Saturday, March 25, 2023

The battle for Israel’s soul: If either side wins, everyone loses

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-735232

I suspect that I speak for the vast majority of Jews in the Diaspora and probably an equal amount in Israel when I say, please work harder to find a consensual resolution. End the vile rhetoric on both sides.

There are no dictators and there are no anarchists, there are only Jews trying in good faith to address a highly complex situation as best they can. Please lower the volume and give the process time to succeed. May God bless you all.

Trump won’t change, and that shows he can’t win

 https://nypost.com/2023/03/24/trump-wont-change-and-that-shows-he-cant-win/

Trump has every right to be upset.

We don’t disagree.

This is not a felony case, and Bragg trying to turn it into one is pure politics.

But rather than seek his vindication in the courtroom, or even just make an impassioned speech, Trump wants to inspire a mob.

Time and time again, Trump’s responses have been unhinged, indicative, and self-defeating.

And don’t buy for a second when he says he’s “fighting for you.”

Donald Trump Blasted by His Old Favorite Newspaper After 'Unhinged' Threats

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-blasted-his-old-favorite-newspaper-after-unhinged-threats-1790304

"He hasn't changed in the slightest. There is no shame," the newspaper's editorial team wrote in an op-ed article that was published Friday.

"After riling up rioters, cheering for a coup, and agreeing that his vice president needed to be hanged, he's back to making violent threats against fellow Americans," the editorial read in reference to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, when Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

Squeezed by investigations, Trump escalates violent rhetoric

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3917300-squeezed-by-investigations-trump-escalates-violent-rhetoric/

In several social media posts over the past two days, Trump appeared to threaten Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) with a baseball bat and warned any indictments brought against him may lead to “potential death & destruction” around the country.

Ex-prosecutor says Trump’s posts attacking Manhattan DA are crimes

Over ride clause - why support?

 https://mishpacha.com/inbox-issue-954/

Please explain to us why we American Jews should support an override clause, when the equivalent of an override clause in the USA would probably result in unappealable laws banning bris milah, shechitah, closing our yeshivos, forcing us to pull the plug on patients, and who knows what else. Our experience tells us that an “override clause” is probably the last tool we’d ever want to utilize to protect our lifestyle.

Friday, March 24, 2023

Tech guru Jaron Lanier: ‘The danger isn’t that AI destroys us. It’s that it drives us insane’

 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/23/tech-guru-jaron-lanier-the-danger-isnt-that-ai-destroys-us-its-that-it-drives-us-insane

“From my perspective,” he says, “the danger isn’t that a new alien entity will speak through our technology and take over and destroy us. To me the danger is that we’ll use our technology to become mutually unintelligible or to become insane if you like, in a way that we aren’t acting with enough understanding and self-interest to survive, and we die through insanity, essentially.”

Man at Center of Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory Demands Retraction From Fox

 https://news.yahoo.com/man-center-jan-6-conspiracy-182608207.html

Letters seeking retractions and apologies are often sent when lawyers are preparing to file a defamation lawsuit. As Teter noted, Epps’ demands come as Carlson and other top figures at Fox are already under pressure from a $1.6 billion defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems accusing them of amplifying lies that the voting machine company was involved in a bizarre plot to steal votes from President Donald Trump during the 2020 election.

Muhammad’s atrocity against the Qurayza Jews

 https://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/qurayza_jews.htm

In AD 627, Muhammad committed an atrocity against the last remaining major tribe of Jews in Medina: the Qurayza.

He beheaded the men and the pubescent boys and enslaved the women and children. In doing this, he wiped an entire tribe "off the map" to use the language of the President of Iran, recently.

The purpose of this article is full disclosure and straightforward analysis about early Islam. How and why did this atrocity unfold?

----------------------------------------------------

It is important to know contemporary Arabs believe Jews betrayed Mohammed and he was thus justified in the massacre. The ambivalent view of Muslims to Jews that they are enemies and yet need to be protected and also degraded. 

The original cause for hatred was the expectation that Jews would accept him as the prophet. And he never forgave the Jews when they rejected him. Not much different than the Christian view that Jews killed their god and failed to accept him. Nonetheless in general Muslims have been better to their inferior and degraded cousins than have been the Christians

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Alvin Bragg Breaks Silence About Trump's Potential Arrest

 https://www.newsweek.com/alvin-bragg-breaks-silence-trump-potential-arrest-1789907

Bragg went on to address the letter the House Judiciary Committee previously sent to his office and said: "Your letter dated March 20, 2023, (the 'Letter'), in contrast, is an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution. The letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry."

Pesach and Your No-Longer-Observant Child

 \
Dear Friends: Six years ago this week, we launched an effort to encourage parents of no-longer-observant children to consider inviting them home for Pesach. We made and posted the 2 videos below and conducted workshops with parents and their adult children, encouraging both parties to collaboratively craft a set of "House Rules" that promote mutual respect and Shalom Bayis. With Hashem's help, many families spent Pesach together in 2017 for the first time in years. Since then, we have been reposting those 2 videos on social media each year, along with a narrative conveying the same message. This year, we are leveraging the digital platform of our Instagram pages to carry that message to a wider audience by conducting an Instagram Live @yakovhorowitz Thursday evening, March 23, at 8:00 pm Eastern. We will use this email list to disseminate the video to you. Yakov

Lawrence: Today's worst legal news for Trump didn't happen in New York

Did Stormy Daniels Admit Fabricating Donald Trump Affair?

 https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-stormy-daniels-admit-fabricating-donald-trump-affair-1789595

While Daniels, in a statement in January 2018, said that she did not have an affair with Donald Trump, she later rescinded those comments, saying that she was forced to release the statement after the hush money story first came to life.

In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Daniels said she was told her life would be made "hell in many different ways" if she didn't sign the statement.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Meet the Sulamot organization

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/367992

We have to inspire the children. We need to bring the material that will be deep but will speak in their language," he explains the organization's vision, adding that by thinking out of the box, new solutions can be found to connect the youth to the Torah.

Gabai-Zada explains how the Sulamot turns the vision into a reality, "We provide programming for all different audiences. Ratzim Lemishna, for instance, which are action videos that develop the Mishna, tell the story of the Mishna, are catering to children." She explains that the videos aim to make those subjects accessible in an inspiring way that also enables the child to see the text as something that's relevant. "Relevance is all about what we do, it's about providing access and making it relevant and meaningful to our personal lives."