This Week @ www.jewishpress.com

“Some of these boys were my age. It was hard to see their faces because of their protective gear, but one soldier was so striking. He was incredibly young. While some looked weather-beaten, the toll of their tour of duty evident on their faces, this soldier had such a baby face under his camouflage. It was scary to think that his reality was one of war and danger and not basketball and summer camp.” – A Shabbos in Chevron
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“The problem was that the Palestinian Arabs saw themselves as Syrians and were seen as such by other Syrians. The Palestinian Arabs were enraged that an artificial barrier was being erected within their Syrian homeland by the infidel colonial powers – one that would divide northern Syrian Arabs from southern Syrian Arabs, the latter being those who were later misnamed ‘Palestinians’.” – Steven Plaut discusses the origin of Nakba.
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“The civil rights movement portended an end to racism and irrational prejudice in every corner of the globe. Thus, it has significance for people everywhere. But was Zionism at one time not viewed in the same light? Was it not also a movement by an oppressed people, persecuted in every land in which they resided, to find a home where they could live in peace and freedom? Has it now become a movement that speaks to none but Jews alone?” – Shmuley Boteach and Birthright Trips for Non-Jews
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“And so, the rabbi who was “selling” a Jewish lifestyle that provided meaning, happiness and fulfillment, likewise needed to lead the perfect, ideal life − replete with model children (and teenagers) who obediently and respectfully followed his lead. He also had to have a blissful marriage of honeymoon quality. Otherwise, what subtle message was he sending about the Judaism that he was working so hard to promote?” – The Feminine Soul
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Plus Poussin’s Bible, Eyes of Grandchildren and Opening up on a Date

Finally, exclusively in our print edition (available at newsstands or by calling 800-992-1600 ext. 344: Mazal Tov section, pages of Classified ads, and our monthly Crossword Puzzle.

Happy Reading!

Reverend Wright and your Rav's Drasha

As discussed all over, Senator Obama has sat through Reverend Wright's sermons for 20 years without complaining. I wonder if I would ever need to take responsibility for drashos that my Rav gave. Though Hilchos Pesach and Hilchos Brechos probably wouldn't be too controversial, neither would the Parsha. A rabbi in my neighborhood speaks in Yiddish, as I don't really understand much of it (even English in a Yiddish accent sometimes eludes me), when I occasionally daven there, I sleep through it. Most of the people there are non Yiddish speakers and have been there for years, would this be an out for them? Maybe, Obama doesn't understand the lingo at the speeches, as he's allegedly not black enough.

A bigger problem would be his wife Michelle. He's been listening to her for 15 years or so. Maybe he tunes her out.

Going Nowhere Fast

The following is an interesting article written by an interesting person who heads an interesting oganization. Click here to learn more Rabbi David Bar-Hayim and Machon Shilo.

Going Nowhere Fast

Clueless Leaders

Israel is lost and directionless. Its political leaders lack vision and aspire to nothing.

Judaism is lost and directionless. It rabbinical leaders lack vision and aspire to nothing.

Revisionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky once illustrated his criticism of mainstream Zionism with the following analogy: “I see a man limping down the street, using only one leg, even though it is apparent that nothing is wrong with the other one. I turn to him and ask: ‘Why don’t you walk on both legs?’ He replies: ‘Is there something the matter with the one that I am using?’”

Jabotinsky referred of course to the policy of “one more dunam, one more goat,” whereby the Zionist Establishment focused on building up the land piecemeal, living from day to day, all the while refusing to enunciate its vision, the goal for which it was ostensibly striving: a sovereign state for the Jewish people in their historical homeland within clearly defined borders. Thus the most fundamental issues – what kind of state were the Jewish people demanding, where would its borders be, and within what time frame? – remained unaddressed. Jabotinsky’s insight was that the leadership preferred it that way, like a man who opts to use only one of his legs.

The result of this (lack of) policy was that the typical Zionist spoke fervently of the Jewish people’s right to the Land of Israel but could not explain, even to himself, where the borders of his beloved homeland lay or on what basis he defined that territory. In the end, observed Shabtai Ben-Dov, it was the acceptance of the armistice lines of 1948 that “clarified” for most Zionists where the Land of Israel for which they had fought actually was. It was only “logical,” therefore, for one time Education Minister Shulamit Aloni to refer to Hebron as “Hutz Laaretz” (overseas), and for the post-Six-Day-War Left to view a return to the very heart of our homeland as an “occupation.”

I once came face to face with the results of just such a Zionist education. The year was 1993 and I was doing reserve duty on the Jordanian border. Four of us were in a command car patrolling the border, and the discussion turned to then Prime Minister Rabin’s stated willingness to negotiate with the Syrians about relinquishing the Golan Heights. The driver announced that he supported handing over the Golan for peace, at which point I asked him: “Tell me, all other considerations aside, to whom does the Golan belong, us or them?” He thought for a moment and replied truthfully “I have no idea.” Why would he? Was he, a product of the State school system established by Ben-Gurion, ever taught what territory the Jewish people claimed and why?

Israel’s political leaders are just like that driver: they truly don’t know where we belong or why, nor where we are supposed to be headed. Everything is negotiable, nothing is clear, the future is a black hole.

Israel lost its way not in 1967 but in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s, before there was an Israel, by thinking small, by refusing to see the big picture, by denying the Jewish nation’s destiny. By choosing mediocrity over greatness.

Israel and Torah Judaism: Missing in Action

The same can be said for Judaism. Have you ever noticed how some religious Jews refer to themselves as “Lithuanians”? Or that there is a Jerusalem suburb named “Poland Heights”? Treat the reality of over 5 million Jews living as a sovereign nation in their homeland for the first time in 2000 years as a continuation of Dvinsk, Minsk or Pinsk; insist that Jews in the Land of Israel must all behave, in terms of their customs and Halachic practice, as if they were still in Warsaw, Sanna or Marakesh; preach that the divisions of the Diaspora must be maintained today and for all time, thus perpetuating a seriously flawed Galuth mentality indefinitely; convince yourself that the Judaism of the Galuth is the real McCoy, that there is nowhere to go from here – and that’s precisely where you’ll go. Nowhere. No greater purpose. Nothing.

When the Beth HaWa’adh beth din (Jewish court) of Machon Shilo announced last year that all Jews in Israel may consume kitniyoth (rice, corn, legumes etc.) during Pesah, some thought that it was all about doing whatever is convenient. Not so. It’s about getting Torah Judaism back on track.

At the core of any authentic conception of Torah Judaism is its Halachic system. Halacha is the practical implementation and realization of those values and concepts that the Torah teaches and that the Jewish nation holds dear. An Halachic system always reflects the philosophy and vision that a particular ideology aspires to actualize in the real world. Halacha is never neutral; it is either a help or a hindrance. It either drives the Jewish people upwards and onwards, or it weighs it down and holds it back.

One who refrains from eating rice, or soy beans, or corn starch on Pesah is not a better Jew than one who does. Halachically there is no question that it is permissible. On the other hand, one is not required to consume these items on Pesah, or at any time during the year. So what’s the problem? It focuses the mind on a non-issue. And the more meaningless Pesah stringencies are promoted, the more meaningless Judaism becomes.

Galuth Mode or Geulah Mode?

Human beings are limited. We cannot be different people at one and the same time. A Jew can function in either Galuth mode or Geulah mode; you can’t have both. If we concern ourselves with maintaining our Galuth-based identities, we have no time or inclination to wonder how it is that each Pesah we beseech Hashem that next year we might participate in the Pesah sacrifice and yet do nothing whatever to actualize this deep-seated aspiration in the real world. We have to make a choice: authentic, full-flavoured Torah, or a pale, watered-down substitute.

Judaism’s rabbinical leaders are just like that reserve duty driver: they truly do not know who and where we are or where we are supposed to be headed. They have no clue how to move on to the next stage. They are unsure of themselves, vague and uncertain about everything, preferring the familiar, downtrodden Galuth version of the Torah for the majestic, vibrant and uplifting Torah of the Land of Israel, the Judaism of Abraham, Moses, David and the Maccabees. Little wonder that when Jews once again controlled the Temple Mount in 1967, the rabbinical establishment had nothing to say other than to forbid all Jews from going there. If the truth be told, they breathed a sigh of relief when it was tossed back to the Moslems like an unwanted bone.

Judaism lost its way not in 1967 but 2500 years ago when the Jewish nation declined to take up the offer of the Persian emperor Cyrus to return to its homeland. By thinking small, by refusing to see the big picture, by denying the Jewish nation’s destiny. By choosing mediocrity over greatness, Galuth over Geulah. From that day to this, as R. Yehuda HaLevi wrote in his masterpiece The Kuzari (2:24), “our prayers for redemption are like the mindless cawings of rooks and ravens.”

If we think small, we shall indeed be so, particularly in the eyes of our enemies.

If we think big, we shall indeed be great – in the eyes of Hashem, in our own eyes, and in the eyes of the whole world.

Tel Aviv U Prof Denounces Passover Haggada

Tell Dr. Seuss!



Remember the Grinch that stole Christmas? Well, Tel Aviv University does that one better by providing the world with the Grinch who bashes the Passover Haggada!

Carlo Strenger is a professor of psychology at Tel Aviv University and one of the more extreme leftist Post-Zionists on a campus that is crawling with them. Strenger has a long track record of Israel bashing and leftist propagandizing ( see for example this, this, and this). He frequently appears on Palestinian terrorist web sites. He sits in the same department at Tel Aviv University where "The Psychology of the Occupation" is a course. (We have posted about that propaganda course earlier, after which the then-President of TAU, Itamar Rabinovich, wrote the heads of our own university demanding that we be silenced!)

In the past, Strenger demanded that Israelis issue an official apology to the Palestinians for supposedly oppressing them, "expelling them," and taking away their land. We earlier blogged about him here on JewishPress blog.

This past week, Strenger outdid his anti-Israel leftist friends and took on not only Zionism but the Passover Haggada! You can see it here in Hebrew (not available in English). There Strenger explains how the Haggada is a backward archaic anti-democratic document. And in fact that is the whole problem with Israel – that it attempts to incorporate in its essence those primitive sentiments from the Bible and Haggada.

Strenger claims that the basic message in the Haggada is that Jews must "blindly obey" commandments they suppose come from God. He says that the Haggada justifies unjust killing of the first-born sons of the Egyptians, that we are obliged to go to the Temple Mount where Abraham supposedly bound Isaac, that Abraham was a brute willing to allow both Isaac and Ishmael to die needlessly, and we are told to persecute Amalek unjustly. Needless to say, Amalek, Ishmael, Isaac, and Abraham are mentioned nowhere in the Haggada, nor even is Moses. But that is all enough for Strenger to proclaim that in his house, no one reads (is permitted to read?) the Passover Haggada.

Now what really bothers Strenger of course is that if people read the Haggada or the Bible they may get the foolish idea that Jews have the right to their own state and to Jerusalem, something Strenger no doubt wants us all to "question." Israel has squashed the "traditional Jewish tradition of critical thinking and irony," opines Strenger, meaning – I guess – that too many Israelis laugh at his own "ideas." He names Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg (and Spinoza, who is fashionable among the atheist clique) as non-religious Jews whom we in Israel should all take as our role models. He claims Maimonides himself abandoned Judaism for a while, although (to Strenger's disappointment?) returned to it. He denounces the Zionist movement and Ben Gurion for filling the minds of Israelis with such mythology and archaic nonsense, which then directly led to a group of simply awful people building settlements in Palestinian lands after 1967. He adds that the story of Masada is a fabrication and that the great archeologist Yigal Yadin knew it was fake but kept it hidden in a grand conspiracy because he was afraid of what revealing the fabrication would do to Israeli morale. All of which proves that Strenger's mind is about as deep as that of Barry Chamish and just as capable of inventing conspiracist nonsense.

The main conclusion of Strenger is that if we in Israel detach ourselves from "myths" about having a divine right to our land, then we will be forced to face the fact that we are oppressors who stole the land of another "people." Never mind that the "Palestinians" are a "people" in about the same sense as the members of United Airlines frequent flyer program are.

Meanwhile, his rant in Haaretz gives us a pretty good idea of what he washes the brains of his students in.

This Week @ www.jewishpress.com

“When Reb Shlomo next ran into his “associate” during the intermediate days of the holiday, he ascertained from the man’s pained look that the latter had neglected to fulfill his part of the bargain. His suspicion confirmed, Reb Shlomo was left no recourse but to dispose of all the chametz that had inadvertently been left in his possession. Since in Russia in those days liquor and similar libations were made of wheat, it was clear to Reb Shlomo that this would mean divesting himself of his entire worth – because everything, including the small wooden cabin with its liquor-soaked walls, was chametz.” – From Rachel Weiss’ holiday-themed front page essay
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“We know the Children of Israel are chosen by God to be His emissaries in the world, to live by His Torah in the Holy Land. Why is it that we are universally hated, reviled, cursed and attacked? Why are we the universal scapegoat? Why is the entire world shooting words, bullets and missiles at us?” – Roy S. Neuberger tells our story
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“Of course, there must have been thousands of observant Jews who did ask Abraham’s question, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?” and who found the conventional answers wanting. They could find no sin heinous enough to warrant the punishment they were receiving, and no promised bliss in the hereafter adequate enough to outweigh the hellish tortures they were suffering in this world. They abandoned and rejected halacha at the same time they denied God.” – The Holocaust and Halacha
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“Nor does Israel appear to have a handle on what its final borders will look like or whether Jerusalem will remain its undivided capital. A good part of the blame for that goes to Israel’s legendarily bad public-relations apparatus. Israeli governments have never been able to escape worldwide criticism that Israel is nothing more than an occupying power employing Nazi-like tactics against the Palestinians. Nearly forgotten is that Israel seized Gaza and the West Bank in a defensive war in 1967 which Egypt’s Nasser promised would lead to the annihilation of the Jewish state.” – The Jewish Press on Israel at sixty
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“It remains indifferent to the plight of Jews. No, worse – as noted above, the world continues to scapegoat Israel either for opportunistic reasons or because it hates and envies Jews and the Jewish nation. The civilians of Sderot are relentlessly shelled, yeshiva students in Jerusalem are gunned down at point-blank range – and the UN refuses to condemn the Palestinians while the world media brutalize Israel for trying to protect its citizens.” – Phyllis Chesler ponders what’s wrong with the world
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Plus Navah Baruchin, Asher’s Birthday, and Jerusalem Vantage Point

And exclusively in our print edition, available on newsstands and via subscription (call 800-992-1600 ext. 344 for more information): Queens and Long Island section, In Lieu Of, and Memories of Rabbi and Mrs. Rubenstein.

Best wishes for a chag kasher v'sameach!

Obama picks up the Crucial Hamas Endorsement!

James, Taranto, from the Wall Street Journal, reports:

Hamas Makes an Endorsement
Fox News reports that Barack Obama has picked up a possibly unwelcome endorsement:

During an interview on WABC radio Sunday, top Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the terrorist group supports Obama's foreign policy vision.
"We don't mind--actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance," Yousef said in response to a question about the group's willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.
The fact is, is Obama has also been endorsed by Ted Kennedy. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of him being endorsed by somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when Obama was 8 years old, somehow reflects on him and his values, doesn't make much sense, Mary Jo.

This Week @ www.jewishpress.com

"Caught between a secular world that could not abide Torah, and a religious world that could not abide “Art,” Archie slowly began to realize that the Jewish artist had to reassess his role. Perhaps he had to function as a 21st century “Bezalel.” Imbued with artistic wisdom, secular insight and religious knowledge, the artist had to start the process with what he knew best, the creation of images. These images had to come from within the deep sensibility of the individual artist; they had to resonate in his aesthetics, his culture and his persona. Once that visual foundation was established, only then could they be applied to the sacred text; only then could they be able to illuminate the Torah. " Richard Macbee reviews paintings by Archie Rand
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"A teenager at the time, I managed to get false papers and attempted to pass as an Aryan in order to safely leave the ghetto to look for food. But it wasn’t easy fooling the Poles, many of whom prided themselves on their ability to detect a Jew. For rewards as small as 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) of sugar, Poles delivered to the Gestapo those whom they recognized as Jews." Zechariah Schwartzberg's z"l memories of the Warsaw Ghetto.
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"Let’s start with Kadesh: Ever notice how wine bottles don’t have nutrition facts on their labels? Although it has been established that dry red wine contains anti-oxidants and is good for your heart, what many experts fail to convey is that wine also contains (natural) sugars. Certainly, dry red wine has far less sugar than grape juice and sweet wine, but four cups of anything is probably not going to be beneficial for your heart! This is why you need to choose your beverage wisely. Go for the low-sugar content grape juice or a dry red wine. Any sweet wine will have very high sugar content and should be avoided. Alternatively, if you can’t tolerate the taste of dry red wine, you can combine two varieties to lower the sugar content. " - A guide for the diet perplexed.
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"Moshe had asked politely,
But stubborn Pharaoh was a grouch,”
Panted the young, buoyant mother,
As she moved the living room couch." - Cheryl Kupfer's Pesach story
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"Rabbi Leibowitz imprinted his stamp on the yeshiva for over six decades and so his legacy is closely tied to that of the yeshiva. Rabbi Hayim Schwartz, the yeshiva’s executive director, said that Rabbi leibowitz’s formal students number some 2,500, but when you count those whom he had touched and influenced, the number may well reach tens of thousands." - The petira of Rav Henoch Leibowitz

Chag Sameach and Happy Reading!

All the News that's Kosher L'Pesach

It's that time of year again--when the The New York Times publishes a smorgasbord of Passover features. Two interesting ones that caught my eye.

One in yesterday's Dining section on the kosher celebrity cook Susie Fishbein. ("It's about time," said my wife, a Fishbein fan.)
The other is a very positive portrayal of Rabbi Yaakov Y. Horowitz, "who heads the 17 rabbinical inspectors who oversee production" at Manischewitz.

Interestingly, the latter focuses too much on non-Jews trying out and eating kosher as a reason for the escalating market share of kosher food. The Susie Fishbein article, I think, gets it right:

"According to Lubicom, a marketing firm for the kosher food industry, about 350,000 households in the United States keep kosher kitchens year-round, a number that has gone up by 3 percent to 5 percent every year since 2005 as some American Jews have become more observant."

Another interesting point in that article is the notion that upper-middle class Orthodox Jews are increasingly looking for ways to enjoy modern American life while remaining very observant. Key quote: “Susie is part of this whole trend in the Orthodox community to a more luxurious lifestyle that is still very religious,” [Matthew Shollar, chief executive of Chosen Voyage] said, referring to the drift toward American-style consumption from the traditional scholarly, synagogue-based model of family life. “And she knows exactly what her audience wants.”

McShande: One of Worst Israeli Anti-Zionists to be Honored

McLeftist

Uri Ram is a sociologist at the Bir Zeit of the Negev, er, I mean, Ben Gurion University. You know, the Negev's "academic" bastion of anti-Zionism.

Now the Assication of Israel Studies has decided to give him an award, I guess for his efforts to see israel destroyed and replaced by a "de-zionized" Palestinian state. The leftist Zionist David Hirsh fiercely told off Ram recently in Yediot Ahronot in a piece worth reading in full:

Uri Ram’s mistake is to assume that the boycott campaign is really about Israel. But it’s not about Israel, stupid, nor is it about Palestine; it’s about Britain. Nationalism can be an insidious temptation and it can narrow our perspective; it has narrowed Ram’s perspective. He is not considering the effect or the symbolism of a campaign to exclude a significant proportion of the world’s Jewish scholars from European universities; he is not thinking about how the argument to exclude is made in British public life. Ram seems only concerned with fighting an Israeli battle against the Israeli government.

Here is BGU's PR department kvelling about Ram:

Prof. Uri Ram awarded Yonathan Shapiro Prize


Prof. Uri Ram, a member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, has been awarded the Yonathan Shapiro prize for the best book in Israel Studies for the year 2008, for his book "The Globalization of Israel: McWorld in Tel Aviv, Jihad in Jerusalem".

The annual award by the Association for Israel Studies honors the memory of Shapiro (1929-1997), one of Israel’s most distinguished and influential sociologists, by recognizing outstanding scholarship in the history, politics, society and culture of Israel and pre-1948 Jewish Palestine.

Formed in 1985, the Association for Israel Studies is an international, interdisciplinary scholarly society devoted to the academic and professional study of modern Israel. The AIS is open to all individuals who are engaged in, or share an interest in, scholarly inquiry about Israel, the Zionist movement, or the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine. The Association's membership is composed of scholars from all disciplines in the social sciences and many in the humanities.

Maybe Azmi Bishara will get it next year? Or Reverand Wright?

Mc-Shanda!

Authentic Judaism

Rafi G at Life in Israel blogs this week about Jonathan Rosenblum's latest column in Mishpacha. The column discusses the trend of going to hotels for Pesach and whether or not it's a threat to yiddishkeit today.

While I agree with the premise behind the article, that's not what this post is about. It's about one of the comments.

He writes: I think the biggest threat to Judaism today are is the charedi form of judaism.My wife and children are in Israel right now. This past shabbat they went for a family visit to the Jerusalem zoo. (The way most Jews celebrate shabbat, as a family day with no work, not the charedi way of shabbat but hey, to each their own)They got a bit lost in Jerusalem and made a wrong turn. They came to a gated street and started to make a u-turn to get out of there. A group of charedi young men started running to the car screaming and yelling at them. They felt scared. my wife, her younger sister, and two little kids were physically scared of religious "terrorist" Jews because they happened to take a wrong turn. I think the charedi viewpoint of their being the only version of Judaism, when in fact they are a minor sect of a minor sect of Judaism is damaging Jews and Judaism.

Two things struck me - one that Charedim are the biggest threats to Judaism today and two that they way in which most Jews celebrate Judaism should be personal choice.

We may live in a very liberal society in which anything goes - and to a certain extent as religious Jews we benefit from that attitude. However, that is not the message that Yiddishkeit teaches us. There is no "live and let live," rather we are taught kol Yisrael areivim zeh la'zeh.

If my fellow Jew sins - I am responsible. If I see someone being mechalel Shabbos, it should be painful to me. Should I tell him what he is doing is wrong? That is a whole other issue, one that should be addressed to a Rav.

You may not like the way certain Charedei groups express this pain and anguish - but their message is valid. Jews who keep Shabbos, who keep kosher, who keep as many of the 613 mitzvos as possible are living Judaism as it is supposed to be lived - everyone else is just being Jewish.

In that sense - maybe its true that Charedim are the biggest threat to Jews today - seeing their way of life reminds secular Jews of all that they are missing.

Erev Pesach In Israel, By The Numbers

Chametz, matzah and tourism stats on the eve of this year's Passover holiday season in the Holy Land:

*Despite the hubris of secularists who wish to spit in the eye of Jewish tradition by baking and eating bread and other chametz DURING Passover, 69% of the Israeli population will eat only matzah and Kosher For Passover products during the holiday. According to a Yediot Aharonot newspaper survey only 6% of hard-core secularists will indulge in the eating of chametz throughout the holiday.

*According to a poll conducted by Panorama and Kol Yisroel, 69% of the Israeli population opposes the sale of chametz in stores during Pesach, underscoring the veracity of the Yediot poll.
A recent TV news story maintained that a growing group of Israeli Arabs stock-up on large quantities of matzah before Passover, as the holiday staple has become a new culinary fad amongst Israeli Arabs.

* Despite the onset of a global recession, incoming tourism to Israel this Passover is up by 30% over last year. Ironically, prices for rooms and meals are also at an all-time high due to the strength of the shekel and the weakness of the dollar. Rooms in 5-star Jerusalem hotels were going for a $500 a nite per person-not including the seder meals. In Tel Aviv, one 5-star hotel was charging $250 per person for a full seder service and meal.

*The price of a 5 lb. box of Israeli matzah was CHEAPER in New York than in Israel. Metro NY supermarkets were offering a popular brand of Israeli matzahs for $5 (5lb. box), while the same brand was selling for over $8 in Israeli supermarkets.

Caveat Emptor and Chag Samayach!

A Policy of Neglect

I’ve spoken out before about the carelessness which some frum parents exhibit in supervising (or rather failing to adequately supervise) their young children, especially while shopping. Lately, I’ve encountered another troubling trend: stores requiring that strollers be left up front.

I have come face to face with this policy in three stores (all well-known, Jewish-owned women’s clothing stores—one in Boro Park, two in Flatbush) in as many weeks. One even had a sign announcing the stroller ban. (Why not just put out a sign inviting kidnappers in?)

In each case, as I attempted to make my way toward the racks to browse for Yom Tov wear, the proprietor stopped me in my tracks and demanded that I leave my stroller near the door. None of them actually said I had to leave the baby in the stroller, too, but that was the implication. And it’s impossible, anyway, to shop holding a 20-pound baby in your arms.

So now it’s not just individual parents being negligent, but community institutions, if you will, advocating a policy of neglect. The dangers of such a practice are real and manifold. Anyone who doesn’t see that either comes from a very, very small town or is simply unfit to be a parent.

Yes, I understand that these stores have space issues. They tend to jam their wares onto overflowing racks that are practically on top of each other, leaving shoppers to wade through the aisles like fish swimming against the tide. But that’s simply no excuse to put innocent children in harm’s way. Let the owners design the stores differently. Lay them out with their customers’ needs in mind. After all, women with children are the mainstay of Brooklyn’s Jewish retail market.

Needless to say, when confronted by these storekeepers, I refused to leave my son unattended, choosing to walk out of the stores instead. With a very sour taste in my mouth.

This Week @ www.jewishpress.com

“New Christians, also known by the names Anusim and Marranos, were descendents of Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity in Spain and Portugal during the final decade of the fifteenth century. Some were willing to risk everything in order to maintain as much Jewish practice as they could. Being accused of Judaizing (practicing Jewish rituals) meant undergoing torture, loss of property and social status, and, if all else failed, death by burning at the stake. Nonetheless, a not inconsiderable number of Anusim clung to their Jewish faith even though the easiest thing for them to do would have been to renounce it.” – The Inquisition in the New World.
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“And then there’s the coup de grace to Obama’s claim of being best suited for carrying out his pledge to change the ways of Washington. During the 2006 midterm elections, he helped raise almost $1 million online for none other than the master of pork barrel spending – the consummate Washington insider and 49-year (that’s right, almost half a century) Senate veteran Robert C. Byrd. (Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, also happened to have been a Ku Klux Klansman in his younger days.)” – Do Obama’s words match his actions – Eli Chomsky takes a look.
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“There is something very wrong with Mr. Bartunek’s value system. In fact, his response perfectly reflects the moral vacuity so prevalent in the editorials that appear day in and day out in the newspaper that, however indirectly, employs him.” – Our thoughts on WQXR and Sderot.
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“The Nazis were the worst murderers in the history of mankind, but one thing must be said – they did not want to go to the next world. They wanted to take over this world.... But the jihadists don’t want Paris and London. They want to sit at God’s table in paradise and they think the way to get there is to blow up a train or to go into a yeshiva and just open up fire at random,” he said.” – The Jewish Press interviews Rabbi Marvin Hier.
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“Rabbi Menachem Kasher, in his edition of the Haggadah, strongly advocates drinking the fifth cup. The Cup of Elijah can be passed to all the participants as the fifth cup. Rabbi Kasher believes that we have been privileged to live in a time when the fifth expression of redemption has actually come to pass, and the Jewish People has returned to its own land and established the State of Israel. Therefore, it is right and proper that we drink a fifth cup to recognize that reality and express our gratitude and thanksgiving to G-d.” – The Torah View from Zion
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“For years, we were told that one must not judge Yasir Arafat and his supporters by his words. The excuse was that Arafat was just trying to rile up the masses. It was just one of the excuses that allowed him to morph from terrorist into a “statesman,” a title bestowed upon the biggest killer of Jews since Hitler and Stalin. And it gave Arafat’s enablers, including former President Jimmy Carter, the cover to overlook” - Snippets – a web exclusive.
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And A Victory for Jewish Refugees, Baseball Insider and Rebbetzin’s Viewpoint

Finally, exclusively in our print edition (available at newsstands or by calling 800-992-1600 ext. 344: Israeli Citizens On Edge, Manna from Heaven, and Queens/Long Island.

Happy Reading!

Einstein, the First Post-Zionist

“How long can a country survive if its intellectuals are working to undermine the very culture the country was built on?”

That was the question asked by Yoram Hazony, founder of the Jerusalem-based Shalem Center, a think tank dedicated to countering the influence of Israel’s “new historians” and post-Zionist academics, in his book The Jewish State (Basic Books, 2000), the first thorough – and critical – examination of post-Zionism available in English and still a must-read for anyone interested in Israeli history and politics.

Response to the book’s publication was overwhelmingly positive and came from all points along the political spectrum.

The late A.M. Rosenthal was quick to label the book a “classic,” while Philadelphia Jewish Exponent editor Jonathan Tobin praised it as “the most comprehensive account yet written about the phenomenon of post-Zionism, its origins and how it conflicts with the ideology of those who created Zionism and brought Israel to life.”

Martin Peretz, then-publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, called Hazony’s book “a daring response to the challenge of the ‘new historians’ and post-Zionists.... a bracing text to read: provocative, unrelenting, surprising and tough-minded.... one does not have to agree with everything in the book to recognize the sheer intelligence exhibited on nearly every page.”

Peretz’s assessment was shared by William Kristol, publisher and editor of The Weekly Standard (and now a weekly New York Times columnist) who lauded the book’s “remarkable combination of intellectual history, political analysis and moral polemic.”

Columnist Gideon Samet, writing in Haaretz, bastion of the very thinking so forcefully opposed by Hazony, acknowledged that “What Mr. Hazony has to say about the internal processes that prompted what, in his view, are catastrophic concessions and weakness of character is worthy of close attention.”

In his book, Hazony went beyond the usual personal, ideological and political clashes that have characterized the history of Zionism – Jabotinsky vs. Ben-Gurion, Haganah vs. Irgun, Labor vs. Likud – to demonstrate how the real “struggle for Israel’s soul” (the book’s subtitle) has long been waged between those, like Ben-Gurion and his like-minded mainstream Zionist heirs, for whom Israel never made sense as anything other than an ethnically and (more or less) religiously Jewish state and those whose enlightened sensitivities cause them to recoil at the triumph of primitive tribalism over their ideal of a non-sectarian, binational state.

The book’s villains (not too strong a word in this context) are the coterie of German-Jewish intellectuals – a group that included Judah Magnes, Hannah Arendt, Gershom Scholem, Albert Einstein and Martin Buber – who vociferously opposed the establishment of Israel as a distinctly Jewish state and whose ideas found a welcome home at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, where they flourish to this day.

Einstein, because of his iconic status as the 20th century’s preeminent scientific genius, has largely escaped Jewish criticism for his antipathy to the notion of a Jewish state. But Hazony refused to let the old professor off easy, subjecting Einstein’s socialist/utopian hallucinations to unsparing – and inevitably unflattering – scrutiny.

Einstein was distancing himself from the aspirations of Jewish nationalism at least as early as 1929, stating in a letter to Chaim Weizmann that if the Jews are “unable to find a way to honest cooperation and honest pacts with the Arabs, then we have learned absolutely nothing during our 2,000 years of suffering, and deserve all that will come to us.”

Nine years later, in a speech in New York, Einstein declared, “I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state.... We are no longer the Jews of the Maccabee period.”

In January 1946, Einstein traveled to Washington to tell the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine, “The state idea is not according to my heart. I cannot understand why it is needed. It is connected with many difficulties and a narrow-mindedness. I believe it is bad.”

No wonder Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who offered the presidency of Israel to Einstein purely as a public-relations gesture, said to his personal secretary, “Tell me what to do if he says yes. I had to offer the post to him because it’s impossible not to. But if he accepts, we are in for trouble.”

Hazony’s critique of Martin Buber was an equally overdue scolding of a figure whose philosophical flimflam – existentialism made easy by a sugarcoating of religious phraseology – attracted those drawn to the writings of the French Marxist Jean-Paul Sartre but unprepared to accept the implications of Sartre’s godless, ultimately meaningless universe.

This Week @ www.jewishpress.com

“These distinctive practices remained in place for many centuries, only to be reinforced and expanded during the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 CE. In an attempt to again protect against intermarriage between Christians and non-believing "infidels," the council took steps to ensure that Christians, Jews, and Saracens (Muslims) remained outwardly distinguishable. To that end, it called for those of other religious denominations to dress in a manner that was noticeably different from that of Christians.” – Rabbi Naphtali Hoff observations on our distinctive identity.
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“One project he had recently undertaken may potentially surpass all others – a drive for passage of legislation to require government funding of yeshiva education. He felt strongly that yeshiva children should be funded on a par with public school children for everything but the extra cost of religious studies.” – A request from the family of Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum
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“When what is being banned is far more limited, however, there is a good chance the initiative comes from an individual who solicits support for his position, going from one rosh yeshiva or rav to another conveying the claim that something wrong is being done and needs to be prohibited. This often occurs over the phone and often without the reflection and consultation that should accompany prospective bans. The assumption is that the person who wants something prohibited is trustworthy. The process strikes me as a form of rechilus – carrying tales – or outright lashon hora. Is this appropriate?” – Marvin Schick reflects on something terribly wrong
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“In addition to the formidable challenge of earning a livelihood, these immigrants soon found that there were very few established religious institutions where their children could receive a decent Jewish education. Indeed, even as late as 1900 there were just five communally sponsored schools catering to the poor East European Jews who resided in the lower East Side.” – Glimpses into American Jewish History
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“The concept of an “Arab Palestine” was born with the PLO in 1964. It was a brilliant public relations ploy to change the image of an overwhelming Arab united front fighting a tiny Jewish State to appear as if a gigantic Jewish State was oppressing a tiny Arab minority. This ploy was the most successful lie to be perpetuated upon the world in its entire history. Today, my own Prime Minister and most (if not all) of the Knesset has bought that lie. But the People of Israel has not. Contrary to popular belief, this country is not a genuine democracy. The people do have the right to vote for the dictator of their choice, but, after Election Day, they have absolutely no say in what our government does. I am telling you this because I want you to know that even though Mr. Olmert may have agreed to the ridiculous Road Map leading to disaster, the people of Israel have not.” – An open letter to Secretary Rice.
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And Avoiding Gaffes in the Holy Land, My Flight Leaves Early and Crossroads.

Finally, exclusively in our print edition (available at newsstands or by calling 800-992-1600 ext. 344: Hadassah Halpern, Crossword Puzzle, and Picture This.

Happy Reading!

No Doubting Thomas On Israel

(Pictured: Cal Thomas)

As an evangelical Christian, Cal Thomas – author, syndicated columnist, television talking head – brings to his work a deep religious commitment combined with a sophisticated media sensibility. His worldview is governed by biblical absolutes, among them the unshakable conviction that the Jews have a divine right to the Land of Israel.

(That last point alone is enough to distinguish him from most Jewish pundits and, for that matter, most American Jews, whose unease with any public acknowledgment of God or religion can border on the pathological.)

Thomas, who started out as a copyboy for NBC News and years later served as a high-level spokesman for Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, began writing his column in 1984 for the Los Angeles Times syndicate. The column, carried today by Media Tribune Services, now appears in more than 540 newspapers, making Thomas the nation’s most widely syndicated op-ed columnist.

He is blissfully unburdened by the need to appear even-handed or non-judgmental. On the Middle East that translates not only into an unbending support for Israel, but a healthy distrust of Israel’s enemies as well.

Concerning Israel’s serial concessions to its enemies, Thomas has written, “It is particularly unpleasant when Jews are co-conspirators in their own destruction.”

His skepticism about the good intentions of Arab leaders makes for a glaring contrast with the cheap sentimentality so much in vogue among Jews in Israel and the U.S.

Indeed, Thomas has little patience with the Pollyannas who tremble with delight each time a Palestinian spokesman puts on his best diplomatic airs for gullible Western reporters and statesmen. To Thomas, such perorations amount to nothing but “a piece of theater designed to mask the true intention of Israel’s enemies: complete domination of all the land they continue to regard as Palestine. Such an objective remains in their language, in the sermons of their clergy, in their television news, in classroom instruction aimed at creating a new generation of Jew haters, and in their hearts”

Nor does he harbor illusions about the defeatist mindset afflicting a significant number of Israelis. In a column some years ago, he described a conversation he had with an Israeli woman who expressed to him her “longing for peace.”

She went on to explain that she already had one son in the army and another one going soon, and she didn’t care whether Israel had to give up land in order to get peace.

“We are so tired of war,” she declared.

Thomas asked her how much land she thought Israel would have to relinquish for peace – “Would the 1948 borders suffice?”

When she emphatically stated that a move back to 1948 lines would be too much, Thomas asked her just how much land would be enough. She admitted she wasn’t sure.

“Don’t you believe what your enemies say in their press and in their mosques and to their own people about wanting all the land and being satisfied with nothing less?” he asked.

“Oh, I don’t believe any of that,” she replied.

That Israeli, wrote Thomas, “is the type of person the State Department Arabists and Israel’s other enemies are counting on to seal any ‘peace deal.’ What it will seal, of course, is Israel’s fate.”

Israel, he has written, is automatically guaranteed the short end of the stick in any peace talks, which he likens to a cycle forever repeating itself:

"(1) The Arabs make great peace overtures to get Israel and the West excited; (2) Israel and the Arabs negotiate an accord that promises certain concessions from the Arabs in exchange for land given to them by Israel; (3) Israel gives them land, but the Arabs do not reciprocate; (4) the peace process stalls; (5) Israel is blamed; (6) the West pressures Israel to get on with the process; (7) efforts to 'jump start' the process are made by Israel with input from the West; (8) nothing happens, the Israeli leader is ousted in elections and his successor promises to do better; (9) go back to (1) and begin again... "

In a prescient column he wrote several years before the abandonment of Gaza and the onslaught of the Kassams, Thomas posed the rhetorical question of how Israeli leftists would respond when Israel inevitably came under attacks launched from territories relinquished to its adversaries.

Easy, he said: “Their line will be that Israel didn’t compromise fast enough and so made her enemies angry.”

Dave No Longer the Rave

(Pictured: Dave Marash)

There was a time when I truly respected Dave Marash's journalistic prowess. There was Dave anchoring the news on one of the local New York stations. There was Dave broadcasting local and national sporting events. There was Dave writing a newspaper column. And then Dave disappeared for awhile, re-emerging at Al-Jazeera of all places.

A little more than a year ago, Al-Jazeera, the incendiary Qatar-based Arabic satellite TV news channel that had set the Arab world afire with its heretofore unknown criticism of Middle East Arab regimes (except for Qatar of course), as well as its blistering anti-Israel reportage, decided to launch an English-language channel. In its quest for instant legitimacy, Al-Jazeera sought out veteran (as in semi-burned out or retired) journalists, especially those with Jewish surnames. And there was Dave Marash, signing on to anchor one of the network's main broadcasts. Marash maintained that he would have control over content, even with the skewed anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic stories that were being fed into the newsroom by Al-Jazeera correspondents.

Desperate to re-energize his career, despite the obvious anti-Israeli and anti-American rhetoric that ruled Al-Jazeera's airwaves, Dave Marash pressed forward. Last month, Israeli government authorities, who had bent over backwards to grant Al-Jazeera complete freedom of movement and the right to broadcast almost anywhere in Israel, decided enough was enough. The tone of Al-Jazeera's reporting and the obvious staging of events, including the alleged Gaza blackout by the Israeli government, prompted Israeli officials to refuse interviews with Al-Jazeera's reporters in Israel. Mind you, the government, despite being lambasted by Al-Jazeera 24/7, DID NOT lift Al-Jazeera's press credentials or ban access to events. Freedom of the press in Israel tends to be holier than the sum total of the government's true worth.

Last week, Dave Marash finally read the handwriting on the wall and resigned. "To put it bluntly...the channel that's on now 00 while excellent -- is not the channel I signed up to do," he told The New York Times. Boker Tov!

Of course Dave would NEVER come right out and say what he really felt. Here Dave, let me do it for you:

"Man, I was paid a lot of money to do my thing and they told me I would have editorial control. Well, after awhile it became obvious that the Arabic-speaking bureau chief in Doha set the agenda for what was seen by millions of viewers -- and, quite frankly, the coverage was kind of skewed against Israel, America and the Jews in general. Rather than embarrass myself and be targeted as a self-hating Jew, I decided it was time to hang it up and pray that my community will forgive me for my momentary lapse into stupidity."

Time will tell, Dave...