Tikkun Olam

They call themselves an "International" group, although the names are Israeli and so is their phone number (and I detect a definite accent to some of their English). My intrepid research staff in London (yes, the infamous M ) sent me this . Leave it to Yidden , if they can't debate you to death, they'll sing you onto the floor while you're laughing hysterically and peeing in your pants. And they're not even paying me to post this. Heck, I'm not even waiting for their reply to my email--just watch the video (Simon Cowell, eat your heart out):

I'm also on a diet. I am half-heartedly trying to lose x number of pounds (kilos, for my Israeli friends and family. Actually, my weight sounds a lot better in kilos. . . ). I say "half-heartedly," not because my heart isn't in it--it is--but rather because ( על חטא שחטאתי לפניך ...) I enjoy food. And also eating it. I'm not a gourmet, but probably (alas) more of a. . . gourmand . I said it. And now the whole world knows (or, only that tiny little portion who reads this blog; not so bad, really. . . ) And to my utter dismay, just when I am finally back down to where I was just before Pesach , of all things-- Shavuot has to come up. All of a sudden! You'd think that I'd be prepared, I've been counting the Omer so diligently since Pesach-yes, with a bracha (-eat yer hearts out) But I'm not. I am not prepared to pass over (heh heh, 'pass over,' get it?) cheese cake and spinach cheese quiche and milchig noodle kugel and ice cream with ...

To listen to President Obama speak about the Middle East, you'd think he was the fairest, most intelligent, reasonable leader the United States has had in a long time. All he wants is peace between the Jewish state and the Arab states, and in a civilized world, civilized man reasons intellectually with his fellow man rather than resorts to primitive actions such as physical violence. It sounds good, really it does. That is what one would expect from an intelligent, reasonable man or woman. I think he's forgotten one minor thing, though: reasoning has a smidgen of a chance of working only if both sides use reasoning towards conflict resolution . The so-called Palestinians don't. So at the first meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in Washington D.C., there was a slight difference of opinion: Bama thinks Israel should stop the Judaisizing of the "occupied territories" (read: Yehudah & Shomron=Judea and Samaria) by stopping and dis...

(I think I'm forgetting how to blog.) The Downturn In The Economy finally came home to roost in the last week of April: my husband was laid off from his job. In the interim between then and now, we have been making calculations and trying to configure what we will need in order to stay where we are, i.e., have a roof over our heads and food on the table (forget clothing; we wear twenty-year-old stuff anyway). Meanwhile, hubby is applying for jobs all over, not only here where we currently live, but wherever there is anything remotely related to his expertise and experience. In this economy, and at our stage in life, we have to retool ourselves and adapt to a changing world. The internet (as much as I love it) has impacted the information-disseminating professions, specifically--newspapers--in a profound, and negative way. The revenue models are changing, with the advent of "it's on the internet, it's FREE." Anyone can anonymously spout what is purportedly calle...

You don't see this happening on the highway in the States on Memorial Day: And as far as Yom HaShoah goes (which I posted about previously), I believe that this is an appropriate response from the Jewish People to the world at large:

So it turns out that my daughter was chosen to sing, not only the two songs I mentioned in my post of April 18th, Yom haShoah-Never Again (scroll down), but also a third one called in Hebrew Punar . I am ashamed to say that I had never heard of it. So I looked it up. It seems that between July 1941 and August 1944, near the railway station of Paneriai , a suburb of Vilnius, where the Nazis, (yimach shemam*) in their goal of murdering every living Jew in Lithuania, massacred 100,000 people, mostly Jews, along with Poles and Russians. The site--to which tours are brought to learn the history of what ensued there-- is referred to as the site of The Ponary Massacre . And we are oh so grateful that Ahmadinejad might have 'dropped' the Holocaust denial from his speech vilifying Israel. So grateful. . . Punar. *may their name be erased.

First, let me announce that Haveil Havalim #213 is up at The Real Shliach, here . This has been going around the email circuit. I have received it several times, and decided it is worth posting now, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The cartoonist is Wiley Miller , producer of the cartoon strip Non Sequitur . Never forget. *Copyright alert: No infringement of any text or graphic copyright is ever intended on this blog. If you own the copyright to any original image or document used for the creation of the graphics or information on this site, please contact the blog administrator with all pertinent info so that proper credit can be given. If you wish to have it removed from the site, just say the word; it shall be, ASAP