by Justin Goldstein · Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
“woe to the nation that at this time celebrates the release of an animal who crushed the skull of a four-year-old child.”-Ehud Olmert
May our hearts and prayers be with the Regev and Goldwasser families, and the Israeli people. And may peace be upon the souls of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
This was not a victory for anybody. Not for Hezbollah. Not for Lebanon. Not for Israel. Not for Nasrallah. Not for Olmert. Not for the families of the captive soldiers. Not for the families of the released prisoners. Not for Samir Kuntar. Not for the Haran family. Nobody is a victor.
My personal reflections after the jump. More »
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Monday, July 14th, 2008
On a prior post this week, commenter balabusta linked us to a video from the NYT that I’m sorry to say I had missed. The video is disheartening in that it reveals quite a bit that generally has been missing from the whole Agri commentary on the Jewish side of the question. It’s not only our outrage at the workers being treated unfairly by Agri at this point (not to mention being abused, as is clear from the variety of investigations) but the very fact that the racial component is being ignored, but even more clearly that the illegal immigrants are actually being railroaded into pleading guilty for crimes which are almost certainly Agri’s.
While everyone following this story along with us here at Jewschool from the beginning, now years ago, can see that we nearly qualify at apoplectic at the combination of injustice and chillul hashem that’s being done, listening to the words of this translator, who in all his years has not been moved to speak out -until now- makes me sad and angry all over again.
It’s too early for the boycott to be called off. The workers are being charged with social security fraud and aggravated identity theft, the court is using the greater charge to browbeat the workers into pleading guilty for the lesser charge. If they refuse to plead guilty, they are told, instead of five months in prison and then deportation (forever, with no chance to return legally) they will have 6-8months in prison, with the possibility of two years more if they lose. Most of them are the sole economic support for their families and thus are choosing to plead guilty, despite the fact that many of them - according to the translator- clearly have no idea what a social security number is or what it’s used for (and are apparently ashamed of looking ignorant about it, most cannot read or write, and when asked what the number is say they don’t know, the factory people put it there.
In other words, of the crimes of social security fraud and aggravatedidentity theft, it is Agri who should be on trial, not the workers. If Agri wants their boycott lifted, some signs of tshuvah are in order. Confession (to God and to the victim(s), Apology, Restitution and Failure to Repeat the offense when given another chance. In order for us to even think about taking them seriously, they need to admit publicly that it is they, Agri, who are behind these offenses and not allow people who are innocent of these crimes to be tried and deported for them. The workers may be guilty of illegally entering the country, but they are almost certainly not guilty of what they are being accused. There are no signs of tshuvah yet from Rubashkin. Thus we should not be revoking the boycott.
I can’t even begin to say how disgusted I remain with this whole episode, how much harm the American Jewish community’s consumption of excess amounts of meat has done to other people, and that Agri will allow their workers to take the fall for them… well, it’s despicable.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Seems there’s no level too low to which certain groups can sink. Ynet reports that certain rabbis Hadana and Tsadok are scamming Ethiopian couples by finding their conversions problematic, at the last minute so that they can’t get married, offering to do a “fake” wedding for them since they can’t cancel at the last minute… of course, not forgetting to charge them an arm and a leg for the favor… and then after the “fake” wedding and the “proper” conversion are over, Hadana will then do a “real” wedding for them in his office… for another fee, of course.
A Yedioth Ahronoth reporter approached Rabbi Shalom Tsadok with a “similar case,” in a bid to verify the couples’ complaints.
“Rabbi Shilo is introduced when it’s necessary and conducts the wedding; he is popular but must be paid what he asks for,” Rabbi Shalom Tsadok told him, adding he was “not involved with setting the price.”
When asked by the reporter whether he could ask Rabbi Hadana about Rabbi Shilo, or tell him that the wedding was not a real one, Rabbi Tsadok said: “You can, but no one should know it was make-believe… Rabbi Hadana probably knows everything…it’s for your own good.”
The Rabbinate, added Rabbi Tsadok, will not recognize the marriage. “It’s not binding. It’s just a little ceremony.”
The reporter than asked the rabbi whether NIS 3,000 ($900) would be enough. “He will only want cash,” said Rabbi Tsadok. “When you get to the wedding hall, you meet him before you go in, give it to him personally and then enter the hall with him.”
The wedding, explained the rabbi, is invalid: “It doesn’t count, just a make-believe… It’s artistry. There will be a wedding and everything, a ring too.”
Unsurprisingly, the couples mentioned in the article decided not to continue the conversion process, and did not get legally married. SO: in sum: chillul hashem, in making these people - who opted to go jump through every hareidi hoop so that they could be married, had someone deliberately screw them over for money (I wonder whether in fact there really was a problem with their conversion, given that halachically, it doesn’t actually take much to convert someone and have it stick) offer to fix it for more money, and then try to get - what, yes more money out of them… and they don’t want to consider continuing their journey towards joining the Jewish people? Astonishing.
FOlks, just go to the Masorti movement, already. They’ll do a proper conversion, they’ll marry you, and they won’t try to con you because you’re brown.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Saturday, May 10th, 2008
Week Three, Day seven
Malchut of Tiferet
Week Three, Day six
Yesod of Tiferet
This past weekend, Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue), a project of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research sponsored a conference in San Francisco of Jews and Jewish identified ethnic groups from around the world. Many of these groups are not formally Jewish, the descendants of anusim and xuetas. Some are Jews officially, although not always accepted with open arms by the so-called “mainstream,” such as the Ethiopian Jews, or the Abayudaya. And then there are the Jewish communites whose faces and color don’t fall within the stereotypes of what a Jew looks like - as if there was any such thing: the Jews of India, Jews who are of color who converted, or whose parents did.
“The Jewish community keeps talking about the crisis of intermarriage and the crisis of declining numbers, but meanwhile you’ve got people with Jewish heritage, spiritual seekers, Jewish communities of historical significance, and the Jewish community is doing nothing to help them,†says Gary Tobin, the institute’s president and a longtime advocate of greater openness to those outside the Ashkenazi mainstream.
According to institute research, at least 20 percent of American Jews are racially and ethnically diverse. But old stereotypes about what “real Jews†look like persist, Tobin says.
“Instead of worrying about people being ‘lost’ to intermarriage,” he wonders, “why aren’t we extending our ideological borders to include all these people who are so interested in joining us?â€
Personally, I think it would be completely fabulous if the descendants of the anusim made a formal return, and the Ibo and Lemba formally converted. Welcome! Join the party!
And of course, for those that are us, we should move mountains to bring them close and help them.
On a humorous note:
Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu wrote in an article … “it turns out that Olmert is more corrupt than we thought.”
“So what shall we do? Elect another prime minister without faith? Another one without credibility? Another one without values?…when will we wake up and realize that we need a prime minister with a kippa?”
“We need a prime minister who acts based on genuine faith and values.
Um. Hey, I’m a rabbi myself, and I even occasionally wear a kippah (rather than a hat), but I’m just not quite sure this would solve the problem. Especially since I’m pretty sure that Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu wasn’t promoting say, Rabbi Andy Sacks, or R. David Golinkin, as a solution to the problem.
I dunno. I could be wrong. PM Sacks, has a kind of a nice ring to it….
Yeah, okay. A PM with a kippah. That would definitely solve all our problems. No more corruption. (Anyone want to do a quick google on rabbi, Israel, corruption charges?)
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Week Three, Day three:
Tiferet of Tiferet
I originally was going to blog this as a “wow, some good news for a change” post, but as I realized exactly where this all was taking place, that pretty quickly slid away. Ynet reports about a new green(er) energy production site for Jerusalem. Using methane produced by a local garbage dump, electricity will be produced for Jerusalem municipality. And this is good news, of course; it’s a far greener process than coal produced electricity.
But I can’t help but sigh over the whole thing anyway. The Abu Dis dump is actually one of the first places where i was involved with Israeli activism because of the Jahalin Bedouin living there.
Why, you may ask are the Jahalin living in a garbage dump?
As one can read at the Bustan website, “The Jahalin were settled by the Israeli government on lands of Abu Dis, after their dispossession from the Negev in the 1950s. This land was later declared ‘state land,’ and in 1975, the Ma’ale Adumim settlement in the West Bank was founded on the expropriated Palestinian lands of Abu Dis, Azzariya, Issawiya, A-tur and Anata.”
Although it was due to government forcible relocation that the Bedouin were living in Abu Dis to begin with, it took many years of a court case to get the government to even being to live up to its responsibilities. Well, all right, at least to recognize them, even if not to follow through. YOu know, little things, like providing water and electricity.
In the meantime, Maale Adumim continues to expand so that the Bedouin can see just over the hill beautiful houses with great city services, clean streets, and the other accoutrements of Jewish life in Israel.
I can’t begin to say how sad it was for me to see people living in shipping containers and struggling to maintain their way of life and their dignity under some very trying circumstances.
Due to the encroachment of Ma’ale Adumim, the Jahalin were forcefully evicted from their homes a second time. In addition to losing their homes, they lost their land, their animals, and their ability to farm or graze the lands. Subsequently the Jahalin were uprooted from their traditional sustenance and forced to find work without benefits as day laborers in low-income fields, often in one of the neighboring Jewish settlements. They are living in corrugated tin shacks without basic amenities, without health care, without electricity.
Ma’ale Adumim begins on the neighboring hill, replete with beautiful villas to house 35,000 settlers that receive tax breaks and other government subsidies to live there. There are new educational and cultural institutions; widely paved, fine-landscaped roads and traffic lights in and around the settlement; public gardens; swimming pools, restaurants; shops; and even a Meretz chapter. Juxtaposed with this suburban expanse, the Jahalin have been transplanted into a cramped corner of Azzariya, sandwiched between settlements and living next to Jerusalem’s municipal waste dump.
Well, I’m just so glad the residents of Jerusalem can be greener in their use of electricity. Maybe they can share some of it with the Bedouin now.
by Josh Frankel · Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
So, here’s a different source for a news story on this blog. HaTzofeh, the national religious newspaper in Israel, reports on extensive abuse of the few remaining Jews in Yemen. The newspaper reports that recently many Jews have been attacked, including the Rabbi of the community whose home was recently destroyed. The article also mentions ongoing human rights abuse, including forced conversions, and a law that makes marrying a Jew punishable by death. Strangest though, the article reports that the only organization working to help these Jews is Satmar. The flat-hatted chassidim want them to emigrate, not to Israel of course, but to the UK and America.
Yikes. That’s scary stuff, happening to our own brothers and sisters, and I had no idea. I don’t know what to do to stop this, but the first step must be making sure that people know. It’s a shame that I heard about it first from a religious rag which I usually only read for laughs.
Update: I found a Christian Science Monitor article about the abuse.
by feygele · Friday, March 7th, 2008
English translation will follow shortly (in the comments). I felt it important to write in French after being back in Quebec for a week…
Et les Montréalais ne vois rien de mal à leur perspective «orthodoxe est le seul judaïsme nous [ne] pratiquons [pas]»? Ceux qui me connaissent ont déjà entendu mon discours contre la communauté juive de Montréal. Les options sont orthodoxes, orthodoxes, ou conservadoxes. Oui, il y a une synagogue réforme classique à Westmount. Et, oui, il y a une synagogue reconstructioniste à Côte-St-Luc. Mais pour un homme shomer Shabbos vivant sur le côté est, ces deux options ne sont pas viables. Selon les statistiques, je les appris par coeur dans un cours universitaire, Montréal est la seule ville en Amérique du Nord ayant plus orthodoxe que conservateurs et réformateurs juifs (c’est-à-dire, il y a très peu de Juifs qui s’identifient réformateurs ou conservateurs, même ceux qui mangent leurs hamburgers avec fromage). Il s’agit d’une ville où le discours d’ouverture sur les premières pages de l’annuaire des entreprises juives a commencé par une blague contre les réformateurs - et personne n’a jugé inapproprié.
Donc, il je ne suis pas étonné quand je vois que les effets de la fermeture et l’insularité de la communauté orthodoxe ont fait des ravages sur la société québécoise.
Un sondage national mené à la suite de la commission sur les «accommodements raisonnables» révèle une disparité frappante entre les attitudes Québécois à l’égard des Juifs et celles des autres Canadiens. Le sondage commandé par l’Association d’études canadiennes (AEC) et effectué par Léger Marketing entre le 31 Janvier et 4 février a demandé à 1500 Canadiens s’ils étaient en accord avec, en désaccord avec, ou ne savaient pas/n’ont pas d’opinion sur une série de déclarations concernant les juifs et l’antisémitisme. Selon les résultats du sondage, 41% des Québécois étaient en accord, tandis qu’un autre 41% étaient en désaccord avec l’idée que «les Juifs veulent imposer leurs coutumes et leurs traditions aux autres». Par contre, face à cette même idée, le reste du Canada étaient en accord à 11%, et en désaccord à 74%. La moyenne nationale était de 19% d’accord et 64% en désaccord.
Quant à une autre déclaration - «les Juifs veulent participer pleinement à la société» – 41% des Québécois étaient en désaccord, et 31% étaient en accord, à comparer au reste du Canada qui a répondu en désaccord à 8% et en accord à 72%. La moyenne nationale était de 16% en désaccord et 63% en accord.
À l’idée «les juifs ont apporté une importante contribution à la société», 35% des Québécois étaient en désaccord et 41% étaient en accord, tandis qu’au reste du Canada 10% étaient en désaccord et 74% étaient en accord. La moyenne canadienne était de 16% en désaccord et 65% en accord. [citation.]
Ne vous méprenez pas: je suis attristé que, en l’an 2008, à la société civilisée du monde occidental, les gens peuvent toujours penser si à l’envers. Dans le cas du Québec, je pense que la responsabilité est double et de grands changements sont nécessaires.
More »
by feygele · Monday, December 31st, 2007
The separation of church and state is complicated in Canada, thanks to the notwithstanding clause in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Nonetheless, the courts and (most) governments take strides to keep the two separate.
Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of Stephanie Burker, who had been trying to get a get from her ex-husband for 15-years. (If memory serves, hers is one of the stories in the documentary film “Untying the Bonds: Jewish Divorce.”)
“The fact that a dispute has a religious aspect does not by itself make it non-justiciable,†Judge Rosalie Abella wrote for the majority. Denying the woman the ability to remarry was “an unjustified and severe impairment of her ability to live her life in accordance with his country’s values and her Jewish beliefs.â€
I find it encouraging, then, that the court was able to take a specifically religious issue - that of Jewish women, gets, and agunot - and examine it from a purely legal vantage - contract law. [Read more.]
In the wake of Quebec’s “reasonable accommodation” hearings, I’m curious to know if there has been any backlash against this ruling from the quebecois majority in Quebec, or from the Christian “majority” in the rest of Canada.
More »
by Kung Fu Jew · Friday, December 14th, 2007
A new Israeli TV show could be doing for Israel what “The Cosby Show” did for blacks in America. This from the Kansas City Star:
Amjad is a neurotic Arab-Israeli journalist who desperately wants to fit in.
He teaches his daughter Passover songs and wears a yarmulke when he takes his family to a Jewish Seder. He trades in his beat-up old Subaru for a more expensive “non-Arab†car so that he won’t get stopped at Israeli checkpoints.
But nothing Amjad does seems to exorcise his feelings of alienation as the central character in “Arab Work,†a groundbreaking new Israeli prime-time television sitcom that features an Arab-Israeli family struggling to assimilate in the Jewish nation.
As a sitcom and not a documentary, it thus follows the (new) old pattern of tech-endowed countries’ methods of change: a taboo and controversial topic can be broached if it’s funny. (Take for example “Now I Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.”)
It’s great that this show is doing for Israeli Arabs what Cosby did for blacks in America. Now I just wonder whether they’ll run a show in Israel which will the same for, well, blacks in Israel as hundreds of Ethiopians rallied in Petach Tikva on Tuesday to protest racist policies in the city’s education system and in Israel in general.
Ynet covers with a special investigative story here. Excerpt:
Avi Maspin, a spokesman for IAEJ, said that “racism is a word that I have feared using until now, because I did not believe that it could exist in Israel in 2007, but the time has come to call a spade a spade. Israeli society is profoundly infected by racism and unfortunately there is no suitable punishment for racism in Israel.”
by Bradford · Thursday, December 13th, 2007
I published a rather scathing essay about Abraham Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League in the latest issue of American Jewish Life, and surprisingly I haven’t received anything but positive feedback about it.
A bit of background: Over the waning months of this past summer, the ADL found itself embroiled in a small crisis. It’s refusal to label the Armenian genocide as genocide was causing towns in the Boston area to yank their relationships with the organization, specifically it’s anti-bigotry campaign. When the head of the ADL’s Boston chapter spoke up in defiance of the national organization’s position, he was fired. A firestorm erupted, and he was re-hired, but only after the ADL and it’s director, Abe Foxman, had been severely tarnished by the episode.
My article was a slightly broader piece about Foxman’s motor mouth, but in the end it revolved around this core argument:
“This is an organization created to fight bigotry generally and anti-Semitism in particular, to make our world better by exposing hatred and holding racism, genocidal or otherwise, to account. Where exactly do they get off apologizing to genocide deniers? In two sentences, Foxman had broken the camel’s back, letting a deluge of missteps and hyperbolic statements turn into the absolute shredding of his organization’s moral authority.”
All of this is wonderful fodder for debate, except it would seem nobody’s picking up Foxman or the ADL’s side in this debate. So much for the debate, but I have continued to think quite seriously about the subject of the ADL’s mission:
“The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”
– ADL Charter, October 1913
You have to understand this about me: Even as I’ve lambasted Foxman and grown ever more dismayed with the national leadership of many Jewish organizations, I’ve also remained hopeful about these groups. I interned for the ADL in Atlanta when I was in college. I’ve worked with AIPAC in the past, and I’d like to think I can work with groups like these in the future.
The problem, from my vantage point, is that they’ve lost site of their respective missions. More »
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Those who are following BZ’s post about the Syrian community’s alleged refusal to accept properly converted Jews (which is itself, at least one, if not several, violations of halacha) might want to take a gander at Gil Student’s post on Hirhurim, which has a letter refuting the charge from Rabbi Moshe Shamah.
The gist is:
That Edict was enacted to discourage community members from intermarrying with non-Jews. It acknowledged the reality of the time that conversions were being employed insincerely and superficially. Accordingly, conversion for marriage to a member of the community was automatically rejected…
…I quote from an official formulation of the Sephardic Rabbinical Council of several years ago that reflects their position: “1. A conversion not associated with marriage that was performed by a recognized Orthodox court – such as for adoption of infants or in the case of an individual sincerely choosing to be Jewish – is accepted in our community. 2. If an individual not born to a member of our community had converted to Judaism under the aegis of an Orthodox court, and was observant of Jewish Law, married a Jew/Jewess who was not and had not been a member of our community, their children are permitted to marry into our community.†Based on these standards a goodly number of converts have been accepted into the community. Genetic characteristics play no role whatsoever…
the quote claiming that even other Jews are disqualified from marrying into the community “if someone in their line was married by a Reform or Conservative rabbi†is a totally false portrayal of community rabbinical policy. Many Ashkenazim whose parents were married by such rabbis have married into our community.
by BZ · Sunday, October 14th, 2007
“The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so-called “Muggle-borns”, the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets. Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when wizards reproduce. Where no proven wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force. The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission.”
–Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
“Your people shall be my people; your God shall be my God.” –Ruth 1:16
Today’s New York Times Magazine reports on the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn. Since 1935, the community has had an “Edict”, banning marriage to non-Jews. Sounds like lots of other Jewish communities, right? Wrong. One key provision of the Edict sets a unique standard of Jewishness: “No male or female member of our community has the right to intermarry with non-Jews; this law covers conversion, which we consider to be fictitious and valueless.†While other Jewish streams may disagree explosively about the nature and process of conversion, all agree that such a thing exists. But the Syrian community has adopted a purely racial standard of Jewishness, where one drop of non-Jewish blood is sufficient to invalidate someone. Not only are converts placed outside the community by the Edict; so are their descendants, and if there is any distinction between matrilineal and patrilineal descendants, the Times article doesn’t mention it.
In addition to the strictures imposed by the Edict in instances of proposed intermarriage, any outsider who wants to marry into a Syrian family — even a fellow Jew — is subject to thorough genealogical investigation. That means producing proof, going back at least three generations and attested to by an Orthodox rabbi, of the candidates’ kosher bona fides. This disqualifies the vast majority of American Jews, who have no such proof. “We won’t take them — not even if we go back three or four generations — if someone in their line was married by a Reform or Conservative rabbi, because they don’t perform marriages according to Orthodox law,†Kassin said. Even Orthodox candidates are screened, to make sure there are no gentiles or converts lurking in the family tree.
The Syrian Jewish community feels so strongly about this policy that they even stood up to Ovadia Yosef:
According to the rabbi, the community’s refusal to recognize the woman’s conversion drew the ire of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, at the time the chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel. Rabbi Yosef, a man of volcanic temperament, came all the way from Jerusalem to Brooklyn and informed the local rabbis that he, himself, vouched for the girl’s Jewish authenticity. “There he was, in person, in Shaare Zion†— the largest [Syrian] synagogue — “dressed in his robes and vestments,†the rabbi, who was there, told me. “He gave an oath that he had personally affixed his name to the girl’s conversion document. She was as Jewish as he was, and he wanted her recognized as a member of our community.â€
“And the answer was?†I asked the rabbi.
“No.â€
“No? You turned down the chief rabbi of Israel?â€
“We felt it was necessary,†the rabbi explained. “If we let our kids marry gentiles, they’ll try to slip their kids back into the community via conversion. And then the Edict will lack teeth.â€
Full story.
by matthue · Thursday, August 16th, 2007
From a friend:
As for not hiring you…dude…think about it…a big professional firm needs to look professional. Big bushy frum beards don’t portray that image. Granted, we aren’t suits, etc….but it is business casual. Beards are out of fashion in the professional world. Not to say you wouldn’t get the job…but it’s the equivalent of showing up in jeans and a t-shirt.
You know — when Brando* was cast in Streetcar Named Desire, they told him he had to grow three days’ worth of stubble. He refused because he said it’d make him look trashy. He said, “I’ll act the stubble.” And, so the story goes, he did.
I guess that’s how I’ve been in the business world. Three-piece suit, tie in the straightest Windsor you ever did see, and my wedding shoes, and I’m set. I wasn’t getting jobs when I first moved here, and I thought that was why, and then it turned out the companies I applied to just weren’t getting jobs — 2 out of 3 of them went out of business. My new temp company is great. They’re like “you can type fast, and you look good” and that’s all they need.
Yeeah…I look good.
In Chicago, people are much more upfront about staring at you when you’re obviously Jewish — I haven’t been around that in a while. Everyone’s so whitebread and middle-American. I thought I was losing it, “it” meaning whatever I had, and then today this dude in a bar was like “Are you a Jew? I thought that was what y’all look like!” and everyone started becoming friends with me. I didn’t pay for a drink for 2 hours straight.
________
* edited — & many thanks to Shlomo.
by Mobius · Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
Haaretz reports,
Eighty Ethiopian immigrant children, whose families transferred in recent months from absorption centers to permanent homes in Petah Tikvah, are still looking for schools that will agree to accept them for the upcoming school year.
The immigrants cannot be accepted to state secular schools as they have yet to finish their conversion process. The state-religious schools - where they are supposed to finish the conversion process - are not willing to accept them either, since the local authorities are concerned that they will scare off other students to private religious schools, leaving only the poverty stricken children in the state-religious schools.
Private religious schools in Petah Tikva are also unwilling to receive them.
Full story.
by BZ · Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: Savings and loans
526. “If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you…” (Exodus 22:24) = lend to poor people
527. “…do not act toward them as a creditor.” (Exodus 22:24) = don’t demand payment from someone who can’t pay
528. “You may dun the foreigner.” (Deuteronomy 15:3) = however, it’s ok to demand payment from outsiders
529. “When you make a loan of any sort to your countryman, you mut not enter his house to seize his pledge.” (Deuteronomy 24:10) = a creditor may not collect collateral by force
530. “You must return his pledge to him at sunset, that he may sleep in his cloth.” (Deuteronomy 24:13) = a creditor must return the collateral at times when the debtor needs it
531. “If he is a needy man, you shall not go to sleep in his pledge.” (Deuteronomy 24:12) = a creditor may not hold onto the collateral at times when the debtor needs it
532. “You shall not take a widow’s garment in pawn.” (Deuteronomy 24:17)
533. “A handmill or an upper millstone shall not be taken in pawn, for that would be taking someone’s life in pawn.” (Deuteronomy 24:6) = a creditor may not take implements necessary for sustenance
534. “Do not lend [your fellow] your money at advance interest.” (Leviticus 25:37)
535. “You shall not deduct interest from loans to your fellow, whether in money or food or anything else that can be deducted as interest.” (Deuteronomy 23:20) = don’t borrow at interest
536. “Exact no interest from them.” (Exodus 22:24) = don’t be involved in any way in the charging of interest, as a borrower, lender, witness, guarantor, or contract writer
537. “You may deduct interest from loans to foreigners.” (Deuteronomy 23:21) = both as a borrower and as a lender
538. “In all charges of misappropriation — pertaining to an ox, an ass, a sheep, a garment, or any other loss, where one party alleges ‘This is it’ — the case of both parties shall come before God; the one whom God declares guilty shall pay double to the other.” (Exodus 22:8)
539. The laws of inheritance (Numbers 27:8-11)
540. “You shall appoint judges and officials for your tribes.” (Deuteronomy 16:18)
by BZ · Monday, May 14th, 2007
(Introduction.)
Today: Labor (paid and unpaid).
511. “If she proves to be displeasing to her master … he must let her be redeemed.” (Exodus 21:8) = redeem a female Hebrew slave
512. “…who designated her for himself…” (Exodus 21:8) = designate the female Hebrew slave as a wife
513. “He shall not have the right to sell her to outsiders.” (Exodus 21:8) = female Hebrew slaves may not be sold
514. “You may treat them as slaves.” (Leviticus 25:46) = you can hold onto Canaanite slaves forever (unlike Hebrew slaves who are freed after 7 years), unless you knock out a part of their body
515. “You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master.” (Deuteronomy 23:16) = don’t return a slave who has fled from outside the land into the land of Israel
516. “He shall live with you in any place he may choose among the settlements in your midst, wherever he pleases; you must not ill-treat him.” (Deuteronomy 23:17)
517. “When a person gives to another an ass, an ox, a sheep, or any other animal to guard…” (Exodus 22:9-12) = the laws of the renter or paid guard
518. “You must pay [a laborer] his/her wages on the same day, before the sun sets.” (Deuteronomy 24:15)
519. “The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning.” (Leviticus 19:13)
520. “When you enter another person’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want, until you are full.” (Deuteronomy 23:25) = an farm employee can eat from the fields s/he is working in
521. “You must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.” (Deuteronomy 23:26) = but the aforementioned farm employee may not eat from the fields until the work is finished
522. “Do not put [grapes] into your vessel.” (Deuteronomy 23:25) = the employee may not carry off more than s/he eats
523. “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.” (Deuteronomy 25:4) = or any animal
524. “When a person borrows [an animal] from another and it dies or is injured, its owner not being with it, s/he must make restitution.” (Exodus 22:13)
525. “When a person gives money or goods to another for safekeeping, and they are stolen from the person’s house… if the thief is not caught, the owner of the house shall depose before God that s/he has not laid hands on the other’s property.” (Exodus 22:6-7) = an unpaid guard doesn’t have to pay restitution
by Mobius · Monday, May 7th, 2007
If ever you needed confirmation that the American Jewish community is led by a bunch of lunatics with entirely questionable beliefs, look no further than here:
A newly leaked memorandum, appearing to be from the secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, gives a bracingly detailed inside picture of the outsized egos and personal machinations behind the recent fissures at one of the world’s most influential Jewish organizations.
The 10-page memorandum purports to be from WJC secretary general, Stephen Herbits, a former right-hand man to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who came to the WJC three years ago as a close confidante of the organization’s aging president, Edgar Bronfman. The letter was addressed to Bronfman’s son, Matthew, who, at the time of the memo, in November 2006, had begun to be discussed as a potential successor to his father.
The memorandum suggested that while Herbits was publicly positioning himself as a neutral professional leader of the WJC, behind the scenes he was setting up a battle with WJC leaders around the globe on behalf of Matthew Bronfman. In one of the most inflammatory sections of the memo, the author, apparently Herbits, lashes out against one of the main opponents of Bronfman’s candidacy, Pierre Besnainou, the head of the European Jewish Congress.
“He is French. Don’t discount this. He cannot be trusted,†the memo stated. A few lines later the author adds: “He is Tunisian. Do not discount this either. He works like an Arab.â€
Full story.
Seriously — we need to boycott the American Jewish leadership and launch a MoveOn.org like organization to administer our own affairs. These miscreants have abused their power and influence for far too long, without any internal checks and balances. Contrary to their belief, the American Jewish community is not an oligarchy. Their reign must come to an immediate end, and true Jewish self-government and self-determination must be instituted post-haste.
by jo · Monday, April 2nd, 2007
I recently read the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and it seems a fitting time to look at it again and think about the reality of slavery, the strategems of the master, and the way of the slave mindset. It is a must-read for every American and every Jew…
Here are some excerpts that are worth thinking about as we get ready for the Pesach seder.
***
The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! that very incontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out.
In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. It was pressed upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.
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