The main problem is unemployment - not healthcare

New York Times

The Obama administration and Democrats in general are in trouble because they are not urgently and effectively addressing the issue that most Americans want them to: the frightening economic insecurity that has put a chokehold on millions of American families. 

The economy shed 36,000 jobs last month, and that was trumpeted in the press as good news. Well, after your house has burned down I suppose it’s good news that the flames may finally be flickering out. But once you realize that it will take 11 million or more new jobs to get us back to where we were when the recession began, you begin to understand that we’re not really making any headway at all.

It’s also widely known by now that the official employment statistics drastically understate the problem. Once we take off the statistical rose-colored glasses, we’re left with the awful reality of millions upon millions of Americans who have lost — or are losing — their jobs, their homes, their small businesses, and their hopes for a brighter future.

Reform Movement & intermarried couples

Haaretz

A Reform Jewish task force on intermarriage said Monday that the movement should do more to encourage mixed-faith couples to be active in Jewish life, including creating special blessings for major life events such as weddings and funerals.

The panel proposed no changes in the movement's policy on officiating at interfaith weddings. Reform Judaism formally opposes the practice but allows each rabbi to decide.

Instead, the panel proposed other steps, including educating rabbis on how they can engage intermarried families, and creating blessings for ceremonies that involve a non-Jewish spouse.[...]

Church faces growing abuse scandal in Europe

New York Times

ROME — Defending itself against a growing child sexual abuse scandal in Europe, one that has even come close to the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican said Tuesday that local European churches had addressed the issue with “timely and decisive action.”

In a note read on Vatican Radio, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, cautioned against limiting the concerns over child sexual abuse to Roman Catholic institutions, noting that the problem also affected the broader society.

A wave of church sexual abuse scandals has emerged in recent weeks in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, adding to the fallout from a broad abuse investigation in Ireland.

Interruption of blogging due to travel plans.

I am in the process of traveling to America for an extended visit. Therefore for the next few days there will be few if any posts and I might not have an opportunity to approve the comments. Hopefully by the end of the week things will get back to normal.

Lemba's of Zimbabwe claim Jewish ancestry

BBC

In many ways, the Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe and South Africa are just like their neighbours.

But in other ways their customs are remarkably similar to Jewish ones.

They do not eat pork, they practise male circumcision, they ritually slaughter their animals, some of their men wear skull caps and they put the Star of David on their gravestones.

Their oral traditions claim that their ancestors were Jews who fled the Holy Land about 2,500 years ago.[...]

Rav Sternbuch: A Gadol's responsiblity

61 Parsha 03-05-10

Bait Shel Tikva - For mildly retarded girls

Allow us to ask your support for a unique institution in Israel: The nonprofit organization “Bait Shel Tikva”. Bait shel Tikva was established in 2007 by a private initiative for girls with developmental retardation, CP, in the ages of 15 – 20 years old, and to respond to the distress of many of their families. The idea came up because we have a paralyzed daughter ourselves of 16 years in a very difficult situation. After the publication in the press about the idea of the above-mentioned institution, many parents called us saying they were on the verge of collapsing under the heavy burden and the day-to-day difficulties. They literally told us: “We beg you to save us by establishing such an institution”. Hostels like Bait Shel Tikva don’t exist in Israel. There are only institutions for severely retarded girls from over 21 years old; and even over this age – not every time. We strongly believe that this is the wrong environment for the much younger, far less retarded girls who will, no doubt, feel isolated and sad in such a place – unable to communicate with the other girls living there. Therefore, because for us this is a case of life and death, we decided not to wait any longer and to establish the home by our own means, in a private manner.

After having consulted with numerous existing institutions in Israel dealing with retardation and rehabilitation we found out that one cannot establish such an institution with the help of the Ministry of Labor and Relief in the first stage, and one cannot expect to get any budget from a government source before several years of existence on a private status. All those institutions were run in the beginning with their own resources.

So far we were able to successfully cover the costs of the installation of the premises. Now, we’re in need of another estimated yearly $222,800 to cover the costs of the maintenance of the premises. We need your help to cover these maintenance costs. Your support will help many physically disabled girls with a slight to medium retardation find a house adjusted to their needs.

In case you would be interested in helping us in our endeavor of providing a warm home with all the up to date medical facilities and therapeutic activities to those fine girls, we would be happy to provide you with additional information about our project in the form of Bait shel Tikva’s detailed prospect, as well as a recommendation of “Gedolei Israel”.

We thank you for considering contributing to our cause. Please write your check, money order or cashier's check to

“Friends of Shaarei Torah va’Hesed”
Harei Yehudah 65/1
Ganei-Tikva 55900 Israel

We would like to remind you that your giving is tax deductible. Federal Tax I.D. number: 26-0209937/ “Friends of Shaarei Torah va’Hesed”.

For questions please contact our organization’s secretary David Blumenthal at 972 (0)50 4136140 or 972 (0)3 535 2751.

Any amount in which you wish to contribute to our organization will be acceptable.

Yours sincerely,

Rabbi Inon Levy, Chairman

Re-examining the Pollard Issue

R Yair Hoffman

This is yet another article that will probably generate controversy in some circles within the Jewish community.   Our history, however, since the rise of the Talmud and before, has always been one of intense analysis, debate, thought and discussion.  This political issue is no different, and it is perhaps time for another point of view to be presented.

Pollard was a United States civilian intelligence analyst convicted in 1987 of handing over state secrets in spying for Israel.  He was sentenced in March of 1987 to life in prison.  Since then, numerous Jewish organizations have stood completely behind Jonathan Pollard – not just in terms of advocating for his freedom, but in actually advocating for his outlook and perspective as well.[...]

Israel: Russian immigrants

NyTimes

MARINA from Belarus and Ida from Ukraine were selling jewelry on fold-up tables by the beach, alongside Malka from Georgia. On the way over, I had met Natalya from Russia and Igor from Uzbekistan, who were holding hands as they strolled around a hilltop park, sunning themselves on a sparkling winter afternoon. Should it have been any surprise that Yana, the saleswoman at the nearby mall, grew up in Azerbaijan?

All around me in the Israeli city of Ashdod, people were chatting in Russian, darting in and out of stores with signs in Cyrillic, living the lives that they had once lived, as if they were in a mythical, far-flung former Soviet republic. I had come from Moscow to explore Israel, but when I reached Ashdod, a port on the Mediterranean that is shunned by most guidebooks, I almost felt as if I were back where I had started. Minus the snow. [...]

Attacks against beis din by Orthodox Jews

Haaretz

It starts with a distant, dull roar along Rabbi Akiva Street in the largely Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv. Gradually the noise grows louder and infiltrates the half-open window of courtroom A. The proceedings lapse into silence, as the dayanim - judges in a religious court - the litigants and everyone else present listen attentively. It's almost 9:30 P.M., and the speaker system on the roof of a rented vehicle is broadcasting a recorded message. When the people in the courtroom are able to make out the words being blasted  through the speakers, they discover that the announcement is not about the funeral of an important rabbi or a pious woman.


At least 100 decibels burst through the half-open window, shaking the courtroom. The voices represent one side in a war  being waged by dayanim in a bid to maintain the exclusive power of the religious courts among the Haredi public. At this late hour, they are urging everyone to attend a demonstration being held that night against Zvi Bialostosky, "who is raising a hand against the Torah of Moses." [...]

Ad displays on the Kotel

Haaretz

Most people go to the Western Wall to pray, but now some will also head there to pay. 

The cabinet is set to approve a plan that would allow for sponsorship messages to be beamed onto the Western Wall, sources in the Prime Minister's Office told Haaretz Saturday.[...]

From Skinhead to Orthodox Jew

NYTImes

WARSAW — When Pawel looks into the mirror, he can still sometimes see a neo-Nazi skinhead staring back, the man he once was before he covered his shaved head with a yarmulke, shed his fascist ideology for the Torah and renounced violence and hatred in favor of God.

“I still struggle every day to discard my past ideas,” said Pawel, a 33-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew and former truck driver, noting with little irony that he had to stop hating Jews in order to become one. [...]

Benefits of depression & negative moods

NYTIMES

The Victorians had many names for depression, and Charles Darwin used them all. There were his “fits” brought on by “excitements,” “flurries” leading to an “uncomfortable palpitation of the heart” and “air fatigues” that triggered his “head symptoms.” In one particularly pitiful letter, written to a specialist in “psychological medicine,” he confessed to “extreme spasmodic daily and nightly flatulence” and “hysterical crying” whenever Emma, his devoted wife, left him alone.

While there has been endless speculation about Darwin’s mysterious ailment — his symptoms have been attributed to everything from lactose intolerance to Chagas disease — Darwin himself was most troubled by his recurring mental problems. His depression left him “not able to do anything one day out of three,” choking on his “bitter mortification.” He despaired of the weakness of mind that ran in his family. “The ‘race is for the strong,’ ” Darwin wrote. “I shall probably do little more but be content to admire the strides others made in Science.”[...]

Former Takana member discusses Elon scandal

Haaretz

Dr. Hana Kehat began her fight against sexual harassment within Israel's religious sector even before initiating the Takana forum, from which she has now resigned in the wake of the Rabbi Mordechai Elon affair. Kehat is a founder and board member of Kolech - a feminist, religious Zionist movement established more than 20 years ago which aims to achieve equality for women within the religious community.

Kehat, a lecturer in Bible and Israeli thought, started taking on sexual harassment at Kolech, where she exposed how such harassment on the part of Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen, head of the women's religious college at Bar-Ilan University, had been handled. The affair nearly led to her firing from Orot College by its director, Rabbi Neria Guttel, and demonstrated the great need to establish the Takana forum. Kolech put pressure on Bar-Ilan; as a result the university set up an investigatory committee headed by Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, today one of Takana's leaders. [...]