Alien afficinado Whitley Streiber’s Unknown Country reports,
NASA has discovered that small amounts of edible meat can be created in a lab. In fact, lab grown meat may be the food of the future for all of us.In a recent issue of Tissue Engineering, Agricultural expert Jason Matheny writes about two new techniques of tissue engineering that may one day produce in-vitro (lab grown) meat for human consumption.
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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attended the 11th annual Menorah Lighting ceremony sponsored by Chabad of California…Full story.
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More of the wit and wisdom of Stephan Savitzky, new lay head of the OU: Scroll to 25:30 in this radio interview on OU.org.
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New Orthodox Union’s president, Stephen J. Savitsky:
People are starting to go to Israel for the right reasons. Years ago aliya was for people who were running away from something. They weren’t successful. They didn’t have a successful marriage. They were coming because there was a reason. They weren’t role models.But today I see really successful people. Young people. Doctors, lawyers, business people, finance people, who are giving it up not to come here to starve. Not to schnorr from their parents.
Full Story. (c/o IsreallyCool)
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You can’t make this stuff up…
It is time to abandon “racist” ideas and encourage intermarried couples to raise their children as Jews, according to World Jewish Congress leader Edgar Bronfman.In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, to be published in London on Friday, he said he believed “the whole concept of Jewish peoplehood, and the lines being pure, begins to sound a bit like Nazism, meaning racism.”
As the chairman of Hillel, which seeks to “maximize the number of Jews doing Jewish with other Jews” — itself a statement against intermarriage one suspects — we will see who will rap his knuckles.
(Considering that he himself has wed three different non-Jewish women by now, he must consider himself an expert on the topic.)
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Is there a Hassidic management style?
Business writers have instructed us in the management secrets of Shakespeare, the robber barons, the Greeks and Romans, Sun Tzu, and Attila the Hun. But what about my people? At last, just in time for the Jewish High Holidays, Moshe Kranc has published The Hasidic Master’s Guide to Management.
The review concludes:
Kranc oddly underplays the greatest example of Hasidic management: Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe. Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, Schneerson built a Hasidic community in Brooklyn and then created a highly successful global enterprise with an intense strategic focus: getting Jews to become more observant. When it comes to Hasidic sects, the Lubavitchers are General Electric.
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Can surfing and spirituality coexsist?
‘You can’t be too square. You’ve got to be a little hip,’ With those wise words, the ‘surfing rabbi,’ who appeared in the 2003 surf movie ‘Step Into Liquid,’ grabs his long board and paddles out, just like he’s done for the past 40 years.Cowabunga! This mensch can rip.
Shifren is spiritually stoked he lectures on the ‘surf and soul connection’; holds Passover surfaris and Mexico kosher surf camps (with five-star cuisine by a Chabad caterer); and conducts beach bar mitzvahs where celebrant and guests shoot the curl.
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The ‘Rabbis Answer’ hotline, which was widely publicized in the religious media, is aimed at providing information to anonymous callers in Israel. It was initiated three months ago when Pfizer-Israel, which represents the manufacturer of Viagra, agreed to sponsor it for at least a limited period…
Too bad Viagra is Chametz…
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Maariv reports that Shinui has issues with a program in which synagogues open at temporary locations to allow non-observant Jews to attend prayer services.
Under the framework of the project, synagogues open at 195 community centers and temporary locations during the High Holy Days in order to allow those who are not observant to attend prayer services during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
Shinui has expressed fury over the project, arguing it is a state-run system that aims at turning citizens religious. According to Minister Katz, “Shinui is acting worst than the anti-Semites abroad when it lashes out against a project that is meant for teaching and guiding”. In response, Minister Poraz said, “A Jew can also be an anti-Semite”.
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swissinfo.org asks: “Is Israel [a] ‘swing state’ that could tip US election?”
Israel, sometimes referred to as the “51st state” for its embrace of all things American, has become a key battleground.
It is home to an estimated 250,000 U.S. citizens, America’s fifth-largest community abroad, many hailing from swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
[Update] Haaretz reports a sharp rise in Israeli-American voter registration. Dual citizens who haven’t voted in American elections in 40 years are requesting absentee ballots… (c/o Arieh)
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Chabad of California’s yearly telethon will be broadcast on Sunday, September 12, and streamed live on the web at www.askmoses.com. This cultural phenomenon can only take place in Hollywood, where Chasidic rabbis lock arms with A-list and B-list stars, politicos and recovering drug addicts to dance and raise money. The entertainment varies from the Chazan singing Kol Nidrei to Bob Dylan, from emotional pitches to hilarious spoofs.
Highlights of past years are available on www.tolife.com; one scene that won’t be shown on the highlight reel any time soon can be seen here. (23 Meg mpg).
PS – Rest assured that Shmarya will use this as an opportunity to lambast something Chabad.
PPS – This Reform Temple director want to use the telethon as a lesson in marketing, I wonder what came of it.
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In case you have been following, where a split has in the Vilinus community emerged between the Chabad rabbi of 10 years, Rabbi Sholom Krinsky, and a (marginal?) lay leader.
At a conference of some Lithuanian Jews a few days ago, the crisis — which had already seem Vilinus’ only Shul shut down by this lay leader to “show who is the master in the synagogue” — reached a new low with physical violence against the aforementioned Rabbi Krinsky. This was videotaped and now streaming online ala Rodney King.
The tape is located on a Chabad website www.jewishlithuania.com, which to it’s credit contains much original documentation that bolsters their case. Whether this website will be a decisive factor in alerting Jews around the world to the plight of the Vilinus community, only time will tell. But in any event, it is indicative of the globalization of what once was considered local Jewish politics.
[Full Disclosure: I maintain close involvement with Chabad. However, I have never met any of the principles involved in the Vilinus situation.]
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From Ha’aretz: Windsurfer Friedman wins Israel’s first ever Olympic gold.
President Moshe Katsav congratulated Friedman and invited him for a meeting to give him a “hug.” “I’m happy together with everyone about this win,” Katsav said. “We all had great expectations that Gal would do this.”
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Highlight:
Now 76, Sharon can plausibly lay claim to having shaped his state’s geographic and moral terrain and international image — for better or for worse — more than any other Israeli leader since David Ben-Gurion. There is no single American figure to compare him with. He is Andrew Jackson, George Patton, Robert Moses.
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Ha’aretz reports,
Poraz allegedly told Sharon: “If UTJ is the Vaseline you need to ease Labor’s penetration into the government, I’ll help you.”
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Attention all JAPs: “Study Finds Agreement on ‘Ideal’ Nose.” With this study in hand, you can get exactly the nose you—and your focus group—have been waiting for!
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