Religion
By Amy Fagan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published March 3, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The House yesterday approved legislation that would allow
faith-based groups to receive federal job-training money while
continuing to hire workers only of a particular religious faith.
The hiring language prompted a lengthy floor fight yesterday from
Democrats who said it amounts to discrimination.
The measure was included in a bill that reauthorizes the Workforce
Investment Act, consolidating funding to eliminate duplication and
waste, requiring training programs to better reflect the needs of their
local areas, and creating personal re-employment accounts to help the
unemployed purchase job training.
The bill passed by a 224-200 vote, after Republicans defended the
hiring language. Four Democrats and 220 Republicans voted to pass the
overall bill against 191 Democrats, eight Republicans and one
independent.
"Many of these faith-based institutions provide assistance to the
hardest-to-serve individuals," said Rep. John A. Boehner, Ohio
Republican and chairman of the House Education and the Workforce
Committee. "Why would we want to deny them the opportunity to help in
federal job-training efforts?"
The hiring language, sometimes called charitable choice, already
applies to several federal grant programs including welfare and
drug/alcohol rehabilitation programs. Adding it to job-training
programs under the House bill is just one aspect of a renewed effort by
the White House and congressional Republicans to jump-start faith-based
initiatives on Capitol Hill.
Senate Republicans yesterday said they will push a wide-ranging
anti-poverty agenda, including a commitment for partnerships with more
faith-based groups and legislation designed to spur charitable giving
through tax incentives.
President Bush on Tuesday reiterated his commitment to faith-based
groups -- most notably, calling on Congress to expand the hiring
language to other federal programs instead of just having it apply to
some.
"I want this issue resolved," Mr. Bush said. "Congress needs to
send me the same language protecting religious hiring that President
Clinton signed on four other occasions."
Republicans were encouraged. "The president was clearer than I've
ever heard him on the hiring freedom," said a Senate Republican aide.
House Democrats yesterday argued that the religious-hiring
provision in the job-training bill amounts to government-sanctioned
discrimination.
"This provision is offensive, ugly, wrong," said Rep. Jim McGovern,
Massachusetts Democrat. "It is a slippery slope from here on out and I
fear this is just the beginning."
Republicans said religious groups shouldn't have to change their
nature in order to receive funds to help people.
"Receipt of federal funds should not be conditioned on a
faith-based organization's giving up part of its religious identity and
mission," read a White House statement of policy, supporting the
job-training bill.
Rep. Robert C. Scott, Virginia Democrat, offered an amendment to
strip the hiring language, but it was defeated on a 239-186 vote, with
14 Democrats joining 225 Republicans in voting against it. Three
Republicans joined 182 Democrats and one independent in supporting the
amendment.
Meanwhile, Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, said he
will try again to enact the Charitable Giving Act that passed both
chambers last Congress but stalled before it became law. The measure is
part of a broader Senate Republican anti-poverty agenda that includes
welfare reform reauthorization, low-income housing assistance and
funding programs to reduce recidivism rates in prisons.
Mr. Santorum's bill is a much narrower version of Mr. Bush's
original 2001 faith-based measure, which stalled in the Senate because
it expanded charitable choice across the government. The narrower bill
would allow taxpayers to deduct charitable contributions even if they
don't itemize and provide incentives for farmers, restaurants and
businesses to donate food.
Fallen astronaut's diary recovered
Experts piece together notebook used by Israeli during Columbia mission
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:45 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2005
NEW ORLEANS - A small heap of paper that survived the fiery
disintegration of space shuttle Columbia, a 38-mile fall to Earth and
two months of exposure to rain and sun in a Texas field has been
painstakingly restored by forensic scientists, yielding the flight
diary and notes of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.
Scientists used computer image-enhancement technology and infrared
light to read the charred and tattered pages and pieced some of them
together like jigsaw puzzles.
Not everything could be deciphered. But Sharon Brown, the Israeli
police document examiner who pieced the material together, said she was
amazed that the metal-ring cardboard-bound notebook had even survived.
"You know what a lit match could do to that pile of papers," she
said this week at a convention in New Orleans of forensic scientists.
Text of a Sabbath blessing
She would not disclose any personal observations by the astronaut, one
of the seven crewmen killed when the shuttle broke apart in February
2003. But the pages included a list of topics Ramon planned to talk
about during broadcasts from space, and the carefully copied-down text
of the Sabbath kiddush, the blessing for wine.
All together, 18 pages handwritten in Hebrew were recovered: Four
sheets held Ramon's diary during the flight; six were technical
classroom notes that had been made before launch; and eight were
personal notes, also written before liftoff.
On some pages, the writing was washed out. Some sheets were tattered
and torn, pocked with tiny irregular holes as if debris had ripped
through them. Pieces were twisted into tightly crumpled wads smaller
than a fingernail. Some pages were stuck tightly together and had to be
delicately pried apart.
Brown said she had been asked if she was afraid she would destroy the
shreds by opening them up. "I said, 'You're right. But if I do
nothing, we'll lose it all,"' she recalled.
Papers found two months after disaster
Ramon, an Israeli war hero, was his country's first astronaut. An
Indian tracker found the papers two months after the shuttle disaster.
Ramon's widow, Rona, asked Israeli police to find out what he had
written. After 1½ years, Brown still has two pages of writing she has
not been able to decipher.
On one section where the writing had been washed out by rain, neither
infrared nor ultraviolet light was any help. Brown took the pages to a
colleague who scanned them into a computer and processed them with
photo-editing software, using techniques to enhance contrast and
separate the writing from the background.
The diary, written in black ink and pencil, covers only the first six
days of the 16-day mission. "We don't know whether he just stopped
writing, or ran out of paper, or other pages were destroyed," Brown
said.
She said that because the notebook was the personal property of
Ramon's widow, she tried to piece it together without actually
reading it, as if it were a puzzle in a language she had never seen.
"But very soon, I realized that was exactly the opposite of what I
had to do," Brown said. She said she could not piece it together
without understanding it.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7034817/
מידע כללי ונתונים
24/08/2004
מידע עכשוי - דרכי טרור
פיתוח, ייצור ושיגור רקטות 'קסאם'
מרצועת עזה ע"י גורמי טרור - לחץ כאן
בתאריך ה- 29.9.04, הוציא השב"כ סיכום בו
מפורט 4 שנות עימות בין הישראלים
לפלסטינים. במסמך כלולים מספר נושאים
כגון: נתוניים כללים, שיתוף פעולה בין
אירגוני הטרור, מאפייני פעילות ארגון
ה"חזבאללה" מול השטחים, טילי הקסאם וכו' -
לחץ כאן
ה'חיזבאללה' מודה בפומבי בסיוע לטרור
הפלסטיני ב"שטחים" - לחץ כאן
שימוש בכלי תחבורה
ניצול ההקלות של צה"ל - העברת מבוקשים
באמבולנסים במסווה של חולים - לחץ כאן
שימוש במוניות להעברת אמצעי טרור - לחץ
כאן
"הצלת חיים": חגורת נפץ בתוך האמבולנס -
לחץ כאן
סיכול פיגוע התאבדות ומעצר פעיל תנזים
אתמול במחסום טובאס סמוך לשכם - לחץ כאן
נמנע פיגוע תופת באמצעות "טיסן עמוס
בחומרי נפץ" שבדרכו ליישוב ישראלי
ברצועת עזה - לחץ כאן
סוכל ניסיון פיגוע משולב של ארגוני
החמא"ס, הג'יהאד האיסלאמי והפת"ח - לחץ כאן
שני חיילי צה"ל נפצעו כתוצאה מג'יפ תופת -
לחץ כאן
נתפס רכב שעליו מחרטה לייצור אמצעי
לחימה - לחץ כאן
התפוצצות אופניים ממולכדים - לחץ כאן
10 שנות מאסר למבריחי האמל"ח בספינת הנשק
"סנטוריני" - לחץ כאן
בידוק כלי שייט ובו פרטים מחשידים
ועדויות להעברת ידע והנחיות לפעולות
טרור - לחץ כאן
סקירה שניתנה לאחר תפיסת ספינת האמל"ח
הפלסטינית "קארין A" - לחץ כאן
שימוש במוסדות ציבור
בית-חולים בעיר בית לחם בחסות הטרור - לחץ
כאן
אלבומים ומחברות בהם מוטמעים ערכי הערצת
החללים (ה"שהידים") והפיכתם למודל לחיקוי
- לחץ כאן
תקליטורים המופצים בשטחים מעידים על קשר
בין הטרור הפלסטיני לבין הטרור הצ'צ'ני
והאיסלאמי הבינלאומי - לחץ כאן
שימוש באוכלוסייה אזרחית פלסטינית
ילד פלסטיני בן 14 נעצר בשכם שעל גופו
חגורת נפץ - לחץ כאן
ניצול נערים וילדים ע"י ארגוני הטרור
לביצוע פיגועים, פעולות תומכות טרור
ופעילות אלימה נגד צה"ל - לחץ כאן
ילדים ונערים פלסטיניים מתחנכים על ברכי
הטרור - לחץ כאן
מחנות הקיץ ב"שטחים" ממשיכים להוות בידי
ה"רשות" ובידי ארגוני הטרור השונים
(ובראשם ה-"חמא"ס") כלי לאינדוקטרינציה
פוליטית ואידיאולוגית של בני הנוער
ולהכשרתם להמשך המאבק המזוין נגד ישראל -
לחץ כאן
בתוך מעגל הטרור- נשים פלסטיניות מחבלות
- לחץ כאן
marbl...@yahoo.com
18:50 Apr 06, '05 / 26 Adar 5765
(IsraelNN.com) Rabbi Dov Wolpe, affiliated with Chabad, called on
police who visited him to refuse orders to carry out the Gaza
Disengagement Plan.
Police visited Rabbi Wolpe in his Kiryat Gat home in connection to his
recent public statements calling on soldiers and police to disobey
orders to expel Jews from their homes.
Documents distributed recently by the rabbi call for insubordination
and actions including going to jail to prevent the implementation of
the Gaza plan
Lubavitcher
By CONOR BERRY
STAFF WRITER
Cape Cod Times
Within branches of the major world religions, from Christianity to
Judaism, life is viewed as a continuum that does not necessarily end
when the body dies.
There are specific rituals intended to comfort and guide mourners, and
sacramental ways of preparing the dead for the afterlife.
Whether it's a literal rebirth, reincarnation, or the transfer of the
soul and capacity to experience to another form in another realm, many
religions have pathways that must be taken before one life ends and
another begins.
Preparing the body and soul for death, or the afterlife in the case of
Roman Catholicism, is a common theme in many world religions. But few
faiths have as elaborate a ritual as the Catholic funeral Mass.
"The greatest source of hope and comfort we can give to people ... is
to be inserting our own thoughts and prayers for a person in the Mass,"
said the Rev. Roger J. Landry, parochial vicar of St. Francis Xavier
Church in Hyannis.
"The greatest gift we could give to someone we've loved who has died
before us is the prayer of the Mass.
"The most important part, from my perspective, is to give them hope
from Christ's own words and deeds. Christ has triumphed over death and
wants to give us a share in his life."
Landry said Catholics believe the Mass is a participation in the Last
Supper of Christ, his suffering, death on the cross and resurrection.
And that, he said, "has saved us and set us free."
Death, for Catholics, is the passage from this life to an everlasting
one promised by Christ. And the souls of the dead go on to an afterlife
that includes purgatory, heaven and hell - the three receptacles for
the soul.
"For Catholics who live and die in Jesus ... that life has changed, not
ended," said Landry, explaining why the funeral Mass is comforting.
"Purgatory is like the vestibule of heaven. And all those who are in
purgatory will one day be in heaven. Some sooner than others."
One must be free of sin to get into heaven, according to Catholic
doctrine, and those who die in mortal sin are bound for hell. The wake
is the first step in mourning process, though not a church requirement.
"Wake means a vigil, literally," Landry said, and includes the
recitation of specific prayers.
The funeral Mass, or remembrance of the life of Jesus, is an involved
ceremony in which a priest relates Christ's life to that of the
deceased. There is also a final graveside farewell at which additional
prayers are read.
"The body is planted in the ground like a seed so that God and the last
day can raise it up to an eternal flourishing," said Landry.
Similar to Catholic doctrine, Orthodox Jews believe death in this life
will eventually lead to resurrection in a world to come.
But more liberal branches of Judaism do not proclaim explicit knowledge
of what happens to the soul after death, said Rabbi Elias Lieberman,
head of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation in East Falmouth.
As a reform Jew, he said, "I certainly represent a liberal branch of
Judaism, which doesn't follow this line."
Lieberman believes that after death the "body will die and return to
the elements," he said. "We do believe in a soul or consciousness that
has an existence beyond the death of the body."
In traditional Judaism, the dead are buried as soon as possible. The
body must be washed and purified, then, dressed in a plain linen shroud
and placed in plain wooden coffins, which remains closed. The Jewish
prayer honoring the dead, or the Kaddish, is recited. But the body is
never displayed.
"Jewish tradition says it's really wrong to display a body, denying
that person the right to say whether they would want to be displayed
publicly," Lieberman said.
The Jewish mourning period lasts a full year, after which a person's
yahrzeit, or yearly anniversary of the death, is celebrated. The ritual
of mourning gives people comfort and provides a structure "at a time
when making a decision is the most difficult thing they can do,"
Lieberman said.
"I think in every religious tradition ... the purpose of mourning is to
get the mourner through something very difficult and the existential
reality that all of us die and that none of us can say absolutely what
happens."
Rabbi Yekusiel Alperowitz, head of the Chabad Jewish Center in Hyannis,
an Orthodox congregation, said mourning allows the family of the
deceased to grieve and recall "the physical presence and the physical
relationship that they had during the course of that person's life
time.
"Part and parcel of that, we know that the soul returns to its source."
A soul came to this world and entered a body, he said, "and then it
becomes time for the soul to return."
Though Judaism understands that "as human beings we have the right to
express our feelings," he said, death is an acceptance of "God's
actions." Judaism's long, sequential grieving period allows people to
reflect upon the stages of life "and heal one's wounds," Alperowitz
said.
(Published: April 8, 2005)
Copyright © Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved.
Reb Moshe
Strip
Last update - 01:19 14/04/2005
By Nir Hasson
h a a r e t z . c o m
"We believe that what happens in the physical, also happens in the
spiritual," says David Kirschensaft, a member of the Chabad hassidic
movement, in explaining the construction of the first ultra-Orthodox
outpost in Gush Katif. Last Sunday, 20 young Chabad members arrived in
the Gaza Strip settlement bloc. They took a shack across from Neveh
Dekalim and made it into a synagogue. They added a tent, ritual bath
and bathrooms and have been living there ever since. Their presence
could have import for the disengagement: The young yeshiva students
declare they are the beginning of thousands of Chabad members who will
flood Gush Katif and physically block the removal of Jews from Gaza.
The new residents have been taken under the wing of Igal Kirschensaft,
a resident of Neveh Dekalim and a leading anti-pullout activist.
Kirschensaft's son David, 21, is the oldest of the new settlers and has
become their leader and spokesman for the group.
The youths moved into the outpost "Tiferet Israel," established by
local youths about six months ago in the face of IDF opposition. Then,
the Gush Katif youngsters built a shack on the site slated to become a
youth club.
Four and a half months ago, the Israel Defense Forces destroyed the
shack. It was promptly rebuilt, but has been largely deserted.
The Chabad members quickly set up the large army tent as sleeping
quarters. The shack was equipped with chairs and tables, and overnight
it became a yeshiva where they spend most of their days in Torah study.
About 30 meters away they dug an improvised mikveh ritual bath
surrounded by a temporary nylon shelter. "That was very easy, the sand
here is easy to dig; it's no accident the Palestinians manage to dig
tunnels here," one of the diggers said. They plan to cover the mikveh
walls with plastic next week and then fill it with seawater. "If,
heaven forfend, the disengagement takes place, thousands of Chabad
students will immerse themselves here. We are just the down payment,"
one of the boys promised.
Chabad members could become a serious opposition force during the
disengagement plan. A movement conference a month ago in Jerusalem came
out strongly against the plan and Chabad rabbis might call on its local
and overseas members to come to Gush Katif to physically block the
evacuation.
The younger Kirschensaft said the group is there to "save Gush Katif".
Another member of the group didn't miss the opportunity to remind
visitors to put on tefillin (phylacteries). "And don't forget to write
that the Messiah is coming," he said.
Lubavitcher
KSENIA SVETLOVA
THE JERUSALEM POST
Apr. 29, 2005
'Call us and get a free videotape! You can enjoy the movie Jesus for
free in Hebrew or in Russian. The movie is based on historical facts
and some of the actors are Israeli. Call today!"
This is just one of many flyers that Faina, who lives in the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel, finds in her mail almost every day. There
are also other tempting offers - "Get a free Bible," "A free tour in
Jerusalem - just for you!," "Have questions about faith? We can
answer them!"
The flyers, always in Russian and sometimes in Hebrew as well, never
mention their sponsors. They do, however, offer phone numbers where one
can obtain a Bible, arrange a tour or order a movie. Usually there is a
Russian-speaker at hand to help with any questions or dilemmas.
After calling for the free video myself, I was offered the opportunity
to learn more about the life of the "believers" here in Israel. The
voice on the other end also promised someone would contact me shortly
after the movie's delivery to my house, in order "to discuss it."
Further questions were answered reluctantly.
"You'd better come to one of our centers and find out for yourself. We
have communities in almost every city in Israel, so you can come and
watch the ceremonies. We will arrange for you to meet some of the
believers," said a woman who introduced herself as Svetlana.
"Who do you mean by 'we'?" I asked.
"We are the Messianic Jews," she answered.
In recent years, Messianic Judaism in Israel has experienced
extraordinary growth. Yevgeny, 25, has been approached by
representatives of Messianic Jews many times.
"Maybe I don't look Jewish enough, so they always try to talk to me in
the bus or in the bookshop. At first I thought that this is just
another variety of Jewish Orthodoxy, because of the way they look. They
often put a yarmulka on their heads, grow long beards and adopt Jewish
names, so naturally I thought that they were like the hassidim or the
Chabadnikim, and frankly speaking, I don't know much about either. But
after they'd offered to send me a free Bible and started talking about
baptizing, I realized that this was something totally different."
Messianic Jews consider themselves strictly Jewish: they read the Torah
and observe some of the Jewish holidays and traditions. They also
believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
"We are not at all a new organization or sect, God forbid," says
Eliezer Uzichenko, who immigrated to Israel from Ukraine in 1998, and
is one of the well-known figures in the community and a member of the
Beit Avinu congregation in the center of the country.
"We exist since the first century CE and we refuse to be called
Christians, because that's not what we are."
Uzichenko and his comrades have an answer for every question. He
explains that baptism, for example, is not a Christian tradition but a
Jewish one, having originated from the Jewish concept of ablution.
Messianic Jews also maintain that Israel is the Promised Land for Jews,
and believe passionately that every Jew must live here.
"Yes, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, but it doesn't make
us less Jewish than any other Jew," says Noam, another member of the
community, and the first non-Russian speaker I contacted. "If Chabad
Lubavitch are Jewish, then we are also Jewish. They believe that the
Lubavitcher Rebbe is the Messiah, in spite of much evidence that he is
not, and they did not stop being Jewish. That is also true for us."
But apparently neither the Chief Rabbinate nor the High Court of
Justice consider the Messianists to be Jews.
"It's a known fact that there is a sect of people that were born as
Jews and came to believe in Jesus Christ, who call themselves Messianic
Jews. Apparently it's important to them to stay attached to their
Jewish heritage, but Judaism repelled them and they cannot be
considered part of the Jewish community," says Justice Zvi Berenson.
The Yad L'achim organization believes that the word "Jews" opens a lot
of doors for the messianists, as many Russian immigrants do not know
the difference until it is too late.
"They are operating in a very clever way. And it's easy to mix them
with Jews, because of their appearance. A person who studied Judaism
will notice the catch and will detect the contradictions and lies. But
not somebody who lacks a fundamental education in Judaism," says Alex
(no connection to main story's Alex Artovsky), a 37-year-old who came
to Israel at the end of the 1980s from the Ukraine and does not
disclose his real name, though he serves as the official spokesman for
Yad L'Achim's anti-missionary division.
Although it is difficult to know the exact numbers, it is estimated
that there are more than 10,000 people in Israel who call themselves
Messianic Jews.
"You see, we are not what is called a pyramid-structured organization.
There are several communities and the estimated number of all the
members is slightly over 10,000," says Uzichenko. This figure is also
supported by Yad L'Achim, which claims that at least 50 percent of
these Messianic Jews are Russian immigrants - an estimate the
Messianic Jews themselves corroborate.
"More than 50% of my community [Beit Avinu] are Russian-speakers," says
Uzichenko, "although the numbers differ from region to region."
Messianic Jews have many centers in the former Soviet Union, especially
in Ukraine, where there is still a highly concentrated Jewish
population.
"There are many concerts, shows and charity activities going on there.
I personally know a boy, a Jewish Agency activist, by the way, who
became a missionary Jew and today he is engaged in missionary activity.
Many come to Israel after they have joined the Messianic Jews," says
Irina, who immigrated from Ukraine three years ago.
The representatives of various Messianic organizations are eager to
explain that they are not engaged in any missionary activities, but
simply distribute information to anybody who is interested.
"The real missionaries are the Orthodox Jews, who enroll in their
schools hundreds of thousands of new immigrants without telling them
the truth," says Noam, who is frustrated with what he calls "a common
mix-up" and refuses any notion that he is Christian.
"Yes, we distribute films and books, but we have never forced anybody
to join us or to listen to us, and we have the right to disseminate the
information about our organization just like everybody else," says
Uzichenko, who stresses that luring people into the faith with money or
gifts of any kind is wrong.
"It was much easier for us before to spot the missionaries, "says Alex,
"because they used to dress as priests, monks, etc. But nowadays it
becomes quite difficult, since they look just like you and me and you
can never tell who is who. So we developed a special system of
informants: we work just like the Shin Bet and we have our people in
every community to tell us what is going on and who will be their next
target."
There is no explicit law in Israel that forbids missionary activity per
se. There is a law that forbids missionary activity among minors and a
law that forbids giving material inducements to change faith, but
apparently, neither law is being enforced.
"We complained about the actions of one of the missionaries in Tel Aviv
who tried to convert a 17-year-old girl, but our complaint was never
taken seriously. The police think the complaint is nonsense, but in our
opinion what [the missionaries] do is equal to killing, because they
destroy the heart of the Jewish nation," says Alex.
Indeed, Yad L'Achim says the groups it watches don't seem to be worried
about being arrested or prosecuted for missionary activity.
"As far as I know, these laws are hardly implemented, so I think that
we would be fine," smiles Uzichenko.
Leonid Belozerkovsky, editor and owner of the Russian-language
newspaper Novosty Nedely, believes that if Russian immigrants knew more
about Judaism it would be more difficult to lure them to different
sects.
"Why do people turn to these kinds of organizations, whether they call
them Messianic Jews or Jehovah's Witnesses?" he asks. "Some of the
immigrants came with their non-Jewish spouses, and if a spouse becomes
a follower of a certain sect, the other one might join them. Others
just try to fill the spiritual void, they are searching for something,
but they don't know what, and if they meet an emissary of a certain
sect who claims he can fill this need, they will go for it. And there
are also others who are non-Jews, so they can do whatever they like."
Yad L'Achim believes the government could do more to help improve the
situation.
"The government should open a chain of ulpanim where immigrants could
learn about Judaism. Just the fundamental, basic stuff, so they could
learn more about Jewish history, the traditions, the holidays. What
happens is that people, especially the older generation, come to
Israel, study Hebrew more or less, but they never get to study about
the history of Israel and the Jewish nation. Unlike the US, where every
immigrant has to take a test on American history, there is no similar
demand in Israel. The government should invest more in the education of
its new citizens," says Alex.
Still, the question remains: how successful have the Messianic Jews in
Israel been in bringing new converts to their cause?
Belozerkovsky thinks that "en bloc" the Messianic Jews succeeded less
than they thought they would. "Russian immigrants are not at all eager
to change their faith, even if they know very little about it," he
believes.
But Alex thinks Messianic Jews pose a real threat to the existence of
the Jewish people. To him, "even one converted Jew is one too many."
Lubavitcher
by David Wilder
May 04, 2005
Passover is now behind us. The holiday was both relaxing and
invigorating - a chance to spend more time with the family and more
time with Am Yisrael. Here in Hebron, well over 30,000 visitors flocked
to the streets, partaking in tours of Ma'arat HaMachpela and all the
Jewish neighborhoods in the city. The pinnacle of Hebron's holiday came
on Tuesday, when thousands celebrated the dedication of Beit Menachem,
a new apartment building in the Admot Yishai-Tel Rumeida neighborhood.
The new structure, named for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem
Mendel Shneerson, z.tz.l., houses seven families and the Ohr Shlomo
Torah Center. Participating in the ceremonies were Rabbi Mordechai
Eliyahu, the former Chief Rabbi and Rishon L'Tzion, Rabbi Dov Lior,
Chief Rabbi of Hebron-Kiryat Arba, and Rabbi Leibel Gruner, former
secretary to the Rebbe. Speaker of the Knesset Rubi Rivlin, a staunch
friend of Hebron and an unwavering supporter of all Eretz Yisrael also
participated, and spoke not only about the significance of Hebron, but
also of the vital importance of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron.
Rivlin steadfastly opposes Sharon's plans to abandon these regions to
our enemies.
The dedication ceremonies included an official introduction to the Tel
Hebron Excavations, located directly under Beit Menachem. Fascinating
artifacts, dating back over four thousand five hundred years - i.e., to
the days of Noah - were discovered during this archeological dig, some
five years ago. Amongst the finds: a four thousand five hundred year
old wall, a four thousand year old road and house, and wine cisterns
only 1,500 years old. Archeologists also uncovered seals imprinted on
pottery from the era of King Hezekiah, some 2,700 years ago, which had
written on them, in ancient Hebrew, the word "Hebron". After these
seals were discovered, the archeologists told us, "If anyone had any
doubts as to whether this is the authentic site of ancient, Biblical
Hebron, those doubts have all been erased. We have positive proof that
Jews lived here from the days of Abraham."
Of course, celebrations could not have been complete without the
semi-annual Hebron music festival, outside Ma'arat HaMachpela, where
Israeli artists performed all afternoon for crowds of music-lovers.
However, this Passover, the limelight of activities was not only in
Hebron. All eyes were on Gush Katif and the northern Shomron, the focal
points of this spring's holiday. The tens and hundreds of thousands of
Jews who flooded these regions with a massive outpouring of love and
support proved again that Am Yisrael is bound to its land with all its
heart and soul. There were those who used these activities to eulogize
the twenty-six communities and their almost 10,000 residents, calling
the events a kind of 'last hurrah' or farewell. But in reality, these
outings were nothing of the sort. They were only a precursor to what
will occur should the Ariel Sharon expulsion plan actually begin. These
hundreds of thousands, and many more whose beliefs are identical, will
take to the streets on the day these areas are declared 'off-limits'
and if, G-d forbid, following Tisha b'Av, the police and army should
move in. The vibrant electricity that was in the air - the
determination never to give up, never relinquish our land, never to
lose faith, to continue to grow and build - was tangible.
I had never before visited the Homesh community, located in the
northern Shomron. In truth, standing at the neighborhood's highest
point, I could not believe my eyes. Looking west, the Mediterranean Sea
is clearly visible, only 30 to 40 kilometers away. From the top of
Homesh, you can see, on a clear day, from Netanya via Hadera to Tel
Aviv and further south, to Ashdod. It is truly unbelievable. No, not
the view - that, too, is breathtaking - rather, what is unbelievable
is that an Israeli prime minister initiated a plan to give this land,
free of charge, to our sworn enemies. This peak is one of the most
strategically important areas in Israel. It overlooks the entire coast.
My host, Benny, who has lived there for many years, told us
unequivocally, "Arik Sharon knows this land like the back of his hand;
he knows exactly what he's giving them."
Unbelievable. Only last week, Ma'ariv newspaper's internet site
headlined the fact that anti-aircraft and anti-tank weaponry has
reached Judea and Samaria. Missiles knocking down aircraft landing or
taking off from Ben-Gurion Airport is not a laughing matter. Yet, in
this week's press, it was reported that Sharon is considering
transforming the four north Shomron communities into 'camps' for the
so-called 'Palestinian police'. I guess that will be good training for
them - looking out from the Shomron hills, down at the coast,
planning their next terror attack, from air, land or sea.
I did hear one very interesting story which I feel almost obligated to
repeat. A company (I don't remember which), after receiving the
contract to evacuate all the material property belonging to families,
offices, organizations, etc. as part of the expulsion program,
concluded that they would need two thousand gigantic containers,
utilized around the clock, in order to fulfill their 'mission'. The
only company in Israel that could provide such containers is the
Israeli shipping corporation Zim. When they met with Zim executives,
asking how many containers the company could provide, they were told
three or four hundred at most. Shocked, they insisted that Zim obtain
all the containers they needed, but were refused. "It can't be done; it
costs too much money. We can't do it."
So, if containers are out, what next? They then approached the largest
trucking company in Israel and began negotiating with them for a huge
fleet of trucks. When the trucking executives asked why they needed the
vehicles, they were told, "For the disengagement." At that point, the
trucking company executives pointed to the door and said, "Will the
last one out please shut the door."
"Why, you don't want the contract?"
"Maybe you didn't hear correctly. The meeting is over."
"But why?"
"The owner of this company made it quite clear - whoever lifts one
finger to assist with the so-called 'Disengagement' can start looking
for a new job. Have a good day."
This week, Minister of Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky submitted his
resignation from the government due to his opposition to the
abandonment of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. Though he has not
ruled out leaving Gush Katif as part of a 'final status' agreement,
Sharansky said, (as quoted from the Jerusalem Post), "Will we, by
leaving Gaza encourage freedom of expression and a judicial system that
protects human rights? Will the incitement in the Palestinian education
system cease? Will the terror groups be dismantled? The answer to all
of the above is, of course, no."
In an interview with IDF Radio Monday morning, Sharansky said, "I have
always believed that the Disengagement Plan is a heavy price to pay and
encourages terrorism." He added, "A cabinet seat is not a job, but a
mission. When the only justification for the government's existence is
the implementation of the pullout, I do not feel it is my mission."
Sharansky is to be lauded for his courage and honesty. Israel needs
more politicians of such integrity.
I might add several quotes from Friday's Ha'aretz newspaper: "According
to a senior-ranking IDF officer: We must accept, as a fact of life,
that immediately after the disengagement the 'West Bank' will erupt in
flames. We cannot allow the other side to have Kassam missiles and
anti-tank weapons.
"Why don't officers speak openly about the dangers of eruption after
the disengagement? When senior-ranking officers are asked about this,
they usually tend to be evasive."
I began this commentary with the dedication of Beit Menachem in Admot
Yishai. One of themes repeated by several of the speakers was from
Psalms 118:22, "Even ma'asu habonim, haita l'rosh pina," which means,
"The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone." This verse
can be interpreted representing many different events, but I think
today its significance is clear. This land, which some people have
despised and rejected, this land is to become the most significant of
all. Gush Katif, Samaria, Judea, Homesh, Sanur, N'vei Dekalim, Kfar
Darom - the land unwanted by the builders - this land will be known as
the cornerstone of Eretz Yisrael.
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Lubavitcher
Mati Wagner
THE JERUSALEM POST May. 5, 2005
Hundreds of rabbis from the so-called messianic camp of the Lubavitcher
Hassidim will meet Thursday in Kfar Chabad to formulate a battle
strategy against the disengagement plan, which they see as an imminent
threat to the Jews of Israel.
They will also discuss ways of better disseminating the message that
the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, is the
messiah.
One of the participants reportedly will be Rabbi Ofer Miodovnik, one of
the rabbis at the Chabad yeshiva in Safed, who also happens to be Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's nephew. Sharon's two deceased wives were the
sisters of Miodovnik's mother. Miodovnik grew up in a secular household
before becoming observant. He was unavailable for comment.
According to Rabbi Yigal Pizam, the rabbi of the Chabad community in
Kiryat Shmuel, near Haifa, the concept of Greater Israel is a central
tenet of Chabad thought.
"The rebbe spoke on innumerable occasions of the importance of
upholding the entirety of the Torah, of reaching the entirety of the
Jewish people and of protecting the entirety of the Land of Israel," he
said.
Thursday's meeting will coincide with the anniversary of a famous
discourse given by Schneerson in 1991 entitled, "Do everything in your
power," in which he urged his hassidim to prepare the world for the
messianic era. "And, more specifically," said Pizam, "that the rebbe is
Moshiah."
Like many other messianic Chabad rabbis, Pizam's cellphone contains the
digits 770, the address of Chabad's headquarters on Eastern Parkway in
Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He answers his phone with the greeting: "Long
live our master [the rebbe]."
According to Pizam, since the rebbe is Moshiah, no one can be more
qualified than him to warn against the dangers of the disengagement
plan.
"The rebbe... said that ceding parts of the Land of Israel to gentiles
endangers every single Jew," he said. "We must make this known
unabashedly."
Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Wilschanski, head of the Chabad yeshiva in Safed,
also said the rebbe's opinion on this matter must be made known.
"We must do everything in our power to publish the rebbe's teachings on
the dangers of giving up land," he said. "It is also incumbent on every
one of us to disseminate the idea that the rebbe is Moshiah." More than
400 students learn in the Chabad yeshiva in Safed.
All Chabadniks, and especially the more messianic ones, are emphatic
about the dangers of ceding land to the Palestinians and the
disengagement plan.
Still, even among the more messianic elements there is dissent
regarding operative measures that should be taken against
disengagement. Many fear that burning tires, blocking roads and other
expressions of civil disobedience might be counterproductive.
During Pessah, more than 1,000 Chabadniks visited Sa-Nur, Homesh and
Avnei Hefetz, three settlements in northern Samaria slated for
evacuation.
Through the end of the Jewish month of Nissan, about 20 Chabad students
have set up a temporary yeshiva in Homesh, and each day of the week a
different Chabad rabbi has come to speak. Miodovnik also visited the
yeshiva this week to speak to the students about the dangers inherent
in his uncle's disengagement plan.
Rabbi Uriel Gurfinkel, a Chabad emissary in Avnei Hefetz, who organized
the visits to the settlements, said he planned to bring at least six
Chabad families to Homesh to live.
In tandem, Chabad rabbis are planning to bring hundreds of hassidim to
visit the settlements in the Gaza Strip and encourage their residents.
What perhaps sets the more zealous Chabadniks apart from their
colleagues is the belief that disseminating the idea that the rebbe is
the messiah must be actively pursued. In fact, the dissemination of the
idea actually speeds the coming of the messianic era, they say.
So-called messianic Chabadniks believe that the rebbe, whose 11th
yahrzeit is approaching, is really still alive. They admit this leap of
faith cannot be rationally understood, but nevertheless adhere to it.
Even Chabadniks who are not openly messianic are said to believe that
the rebbe is the messiah. However, they reportedly are apprehensive
that openly espousing this belief is detrimental to Chabad's primary
mission - to bring secular Jews closer to authentic Judaism.
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Lubavitcher
Police Attempt to Bully Anti-Disengagement Rabbi
22:48 May 10, '05 / 1 Iyar 5765
(IsraelNN.com) Police today visited the home of Rabbi Sholom Dov Wolpe
who is affiliated with the Committee for a Greater Israel. He was
questioned and warned regarding his ongoing activities opposing the
expulsion plan.
Rabbi Wolpe, a prominent member of the Chabad hassidic community has
recently had harsh words for police and for the recent administrative
detention of Neria Ofan. The Rabbi explains that Ofan is being detained
just for "thinking differently than the dictator."
Reb Moshe
17:15 Apr-25-05 / 16 Nisan 5765
1,500 Chabad Chassidim Visited Northern Samaria
Monday, April 25, 2005 / 16 Nisan 5765
(IsraelNN.com) More than 1,500 Chassidim of the Chabad Lubavitch sect
visited the Jewish towns and villages of northern Samaria today. The
purpose of the visit was to display solidarity with the residents
there, many of whom are slated for uprooting under the government's
Disengagement Plan.
The tour of the Chabad Chassidim included visits to Sa-Nur and Homesh,
two towns slated for evacuation.
The residents of the communities prepared informational packets
detailing the dangers that are expected to result from the
implementation of Disengagement in northern Samaria.
Reb Moshe
Becoming frum
by: Alexa Witt
Alexa Witt
American Jewish society is experiencing a growing trend of Jews
rediscovering their roots through traditional Judaism. Organizations
designed to attract such people, like Aish HaTorah and Chabad, are
flourishing.
Personally, as someone who grew up non-observant and has now adopted a
Torah lifestyle, I find that people are always fascinated to know the
particulars of why and how I made this most retro of alternative
lifestyle choices.
Secular Jews peer at me closely - not too closely, in case what I
have is catching. I think I know what they're thinking, because I
used to think the same thing when I would meet a person like me: she
actually chose to become religious? Nutso...! To give up your
faculties of judgment, to let "the rabbis" decide everything for
you? Why in the world would you choose a lifestyle of seemingly
endless rules and restrictions?
Jews who've been raised religious also peer closely, as if looking
for what must be a little bit off about me. To have gone against my
whole upbringing, to have given up all the , and rock n' roll they
secretly fantasize about? To switch over to "their side"?
Whether secular or religious, Jews want to know: how did a former
mall-going, street-talking teenager become a long-skirt-wearing,
God-blessing, religious lady?
I'm coming to out say that the men in black hats did not kidnap and
brainwash me, despite the evidence - the hair covering, the Shabbat
and kosher observance, the small children leaving snot decorations on
my skirt.
So, why would I choose to live this way voluntarily?
Before I ever delved into any theological issues - any of the stuff a
person would have to believe in order to take on even the tiniest
change in lifestyle - first I was having a growing suspicion that
something was not quite right for women in mainstream ure.
People are often surprised when I say that I actually find the Torah
lifestyle more liberating for me, as a woman, than the anything-goes
choices offered by mainstream society. How is that possible?
For instance, by the time I was twenty-six, I was feeling burned out
from all the relationship-surfing many of us do in our twenties. I
wanted to find the right person and start "real life" already.
Fortunately for me, by that time I was already committed to being
observant, so I was able to start dating from a pool of guys who I knew
from the outset were also interested in getting married - guys who
were Torah-minded, like me. I was very fortunate because it only took
me a few months till I met the right person. We were married within a
year.
Contrast that to what I call my Alternate-Universe Nightmare. Now, in
reality, I'm 31, married four-and-a-half years with two children.
But I have these recurrent dreams from which I literally wake up in a
panic, have to check to see that I'm wearing a wedding ring, and
remind myself that I actually did stand under the chuppah with the man
sleeping in my bed.
In the dream, I am also 31 but never became Torah observant. Danny and
I have been dating and living together for four-and-a-half years, but
Danny's still not ready to commit. Even though I'm secretly dying
to tie the knot, I'm trying to act cool about it, and not put any
pressure on him lest I scare him off.
Then, in the dream, I ask Danny -- for the fiftieth time, but as
sweetly as possible -- would he please put his dirty socks in the
hamper instead of leaving them on the floor for me to pick up every
day? Then a frightening, faraway look crosses Danny's face, a look
that says, "I'm outta here."
He turns to me and says he's had enough. Danny wants to break up.
My heart sinks to the bottom of my being. Not only am I losing the
person I love, not only does he no longer love me and prefers to be
without me, but - WHAT AM I GOING TO DO NOW? I wasted all these
years dating him, waiting for him to marry me, now I'm already 31 and
I have to start all over from scratch!? Scoping out guys at parties,
surfing Jdate on the sly...ugh, how depressing. Who's going to want
a party pooper like me?
I wake up with a gasp. I touch my wedding ring. I look at Danny. I
recall the chuppah. I am not making this up - I really have this
dream every so often. Registering the reality of my life, the
happiness and contentment, I sigh, smile and go back to sleep feeling
better - for myself.
As for my secular friends, in their thirties with years of no-guarantee
dating or living together ahead of them, time ticking away, and if
they're lucky, a long engagement before they can even consider
starting to have children, I feel very anxious. I wish the system were
different for them somehow.
It's like that episode of Seinfeld. Elaine is standing on a crowded
subway next to an older woman, who makes a sneering comment toward the
men sitting behind them - how men used to be gentlemen and give up
their seats for women. Elaine remarks that because of women's lib
we've gained so much in terms of the big things, but that "we've
also lost some of the little things." Elaine reveals that she's on
her way to attend a wedding. With a panicked expression, she complains
she hasn't found the right guy yet, and despairs whether it's even
still possible these days.
Watching that episode, I began to wonder whether it's really just "the
little things" we've started to lose.
Even my mother, a staunch secularist who begins phone calls asking
hopefully, "So, you still religious?" admits she feels relieved
that I'm married by now, and happily. Even Ma appreciates that
it's the Torah lifestyle I took on - which she otherwise can't
relate to, or fathom why I chose -- that led directly to my being
married and happy. Which is, after all, what most mothers want for
their daughters.
On the other hand, Ma argues, is that a reason to become observant, so
you can get and keep a man? And who says it's so smart to marry a
guy after knowing him for less than a year?
All topics for another discussion. For now, I'll end by saying that
when I began to question whether our over-sexed society was really so
great for women, when I started opening my mind to "alternative
lifestyles," the security and happiness I saw many young,
Torah-minded couples enjoying made a game-show "ding!" in my mind
that said: maybe it's a hint that Torah is right-on about other
things, too.
Reb Moshe
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 01:32 18/05/2005
`Had it been Mitzna, they would have gone nuts'
By Shlomo Shamir
NEW YORK - The delegation of American Jews that visited Gush Katif two
months ago to demonstrate solidarity with the settlers there included
quite a number of Orthodox rabbis. Their participation in the
delegation was in contrast to the silence characteristic of the
attitude of most of U.S. Orthodox Jewry toward the disengagement plan.
Whereas in Israel, Zionist Orthodox rabbis have stood at the forefront
of the struggle against the disengagement, their colleagues in the
United States have preferred to remain in the shade.
The silence of most Orthodox American rabbis should not be construed to
mean that they are indifferent to the disengagement plan. They can
cite, word for word, declarations by major Israeli bodies that contain
pessimistic assessments about what awaits the security of the state in
the wake of an evacuation of Gush Katif.
Rabbis who returned to New York from solidarity visits have shared
their harsh impressions with their colleagues and painted a depressing
picture of their conversations with settlers who are slated for
evacuation. However, rabbis and Jewish community activists could not
name a single important American Orthodox rabbi or a leading Orthodox
organization that dares to oppose publicly the evacuation of Gush
Katif, or to criticize Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
This behavior on the part of the Orthodox rabbis is especially
surprising when contrasted to the outspoken campaign they waged against
the Oslo Accords. At the time, major New York rabbis expressed
themselves without restraint in interviews with the local press.
Some even declared that then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin fell under
the category of din rodef - an rabbinical ruling that authorizes the
killing of a Jew who is about to kill another person; this was the
justification used by Rabin assassin Yigal Amir.
The conscious caution being exercised by the U.S. Orthodox rabbis
regarding any criticism of Sharon is also reflected in the activity of
local activists, who are trying to mobilize opposition in the Jewish
community against the evacuation. Rabbis who oppose the disengagement
have not embarked on information campaigns, preferring to abandon the
Orthodox public arena to activists and organizations from the rightist
camp.
Two solidarity visits to Gush Katif by American Jews took place in
March, and Orthodox rabbis took part in both of them. The visits were
organized by right-wing activists: New York State Assemblyman Dov
Hikind of Brooklyn and Irving Moskowitz, a millionaire from Miami.
Hikind, who is considered one of the most gifted speakers in the
religious right in the United States, is currently helping organize
another delegation to Gush Katif. During the visit, slated for next
month, "hundreds of American Jews will participate," promises Hikind.
According to reports in the U.S., a group of activists is organizing a
major demonstration against Sharon for when he visits New York at the
end of the month. "There will be more Jews demonstrating against Sharon
outside than Jews participating in the event in honor of the ?
minister," promises a religious activist who is involved in
preparations for the demonstration.
Morton Klein, leader of the Zionist Organization of America, is
particularly prominent among those becoming involved in the effort to
mobilize disengagement opponents in the U.S. Klein, a veteran supporter
of the Israeli right, arouses scorn in the Jewish establishment.
However, no one denies his ability to lead an effective information
campaign on issues related to Israel.
Klein says that the rabbis don't have the guts to speak out and to
protest, especially if it means condemning Sharon. He says that had
former Labor Party leader "Amram Mitzna initiated the evacuation of
Gush Katif, American Orthodoxy would have gone crazy."
He also says that it was easy for U.S. rabbis to decry the Oslo
Accords, because even Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu, who they admire,
opposed Oslo. But today, there are no mainstream Israeli parties or
politicians who oppose the disengagement and are also accepted by the
rabbis in America, he says.
Nobody is listening
Moshe Tendler, an Orthodox rabbi and biologist who teaches at Yeshiva
University, was one of the leading spokesmen against the Oslo Accords.
In a long phone conversation, Tendler said that for several weeks he
has been trying to enlist Orthodox rabbis and organizations for the
struggle against the evacuation. He says that not only is he
encountering refusal and evasion - but many are accusing him of
interfering in Israeli politics.
Tendler, who has 53 grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in
Israel, some in settlements, participated in a visit to Gush Katif
organized by Moskowitz. He says he speaks out everywhere, but nobody is
listening, and he tells his rabbinical colleagues that even the Shin
Bet security services and Israel Defense Forces commanders say that
after the disengagement the terrorism will resume.
Tendler says that U.S. Orthodox rabbis and organizations are not
willing to join a public struggle against the evacuation, and points
out that all of a sudden, the religious organizations have decided that
a protest against uprooting Jews from their homes is not politically
correct.
Tendler recently turned to the leaders of Young Israel, a mainstream
Orthodox organization that includes dozens of synagogues in North
America, and suggested that they use their influence to organize a
protest march in Washington against the disengagement. He says that
with the help of other organizations, Young Israel could enlist 50,000
Jews for such a march, but that they ignored his suggestion, not even
bothering to reply to it.
The head of Young Israel, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, says in response that he
doesn't recall such a request by Tendler. Lerner confirms that Orthodox
rabbis are refraining from openly opposing the disengagement.
Lerner adds that the silence of the rabbis reflects "fatigue and
confusion." He says that people are simply tired and confused, and
don't understand exactly what's going on. Sharon was the "father of the
settlements," and suddenly he is uprooting them, he says.
Lerner is trying to enlist support for Gush Katif settlers outside the
Orthodox organizations. He says that synagogues and other bodies in the
U.S. raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for the buses that
transported the thousands of Israelis who visited Gush Katif during
Pesach.
Tendler is particularly angry at the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations of America (OU), which is considered the most influential
Orthodox organization there. He says the OU is has been deliberately
refraining from expressing an opinion on the disengagement. A few weeks
ago, the organization initiated a videoconference with the head of the
Disengagement Administration, Yonatan Bassi, with the participation of
Orthodox rabbis and activists.
"The discussion was an embarrassing failure," says one rabbi who
participated in the meeting.
OU president Steve Savitsky and his deputy, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Weinreb,
say they have reservations about the disengagement plan and are very
concerned about the planned evacuation of settlements and the uprooting
of thousands of Jews. But they say that their organization is adhering
to its long-standing policy of supporting official positions of the
Israeli government.
Savitsky says that senior Israeli officials told him that Israel will
not implement the road map peace plan before the Palestinian terrorist
organizations are dismantled. He admits that the OU is upset about the
disengagement, but says they support the government and the prime
minister.
Collective paralysis
Rabbi Shraga Schoenfeld, one of the most well-known and admired rabbis
in New York, has serious complaints about his colleagues. He says that
in general, U.S. Orthodox rabbis are "paralyzed." He says that in
private conversation, rabbis express opposition to the uprooting of
settlements, but that his attempts to organize a public protest have
been fruitless. He says that the rabbis are afraid to speak out, and
adds that Sharon has apparently "bewitched" them.
Schoenfeld is the former head of the Rabbinical Council of American
(RCA), the largest organization of Orthodox rabbis in North America.
Recently, he says, he suggested to the heads of the RCA that they
publish a statement protesting against the uprooting of settlements and
the evacuation of settlers. He says that the proposal was rejected
firmly and out of hand. The heads of the organization told him that the
Israeli Chief Rabbinate had refrained from taking an official stand
against the disengagement.
Recently, he turned to the leaders of Agudath Israel in America, an
ultra-Orthodox organization, and tried to convince them to publish a
protest against the disengagement. They replied, he says, that
educational issues are more important to them than the evacuation of
Gush Katif.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, former chair of the New York Board of Rabbis, says
that the passivity of local rabbis on the issue is to a great extent
the result of lessons they learned from the murder of prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. He says that they discovered that words and
declarations can be very dangerous. Schneier says that one of the
reasons why rabbis are afraid of declarations against the evacuation of
Gush Katif and refrain from criticism of Sharon is that the
disengagement plan is supported by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Quite a number of rabbis are angry about the support of the Conference
of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the U.S. Jewish umbrella
organization, for the disengagement. The head of the conference,
Malcolm Hoenlein, is Orthodox.
"I don't understand what happened to the Presidents Conference," says
one rabbi. "I don't recall that the conference supported the Oslo
Accords. But it decided to support a plan that is worse and more
serious than the Oslo Accords."
Rabbis who were interviewed for this article expressed a strong desire
for authoritative spiritual leadership; in their opinion, its absence
has created an oppressive vacuum. "There is no Orthodox rabbi in
America today who is accepted by most of his colleagues and who is
capable of ordering that a Torah scroll be taken out into a city street
as a step of protest and sorrow," says a veteran New York rabbi, who
was one of the main spokesmen against the Oslo Accords.
It is no wonder that some of the interviewees long for the late
Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who dictated priorities
and patterns of response on current issues to much of U.S. Orthodox
Jewry, for example, on the question of who is a Jew.
"Since the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, there is nobody to lead a
public debate on an issue that involves Israeli security," one of the
rabbis said.
Reb Moshe
Many in the frum community believe that we have done much in recent
years to help teenagers at-risk. My experience and research have shown
that we have not accomplished nearly enough. In fact, I believe that we
have not even begun to address this very serious problem properly.
Current research demonstrates that alcohol and substance abuse in the
general teen population has declined during the past several years. In
all segments of the frum community, however, the trend appears to be
increasing. While there are several causes, one overriding cause is
that we do not intervene properly. We do not intervene properly because
we do not even label the problem correctly.
The term teenager "at-risk" is misleading. All teenagers take
risks. A major part of all teenagers' view of life is their sense
that they are invincible and therefore not subject to consequences.
Yeshiva teens take risks daily with smoking and gambling. They also
take serious risks with alcohol. It would be interesting to note the
number of Hatzolah calls received regarding alcohol abuse this past
Purim. We minimize these risk - taking behaviors by excusing them as
``normal`` teenage behavior. Minimizing certain risk - taking is
reasonable for many but not for all teens. Therefore, I advocate using
the term "troubled teen" to refer to teenagers with significant
behavioral or emotional problems who take very significant risks.
Correct labeling will enable us to better target appropriate
interventions. A teen who smokes occasionally is at-risk while a teen
who smokes frequently and abuses alcohol and drugs is troubled. While
it is true that at-risk teenage behaviors can lead to worse behavior
patterns, this is not always so. These two different categories require
two distinct responses. In the frum world, our responses to the two
categories are often the same - ignore either or overreact.
Research documents four source causes for teens who become troubled.
These four factors are exposure to trauma; having a learning disability
or emotional disorder that is not properly diagnosed or treated;
inappropriate parenting; and poor socialization. These factors may be
additive, or one alone may be sufficient to cause troubled behavior.
Approximately 15 percent of individuals exposed to a traumatic event
develop long-term symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress. Teen trauma comes
in three ways: it can be random, such as exposure to a car accident;
family based trauma as in divorce or abuse; or it can be social in
nature like when a child is bullied or not accepted socially. Ignoring
trauma increases the likelihood that typical teen behavior will evolve
into troubled teen behavior.
For the sake of the ``future shidduch`` we pretend that all of our
children epitomize perfection. To the degree that we believe this
fallacy, we increase the likelihood that children with emotional,
social, or learning issues will become troubled teens. We engage in
denial by refusing to "label" problems or by creating new programs.
We create new programs because we fear the old programs'
"labels." In the process though, we may sabotage our own children
by diluting the effectiveness of the needed intervention. It is
imperative that we stop ``reinventing the wheel`` by launching programs
that have not been properly researched and evaluated. We must maintain
and strengthen programs with proven records of accomplishment. If we
truly care about our children's future shidduch, we should ensure
that they receive the best support to help them cope with, and develop
strategies to overcome, their challenges.
The third factor, inappropriate parenting, is correlated to the three
previously mentioned categories but also stands on its own. Parents can
traumatize a child. They may overlook, minimize, or inappropriately
treat their child's learning or emotional problems. But, they are
also more likely to be guilty of inconsistency. They may appropriately
threaten to punish a child for an infraction without following through.
On the other hand, parents may threaten for no clear reason. They may
be consistent in their inconsistency: giving regular mixed messages.
But perhaps the most dangerous parental behavior is simply allowing
others to parent for them.
The Rebbe, the teacher, the school are often given license by parents
to parent. It is not surprising then, that most teenagers do not
communicate their feelings to parents. Several small recent studies in
Jewish communities report that most teens would not turn to parents
when feeling troubled. In fact, most parents do not even know what
their children's concerns are.
In my practice, many parents want their child's therapist to parent.
They drop off their child before, and pick them up after, a therapy
session but will not make the effort to become integral to the therapy.
No one can assume a parent's role and responsibility. Children whose
parents do not parent may turn to others for support and understanding;
they may turn to the wrong people or may turn away completely.
The frum world has taken a more highly structured and nuanced approach
to teenage social interactions. Recently, many Yeshivas adopted the
policy that a student seen talking to a member of the opposite sex will
be asked to leave the school. This stricter stance may account for the
increase in the number of troubled teens. Significant research shows
that proper socialization, supervised and structured in an age
appropriate manner, acts as a buffer against teenage acting out
behaviors. A recent study in which "at-risk" teens were followed in
a program designed exclusively for them indicated that 11 of 12 of
these teenage boys had a significant problem. It seems that this
isolationism is a causative factor increasing their acting out. I have
seen programs where boys play pool with Rabbeim for a few hours and
then meet up with girls and get into trouble. These programs do not
offer socialization that would help reduce this behavior because the
isolationism only increases the "forbidden fruit" aspect of teen
behavior. Socialization issues must be addressed quickly and
sensitively.
The frum community must bring parents, teachers, and community leaders
together to stem the tide of troubled teens realistically and
effectively.
Dr. Salamon is founder and director of the Adult Developmental Center,
Inc. (ADC), a comprehensive psychological consulting practice located
at 1728 Broadway, Suite 1,Hewlett, N.Y., 11557. He empowers individuals
and families to cope with the various psychological challenges that
arise throughout the life span. Among his areas of specialization are
substance abuse and alcoholism counseling, crisis management, child,
family, and marital counseling, therapeutic interventions, and
gerontology. He is a member of the American Psychological Association,
a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America's Behavioral and
Social Sciences Section and a board certified Diplomate-Fellow
Prescribing Psychologist Register. An advocate for effective learning
disabilities programming, Dr. Salamon is the co-chair of P'tach's
educational advisory board. He has worked as the Chief Psychologist at
the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale, and the Chief Psychologist
at the Gustave Hartman YM-YMHA. He has taught psychology at C.W. Post
College of Long Island University, Touro College, and the New York
Institute of Technology. Dr. Salamon is the author of hundreds of
articles, many assessment tools including the Life Satisfaction Scale
and the Addiction Dependency Scale, and
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2001, The Jewish Press Inc. (ISSN 0021-6674)
Reb Moshe
Jewish leaders back Sharon By Yitzhak Benhorin and Efrat Weiss
1. He really is what they called him!
They are absolutely right. Sharon campaigned as a unprecedented right
wing leader, and turned his back on those which put him into his job.
He in fact is a unprecedented left wing leader and thats why the
leftists love him. And the right wing are supposed to be pleased with
him, and put out a red carpet for him! In your dreams!
(05.23.05)
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2. Sharon should be protested for his insane plan.
Daisy , USA (05.23.05)
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3. Most Americans would be against this Bush approved plan.
Unfortunately most of the American media is ignoring the expelling of
Jews from their homeland because they are liberal pro-Arab radicals.
This means that most American don't have a clue about what is going on.
If they did the majority would be opposed because even though most
Americans, like myself, aren't Jewish, we don't believe in giving into
Islamic terrorists!
Daisy , USA (05.23.05)
Recommendation received. Thank you
4. number 3 is stupid
Mr. pro israel # 3...you are a stupid guy...palestinians are getting
killed everyday by your government...you are murdurers...
leave the palestinian alone you ...
sami , philly (05.23.05)
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5. The Contemptible Sharon
I am certainly not a Chabadnik, but could not be more in sync with
their feelings regarding Sharon than if I were one of them. I was
called out of town during the time of this demonstration, but had I
been there, I would have called him more vile names than were quoted in
this article. Despicable, contemptible do not even begin to describe
how I feel about what Sharon is doing to both the "settlers" and to the
entire zionist mission.
Adina Kutnicki , NJ, US (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
6. Lubavitch crash Sharon visit
I was at the demonstration outside. I'm not Lubavitch or even Orthodox.
No protesters outside on the street were arrested. The crowd outside
was easily larger than the 1200 inside who heard Sharon. Not in the
"hundreds."
Dan Friedman , NYC, USA (05.23.05)
top...@gmail.com Recommend this talkback click here
7. Can't understand.
In the Knesset, the Agudas Yisroael party voted FOR budget to evict the
residents of Gush Katif from their homes and businesses. Now I see the
Chabad protesting the eviction in front of Prime Minister Sharon. Does
Chabad control the Agudas Yisrael, and if not, who does? It appears to
me that the "machers" (known in Texas as big-shots) were paid off.
Johnny Weintraub , Sugar Land, Texas US (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
8. If I get $250k, I'll leave my house today
These Jewish settlers who were illegally occupying and settling in
lands that don't belong to them are getting $250k, from American
tax-payers money (indeed, Americans don't have a clue what is going
on).
This is the first time that people will get rewarded for their illegal
activities.
More than 2/3 of Americans will leave their homes for less than
$250,000.
Seriously, if I can get $250,000 for my house, I’ll leave it today.
Alex , Missouri (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
9. Sharon and settlers are one
Those who oppose the disengagment and oppose Road map are part and
parcel of Sharon. The fight is a mock one. Hollywood style C grade
actors. They all are thieves and in the same bed together. Here is what
Sharon the zionist thief said:
Sharon’s opinion about illegal Israeli settlements and check posts:
"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to
enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay
ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them." Ariel Sharon,
Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the
extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15,
1998.
Sal Azam , Chicago, USA (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
10. they show their real colors
As a resident with q very large habad presence (major midwestern site),
finally the habad are showing their true colors--orange. They do not
recognize the legitimacy of the state, but they fool the people with
their "love of Israel." Unfortunately for tthem, like christian
fundamentalists, their love of Israel is about the land, and their need
for messianic redemption is what propels their opposition to
disengagement. Until the rest of the jewish wakes up and realizes that
they are working to constinually undermine the legitimacy of the
sovereignity of a state, the habad world will go on fooling people
about their "love of jews," except the only freelyelected leadership of
the jewish people known as the government of Israel.
allan , st. paul (05.23.05)
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11. speak for yourself Daisy
Most americans WANT the withdrawal AND most Americans are tired of
Israel's yacking- and want a more evenhanded approach to the middle
east-Question- who are American jews more loyal too, Israel or the USA-
Mike , USA (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
12. sharon in a hall
to all jews and americans whats going here in palastin and israil is
belonging to them only as palastinian we realize this fact after half a
centiary israil realize this soon and the religen the race is between
palastinian and moslems and palastinian and arabs the same about whats
going in iraqu also the sme about america and israil the religen and
race is related to the same kind allover the world not the oposit or
diferent ones otherwise we are going back to nazi times or even to
midle centuries it is the same fault in a new dress and it must be more
violant due to easy conection allover the world
palastinian , jerusalem (05.23.05)
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13. Alex and Mike, haven't you both got KKK meetings to attend?
alex, American tax payers money going to recompensate settlers? Do you
have any credible statistics to verify that claim?
Illegal Occupation?? Since you're not the brightest star in the sky
(judging from your frothing from the mouth hatred of Jews) Let me put
it to you clearly: Israel is a Democracy, Israel has been attacked 5
times by the entire Arab world, who sought/seek to eliminate it's
population.. Israel, as a Democracy, has a duty to protect it's
citizens - Winning territory in self-defence, as in Gaza's case, was
perfectly legitimate (and the anti-Israel U.N. resolutions, passed by
the 66 Islamic theocracies - aligned with the USSR, are irrelevant)...
Israel was attacked, it has a moral obligation to protect it's
citizens, and moving it's citizens into territory captured in
self-defence, to provide protection to the remaining population is
perfectly acceptable.... (not to mention the Jewish people's religious
and historical claims to the land)....
As for the U.S. aid, you seem to be leaving out the comparable amounts
of US aid sent to Egypt, the PA, Turkey, Jordan --- Who, G-d knows what
they spend on... and also, they give the U.S. nothing in return,
whereas Israel (who will no longer receive Economic aid, within 3
years) provides the US with sacred regional intelligence, anti-Terror
technology, and a Democratic presence in the Mid East
(P.S. $250,000 isn't enough to buy a decent house, unless you're
looking for a Caravan)
Mike - The great majority of Americans would much rather side with
Democratic Israel - than with the Palestinian Theocratic Dictatorship,
where Christians and Jews are murdered, and homosexuals are hanged
42% of Americans sympathise with Israel, 12% sympathise with the
Palestinians (Isn't it funny that roughly 12% of the American
population is anti-Semitic too!..I dought that it's a coincidence :D)
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/IslME_62/4687_62
.... Didn't Hitler also question the Jews' loyalty to the Germany??
By the way, I have Jewish relatives in the United States who are loyal,
love their country, and are just as American as anyone else -- Anyways,
isn't it someone's right as an American to be loyal and believe in what
they choose, as long as it's within the law??
I suggest you two tosspots leave your Mobile Homes and take a step into
reality!
Uri Stein , רמת אביב ישראל (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
14. URI-
Not if they are Pollard, obviously- when loyalty to America is
involved- he's still in jail, no?
And Israel is NOT a democracy- it priveleges one race/ religion over
others- FACT. It even occupies and oppresses the natives of the area.
wow. you must be proud-
and all from welfare from the USA.!!
more to be proud of!!
Mike , USA (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
15. Me too, Alex
I would also like someone, such as the Israeli Government or the
American taxpayer to pay me $250,000.00, to move to my promised land.
It is Las Vegas.
Johnny Weintraub , Sugar Land, Texas US (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
16. To Uri
fake democracy this which you speak about , which democracy this which
destrebuting it's citizins to katagories , Americans , west eu , east
eu and Africans , are they live all the same in Israel ? of course not
... and if you say anything els so you are laing , and the Arabs didn't
start 5 wars against Israel because there was no land called Israel
they made this wars to elimenat those gangs who came and stolen the
land and killing it's people those which you call them now terrorists
because they are fighting for their rights , no body called the french
risitence terrorists , one million died in Algeria in fighting against
the french and no body called terrorists and the history is full of
such people and they don's call them terrorists but heros and what i
don's understans , is this not Sharon which you elected tow times till
now ? you elected him when he was charged as war criminal and now you
want to throw him out when he want to make peace ... what a people
....LOL
(05.23.05)
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17. THERE NEVER WAS AN ARAB COUNTRY OF PALESTINE
Jerusalem was NEVER the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. JERUSALEM
IS MENTIONED OVER 800 TIMES IN THE BIBLE, NOT ONCE IN THE KORAN.
Arabs FIRST took the name "Palestinians" in 1967. Arafat was the FIRST
LEADER of this NEW PEOPLE. Before 1948, Jews were known as
Palestinians!
After Jews miraculously transformed desert and swamps into rich
agricultural land, Arabs came in large numbers from Arab countries for
jobs from Jews. The fact that the overwhelming majority of Arabs
resided only briefly in Palestine is attested to by the special UN
decree: that any Arab who had resided FOR ONLY 2 YEARS in Palestine
before 1948, and then left, would be considered a refugee and so would
his descendants!
Haj Amin, Jerusalem's Muslim religious leader travelled to Europe and
spent the war years HELPING HITLER MURDER EUROPE'S JEWS.
Around 1948, Arabs violently ETHNICALLY CLEANSED about one million Jews
from Arab countries. Arab governments seized the land, homes, bank
accounts, businesses and assets of the Jews. Most of the Jewish
refugees fled to Israel.
THERE MUST NOW BE A JUST SETTLEMENT FOR THE JEWISH REFUGEES AND THEIR
DESCENDANTS.
Linda Rivera , New York (05.23.05)
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18. ARABS ALREADY GIVEN 80% OF PALESTINE
In 1922, Arabs were given MOST OF PALESTINE - 80%. The area became
Jordan, giving the Arabs their Arab Palestinian state. IT WAS
ETHNICALLY CLEANSED OF JEWS. This area was part of ancient Biblical
Israel, given by G-D to the Jews, and along with present-day Israel,
including Judea, Samaria and Gaza, was recognized by the League of
Nations as part of the Jewish homeland.
In 1948, Egypt invaded Gaza and ETHNICALLY CLEANSED ALL JEWS. In 1948
Jordan invaded Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and east Jerusalem, and
ETHNICALLY CLEANSED ALL JEWS. Opposing G-D, Jordan destroyed 58
synagogues in Jerusalem.
When Israel won Islam's religious war of aggression against it in 1967,
Jews returned to the areas of their homeland they had been ethnically
cleansed from for 19 years. Islamofascists deceitfully call this return
"occupation".
Under international law, territories are considered "occupied" only
when they are taken in an act of aggression which does not apply to
Israel. Judea, Samaria and Gaza are not 'occupied territories'
according to international law because they were not taken from any
foreign sovereign.
All land, properties and homes stolen from the Jews during the 19 years
of illegal occupation by Jordan and Egypt, must be returned IMMEDIATELY
to the Jews.
As a non-Jew, I PROTEST this massive violation of the human rights of
Jews, ethnically cleansing Jews to give their Jewish land and assets to
the terrorists who attack and murder them.
IT IS EVIL!
I protest that Jews will be jailed if they resist giving their land and
assets to murderers.
I protest this evil plan that gives terrorists an Islamic terror state
in Israel's Biblical heartland.
I protest this so called "peace process" that has, as its goal a second
holdocaust of the Jewish people.
Linda Rivera , New York (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
19. To Linda again
what was the name of this land before 1967 ? and who told that the
Arabs who lived there were not Jewish and then they changed the
relegion ? and when there was a land called Israel ? egypt is origin
Christan coptic land but we can not say the moslems stolen the land but
we can say that many Christians became Moslems , but in the end they
are all Egyptians even the Jews who lived in Egypt they were Egyptians
, the fact is the Jews lived their whole life isolated from the rest of
the people free will because they hated everything which is not Jew ,
till now EU still they isolate them selfs from the rest of the people ,
and soon the Israelians will not be welcome in most of the world like
south Africa before and the normal good Israelians will feel shame to
belong to such place ... nay you will say that it's not true ... but
that days will show you this ... look how much from the symathy account
Israel lost till now in world , and soon the Hollowcost will not be
enough reason to go on by this way ... take it easy baby ....LOL
(05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
20. to linda
dear one i can say what i want if iam not afraid from any thing and
more i can whishe what ever i want even iam afraid even ihave a plaster
on my mouth or cut my toung or remove my eyes the most important to
look where my feet is stnd fromm there i can begin the first step
infront actually as a clock to be real depending on it forwords only
the past is past i remember mine proud of it keep it in mind always no
one to ruin it and my feet still on lande my eyes also to ground first
befor iam looking to horozon may a hole near the foot so the first step
must be on ground also
palastinian girl , jerusalem (05.23.05)
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21. Real Leaders Oppose Ethnically Cleansing Jews
Evidently, these aren't Jewish leaders any more than the Judenrat were.
Jew , Judea (05.23.05)
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22. whoa
Mike; Israel is not a Democracy?? Wow!!!
So, the U.N. (a highly biased organisation, dominated by Arab oil
money) US, EU - are lying when they say that Israel is the only full,
liberal democracy in the Mid East??
How about the UN's Human Rights watchdog, that rates Israel 22, right
next to Germany, and France ---
http://www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/cty_f_ISR.html
Israel's parliament has 11 Arabs
And you seem to be leaving out the fact that Israeli-Arabs have a
higher life expectancy than Americans, and most white Europeans
And, apparently you have no idea about the droves of priveleges that
Israeli-Arabs get...they have much lower standards for the psychometric
test to get into University.. plus! they only have to pay half price
for University courses (to name 1 of the few special rights granted to
Israeli Arabs)
Mike, Name one credible Historian who denies the Jewish people's
connection to Israel (Ethnically, Religiously, etc.)
And, U.S. economic aid to Israel constitutues 0.3% of Israel's
economy.... yep, we sure are 'living it up' on your tax dollar :)
Uri Stein , ramat aviv israel (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
23. Meanwhile
"On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted
with a 2/3 majority to
partition western Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. The Arabs
rejected it. The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al Husseini stated: "I
declare a holy war by my Moslem brothers"
"Murder them all. Murder the Jews.""
http://www.conceptwizard.com/nutoo/nutshell3
.html
How can Judea make peace with those who, even more than they will care
for their own people , seek to destry others?
some more histories:
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles_print.
php?article_id=4467
Meanwhile, Judeans cannot afford to be naive.
Dora , Toronto, Canada (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
24. WELFARE for URI
Israel is NOT a self sufficient country- and US aid is mostly military-
you cannot put a price on that- Every other week you hear of Sharon
coming to the USA asking more money for the settlers-or negev or the
"wall".
so to me, ISrael is a welfared country-
I know that many jews from around the world donate privately- i have
lived in Israel- I know how many people live off of the govt. in
someway- in fact- every jew must join the army, no?
and , you can pretend all you want that Israel is a democracy- but then
why does it privelege JEWS only?, giving them instant citzenship etc.
Only jews can buy land in certain areas- I know many of the racial
inequalities, are flying under the radar, but I have SEEN EMPLOYMENT
ADS THAT SAY_ JEWS ONLY.
MIKE , USA (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
25. example of HUMAN RIGHTS abuse by Israel
Israel and the Occupied Territories: Families torn apart by
discriminatory policies
The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law which bars family unification
for Israelis who are married to Palestinian residents of the Occupied
Territories was extended by six months in July.
This Law explicitly discriminates against Palestinians from the West
Bank and Gaza Strip and implicitly discriminates against Palestinian
citizens of Israel and against Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, for
it is they who usually marry Palestinians from the Occupied
Territories. As such, the law formally institutionalizes a form of
racial discrimination based on ethnicity or nationality.
Successive Israeli governments over the years have pursued policies
which have made it difficult at best and often impossible for
Palestinian citizens and residents of Israel to obtain family
unification and live in their own country with their spouses and
children. For these reasons, thousands of Palestinians from the West
Bank and Gaza Strip have been living with their spouses in Israel and
in East Jerusalem illegally for years or even decades, with no health
insurance or other social rights and every day fearing arrest,
expulsion and separation from their spouses and children.
United Nations human rights bodies, including the Committee on the
Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Human Rights
Committee, have called on Israel to revoke this law and to reconsider
its policy with a view to facilitating family unification on a
non-discriminatory basis.
Amnesty International calls on the Israeli authorities to repeal this
law, to resume the processing of family unification applications for
spouses and children of Israeli citizens and Palestinian residents of
Jerusalem and of the Occupied Territories according to the principle of
non-discrimination, to put in place a mechanism to promptly process the
thousands of backlog applications and to re-examine applications which
were refused prior to the suspension of the processing of applications,
and to provide details in writing of the specific grounds for the
rejection of any application for family unification application, so
that those concerned may mount a defence and challenge the rejection.
Mike , USA (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
26. Sharon At Baruch College
Allan from St. Paul - You've got it right! and so does Sharon! I was
there and heard the 4 protesters inside who were ejected. What a
disgrace to call themselves Jews! Their behavior violated every rule of
the Torah they claim to espouse. Shame on them! The government of
Israel, duly elected by the people to provide them with security is
trying to do just that. Isn't it about time we stood up and helped
them!
Chana , NY, NY (05.23.05)
Recommend this talkback click here
27. Understanding why the pull outof Gaza.
To those that don"t understand why Prime Minister Sharon wants to pull
out of GAZA. It is simple, when Israel was first votedin the UN in Nov
1947 it was to confrim a promise made in Declarationat the end f World
War ! that there should be a Homeland for the Jewsih people and it
should be called Paelestine with Jerusalem as the Capital. The Arab
Nations were opposed to this and IT wasnm;t till after the Secound
World War When all the Arab States were tied into helping the Germans
and took satisfaction that the Jews were being killed that they decided
to take the land,houses, business ,money of the Jews in thier land and
chase them out without and restitution. . The Germans have stated that
they azre sorry for what they did and paid reprations to the Jewish
Country Isreal.The accnowleged that there was a Holocustand they havde
madee a vow nerver to forget.
When Israel was voted into existance
in May of 1948 % Arab Nation Attackes this small country with these
worlds we will push them into the sea and finish what Hitler didn:t
Well they not only could not push them in to the SEa they wree
Defeated.Inbthe History of the Worls there has never been a
cricumstance where the defeated had rights to demand from the victor
concessions. To the victor belong the spois. At the tiume that these
five countries were attacking Israel
They were telling those Arabs that were iving there that the Jews will
come kill their young and rape their women. The fled to the
nerighborigncountries anf there they were refugees and the wereolaces
in sghacks or tents were not alloowed to vote, own land,go to school
and there they were kept for 57 years. Crying to the UNand the world
that the Jews placed thm in this position.While those that remanined
became Israeli Citizens were sent to school were able to open their own
busnesses, were given medical care, and if they so desired they could
run for public office and the females were given the same
opportunities.
those pioners who settled in the West Bank and Gaza in 57 years they
were overtaken by their population growth. These peole that were living
in thedelapeted conditions had nother better to do that sit outside the
coffrewe houses smlke cigarettes and make babies. They didnot have to
worry about taken care of them as the world was sending food so they
didnot have to work. Thpse that wanted to work were hired not by there
government but the Israeli's. They hired them by the thousands.
Murray GOrelick , CHestnut Hill MA.USA (05.24.05)
mmg...@comcaast.net Recommend this talkback click here
Reb Moshe
Jewish leaders back Sharon
Prime minister addresses 1,200 Jewish group leaders in New York, says
million Jews must be brought to Israel in next 15 years; earlier,
Sharon's speech disrupted by anti-disengagement protesters
By Yitzhak Benhorin and Efrat Weiss
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon delivered a speech before about 1,200
American Jewish leaders in New York's Baruch College, receiving a
strong show of support over the upcoming pullout plan.
Those in attendance included major donors and Reform, Conservative, and
Orthodox leaders, who praised Sharon and stressed their support for his
policies.
The six speakers who addressed the audience before the prime minister
were senior Jewish education figures, who said the American Jewish
community stands united behind the Israeli government.
In his speech, Sharon addressed the disengagement plan, spoke of the
danger of assimilation, and stressed the need to bring another million
Jews to Israel in the next 15 years.
The future of the Jewish people also depends on Israel's character as
a Jewish, democratic state, the prime minister said, and added this was
the spirit behind the disengagement plan.
The upcoming Gaza Strip and northern West Bank pullout would boost
Israel's security and serve as an opportunity to initiate talks with
the Palestinians, he said.
The withdrawal would also serve to ensure a Jewish majority in Israel
and allow Israelis to keep important Jews sites forever, he said.
However, Sharon also noted the decision to evacuate settlements was a
difficult one for him, but said the Jewish people was able to overcome
tough challenges before and would do so again.
Lubavitch crash Sharon visit
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was met Sunday evening with curses from
anti-disengagement protesters, many of them of Lubavitch Hasidim, while
speaking to New York Jewish leaders in Baruch College.
Anti-disengagement rally in New York (Photo: Reuters)
During the speech, which lasted twenty minutes, part of the audience
stood up, cursed the prime minister and chanted anti-disengagement
slogans.
According to one of those present, the episode "was extremely
embarrassing and completely alien to the American mentality."
After a couple of disturbances, including one in which a heckler called
Sharon an "a--hole," the prime minister responded with a sarcastic
"thank you." The protesters were ejected from the hall and Sharon
finished his speech, which was met with thunderous applause.
Hundreds demonstrated outside Baruch College, screaming at Sharon
"Shame on you."
New York City Police arrested a number of protesters for disturbing the
peace.
Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe, a member of Land of Israel Forum maintaining
contact with Chabad Hasidim in New York, told Ynet, "Every Jew can
help in the struggle against the uprooting and expulsion plan."
Asked why hassidim not living in Israel would bother to get involved in
the issue, Wolpe responded, "Sharon himself traveled abroad to speak
with Jews in the Diaspora, to listen to them and be influenced by them,
even though they do not live here. We're talking about Jews with
family here."
Sharon: Disengagement won't be delayed
Earlier Sunday, Sharon responded to Israeli press reports suggesting
that the government would delay disengagement past its current August
deadline.
He said the reports were "baseless" and "disengagement would be
carried out on schedule."
A member of Sharon's entourage responded to articles about corruption
in the public sector: "There's no doubt that something must be done
to change the situation, but regarding Ma'ariv's campaign, someone
ought to examine what is behind it."
Asked if he meant that there was a partisan motive behind the
newspaper's anti-corruption campaign, the entourage member responded,
"I didn't say that."
Saturday night, Sharon flew to the U.S. on what his aides described as
a meeting of "mutual support between the prime minister and the
Jewish community in the last stretch ahead of the disengagement."
Saturday night, Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon flew to New
York from Washington to meet Sharon as he landed.
Ayalon accompanied Sharon during his visit with New York Jewry and will
be with him when he makes his appearance Tuesday before the pro-Israel
lobby AIPAC in Washington.
Sharon, who appointed Ayalon to his position, is very satisfied with
him and wants to extend his term by a year. However, Foreign Minister
Silvan Shalom said Saturday that he would extend the ambassador's
term when it expires in autumn.
Reb Moshe
By FORWARD STAFF
May 27, 2005
After Prime Minister Sharon was interrupted by a handful of hecklers
Sunday during a speech in New York, one of his high-profile hosts felt
the need to apologize.
"The noisy minority does not reflect the view of the vast majority,"
said host James Tisch, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations.
True, but it helps to have connections. Two of the hecklers - David
and Syndi Romanoff, a married couple from Elizabeth, N.J. - had been
waved into the VIP seats at the rally, giving them better access to the
prime minister, by Tisch's chief lieutenant, Malcolm Hoenlein.
Hoenlein, who has headed the Presidents Conference for 19 years, has
often found himself fending off claims from critics who say he uses the
relative lack of process within the loose but influential coalition to
steer it to the right.
In this case, however, Hoenlein insisted it was all a misunderstanding.
He said that when he vouched for the Romanoffs at the rally, he simply
was helping out two familiar faces in search of better seats.
"You would be out of your mind to think that I allowed them in knowing
what they would do," Hoenlein told the Forward. He added that the
Romanoffs, who are prominent figures in the Orthodox community in
Elizabeth, "took advantage of the hospitality of the organizers. Their
behavior is despicable and so counterproductive."
David Romanoff defended his actions in an interview, but he said that
there had been no reason for Hoenlein to know what was going to happen.
At the same time, Romanoff acknowledged that he had taken a public role
in anti-disengagement activities in the past, at one point traveling
all the way to Crawford, Texas, to protest the plan.
Hoenlein noted that in the end the 1,000-person crowd included just
five or so protesters: "Not a bad filtering effort on the whole, I
would say." Other observers estimated seven to 10 hecklers, in three
separate groups.
The event was Sharon's first visit in four years to New York, the
metropolitan area with the largest concentration of Jews in the world.
It was his first major meeting with Jewish communal leaders here since
he announced his Gaza withdrawal plan. The rally, held in Manhattan at
Baruch College, was sponsored by a coalition of local and national
Jewish organizations, including the Presidents Conference, United
Jewish Communities and UJA-Federation of New York.
During his talk, Sharon won repeated cheers from the religiously
diverse crowd as he defended his withdrawal plan. Leaders of the
Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements offered prayers of support
for the plan.
The mood was exactly the opposite outside the auditorium, where the
plan was rallied against by a mostly Orthodox crowd, in particular
Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim. The protest appeared to get off to a sluggish
start, but picked up steam after the arrival of about 10 busloads of
Lubavitch Hasidim from Brooklyn. Organizers said that several thousand
people attended, but the New York City Police Department declined to
give an estimate. Several news organizations gave estimates of 500 to
1,000.
Several groups that oppose the disengagement plan, including Americans
for a Safe Israel and the Zionist Organization of America, organized
Sunday's protest.
The makeup of the crowd seemed to echo a string of Israeli news reports
in recent months describing the growing role of Chabad-Lubavitch,
particularly its so-called messianic wing, in organizing and funding
anti-disengagement activities. The messianic wing of Lubavitch is a
faction that believes its late rabbi, Menachem Schneerson, who died in
1994, is still alive and will return as the messiah.
Many of the demonstrators wore orange, the color adopted by Gaza
anti-disengagement activists. They chanted, "Not one inch. Shame on
you." One sign compared Sharon's plan to the Nazis reign and to the
Spanish Inquisition. It read: "Spain 1492, Germany 1933, Israel 2005."
Another sign declared, "Gush Katif is Not Anatevka!" invoking the
fictional Jewish shtetl driven into exile in the Sholom
Aleichem-inspired musical, "Fiddler on the Roof."
Among the speakers at the rally was Dov Hikind, a New York State
Assembly member who represents the heavily Orthodox Boro Park section
of Brooklyn.
David Romanoff said that after being ejected from the speech inside, he
and his wife addressed the demonstration. Other ejected hecklers
reportedly also addressed the rally.
Speaking afterward, Romanoff told the Forward that he had not gone to
the event with the intention of disrupting Sharon's speech. But,
Romanoff added, another audience member who stood up, showed his orange
shirt and declared, "Jews do not deport Jews," was his inspiration.
After that, Romanoff said, "I could not help myself."
Romanoff said that he had not heard from Hoenlein.
"I respect him," Romanoff said. "I wish that it had not been such
one-sided event. The other side should have been represented."
Hoenlein was not as diplomatic. "I will not talk to the couple, but
they will hear from me," he said.
Hoenlein told the Forward that he had personally instructed security
personnel to search everyone heading into the event, and to be on the
lookout for people wearing orange shirts under their jackets.
Romanoff confirmed that his wife was wearing an orange shirt under her
top when the couple stood up to challenge Sharon, but he did not
confirm witnesses' claims that she revealed it by removing an outer
garment during the commotion.
This is not the first time Romanoff has publicly proved his bona fides
as a critic of the Gaza pullout plan. In April, according to a report
in New Jersey Jewish News, he traveled to Crawford, Texas, to take part
in an anti-disengagement rally as Sharon met with President Bush at the
American leader's ranch.
Hoenlein said he was completely shocked by the Romanoffs' behavior
during the Sharon speech Sunday.
"I had no idea they could act in such a way. They never did such things
before," Hoenlein said. "I spoke at a dinner for them in Elizabeth, New
Jersey."
The Presidents Conference had come under fire last year from some of
its members, most vocally by the Anti-Defamation League, for failing to
issue a clear statement of support for Sharon after he announced his
plan to withdraw from Gaza and the northern West Bank.
But even ADL National Director Abraham Foxman, one of Hoenlein's main
critics, said it was unfair to blame him for the disruption at Sunday's
rally.
"People use any means to get into those kind of events," Foxman said.
"I know people who disagree with the prime minister, and I assume they
would behave, but you never know. So I don't see this as a big deal."
Foxman has led calls for the Presidents Conference to be out front in
rallying support for Sharon and his plan. The conference has endorsed
the plan, but in apparent deference to its hawkish minority, its most
public pronouncements - including the Sunday rally and an
advertisement in The New York Times - have been framed more generally
as support for Sharon.
At the rally, however, Tisch pledged that the Conference of Presidents
would work "to build even greater understanding for the disengagement
plan" with a Web site and by submitting editorials to newspapers.
With reporting by Marc Perelman, Ami Eden, Jennifer Siegel and JTA.
Copyright 2005 © The Forward
Reb Moshe
BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO
STAFF WRITER
June 4, 2005
It was just a simple cup of coffee.
But in November 1992, when Rabbi Israel Steinberg asked to have his
java in a disposable paper cup because he observed kosher dietary laws,
it appeared to be too much to ask the manager of the Nations Cafe on
First Avenue. Steinberg, 69, of Borough Park, never got his coffee. The
manager of the Nations Cafe wouldn't serve him and threw him out,
officials said.
But after a 13-year battle, Steinberg finally got a sweetener when the
state Division of Human Rights ruled that he had been discriminated
against by being denied his coffee.
As a result, UN Plaza Diner Corp., the corporate owner of the
restaurant at the time of the incident, was ordered on May 27 to pay
Steinberg $500 for the "mental anguish he suffered" because of the
discriminatory conduct.
The record in the case, the commission ruled, showed that the
restaurant made Steinberg feel unwelcome because of his religious
beliefs.
"It's the principle," Steinberg, the rabbi at Seaside Jewish Center in
Rockaway Park, said Friday. "People have to learn to respect each other
and not to discriminate."
According to the ruling, restaurant manager Nicholas Kalas told
Steinberg, who was born in Israel in 1936, to "get out" when the rabbi
insisted on being served his coffee in a disposable cup.
Steinberg explained in an interview that Jews who strictly observe
kosher laws will not consume food from porcelain or other dishes that
may have been washed with non-kosher food remnants. After seeing paper
cups behind the restaurant counter, Steinberg said he asked to have his
coffee served in one.
According to Steinberg, Kalas told him he had to drink his coffee
outside. "I am not a dog to drink it outside," Steinberg said he told
Kalas.
It was then that Kalas threw him out and Steinberg, who was wearing a
yarmulke at the time, said he was humiliated. Ironically, Steinberg was
on his way to a conference on anti-Semitism when he stopped for the cup
of coffee.
Robert Miller, a member of the Manhattan law firm of Reed Smith, LLP,
represented Steinberg pro bono.
"It was never the money," Miller said Friday about why Steinberg
pressed the case. Instead, it was about public places making reasonable
accommodations for people's religions, the attorney said.
At the Nations Cafe, general manager Mike Aronis said the eatery has
been under new ownership since 2000. He stressed that regardless of the
old policies, things are different and that no questions are asked if a
customer wants paper cups and plates.
Kalas couldn't be reached for comment.
Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc
Reb Moshe
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz Elected to Head Sanhedrin
Monday, June 6, 2005 / 28 Iyar 5765
As parades filled the streets of Jerusalem Monday - Jerusalem Day - the
reestablished Sanhedrin convened in the city to elect a Nassi and
representatives to lead it.
The current format of the Sanhedrin is an attempt to renew the historic
Sanhedrin, Judaism's highest legal-religious tribunal during Holy
Temple times. The 71-man assembly convened in one of the Holy Temple
chambers, and existed from several decades before the Common Era until
roughly 425 C.E. The renewed body was launched last year in Tiberias,
now convenes in Jerusalem, and is still struggling to gain wide
acceptance and legitimacy in the Torah world.
Since its launching last October in Tiberias, where it last convened
1,600 years ago, it has met in Jerusalem on a monthly basis. In
addition, various committees have met more often to discuss issues such
as determining the exact location of the Holy Temple, the establishment
of courts of non-Jews who accept the Seven Laws of Noah, Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's plan to uproot the Jewish communities of Gaza and
northern Samaria, and many more.
Semicha - original rabbinic ordination as handed down from Moses - was
reintroduced by the Sanhedrin recently when hundreds of Israel's
greatest rabbis agreed on the worthiness of a particular rabbi to
receive it. The committee who oversaw the process made every effort to
fulfill the Jewish legal requirements as outlined by Maimonides, as
closely as possible.
Leading Sephardic and Ashkenazic spiritual leaders Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
and Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv also agreed that this rabbi was "fitting to
serve."
That rabbi eventually backed down from serving as Nassi of the
Sanhedrin due to pressure from a leading Hassidic rabbi, but not before
granting semicha to Rabbi Dov Levanoni. At the age of 83, he is above
the age limit to head the Sanhedrin. He therefore accepted the semikha
only in order to ordain one who is fitting to renew the Sanhedrin. It
is he who ordained Rabbi Tzvi Idan, and Rabbi Idan, as its first
temporary Nassi, ordained the members of the Sanhedrin in Tiberias on
October 13, 2004.
Since the current Sanhedrin's launch, it has been in a transitional
stage as it gathered support and sought to rebuild the institution in
accordance with Jewish law. A temporary Nassi had been appointed, but
the mandated period came to an end, and so it was decided at the
court's last meeting that as the Sanhedrin moves into its next stage,
it must become autonomous from the original founding committee and
elect permanent officials. Rabbi Even-Israel Steinzaltz was chosen as
Nassi.
Due to concerns that external pressure would be brought to bear upon
individuals not to take part in the establishment of a Sanhedrin, the
names of most participants have been withheld up to this point, upon
the request of the Sanhedrin's spokesmen.
The court of 71 rabbis has now decided to select of a group of seven
individuals within the Sanhedrin to represent the institution in
dealings with the public and with Gedolei Yisrael - recognized
spiritual leaders of Israel.
Arutz-7's Ezra HaLevi was at Monday's Sanhedrin meeting, where it was
decided to release the names for purposes of transparency as well. It
was concluded that the Sanhedrin has become strong enough for its
members to be able to withstand criticism, particularly of the "what
makes you think you are worthy of sitting on it?" nature. In that vein,
it is hoped that the release of the seven names will encourage those
who believe that their own rabbis or teachers can contribute to the
endeavor, to propose that they also be included in the supreme judicial
body.
A minimum quorum of 23 Sanhedrin members is necessary for a vote to
take place.
At Monday's meeting, those present chose seven names from a list of
nominees to represent the Sanhedrin to the Jewish world and to
spiritual leaders.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel (Steinsaltz) received the most votes of
confidence in his ability to lead the Sanhedrin through the next stage
of its development.
The six others who were chosen by the Sanhedrin were:
Rabbi Nachman Kahane - Rabbi of the Young Israel of Jerusalem's Old
City and head of the Institute for Talmudic Commentaries, which is
involved in the study of the Temple rituals and ceremonies, as well as
cataloging of all known kohanim (priests) in Israel. He is the brother
of murdered JDL leader and ex-Knesset Member Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel - a former Yeshiva head and founder of the Temple
Institute in Jerusalem, which has produced many of the vessels to be
used in the Third Temple.
He was one of the paratroopers who took part in the 1967 liberation of
the Temple Mount.
Rabbi Yoel Shwartz - Founder and rabbi of the "Nachal Hareidi" IDF unit
specifically designed to enable the hareidi-religious public to join
the IDF. He is a teacher at Yeshivat Dvar Yerushalayim and author of
approximately 200 books on Jewish law and theology, including
influential guides for gentiles seeking to serve G-d and observe the
Seven Laws of Noah.
Rabbi Dov Stein - A pioneer in the Sanhedrin's renewal for the last 20
years, he has been secretary of the Sanhedrin since its inception,
dealing with logistical aspects as well as interacting with recognized
Torah scholars and inviting rabbis to join the body. He manages the
beith-din.com web site.
Rabbi Yehuda Edri - A prime initiator of the re-establishment of the
Sanhedrin, an accomplished author and leader of the Movement for the
Rebuilding of the Temple.
Rabbi Dov Levanoni - An elder Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and expert on the
Holy Temple.
Rabbi Steinsaltz was reluctant to accept the position of Nassi, saying
there are much wiser and more capable people among the group and among
the Jewish people. "The purpose of the Sanhedrin is to bring unity to
the nation," Steinsaltz said, as he emphasized the unique ability of
Jerusalem to bring the Jewish people together.
"The fact that he is not chasing after the honor of the position is
exactly what makes him the best one for the job," another Sanhedrin
member told those present.
"We are not offering honor, though," said Rabbi Yisrael Ariel. "We are
offering the ability to fulfill a mitzvah (Divine commandment) that for
2,000 years was unavailable."
Steinsaltz then said that the position of Nassi was not something that
could simply be accepted on the spot, hinting that it was only fitting
for the head of the Sanhedrin to shun the title repeatedly until
coerced. "If someone is supposed to refuse three times when asked to
lead public prayers, then how much more should he be reluctant to take
the mantle of Nassi," Steinsaltz said.
Rabbi Steinsaltz is regarded as one of the world's leading scholars and
rabbis. He holds a degree in mathematics from the Hebrew University, in
addition to his extensive Torah study. At the age of 23, he became
Israel's youngest high school principal and went on to found the Israel
Institute for Talmudic Publications. He has published 58 books to date
on the Talmud, Jewish mysticism, religious thought, sociology,
historical biography, and philosophy. These books have been translated
into Russian, English, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese, and
Dutch. His commentary on Pirkei Avot, "Ethics of the Fathers," was
translated into Chinese and published in 1996. Rabbi Steinsaltz is best
known for his interpretation and basic commentary of the Babylonian
Talmud, a 30-volume task he began some 25 years ago.
In Israel, Rabbi Steinsaltz is the Dean of the "Mekor Chaim" network of
schools, which encompasses kindergarten through high school. In 1988,
Rabbi Steinsaltz received the Israel Prize, the country's highest
cultural honor. Rabbi Steinsaltz is also very involved in the future of
the Jews in the former Soviet Union, having set up various educational
institution for Jews still living there. He still travels there once a
month.
Newsweek magazine said of the Nassi-elect: "Jewish lore is filled with
tales of formidable rabbis. Probably none living today can compare in
genius and influence to Adin Steinsaltz, whose extraordinary gifts as
scholar, teacher, scientist, writer, mystic and social critic have
attracted disciples from all factions of Israeli society."
Also present at the meeting on Monday, though not seated in the 71-seat
semi-circular row of chairs, was famed archaeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones.
He is working with the Sanhedrin to establish a system of courts for
non-Jews adhering to the Seven Laws of Noah, which the Torah obligates
all of humanity to follow. One of those laws is to establish courts of
justice. A high court has been established by the Sanhedrin for such
purposes, and a subsidiary of that court will soon be established in
the United States as well.
Among the many topics the Sanhedrin intends to address are the bridging
of the divisions between various communities of Jewish exiles who have
returned to Israel; the establishment of authentic techelet, the
biblical blue thread Jews are commanded to wear amongst the fringes
attached to four-cornered garments; the definition of the measurement
of the "ammah" (the biblical cubit); the determination of the exact
point of human death, so as to deal with the Jewish ethics of
euthanasia; and the issue of agunot - women whose husbands refuse to
grant them a divorce.
Those currently sitting on the Sanhedrin stress that they have all
assumed their seats on condition that they give them up to anyone
greater in wisdom who joins. Those interested in becoming involved with
the Sanhedrin should contact the Sanhedrin secretariat at: 02-566-1962
(972-2-566-1962 from outside Israel).
Reb Moshe
Mati Wagner, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 10, 2005
Despite escalating pressure by Chabad followers to launch a massive
anti-disengagement campaign carrying the Lubavitch name, the Chabad
leadership will continue to keep the Hassidic sect out of the fray,
according to Rabbi Menahem Brod, official spokesman for Chabad
institutions in Israel.
In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Brod stressed that
Chabad-Lubavitch's role is to bring Jews closer to Judaism, not to
block roads or organize anti-disengagement rallies. Brod said that
Chabad opposed forceful opposition to the evacuation of Jews from their
homes.
Still, Brod also indicated that a lack of funding for a costly
anti-disengagement campaign was a major factor in its decision to stay
out of the fray. Chabad mounted a costly campaign against the Oslo
process.
"The rebbe directed Chabad to focus on bringing every Jew closer to God
regardless of his political opinions, whether he is leftist or
right-wing," said Brod.
"When Chabad comes out strongly and publicly in favor of Greater Israel
and against disengagement, even though this is not necessarily a
political act, the public sees it as taking a political stand.
"As a result, Chabad becomes an enemy of certain segments of the
population who are liable to say, 'You are Chabad, I cannot work
together with you.'
"And that hurts Chabad's main activities, which, like the struggle to
maintain Greater Israel, is pikuah nefesh [a matter of life or death].
Because if Jews are alienated from Judaism as a result of our
activities, if they end up not celebrating Pessah or Rosh Hashana, that
is also pikuah nefesh in our eyes," he said.
Brod also said that Chabad simply cannot afford a costly PR campaign
against disengagement. "After our anti-Oslo campaign we were left with
huge debt. We simply don't have the resources. If Yesha had money, we
could join them but they are broke also."
Regarding forcefully preventing evacuation, Brod said, "The precedent
that we have is the rebbe's decision before the evacuation of Yamit.
The rebbe was strongly against the evacuation.
Nevertheless, he did not send people to barricade themselves in against
soldiers. And even those who asked to go were told by the rebbe that it
is not Chabad's role to use force.
"Therefore, the rebbe believes one should not physically prevent the
evacuation. And that is what the majority of Chabad rabbis believe.
Chabad has to voice a moral message, to express its values in an
attempt to influence decision makers. But to forcefully stop the
evacuation, that is something we have not seen by the rebbe," he said.
However, many Chabad followers oppose official Chabad policy.
One leading Chabad rabbi said that official leadership is still
traumatized by the aftershock of the Chabad sponsored "Bibi - Good
for the Jews" campaign.
"It sullied Chabad's name and got it involved with politics when Chabad
should be apolitical.
"But a lot of Chabadniks think Brod and his people are being overly
cautious. As a result, people are liable to get the impression the
Chabad is not 100% against disengagement. That would be a desecration
of the rebbe and his message," he said.
Chabad followers have been involved in the blocking of road. But Brod
calls them "partisans that do not heed Chabad leadership."
Just this week, more than 10 Chabad Hassidim were arrested for blocking
the road outside Kfar Chabad near Lod.
Chabad rabbis such as Rabbi Shlomo Dov Wolpo and Rabbi Chaim Druckman
have been active in publicly opposing disengagement. However, they have
been careful not to associate Chabad's name with their actions.
This article can also be read at
Reb Moshe
Orthodox Jewish families put roof over their dream
It all began six years ago when a few friends from the Upper West Side,
many from the same synagogue, wanted a change.
They hoped their move from Manhattan to the suburbs would bring them
more than back yards. They wanted to create a society focused on family
values, social interaction and community involvement.
On Thursday, their dream materialized when the Community Synagogue of
Tenafly and Englewood, better known as Kesher, officially opened in a
denim blue 1860s Victorian mansion on Engle Street in Englewood.
When they debated moving across the river, the group of Orthodox Jewish
families agreed that "something was missing" in their synagogues, said
founding member and Kesher President Evan Sohn.
They lacked an emphasis on family and community. So the families vowed
to move together, he said. And they settled in Englewood and Tenafly,
all within a mile of each other.
"We wandered for years," said Rabbi Jeffrey Fox, who joined the
synagogue two years ago. He said the rapidly growing congregation met
in worshipers' homes and basements.
Their nomadic ways came to an end at the inauguration ceremony when Fox
hung a mezuza - a case containing Scripture - on the synagogue's door
frame, with the blessings of the mayors of Englewood and Tenafly.
Throughout the festivities, Sohn beamed.
"This has exceeded my wildest expectations," he said earlier.
The inside looks more like a home than a synagogue. For the ceremony,
children played the piano and cellos on the porch shaded by gingerbread
trim as sunlight illuminated amber stained-glass on the door. Inside,
there is a parlor with a fireplace and bookshelves lined with religious
texts.
In the back, the sanctuary looks like a childproofed living room with
pews, until the congregation piles in. More than 100 can sit
comfortably. Upstairs are rooms for children of various ages.
The large space is a necessity for the congregation, which has grown
from the initial eight families to nearly 60, members say.
In their move and throughout their growth, there have been troubles.
An early obstacle that confronted members of Kesher and other Orthodox
Jews who lived in Tenafly surfaced in 2000.
At the time, the borough prohibited an eruv, a boundary marked by
plastic strips on utility poles that allows Orthodox Jews to perform
tasks normally prohibited by Jewish law on the Sabbath, such as
carrying medications, pushing baby strollers and using a wheelchair.
The Tenafly Eruv Association, consisting of a few Kesher members and
other Orthodox families, sued the borough in U.S. District Court, which
ruled in the association's favor.
The legal maneuvering hasn't stopped. In May 2004, Tenafly made a
motion to name Verizon as a defendant in the case. Tenafly alleged the
phone company gave the Eruv Association the right to put plastic
strips, or lechis, on utility poles without consulting the borough. In
March, the courts denied the motion.
A settlement has yet to be reached.
"We're looking to resolve it," said Tenafly Mayor Peter Rustin, who
began his tenure after the dispute erupted.
Since the decision, the Tenafly eruv has not been removed and, in the
spring of 2004, the Englewood eruv, which has never been disputed,
expanded.
When the eruv case began, only a few Kesher families lived in Tenafly.
Now, 25 percent of the families live there.
"Their expansion depended on the eruv," said Erez Gotlieb, a member of
the Chabad-Lubavitch on the Palisades in Tenafly and the Tenafly Eruv
Association.
But, he added, "the most important thing in attracting those families
to Tenafly has been Kesher. The eruv simply allows them to benefit from
the synagogue. It enriches their families and their religious life."
Meanwhile, the congregation has remained true to its commitment to
civic and charitable activities.
Congregation members boast of working with the Meals on Wheels program
regularly in Englewood and with the Tenafly Community Chest.
"There's always a concern about taking properties off the tax rolls,"
said Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes. "But the benefits we will get ...
are unparalleled," he said, pointing out that two members of the
synagogue are on Englewood's Planning Board.
New members don't focus on the growing influence of the synagogue or
the eruv when they choose to join Kesher.
"The first weekend we were here, at least half the people came up, said
hi and introduced themselves," said Doni Farkovits, who with his wife,
Lisa, is expecting their first child in November. "There is a
transition period, but it has been smooth. We have a ton of new friends
instantly."
Reb Moshe
(07/01/2005)
Lubavitch's Open Wound At 770
Destroyed plaque honoring rebbe points to new round in battle over
messianism and control of movement.
Debra Nussbaum Cohen - Staff Writer
If ever an architectural feature of a building's exterior stood as a
symbol for the life within, then the defaced plaque honoring the late
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson at Lubavitch headquarters in Crown
Heigh ts is it.
Like the jagged fault line that eventually brings down the mansion in
the famous Edgar Allan Poe story "Fall of the House of Usher," the
cornerstone - which has been vandalized many times over the past few
months and was violently ripped out this week - has come to represent
a movement bitterly split by those who believe Rabbi Schneerson is the
messiah and those who do not.
The plaque was put up seven years ago by the anti-messianists and bears
the inscription "of blessed memory" after the rebbe's name,
referring to him in past tense.
Apparently that was too much to bear for some messianistswho began
defacing it as soon as it was set in place.
The two camps - the anti-messianists run the Chabad worldwide
outreach, while the messianists, a smaller but very active gorup,
control the street in Crown Heights - have waged a simmering war
since 1994, when the Lubavitcher rebbe died. But in recent weeks the
battle has intensified over who controls the main synagogue at 770
Eastern Parkway, Lubavitch headquarters and home to the messianists.
Starting in November, fights have broken out at the site of the plaque,
security guards have been hired to protect the cornerstone, arrests
have been made and the feud has moved beyond Crown Heights and spilled
into secular court.
All of this on the eve of the rebbe's 11th yahrtzeit, July 10 this
year, when thousands of Lubavitchers are expected to gather at the
Queens grave of Rabbi Schneerson.
Some fear that things have deteriorated to the point that the image of
Lubavitch - 4,000 emissaries spreading Yiddishkeit throughout the
world in a $1 billion-a-year-enterprise - could be irrevocably
tarnished by the mess in Crown Heights.
"If people believe that many Lubavitch chasidim are crazy people,
that will damage their image," said Rabbi David Berger, a history
professor at Brooklyn College.
Rabbi Berger, author of the 2001 book "The Rebbe, The Messiah and the
Scandal of Orthodox Indifference," is considered an arch-critic of
the messianist camp, who believes the messianic impulse is beyond the
bounds of normative Judaism.
"It could damage fundraising," he said. "You don't want people
to believe your movement consists primarily of lunatics. If people who
declare this publicly are seen as those controlling the central
headquarters of the entire movement, then people worldwide will come to
think that most Lubavitch chasidim believe the rebbe is the messiah."
Despite Rabbi Berger's fears, and those of anti-messianist officials
in Crown Heights, the number of emissaries, or shluchim, seems to be
growing, according to the movement.
Nevertheless, the chairman of the emissaries' network and other
central Lubavitch organizations, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, has gone to
state court in Brooklyn in an effort to stop the messianists.
While the lawsuit is narrowly about the damage to the cornerstone and
plaque, it is also appears to be about who controls what happens at 770
- the Rabbi Krinsky-led faction or those who have been running the
synagogue inside 770.
Within the buildings' walls, ardent messianists are in charge,
controlled by a small group of men known as the Gaboyim who are chosen
in periodic elections. The most recent vote was in January.
That the dispute is centered at 770 "has tremendous symbolic
significance," said Rabbi Berger.
"When they talk about the rebbe revealing himself, they talk about
him walking into 770," he said. "One of the rebbe's discourses
from the 1980s said that when the redemption comes and the final Temple
comes down from heaven, it will come down into Crown Heights right next
to 770, and the adjoining buildings will be transported to
Jerusalem."
In Crown Heights itself, the pro-moshiach [Hebrew for messiah] faction
seems to be increasingly flexing its muscles.
Posters bearing the rebbe's photo with the word Messiah have been put
up stealthily outside Crown Heights, in downtown Brooklyn, even across
from a mosque in the heavily Arab Atlantic Avenue neighborhood.
And in the quiet hours before dawn Tuesday, someone gouged out of the
front exterior wall of 770 Eastern Parkway much of the cornerstone and
the stone plaque surrounding it. This vandalism, along with other
defacements through the years, is seen to be the work of young Israelis
who believe the rebbe is the messiah, and not an organized effort.
The messianists believe the rebbe remains physically alive but
concealed from view.
Tuesday's vandalism occurred even though there has been a uniformed
guard posted next to the plaque since Nov. 3, when in the early morning
hours, several young Lubavitch men wrenched the defaced plaque off the
wall and tried to put up their own, using the honorific "Shlita,"
an Aramaic abbreviation for "He should live for many long years,"
which conventionally follows the name of a living sage.
A spokesman for the organizations that own 770 and hired the guard said
they are investigating.
The "of blessed memory" inscription was scratched out by the
pro-messianists soon after the plaque was installed. The defaced plaque
has remained in place.
Following the November incident the police were called, several arrests
were made and Rabbi Krinsky, chairman of the Lubavitch organizations
that own 770, went to court. A temporary restraining order was placed
against the messianists, who are referred to by their opponents as
"the Taliban."
The messianists, in turn, refer to Rabbi Krinsky as "the
megalomaniac," someone trying to pull the strings from an office high
above the street to control the expression of the will of the people
there.
Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky was among the men arrested Nov. 3. The Boston
resident is an ardent messianist who visits 770 several times a year.
"I describe the rebbe as alive," Rabbi Sokolovsky said in an
interview. "The body of moshiach does not die, even if it appears to
be so. A tzaddik [righteous person] can materialize himself in the
world if he needs to. "Concealment does not mean that the rebbe has
an invisible body," he said. "It has to do with people's
readiness to see it. It's people's perception."
Rabbi Sokolovsky said he has met people who have seen the rebbe in
person since he died.
That perspective offends some.
"For so-called Orthodox Jews to say this undermines a basic argument
against Christianity that's been going on for over 1,000 years,"
said Rabbi Berger. "It's a betrayal of the Jewish belief in
messianism, whose parameters have been defined to exclude the
possibility that the messiah would declare the redemption is coming in
his generation and die without completing the task."
It is this issue that has the anti-messianists worried.
A messianist image being projected louder from 770 could have
widespread implications for the network of emissaries who provide
everything from Jewish preschools to camps to congregational leadership
in hundreds of Jewish communities around the globe - and in some
places where they are the only Jewish presence.
The aggregate operating budget for the emissaries is roughly $1 billion
a year, according to Lubavitch sources, not including capital projects.
A large banner proclaiming the rebbe as the messiah has long hung on
the wall of the main sanctuary at 770. For the past few years, the
curtain over the ark holding the Torah scrolls has been embroidered
with the same sentiment.
Upstairs in the women's section, a large tzedaka box built into a
wall bears the large letters "Beit Moshiach," for "House of the
Messiah," and pro-messianist literature is all over.
During a recent visit to 770 several men downstairs, having just
finished the afternoon prayers, were passionately singing the chant
that has become the messianists' slogan: "Long live our master, our
teacher, our rabbi, King Messiah, forever and ever!"
One man clutched a fistful of small plastic yellow flags with the
messianic crown on it. A few others danced around during the song. Many
of the men in the sanctuary, however, did not participate.
"It's very inspiring davening at 770 because everyone davens with
special power because the rebbe is there," said Michael Rosenthal, a
24-year-old Lubavitcher who works for the emissary in Great Neck, in an
interview outside.
Those who don't subscribe to the aggressively pro-moshiach stance say
they often avoid praying at 770.
"The more than 40 shtieblach [little neighborhood synagogues] around
Crown Heights are full because people don't want to subject their
kids to the craziness," said one anti-messianist.
Jeffrey Buss, the attorney for the Gaboyim, invoked this week's U.S.
Supreme Court ambiguous rulings on the constitutionality of displaying
the Ten Commandments on public property.
Buss has moved to have the lawsuit thrown out of court because he says
it is about theological issues that are not within the purview of
secular court.
The plaintiff's attorney did not return phone calls. Rabbi Krinsky,
through a spokesman, declined to comment.
The next court appearance is scheduled for July 6 - four days before
some Lubavitchers will light yahrtzeit candles in the rebbe's memory,
and others will not, instead proclaiming "Yechi! Long Live the King
Messiah!" n
2000 - 2002 The Jewish Week, Inc. All rights reserved. Please refer to
the legal notice for other important information.
Reb Moshe
By JENNIFER SIEGEL
July 15, 2005
A prominent Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi delivered a speech this week in
Brooklyn lambasting his movement's leadership for not aggressively
fighting Israel's plan to dismantle settlements in Gaza and the
northern West Bank.
"When I read that the Lubavitch took a position that we're not to get
involved, it went against everything I know," said Rabbi Avraham Hecht,
83, at an anti-disengagement event held Sunday night at the Jewish
Children's Museum, located across the street from Chabad's
worldwide headquarters in Brooklyn's Crown Heights area. "How stupid
can these people be? This is deportation, not disengagement. Even the
Nazis didn't do it this way."
Hecht, who is no stranger to controversy, spoke on the 11th anniversary
of the death of the movement's late rebbe or grand rabbi, Menachem M.
Schneerson.
In June 1995, Hecht came under fire after he called for the death of
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, whose peace accords with the
Palestinians entailed a surrender of land in the West Bank. After Rabin
was shot and killed by a Jewish religious extremist in November of that
year, Hecht was forced to resign his rabbinical post at Congregation
Shaare Zion in Brooklyn, although he had previously retracted his
statements.
Hecht's recent speech was part of a program hosted by the Pikuach
Nefesh organization, a Lubavitch group that opposes the disengagement
plan. About 60 Chabad rabbis, many of whom had traveled to New York to
visit the rebbe's grave last weekend, attended.
Hecht did not endorse violence in response to Israeli policy, although
the rabbi suggested it was likely that some settlers would respond with
violence. "But," he said, "do we want that - that one Jew should kill
another Jew?"
The rabbi's pointed criticism of Chabad's institutional leaders
highlighted current tensions within the movement. While opposition to
Israel's disengagement plan is widespread within Chabad, the central
leadership - which directs the rabbis who perform outreach around the
world - has avoided organizing an official campaign against it. Hecht
belongs to a smaller group of rabbis who favor bold action, many of
whom believe that the late Schneerson was the messiah.
The movement's messianic wing came under some harsh criticism in a
July 6 opinion essay by Larry Derfner in The Jerusalem Post.
Chabad has "a messianic wing associated with radicalism and violence,
and then there's the mainstream wing that disassociates itself from
that sort of thing," Derfner wrote. He cited reports that the Israeli
youths who recently stoned a Palestinian teenager were associated with
the messianic wing of Chabad as evidence of the "ultra-nationalist
lethality coming out of" the movement, and he called on mainstream
Chabad leaders to take action against the more radical wing.
Chabad-Lubavitch officials in New York did not return calls seeking
comment on Hecht's speech.
Last Sunday, as thousands of Chabadniks and other admirers of the late
rebbe flooded his gravesite in Cambria Heights, Queens, the mood was
mystical rather than political. A line of visitors snaked along the
walkways of the cemetery, while visitors, from infants to the elderly,
waited over an hour to enter the enclosure where the rebbe lies
interred next to his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Y. Schneersohn, the
sixth Lubavitcher rebbe. Women and men entered the enclosure
separately, in groups of 50 or more, and rushed to say prayers and drop
personal notes by the grave. By late afternoon, it had become a pond of
white paper.
Ephraim Wolffe, 31, rabbi of Sydney, Australia's Central Synagogue,
said he believed that the late rebbe would want him to focus his energy
on the Jews living in Sydney in 2005, rather than on far-off events in
Israel that he could not change.
"Although the rebbe loved each inch of the land, he recognized that you
won't always win each battle, that you may lose the war by trying to
win each battle," said Wolffe, whose parents and grandparents also
worked as outreach emissaries for the movement.
The "fundamentalists do so much damage," Wolffe said. "Everybody thinks
they represent Chabad," and "it's painful, there's no question."
Copyright 2005 © The Forward
Reb Moshe
Lead Players on a Global Stage
By
November 12, 2004
The past year has been a time of passionate, wrenching divisions within
America and across the globe. The world has been unsettled in a way not
seen since the 1930s, though comparisons are, as Philip Roth reminds us
with his new masterpiece, always imperfect and often misleading.
And not since the 1930s have the affairs and passions of the Jews
loomed so large in the world's troubled imaginings. The future of the
Middle East, Jihad and Muslim rage, images of Jewish cabals in
Washington, debates over immigration, tolerance of religious minorities
and even the old question of who killed Jesus. It has started to seem,
at times, as though every bugbear that might frighten us has been
thrown onto the table at once.
There is at least one essential difference between now and the 1930s.
In the Nazi era, Jews were helpless pawns, unable to do anything but
watch as forces of history gathered against them. Today Jews are not
just plot devices but central players in nearly every act of the drama,
on all sides.
Not surprisingly, when we compiled this year's annual Forward 50 list
of the most influential members of the American Jewish community, we
found it dominated by individuals who are playing lead roles in the
great struggles of the day, as policy-makers, theoreticians, activists
and gadflies. Through much of this year, their doings seemed almost to
crowd out the more traditional concerns of the community, from
education to charity. But one look past the surface shows that the
streets of Jewish America are bubbling with new energy and spirit.
Reflecting the outsize role of Jewish concerns on the world agenda,
we've added a new category we call Public Square, featuring public
officials whose roles - running a Holocaust museum, dividing
Holocaust-era assets - are at once governmental and explicitly
Jewish.
This year's Forward 50 actually contains 51 entries, to make room for
someone who is not Jewish but might well be the world's most famous
practitioner of Judaism - the pop singer Madonna. To include her on a
list of prominent Jews would have been false, but to leave her off
would have been no less misleading.
The Forward 50 is not based on a scientific survey or on a democratic
election. Names have been suggested by readers and by our own staff.
Each year's compilation is a journalistic effort to record some of the
trends and events in American Jewish life in the year just ended and to
illuminate some of the individuals likely to be in the news in the year
ahead.
Membership in the 50 doesn't mean the Forward endorses what these
individuals do or say. We've chosen them because they are doing and
saying things that are making a difference in the way American Jews,
for better or worse, view the world and themselves. Not all of them
have put their energies into the traditional framework of Jewish
community life, but all of them have consciously pursued Jewish
activism as they understood it, and all of them have left a mark.
The Top Five
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared in October before the United
Jewish Communities's annual Lion of Judah conference and talked about
the Jewish roots of her legal philosophy, she wasn't breaking new
ground. Ginsburg, 71, has spoken out regularly on her views of the
Jewish legal tradition since she was named to the Supreme Court by
former President Bill Clinton in 1993, becoming the second woman and
the sixth Jew to serve on the high court. Carrying on a tradition
established by Justices Louis Brandeis and Arthur Goldberg before her,
she has been unabashed in acknowledging her debt to Jewish values, in
the process becoming one of the nation's most visible symbols of Jewish
pride. Among the court's most liberal members, she has been a firm
defender of civil liberties during the Bush years. Perhaps with an eye
to posterity, she's stepped up her Jewish activism in the past year,
particularly in print, with an essay in the Forward (her second) and in
"I Am a Jew," the memorial volume published in memory of slain
journalist Daniel Pearl. Before joining the high court, Brooklyn-born
Ginsburg was a law professor at Columbia University and a leader in the
women's rights divisions of the American Civil Liberties Union and the
American Jewish Congress. For all that, her most important legacy
probably lies ahead of her; all her powers of reason and persuasion
will be put to the test in the next four years as she prepares to
defend the court's embattled liberal wing during President Bush's
second term.
Howard Kohr and
Bernice Manocherian
This year has truly been the best and the worst of times for Bernice
Manocherian, 62, and Howard Kohr, 48, respectively president and
executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In
May the duo shared the dais at their annual policy conference with
President Bush, only the second president to appear before the powerful
pro-Israel lobby. As 5,000 delegates cheered, Bush praised Aipac for
"serving the cause of America," said its work is "more vital than ever"
and thanked it for electing, in Manocherian, "a president I can kiss."
But in late August, startling reports were leaked to the media that the
FBI was investigating two Aipac officials on suspicion of illegally
transferring documents from a Pentagon analyst to Israeli diplomats.
The allegations, which in some versions included espionage, raised old
images of American Jewish dual loyalty, and the media had a field day.
By November, however, the story had largely faded from view, with no
sign from the Justice Department that any indictments were in the
works. Aipac was as active as ever on the congressional lobbying front,
and following a September letter to members from Kohr and Manocherian
asking for a "special, additional contribution" to get through the
crisis, the organization appeared likely to finish the year financially
stronger than ever. According to colleagues, Kohr summed up the
experience with the observation that "What doesn't kill you makes you
stronger."
Jack Rosen
After six years as president of the perennially struggling American
Jewish Congress, Jack Rosen, 58, born in a postwar displaced persons
camp, stepped aside this year to become chairman of the board - and
saw his influence and visibility soar. His hard-line stance on French
antisemitism and his alliance with a grass-roots French Jewish activist
group, which irritated mainstream Jewish leaders in Paris and ruffled
more than a few diplomatic feathers, were beginning to pay off in
changed policies, and they marked deference from the Quai D'Orsay. His
friendship with President Bush and easy access to the White House were
becoming hard to ignore, even among critics of his pragmatic,
anti-ideological style. He had a misstep this summer with the naming of
an Israeli diplomat as CEO of the American Jewish Congress, which
turned out to violate Israeli law. Still, his influence is certain to
grow, whether or not he is chosen next spring to chair the Conference
of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, as insiders
suggest.
Philip Roth
There is an argument to be made that novelist Philip Roth should have
been on this list every year since 1959, when he burst onto the
literary scene with "Goodbye, Columbus." Sadly, we have been publishing
the Forward 50 for barely a decade, while Roth has been the unofficial
spokesman for the American Jewish mind for close to a half-century. But
even for the prodigiously talented and much-praised Roth, his latest
offering, "The Plot Against America," seems a milestone. Venturing into
the new territory of "what if" counter-history, Roth imagines an
America in which Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Delano Roosevelt
for president in 1940, keeps America out of World War II and begins
singling out the Jews as a national threat. Despite Roth's public
demurrals that "The Plot" shouldn't be read as an allegory for today's
political climate, it's hard not to draw parallels, beginning with the
accusations of Jewish power and war-mongering that have spread around
the globe since the buildup to war in Iraq. Most striking is the book's
ultimate warning: that fascism can spread quickly and widely and that
what is most American about America is its resistance to it. Roth's
choice of Jews as the vehicle for this lesson might seem obvious -
who else would Roth write about? - but for many it's a powerful
testament to our place in this country. "Can the Great American Novel
be about Jews?" our reviewer asked. "Why not? The Great Irish Novel
was."
Jon Stewart
He sits atop The New York Times's best-seller list with "America (The
Book)." His Emmy Award-winning satirical news program, "The Daily Show"
on cable's Comedy Central, has become the top-rated cable show among
18-to-34-year-olds, topping 2.4 million viewers after the presidential
debates. But the raw numbers don't show the full influence of this
Walter Cronkite of fake news, born 41 years ago as Jonathan Stewart
Leibowitz. Polls show that his program has become one of the main
sources of political information for the young. During the primary
campaigns, every Democratic presidential contender took a turn on his
interview couch, fielding his serious questions and sarcastic jabs
while jockeying for the youth vote. Republicans endure his barbs, as
well. When he asked neoconservative Bill Kristol, right after the
election, if the Christian right's claims to heaven weren't "elitist,"
Kristol told him to "ask one of your Christian guests. We Jews have our
own elitism - we believe we're the chosen people." Stewart's reply:
"I'm a Jew who believes in a good bagel buffet." His comment on Mel
Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was a mock apology: "Sorry - we
didn't know he was the Christ." But there is seriousness on the set:
His staff took an evening last spring to hold a fund raiser for Israeli
terrorism victims. Stewart himself announced on election night that he
would spend Bush's second term "huddled" in the blue states, "frankly
weeping." But then he assured viewers that the administration will
provide him with plenty of material to make them laugh.
Community
Edgar Bronfman
This was supposed to be Edgar Bronfman's last year as president of the
World Jewish Congress. At age 75, after a quarter-century at the helm,
the billionaire beverage baron was ready to retire. He changed his mind
in September and decided to run for a sixth term when his rivals seemed
too happy to see him go. Conservatives within the organization, led by
the Jerusalem-based senior vice-president Isi Leibler, began calling
for Bronfman's head a year ago after he publicly attacked Israel's
security fence in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell. A
protracted feud developed, laced with allegations of financial
impropriety; it ended this fall when the organization's board stripped
Leibler of most of his authority. Even in victory, though, Bronfman
continues to throw verbal bombs, most recently in an October interview
in which he called Jewish opposition to intermarriage "racist." But
with his boundless energy and generosity - in addition to WJC, he is
a top donor to Hillel, Aipac and other causes - he will cast a large
shadow for a long time to come.
Abraham Foxman
It surely says something about the standing of Jews in the mind of the
West when America's best-known battler against antisemitism speaks out
on a movie with suspected anti-Jewish overtones and ends up himself
being accused of waging a smear campaign to fatten his own agency's
coffers. That's pretty much what happened last year to Abraham Foxman,
national director of the Anti-Defamation League, when he tried -
first in a private letter, then in public interviews - to engage Mel
Gibson on his upcoming "The Passion of the Christ." Though fears of a
post-"Passion" wave of antisemitism proved unfounded, Foxman's
critiques were generally measured and on target; his missteps were
tactical, letting himself be outmaneuvered as Gibson cannily played the
martyred artist fighting for free expression. Still, a year later the
"Passion" furor is long past and Foxman, 64, is more indispensable than
ever. This summer he deftly mobilized American Jewish support for Ariel
Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan, speaking out early and forcefully
against a rising tide of anti-Sharon incitement. When the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations appeared unwilling to
take sides on Sharon's plan, Foxman flexed some muscle and forced a
vote that put the overwhelming majority of Jewish groups on record in
favor. Love him or hate him, Foxman remains a rarity in the Jewish
organizational world, a genuine leader who's ready to stand up and
suffer the arrows of a public fight, mostly for the better.
David Harris
Some of Old Europe's top leaders turned out in Brussels in February for
the launch of the Transatlantic Institute, a combination think tank and
lobby opened by the American Jewish Committee in the capital city of
the European Union. It's part of the continuing strategy of David
Harris, executive director of AJCommittee since 1990, for making his
agency an essential voice of reason in the middle of the storm. Some
observers warned that the new institute could be taken as another
example of American bullying, but smart insiders said the response
would be just the opposite: Given the shouting that typically passes
for transatlantic relations these days, Harris's trademark
understatement sets him apart and makes him and his organization a
favorite address for Europeans trying to figure what's gone wrong and
how to fix it. Harris doesn't pull punches; he's been known as a hawk
on antisemitism since his days as a Soviet Jewry activist in the 1970s
and 1980s. He has made his organization one of the key Jewish resources
for no-nonsense terrorism research. But with his command of languages
and his diplomatic style, he's able to convey American Jewish concerns
abroad without stirring resentment.
Rabbi Marvin Hier
As an Orthodox rabbi with a few Oscars to his credit, Hier was uniquely
qualified to weigh in when "The Passion of the Christ" was released in
February - and he did, emerging as one of the film's most-quoted
Jewish critics. Since setting up shop in Los Angeles three decades ago,
Hier, the founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has
consistently been one of organized Judaism's most important Hollywood
ambassadors, a distinction that helped turn him into Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger's favorite rabbi. The Governator was by Hier's side this
spring when the rabbi broke ground on the Wiesenthal Center's new
Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. The $200 million, Frank
Gehry-designed project is slated for completion in 2007. If
Schwarzenegger's allies ever succeed in amending the Constitution so
that the foreign-born movie star can run for president, Hier may have
more access to the White House than any Jewish communal leader in
American history.
Malcolm Hoenlein and James Tisch
This duo wields influence in Washington, Jerusalem and foreign capitals
across the world as they lead the community's main pro-Israel umbrella
group, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations. Hoenlein, 60, the organization's staff director since
1986, is the man behind the curtain, a master at leveraging the
appearance of power and influence. Tisch, 51, the organization's lay
chairman, is a highly influential philanthropist and scion of one of
the nation's wealthiest families. Both men drew heat this year for
failing to secure a clear, timely statement of support from the
52-member conference for the disengagement plan of Israeli Prime
Minister Sharon before it was approved by the Knesset. In the end,
though, few private citizens are more influential on American policy in
the Middle East.
Morton Klein
For more than a decade, since the start of the Oslo peace process,
Morton Klein, 57, the national president of the Zionist Organization of
America, has been the most vocal and effective critic of Israeli and
American efforts to broker a two-state solution. Under his leadership,
the ZOA has become a player on Capitol Hill, with a dependable stable
of lawmakers willing to take Klein's calls and to sign on to his
legislative initiatives. His message is clear and consistent: Any
territorial concession to the Palestinians represents a victory for
terrorism and will only spark more attacks on Israeli civilians and
Western targets. The ZOA recently issued a statement accusing the
Knesset of "appeasement" after the Israeli parliament endorsed Sharon's
Gaza pullout plan. But the real question is whether Klein and his
minions will be content to fire off zesty press releases, or take the
fight to Congress in the hopes of preventing the use of American aid to
help implement the Israeli pullout from Gaza and resettle Jewish
residents of the territories.
Steve Rabinowitz and Matt Dorf
In an era dominated by image makers and message crafters, Rabinowitz,
47, and Dorf, 34, are the dominant public-relations force in the Jewish
community. Their client list includes the congregational arms of the
Reform and Conservative synagogue movements; the United Jewish
Communities, the national roof body of the local Jewish charitable
federations in North America, and the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs, a consultative advocacy body that brings together 123 local
Jewish communities and 13 national organizations. Both men swing left
politically: Rabinowitz served in the Clinton White House and remains a
Democratic strategist; Dorf pushed a slew of liberal causes in his
stint as the Washington representative of the American Jewish Congress
and was tapped by Howard Dean to help the presidential candidate shore
up his standing with Jewish voters. It should come as no surprise that
one client, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, took the lead
in calling on Conservative rabbis to reconsider the movement's ban on
ordaining gays and lesbians, and another, the JCPA, was out front in
launching a spirited attack on President Bush's tax-cutting policies.
Hannah Rosenthal
This has not been a good year for Jewish liberals, with wars in Israel
and Iraq driving the public discourse of the Jewish community ever
further to the right. But Hannah Rosenthal, executive director of the
Jewish Council for Public Affairs, has not given up the fight to keep
an expansive Jewish social agenda front and center. In February she won
approval from her council, which unites a dozen major national Jewish
agencies and 123 local community councils, for a resolution criticizing
the Bush administration's tax cuts. In June she criticized the Supreme
Court for validating parochial-school vouchers. Her organization's
"Confronting Poverty Initiative" provides local communities with weekly
updates about threats to the poorest Americans. Rosenthal and her
organization have faced serious flack from other Jewish groups -
including some of her own member-agencies - for taking on issues with
no obvious Jewish communal stake. Partly in response, Rosenthal has
adapted her organization to focus more on local communities, helping
them to coordinate their Israel advocacy and other programs. But she
hasn't backed away from national policy issues. As the representative
of 123 local Jewish community councils and a dozen of the largest
national groups, she leads what is perhaps the most broadly democratic
Jewish organization, and she seems to take it as a mandate to speak for
what many see as a silent Jewish majority.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie
Standing astride the world's largest synagogue movement, Rabbi Eric
Yoffie, 57, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, continues to
cast a giant shadow over the religious, cultural and political life of
American Jewry.
On a slew of domestic and foreign policy fronts, he remains a staunch
and vocal liberal. Increasingly, however, he's leading his movement on
a centrist course, in line with his vision of Reform as the center of
the community rather than its left wing. He led the Jewish coalition
that confronted the Presbyterian Church (USA) on its plans to divest
from Israel. He's planted himself pragmatically behind Israeli Prime
Minister Sharon and his disengagement plan, calling himself a "dove for
Sharon." He's cautiously followed the same tack at home, looking for
opportunities to praise the Bush administration - for speaking out on
Darfur, cooperating with Europe or enhancing the rights of capital
defendants - rather than lead his flock into the wilderness.
Government
Eric Cantor
His unique position as the only Jewish Republican in the House of
Representatives and a senior member of the House leadership has turned
the 41-year-old Virginia congressman into an important "go-to" person
for Washington Jewish activists. As the fourth in command in the House
majority leadership and as a member of the Ways and Means Committee,
Cantor has immense influence over the chamber's legislative agenda. As
the House veers further to the right in the coming years, the
third-term congressman will become even more instrumental as an address
for the Jewish community's liberal-leaning lobbyists. An active
Conservative Jew, Cantor is also a staunch political conservative: Last
year he scored five out of 100 on the report card of the liberal
Americans for Democratic Action and 88 on the American Conservative
Union's scale. Within the GOP he's viewed as a rising star. When he was
appointed chief deputy majority whip of the House two years ago, a
position that was several sizes larger than his seniority, Washington
insiders said it was a part of the Republicans' aggressive drive to
attract young Jews. But Cantor, who formerly spent nine years in the
Virginia House of Delegates, "has risen to the occasion," according to
an official with a major Jewish organization in Washington, "and has
proven that he is indeed a professional politician."
Douglas Feith
There's probably no one in the Bush administration to whom victory this
month smelled sweeter than Douglas Feith, 51, undersecretary of defense
for policy. A charter member of the neoconservative circle that helped
shape Iraq policy in the Bush Pentagon, Feith has been, with Paul
Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, the object of worldwide vilification,
accused of leading a Jewish clique that dragged America into war for
Israel's benefit. Feith has arguably had the worst of it; his Office of
Special Plans took heat for faulty intelligence, and one of his aides
was fingered this summer for passing documents to Israel. And, unlike
Wolfowitz and Perle, Feith actually does have a deep, life-long
involvement with Zionist causes. His father, Dalck Feith, was a member
of Menachem Begin's militant Betar youth movement in pre-World War II
Poland and fought with the Irgun in British-run Palestine before
settling in Philadelphia, where he's a prominent businessman and
philanthropist. Douglas Feith, a Harvard graduate, joined Ronald
Reagan's National Security Council in 1981 and shuttled between the NSC
and the Pentagon until 1993, when the Clinton election returned him to
private life. A father of four, he's an active synagogue-goer and an
officer of the Charles E. Smith Community Day School. On Israel
affairs, Feith never has wandered far from the not-one-inch Zionism of
his youth. He's been honored by such hard-line groups as the Zionist
Organization of America and Americans for a Safe Israel. His scrappy
posture on the global stage has earned a brace of enemies for him and
the administration he serves, but he appears ready to keep fighting.
Nita Lowey
The 67-year-old New York Democrat could emerge in the coming years as a
moral compass for her injured party, which is seeking to redefine
itself on "values" following this month's failed attempt to recapture
the White House and both houses of Congress. An eight-term House
veteran, she's been one of the main engines of pro-Israel activity on
Capitol Hill, taking the lead in foreign aid and initiating pro-Israel
and pro-peace resolutions and initiatives. A veteran defender of
abortion rights, women's rights and minority rights, she's also become
deeply involved in environmental issues and in homeland security, along
with health care, medical research, education and gun control. Entering
her ninth term, she will take on new importance as the dean of what is
now a seven-member delegation of Jewish women, with the addition of
newly elected Representatives Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania and
Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. During her last campaign, Lowey
was castigated by her opponent for "liberal orthodoxy," but it didn't
bother her. From her longtime perch as the ranking Democrat on the
House Appropriations subcommittee in charge of foreign aid, she'll be a
key voice in the next two years on policies - international family
planning, fighting AIDS and hunger in Africa - that could make or
break America's image abroad.
Arlen Specter
At the start of the year, this crusty 74-year-old liberal Republican
senator was starting to look like an endangered species. But the cagey
Pennsylvanian survived spirited challenges in the primary and general
elections to secure a fifth term. Now he's taking center stage in the
fight over the federal judiciary and abortion rights, after triggering
a firestorm last week by noting that Senate Democrats would likely
filibuster any Supreme Court nominee bent on overturning Roe v. Wade.
Christian conservative activists are scrambling to block Specter, who
is pro-choice and supports embryonic stem cell research, from becoming
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the body that approves
judges before they go to the Senate floor for confirmation. The White
House says it takes Specter at his word when he promises to give all
nominees a prompt hearing and quick vote, but conservative activists
still remember his role in sinking the Supreme Court nomination of
Robert Bork 17 years ago. They also remember his quixotic presidential
bid in 1996, which focused on protecting abortion rights and strict
Church-State separation and looked to some observers like a thinly
veiled GOP version of Jewish liberalism. Specter's maverick streak
extends to Middle East issues - while supportive of Israel, he's been
a frequent visitor to Syria and is trying to improve Iranian-American
relations. Both at home and abroad, Specter's voice and his vote could
play a key role on several policy fronts. Not bad for a nearly extinct
political dinosaur.
Robert Wexler
Having handily won reelection this month to a fifth term as a
Democratic congressman from Boca Raton, Fla., Robert Wexler, 43,
appears likely to become one of his party's top strategists in mapping
recovery from its 2004 debacle. A tradition-minded Jew from one of the
nation's most heavily Jewish districts, he took the lead in Democratic
efforts this year to fight questionable voter registration practices,
showing the legal skills that made him one of former President
Clinton's chief advocates during the House impeachment debate. In the
past term he formally entered the House leadership, becoming assistant
minority whip and ranking Democrat on the European affairs
subcommittee. He has made foreign affairs his top passion; his House
Web site lists "Israel" and "Anti-Semitism" among his top 12 specialty
issues, along with Medicare and the environment. He was one of two
House members to participate in a rally in the Hague this year to
protest the world court hearings on Israel's West Bank security fence.
Passionate about Israel but liberal on domestic affairs, he scored 95
out of 100 from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, and Jewish
lobbyists in Washington expect him to become a "key leader" in
congressional pro-Israel action for years to come.
Paul Wolfowitz
Rumors are rampant that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, 61, is
set for a promotion, following President Bush's victory earlier this
month. Whether Wolfowitz replaces Donald Rumsfeld as Pentagon chief or
moves to the White House to become national security adviser, any
vertical move will be widely interpreted as a vote of confidence for
the ideological architect of the Iraq war and in his vision of a
democratic Middle East. Often miscast in the media as a Likud-style
Middle East hawk, Wolfowitz is the product of a liberal upbringing, and
his world view seems to borrow more from Woodrow Wilson than from Ariel
Sharon. He has voiced greater concern for Palestinian rights than for
Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. The next few years will
go a long way toward proving whether his policies were the catalyst for
an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and democracy in the Middle East or
left America bogged down in a bloody quagmire and plunged the region
into an era of unending chaos.
Public Square
Sara Bloomfield
As the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Sara
Bloomfield has been responsible for guiding one of the most important
institutions conveying Jewish history and values to the rest of the
world. The work took on particular political importance this year as
the museum, a federally funded institution, led the American government
in responding to the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. Bloomfield,
54, had pushed the museum's Committee on Conscience to become more
involved in contemporary crimes against humanity, and in April, the
committee raised a genocide alert about Darfur before other Jewish
groups had even noticed the problem. Just last month, Bloomfield met
with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan about the crisis in
Darfur. Bloomfield was also instrumental in the opening of the museum's
National Institute for Holocaust Education, which provides programs
about the history of the Jews for teacher, soldiers, judges and police
officers. To reach a platform from which she is speaking to so many,
Bloomfield has paid her dues. She began at the lower administrative
levels of the museum in 1986 and has since provided a rare model of
woman rising to the highest ranks in the Jewish world.
Judah Gribetz
Judah Gribetz was forced into a Solomonic role, though the ancient king
might have had a slightly easier job. Since being appointed by a
federal judge in 1999 to be the special master overseeing distribution
of the $1.25 billion Swiss bank settlement, the 75-year-old attorney
has had to adjudicate between the competing needs of different groups
of aging Holocaust survivors, from Florida to Ukraine. Last winter he
sifted through applications from nearly 100 groups around the world to
determine how any unclaimed Swiss funds would be spent. In the end, he
stuck by his earlier recommendation that most unclaimed funds go to
destitute survivors in the former Soviet Union. This was not received
kindly by many American and Israeli survivor groups, and at a hearing
in April, Gribetz heard from a line of survivors who felt shortchanged
by his decision. Even the Israeli government submitted a report
denouncing the "Gribetz recommendations." But Gribetz looked beyond the
most vocal constituencies and gave voice to a Jewish population -
those who stayed behind in Ukraine and Belarus - that had been
overlooked for years by world Jewish councils. Dealing with a fractious
community is nothing new for Gribetz, a onetime president of the New
York Jewish Community Relations Council and former deputy mayor of the
Big Apple. A master of the poker face, Gribetz has never publicly
discussed the strain of his work, providing a model of what it means to
stand by your principles despite the slings and arrows.
Spirit
Rabbi Sharon Brous
If Conservative Judaism ever reclaims its status as the country's
largest Jewish denomination, it will be in large part thanks to the
work of rabbis like Sharon Brous. A native of New Jersey transplanted
to Southern California, Brous, 30, is one of the most dynamic religious
leaders to be ordained in recent years by the Jewish Theological
Seminary. She is currently at work building Ikar, a new, vibrant Los
Angeles congregation that seeks to serve as a meeting place for
religiously observant non-Orthodox Jews and Jews who have long been
alienated from synagogue life. In part, the new community can be seen
as an extension of her two years working at Congregation B'nai
Jeshurun, the Manhattan synagogue known as B.J. and that boasts an
innovative mix of music and social action. Brous's congregation,
however, offers a more traditional style of worship (no electric
instruments, for example) and greater emphasis on text study. While she
is a loyal heir to the Conservative movement's commitment to an
evolving canon of rabbinic law, she combines this traditionalism with a
truly progressive sense that Judaism's purpose is to inspire its
followers to create a better world for all humanity. The word
Conservative does not appear on the Ikar Web site, but the congregation
represents a compelling model for helping to reinvigorate a proud, but
sluggish and shrinking, synagogue movement.
Rabbi David Ellenson
Three years after he reluctantly gave up the quiet life of an academic
to accept the presidency of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion, Rabbi David Ellenson has emerged as a strong leader, a
tireless fund raiser and a powerful voice within Reform Judaism for the
issues he has long championed, including traditionalism and
interdenominational dialogue. Ellenson, 57, the eighth president in the
college's 125-year history, has made priorities of strengthening the
institution's ties to Israel and building the endowment. Raised in an
Orthodox home in Virginia, ordained at HUC's New York school in 1977,
Ellenson was known chiefly as a scholar of modern Jewish intellectual
history, specializing in the development of religious denominationalism
over the last two centuries. His expertise serves him well in his new
job; he's on good terms with leaders of other movements, and he was the
only non-Orthodox rabbi invited to address a recent conference of
rabbis and Catholic cardinals. And research has not stopped. His latest
book, "After Emancipation: Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity,"
published by HUC, came out only a month ago.
Blu Greenberg
Since her appearance in 1973 as keynote speaker at what was known as
the First National Jewish Women's Conference, Blu Greenberg has become
the towering figure in the tidal wave that is Jewish religious
feminism. She's published a half-dozen books of prose and poetry,
lectures tirelessly, and serves on countless boards from the Covenant
Foundation and the Dialogue Project to the Jewish Book Council. The
organization she founded around her kitchen table in 1997, the Jewish
Orthodox Feminist Alliance, now draws thousands to its biennial
conference, leading some observers to describe it as the biggest and
most important gathering in the embattled world of Modern Orthodoxy.
This year she stirred yet another uproar when she announced at the JOFA
conference that the ordination of women Orthodox rabbis is "just around
the corner" and that they will be accepted in the Modern Orthodox
community within 15 or 20 years. Her organization hasn't endorsed her
position, but she's told the Forward that by "making it an open
conversation in the Orthodox community, it is giving it a measure of
support."
Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis
Talmudist, lecturer, columnist and matchmaker, Rebbetzin Jungreis added
a new listing to her re´sume´this year: political activist. While on
tour, pushing a Hungarian translation of her latest book, "A Committed
Marriage," she got a call from the Republican National Committee asking
if she would offer the closing benediction at their convention. She
did, and spent the next two months stumping for the president's
re-election. Jungreis, 68, a native of Hungary and a survivor of the
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, is the founder of Hineni, an
education and outreach program designed to bring together young single
Jews. And bring them together she has: Her lectures on the weekly Torah
portion have been known to draw as many as 2,000 spiritually hungry
souls. It should come as little surprise that Jungreis, whose speaking
style owes as much to Billy Graham as it does to the Talmud, would be
appealing to the GOP. And the feelings seem to be mutual. At the
convention, Jungreis invoked the Holocaust, as she often does, and
suggested that the disaster might have been averted "if a man like
President George W. Bush had been at the helm."
Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky
Ten years after the death of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, folks have
stopped asking whether his Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement will
survive or hold together - or, for that matter, who will lead it.
Lubavitch is stronger than ever, despite the absence of a holy man at
the helm, thanks in no small part to the steady hand of the man who
quietly took over the reins of the movement's central coordinating
institutions - Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky. Known for years as the
unassuming secretary at Schneerson's elbow, Krinsky has run the
movement as a corporation since the rebbe's death. He's avoided
confrontation with the so-called messianists who claimed Schneerson was
about to be resurrected, preferring to let events take their course.
He's let the movement's far-flung outreach workers operate all but
independently, while the headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., serves as a
resource and head franchising office. The formula seems to work;
Lubavitch has spread to every corner of the world, frequently as the
only Jewish show in town. The movement suffered an embarrassment this
year when its representative in Vilnius, Krinsky's nephew Sholom Ber,
came to blows with rival community leaders. But it hasn't slowed the
march of the men in black.
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, 80, is the founder, spiritual mentor
and de facto chief rabbi of what might be the fastest growing wing of
American Judaism: the New Age-tinged, socially liberal trend known as
Jewish Renewal. From his home in Boulder, Colo., he teaches, writes and
dialogues with the likes of the Dalai Lama and ordains generations of
new rabbis, including Michael Lerner of Tikkun magazine and Arthur
Waskow of the Philadelphia-based Shalom Center. Born in Poland in 1924,
Schachter (he added the name Shalomi in the 1970s) fled with his family
in 1941 to New York, where he enrolled in the central Lubavitch
yeshiva. Ordained in 1947, he became one of the first Lubavitch
outreach workers, taking up posts in New England and Manitoba. It was
in Winnipeg in the mid-1950s that he began exploring Eastern religions
and openly questioning traditional Jewish notions of exclusive truth.
In 1962, now in Philadelphia, he founded the B'nai Or (Children of
Light) Fellowship, forerunner of today's Aleph Alliance for Jewish
Renewal, a support center and network of congregations sharing the
syncretic, mystically oriented path of the man disciples call "Reb
Zalman." In recent years he's expanded into "spiritual eldering,"
helping seniors come to terms with aging and training them to be
spiritual mentors to the young.
Activism
Jeff Ballabon
Ballabon, 41, a native New Yorker, basically created a new demographic
this election cycle: With a groundbreaking outreach event during the
Republican National Convention, he helped put his fellow Orthodox Jews
on the map as a separate Republican Party constituency. He - or
rather, President Bush - was rewarded royally when as many as 80% of
Orthodox Jews nationally gave their vote to the GOP ticket. A
Yale-trained lawyer and a graduate of Baltimore's Ner Israel Rabbinical
College, Ballabon worked as a GOP Senate aide and later directed public
affairs and government relations for Court TV and Primedia. He recently
started his own public affairs strategy firm. A charismatic advocate of
politics as an outgrowth of Torah, Ballabon is the founder and
president of the nonpartisan Center for Jewish Values, chairman of the
board of Jewish College Republicans and was one of the founders of
Young Jewish Leadership PAC, the first Republican-Jewish political
action committee in the country.
Leslie Cagan
With her decades of activism on behalf of causes ranging from nuclear
disarmament and building solidarity with Castro's Cuba to gay and
women's rights, Leslie Cagan has long been a well-known figure in
radical circles. During the past year, however, the veteran left-wing
organizer found herself squarely in the mainstream media spotlight. As
the head of United for Peace and Justice, the nation's leading
grass-roots anti-war coalition, Cagan, 57, organized a massive
anti-Bush demonstration on the eve of the Republican National
Convention. After months of very public bickering with New York City
Mayor R. Michael Bloomberg over logistics, Cagan managed to draw
hundreds of thousands to the march, making it by far the week's largest
demonstration. Unlike many radical activists, Cagan doesn't shy away
from loudly announcing her Jewishness. But while exit polls suggest
that most American Jews share at least part of Cagan's unhappiness with
Bush's policies, many are alarmed by the platform her group has given
to critics of Israel. Cagan and her coalition explicitly equate the
American occupation of Iraq and Israel's presence in the West Bank and
Gaza - and they demand that both end immediately.
Rachel Fish
When Rachel Fish learned that Jewish students were complaining about
anti-Israel intimidation at the hands of some Columbia University
professors, she moved to put the allegations on the record. The result
was a 25-minute documentary film, featuring Columbia students and
graduates detailing their claims, that shook the Columbia
administration. Hours after an October 27 press screening of "Columbia
Unbecoming," university president Lee Bollinger announced an
investigation. It marked another successful endeavor by Fish, 25, who
heads the New York office of the David Project, a new Boston-based
pro-Israel activist group. Fish first surfaced last year as a graduate
student at Harvard Divinity School when she led a successful campaign
to persuade Harvard to return a $2.5 million gift from Sheikh Zayed bin
Sultan al-Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates. The donation
was to have funded a chair in Islamic Studies, but Fish discovered that
an Arab League think tank bearing Sheikh Zayed's name provided a
platform for Holocaust deniers and purveyors of anti-American and
antisemitic conspiracy theories. Her persistence against one of
America's most prestigious institutions led to accusations of
witch-hunting by James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.
But within weeks, the sheik had shut down the controversial center,
explaining in a statement that it "had engaged in a discourse that
starkly contradicted the principles of interfaith tolerance."
Ruth Messinger
While much of the community has been looking ever more insistently
inward, Ruth Messinger has risen steadily in the public eye as the
voice of outward-directed activism, facing the world with Jewish
liberal values intact. Her American Jewish World Service, a
social-service agency that places volunteers in developing countries,
focused on three big issues this year: the global spread of AIDS,
international debt and the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of
Sudan. Messinger's group was out front on Darfur from the beginning,
opening up a bank account to provide aid for stranded Sudanese
refugees. In August, she traveled to the border region between Chad and
Sudan and came back to share the horror stories. Recognizing that more
than money was needed to heal such situations, Messinger got her agency
involved this year in advocacy for the first time with the hiring of a
Washington representative. When Messinger arrived at the American
Jewish World Service after a landslide defeat in the 1997 New York
mayoral contest, she joined a small charity, handing out money for
international projects and facilitating small groups of young Jews
doing good deeds abroad. The charity still does that, but Messinger has
multiplied the American Jewish World Service's mandate alongside its
revenue. With Messinger on the phone, fund raising has risen every
year, even during the lean years of the recession. The vision of tikkun
olam that Messinger has fostered is striking a chord with an
ever-growing number of adherents.
Fred Zeidman
A close, old friend of President Bush, Houston venture capitalist Fred
Zeidman worked his heart out to re-elect his fellow Texan. After
raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the campaign, Zeidman, 57,
virtually took up residence in Florida at the end in an effort to help
turn out the Jewish vote. Zeidman, who recently started a new gig at
Greenberg Traurig, Washington's foremost lobbying shop, serves as
chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Under his leadership,
the institution became the first arm of the American government to
declare a genocide in Sudan and has avoided time-consuming Jewish
communal squabbles that have plagued it in the past. A raconteur with a
soft Lone Star twang, shock of salt-and-pepper hair and sometimes salty
tongue, Zeidman will continue in his role as presidential confidante
and adviser on matters Jewish as Bush begins what looks to be a
history-making second term.
Philanthropy
Barbara Dobkin
When everyone started noticing the glass ceiling for women in Jewish
organizations this year, it was largely the result of a vision that
Barbara Dobkin has pursued for years. Using funds from the Dobkin
Family Foundation, she has helped foster a small army of organizations
and professionals advocating for the advancement of women in the Jewish
world. She provided the seed money four years ago for the advocacy
group Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community, which has
pushed a raft of organizations to re-examine the status of women in
their ranks. The cause got a boost this year when the Conservative
rabbinate, acting on a startling study, promised new measures to
equalize the numbers and the pay of women rabbis. Another group, the
Mandel Institute, which trains next-generation leaders for Jewish
community federations, committed itself this year to making sure half
of its trainees are women. Shepherding this movement forward has been a
longtime passion of Dobkins. Ten years ago she founded Ma'yan, the
Jewish Women's Project, at the JCC of Manhattan. Unlike many Jewish
philanthropists, Dobkin does not drop cash for a few years and then
pull out. She has dedicated herself to a few philanthropies that
express her vision - creating organizations where there were none -
and then stuck with her ideas. It is starting to pay off.
Steven Nasatir
After 25 years as the president at Chicago's Jewish United Fund, Steve
Nasatir has become the archetype of the successful Jewish fund raiser.
JUF was the largest charity in all of Chicago last year, and the 85th
largest philanthropic organization in the country, all built on a
metropolitan Jewish community of 270,000. The focus of Nasatir's work
has always been the bread-and-butter issues of the Jewish community,
like Israel. He pushed for the national formation of an Israel
Emergency Campaign, and Chicago's campaign raised more per capita than
any other federation. But Nasatir's federation has also become a leader
in its social service offerings. This year Nasatir opened a new program
to provide job training for disabled adults - the first program of
its kind in Chicago. With his eye toward the bottom line, Nasatir has
developed a reputation as a prickly character in some of his smaller
dealings, but he always applies his hard-nosed ways in defense of the
Jewish people. When the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to divest from
Israel this year, Nasatir swiftly cut off the Jewish federation's
formal contact with the Church.
John Ruskay
The head of the largest local charity in America, John Ruskay made
UJA-Federation of Greater New York even bigger this year, boosting its
annual campaign by $4 million to an all-time high of $145 million. The
need was displayed in a path-breaking study released by the federation
this year about Jewish poverty in the city. UJA-Federation has been at
the lead for years in providing social services to the city's least
privileged, far beyond the Jewish community. Ruskay, 58, worked to
increase visibility with a street advertising campaign that touts the
federation's social services. He's launched New York's first Jewish
hospice system, and is placing social workers in synagogues, where he
believes that Jews turn first when in need. He led a study mission to
Ethiopia and Israel this year and brought together a consortium of
American groups to provide emergency aid. But his hardest push has been
to increase involvement in Jewish education and synagogue development,
including a $1 million program bringing together faculty from Hebrew
Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary to confront problems
in congregational schools, where most Jewish children get their
religious education.
Lynn Schusterman and Michael Steinhardt
These two philanthropic giants, Jewish charity's premier practitioners
of so-called venture philanthropy, have joined forces in a slew of
initiatives in Jewish education and synagogue renewal in recent years.
Yet they're different enough to merit their own entries. Steinhardt,
64, who made his fortune managing his own hedge fund, is a bombastic
New Yorker who thrives on ruffling feathers and in challenging
conventional wisdom. Schusterman, 65, who took over her family's
foundation four years ago after the death of her husband, Tulsa oilman
Charles Schusterman, wields her increasing influence with a soft and
humble touch. They've partnered on such projects as Birthright, Hillel
leadership, Synagogue Transformation and Renewal and this summer's
so-called 20-something summit, kicking off their Professional
Leadership Project. Independently, each has set up a free-standing
foundation-cum-think tank to manage the growing numbers of initiatives
each one is cooking up. Much about the future of Jewish life in America
could be determined by how wisely this tandem spends its dollars and on
their ability to balance Steinhardt's maverick streak with
Schusterman's ability to work with established institutions.
Barry Shrage
The anonymous donors who gave $45 million to Boston's Jewish day
schools this year did not come to their decision spontaneously. The
mammoth donation came together after five years of hard work behind the
scenes by Barry Shrage, chief executive of Boston's Combined Jewish
Philanthropies. Shrage, 58, has developed a reputation over the years
for both innovative programming and good old-fashioned fundraising
prowess. The gift to the day schools - the largest in the
federation's history - is only Shrage's latest effort in his fight
for Jewish continuity, a struggle that many other federations have let
fall by the wayside. In the press, it was the day school donation that
got Shrage attention, but Shrage's federation has also led the way with
its "universal adult literacy program."A new program this year provided
day care so that parents of young children could study Jewish texts on
weekday mornings. Shrage has not always endeared himself to community
leaders around the country with his candid criticism of the way Jewish
organizations operate, but the results suggest that others might do
well to listen up when he speaks.
Ideas
Aaron Lansky
After spending a quarter-century rescuing Yiddish books from Dumpsters,
clueless grandchildren and collapsing buildings, Aaron Lansky produced
a book of his own this fall, titled "Outwitting History: The Amazing
Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Books." In it Lansky, 49,
recounts the dramatic rise of his National Yiddish Book Center from an
accidental collection in a Montreal grad student's apartment to a
nationwide organization, headquartered in Amherst, Mass., with 30,000
members and 1.5 million rescued books to its credit. The center
recently joined forces with Steven Spielberg to launch a digital
Yiddish library that scans crumbling books and prints them on demand.
Lansky's mission is more than just saving books, though; it's creating,
through love of Yiddish, a new language of American Jewish identity.
It's not clear that he's cracked that code yet, but countless lovers of
books are with him in the quest.
Dennis Ross
During the 12 years that he led America's Middle East peace efforts,
through the first Bush and Clinton administrations, Dennis Ross was the
subject of endless debate. Some Israelis accused him of anti-Israel
bias because of his nonstop attempts to win concessions. Some
Palestinians saw him as the embodiment of Jewish control of American
policy. As he reaffirms in his monumental new history, "The Missing
Peace," Ross never saw a conflict between his Jewishness and his
diplomatic duties. But he never denied that being Jewish was at the
core of his devotion to the process. Since leaving government, Ross,
56, has continued his mission as head of a pro-Israel think tank, the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Last year he took on yet
another Middle East challenge: chairing the newly formed Jewish People
Policy Planning Institute, an offshoot of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
The institute's first report, submitted to Israel's Cabinet this
summer, is a sweeping review of the challenges facing world Jewry, from
assim-
ilation to terrorism. Its boldest recommendation: that Israel create a
permanent consultative body that would let Diaspora Jews participate in
the Israeli policy decisions that will affect their lives - and
safety - as Jews around the world.
Jonathan Sarna
With a big new history book, "American Judaism," that reviewers are
calling a "masterpiece" and the National Jewish Book Awards singled out
as the Book of the Year, this Brandeis University history professor is
rapidly becoming American Jewry's unofficial scholar in residence.
Author or editor of 18 books, Sarna, 49, serves as historian in
residence at the National Museum of American Jewish History in his
native Philadelphia, chairs an academic advisory board at the
Cincinnati-based American Jewish Archives and edits the American Jewish
history series of two university presses, at Brandeis and Wayne State.
The scholarship comes in his blood; his father, Nachum Sarna, was a
distinguished biblical scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary. A
graduate of New York's Ramaz Day School and a former professor at
Hebrew Union College, he knows just about every wing of American
Judaism from the inside.
Gary Tobin
One of the deans of American Jewish social research, Gary Tobin has
been raising eyebrows for the past decade with his maverick liberal
views on conversion, adoption and racial diversity within the Jewish
community. This year the San Francisco-based scholar, 55, raised
eyebrows yet again by launching a partnership with the neoconservative
Foundation for Defense of Democracies. So far the partnership has
produced two major Tobin studies, both pro bono: one on American
attitudes toward Israel, the other on anti-Israel trends on campus.
Meanwhile, Tobin's own Institute for Jewish & Community Research,
founded in 1997 after he left his tenured post at Brandeis University,
continues to produce important new religious data. A study of
professional development in Jewish organizations, released this fall,
showed a deep rift between volunteers and staff and documented the
persistent glass ceiling facing women staffers. Another, released in
October, found that the fastest growing religious group in America is,
the election results notwithstanding, people with no religious identity
at all.
Culture
Larry David
Over the last four years, the acerbic comic who created "Seinfeld" has
redefined television comedy by creating and starring in his own show
about an acerbic comic who created "Seinfeld" and doesn't know what to
do with his fame. The series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," now entering its
fifth season on HBO, is also redefining the notion of Jews in the
American public square by putting the personal Jewish neuroses of
David, 57, under a microscope with almost manic glee. During the past
season his character managed to offend his Christian wife's parents by
nibbling on a Christmas cookie ("You ate our Lord and Saviour?!") and
turned a Nativity scene into an interfaith brawl. (His real-life spouse
Laurie is one of Hollywood's top Jewish political activists.) Later in
the season he held a dinner party that turned into a fight between two
survivors - one from the Holocaust, the other from thereality TV show
"Survivor" - over who suffered more. Trumping it all, he turned his
entire spring season into an elaborate spoof of "The Producers," Mel
Brooks's relentlessly tasteless satire of the Holocaust, proving that
when it comes to sacred memory, nothing is sacred. Move over, Philip
Roth: There's a new bad boy on the American Jewish block.
Tovah Feldshuh
It has been a banner year for actress Tovah Feldshuh, who earned a
fourth Tony nomination for her masterful performance as Israel's fourth
prime minister in William Gibson's acclaimed Broadway hit - and
near-phenomenon - "Golda's Balcony." The role has Feldshuh turning in
emotional hour-and-a-half solo performances eight times a week, and
recently became the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history.
The role is the culmination of a three-decade career that has included
a bevy of strong Jewish characters, including a resistance fighter in
the 1978 television mini-series "Holocaust," which brought her first
Emmy nomination, as well as the breakout title role in the 1975
Broadway production of "Yentl." Feldshuh began acting under the stage
name Terry Fairchild and settled into her role as ethnic hero only
gradually. If she'd remained a Fairchild, she told the Forward in an
interview, "I would have gotten a different splay of rolls, but then I
wouldn't have gotten to serve the Jewish community, which has been my
pleasure." The National Foundation for Jewish Culture honored her with
its 2002 Jewish Image Award.
Shawn Green
By deciding to skip one of two games on Yom Kippur during a tight
playoff race, Los Angeles first baseman Shawn Green, 32, bolstered his
claim as the heir apparent to Jewish baseball legends Hank Greenberg
and Sandy Koufax. Though hailed nationally for affirming his faith,
some rabbis took issue with his decision to skip one game and play the
other. Green's response: "Everyone approaches their religious worship
in their own way." He wasn't the only athlete to do it his way this
year. Matt Bernstein, a running back for the University of Wisconsin,
started his fast early so he could take the field for an afternoon game
that started late on Yom Kippur. Like it or not, this individualized
brand of religion has increasingly become the norm for American Jews.
But it seems that somebody somewhere was cool with Green's and
Bernstein's compromises. The Dodgers won the game Green played 3-2,
with the slugger hitting the game-winning home run, the 281st of his
rising career. Bernstein, with 123 rushing yards, had the best game of
his college career.
Carolyn Hessel
As executive director of the Jewish Book Council, Carolyn Hessel
remains one of the most powerful arbiters of Jewish literature in the
United States. The council, which has vastly increased its visibility
under Hessel, coordinates some 70 Jewish book fairs at community
centers around the country, and oversees the National Jewish Book
Awards. Insiders say Hessel can make or break a book by deciding which
writers will speak at which local fairs. Certainly the buzz of a JCC
tour can play a big role in jumpstarting an author's career, as recent
beneficiaries Nathan Englander and Jonathan Safran Foer could doubtless
attest. Hessel, who served at the Jewish Education Service of North
America until being tapped to head the Book Council in the early 1990s,
is resolute in her mission, even if her influence occasionally lands
her in controversy. "My goal is to promote the reading, writing and
understanding of books of Jewish interest," she said in an interview
with the Forward. "And I define 'Jewish interest' in the broadest
terms."
Cynthia Ozick
For her latest novel, "Heir to the Glimmering World," the author's
first foray into fiction in seven years, Cynthia Ozick drew inspiration
from an unlikely source: Christopher Robin Milne, son of A.A. Milne,
the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh. But the novel is no children's book.
Fat with ideas - braiding together physics, the 1,200-year-old
Karaite heretics, Indian philosophy and much else besides - the book
is echt Ozick in its intellectual vitality. Equally virtuosic is the
author's "whirling, churning, roiling" prose, as a review in these
pages called it. And it's not just with her fiction that Ozick
continues to earn distinction. With essays on subjects as varied as
Helen Keller and the Bible, Ozick, 76, remains one of American Jewry's
most searching, probing and incisive voices.
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman is having a very good year. The Israeli-born actress,
known for her beguiling portrayal of a preteen in "Beautiful Girls"
(1996) and her powerful portrayal of Anne Frank on Broadway in 1996,
reached a new level of professional credibility this spring with her
star turn in the critically acclaimed "Garden State." She's set to
follow that up with the upcoming, Oscar-touted Mike Nichols film,
"Closer." And her fans are eagerly awaiting her return this winter as
Queen Amidala in the third "Star Wars" prequel. Having emigrated from
Jerusalem to Long Island at age 3, she's learned to stand up as a vocal
if thoughtful defender of Israel and liberal causes, writing letters to
the Harvard Crimson defending Israel's record as an occupier and
campaigning for John Kerry in Wisconsin. Critics call her one of the
most promising young actresses of this generation, while Jewish
teenagers across the country call her hot and hang her posters over
their beds. At 23, she's arguably done more for young Jewish male
self-esteem than anyone since Moshe Dayan.
Art Spiegelman
With his groundbreaking "Maus," a dark comic strip of the Holocaust
that depicted Jews as mice and Nazis as cats, Art Spiegelman proved for
all time that comics weren't just for kids. By turns whimsical and
tortured, it recounted a survivor's memories of the Holocaust and his
son's struggles with the legacy of pain. After the book version won a
"special citation" from the Pulitzer committee in 1992, the public was
left wondering what Spiegelman might do for an encore. After publishing
"Maus II" (serialized in the Forward) and a controversial
series of covers for
The New Yorker, the answer came on September 11, 2001, when Spiegelman
met his own cataclysm. The result, "In the Shadow of No Towers,"
recounts the artist's sense of horror in a virtuosic pastiche of styles
and techniques. The work, first serialized in the Forward and several
European newspapers and published in book form this fall, reaffirming
Spiegelman's stature as one of this generation's pre-eminent voices of
Jewish angst.
Madonna
This year's Forward 50 actually includes 51 entries, but the extra one
should be seen as more of a cherry-on-top than an afterthought.
Madonna, who does not consider herself Jewish, has earned her place as
one of the 50 most influential people practicing (some form of) Judaism
today. Born Madonna Louise Ciccone, she rose to stardom on a potent mix
of dance-hall favorites and image switcheroos, all the while thumbing
her nose at authorities of all kind and tweaking her Catholic tradition
at every turn. But constant change can be exhausting, and at some point
it seemed to leave both artist and audience limp. In the late 1990s,
Madonna was introduced to Jewish mysticism via the controversial
Kabbalah Centre founded by Rabbi Philip Berg. In a burst of creativity
following the birth of her daughter, she produced what many critics
believe to be her best album, "Ray of Light," which takes its title
from the kabbalistic theory about the origins of the world. Like every
other personna she has tried on and discarded, Madonna has turned her
latest passion into a worldwide trend - causing a run on red bendels,
the trademark string bracelet intended to ward off the evil eye and, by
attending a Kabbalah Centre conference in Tel Aviv this year, becoming
the biggest thing to hit the Israeli tourism industry since the El Al
jingle. Unlike her previous phases, which look in retrospect like
bursts in some internal evolution, Madonna seems with Kabbalah to have
settled finally into herself and the world. "A Kabbalist sees the world
as a unified whole," she said recently. "A Kabbalist believes that he
or she has the responsibility to make the world a better place.'' This
may be a disappointment to some fans - the fight seems to have gone
out of her and, with it, the fiery push of her best work - but for
some of us, watching an ancient Jewish tradition influence (and be
influenced by) a worldwide icon is nothing short of fantastic.
Copyright 2005 © The Forward
Reb Moshe
Last update - 11:06 18/07/2005
Neveh Dekalim / The front line of the front line
By Yair Ettinger
If a Londoner has difficulty understanding how it is possible to live
in Jerusalem with all the suicide bombers, and a Jerusalemite thinks
living in Neveh Dekalim is insane, people here gaze in wonder at the
residents of the northeastern neighborhood. Even its residents do not
remember its name. They simply call it "the mortar shell neighborhood."
Those mortar shells are fired almost daily at the neighborhood from
Khan Yunis. Yigal Kirschenzaft, the Chabad House leader in Gush Katif,
and a tourist from Los Angeles were moderately wounded yesterday. They
were getting out of a car when they were struck by shrapnel from a
mortar shell that landed in the neighborhood's parking lot, at the
entrance to a house. Less than half, the building received a direct
hit. Nobody was hurt, but a third shell wounded three children in an
adjacent neighborhood.
In the afternoon, the residents of the mortar shell neighborhood
emerged from their homes. They have been under orders to remain indoors
since Friday, but "the children are climbing the walls," as one
neighbor complained.
The residents are used to gathering in the parking lot after mortar
attacks. They estimate the number of shells that have fallen in the
neighborhood at 100-150. Almost every house has received a direct hit
on at least one occasion. It is almost certain that more houses will be
hit today. This neighborhood and the adjacent one are on Gush Katif's
front line.
Kirschenzaft, who lives in another neighborhood in Neveh Dekalim, is a
well known figure in Gush Katif. When word got out that he had been
wounded but would recover, residents expressed concern and anger. Some
came out to to sample the fresh air with a sense of relief.
As the tow truck removed the damaged cars and the policeman completed
his reports on the damage to the homes, the adults gathered to talk and
the little ones went to gather shrapnel.
Ahikam Adam, 9, who found the torn shell head first, was overcome with
joy. He has a heavy box full of material from previous occasions.
"After the shell lands, we wait five to 10 minutes until everything
calms down, and then back to the usual: we go out to look for
shrapnel," he describes his daily routine.
Life under the mortar shells is a subject of jokes here, but none of
the parents see it as a game. Rachel Shifenbauer, who owns the house
that was hit yesterday, says the shells have ruined her yard. Pipes
explode, power is cut off, walls are punctured. Her husband is
hospitalized, and five minutes before the second hit she visited a
neighbor who invited her to come to calm down from the first.
A mythology of miracles has developed in the neighborhood. "The house
is my life's work; every corner here is cultivated. Do you know what a
beautiful garden I had here? It was a regular orchard," she said. "What
kind of government is this? What kind of state? My children served in
the army, my husband served, so this is what we deserve? What, is our
life worthless? They treat us like sitting ducks," she said.
Shifenbauer said that pregnant women were miscarrying and adults were
getting heart attacks in Neveh Dekalim.
Sarit Cohen, a mother of six, said that since Friday, "If they need
anything from the kitchen they take a deep breath, run and return
immediately to the protected space."
Yesterday, she also emerged with them to take a breath of air.
Hanna Adam, Ahikam's mother, suffered from shock again and collapsed.
The family's house has been hit 14 times in the past year. The eldest
son was lightly wounded by one shell, while she herself has required
intensive treatment for trauma.
The mortar shell landed in the parking lot yesterday a moment before
she was to leave for for treatment in Ashkelon. "My whole body shook
with hysterical weeping," she said. "To tell you the truth, today I
don't mind getting out of here any more," she said.
Reb Moshe
Anshel Pfeffer, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 21, 2005
A few minutes before two in the morning Wednesday, a procession of
about 200 people began their walk from the synagogue in the center of
Kfar Maimon towards the village's main gate that had been blocked by
the police.
Most of the participants in the ongoing protest march to Gush Katif had
already gone to sleep. Some slept in neighboring houses and a majority
of them rested in sleeping bags and tents in any available spot by the
road.
Members of the messianic sect of Lubavitch had taken a sefer Torah from
the synagogue and danced with it under a huppa decorated with yellow
"Mashiah" flags. They chanted, "long live our master, teacher and
rabbi, the king messiah for ever."
Hundreds of youngsters who were still awake joined in and hopefully
waited for a break-out from the village. When they were 50 meters from
the gate they stopped moving. They didn't go forward because of the
agreement they had with the organizers that they could carry out the
procession on the condition that they didn't reach the gate and make
contact with the police, who had been guarding the place throughout the
day.
To ensure order, Yesha Council head Benzi Lieberman, who was in overall
charge of the protest, stood in front of the gate. About 100
disappointed young men gathered around him and demanded action.
Lieberman took a loudspeaker and called all those present to "go back
to sleep, tomorrow we'll give operative details."
While the messianists carried on singing and dancing in the background,
they shouted at Lieberman, "why aren't we breaking out now, there are
barely any police at the gate." Others called "we set out to reach Gush
Katif, not Kfar Maimon."
One young ultra-orthodox man tried to engage Lieberman, "I came from
Bnei Brak to break into Gush Katif, why are you stopping me?"
An exhausted Lieberman, who a few hours earlier during the only violent
clash with the police had been kicked in the testicles, understood that
the youngsters would start identifying him with the security forces
blockading the village, but he didn't back down.
"People without patience have no place in our struggle" he scolded, "if
we break out, there are hundreds of border-police waiting there and in
five minutes people will be lying on the road with smashed arms and
legs. We will gain nothing from it, we have to carry on the struggle
with tact."
His words didn't make an impression on the group, and he tried another
tactic.
"Don't you understand that our battle isn't against the police, it's
for the hearts of the Israeli public. We have fresh opinion polls
showing that the support in the public for us to be allowed to reach
Gush Katif has risen over the past two days from 36 to 52 percent."
Some of the listeners were infuriated by his words and they shouted
back, "how does the heart of the public help us, it won't change the
fact that the disengagement will go ahead." But most of them agreed
with Lieberman and the gathering began to disperse.
This article can also be read at
Reb Moshe
Matthew Wagner, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 29, 2005
The Chabad leadership in Israel, putting an end to months of restraint,
has called on tens of thousands of its hassidim to launch a nationwide
campaign that includes prayer rallies and distributing flyers against
disengagement.
The Council of Chabad Rabbis decided that despite a chronic dearth of
funds, now was the time to join the fray for two reasons: First, the
three weeks between the 17th of Tammuz (this year, July 25) and Tisha
Be'av (August 14) have historically been an ominous period for Jews,
replete with tragic incidents. "Therefore, there is a dire need for
prayer to arouse God's sympathy," said Rabbi Menahem Brod, Chabad's
official spokesman.
Second, Chabad leaders feel that on the eve of disengagement, before
the pullout is finalized, they have one last chance to stop the
government.
"As long as it has not been done yet, we have a chance to halt what we
think will be a terrible tragedy," said Brod. "I also think people
understand better than ever the dangers of the plan. It is heartrending
for all of us to see them preparing the cages that will hold the
families who try to fight the evacuation, when we see police and
soldiers training to forcibly evacuate their fellow Jews."
On Wednesday afternoon, the Chabad emissaries of Israel met at Nir
Etzion, a kibbutz north of Tel Aviv, to launch the campaign.
"This should not be seen as a change in Chabad's opinion about
disengagement," said Brod. "From the very beginning, we opposed the
plan, but tactically speaking, we were waiting for the right time to
come out openly against it."
"The main problem is that we have no money to fund the campaign," he
said.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post in May, Brod said that Chabad
was distancing itself from active and open opposition to disengagement
for fear it would hurt Chabad's Jewish outreach activities. "Chabad
exists to bring Jews closer to Judaism, whether they have right-wing or
left-wing political views," Brod said. "If Jews are alienated from
Judaism as a result of our anti-disengagement activities, if they end
up not celebrating Pessah or Rosh Hashana, that is also pikuah nefesh
[life-threatening] in our eyes."
Now, however, with disengagement just weeks away, Chabad leaders
decided to take that risk in a last-ditch concentrated effort to
prevent a pullout, which they think will endanger millions of Israeli
lives.
The campaign is likely to galvanize and unify a movement that has
suffered from a schism between extremist, messianic members and the
more moderate mainstream camp. Chabad leadership hopes to incorporate
some of its fringe elements in the present campaign in an attempt to
redirect energies that have been focused elsewhere toward a joint
effort.
Brod said that a huge anti-disengagement prayer rally at the Western
Wall was in the offing, as were hundreds of local prayer rallies around
the country. There are about 250 Chabad Houses nationwide.
This article can also be read at