by John Brown · Friday, June 30th, 2006
Efrat Weiss reports over at ynet news:
Right-wing extremists hold mythical Kabbalistic ‘death curse’ against prime minister, exactly one year after identical ritual against then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
[...]
Exactly one year after carrying out a “Pulsa Denura,” an ancient Kabbalistic death curse, against former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Right-wing extremists held a similar ritual targeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Channel 10 reported Tuesday.
[...]
On Sunday a group of Right-wing extremists arrived at the Har Herzl cemetery, and there by the grave of murdered Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, carried out a Pulsa Denura ceremony against Olmert.
These guys have remarkable timing don’t they?
by Ben Baruch · Friday, June 30th, 2006
Ben Baruch (me, the Jewish Robot cartoonist) will be in Israel from July 2 through 18. If you’re a fan in the hood and would like to meet up, shout out!
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Friday, June 30th, 2006
IN 2004, Agriprocessors (Rubashkin’s and Aaron’s), one of the largest of the kosher slaughtering facilities in the US, got caught skeezing like crazy: first, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency joined a civil suit against them for violating the Clean Water Act. Then they were caught engaging in inhumane killing practices -incidentally bringing to the fore the question of whether tzaar baalei chayim - suffering of animals- actually makes meat unkosher, or whether it merely means that we shouldn’t do business with the companies that engage in it because they’re violating other halachot. Uh, yeah. Then
Last month, The Forward reported that AgriProcessors was mistreating its largely Latino employees.
Wait, that’s just the wind-up. Now Agriprocessor -and several other major kosher meat suppliers- have been served with federal subpoenas in connection with a criminal antitrust investigation according to The Jewish Week . Which other suppliers have also been served is not clear, but let’s be honest, is this shocking to those of us who keep kosher? While it is unclear whether Agriprocessors is the focus of the investigation or simply being consulted to help in the investigation of the market, don’t we hear all the time about kosher practices which are not quite cricket?
The current state of kashrut in this country is appalling. The stakes (steaks?) are about to be very high - for those who eat meat, the problems are racking up - of course there’s no reason to assume that Jewish business people are more moral than those of other religions - but they should be. As a traditional Jew myself, I find it enormously painful to have to revisit over and over again the open evidence of the startling lack of ethical behavior in the Jewish community. And although I can’t say this makes it worse, but it is at least a bit niggling (it would be just as bad to cheat anyone. It is not acceptable to rip off non-Jews!), this particular nastiness can’t even be attributed by the somewhat insular communities that occasionally say this sort of thing as, well, it’s only forbidden to cheat other Jews- well, this is other Jews who are being cheated.
I could console myself with my dairy kitchen, but I have to say that it’s a very small consolation for me. Where is the mussar (traditional ethics) movement for our day? I do not want to hear a single person saying that they won’t condemn these aveirot (sins) because if they tell people that the meat isn’t kosher, people who now keep kosher might start buying non-kosher meat. Let them eat seitan!
At least, where are our leaders who should be publicly condemning these practices instead of sweeping them under the rug in the hope that no one will notice? The Jewish community is now mired in the practices of don’t let the non-Jews know… guess what? - they know. It won’t go away if we ignore it. It is not an application of avoiding chillul hashem (desecration of God’s name) to pretend that everything is okay.
by Y-Love · Friday, June 30th, 2006
The Houston Chronicle, inter alia, reported today of the charges being levied against a group of US troops in Iraq today. Five US Army soldiers stand accusing of assaulting a young lady, killing her and her family, and then “allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of assaulting.”
This follows the investigation into the murder of two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha.
In my MySpace blog, I give a hypothesis as to the root of all of these crimes — namely the psychological (and often racist) dynamic inherent in the new military marketing and recruiting.
Sof kol sof, this brings the number of soldiers accused in cases connected to the deaths of Iraqis to 14.
14.
Besides the obvious 2,500 (plus?) — I think this is the other number to watch in Iraq.
by Ruby K · Friday, June 30th, 2006
There are new reasons every day. Today, it’s because they can’t find the defense requested witnesses for a military tribunal that reporters from the UK’s Guardian found IN THREE DAYS. Oh, and one of them teaches in Washington DC. (ht: SusanG of the kos)
The Guardian searched for Mr Mujahid’s witnesses and found them within three days. One was working for President Hamid Karzai. Another was teaching at a leading American college. The third was living in Kabul. The fourth, it turned out, was dead. Each witness said he had never been approached by the Americans to testify in Mr Mujahid’s hearing.
US forces arrested Mr Mujahid in the southern Afghan city of Gardez in mid-2003, claiming he had been fired as police chief due to suspicion of “collusion with anti-government forces”, according to official documents. Later, they alleged, he attacked US forces in retaliation.
In the military tribunal Mr Mujahid protested his innocence. He enjoyed good relations with American soldiers and had been promoted, not fired, he said. The three living witnesses he requested were easily located with a telephone, an internet connection and a few days work.
Shahzada Massoud was at the presidential palace, where he advises Mr Karzai on tribal affairs. Gul Haider, a former defence ministry official, was found through the local government in Gardez.
The interior ministry gave an email address for the former minister, Ahmed Ali Jalali, although he could as easily been found on the internet - he teaches at the National Defence University in Washington DC.
The witnesses largely corroborated Mr Mujahid’s story, with some qualifications. Mr Jalali, the former interior minister, said Mr Mujahid had been fired over allegations of corruption and bullying - not for attacking the government. Mr Haider, the former defence official, said Mr Mujahid had contributed 30 soldiers to a major operation against al-Qaida in March 2002. “He is completely innocent,” he said.
“Easily located” in three days. The whole way this government managed its military operations has been absolutely disgusting. Not sending enough troops to Afghanistan, giving sweetheart contracts with little stipulations governing the actions of private contractors, not sending the troops out with enough armor, cutting their health benefits, veteran benefits, and then compounding the problem by sending us into a costly unnecesary illegal immoral war we did not need to fight.
Now, we’ve thrown 500 people into a wretched excuse for a military prison and are torturing them. And, as my previous comments noted, we have no way of knowing if these people have actually done anything wrong. This government is so concerned about giving off the appearance of “fighting terrorists” that it’ll snap up whoever it can and parade them around as dangerous. If they had actually searched for Abdullah Mujahid’s witnesses, maybe they would’ve been able to have a fair trial of some kind. Maybe they would’ve been able to determine if he’s really dangerous or was just given up by someone who had a grudge or wanted a pay-off. But this particular Administration does not care about any of that justice or fairness, or due process stuff.
by The Town Crier · Friday, June 30th, 2006
Israeli engineer Dr. Garrett E. Reisman, originally from New Jersey will become the Jewish State’s second astronaut, and will join a NASA space shuttle mission in 2007. Reisman trained together with his close friend, Col. Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut who was killed in the tragic Columbia disaster. Reisman plans to take Ramon mementos into space with him. Arutz 7 | JTA
by Benyamin · Friday, June 30th, 2006
by Mobius · Friday, June 30th, 2006
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD Y-Love vs. Busta Rhymes (MP3)
Disagree as some may with the views he expresses in his contributions to Jewschool, one must admit that Y-Love makes other Red Sea Pedestrian MCs seem, well, pedestrian.
Need more convincing? Catch Y-Love at NY’s Best Emerging Jewish Artists showcase (hosted by author Jonathan Ames, with Tiffany Shlain, Amy Tobin, What I Like About Jew, and many others) at The Museum of Jewish
Heritage on July 19th, or at a free performance at Joe’s Pub, August 10.
Y-Love will also be in Israel this summer shooting a music video for his upcoming “This is Babylon” album. Check back at Jewschool, Corner Prophets or Modular Moods for updates on his upcoming performances in Israel.
by The Town Crier · Thursday, June 29th, 2006
Following Doron Sheffer, the first Israeli player picked in the NBA Draft (by the Los Angeles Clippers in 1996), Israeli basketball player Lior Eliyahu was drafted today by the Orlando Magic and (and subsequently traded to the Houston Rockets) while Israeli Yotam Halperin was taken by the Seattle Supersonics. Full Story
by Jake Marmer · Thursday, June 29th, 2006
Woody Allen’s got an article in the last week’s New Yorker!! A few quotes:
The existential catastrophe for Schopenhauer was not so much eating as munching.
or
Spinoza, on the other hand, dined sparingly because he believed that God existed in everything and it’s intimidating to wolf down a knish if you think you’re ladling mustard onto the First Cause of All Things.
A good read though not as hilarious as I was hoping. Besides, didn’t he already write a story with a dieting spin-off on the “Notes From the Underground”?
By the way, in regard to “doing other things with philosophy:” there was an interesting piece by Wayne Koestenbaum in the first issue of the newly born Guilt and Pleasure magazine. The article is called “Heidegger’s Mistress.” I don’t really get it, but like it nevertheless. It’s a semi-biographical meditation on literature and philosophy, disconnected (but pleasant) thought-flow with a little dada thrown in. Wayne has written and published on all sorts of cool obscure material. I haven’t seen the print edition of Guilt & Pleasure, but based on the articles I read on the website, it looks very good! I hope it won’t turn out to be another Heeb… Has anybody else read the mag? What do you think?
Sorta cross-posted on Mima’amakim.
by Ruby K · Thursday, June 29th, 2006
FINALLY!
Washington - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The ruling, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies, was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and Geneva conventions.
Tell it, Justice Breyer:
In his own separate opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer said, “Congress has not issued the executive a ‘blank check.”‘
“Indeed, Congress has denied the president the legislative authority to create military commissions of the kind at issue here. Nothing prevents the president from returning to Congress to seek the authority he believes necessary,” Breyer wrote.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t solve everything. This doesn’t address the utter human rights nightmare that Gitmo has become, and it doesn’t address what WILL happen to the 450 people rotting there now. But someone in this government actually said no to Dubya.
by sarah · Thursday, June 29th, 2006
Me and travelling companion/Jewish hottie Bill Selig have decided to give our trip to Israel some purpose and have begun a photo essay that we know will touch you all deep inside, in that special place that only NFTY/USY/BBYO/ARTZA/Congregation Beth Shalom teen trips to Israel can. We are collecting images of great teen trip tee shirts, and the different ways that the young men and women of the Diaspora style those shirts. Below is our first great “get,” the rockin shirt of the Mexico City Artza trip. We caught these kids at JFK yesterday and hope to run into them at a historic site near you soon!
I tend to wear my oversized threads knotted up on one side like the young lady on the far right but I always wished I could rock the cut off seams like she of the left side. Ah to be 15 again.
by David Kelsey · Thursday, June 29th, 2006
Following up on the D.C. rally in April, there will be another Israel Day parade Save Darfur rally in New York this September in order to save on commuting costs and time take the message to the U.N.
And don’t worry! My previous fears about it being perceived as “too Jewish” were completely unwarranted. It’s a real melting pot, no less than the demands for U.S. military intervention against Iran.
As the JTA reports,
Though she [Gitta Zomorodi, senior policy associate at the American Jewish World Service] said key players, such as AJWS President Ruth Messinger, may use their contacts to reach out to leaders in other religious or ethnic communities, “generally speaking it works better when we play to our strength, and that’s with the Jewish community.”
Raffel agreed.
“Our principal responsibility is to work within the Jewish community,” he said. “To the degree that we have relationships outside the Jewish community, we’ll certainly take advantage of those relationships.”
While he hoped that other groups “will be encouraging greater participation from their end,” Jews don’t need to tone down their level of involvement, Raffel said.
“A question I often get is, ‘Are we over-participating?’ ” Raffel said. “The answer to that is no.”
Well, that settles that!
So please remember, this is an opportunity for us to make a kiddush Hashem with all the gentiles at the rally, and there will be many such opportunities. Policemen and food vendors will be out in full force, as well as the media. So please be on your best behavior! And remember, as Jews it is our historical responsibility to shout out to the world that Islam sucks and look at the mentality of the type of people Israel is fighting! ”Never Again!”
by David Kelsey · Wednesday, June 28th, 2006
Edah, an organization attempting to infuse energy into the Orthodox Left, is closing up shop.
While financial problems are being cited in part for their decision, Jewish movements in our day and age do not generally close because of financial problems only, nor does Edah claim this is the only reason for their decision to cease operations.
Perhaps part of the problem is that Edah often focused on a more political approach instead of a general theological one, and such an approach is better utilized by political groups with a specific agenda.
For instance, the Jewish Week reports that,
Kasirer [Edah’s vice president for leadership development] said the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance had worked closely with Edah and she hoped it would continue its advocacy for the inclusion of women. “They’ve done an incredible job,” she said. “Hopefully they will keep it going. There are quite a number of good organizations out there who can continue to work together [to further Edah’s work].”
But with all due respect to JOFA, perhaps what we really need is a broader approach than Edah provided, in part because of the restrictions of such alliances.
For some of us on the fringe of Orthodoxy, as opposed to those in the Conservadox or post-denominational camps, the issue of reconciling all the luggage of our ancient civilization with our present is not about demanding that halacha “evolve;” rather, it is about discarding.
We accept that the Torah is central to our civilization and our religion. And we accept that rabbinic interpretation, a “mesorah,” is necessary to make sense of it all.
But one important point where we deviate (and we do deviate, at least in theory) from Normative Judaism is over the notion that every new decree and custom instituted over the generations is essential to that mesorah.
And this is where Edah proved too limited, and too political.
If there is going to be a vibrant Orthodox Left organization, it needs to be independent of popular political groups that bring specific agendas, and constrict the organization’s ability to act as an honest clearing house for exploration of a wide variety of ideas and discussions, both in function and reputation.
The focus must be more on the questions, and much less on the solutions.
Or there will be less of the latter as well.
by Y-Love · Wednesday, June 28th, 2006
The pundits in Israel and New York just can’t stop talking.
Former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi HaRav R’ Yisra’el Meir Lau may be next in line to take over Moshe Katzav’s largely ceremonial office as President of Israel.
On June 6 came the Haaretz article, “No to Lau for President.”
On June 25 came the rebuttal Haaretz article, “Rabbi Lau: The Last Moral Figure.” Yediot Aharonot was not having this, and ran “Lau: An Excellent Choice”, an article praising R’ Lau despite his “shortcomings”. The Forward — after bringing up the current dispute over the title of Rabbi conspicuously left unused by Mr. Katzav — says of R’ Lau’s election ominously:
If Rabbi Lau becomes Israel’s public face at ceremonial moments — moments that matter deeply in the lives of faith communities — relations between Israel and the Diaspora will suffer a grievous wound.
The Prime Minister’s preferred candidate for nasi is R’ Lau, because, as the Forward reports:
He’s genial, graceful and popular with the Israeli public, and he could help heal some of the social rifts opened by the country’s bruising territorial debates.
Rabbanut Roshit L’mehadrin min ha’mehadrin?
by deitybox · Wednesday, June 28th, 2006
I just heard this on NPR and nearly lost it. Of late, George W. Bush has taken up a lovely little hobby of issuing colorful bill-signing statements to laws passed by Congress that limit his own power. Basically, he writes disclaimers after any law he disagrees, disclaimers which revise and reinterpret laws already passed by the legislature, i.e. the people we elect to pass our laws. Supposedly this is done in the name of “national security in pursuing the war on terror.” So what laws are being “reinterpreted” in the name of Peace on Earth? A little bill called the McCain Amendment on renunciation of torture, for example. And many, many others–statements on 750 bills and counting. According to the Boston Globe, “Bush has used signing statements to reserve the right to disobey more than 750 laws, saying that they conflict with the powers he believes the Constitution gives to him.”
Thankfully, though, Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is really, really pissed about this. In fact, he’s so pissed that he’s pursuing plans to for Congress to sue the President. A hearing is scheduled for this coming Tuesday.
For more, see Seattle Times story.
So apparently he really is a dictator. Who knew? I feel way too jaded to be excited about this, though. It seems that time and time again, this administration somehow slips out of everything. If there was true justice and accountability, there would have been an impeachment a looooong time ago. ITMFA!!!
by Y-Love · Wednesday, June 28th, 2006
The findings of the Pew Research Center’s spring 2006 study of attitudes throughout the Muslim word was reviewed in the Jerusalem Post today. Muslims in 10 countries — 6 Islamic, 4 Western with Muslim minorities (France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain) — were interviewed.
One country stood out significantly with regard to opinions of Jews: French Muslims now rate Jews at a whopping 71% favorable. (The Jerusalem Post columnist called this “widespread prejudice” at “28% unfavorable”.) At first, I was ready to jump for joy at the new pang of multiculturalism sweeping a “previously anti-Semitic country”.
Until I realized that since French PM Dominique de Villepin isn’t running in next year’s French presidential elections, that means the next shoe-in is projected to be Nicolas Sarkozy, currently the head of the conservative party UMP. While known to be a populist crime fighter, their site — when translated — sounds, especially regarding minority populations, a lot like watered-down American neocon stuff. (They’re even targeting Orthodox voters there, too. *sigh*) Combine this with the fact that Jean Marie le-Pen’s extreme-right “Front National” is polling at around 10.1 percent of the electorate (granted, down from 2002, but still) — and this guy said French people weren’t identifying with their national team in the FIFA World Cup because the team didn’t have enough white people on it. I guess now is not the time to hate Jews.
Like I say in one of my songs, “When we’re all against the wall, there ain’t no time to divide.”
And in other news.
In case you didn’t know, last night began Israel’s new offensive into Gaza in what has officially been termed a search and rescue mission for Cpl. Gilad Shalit. In response to the force, the PRC — who originally claimed responsibility for the abduction of Cpl. Shalit — claimed responsibility for the abduction of Eliyahu Asheri, 18, of the settlement of Itamar. In my MySpace blog I attempted to blog “live” from Palestine, using the live video feeds — whatever I could get my hands on — as my eyes and ears. I realized why it’s a daunting task to do such a thing — and it’s not just the sheer volume of images and keystrokes. To watch a bridge get blown up, to hear the sonic booms over Gaza City with under 2 second delay — this is a nerve-fraying undertaking. I don’t know if I could do live journalism. I just care too much.
by BZ · Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
Over at Mah Rabu, I’ve written a post defending the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, founding document of Classical Reform in the US, from my not-so-Classical perspective. I’m not going to cross-post it here, because it’s too long and rambling, but if you’re interested, you should go over there and read it.
Excerpt:
I have a confession.
You know those people whose practice is not Orthodox by any standard, but who know deep down that Orthodox Judaism is the only authentic Judaism? (Call them “Israeli”, or “Sephardi”, or “Chabad donors”, or whatever label you like.) I’m realizing that I’m the opposite. My Jewish practice may appear to 99% of the world (for these examples, let’s say my non-Jewish co-workers) to be ritually stringent — I take days off for holidays no one has heard of, I hurry home on Friday afternoons to go pray, I never eat meat out — but deep down, I know that it all really boils down to ethical monotheism, and Classical Reform basically had it right.
