Tikkun Olam

Did you know that in Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called "Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Heroism?"  In transliteration it is: Yom Zikaron HaShoah ve-HaGevurah. We Jews are the only people who have constantly , in every generation through the centuries been vilified, persecuted, murdered, and victims of genocide--and for whom the world has done very little to nothing--basically looked the other way.  The United States did not allow Jewish refugees desperately trying to escape Nazified Europe on rickety ships to enter the country. Britain didn't allow Jews who tried to escape their future murderers by entering the ancient land of their people, then still called Palestine (an insulting name given it by the Romans after their conquest of Judea).  These aforementioned refugees were sent back into hell and returned to be murdered. That is why we have a State of Israel.  Because Nazism and anti-Semitism aren't dead, and they aren't even dormant: ...

In difficult times, we humans, when confronted with evil, an overwhelming enemy, or an uncertain, frightening future, sometimes secretly long for a super-human savior, someone who is stronger than mankind, and is able to fight for us and protect us-like, say, Superman, or Batman. We, as well as the rest of the world,  are living in times like these at least since the atrocity of 9/11, but really much earlier than that: recall the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing , the 2000 USS Cole bombing , just to name a few.  We were in a long, drawn-out war in Iraq and are still in a long, drawn-out war in Afghanistan, neither of which have completely defeated the Taliban or Al Qaeda.  We are still threatened by terror attacks and suicide bombers globally, on our subways, in our malls, at our bases.  Maybe this is why the new Marvel (remember Marvel Comics and Captain America? Iron Man?) movie  just released, Th...

With the arrival on April 15th, 2012 and the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the luxury ship RMS Titanic , its story is ubiquitous. There are hundreds of articles written about it everywhere, and the 3-D remake of the 1997 box office smash Titanic has just opened in theatres. But how many of you have heard of a quite different-type of ship, which sank on February 24th, 1942, during Word War II, that in addition to being a "tragedy" was also an atrocity, perpetrated by commission, by at least four countries: Romania, Turkey, Britain and Russia; and by omission, by the rest of the Free World.  The name of this ship was the S.S. Struma , chartered in December, 1941 by Jews desperate to escape the Nazi regime in Romania to seek safe haven in Israel, then called Palestine.  There were 769 passengers on board, including 269 women and 103 children, who were lied to about being promised legal entry into Palestine, and lied to about the ship and its condition: they were told it...

I haven't blogged since August 6th.  Good thing I didn't sign up for "Nablopomo" (National Blog Posting Month) for August.  I would have been run out of town for noncompliance.  My time has been taken up with resume (curriculum vitae to some) editing and interviews.  I am actively seeking work, and between that, and guests who stayed over last Shabbat involving much preparation, I was a victim of "so many____(fill in the blank with everything I did last week and this), so little time." It's interesting to note that even though daily blogging became slightly stressful at times (when will I write? What will I write?!), it kept me in practice, and honed my skills, if you can call this a 'skill.'  Now that I have not blogged in exactly one week, I feel somewhat rusty. It's not as if there is no news to blog about. I think there is plenty--there almost always is.  Some examples?  How about Russia loading fuel into Iran's nuclear reactor ...

Yesterday I was not feeling well. After suffering chills and exteme fatique during the day--I managed to make through four hours of work (contract)--I went home and went to bed at 3:30 p.m. An hour and a half later, upon waking up, I realized that I was still weak and couldn't concentrate, so I cancelled the classes I was supposed to teach that night, and went to bed for the night at 8:19 p.m. I am feeling a little better this morning, and I have to--because we are volunteering at the Lamp Lighter Tribute tonight, on the occasion of the first yahrtzeit of the deaths of Rav Gavriel Noach and Rebbetzin Rivka Holtzberg, ztz"l, who were brutally murdered last year, November 26th, 2008, during the terror attacks in Mumbai, India. There is no need to repeat the praises about the Holtzbergs and the work they did as Chabad shluchim in Mumbai, because everyone in the tribe knows how wonderful they were, what good they did, what kindnesses they showed to strangers, and how they brou...

It's all over the news: Gunman Opens Fire at Holocaust Museum . It is a terrible thing, that this excuse for a human being-a Nazi lover, racist and antisemite- murdered a young married security guard, only 39 years old. President Obama responded with a statement of condolences for the slain guard's family, and he also said this: "This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world." This is where democracy works against itself. In order to build "a more peaceful and tolerant world," we have to act to eliminate those who would harm the decent people of the world and who resort to violence. In other words, in order to create a more tolerant world, we have to be, ourselves, in...