Jewish-Muslim Unity: European Jewish, Muslim Organizations Unite For Co-Operation
From Malaysia-based JUST International (The International Movement For a Just World) comes this story of Jewish-Muslim co-operation and dialogue.
A contingent of about seventy Jews and Muslims from throughout Western Europe who are involved or interested in creating interfaith dialogue on a community level met last week at the Conference on Jewish-Muslim Dialogue held in Brussels. The article relates:
What is the role of the Middle East conflict in Jewish-Muslim dialogue? Is the media a positive force for change in inter-religious relations? How can local communities be successfully engaged in dialogue? These were a number of the questions tackled by representatives of Jewish and Muslim organisations at a Conference on Jewish-Muslim Dialogue held in Brussels...
Addressed by speakers including Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid (Chairman of the Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony UK), Rabbi Michel Serfaty (Founder & President of Amitié Judéo-Musulmane de France) and European Commission Culture Director Vladimir Sucha, participants were reminded of their shared religious and cultural heritage and were encouraged to join forces rather than working against each other.
A key outcome of the Conference was the establishment of a European Platform for Jewish-Muslim Co-operation to both encourage and to raise the profile of local, national and Europe-wide dialogue and co-operation initiatives. In providing a forum for the sharing of experiences, ideas and good practices, the Conference also witnessed the initiation of new partnerships
In providing a forum for the sharing of experiences, ideas and good practices, the Conference also witnessed the initiation of new partnerships between organisations and the development of project ideas in the arts, media coverage of Jewish and Muslim issues, religious diversity training, grassroots involvement, academic co-operation and joint lobbying efforts. Awards for best practice in Jewish-Muslim co-operative initiatives were also proposed....
The conference was organized with guidance from a Jewish-Muslim Steering Group, and included representatives from such organizations as the European Muslim Network, the International Council of Jewish Women (ICJW) and Islamic Relief.
Ken yirbu, and considering the rise in both Muslim and Jewish visibility and community size in places like France and the UK, dialogue like this is only going to prove itself more and more necessary as time goes on.
French Muslims Voting For Racist Far-Right Candidate?
If there's anyone that I could imagine Jean-Marie Le Pen supporters revering, I can't say Muhammad pops into my mind. But that's precisely what's happening, according to the Washington Times. French Muslims are apparently rallying behind Monsieur Xenophobe in increasing numbers:
A small but significant minority of French Muslims intend to vote for Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right National Front leader in this month's presidential elections -- a remarkable achievement for the politician known for his anti-immigrant stance.
Some of the country's 5 million Muslims do not want a new wave of immigrants to arrive. They also support Mr. Le Pen's anti-American rhetoric and his publicized "friendship" with the people of Iraq. Others are attracted by his traditional stand on moral issues such as abortion, family and the death penalty.
No one should forget just who this man is. This is the same man who called concentration camps and Holocaust gas chambers a "detail" in World War II, and called the occupation of France by Nazi Germany "not particularly inhumane". While he is banalizing and heavily revamping his image including visits to largely Algerian multiethnic suburbs, I almost want to cry over the prospect of an ethnic community giving over the keys to its survival to a vocal xenophobe. (However, we did also see the far-right Vlaams Belang carry a huge wave of support among Jewish voters in Belgium, some of whom remain vocal and ardent supporters of the group. )
If Le Pen thought the World Cup soccer team had "too many colored players", I hardly see how -- his moral stands aside -- he can be trusted to provide equal services and opportunities to "colored" families and neighborhoods.
An Experiment in Jewish-Muslim Unity: New York University
Fighting the good fight against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, NYU, through its new "experiment" at interfaith coexistence, is doing a wonderful job, according to the Jewish Week:
In the kosher cafeteria at New York University, a Jewish student holds up a piece of pepper steak from his lunch, displaying it to his friends.
“What does this look like?” he asks.
The friends stop chatting for a moment to train their eyes on his fork. They are dressed for a warm spring day, some in sweatpants, others in jeans, a few wearing yarmulkes and one young woman in a hijab, a traditional Muslim head covering.
They laugh. “Israel,” someone shouts, and it is true, the piece of steak looks just like the Jewish state. “I’m going to eat Israel!” says Jonathan Einalhori, holding the steak aloft. “No, wait,” someone else says. “Have one of the Muslims eat Israel.”
They laugh again, and Einalhori eats his lunch.
In many environments, this would have caused a food fight, or better yet, a food intifada. Not here.
Two weeks earlier, these students had barely met, before a spring break trip to New Orleans, to volunteer after the devastating Hurricane Katrina, brought the 15 Jewish and 15 Muslim students together to work on building new homes and new friendships.
Gutting houses and helping to build new ones in the Chalmette neighborhood of New Orleans, far from the frenzied, academic environment of NYU, the students were taken out of their usual roles and free to explore each others’ cultures and traditions. Though they expected to find many places of divergence in their beliefs, experiences and lifestyles, they were surprised to find as well how much they have in common.
“It wasn’t like we came to some brilliant conclusion that will bring world peace,” said Kate Gribetz, a freshman from Manhattan. “But we found we had so many commonalities, it’s not worth it to dwell on one difference.”
In New Orleans, when their work on the houses was complete, the students attended a Jumu’ah service, Islam’s Friday afternoon prayers, and a Shabbat service on Friday night. Each group learned about the others’ prayers and traditions, while at the same time, they say, deepening their own faith.
“Seeing the passion Muslims had toward their religion inspired me to have more toward mine,” says Gribetz, who was raised Modern Orthodox.
Granted, according to many religious authorities, for the Jewish kids to take part in the Jumu'ah service could have been problematic, but the sentiments of peace and unity are clear.
The students who traveled to New Orleans, and many in the community, attribute the warm feelings between Muslims and Jews to the sincere friendship that has developed between two men who, not long ago, were students themselves: Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Brother Khalid Latif, the rabbi and imam at NYU.
Rabbi Sarna, 28, and Brother Latif, 24, began as coworkers but soon became friends. When the controversy over the anti-Muslim Danish cartoons arose in 2005, Rabbi Sarna supported sit-ins and protests by Muslim student groups. When former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to speak at NYU last fall, Brother Latif helped lead a post-speech discussion on relations between Israel and Lebanon. When the war broke out last summer, both men called each other, not only to plan how to deal with the fallout on campus, but simply to check in.
“We are able to model the kind of relationship which people should have,” says Rabbi Sarna. “We’re not just politically correct, but friends with mutual respect about each others’ religion.”
Rabbi Sarna concedes that because both men are traditional on their respective religious spectrums, the students in New Orleans felt comfortable taking part in unfamiliar worship services, flirting with each others’ stereotypes and becoming genuinely close.
“It wasn’t a hippie, ‘Kumbaya’ feeling that people should lay down their guns,” says Rabbi Sarna. “By the end of the trip the Jewish students [saw the Muslims] as cousins, people worshipping the same God in a different way.”
Young, traditional clergy building bridges and decreasing prejudice and increasing unity. Ken yirbu. May the unity only increase.
From "These Blacks Are Not Jews" To Black-Jewish Unity?
The Los Angeles Jewish Journal today reviewed a new book, "Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes", by Howard M. Lenhoff, former president of the American Association of Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ). Mr. Lenhoff's book explores the Ethiopian Jews, "from the perspective of an advocate who helped forge a consensus behind the mass aliyah in the 1970s and 1980s":
Roughly 20 years ago, Sudan, whose western Darfur region has been engulfed in genocide for four years, watched another other tragedy unfold -- the deaths of thousands of Ethiopian Jews trying to escape to Israel via Operation Moses.
Nearly one-fifth of the fleeing Falashas perished on their journey due to murder, famine, drought and various illnesses. But tens of thousands reached the Holy Land; and the ancient Jewish community (known to themselves as Beta Yisrael), which had an almost invisible presence in Israel until the late 1970s, now numbers more than 100,000 people.
Former activist Howard Lenhoff, author of "Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes," might not consider himself one of his book's eponymous heroes. He never traveled to Ethiopia, never risked his life, never engaged in the kind of swashbuckling derring-do of some of his colleagues.
Yet he played a critical role as president of the American Association of Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) in negotiating with and, in some cases, applying pressure to the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency to change policy on Ethiopian Jews.
Typical of the response of the Jewish establishment in the 1970s was this remark by one American Jewish woman: "These blacks are not Jews."
Obviously, this woman's comment was unfounded on a number of levels, "black Jew" being a term in America with a longer history than "black Muslim" and all, however, for this woman, Jewish was an identity which was part and parcel of "whiteness" and the idea of a group of Jews from E. Africa just did not compute. (Lineage, schmineage, hundreds of thousands of Eastern European immigrants have become olim in Israel with demonstrably non-Jewish ancestry. True, many of those "blacks" weren't Jews. But obviously those two terms are unrelated.)
And today, black Jews are much more visible, the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel numbers 100,000.
Only by condemning past mistakes can we hope to make future progress. Baruch Hashem so much progress has been made and may it be G-d's Will that one day, all Jews will feel themselves equal beneficiaries of all the Divine gifts inherent in the Holy Land.
This particular video has his metaphysical issue said in plain language: the basic oneness of G-d was not sadur b'fi (solidly "in the mouth of") the Jews around him. He couldn't be explained the basic concept of tawhid/yichud Hashem.
Tell me again why basic principles aren't stressed in Jewish schools and ba'al teshuvah institutions.
Did Someone's Children Turn This Guy Anti-Semitic?
On the way back from a recent performance, I found myself on the last flight into JFK of the night. The quintessential "red-eye" flight, to get me into New York at 6:30 AM. On the plane, literally a matter of seconds after the planes' wheels were retracted into the undercarriage of the aircraft, a baby a few rows ahead of me started crying.
Like screaming...her...head...off. Hysterically. Perhaps her ears popped for the first time. Perhaps she was feeling queasy. Regardless, she screamed, and screamed, and screamed. Continuously. Most opera singer's lungs pale in comparison to this child's. Pavarotti would be envious. Seemingly tireless flight attendants darted back and forth in the darkness, trying to stop this from becoming a bigger issue than it was already becoming. "Would you like anything?" was repeated to this child's parents over and over as the mother -- increasingly becoming exasperated, embarrassed, flustered, and panicky herself -- coaxed, coddled, and rocked in vain to try and quiet her precious little air siren.
Sleeping in any row numbered higher than 30 became quickly prohibited by this infant's shrill edict. After a few minutes -- of course it seemed like hours -- people began to give up on the sleep and order coffee, check the inflight movie, or (if they were me) write. I did manage to eke out about an aggregated 90 minutes of sleep, 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there. Much of it was after this child fell asleep, which was soon after we began our "initial descent".
We all lost our minds on that flight. I was almost in tears begging for the Heavenly Court to find me worthy of even a minute's snooze. The flight attendants got no rest, and I'm sure those in the higher class seating were not immune.
But of course, who apologizes -- and who feels the need to? That's what kids do. Infants cry. They scream. It can be annoying, it can be nerve racking, it can break glass, but what can you do -- it's a fact of life. We all screamed as infants, and our infants (may G-d bless all those desiring to have children with families b'm'heira) will scream to us. And so on and so on, ad infinitum.
But the fact remains, we were all awake that night.
This guy apparently got fed up with his neighbor's kids. (Oh yeah, they're "Orthodox Jews", right off the bat. He's got "some Orthodox Jews" in his driveway. Check the title of the page, "Orthodox Jew kids") His Sanford & Son-esque choice of decor aside (maximalist design?), he takes this firecracker to his roof in an attempt to terrorize these children.
What do they say? Something ending in "fire." One runs. Not even worthy of the "lol" he gives it. However, let's examine what the poster, XzIpK, says on the page:
AMEX26:
Then move someplace else. At lease they dont have sex at twelve years old or mug and kill their friends. Why cant you see the good in life. Look around in the filth that you live in, clean it up and then start making videos of kids
XzIpK:
I can't move anyplace else. When I graduate college, then most definatley I will. They are ignorant, and dont give a shit about surrounded neighbors. My other neighbor and I already called the cops to try and get their parents to be more strict with them. They did at least 5k in damage between my sisters car and my neighbors car. Fuck them, they dont give me respect, I dont give them respect. Simple as that.
If these kids did a total of $5,000 in damage to two cars, and this was corroborated by a police report (two things which AMEX26, for one, doubts), I find it hard to believe that any self-respecting set of parents wouldn't say something at that point to their children.
(I also find this hard to believe and here's why: if we're talking about "at least $5,000" in damage, I find it hard to believe anyone just "writes that off as a loss". This is beyond respect at that point, it's either a lawsuit or some type of arbitration. Police do not just get called "for the hell of it", if you pursue police involvement, it almost follows logically that you're going to do something after that. In addition, I would not say that, based on what I've seen on youTube, that XzIpK even deserves credibility, nor am I saying that it's even presumable that he wasn't a raging anti-Semite to begin with. But for the purpose of this piece, I'll assume that he's not a bigot from before this incident and that it is true, and ultimately, even the facts of the case are to a degree irrelevant, if XzIpK believes this is what happened, that will be the stimulus that dictates his reactions)
At this point, it's time for a fence. Mr. Wilson's yard was off-limits to Dennis the Menace -- is there some sort of understood "free license" that every child has to play wherever they see fit? I remember when I was little, yes, we also played in other people's yards, along their fences, etc. However, I also know my mother would have let me have it, had she learned that I did five thousand dollars worth of damage to two people's cars.
And if XzIpK has become anti-Semitic because of this, or has let loose his latent anti-Semitism, then something far worse has happened. Those children did a lot more damage to a lot more than a couple of cars. And at this point, it becomes that tragic afterthought: because, as we know from psychology, stimuli remain imprinted on our brains long after they are removed from our views. The imprint of whatever happened to XzIpK's sister's car, the sound of the "annoying as f*ck" kids' playing, whatever -- this will remain with XzIpK for quite some time.
Can't someone buy these kids a Wii or something? At least until XzIpK finishes college?
Hungary's Jews should stay at home for their own safety when protesters take to the streets again on a national holiday next week, the country's biggest Jewish organisation said on Thursday.
The main parliamentary opposition and radical fringe groups plan anti-government rallies on March 15, a national holiday which was a day of protest under communism. Hungary is home to eastern Europe's largest Jewish population of over 100,000. Violent anti-government protests in September and October last year featured flags associated with fascism, anti-Semitic chants and banners.
There were no recorded incidents of people being attacked because they were Jewish.
Despite the absence of violence, still:
"We are advising people, especially if they are elderly not to go out, to stay at home," Peter Feldmajer, head of Jewish organisation Mazsihisz said on Thursday.
"If you followed the events, they constantly blamed Jews for all Hungary's problems with the harshest words," he said.
Just another chapter in the long saga of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, I'm afraid.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty recently paid a visit to an Ottawa public school to launch a provincial program aimed at building character among students. But even before the program was announced, the students at Charles H. Hulse Public School had embarked on a remarkable inter-ethnic adventure.
Of its 500 students – who hail from 75 countries – approximately 70 per cent are Muslim. Most had never met a Jewish person before, but some had nevertheless formed extremely negative and hateful impressions of Jews. After hearing anti-Semitic remarks from some the students, Patrick Mascoe, a Grade 6 teacher at Charles H. Hulse, was dismayed.
“I thought it was sad that these kids had already figured out who they hated, based on ignorance,” he said.
Unfortunately this is far too often the case in many underprivileged communities when it comes to Jews. Jews have been given this mythic stereotype of being the "rich overlords" of America (and Canada), the epitome of "everybody who's keeping me down" to many a working-class child. They hear it from their parents, who reinforce it at every sight of "Dreamworks SKG" or mention of a Disney executive.
But instead of the teacher being reactive and yelling at the children -- who were undoubtedly out-of-line for using racial slurs in a classroom -- the teacher was proactive and chose to build bridges and teach the children a lifelong lesson.
Mascoe decided to use a letter-writing course that he teaches to start a pen-pal project between students at the inner-city school and students at Hillel Academy, a local Jewish day school.
“I thought this would enable the kids to see how many similarities there were, rather than differences, between them.” At the end of the year, Mascoe invited the Hillel students to visit his school, where they engaged in collaborative, team-building games. In the afternoon, Holocaust survivor David Shentow spoke to the students about tolerance.
Mascoe said there was resistance from some Muslim parents at first, but eventually most of them came around to the idea, and in the program’s second year, there was participation from the Muslim community as well...
“The kids are proud of their school and proud of taking part in this. Our school is very multicultural, and at this age level, you can reach them about being respectful and tolerant and about character building,” Mascoe said.
“I tell them you might not like everyone you meet, but you can’t just dislike someone because of their race or religion.”
Rabbi Jeremiah Unterman, director of education at Hillel Academy, agrees.
“It is very important that we teach our children to view others in a positive light, and at the same time we look forward to opportunities in which other people have a chance to interact with us and see us in a positive light,” Rabbi Unterman said.
“I think that it is an imperative of the Jewish tradition, from the Book of Genesis, that we must treat every single person as being made in the image of God. That means that we have respect for everyone on earth. It is important to reach out to other people and we are happy when other people reach out to us to make friends. We are all descendants of one set of parents, which means we are all family.”
Israeli Knesset Member:Overt Anti-Charedi Prejudice is Anti-Semitic Prejudice
It's like Israeli Knesset Member Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said. Hezbollah didn't discriminate.
Neither do the PFLP, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, or Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade for that matter. Their Qassams, Katyushas and Ra'ad missiles were, in some places, the most egalitarian things going on, killing without regard to religious observance or ethnic origin. The suicide bombers and terrorists see one universal color -- "enemy" -- which can transcend even "Jew" or "Zionist". (And if you think it can't, I know at least one family in Italy who would beg to differ.)
People died equally, people were damaged equally. But equal is not so "equal" in Israel once you put on a black yarmulke. The Jerusalem Post reports:
MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said on Wednesday that the Education Ministry's approach to haredi students showed hints of "anti-Semitic discrimination," and that the ministry was breaking the law by refusing to give equal funding to haredi schools.
In response to the data presented at the Knesset's Education Committee, which showed that haredi schools in the North were not supplied with science kits or computers, Gafni pointed out that during the war last summer, Hizbullah had treated all students, including haredi ones, equally as Jews - something the Education Ministry was not doing.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir said that she officially showed preference to the national education system and was working to strengthen it.
In Tamir's words, if the haredim want equality, they will have to join the national education system.
Period!
And that's how religious schools get treated. And herein lies the paradoxical hypocrisy: one of the main claims the government makes about the religious school system is that they don't teach the "Israeli core curriculum." But here we see -- science kits, computers (and before this it was infrastructure improvements and structural repairs) -- things which are requisite if the core curriculum is even going to begin to be a possibility, these things are being withheld.
"Teach AP chemistry."
"We can't, we don't have beakers."
"So buy beakers."
"We can't because we have no money. So fund our school."
"We won't fund you because you won't teach AP chemistry."
"We can't teach AP chemistry because we don't have beakers!"
"So buy beakers."
And so on and so on, ad infinitum.
Logistic, educational, structural, and environmental (damn, that's a lot) considerations aside, the only thing preventing religious schools from receiving the funding is their eschewing of non-essential subjects and teaching (you guessed it) Torah! The rabid secularists have control of the money, and they will use that control to keep Torah on the backburner, if not out of the "Jewish state" entirely.
Yuli Tamir said last year she was "disturbed" by the haredim (well at least now she's venting) and their lack of allegiance to the state of Israel and lack of identification with its Zionist ideals. But sometimes, it is kind of hard to look at a Lexus-studded driveway in Haifa and say that one has more in common with its driver than the Arabic-speaking co-inhabitant of a gravel lot one shares a trailer schoolhouse with.
And instead of trying to correct at least a little of the inequity, what are religious Jews told? "If the haredim want equality, they will have to join the national education system." Want equality? Stop learning so much Torah.
Just appreciate the gravity of that phrase -- "if they want equality."
A Lake Clarke Shores Town Council candidate woke up Monday to find his pick up truck sprayed with anti-Semitic remarks. Gary Goldstein said a Swastika and the word Jew were painted across the hood and the driver's side of the truck parked on his driveway in the 8300 block of Pine Tree Lane.
Goldstein said the hate crime is related to his running for office in a city of 1,500 residents with a small Jewish population. He said he is the only Jewish candidate vying for a town council seat.
Ok, so this means there are only 1,499 possible suspects -- at the max. Let's hope for a swift dispensing of justice...
Haaretz has uncovered Internet sites put up by Israelis in their 30s who immigrated from the CIS that supply Nazi and Russian nationalist content.
In 2003 a Web site operated by Ilia Zolotov, an Israel Defense Forces soldier who called himself a "Russian patriot," was exposed. The Web site, whose name translates to the White Israeli Union, was housed on an Israeli server. Its content included Nazi and Holocaust-denial materials. It was eventually closed down by the police. Zolotov was sentenced to community service and sent on a tour of death camps in Poland.
Since the closure of Zolotov's Web site, his successors have gotten more sophisticated. Now they use servers based abroad, usually in Russia, to evade the authorities. One such site operator is Alex [a pseudonym], who is in his 30s and holds a security-related job. His site, www.rusnatcentre.tk, is hosted by a Russian server.
Alex refers to himself on the site as "the Russian tank operator" or "the fighter from Jerusalem," a tribute to his service in the Armored Corps. In a conversation with Haaretz, he denied that his site carries anti-Semitic messages, asserting that it is pro-Russian only.
"The Russian National Center is a Russian nationalist association that lives in Israel," Alex explains. "The main mission of our organization is nationalist propaganda among ethnic Russians residing in Israel, encouraging their return to Russia, opposing the return of Jews from Israel to Russia, and opposing conversion to Judaism," Alex said.
Benign pro-Russian group, or a new faction of ha'Reich ha'Shlishi? Irina's story takes it further:
So Now They're Calling Us Frum People "Taliban" Again?
I can't say that I'm still shocked by the parallels people draw between Orthodox Jews and pro-terrorist regimes, it's become so old hat in Israeli media, it's news older than Genesis itself at this point.
Today, Israel is witnessing a confrontation that will reach the High Court of Justice between a group of women and followers of the Jewish faith who have come to be known as the ‘Israel’s Taliban’. What is interesting is that this confrontation is not between secularists and fanatics since even the religious Israeli women can no longer tolerate the rigidity and attitudes of hatred that these Jewish zealots practice, and therefore have launched a legal campaign, which enjoys wide popular support, to put an end to it.
In the coming few days, five of these women will take the witness stand in court to appeal against the ad hoc ‘modesty patrol’ of the fanatical Jewish men who subject them and thousands of other religious women like them to attitudes of frustration and hatred, which they call against by enforcing penalties over some who have affronted them in what has become a ‘war of the buses’.
You can read the rest of the article here. I hope that this Mishmeret ha'Tzniut (Modesty Patrol) guy is really proud of himself now. He has drawn the name "Taliban" over all of us who treasure Torah and tradition.
Does this back-of-the-bus zealot really think that, at the end of 120 years, malachim/angels are going to be singing his praises, "Praiseworthy is he who beats a woman down to the ground for not upholding separation of the sexes on buses"? My rabbi says that all of our actions should be viewed in this lens, that "this action will be among those I have to recount to my Creator."
Here is a phenomenon that none of the authorities in Israel want to deal with: Anti-Semitism by people who have come from the Soviet Union, and who use the word 'Jew' as a legitimate curse. Number of incidents is on the rise
“I was walking my dog in Tel Aviv. When I went to cross the street there was a drunk- looking man standing next to me. My dog got scared and started to bark at him. I apologized and continued walking. I suddenly felt someone push me and I fell on the floor. The drunken man pushed me to the ground, took the leash and started to choke the dog. He was screaming at me “Stinking Zhidovka! (A derogatory name for a Jew in Russian). You Jews destroyed Russia and disturb all the normal people living here”. (Ella Shapira, a Russian immigrant)
“Everyone sweeps the issue of anti-Semitism in Israel under the rug” says Zalman Glichevsky, the president of the organization. “There is a leading skinhead website, and I discovered that they have a discussion group which includes Russian speakers from Israel”. Glichevsky, who immigrated to Israel in the early nineties, began to investigate the matter. He put an ad in a newspaper for Russian speakers and appealed to anyone who had ever experienced anti-Semitism in Israel.
Russian immigrants beating Jewish immigrants
“To my surprise”, he tells, “I received hundreds of responses and I continue to receive them today....Shapira is angered by the comprehensive disregard of the problem. “This is a subject that no one likes or is afraid to speak of. For the workers in the Jewish Agency, bringing new immigrants to Israel is a good business, many people profit from it. But they are bringing people who have no connection to Judaism, and some who have been brought up to hate it. I often encounter these situations...a few weeks ago I went into a clothing store and the two saleswomen began to talk about me in Russian: 'Here is a dirty Jew, she is going to touch everything and make it dirty.' They were shocked when I answered them in Russian and explained to them that it is forbidden to speak that way”.
I fail to understand how any Israeli government agency can live with itself when converts are called for to be excluded from the Law of Return, but this comes in under the auspices of the same law. And even under the proposed changes, it still won't alleviate this problem but perhaps even exacerbate it, as the new conditions, "alternatively", call for Israeli citizenship to be offered to "relatives of Jews currently covered by the Law of Return." (Granted, charedi leaders don't back the proposed legislation, but still.)
Observant Ethiopian Jews who came to Israel -- who by any other standards in Edut ha'Mizrach would be charedi -- were told flatly that their lineage was not provably Jewish and that they would have to convert. Yet members of Nazi organizations are allowed to operate with no question in their status as Jews? Officials talk seriously about barring Ethiopian immigrants from even entering one town, but immigrants from Europe are given carte blanche? This can happen?
I can't help but fault, at least partially, if not by commission then by omission, Tzafon Tel Aviv Ashkenazi elitism and ethnocentricity for allowing this to happen. I'm not generalizing -- the majority of the perpetrators of anti-Semitic incidents within Israeli borders are "Russian-speaking youth", some the "descendents of Jews" -- were there an influx of "descendents of Jews" (70% of whom do not qualify as Jews under Jewish Law) from Arabic-speaking countries bringing with them Hamas mindsets, I highly doubt it would be tolerated to this point.
500 incidents in 2001? An increase in 2003? Authentic Jews have to go around gathering signatures of rabbis and re-converting (or re-marrying, or re-divorcing) -- and there's this?
I'm pissed off and this can not be tolerated in any capacity. There has yet to be any serious talk of reducing the unchecked immigration from Eastern Europe -- in anywhere near the same capacity as it's been spoken of for their Ethiopian or Indian counterparts. Other than racism, I fail to see why. I fail to see any more of a detrimental element the Jewish state could possibly contain. Nazi activity? Even if there's "no chance" of them "gaining any power."
If there's any pressing issue that calls for the revamping of the Law of Return, it for damn sure is not some underpaid Thai worker.
A BRITISH Muslim school is teaching children that Jews are “repugnant apes” and Christians “pigs”, a former teacher claims.
Colin Cook, 57, says when he raised his concerns to chiefs at the Saudi government-funded King Fahad Academy in West London he was told: “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia.” Some of the 1,250 pupils at the faith school are alleged to have been heard idolising Osama bin Laden, praising 9/11 and saying they want to “kill Americans”.
Mr Cook — himself a Muslim — warned yesterday: “The school could produce a dangerous harvest.
“It is clearly racist and very divisive. It’s deeply immoral to put such ideas into the heads of young children.
“The vast majority of Muslims, including myself, are law-abiding, tolerant of others and peaceful. I understand now why pupils express anti-Western views at the school. Similar concerns at the sister school in Bonn, Germany, gave rise to the fear that the Academies could become breeding grounds for terrorists.”
(Getting rid of "all Jews" would actually be worse than Saudi Arabia. But I digress.)
This is not the first time I've heard this about textbooks. Is there a PDF -- anywhere -- of such things?
I hope that Mr. Cook's claims are untrue, because if they're not, this means that a group of Muslim children need to either find another school, or there is a school in the UK that needs to fire a significant percentage of its administration.
Attacks on Jews in the UK rose to record levels last year, a new report revealed today.
There were 594 anti-semitic incidents in Britain in 2006, up 31% from 2005, according to the Community Security Trust (CST).
More than one-fifth of the race hate incidents took place during the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon in July and August.
This is the highest level since the CST began collating antisemitic incidents in 1984, and 12% more than the previous record in 2004. The total included 112 violent assaults (up 37% on 2005), 70 incidents of damage of Jewish property (up 46%), 365 incidents of abusive behaviour (up 34%) and 27 threats (up 8%).
Jewish schools or schoolchildren were targeted in 59 of the incidents, and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated nine times.
First of all, as all Jews are inextricable from one another, every Jew alive has a communal responsibility to feel solidarity with these British victims.
However, let's apply the 1/5 number to all of the incident categories.
Israeli soldiers were captured on Lebanese soil - and 23 British Jews got beaten.
Hezbollah, the Israeli government, and the US all spun the media like the Harlem Globetrotters -- and 11 Jewish schools were vandalized.
Two Israeli soldiers, two Jewish cemeteries.
Regardless of how any Jew feels about Israel -- or how strongly we are opposed to its government's actions -- we can never deny that we are attached to it, whether we like it or not.
Virginia Legislator: Jews Killed Christ, Not Fault of "Jews of Today"
First it was Goode, now it's Hargrove.
A certain variant of Bigots' Foot-in-mouth syndrome is apparently affecting some politicos in the Virginia State Legislature. Not only do bigots in this particular legislature seem unable to conceal their prejudice, but they refuse to back down.
A Virginia legislator under fire for comments regarding slavery and Jews said this week that "the New Testament does say the Jewish people crucified Christ."
But Del. Frank Hargrove (R) assured a reporter that "I don't fault you for it" or blame any Jews of today.
Hargrove made his comments Monday in a phone interview in which he was asked to explain why, in a discussion involving whether Virginia's legislature should apologize for slavery, he had said, "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?"
(...)
"I don't know who killed Christ I wasn't there," said Glen Allen's Hargrove, 79, adding that all he knows is what the Christian Bible says. Asked later what the Bible does say, the delegate said that "the New Testament does say the Jewish people crucified Christ."
Does it? Methodist leaders didn't seem so sure:
John Schol, bishop of the UMC Washington Episcopal Area Baltimore-Washington Conference, said that while the church doesn't have an official teaching on the death of [JC], "most Methodists understand that the death of Jesus came about in large part because of the very challenging stances that [Christ] took in his day that created conflict for people of his day and religious leaders of his day."
It's so obvious, even a one-eyed infant with no retina could see after glancing at Jewish texts: Jews did not advocate crucifixion as a death penalty, or any other cruel Roman practices. Regardless of what the Sanhedrin said, they would have never told non-Jewish soldiers to bang nails into a man's wrists.
Apparently Christian scholars are not on the same page as Mr. Hargrove.
Mr. Hargrove needs some sensitivity training, and perhaps some good old-fashioned Bible study.
Jews in Yemen flee homes following extremist threats
By Yoav Stern
Some 45 Jews in Sa'ada in Yemen have left their homes after being threatened by radical Muslims and are seeking the president and government's help, the Saudi daily Al Wattan reported yesterday.
The extremists reportedly told the Jews to leave their homes within 10 days, and threatened that those who stayed would be killed or their children abducted and their homes looted. The Jews moved into a hotel in the city of Sa'ada, north of the capital Sana. A formal complaint was submitted to Yemenite President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the report said.
A Jew named Yihya Yosef Musa told Al-Wattan that one of the Muslim leaders said he wanted no Jews to remain in the Sa'ada region.
"We have been driven from our homes, our money has been lost, we cannot feed our children. We came to plead with the president and government to treat us properly because we are Yemenis," he said.
The threats are attributed to followers of Shi'ite religious leader Hossein Bader a-Din al-Khouty, who was killed in clashes with government forces in 2005. The Jews have received letters alleging that they have been acting "first and foremost to serve global Zionism" and are working ceaselessly "at corrupting people and making them abandon their moral and religious values."
Global Zionism? These are Jews who stayed in Yemen -- even after some elder Yemenite Jews, at the time of the first airlifts, thought that the Messiah had come to get them (after all, what else would these huge flying things be, with stars of David on their wings?). Jews who stayed in Yemen -- even until 2007!
Hardly global Zionists. Obviously this is yet another anti-Semitic libel, akin to "blood in the matza" or "killing Christian children".
Mr. Al-Houthi (as his name is more commonly Anglicized) was found to be complicit in an insurgency against the Yemeni government in 2004. His followers have never been pro-Saleh administration. They have already been accused of running a "guerrilla war."
Two al-Houthi followers, one of whom is a cleric, were released in 2005, with their release touted as something that would "further enhance the human rights record and basic liberties" in Yemen at the Human Rights and Renewal of Religious Discourse conference in Alexandria, Egypt. 627 more al-Houthi followers were released in 2006. I wonder if this is what these people are doing in lieu of rallying the populace up against President Saleh, rallying people up against Jews.
Hatchet Jack is an "Alaskan fisherman and outdoorsman" with links to anti-Semitic sites such as "Jew Watch" on the front page of his blog. While there is quite a bit of White Nationalist filth scattered throughout the site, this particular article (with a hat tip to the Anarchist Rabbi) caught my interest because it illustrates a Jewish ethical teaching beautifully.
Izzy is his slang for Israel.
Only racial (not converted) jews allowed in Izzy
Hatchet jack:
The Israeli law of return has always been aimed at keeping Israel a "jewish" state. A former member of the Israeli Supreme Court, Haim Cohen, described the system that applies to Jews and Palestinians in Israel as similar to the Nuremberg laws of Nazi Germany: "...the bitter irony of fate, which has led the same biological and racist laws propagated by the Nazis and which inspired the infamous Nuremberg laws, serves as a basis for the definition of Judaism within the State of Israel." Badi, J. (1960). Fundamental Laws Of The State Of Israel. New York. p.156....
Now Israeli jews don't have to worry about shunning goy converts. The law of return has excluded Gentile converts, closing the loophole which threatened Israel's apartheid objectives.
Who can blame Israel? I cannot. I would like to see mother Europe and her colonies, including North America, preserved as an homeland exclusively for White people. That means people of wholely European descent. Thus, this doesn't bother me.
What does disturb me are the jews who advocate open borders in America, and interracial marriage. Quite often they preach one thing for Israel, and something entirely different in the United States.
And there you have it.
The Nation of Israel is given the Divine charge in the Torah to be a nation set apart from the other nations of the world, distinct "b'shmam, b'malbusham u'v'lshonam", in their names, their style of dress and in their language. We are supposed to -- and if we choose not to, G-d forces us to -- be different in the way we call ourselves, the way others see us, and the way we communicate.
The commentator Rash"i in Daniel 11 tells us that Antiochus, the Greek king of Chanukah infamy, would kill anyone who called themselves a Jew. The end of the Book of Esther tells us that many people called themselves Jews following the Purim incident. Never do we find that the word "Jew" was tied to familial lineage -- as it is written in the Torah, "There shall be one Torah for the convert and for the native-born."
When a convert is not given said status, by default, one is establishing a de facto anti-halachic genetic premise for who can be called a "Jew." If this is to be codified in Israeli legislation by the Rabbinate, this will be not only a slap in the face to the Divine Law which says otherwise, but it will also give creedence to the Neo-Nazi racialist philosophy.
That Jew is a race, and that lands are set up for races of people.
Instead of the pan-racial, international identity of "Jew", Israel, through this legislation, if it passes (Rahmana litzlan) , will have chosen to define itself by the racial identity of "Semite" or perhaps "Israelite". A secular Israel defined by Hitler, which defines Jews contrary to the way the Torah does.
The Talmud tells us in Tractate Bava Metzia that converts' insult is prohibited up to 36 times by G-d in the Torah, yet somehow a labor issue makes all of these Divine exhortations play second-fiddle.
Conversion to Judaism is a unique process -- conversion to Islam does not make one an "Arab", conversion to Hinduism does not give one a similar link to the Vedas. But conversion to Judaism, in every classical text, in effect changes one's very DNA: the DNA in the cells of the convert has become "Jewish DNA" and they are now a "Jew", affected by anti-Semitism and only differing from their co-religionists by an ethnic prefix ("black Jew", "Asian Jew"). One has their own personal portion of Torah (cheilek ba'Torah) which was predestined for them from time immemorial. The convert to Judaism becomes part of the Jewish people, a child of Abraham -- literally.
Instead of sticking with the Torah definitions of our ancestors, the Israeli Rabbinate would instead choose to utilize a non-Torah mindset utilized by Nazis?
Israel is the only "Jewish state" -- but can it please start acting more like a goy echad ba'aretz, a unique nation? Importing American and European fashion is enough -- don't import the racism, racialism, and elitism.
Virginia Legislator: Blacks Should 'Get Over' Slavery
This is just disgusting.
A hat tip to my boy, from the usually putrid FOX News:
RICHMOND, Va. — A state legislator said black people "should get over" slavery and questioned whether Jews should apologize "for killing Christ," drawing denunciations Tuesday from stunned colleagues.
Del. Frank D. Hargrove, 79, made his remarks in opposition to a measure that would apologize on the state's behalf to the descendants of slaves.
In an interview published Tuesday in The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Hargrove said slavery ended nearly 140 years ago with the Civil War and added that "our black citizens should get over it."
The newspaper also quoted him as saying, "are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?"
Black lawmakers swiftly denounced Hargrove's comments. "When somebody tells me I should just get over slavery, I can only express my emotion by projecting that I am appalled, absolutely appalled," said Del. Dwight C. Jones, head of the Legislative Black Caucus.
Del. David L. Englin also criticized Hargrove's remarks, recalling that his grandparents were driven from their homes in Poland "by people who believed that as Jews, we killed Christ."
Hargrove tried to explain his comments, saying nobody respected slavery or would ever advocate its return.
"On the other hand, not a soul in this legislature had anything to do with slavery," he said, adding that he thinks it is "harmful to society in general to keep recycling this thing which we all know and all despise and all have no respect for."
In yesterday's Daily Progress, Hargrove was quoted as wondering how far such apologies should go, saying, "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ? Nobody living today had anything to do with it. It would be far more appropriate in my view to apologize to the Upper Mattaponi and the Pamunkey" Indians for the loss of their lands in eastern Virginia.
I guess that was an attempt to save face. And I guess we should applaud, in some macabre way, his appreciation of the sacrifices of Native Americans.
He told Jewish delegate Englin that his skin was "too thin" and:
When Englin sat, Hargrove reached over and softly patted Englin on the arm. Then, Hargrove rose to speak and, looking down at his seatmate, said, "I didn't even know you were Jewish, I had no idea of what your religion, (and) I don't care what your religion is. I don't care."
Is it really like Doug Thompson says over at Capitol Hill Blue? Is Virginia really "overrun by racists, bigots, homophobes and knee-jerk conservatives who want to drag the Commonwealth back into the era when white men ruled everything and blacks and women knew their place"?
People really need to be conscious of who they vote for -- on all levels of legislature.
Muslims are required by their faith to pray to Mecca five times a day. There is nothing sinister or criminal about people peacefully carrying out the obligations of their faith. Airlines that single out praying Muslims and deny them flight privileges permanently are no different than the five-and-dime stores that once prevented black people from eating at luncheonette counters.
It is as unthinkable to ban praying Muslims from a flight, as it would be to deny boarding to a group of praying Hasidic Jews. Both sects engage in public group prayers. Both are exercising their constitutional rights as U.S. citizens. Persecution of religious minorities by the majority is nothing new in the United States. Nor is an attempt by the majority to link religious minorities to some grandiose and evil global plot against America.
Precisely. Keep saying it from the rooftops -- until all people all treated equally.
NEW YORK -- Anti-Jewish crimes in Suffolk County appear to be on the rise.
Monday morning, a menorah in front of a Bay Shore synagogue was vandalized. It is the second such crime involving the Jewish holiday candelabrum. Police records indicate that as of November there have been 30 anti-Jewish crimes. Last year, there were 25. And in November there were 19 such crimes.
Hate crimes overall are on the rise in Suffolk County. This year, police have recorded 94 through last month. There were 89 such crimes overall last year.
(12/19/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - Millions of Christmas cards are in the mail, but we discovered one card that many call disturbing - especially since the card is filled with racial expletives, and claims to have come from the University of St Thomas.
The video is on the site.
The University of St. Thomas is a Catholic University in Houston which is quite un-Nazi in its operations -- an interfaith lecture on character development is among their upcoming events. The culprit not only sent out his Nazi filth with University of St. Thomas as a return address, but also Rice University. As was noted in the televised story, this is information so offensive that your average person wouldn't buy, say, the "Nazi Journal" or put himself or herself on a Nazi mailing list. However, under the guise of legitimacy lent by a name of a respected institution, their hate fliers find their way into more homes. The Houstonist has more.
If it were just happening in Houston, dayenu, it would be enough.
Right-wing adolescents and young Muslims are displaying levels of anti-Semitism that were long considered unthinkable in Germany. At many German schools, the word "Jew" is becoming an insult again. German politicians don't seem to know how to respond.
The Jewish High School in Berlin's central Mitte district resembles a high-security ward. Those who want to access the imposing old building on Grosse Hamburger Strasse have to pass through a meticulous security check. The building is surrounded by a fence several meters high and video cameras register every move. Policemen stand guard in front of the building.
"We're no ghetto," school director Barbara Wittig clarifies. "We offer those children protection who have to fear discrimination at other schools," she adds. And such cases have increased dramatically in the past two years. "I always though Jews were integrated into German society," says Wittig. "I would never have thought it possible for anti-Semitism to express itself as virulently as it has recently."
School director Wittig says: "We're now the only school in Berlin where Jewish children can stand up to their identity. Elsewhere, most of them have to adapt to the majority."
It's now at that point. Jewish kids can't even go to public schools safely in many parts of Berlin. Some girls even get beat, spat on and chased through the streets:
Anti-Semitic Vandalism At Austrian School "Not Surprising"
A Jewish school in Austria was vandalized on Sunday, with windows and other glass surfaces smashed with an iron rod. Glass and other material was also damaged inside restrooms. A Croatian man was arrested around 2 AM after residents of the area of the Lauder Chabad school complained about the noise emanating from the school.
Following the vandalism of a Jewish school in Vienna on Sunday, Ephraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that it was not surprising "that events like this take place in a country that protects Croatian Nazi war criminals."
He referred specifically to the case of Milivoj Asner, "a Croation Nazi war criminal living in Klagenfort whose extradition has been sought for over a year by the Croatian authorities who want to put him on trial for his role as the police chief of the city of Pozegga during 1941-42."
The Austrians, he said, "refuse to send Asner back to Croatia despite the fact that he's not an Austrian citizen and there is ostensibly no reason that they haven't acceded to Croatian extradition request."
He concluded by pointing out that Austria "has not successfully prosecuted Nazi war criminals in more than 30 years, and in that atmosphere of impunity, perhaps it's not surprising that such terrible events take place."
Ariel Muzicant, the head of Vienna's Jewish Community, expressed shock and disbelief at the devastation. He noted it was still unclear if the man was anti-Semitic or mentally ill.
"One asks oneself however, what goes through the mind of a man who attacks a school and destroys so much," Muzicant was quoted as saying. He did not provide an estimate of the damage caused. "We're now in the process of putting everything in order," he said.
APA cited Jacob Biderman, head of the school's administration, as saying that the man told the police officers who arrested him that his name was Adolf Hitler.
Surprising? Not to the Wiesenthal Center. A known Nazi criminal is living with impunity. Perhaps the deluded "Mr. Hitler" will effectively do so as well. One thing is for sure -- there is definitely some measure of true Nazi-style anti-Semitism still extant in Austria.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these Israel-firsters. I'm not an ultra-Zionist bent on the indiscriminate expansion of a Herzl idea. I support Israel's right to exist, yes, and I believe in a viable 2-state solution.
But I find myself unable to hold back from questioning, "Just where in the hell does this guy get off talking about Israel like this?"
Borat didn't need to use Kazakhstan; he could have portrayed Israel
B. Michael
But it's especially bad, because with a little forethought, Sacha Cohen could have spared himself this embarrassing fiasco. Had he presented himself as an Israeli reporter to begin with – a country that under some of our strange laws is his as well - he would not have had to lie so much to reveal his interviewees' true character.
This sets the stage. After decrying the moving of the pride parade to the stadium he pejoratively refers to as a "cage" -- completely missing the security, political, and regional considerations (Beit Hanun just didn't happen or is it that the Palestinian community didn't notice? Or maybe Israel has infinite cops?):
Without insulting an innocent country, he could have told how women are banned from testifying in certain courts of law and that religious officials compare homosexuals to beasts. He could have mentioned how if a person is not born to the right people he or she cannot purchase Israeli land. And that to kill minorities is much easier and widespread than picking a protected iris in the Galilee.
That rabbis feed their cattle strange crackers during the month of March, so that their milk can be consumed in April…and a series of other humoristic and enlightening rules and regulations.
He could have also talked about the boutique wineries in our country, whose flavor does indeed resemble that of fermented horse urine. He could have done all that without lying, without exaggerating and without getting himself into trouble. Because Borat's Kazakhstan isn't in Kazakhstan, it's here.
Can one get over themselves while simultaneously getting off of their high horse?
First of all, no religion should be derided this much in secular media. Matzah? "Strange crackers"? The New York Times wouldn't even print that! And Golan, Galil, Yarden, and Carmel -- Israeli wines traded at the most exclusive of expositions worldwide -- "fermented horse urine". This is so offensive it's almost art.
And about the "religious officials comparing homosexuals to beasts". No doubt B. Michael was at least alluding to this. Yet I hardly see how an "IDF rabbi in the rank of first-lieutenant from the Home Front Command" who "sent an email to dozens of officers" is a "religious official." He's not chief of anything. No yeshiva, no group of chassidim follow him. But besides that. The religious decrees from Sephardi Chief Rabbi Amar only decried the parade, not the people. Chief Rabbi = Religious Official. Of course, in such a heated debate you can always find a quote or two to support your hypothesis.
The hypothesis being, of course, that dati and charedi people are ignorant, backwards peasants who eke out lives based on superstition. (Oh yeah, we "bilk the public purse" and "use the Torah as a weapon" to keep up with our "one" golden "rule" of "always take". Silly me.)
This is the same type of mindset that is responsible for the anti-Semitic vitriol of hate-filled "Talmud Unmasked" websites.
The 