I thought I’d send this unsolicited contribution. Originally from Munich, Germany – a place heavy with bitter history for our people if ever there was one – I found myself standing open-mouthed over my copy of ‘Der Spiegel’ in the middle of the street in London today. If Mobius kindly offers me more space in the future, I shall explain a little about my own first-hand experience of the diplomatic process vis-à-vis Iran so far. But for now, one thing will suffice. Whoever is trying to tell you that Ahmadinejad is just a crackpot, or anything about the constraints on his power due to the workings of Iran’s system of governance – say thank you nicely and look for someone else to explain the world to you. Now, I’ve been told by Iranians who most definitely know what they are talking about that even some ardent conservatives joke that 60% of Iran’s foreign policy problems are due to Ahmadinejad’s not keeping shtumm, but all of this should not matter one bit to us Jews. What matters to us is this.
A few quotes from the interview:
Ahmadinejad: …there are two opinions on this in Europe. One group of scholars or persons, most of them politically motivated, say the Holocaust occurred. Then there is the group of scholars who represent the opposite position and have therefore been imprisoned for the most part. Hence, an impartial group has to come together to investigate and to render an opinion on this very important subject, because the clarification of this issue will contribute to the solution of global problems. Under the pretext of the Holocaust, a very strong polarization has taken place in the world and fronts have been formed…
…if the Holocaust occurred, then Europe must draw the consequences and that it is not Palestine that should pay the price for it. If it did not occur, then the Jews have to go back to where they came from. I believe that the German people today are also prisoners of the Holocaust. Sixty million people died in the Second World War. World War II was a gigantic crime. We condemn it all. We are against bloodshed, regardless of whether a crime was committed against a Muslim or against a Christian or a Jew. But the question is: Why among these 60 million victims are only the Jews the center of attention?
…Why should they [the Germans] have feelings of guilt toward Zionists? Why should the costs of the Zionists be paid out of their pockets? If people committed crimes in the past, then they would have to have been tried 60 years ago. End of story! Why must the German people be humiliated today because a group of people committed crimes in the name of the Germans during the course of history?
…I’m wondering why you’re adopting and fanatically defending the stance of the European politicians. You’re a magazine, not a government. Saying that we should accept the world as it is would mean that the winners of World War II would remain the victorious powers for another 1,000 years and that the German people would be humiliated for another 1,000 years. Do you think that is the correct logic?
The article is already causing a stir, not least on the magazine’s own website. Many feel that the reporters were unduly soft on Ahmadinejad. The mag’s by-line for the online translation reads harmlessly: In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discusses the Holocaust, the future of the state of Israel, mistakes made by the United States in Iraq and Tehran’s nuclear dispute with the West. I have not yet been able to speak directly to my contacts at the magazine, but I understand some consider the article’s publication a mistake on the grounds that even a sixteenth of Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric would land him in jail in Germany.
We are almost used to, even jaded by, Ahmadinejad’s seemingly continuously antisemitic rhetoric. Yet, these are not ‘outbursts’, nor are they irrational hatred. They are calculated. And this latest one, delivered in a manner as any reasonable person might offer an argument, is the well established antisemitic construct that issues from his lips regularly. It will have consolidated his place as the hero of the (not nearly far enough) far-Right and neo-Nazis across Europe and elsewhere, and there are millions of Arabs and Muslims who will agree with Ahmadinehad’s utterings. Here is the head of a state with just over 68 million people (whose right to dislike him is being curtailed even as I write) – a state that sees itself as the ‘rightful regional superpower’ (their phrase), a state that is in the advanced stages of a nuclear programme, with masses and masses of evidence of technological experimentation with no application outside of nuclear weapons technology (heard the list from a British Government source myself). And this leader is amalgamating the German neo-Nazi narrative about ‘Zionist war guilt’ with the extreme ‘send the Jews back to where they came from’ Arab / Muslim camp. Nice. And only one facet of an anxious picture for wellpoisoners the world over …
Just a little heads up to my beautiful sisters and fantastic brothers… crackpot he ain’t. Watch Out.
Following Jewschool’s lead, the Jewish Weekhas reported on lame-duck JTS chancellor Ismar Schorsch’s farewell rant.
They have obtained a transcript of Schorsch’s speech, so they’ve released a few more amazing nuggets, including an attack on “the primitiveness of rap”, and a false dichotomy between “the dense and demanding discourse of scholarship” and “the rhythmic beat of the drums”. (He applies this dichotomy to the younger generation’s tastes by saying “A synagogue out of sync is deemed bereft of spirituality”, as if the soulless Conservative synagogues that this generation is shunning are hotbeds of scholarly discourse.)
Jewschool broke the story first, and the Jewish Week indeed gave proper credit to this “Internet chat room” [sic], quoting the Rooftopper Rav at length, as well as a number of comments in that thread. (Go see if you’re famous!)
The reporter’s biases are fascinating: he refers to the Rooftopper Rav and two commenters (Yeilah and striemel) as “he”. Of course, none of them identified their gender in their posts (nor is it obvious from their blognomens), but the writer assumes that the default blogger, or the default “rav”, or the default human, is male.
Also, the last two paragraphs suggest that they are quoting two different people, but they in fact come from the same comment. This comment was one of the few supporting Schorsch. Perhaps the Jewish Week was making one person appear to be two in order to make the story more “balanced”?
Researching Parashat B’midbar, I couldn’t help but not begin to think about this question of counting, and in particular the counting of a people through the lens of gender. The book of Numbers indeeds begins very much with numbers, and the counting of “males,” and I began to wonder how did the sages of our past designate gender? Indeed one of the truths of Jewish traditions that is not talked about often enough is that we embrace a history that recognizes the multiplicity of bodies and gender identities. Rabbis of old did not fall prey to what unfortunately many do today, which is the idea that all people fit neatly within a construct of male and female. And indeed, some Rabbis of today also do due diligence in resurrecting this history.
What is now understood in modern terms of transgender and intersex issues, Jewish scholars and Rabbis have long grappled with, and have talked about in much more complex ways, and is cited quite often in the text as people who are “androgynous” or “timtum“. There has been incredible scholarship done on this issue by many much more well versed then I, and I thank them for their ability to re-invigorate much needed conversations about gender, identity and bodies today. (more soon to come on jewschool when it becomes live on the internet)
So what would happen today? How would we count? What even happens to babies today when doctor’s make their designated call in the birthing rooms? Or more so, when they can’t? What happens when doctors are confused? Well, the Intersex Society of North America notes that according to experts at medical centers a child is born so “noticeably atypical” in terms of genitalia that a specialist in sex differentiation is called in about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births. But a lot more people than that are born with subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, some of which won’t show up until later in life. What happens next? Generally, a surgery is imposed, many times without talking to parents, but rather with doctors whisking babies away to make a “social” emergency into a “medical” emergency. Intersex advocates have been working tirelessly to educate masses of people that the issue at hand is primarily a problem of stigma and trauma, not gender, and they are right to be doing this work.
The issues impacting intersex people should not be conflated with those impacting transgender people, yet there are aspects that do overlap in terms of self-determination, gender identity and the body.
Again, I wonder, how would these bodies be counted in these stories? It remains, still, a bit unclear to me–I’d have to consult my Rabbis.
But here are stories I do know about, including the one I was forwarded yesterday about a transexual woman whose appeal to the High Court of Justice was rejected after a prior Rabbinic Court decision has prevented her from continuing to meet with her nine-year-old daughter. While an alimony agreement was reached after the two parents separated, now because she has medically transitioned, she has been deemed unfit to continue to being a parent.
While the media rarely covers the lives of transgender, transexual and intersex people well (and didn’t do a great job with this one either), stories like these are not uncommon. Everyday I hear of friends, colleagues, peers and community members who are told, basically, that they are not human–that they are not valued, that they cannot be a mother, daughter, father, brother, sister and the list goes on and on.
This needs to stop.
I feel blessed, and know that I am lucky that I have been able to participate groups like SVARA . The fact that this organization not only exists, but will hopefully continue to thrive in supporting local initiatives and creating spaces and providing tools for those of us who are rejected by many Jewish educational institutions to learn with our peers about the text that we so often think speaks against us, to see how in many ways the text embraces us, and that we can speak back and challenge the ideas set forth.
And reading stories like the ones above, it couldn’t come at a sooner time. Unfortunately, yet again, we see the Rabbinic court will not be following in the tradition of their elders past.
Before I could respond to Philip Weiss’ latest post on the dwindling progressive Jewish face in national politics, Matt Stoller on myDD joined in on this conversation about the face of Jewish national politics with the resounding call that “AIPAC Doesn’t Represent Me, or Most Jews”.
Weiss raises a number of important points, and interestingly enough ties it to his own Jewish roots, which some of us lament doesn’t happen often enough, and some of us would say ties into the very fact that he’s upset about: “In my generation, the prominent Jewish presence in American life is no longer progressive.”
Well, maybe if more of us actually talked about our Jewish identity explicitly in doing our work, that would be a good first step, but of course, there’s more that needs to be done.
In fact, I couldn’t agree with Stoller more when he says:
I’ve thought for awhile that a PAC or organization targeted to Jews like me who want a progressive foreign policy would do really well. Of course that PAC would have to consistently called groups like AIPAC and Senators like Chuck Schumer and Joe Lieberman on their immoral and whiny bullshit. Judaism is a beautiful religion and culture and I am proud I am Jewish. It’s a large part of why I am progressive.
And I would add NOT just on international policy, but domestic policies as well.
It’s interesting to note in one of my last posts about the rise of secular Jewish educational programs throughout the country, and conversations similar to the one that Weiss and Stoller are participating in.
And I must wholeheartedly agree with Weiss that, when it comes to the some of the national jewish voices that exist today: “The press routinely characterizes the evangelical Christians as rightwing; and I think the press should characterize the Jewish presence as centrist.”
But still Weiss doesn’t directly take on the tension that progressive Jews have been dealing with for the past twenty or thirty years, and that is the tension between somewhat decent Jewish progressive politics on domestic politics and hawkish international policies and explicitly link it to Israel and Palestine. Nor does Weiss or Stoller do justice in acknowledging the number of groups that have been trying to breach this issue for generations, but have had tremendous difficulty in getting through.
It is true Kushner and many Jewish progressive people can see a distinction in looking at international politics from multiple perspectives, but it does seem that Kushner primarily gets the heat he does because he calls for human rights for Palestinians. It’s not even a “radical” call, to ask people to acknowledge that Palestinians are not only treated as second-class citizens, but are denied access to basic life necessities, including water sources, housing rights, land, education, and the list goes on and on.
Unfortunately, this ends up being a radical call and consistently gets shrouded, most notably by a conversation about defense and suicide bombers. A conversation that continues to not acknowledge or really address why people are bombing, or to really acknowledge that if you step on people long enough, yes they are going to fight back. We know this all too well–this is part of our history. We have fought back as well when people oppressed us. What we can’t acknowledge as well is when we are doing it to others, and that is exactly what is happening in Palestine. And I think organizations like Just Vision, and their latest film, Encounter Point, do a really good job of presenting the issues in new(er) ways that are refreshing and important to hopefully shifting this conversation.
And this conversational shroud has been part of what has turned the Jewish left into a bit of a dinosaur–of course, one cannot ignore the change in social and economic status due to economic policies like the GI Bill that have thus changed the political interests and party lines that some Jewish communities hold, but in all honesty, this isn’t enough. Many of us consistently wonder what has happened to the Jewish world. And while I believe there needs to be a stronger national Jewish voice that speaks for progressive domestic and international politics, I still wonder how it could hold all of the complexities that exist within Jewish communities, and the tensions even within Jewish progressive politics–particularly questions of leadership, race, gender and sexuality, and infusing real systemic social change work and policies into our call for tzedekah or tikkun olam. Maybe it’s time to heed the call.
The story of Moroccan Jewry is much akin to that of Jews in other Islamic nations. It is a history fraught with tensions, that yet despite both dhimmitude and ghettoization (let alone occasional pogroms), gave rise to rich cultural expression and relative well-being. Putting aside Islam’s inherent cultural biases against Jewish people, it was Moroccoan Sultan Muley Hassan who wrote in 1882, “He who commits an injustice against the Jews shall be my enemy on the Day of Judgment.” Not sixty years later, the Moroccans defied Nazi Germany by refusing to turn over their Jewish population for extermination.
Prior to Israel’s declaration of independence, the Jewish population of Morocco stood somewhere in the range of a quarter million. Today it rests at about 5,500, the majority having emigrated to Israel on the heels of a pan-Arab anti-Jewish backlash over the nakbah. Amidst worsening conditions following the Six Day War, the rift between Moroccan Muslims and their Jewish neighbors began to heal under the stewardship of King Hassan II, and — with the exception of a recent spate of attacks by Islamic extremists thought to be allied with al Qaeda — the Jewish community has regained stability, if not prestige. Morocco is now widely considered Israel’s closest friend in the Arab world, much to the chagrin of Israel’s detractors.
In fact, of all the Islamic nations, it is only in Morocco today that a Jew has the ear of the nation’s leadership. And though it is but one Jew, he is making quite a difference:
Andre Azoulay considers himself a member of a very elite club of Jewish advisers to Muslim rulers.
The only problem, he said, “is that I am the only club member.”
“My position is not as usual as it could be,” the counselor to King Muhammad VI of Morocco said in an interview Monday. “It is very frustrating to be in the only Arab and Muslim country where a Jew can be in my position.”
Azoulay was awarded an honorary doctorate yesterday from Ben Gurion University for his work as a peace activist, seeking a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Check out Jewschool contributor Matthue Roth and our good friend Mat Tonti’s latest comic, “Lost My Place”, as featured in this month’s World Jewish Digest.
It is not every day you will find a recent former yu boy publishing on Arab American News. Today it is art enthiusiast Menchem Wecker who reviews Gannit Ankori’s new book “Palestinian Art.” Ankori is a Jewish professor of art at Hebrew University who offers detailed insight on a relative unkown. As is his signature style, Wecker siezes an oppurtunity to “stick it” to common MO social mores.
Leave it to the Israelis. Live Science reports that scientists at Hebrew University have discovered the “sex drive” gene which may change the way scientists and psychologists view sexuality.
The researchers found that individual differences in human sexual desire can be attributed to genetic variations. The study is the first to provide data to show that common variations in the sequence of DNA impact on sexual desire, arousal and function, the researchers said.
The scientists, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, examined the DNA of 148 healthy male and female university students and compared the results with questionnaires asking for the students’ self-descriptions of their sexual desire, arousal and sexual function. They found a correlation between variants in a gene called the D4 receptor and the students’ self-reports on sexuality.
The results suggest that low sexual desire might be a normal biological condition rather than a psychological problem, the researchers say. Further, it might be possible to develop drugs to alter sexual desire based on the new findings.
The other night at our Jewschool meetup, Mobius snapped a photo of me with my purse, which I bought at Brooklyn Industries. He’s just the latest person to be shocked or intrigued by the bag since I bought it last September. Because I’m a Jewish girl walking around town carrying a purse with Arabic words on it, I thought it would be smart to get a bona fide Arabic speaker to tell me what the symbols meant. I consulted three separate people who didn’t know each other, and each translated it about the same way, boiling it down to “Allah helps Muhammad to triump over his enemies.” There was some disagreement about whether it meant “his” enemies as in Muhammad’s personal enemies, or those of Islam in general, but I was satisfied with the translation nonetheless.
My bag, in addition to being the perfect size for a couple of books and a granola bar, has led me to conversations I might never have had otherwise. Different Muslim people have come up to me on the street and in the grocery store to ask if I understood the Arabic script, and every single one of them was kind, cool, and excited that I had some idea what I was talking about. I’ve even begun an email correspondence with one woman who personally knew the bag’s designer. So far, no one said anything about the tricky ethics of printing Arabic on the skin of a dead cow.
I often worry about posting on this site because I’m a cultural critic, not a political writer. There’s so much intelligent discussion on this site that I’m afraid of looking frivolous. But the last few months of toting my bag around the city with me have made me realize that it’s more than “just a purse.” There are many ways to have intelligent interfaith conversation, and they don’t always have to take place in a boardroom or office. Sometimes they’re with people you run into on the sidwalk and interact with for five minutes. And if I can lug around all my stuff with me in the meantime, bonus.
This Wednesday, May 31 @ Makor (NYC); June 1 @ JCC in Manhattan (NYC); June 8 @ Evergreen (CO); June 13 @ JCC Boulder (CO); July 17 MJE (NYC); July 21 @ JEC (NYC).
Interview with Filmmaker Guy Lieberman
What’s your story? Who are you, where do you come from, what are you about?
I grew up in affluent, white, Jewish Jo’burg South Africa. My generation of the Lieberman clan is pretty unconventional, known for it’s characters and cultural creative powerhouses, made up of artists, architects, producers, event creators and ethno-spiritual explorers. My father was one of eight kids, I’m one of 27 first cousins.
My parents brought us up with a broad allowance of expression – they themselves were pretty much down the line, but quite hip in their own ways; my father had an electronics business, and my mother taught 8-year-olds at the King David Jewish dayschool for 40 years.
I spent my twenties exploring the world, principally the third world, and most of my time went toward seeking big, wild nature and the ancient peoples that still lived there. I travelled through most and lived in some 34 countries and kingdoms through my travels, having some extraordinary experiences and meeting many remarkable people. The general focus was to see what lay hidden in ancient – and modern, and postmodern - cultures that created a fabric for human expression, in all it’s forms. But that sounds heavier than it was. There was a lot of joy during my travels.
Happy Yom Meyuchas! That’s right, today is the 2nd of Sivan, the Day of Distinction!
Why does this day, sandwiched between Rosh Chodesh Sivan and the three days of preparation leading up to Shavuot, get a special name? Because according to the classical rabbinic reading of Exodus 19, today was the day when God said to Moses:
Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me. Now then, if you will obey me faithfully and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is mine, but you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.
As the story goes, Moses passes on the message, and the whole nation responds yachdav (together): “All that God has spoken, we will do!”
Here on Jewschool in 2006, we have 50,000 readers a month, with 50,001 opinions. We’re not responding yachdav. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Our diversity is our strength.
So I propose the following challenge to Jewschool’s 30+ contributors and 50,000+ readers:
Between now (when we, the people of Israel, receive the charge quoted above, whatever the heck it means to each of us) and the crack of dawn on Friday (when we receive Torah, whatever the heck Torah means to each of us), all are invited to write posts and comments addressing the topic of “What does it mean to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation?” What responsibilities do Jews (individually) and “the Jews” (collectively) have in order to make this a reality? (”None” is one possible answer, but I hope not the only one.) I look forward to reading a diverse set of answers!
Well, summer time is here, and that means the missionaries are scouring the subways for Jewish souls to convert with the same urgency you search for a little plastic bag with some white stuff to help you stay up all night on Shavout.
I was looking at Jews-for-Allah.org, and I have to say, they make a powerful case with from compelling sources that the True Jew is, in fact, a Muslim. Even King David said so. We know that King David recognized Mohammad as the Messiah. How do we know this? Because Jesus said so!
Since Jesus Christ admits that he himself was not the “Lord” of David nor that the Messiah was to descend from David, there remains none other than Prophet Muhammad among the Prophets to be the Adon or Lord of David.
This organization asks the tough questions, and is not afraid to have someone else give the answer. For instance, did Mohammad kill 600 or 900 Jews in Medina?
No. The Zionists are lying (for a change). Plenty of other people killed Jews in such numbers, but no. It couldn’t have happened like that. And anyway, the Jews were asking for it.
Yes. The Jewish community is hemorrhaging converts to Islam. Especially American Jewish women. Jews for Allah know many. To be exact, they know four.
Like Rachel Singer. She is Jewish, and the “daughter of a devout Roman Catholic mother/very devout Jewish father.”
Or take Maryam Jameelah. She was pretty darned “strongly identified,” but her perception of a lack of sincere religiosity in her Reform temple upset both her and her sister, so her family took the obvious next step, and joined a Conservative synagogue the Ethical Culture Movement.
All the Jews she knows (and they are all Yiddish fluent!) hate being Jewish. That’s why they are Chassidic or eat at kosher delicatessens. Because really, they want to be Muslim.
But they are afraid. Afraid of “the persecution.” But fortunately, at least Jameelah herself feels she has found peace in a religion less annoyingly focused on life like in Judaism, and more on death.
But how do we know that Islam is really the true faith for Jews?
Because Jesus was a Jew for Allah. And nothing can be more Jewish than, “Accepting the Messiah Jesus (Yeshua) - without the Christian theology.”
My chavruta [study partner] and I recently completed Masechet Megillah (one of the tractates, or “webs”, of the Talmud). We’ll have a formal siyum sometime this summer in NYC, and you’re all invited.
On the penultimate page, there’s a timely section that relates to how we prepare for Shavuot. The general topic is Torah readings for various times of the year. (This is the primary source for the holiday Torah readings that are read to this day.) Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar brings a tradition that Ezra established that we should read the curses in Leviticus 26 before Shavuot, and the curses in Deuteronomy 28 before Rosh Hashanah. Sure, enough this is what we still do: our calendar is rigged so that Parshat Bechukotai (containing Leviticus 26), which we read last week, always comes up about two weeks before Shavuot, and Parshat Ki Tavo (containing Deuteronomy 28), always comes up two weeks before Rosh Hashanah. More »
It seems to me that with our current and future energy crisis (there is an ever-increasing Chinese and Indian demand for oil, from the same not so friendly sources) we should be making sure to expand mass transit, including the currently under-funded Amtrak, in terms of improving the quality of service and the infrastructure to do so.
But despite much touted energy reform, this is not happening. In fact, things are getting worse. This past Thursday, 50,000 passengers between New York and Maryland experienced a black out, and were stranded. For hours.
Although it’s not clear exactly what went wrong with the system, the underpinnings of the nation’s railroad system are primed for disaster. The White House and Congress have tried to squeeze every dollar out of Amtrak’s meager budget. To survive, the nation’s passenger railroad has cut service and raised ticket prices. But what really frightens the rail experts is how little federal money has been available to update the railroad’s aging infrastructure. One inspector general for the Department of Transportation warned that the budget for basic maintenance and improvements was so low that Congress and the White House were playing “Russian roulette” with the welfare of millions of riders across the country.
Amtrak would need at least $2 billion a year to bring the system to a state of good repair, according to the department’s analysts. For the Northeast Corridor, where some parts go back to the 1930’s, it would take a total of about $4 billion. So far, Congress and the White House have agreed to hand over a scant $600 million a year for all capital programs on passenger rails from coast to coast.
Washington power brokers like to say that Amtrak is mismanaged, but calling for better management of a system where the wires and steel are eroding is simply dodging the question.
What is revealing is that even now, with much talk about energy reform, the question of increasing mass transit is still not even addressed. This is not just a “dodge,” it is an elephant in the room that is not only not mentioned, but perhaps truly not seen. Many are obviously still not convinced that there is a real need to have safe, speedy, and subsidized mass transit systems, not even the critical line that runs to and from the nation’s capital to the nation’s financial center.
This is happening because those of us who do understand this are not prioritizing it. We have failed. Not the obtuse. They don’t get it because we haven’t made them get it.
We have to accept that. And we need to start fighting for things that we can change. Not just point at and mope about things we can’t change until the House or Senate changes, and possibly not until the next administration.
But with growing acceptance and concern over our energy crisis, as well as the stall on Monday, we should take the opportunity to champion our national railroad, and hit hard now.
From there, we expand the issue to improving and expanding local mass transit systems.
This piece, written by the principal of the Toronto Hebrew Academy, has been floating around the internet/blogosphere lately, and given its (sadly) timeliness and the fact that it’s one of the more productive things I’ve seen on the whole subject of gurus and power, I couldn’t not repost.
—
The Charismatic Teacher
by Paul Shaviv
The charismatic teacher (the ‘Pied-Piper”) is one of the most difficult
situations for a Principal to deal with. A charismatic teacher will
deeply affect and influence some students – but will almost always
leave a trail of emotional wreckage in is/her wake .
Charismatic teachers are often themselves deeply immature, but their
immaturity is emotional, not intellectual, and it is not always
obvious. They can be brilliant in inspiring students to go beyond their
wildest expectations, and are often regarded (by their following of
students, by parents, and by the Board or the community) as the ‘most
important’ or ‘best’ members of staff. There is always, however, a
price to be paid.
Well, summer time is here, and that means the missionaries are scouring the subways for 
It seems to me that with our current and future energy crisis (there is an ever-increasing 