by Josh Frankel [➚] · Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
That seems to be the message that Malcolm Hoenlein is spreading in Jerusalem. But, he’s saying it, in a strange I’m-not-really-saying it tone. That’s the story as Ha’aretz is covering it. He says that he’s afraid of the atmosphere of Barack Obama’s campaign. In his next sentence of course he covers himself and says that he’s not worried about Obama himself.
The same thing he says regarding American support from Israel. Supposedly Americans are open towards anti-Israel policies, but his only data to support this are polls showing record levels of support for Israel. Of course, those polls are aberrations.
I don’t get it. Yes, I am worried by the cult of personality surrounding Obama. I myself am energized by his presence and persona, and feel myself caught up in it. But, what’s wrong with charisma, if the person wielding it does good? By all accounts, Obama has done much good, and there is promise for him to do much more. Looking through is book, I see a man who shares my values, who cares about human beings, and yes – a man who gives damn good speeches. What is Hoenlien trying to do?
While we might not buy into him, Mr. Hoenlien knows that when he opens his mouth he represents the entire Jewish community. If he has a problem with a specific candidate, then air it out. Why plant suspicious comments, and then back off of them? Why mention hypothetical situations of Americans turning 180 degrees on Israel? Because fear works. Debate is tough. Debate you have to stick to issues. But, plant a little, frightful idea in people’s heads, no matter how unfounded, and it sticks. And, since it’s just a suspicion, you don’t need any evidence to go along with it, just a hunch.
I’m sick of it. We have all benefited from the good aspects of this presidential campaign, and I hope we stick to real debate. For the first time in my life, I like all of the people running for office. America will not be shamed by its next president. I will gladly support Clinton or Obama’s campaign should they receive the nomination, and while I don’t agree with him, and will never vote for him, John McCain seems like a good, principled person as well. So, let’s have these good people talk about their plans, their records, their values, and their visions. And let’s leave the swift-boating behind.
I don’t like this story. I’ll be honest, the last time I wrote about the good guys trying to provoke a war, I was wrong, but I’m still gonna call the US out this time. You’ve all heard the news, a few speed boats irreverently boated around some American warships in the Persian Gulf. I heard that too, and figured it’s another crotchety Iranian thing, trying to test us, find limits, be pricks in general. And, the US played it up. Annoying, dangerous, but typical news.
But then I saw the video and heard the audio track.
Give me a break! I can do a better Persian accent than that. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am willing to trust Uncle Sam enough, and accept that nobody at the DoD cooked up this video, or any of the sound. But, Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, speaking to CNN admits that there is no way to establish that the communication came from those boats. Aside from the accent, if you were bopping around in a little speedboat, you would expect to hear some background noise. You know, those outboard motors are pretty loud, as is the wind. Here’s my guess, some bored sailor, trying to have some fun, was sitting alone somewhere we had a radio set, and well, he got cute.
I can imagine it perfectly, you’re in the middle of a long mission. It’s boring, like always. But, just to make things a bit more annoying this time around, every couple of days, they wake you all up, and make you sit at battle stations again. One time, it’s a strange white thing floating in the water, the next – some unidentified plane. Today, after working your eight hour shift at the radar, keeping an eye on over two hundred fishing boats, you finally get to bed. You lie down blang! goes the klaxon. You’re back to some God forsaken part of that boat (somebody with more naval experience can help me out here) this time because some speed boats are messing around. Why not have a little fun? Unprofessional, yes. Dangerous, yes. Stupid, yes. Exactly the kind of crap a bored serviceman does, yes.
Here’s the rub. I see through this. You know the people on that ship see through this. They didn’t seem particularly threatened or scared when they heard it. The military brass sees through this. Then why the hell are they publishing it? So, you want the video, fine. Then edit out this crap. You don’t have a problem editing other stuff out. For example, I never hear any orders to the crewmen, nor do I hear any officers discussing how to act. That they got rid of. So, get rid of this too.
I guess that’s our America for you. Trying to get a provocation cooked up. Anything that can be done to bring war in our time is good. It seems Bush is still trying to start a war, but instead he’s just looking even dumber.
Update:The Times now has a similar angle, and is covering developments on the story. Aside from bring up the problems that I mentioned, they also have links to Iranian videos of what might be the same incident.
A lot of people have been interested in how the tzedek beit medrash in Washington Heights went, so I got Mike Schultz, one of the founders of Uri L’Tzedek to give a little report.
Can you imagine 35 people coming out for an Orthodox group’s social justice learning program, looking to get involved in their local community outside of the shul? It’s a new world within Orthodoxy, and that exciting reality shone through brilliantly at the second Uri L’Tzedek Beit Midrash this past Monday night at Mt. Sinai Jewish Center, in Washington Heights. More »
After the tremendous success of its first beit medrash,Uri L’tzedek, the organization dedicated to engaging the Orthodox community in social justice, is back for more. “Ethical Kashrut, Workers’ Rights, the Kosher Meat Industry” is the title for this week’s program, and the word on the street is that Rubashkin’s should take cover. Monday night, 7:30 – 9:00 PM, at the Mount Sinai Jewish Center, 135 Bennet Ave, in NYC.
There’s a new organization out there and it’s called Uri L’Tzedek, Awaken to Justice. Started by three YCT students, Aaron Finkelstein, Mike Schultz, and Shmuly Yanklowitz along with the generous support of a Herbert Lieberman Award this new organization aims to inspire the Orthodox community to take a more profound and active role with regards to social justice. Tomorrow night, Uri L’Tzedek will be hosting the first of what it hopes will be a series of batei midrash dedicated to issues of social concern, and this one will be focused on immigration.
What: Tzedek Beit Midrash
When: October 15, 7:30 – 9:00 PM
Where: Mount Sinai Jewish Center, 135 Bennet Ave (corner of 187th St), NY, NY
Midwest Jews! Help bring Chicago’s Muslim and Jewish communities together as we host our fellow descendants of Abraham for an evening of what both traditions do best: eating, prayer and schmoozing. Our Muslim brothers and sisters are currently in the month of Ramadan. They fast from dawn to sunset every day for a month (and you thought Yom Kippur was rough) and then break the fast each day with a meal called Iftar. This year, their fast coincides with Sukkot, thus this sweet opportunity to feed some hungry muslims and do something meaningful and positive with our fellow Semites.
Who: Muslims and Jews
What: Iftar in the Sukkah
Where: Anshe Sholom Synagogue, 540 W. Melrose, Chicago Illinois
When: 5:30 – 7:30, October 1, 2007
How much: $5-10 suggested donation to the JCUA for making this kind of stuff possible.
RSVP to Irene at Irene@jcua.org or hit her up 312-663-0960 with questions. The skies don’t align like this for another 30 years folks.
&Within days of pulling out of Lebanon last summer, it already seemed that we were getting ready for another war. The politicians started talking tough, and there was a palpable desire for revenge on the street. As a good American and Israeli that had always been taught that war was bad, and that violence should only be used as an absolutely last recourse, the whole discussion sounded perverse, but yet I could empathize with people. They felt hurt and betrayed by their own abilities. And, just as an athlete who fails in one competition, will often be desperate to compete in the next one, Israel seemed to be smelling blood, anxious for its next oppurtunity to fight.
I was frightened, and I hoped and prayed that all of htis wold pass, that perhaps the jingoist pose that our government was playing was just that – an act – meant to deter would be combatants, but as of yesterday’s news, it seems like my hope was misplaced. You might not have heard, it hardly made the news over in America, but Syria reported Thursday afternoon that an Israeli war plane had flown over the country, at supersonic speeds, dropped munitions, and that the Syrian air defense had fired at the invader.
Also, please understand, this is not the typical ruse of accidentally crossing into foreign territory to provoke an attack (ie., Rio Grande). The Syrians claimed this plane flew in off of the Mediterranean, and was shot at above northeastern Syria. That doesn’t happen by accident. Not even a creative one.
So, what’s the result? Iran has pledged any help neccessary to defend Syria, Syria has reserved the right to retaliate, a bunch of Israeli politicians and generals are smiling, and the region is again on the brink of war. Hopefully saner minds on the other side of the border will save our lives, but if not, we’re on the way back to the front. God help us, if we need to depend on the sanity of the Iranians.
I just learned a new halakhah yesterday. According to the Jerusalem Rabbinate, having a TV in your dining room makes your food not-kosher. At least that’s what they told the little sandwich shop around the corner from me. Well, actually, that should be qualified a bit. The Rabbinate is willing to call your food kosher if you have a television set, but that’s only the pedestrian kashrut. If you want what they insist is the real certification, the mehadrin certification, the certification that tells you that it’s kosher enough for the supervising rabbi to eat there himself, then you have to ditch the tube.
I wonder what else is on the not-kosher list. Does having a radio treif up your dishes? Perhaps having an encyclopedia would make magical lesions appear on your cows’ lungs? Watch out, the word is that women workers often sneak in a little yayin nesach at the counter.
Bottom line, while we’re having our genteel debate on the virtue of bundling commandments, and whether eco and tzedek kashrut are valuable and worth pursuing, the Jerusalem Rabbinate (a state organization) has long ago expanded the meaning of kashrut, and our priorities are nowhere on their radar.
Clarification: The problem was having a TV in the dining room of the restaurant. To the best of my knowledge, no kashrut organization investigates a store owner’s private home.
What happens when a reporter from Haaretz decides that American Jewish culture is being replaced by the internet, and that ROI 120 is a conference designed to advance that project? You get a horrible, rambling article, with a really bad title that mentions some great people. But, really bad title. I mean, who on Earth would think that an article on the American Jewish internet would hide behind this link?
Anyway, once you get there, you’ll find an article that begins with JewTube, gives our very own Sarah and Chosen Couture props, slides along the bay to Tomer Altman and Oy Bay, before wrapping up with a big hand to Jewschool for representing the serious side of the Jewnet.
The article does a good job of discussing why straight, religious Jews might be at the parade, and throws around a few of my juicy quotes, though i wish it would have mentioned that I am going to Orthodox rabbinic school. However, it fails to really delve into the unique religious nature of hte parade or of the pride movement in general in Jerusalem.
It would have been nice to mention that the Jerusalem Open House that organized the parade was co-founded by Rabbi Steve Greenberg, and that their most regular event is a monthly kabballat shabbat and potluck dinner. Another interesting story line could have been Bat Kol, the national organization for religious lesbians. This group, was perhaps the most moving and motivated at the parade. They marched as a group, wearing long skirts, and modest white blouses, while singing traditional chassidic tunes.
For all of the protests and the threats that came out of the chareidi community, the parade was a success for the religious Jewish community. There were kippot everywhere, worn by representatives of all religious denominations. At one point, Rachel Joseph Marrah, Anne Lewis, and myself were marching together. The three of us come from very different backgrounds, but we have one connection – we will all be starting rabbinical school next year, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox respectively. There could be a pride parade anywhere, but perhaps a Jewish parade could only happen in Jerusalem.
My friend, and roommate, David Druce wrote this little piece. Enjoy.
In a development that stunned Middle Eastern experts, the embattled Gaza Strip was seized by a shadowy group of heavily armed men. Yet it was not the incumbent Fatah regime or the isurgent Hamas but one of New York’s most respected rap groups. The Wu Tang Clan, a consortium of an estimated thousand strong rappers, producers, and others involved in hip-hop were well armed with Uzis and pinky rings. Flanked by a unit of masked ninja wielding liquid swords and heavily armed ‘homies’ from the Stapleton Projects, the GZA quickly led a unit of soldiers into the Hamas stronghold of Seijiya in Gaza City, iron flag in hand.
3,112 fans from across Israel converged on the Baptist Village outside of Petach Tikva for the opening game of the Israel Baseball League. The baseball was real, the hotdogs were Kosher, and the kids had a great time. All around the diamond, children, many of whom at their first ball game ran around collecting foul balls, and getting anybody wearing a uniform to sign them. These players, many of whom were passed over in the recent draft got to feel like they were in the big leagues, or at least the Cape Cod league.
Steven I. Weiss has been covering an interesting story about the OU’s restaurant kashrut program. A mashgiach, Yitzchak Bitton at Le Marais, a kosher steakhouse in NY, claims that on his watch there were major kashrut violations, and that despite his best attempts at solving them, the OU repeatedly turned a blind eye, and tried to cover up the problems that were there, rather then possibly losing a client and taking a hard line approach. The OU has since denied that there any major problems, and that minor infractions have been dealt with, and now Le Marais is suing Mr. Bitton.
While I have no knowledge of this actual case, it sounds entirely possible. About ten years ago, when I was a teenager living in NY, I got a job as an OU mashgiach at pizzeria on the Upper West Side. While this is an entirely different caliber of job from what Mr. Bitton had (there’s not much that can go wrong in a pizzeria) I feel a similar somewhat cavalier attitude. Back then, I was employed not by the OU, but by the pizza place. That meant, of course, that if I saw any problem, I couldn’t exactly walk out. If I had insisted here was a problem, then someone else would have taken my job, and I wouldn’t have been able to eat.
As part of it’s first film festival, Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future ran an undergraduate short film competition. The topic – Who is Your Jewish Hero. The five finalists are featured online, and voting for the winner is public. They are definitely interesting to see. One is in praise of a soldier injured in the recent Lebanon war, another makes an appeal to Orthodox star power, with the Moshav Band in the background, and Avraham Fried narrating. My favorite, is an over the top, ironic accolade dedicated to Richard Joel.
Yeah, our parents had to deal with Jewish quotas at Ivy League schools, and we all heard rumors about Princeton, but it seems that in the Jewish state, our admissions offices have found a way to get back. Haaretz reports about a new policy at Tel Aviv University’s medical school. Beginning next year, the school will only admit students older than twenty.
Sounds like a bright policy, after all, according to the people at the medical school, medicine is a profession that requires maturity and experience in order to deal daily with patients. However, a quick look at the student population in Israel explains a lot. Most Jewish college students are at least twenty years old, having graduated high school and completed some form of national service. There are two significant populations that are younger in the universities, the Arab students, and those who are in a special army program called Atuda, where first you learn and then you serve. Not surprisingly, TAU’s new policy doesn’t affect those doing Atuda.
Perhaps most unfortunate is that the only ones complaining are the Arab MKs, and the Arab student committee at the school. Where is Meretz, where is Labor, where is the rest of Israel? Forget about them, where is the TAU student government that is constantly threatening to go on strike?
I was struck by the story Mobius posted yesterday regarding a well known Rabbi resorting to violence in order to make a point about how he felt Jews should act. It made me think about the relationship between our current political situation and our everyday behavior. In that light, this strange chat transcript seemed particularly eerie.
Let me give you some background. Many years ago, when I was a teenager living in Calgary, I was very involved in NCSY, and I used to participate in these weekly chats moderated by NCSY staff. Through the magic of the Wayback Machine I came across a chat transcript that NCSY had proudly displayed on their site in December of 1998. The topic of the week was, “The Connection Between the Jewish People and Israel,†and mixed in with advisers giving Kahanist rants is a surreal account of high school rebbe pushing a student through a glass window. Yes, according to how it is presented here, the kid probably deserved a little punishment, and maybe even a nice kick in the tush, but what is frightening is how almost everyone in this chat is nonplussed by a high school teacher physically assaulting a student.
Cast of characters:
Nachum1 – A Kahanist NCSY adviser
Alw – a NCSYer from Texas. I made her acquaintance through this chat, and today she is a good friend of mine
Roger – A national NCSY administrator, and the coordinator of the chat room
Advisor_aaron – Another NCSY adviser
Erwos – A slightly younger NCSYer from Silver Spring
Valerie – A National NCSY officer from LA
Everyone else, I either don’t know or don’t remember. And me, where am I? Well, I had to miss the weekly chat. I was taking my Spring Break in Vancouver and Seattle, and that night in particular, April 1, 1997, I was sitting in a café in Vancouver getting ready for an Allen Ginsberg poetry reading. After a half hour of sitting around, we got the word that the master had canceled. It turns out Mr. Ginsberg, zâ€l, was sick – he passed away a few days later.
by Josh Frankel [➚] · Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
Do you remember that movie with Leonardo diCaprio about the man who lied about everything, and never got caught? Well, it’s a good thing he never tried to become an Israeli cabinet minister. Esterina Tartman, from the Yisrael Beiteinu list just withdrew her candidacy for Minister of Tourism after getting caught with just a little resume padding.
You can check out her official Knesset resume online in Hebrew. Sorry, the English version doesn’t have all of the information. It lists an MBA from “Jerusalem†and a BA in Finance from Bar Ilan. Sounds nice, aside from the little problem that she doesn’t have either of those degrees. Rather, as Yediot Ahronot pointed out, Ms Tartman got her BA from DK’s favorite – Touro College – and has taken some non-academic ongoing education classes at Bar Ilan. (Here’s Haaretz’s coverage, it’s in English)
This all follows an earlier expose by Yediot regarding a large insurance award that the MK received after claiming that a traffic accident had severely affected her memory and ability to concentrate, limiting her to only 4 hours of work a day.
Now, you might give her a hand for almost pulling off an amazing stunt. After all, how many Touro College grads have been nominated for cabinet positions in any country? But, you would expect her to apologize, show a little remorse, some contrition, right? Well, not in the Holy Land. Here, instead, when politicians get caught with their pants down, they attack the media, and claim to be victims of a vast conspiracy. Here are some translations of the juicy lines from Esterina Tartman’s press conference a few hours ago.
Over the past few days I have found myself at the center of a planned attack campaign, ugly slander and fact distortion, and all for the purpose of hurting my reputation and me.
(Regarding the false resume)
I have my original resume that I gave to the Knesset. I gave it in, and it doesn’t have these statements. I tried to check the sources, but I do not shirk responsibility. I made a mistake when I said an MBA. If I had added the words, “studies towards an MBA†there would be no problem, since I completed a BA with Honors [a claim disputed in the Haaretz article –JF] I continued my studies towards an MBA.
This is not only a war regarding my reputation, this is a war for the nature of the State of Israel . . .
What happens when a reporter from Haaretz decides that American Jewish culture is being replaced by the internet, and that 
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