Tikkun Olam

In addition to the few and far-in-between lone Arab voices out there (though thankfully their ranks are increasing) who are vociferously pro-Israel, among them Wafa Sultan , Brigitte Gabriel the founder of American Congress for Truth,  Joseph Farah of World Net Daily (an American of Arab descent), and more recently Mosab Hassan Yousef , the son of a Hamas leader--who renounced Islam, converted to Christianity and spied for Israel for ten years--there has just been created a new organization which is pro-Israel, pro-Zionist, anti-two state solution and pro one-state-solution: the State of Israel--by a Palestinian Arab. Elias Issa, from Judea-Samaria (referred to in the media as the "West Bank") has stated on his website the Palestinian Zionist Organization , that Palestinian leaders and spokesmen have lied to the world about the causes of Arab terrorism; that their jihad against Israel has nothing to do with the Israeli 'occupation' of Judea and Samaria, and that ...

Although slightly after-the-fact of Israel's celebration of it's 62nd Independence Day, here is a video outlining many positive and wonderful acts which Israel has accomplished, facts the world either does not know, or chooses to ignore (hat tip Arlene from Israel , April 28th, 2010). Instead, the world doesn't say or do too much about true human rights violations such as subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia, rape, murder and genocide of various tribal or ethnic groups, attacks on free speech and death threats to cartoonists for example, perpetrated by others over the years (think Rwanda , Darfur , Turkish mass murder of Armenians , Theo Van Gogh , South Park , etc.) For deep pathological reasons (which subject I will return to in a future post), the global community is again placing the blame for all the world's ills on. . . Israel and the Jews. Here is the truth about. . . Israel and the Jews :

The newest Haveil Havalim, often known merely as "HH", is up and running at Blog d'Elisson .  It's number 264.  Or not.  Read it.  Thank you.

I have been reading several articles now about 'calling a spade a spade' and 'telling it like it is.'  It seems people are beginning to snap back from this political correctness of kowtowing to the Muslims and stating that we are 'not at war with Islam' and that 'Islam is the religion of peace.' I hope this is true.  I hope this movement, if it even is a movement, will counteract the withdrawal of 'offensive' South Park episodes and the withdrawal of 'offensive' cartoons.  What are we waiting for? For the next artistic director, or writer, or cartoonist to be murdered in cold blood in the name of Islam? How stupid can we be? Here are but two great examples of what everyone should be doing: speaking out, standing up for free speech, and calling evil by its real name. And Islam is one of them. Mike Adams has a wonderfully sarcastic way of standing up to those who threatened the creators of South Park.  He wrote letters addressed to ...

 I was reading comments on another blog, and one commenter related a joke, which was pretty funny, but got me to thinking about Judaism, and and change.  Some change can be good, and some change, unnecessary, and even bad. This was the joke: An old man goes to visit his nonobservant grandson. He asks, "What's that on your necklace?" The young man proudly says, "It's my mezuzah! See, I'm proud to be Jewish!" The old man goes to the door and starts looking around the doorway. "What are you looking for, Pops?" "I'm looking for your tzitzis!" I am throwing this post out there for discussion, as I could be wrong (moi? never!), and anyway I would love to dialogue with my readers, many who might be more knowledgeable than I. For centuries, Judaism - and I am speaking of Ashkenazic Judaism, because that is my background, and I know less about the Sephardic stream - was more or less unchanged.  A "Jew" was n...

I always defined myself as a mother of my children.  I even have that description in my "about" page on my blog.  It is so true: I used to be--many, many snows ago--the original "Earth Mother".  I have a mental image of me, walking somewhere with four children: with an older child (ten, perhaps?) pushing a little one in a stroller, my holding a four-year old's hand, and an older baby in a backpack on my back.  I so loved being pregnant, having children, raising them--just being a mother.  That is how I defined myself, for years and years (I have five, Baruch Hashem).  And then, without warning, everything changed.  It's funny how I was not even aware of it; my eldest had moved out of the house long before (there is a 17 year difference between her and my youngest).  Then, in 2003, my sons moved out together--to live overseas.  And in 2004, my baby, then only fifteen, moved to that same country to attend three years of high school and then, ...

Simply Jews says it's number 263. . . I say it's #265. . . whatever!   It's up, so just read it, okay? I was never good at math, anyway (if I'm right, you can thank me later).

Thank you to Arlene Kushner for alerting us to this video.  Visit her website for comprehensive and thoughtful information on Israel and the related political climate in the United States. You might also want to go to this site (thanks again to Arlene Kushner) and see how the Arabs treated the Jewish residents of the Jewish Quarter in the old city in 1948--oh, and that was before the "Israeli occupation" of 1967.  Try Arab Occupation of 1948 .

This is not a propaganda piece.  Manhigut Yehudit ( Jewish Israel.org ) doesn't even know that I'm posting this (although maybe I should tell them).  I am posting this for the entire Jewish People, because I see, at this time, no other option: there is no one else out there with the vision of Moshe Feiglin. But mainly,  I am posting this for my children.

Apparently Judge Richard Goldstone is persona non grata, at least to some of his family members, which prompted his decision not to attend his grandson's bar-mitzvah . Judge Richard Goldstone, who headed a war crimes probe that has infuriated Israel and Jewish communities around the world, will not be attending his grandson’s bar mitzva in Johannesburg next month, according to a South African newspaper. Goldstone will not be present when his grandson performs the religious rite, following an agreement between the family, the South African Zionist Organization (SAZF) and the Beith Hamedrash Hagadol synagogue in Sandton, where the event will take place, the South African Jewish Report said.  I mean, would you want him in your family?

It had been evident from the start--from the beginning of the campaign when we began learning about that hitherto unknown entity called Barack Hussein Obama--that he was not totally enamored with Israel. There were so many clues, such as his membership for years in a Christian church with a radical, anti-White, anti-Jewish pastor , and Mr. Obama's nefarious connections with Bill Ayers , to name just a few.  He just seemed not to like these United States. These affiliations over the years should have meant something to the American people, but apparently they were looking for the American Idol and had stars in their eyes , and only heard the flowery rhetoric, especially pleasing to the ears after eight years of totally inarticulate G. W. Bush. Now we are faced with an American president who seems to actively dislike Israel.  From the Washington Examiner , by John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the U. N.: Consider, for example, Obama's September 2009 U.N. General As...

This post actually began its life as a reply to a comment about how Hebrew unites all Jews, on the FrumSatire blog, until I realized that it was turning into a post.  So here it is. Esther, you have a valid question.  Yiddish, most recently, is the language which united Eastern European Jews whose parents and grandparents emigrated (those who survived the Sho'ah) from there; it was the vernacular of the Ashkenazim, those Jews who, after the expulsion from Spain settled in Germany and surrounding areas of Eastern Europe .  I too, wish that I knew more Yiddish than I do, which is mainly only isolated words and phrases. Your question, 'how does Hebrew unite the Jews,' is a very sad one.  There was a time which lasted for centuries, when the Hebrew language--the language of the Torah--was a universal language for Jews all over the world.  No matter where they lived or what language they spoke in their adopted countries, the lingua franca of the Jews was alwa...

The Huffington Post featured a good article by the former Mayor of New York City, Mr. Ed Koch , in which he assesses President Obama's bad policy towards Israel. He contrasts Obama's attitude towards Israel with his reactions towards the Karzai government in Afghanistan, and sums it up thus (emphasis added): I weep today because my president, Barack Obama, in a few weeks has changed the relationship between the U.S. and Israel from that of closest of allies to one in which there is an absence of trust on both sides. The contrast between how the president and his administration deals with Israel and how it has decided to deal with the Karzai administration in Afghanistan is striking. The Karzai administration, which operates a corrupt and opium-producing state, refuses to change its corrupt ways - the president's own brother is believed by many to run the drug traffic taking place in Afghanistan - and shows the utmost contempt for the U.S. is being ha...

In addition to being there to protect the Jewish People, another reason for Israel's existence--for those who have the audacity to question it--is that it serves as the the world's conscience. Hat tip, A Soldier's Mother .

As seen on Undhimmi : for all of us, for all time. For the sake of life on this Earth. We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers From Prague, Paris and Amsterdam, And because we are only made of fabric and leather And not of blood and flesh, Each one of us avoided the hellfire – Moshe Szulsztein, Yiddish Poet Never, ever forget. (And I add: NEVER AGAIN .) *Yom Zicharon HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day

. . .and running at Frume Sarah's, here . So what are you waiting for? Go, seek--and ye shall READ!

I was totally dismayed when I read on the first day of chol ha-mo’ed Pesach, an article entitled Offensive Liturgy in the Passover Seder: Take It Out , by Joshua Stanton. In the article he described his personal seder and highlighted a passage in the Haggadah which he termed “offensive,” and at which (he wrote) the Jewish guests winced. He made a point to say that the non-Jewish guests were not the ones who were offended, but that the Jewish participants cringed at reading those words. And then, he proposed removing this “offensive” passage from the Haggadah entirely. What is this special paragraph, and why was it considered so offensive? This behooves a little historical background : the Haggadah* which has the order of the Seder* and is read on Seder night, was codified into booklet form around the thirteenth century. Before then, it had been appended to the Hebrew prayer book, the siddur. It itself dates back to the period of the Tannaim, who compiled the Mishna part of the Talm...

With the stress of eight people living here for Pesach, the normal whirlwind of the holiday and my being sick with severe bronchitis for the entire chag, I didn't get to  post the notice of Haveil Havalim, the Jewish Blog Carnival, let alone post since the beginning of the chag. So here it is, folks, the latest Haveil Havalim #263 at Super Raizy's --better late than never--and better read it fast, too, 'cause the next one will be out this Sunday. Hope everyone had a wonderful Pesach!