3rd group of Ethiopians request aliyah

YNET

While the story of the Falash Mura is known to most Israelis, the public is generally unaware of the difficulties another Ethiopian community that claims to have Jewish ancestry – the Tigray, is facing in immigrating to Israel

The Ethiopian community in Israel has recently launched a campaign to bring to Israel some 2,000 Tigray who have relatives in Israel.

The main difference between the Falash Mura and the Tigray lies in their geographical origin. The Falash Mura are Jews who converted to Christianity in the mid 19th century as a result of social and economic pressure. Most of them live in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. The Tigray live in northern Ethiopia in a region that borders Eritrea and Sudan, and their Jewish roots are unclear. [...]

Web attack against Twitter - aimed at one blogger

BBC

A "massively co-ordinated" attack on websites including Google, Facebook and Twitter was directed at one individual, it has been confirmed.

Facebook told BBC News that the strike was aimed at a pro-Georgian blogger known as Cyxymu.

The attack caused a blackout of Twitter for around two hours, while Facebook said its service had been "degraded".

Google said it had defended its sites and was now working with the other companies to investigate the attack.

"[The] attack appears to be directed at an individual who has a presence on a number of sites, rather than the sites themselves," a Facebook spokesman told BBC News.

"Specifically, the person is an activist blogger and a botnet was directed to request his pages at such a rate that it impacted service for other users."

Botnets are networks of computers under the control of hackers.

The machines were used to mount a so-called denial-of-service (DOS) attack on Thursday. [...]

Settlers sue State over Hebron evacuation

Haaretz

Hebron's Jewish settlement filed a lawsuit against the State of Israel on Friday over damages caused during the evacuation of disputed structures in the city's wholesale market.

In the suit, the settlers rely on a 2006 agreement reached with the IDF regional command, stating that Jewish residents of the disputed structures would vacate them, while leaving any stationary property.

That agreement was subsequently annulled, leading to the 2007 evacuation, in which police removed doorposts and knocked down plaster walls in order to prevent the settlers from returning to the structures. [...]The suit came as the most recent episode in a series of attempts to reclaim the structures, which were built on Jewish-owned land that was inhabited by Jews until 1929, when Arabs massacred many members of the local community and the survivors fled. [...]

Gay supporters attacked for putting posters up in Mea Shearim

JPost

A group of youngsters putting up posters in Jerusalem condemning the deadly shooting spree in a Tel Aviv gay community center last week was attacked overnight Thursday by haredim in Mea She'arim. After a short chase down the alleyways of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, the group and an Army Radio reporter who was with them managed to get away.

The head of the group that was putting up posters all around the capital said they had aimed to raise awareness for the attack in every section of Israeli society.

"The moment it comes to murder, this ceases to be just a haredi society, but part of an entire society that needs to understand that lines have been crossed," he told Army Radio. "Murder is something that needs to be shouted about." [...]

Secular vs. Religious Israel - documentary

Be aware that there are a few non tzinius pictures

Obama's healthcare critiqued

Muslims protest soccer club song

Arutz Sheva

Muslims are on the rampage against an old German soccer club song that includes the lyrics, "Mohammed was a prophet who knew nothing of football." The German soccer club 'Schalke 04' responded that Mohammed lived long before soccer was invented and that it sees no problem with the song.

The "White and Blue, How I Love You" song was written in 1924 and has been the official hymn of the club for decades, but the rising Muslim population in Europe has made it a more powerful force against anything that they consider offensive. They have staged dozens of protests, sometimes violent, concerning alleged offenses to the religion. Several people were killed two years ago in riots over a cartoon that depicted Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. [...]

Abuse:House arrest continues for mother accused of starving child

YNET

Court rules 'starving mother' to remain under house arrest

Jerusalem District Court rules that mother accused of starving her toddler son will remain under house arrest. Prosecution believes mother must be held in official detainment facility until end of legal proceedings, consider appealing to Supreme Court. Haredi community threatens to riot if mother returned to jail

The mother suspected of starving her three-year-old son will remain under house arrest until further notice. The Jerusalem District Court ruled Friday to keep the woman's remand conditions as is. The ultra-Orthodox community threatened to renew riots should the mother be returned to a detainment facility.[...]

EJF story of conversion of intermarried couple

Five Towns Jewish Times - Rochel Weinstein Director of Communications for Eternal Jewish Family International.

Sitting in a church as a young girl, Linda felt distant to the environment and rituals. The other congregants had come to express faith in their religion; she was there to please her grandmother. Young Linda grew up without much spiritual satisfaction, yet deep within was an inherent belief in the existence of G-d. Linda never imagined that one day it would manifest itself within every corner of her life.

It all started with her Jewish fiancé, David. Based on similar interests in classical music, a mutual friend introduced them and the professional orchestra players formed an immediate bond. Religious barriers were non-existent: Linda considered herself on a spiritual quest that had nothing to do with her religion of origin; David's intrinsic disinterest in Judaism meant that they would date for months before Linda would casually discover that he was Jewish. While this detail shocked Linda, it simultaneously planted within her the desire to learn all she could about the mysterious religion of her future husband.

A visit to the library was the first step. But the only information available lacked the meaningful spiritual dimension she desperately sought. Intrigued by the family dynamics of Jewish intermarriage, Linda was startled to discover that many children raised with two religions eventually keep neither, since the choice of a religion is often equated with the choice of a parent. Based on her research, there was no question that she would want to raise their children with one consistent religion—Judaism. Now all she had to do was convince not only her future husband but also her Lutheran family that this was, indeed, the right thing to do.[...]

Rav Sternbuch - Searching for Hashem

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Why is it o.k. to discriminate against Jews?

JPost Michael Freund

The Left, once again, is in an uproar. Along with its international comrades, it is bristling at the recent court-approved move by Jewish families into homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.

This is in addition to the fury it expressed previously over plans to build apartments for Jews at the site of the privately owned Shepherd Hotel in the eastern part of the capital.

Mustering all the righteous anger at its disposal, the Left has now launched into a heated round of pious pontification, hurling invective and frenzied rhetoric as if the world itself were coming to an end. The Ir Amim organization, for example, recently warned that if the Shepherd Hotel plan moves forward, it might "deal a fatal blow not only to [US President Barack] Obama's efforts but to the two-state solution."

No less hysterical was the reaction of Robert Serry, the UN's special envoy to the Middle East, who released a harshly worded statement saying: "I deplore the totally unacceptable actions by Israel in which Israeli security forces evicted Palestinian refugee families... to allow settlers to take possession of their properties." Calling the move "provocative," Serry asserted that it will "heighten tensions" and "undermine international efforts" to bring about peace.

Have these people fallen on their heads? The Left and its supporters repeatedly stress the need to end "settlement activity," as though it is Jewish housing construction rather than Arab intolerance which lies at the root of the Middle East conflict.

But even more perplexing is the fact that they are willing to embrace an openly discriminatory stance - prejudiced against Jews - to advance their political agenda. [...]