Evil is Alive and Living in Beit Shemesh

There's a film that has been going viral and causing all kinds of excited conversation, a whole lot of it so skewed as to make truth an obsolete idea. It's called "Between the Suns" and deals with the situation taking place in Beit Shemesh in Israel. I'm providing the link below and adding a warning that this film can cause nausea and violent headaches, among the mildest symptoms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFm1tZkEuxI&feature=share

Grown men, daring to call themselves religious, have, among other heinous acts, been spitting on little girls and calling them whores and prostitutes, all because they attend a school for girls that is too modern for these monsters and dares to be across the street from a community they live in (if one can say that such disturbed individuals are actually alive in a human sense).

The whole film is disturbing, but among the worst of the words spoken is the man who insisted "I am a healthy man." Healthy?! It is healthy to attack little girls because they dare go to school--a religious school--in a school that does not meet this man's perverted standards? Healthy to call a 7-year-old a whore? Healthy to declare that their women know their place and keep to it, no matter what God may have decided? Healthy to hurl sexual epithets at a six-year-old?

Someone in Israel, a whole lot of someones, needs to come down hard on the lunatics in Beit Shemesh. Where are the rabbonim of the community they live in, and where are their words of condemnation? Where are the municipal leaders, whose job is to keep all citizens of the city safe from attack? Where are the voices, hundreds and thousands of voices, raised in righteous indignation that disturbed and violent men are allowed to prey on innocent children?

Among other things, we will be judged on how well we protected the weakest and most innocent among us, and when we let such madmen attack our innocent children, then just who are we?!

Women are Equal Beings in Judaism? Really?

Thanks to Primum non Nocere for a bit of sunshine in what was starting out to look like a grey day--a column by an Israeli Chareidi rabbi coming out against the horrible behavior towards women that has been justified as being the "true" Jewish way.

http://asformeandbeiti.blogspot.com/2011/11/traditional-jewish-approach-to-women.html

Let's Hear It for Bourbon, Down with Scotch

The Council of West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, passed a resolution banning the purchase of all products produced in Israel. Well folks, time for a little activism.

To read about the boycott and to see the list of Scotch whiskeys not produced in the area and, therefore, okay for purchase (scroll all the way down) go to http://muqata.blogspot.com/p/official-scotch-whisky-counter-boycott.html

Please keep this in mind--drinking Scotch is a want, not a need, and we so do not need to support an area whose anti-Israel, anti-zionist rhetoric is appalling. They want to ban Israeli products? Well two can play at that game. I hope they find out that they've bitten off lots more than they can chew, and I hope they choke swallowing.

Yes, I hope you pass this information on to others, lots of others, and I hope you add a personal request asking people to not buy any of the Scotch whiskeys from this area.

Please note: taken from the muqata (thanks Jameel): The following Scotches are not under the ban, not being made in West Dumbartonshire-- Glenmorangie,Oban,Glenfiddich

Israel's Gain, our Loss

Conversation on Shabbos brought to light that an acquaintance's son and family were moving to Israel this summer. Now in our community hearing about someone making aliyah is not all that unusual. However in this case the son was very clear as to why they are moving and moving now--tuition for his kids.

The son owns his own business and is doing well in it, if working very hard. But in his business there is a saturation or cap point--he can do only so well and not really go beyond that. By most tallies he should not be having any major financial problems. However, he has four kids with the first heading to high school next year. Yes, this couple owns a home, but not a palace. Yes, they own two cars--both husband and wife have to drive for business. No, they aren't wallowing in luxuries. They also aren't able to put away any money either, and their expenses only go up.

This family is quick to point out that the move to Israel is not going to make their life problem free by any means. The husband is going to be a commuter from Israel to the States because his business is not transplantable to Israel and parnoseh is needed. This is going to cut into family life as they know it now--daddy won't be home for every night nor for every Shabbos. The full responsibility for family life will fall on the mom's shoulders, and she will be working full time. The kids won't have their grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins around. They will be leaving all of their friends behind. BUT they will be cutting their yeshiva tuition bill by more than 3/4 of what they pay now. Their insurance bills will also be cut. The difference will give them some financial breathing room.

Yes, at least in theory, we should all be making plans to head to Israel to live. And we also know that for many reasons and for many people this just isn't possible, at least now or in the forseeable future. I think it's a sad commentary on what is happening in our frum communities that the decision to make aliyah may be based on the cost of tuition in yeshivas here in the States. What's more, I expect that we'll be hearing a lot more stories of young families making just this type of decision. Those who head up our yeshivas are far too sanguine about continued, steady applicants to their schools. If this one family can be making the decision to move because tuition has become ghastly, there will surely be others.

While I wish this family hatzlachah with their move, I can't help but think that our communities need a real wakeup call. With all the talking and yelling going on about tuition there has still been almost nothing or very little done not just to address the problem but to solve it.

A New Super Hero for the Times

StandWithUs, a pro-Israel organization, has just introduced a new "super hero"--Captain Israel. You can view the new comic at the link below.

http://www.captisrael.com/issue_1/

For information on the organization go to the link below.
http://www.standwithus.com/

The World Needs to Rethink about Israel

An excellent article that appeared today in the JWR, authored by Melanie Phillips, a British journalist and author of, most recently, Londonistan. She is best known for her controversial column about political and social issues which currently appears in the Daily Mail. She was awarded the Orwell Prize for journalism in 1996.
Adapted from an address to the Ariel Conference on Law and Mass Media, 30 December 2010.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0111/phillips011011.php3

A Petition Worth Signing

No one has ever called the UN a bastion of objective truth. UNESCO, as part of the UN, clearly needs an "English teacher lesson" on the difference between fiction and non-fiction. The link below is to a petition protesting UNESCO's "ruling that Israel has no right to add the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, where almost all of Israel's patriarchs and matriarchs are buried, to the National Heritage list. It also protests " the decision by UNESCO to re-label as an Islamic mosque the tomb of Rachel, Israel's other matriarch, and to demand that Israel remove the site from its National Heritage list."

There are almost 23,000 signatures to date. Whatever the outcome will be--and given that this is the UN we are talking about that outcome may not be what we would want it to be--let the UN clearly understand and see that thousands upon thousands of people know the truth and are willing to say so. Whatever UNESCO is peddling, truth isn't it.

And please take a moment to send the link to those on your email list. This is one way to let our voices be heard.

http://www.petitiononline.com/rabbiv/petition.html

Media Objectivity? In What World!

Yet again the media are showing that the words fair and objective cannot be applied to them. We now have the case of Elias Abuelazam, a serial killer, whom the media are identifying as Israeli. So, what comes to your mind immediately when you hear the word Israeli? That's right, Jew. And that connection isn't an accidental one on the part of the media. It's what they want you to think.

Only it happens that Abuelazam is an Arab Christian who just happens to live in Israel. That's not the picture the media want you getting. Amazing how they can spell the word Arab when it suits their purposes, particularly when they want to show those "poor" Arabs as the victims of Israeli/Jewish aggression. But let the shoe be shown to be on the other foot and suddenly they find that Israeli is just the right word to use. Do they truly believe that the whole world is that dumb?! Apparently they do.

For the Rebbetzin's Husband's take, go to

http://rechovot.blogspot.com/

That's Color, Not Black and White

Please pop on over to Ser and Ez to see 1948 Israel--in Color. A treasure trove of color film from the 40s through 60s documenting life in Israel during this time period, as well as some footage of post war Europe.

http://serandez.blogspot.com/

...lovely as a tree

Sometimes I can read news reports objectively; other times I have what I feel is a personal stake in what is happening and yes, my view is more subjective than objective.

This week there were some major fires in Israel. While the reports I read did say that some firefighters had to be treated for injuries, there were no reported deaths. But yes there were, even if they weren't the kind that news people usually consider deaths.

I remember the efforts of the JNF when I was a child to get trees planted in Israel. Certificates to plant a tree were sold, and I remember getting some of those as gifts from my parents instead of yet another toy or tchatchke. Growing up in Oregon we were very tree oriented, and I remember being happy that the desert would, at least in some places, be planted over with beautiful trees. We considered those our "personal" trees, a part of us that was growing in our medinah.

The Jerusalem Post reported that "The fires consumed more than 3000 dunams (300 hectares/750 acres) of forests and open spaces and 300,000 trees went up in flames." 300,000 trees died this week, trees that took years to come to maturity. And yes, I wondered if any of those trees were "my" trees, the trees of my youth that I had such happy thoughts about. To try and imagine how much effort and time it will take to try and replace the burned out forrests is just mind boggling. And then to read further that it is believed that most of the fires were as a result of arson?

This wasn't the end I ever visualized for my trees, and I imagine that no one else who contributed to their being planted did either. The poet was not wrong when he penned the lines "I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree." How sad that nature should have been defiled in this way.

On Israel

I was taken to task by a commenter on a different posting as regards Israel. That posting was on OOT as a viable alternative to living in the NY Metropolitan area.

I can't officially say why others are not considering a move to Israel (although unofficially I really could as this has been the topic of conversation more than once). I do know, however, why we are not there. And even as I write this I also know there are going to be people who are sneering self-righteously and saying that living in Israel tops any reasons I have. So be it.

When I first got married it was my husband's and my intention to make aliyah. Early on I was sent to scope things out and see which community would be good for us to live in. We ran into a big stumbling block. The profession my husband had trained for and was working in was simply not available in Israel back then. That was a major problem. The profession I was in paid half a pittance. We weren't going to have parnoseh if we moved. And then there was family that was in Israel at the time. Some of that family was plain and simple not frum. The other part of the family was frum out of sight, and to them we were not exactly what they were looking for. It was going to make close family relations difficult. We weren't going to have a reliable family safety net. And then my father died and left my mom a fairly young widow with youngish children. And my father in law got ill. In short, real life got in the way of any plans we may have had.

Fast forward to now. We are nearing retirement. Why aren't we moving to Israel instead of the wilds of Nevada? Which part of my mother's being 86 do I have to explain? We are going nowhere that is more than a few hours traveling from where my mom is, and since she is planning on spending a good portion of the year with us, that traveling is as far as one bedroom to another. And no, she is not making aliyah at her age, and she isn't leaving her kids, her grandchildren and her great grandchildren behind.

And then there are our children. They, too, love Israel but they, too, have professions that are hard if not impossible to transfer to Israel. The difference in living costs from Israel to here would not make up for that drop in salary. And no, I don't wish those commuter marriages on them. One younger couple from our neighborhood who made aliyah with the husband commuting back to the states is now divorced. A second couple moved back here to solve the real shalom bayis problems. No, I don't wish poverty and dependence on state services on my children, nor being married but only sometimes. And if I then suddenly had to kick in the money so that they could have a secure financial footing, my financial footing would go in the toilet.

So yes, job and earning opportunities and close family relations are key factors as to why my family is here, not in Israel. Not every dream comes true--grown ups know this; children assume they can have everything they want.

I do Hereby Nominate....

Most of the bloggers in the J-blog world I do not know personally, only by what they write. I could be sitting next to them somewhere and never know our J-blog connection. However, there are a couple of exceptions: bloggers that I do know, and I know them because they are former students of mine.

I'd like to draw your attention to one of those students. As you may be aware, Nefesh B'Nefesh is sponsoring a contest to send a J-blogger to Israel for the dual purposes of taking a NBN flight to Israel and reporting back on that trip on their blog, and to attend the second annual J-blogger convention in Israel. Jewish bloggers were asked to nominate someone to be the person NBN sends to Israel. There are many fine bloggers in the J-blogosphere, but my nominee is bad4shidduchim. Here is what I can personally attest to about b4s:

**When she commits to something she commits 1,000,000%. She never gives up.

**She is a fine writer with an excellent eye for detail, a pithy way with words, and the ability to make things come alive for her readers, of which there are many.

**She is an empathetic listener. Put her on that NBN flight and people are going to tell her things that they just might not tell someone else.

**I have never seen her at a loss for words. She may be startled, or even stunned, by a particular turn of events, but she recovers in record time, and her verbal take on what has just happened is usually spot on.

**She has a well honed sense of balance. She clearly has personal opinions on things, and is not shy about stating those opinions, but she is more than willing to listen to those with differing opinions; she won't exclude someone just because they disagree on something. Nor have I ever heard her put forth her opinions as the ONLY opinions that matter or that could possibly be correct. If b4 reports you will hear ALL of what happened, not just those details that fit someone's narrower agenda. This leads to the next point.

**B4 tells the truth.

**As Ezzie pointed out in his nomination of her as well, the audience for b4's blog is one that NBN could benefit from.

I truly believe that NBN couldn't find a better blogger to send on this trip.

Hat tip to Ezzie for posting the following information on his blog.

Send your fellow blogger on a free round-trip visit to Israel!


Now’s your chance to select a Jewish blogger who will be flying on a Nefesh B’Nefesh charter Aliyah flight on Monday, September 7, 2009 and attend the Second International Jewish Bloggers Convention.

Nominate your fellow blogger with the "Send a Friend" form on the JBloggers.org website and with a post on your blog, and be sure to read the terms and conditions on the site to make sure your entry qualifies.

If you want to try to get on the flight, get a fellow blogger to nominate you.

http://jbloggers.org/send-a-friend

The terms are simple:

To nominate a fellow blogger, you must be registered to attend the convention
(in person or online).
The nominated blogger can be located in Israel or the U.S.
You must post on your blog who you nominated and why
(and obviously send us the information too).
The blogger you nominate does not need to be registered to attend the convention.
The nominated blogger must have a Jewish blog
(i.e. about Jews, Judaism, Israel, etc.).
The blogger who flies in will be linked up with an Oleh/Olah/Family, and must write a series of posts about that experience.
If you want to win, you must find a fellow blogger to nominate you.
You can nominate more than one blogger (but don’t go overboard).
All nominations must be in by Thursday, September 3, 2009.
The NBN flight to Israel is on Monday, Sept. 7, 2009.
Additional terms and conditions

The ticket is round-trip JFK-Israel.
No ground accommodations or any other expenses are included.
The winner will be selected by Nefesh B’Nefesh.

Why Be An Activist? Take a Look At This

If you want to see one reason why Jewish activism needs to wake itself up, take a look at Jameel's latest posting on the Muqata. Where is the public response to this provocation? Yes, yes, it's a matter of freedom of speech. So where's the Jewish speech that tells the real story? Where is our answer?
http://muqata.blogspot.com/2009/05/reason-217-for-hating-albuquerque.html