by The Town Crier [➚] · Monday, September 4th, 2006
An new book about Bush admin. puppeteer Karl Rove reports allegations of anti-semitism by President George W. Bush. The book cites comments also previously reported by the reporter in a newspaper that that President made disparaging remarks about Israeli Jews who haven’t accepted Jesus. [Raw Story]
“You know what I’m gonna tell those Jews when I get to Israel, don’t you Herman?” a then Governor George W. Bush allegedly asked a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman.
When the journalist, Ken Herman, replied that he did not know, Bush reportedly delivered the punch line: “I’m telling ‘em they’re all going to hell.”
Bush’s thoughts on the fate of non-Christian souls became a minor source of controversy after he told the Houston Post in 1993 that only those who “accept Jesus Christ” go to Heaven. However, the future president was also earlier briefly engaged to a half-Jewish woman.
The quip never received wider media attention, even though the Austin American-Statesman reported it in December of 1998.
“As he gazed out a hotel hallway at the Superdome and waited for an elevator, Bush — clearly going for a laugh at his own expense — said the first thing he was going to say to Israeli Jews was that they were all ‘going to hell,’” Herman had reported. “Bush, who has both a quick wit and generally good judgment on when to use it, made the comment to the same Austin American-Statesman reporter who had reported his 1993 comments about his religious beliefs.”
by The Town Crier [➚] · Thursday, August 31st, 2006
This is a very strange story that has a very strange ending. Basically, A man was upset because his wife was a lesbian cheating on him with another woman. He sought the advice of his rabbi who advised him to put special sand on the other woman’s doorstep and his wife would return. The man mistakenly involves his son, and things go awry…
by The Town Crier [➚] · Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
This is London, indeed.
“I thought it is the normal, human thing to go to help two young girls, as we were screaming. There were people there acting like nothing happened. “
by The Town Crier [➚] · Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
SLC to issue permit for the ‘Death to Israel’ rally
Day of protests: Jewish community concerned, but acknowledges First Amendment rights
When asked if he wants to see the elimination of Israel, Breeze said: “The President of Iran has an excellent idea. . . . I would like to see them move Israel to Virginia and put all the current Virginians in a concentration camp. Then we’ll see how popular Israel is [in the United States].”
…
“I’ve never really discriminated against anybody that is Jewish. It’s not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel.”
by The Town Crier [➚] · Monday, August 28th, 2006
32 year old Rabbi Joshua Boettiger has been appointed spiritual leader of Congregation Beth El in Bennington, Vermont. Boettiger is the great grandson of former United States President Franklin Deleno Roosevelt and his First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Boettiger’s path to becoming a rabbi is made more unique because he grew up in an interfaith household, the son of an Episcopalian father and a Jewish mother. The traditions of both faiths, he said, were given equal time. Rather than a Bar Mitvah, he had what his parents called a “Josh Mitzvah,” a coming-of-age ceremony that incorporated traditions from both faiths. When it came time to choose a single faith, Boettiger said, it wasn’t really a choice at all.
“Growing up, I got a minimal dose of both traditions,” Boettiger said. “Both of my parents were really respectful of the other’s tradition and said that I could choose whatever path felt right for me. … (Judaism) was the tradition that most spoke to me as far as what I imagined my path being.”
…
Boettiger realizes how it must have been difficult for the first generation of FDR’s descendants, who may have felt pressure to live up to legacy left by the late president.
But Boettiger has suffered no such pressure.
If anything, he said he feels a distant connection to Eleanor and shares a deep respect for her call to public service.
As a Jew and FDR’s great-grandson, Boettiger is often asked if FDR did all he could to save Jews during the Holocaust.
He has acknowledged that his great-grandfather did not do all he could to stop the genocide, but has also called FDR a great friend of the Jews.
His apparently conflicting answers, he said, are representative of an incredibly difficult historical question.
“It’s a complex issue,” Boettiger said.
“Historians have a raging debate about it, and since I’m not a historian I try to stay out of that and just welcome the discussion and to say that it’s not a simple answer.”
by The Town Crier [➚] · Thursday, July 20th, 2006
Via AP:
The guest list was slashed and the venue hastily changed, but Shlomi Boskila and Maya Lugasi got married anyway, defying the threat of rocket attacks Thursday with a wedding in an underground bomb shelter.
Nine days of attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas have forced many in northern Israel to spend their days in reinforced bunkers.
“This shows Hezbollah and (its leader Hassan) Nasrallah that not even 20,000 missiles can destroy the happiness of the bride and groom,” said Boskila, the 29-year-old new husband.
Almost 75 people, at least half of them reporters, packed the 15-square-yard shelter. Most of the guests stood up because of the lack of space for seats.
by The Town Crier [➚] · Monday, July 17th, 2006
Move over Charlton Heston, God has a new voice.
by The Town Crier [➚] · Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
Young Israeli slash Hollywood Actress Natalie Portman, best know for her portrayal as Princess Amidala in Star Wars says that she intends to raise Jewish children and teach them about their religion. Except for one problem. She hasn’t yet met the right Jewish guy.
(My dear fellow bloggers, I know I had a slow weekend, but this HAS to be more interesting then Madge renouncing the Judaism she never quite had!)
by The Town Crier [➚] · Monday, July 10th, 2006
BBC Reports, A political campaigner from north London, 27 year old Alan Senitt, was stabbed to death protecting his female companion as they walked home in Washington, DC. Senitt was working on the presidential campaign of former virginia governor Mark Warner and was previously the head of the Union of Jewish Students and the UJS representative to the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Following the stabbing in what was obstensibly a robbery attempt and alleged sexual assault, four people were arrested and two of them – an underage male and adult female – were charged with murder.
Leaders of London’s Jewish community were saddened by the news and mourn the loss of a young and dynamic personality.
Senit had spent a year working closely with Lord Greville Janner who told the UK Times:
“It’s awful, a horrendous shock. This man was bright, young and had just got a fascinating job. “He was both a Jewish communal leader and before long I believe he would have been a political leader. He was a great leader and this is a tragedy, an absolute tragedy, and everybody I know is just choked.”
by The Town Crier [➚] · Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
The Rabbinical Council of America announces its official prohibition of smoking. See: RCA Press Release | Halachic Prohibition (11 pg PDF)
The Va’ad Halachah (or Halacha Committee) of The Rabbinical Council of America has issued a unanimous opinion affirming that, in spite of its widespread practice even within many rabbinic and yeshiva circles, the smoking of tobacco products is prohibited by Jewish law. For some observers of Jewish life, this decision might be casually dismissed as a statement of the obvious, or in any case, as long overdue. But from a different perspective, this ruling illustrates the highly significant fact that accepted practice and illustrious precedent notwithstanding, Jewish law is fully able to incorporate new realities, recognize new and reliable scientific findings, and embrace the need to change heretofore acceptable behavior.
[Emphasis mine] I suspect that line in the statement might come back to haunt them someday.
by The Town Crier [➚] · Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
31 year-old Elie Y. Katz, who became a council member at the age of 23, was inaugurated this past Saturday night as the youngest and first ever Orthodox Jew to become Mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey. Teaneck is well known as an epicenter of Mordern Orthodox Judaism, containing a very large and vibrant MO Jewish community. Lizette Parker became the first ever African American woman deputy Mayor of Teaneck. Several new and returning city council members are young Orthodox Jews as well.
Talkin’ with Mayor Katz: This morning, Nachum Segal conducted an in depth half hour interview with Mayor Katz (audio link). Among the many things they discussed was property taxes, and why the inauguration took place very late on a Saturday night.
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 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 The Town Crier [➚] · Sunday, June 18th, 2006
Do the laws of Yibum apply to interspecies marriage?
Cindy the Israeli Dolphin, recently married to Jewish Millionaire from the UK, Sharon Tendler, has died of natural causes at the age of 40. Full Story
by The Town Crier [➚] · Friday, June 9th, 2006
It was bound to happen. A Sudanese tribal leader – Mowadh Jalaladinm, of the Barty tribe – has blamed the Jews for the genocide in Darfur and threatened a “Jihad” against any UN peacekeeping effort.
That’s right, the Jews – the only ones trying to help the matter.
AP/JTA
“The root causes of the Darfur conflict are the doing of the Jewish organizations who financed this armed rebellion,” he [Mowadh Jalaladin] claimed. “We don’t want the Security Council to be an instrument of the ugly undertakings of the United States of America.”
by The Town Crier [➚] · Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
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.
by The Town Crier [➚] · Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
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.
by The Town Crier [➚] · Monday, May 29th, 2006
William Shatner has discovered the solution to achieving peace in the Middle East.
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