which was positive for the Middle East region.
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Ariel Sharon indentified more as a Jew than an Israeli or Zionist
Ari Shavit has an insightful article, “The Samurai of Zionism,†in this week’s New Yorker, drawn from numerous private interviews with Ariel Sharon beginning in 1999. Sharon’s statements suggest a significant, if not radical, departure from the classic Zionist view of the Diaspora as something that should be or could be discarded. Rather, he appeared to look at these traits as normative to the Jewish people, and to accept that these cultural values as normative as well. And though he certainly noted the practical downside of these values, he did not, unlike many Zionists, expect or excoriate Jews to divest of their galut mentality, as he did not seem to believe that was even a possibility. He seemed to view the State as a part of the Diaspora even as it changed its rules, and Sharon himself did not qualify his own primary identity as Israeli, but rather, prefered to stick to just Jewish. It seems worth mentioning that these statements were made (and these interviews were granted) to a writer who had originally intended this piece to appear in Haaretz, not an American periodical.
Shavit wrote,
Surprisingly, this secular, Israeli-born soldier defined himself not as an Israeli but as a Jew[…] I wondered how Sharon felt about the changed world opinion in much of the world. The Arab world, and many on the left elsewhere, would never forgive him his early career…But now he was widely respected, even revered…“This doesn’t intoxicate me,†he said…“Above all, I’m a Jew. And I realize how they came to like me. If the Jews were to disappear, they’d also be happy.â€
Shavit asserted,
Sharon was the least messianic of Israel’s Prime Ministers…it was Sharon who brought to fruition a post-messianic politics. Under his governance, Israel was weaned of the hope for an ideal end.
The story doesn’t seem to be online, but here’s an interview with Shavit himself from the current edition of The (We’re Too Self-Important To Put Our Magazine Content Online) New Yorker.
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