Thursday, April 20, 2023

Five takeaways from the Fox News-Dominion settlement

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/3959249-five-takeaways-from-the-fox-news-dominion-settlement/

The network gave perfunctory coverage to the Dominion settlement, even as rival cable networks and other news sites splashed the big news.

To many people, Fox’s conduct around the election-related conspiracy theories was indefensible.

But it’s a massive stretch to imagine its audience will drift away in any significant numbers — if at all.

Egyptians complain over Netflix depiction of Cleopatra as black

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65322821

Zahi Hawass, a prominent Egyptologist and former antiquities minister, told the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper: "This is completely fake. Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not black."

Mr Hawass said the only rulers of Egypt known to have been black were the Kushite kings of the 25th Dynasty (747-656 BC).

"Netflix is trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilisation is black," he added and called on Egyptians to take a stand against the streaming giant.

Fox News Digital finishes first quarter as No. 1 news brand across key metrics, topping CNN, New York Times - response to paying Dominion Settlement

Fox News Digital finishes first quarter as No. 1 news brand across key metrics, topping CNN, New York Times\

Read comments to this spin

It was the eighth straight quarter that Fox News Digital finished as the No.1 news brand among multiplatform minutes. It was also the third straight quarter that Fox News Digital finished as the leader with multiplatform views from a group of organizations that includes NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Insider Inc., and USA Today, in addition to CNN and the Times. 


Haredi IDF draft plans will lead to breakdown of Israeli society, Lapid warns

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-739679

According to the existing law that expires on July 31, haredi yeshiva students who leave a yeshiva before the age of 26 are required to serve in the IDF. The government is discussing what the new exemption age will be, with the IDF preferring 23 while Smotrich and the haredi parties reportedly prefer earlier. Another issue that is being discussed is the size and form of the benefits for conscripts in general and combat soldiers in particular.


Wednesday, April 19, 2023

EJF's Seminar in Dallas Jan 17-19 2010

EJF      Sample Schedule


Commitment to Join my Jewish Spouse, What Does it Mean? Rabbi Doron Kornbluth, Noted Author and Lecturer
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM     Judaism with Authenticity

Rabbi Yonasan Rosenblum, Noted Author, Lecturer and Columnist
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM     The Value of the Decision to Share Values with your Spouse: An Emotional and Philosophical Perspective.

Harav Mordechai Neugroschel, Noted Lecturer on Jewish Philosophy
6:30 PM- 7:30 PM     Dinner
7:30 PM– 8:00 PM     Film Untied or United: Building a Bridge to Jewish Family Unity

Rabbi Peretz Eichler
8:00 PM– 9:00 PM     Transformation of a Life

Rabbi Daniel Assor
9:00 PM– 9:15 PM     Evening Prayer Service (Maariv)


Day 2
8:15 AM – 9:15 AM     Morning Prayer Service (Shacharis)
9:15 AM – 10:30 AM     Breakfast
10:30 AM – 11:10 AM     Becoming Part of a Jewish Community – First Hand Experience

Mrs. Chana Basia Rauch
11:10 AM – 11:50 AM     Discovering Jewish Roots

Rabbi Daniel Assor
12:00 AM – 12:45 PM     13 Principles of Faith

Rabbi Mordechai Neugroschel

12:45PM – 2:00 PM     Lunch
2:00 PM – 2:15 PM     Afternoon Prayer Service (Mincha)
2:15 PM – 3:15 PM     Actions Speak Louder than Feelings: Why It's Not Enough to be a Jew at Heart

Rabbi Yonasan Rosenblum

3:15 PM – 3:45 PM     Film

Decisions in Destiny: Reaching the Summit of a Universally Accepted Conversion
Rabbi Peretz Eichler
3:45 PM – 5:00 PM     Straight Talk, Followed by Open Discussion
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM     The Road Ahead

Rabbi Doron Kornbluth
5:30 PM – 5:45 PM     Evening Prayer Service (Maariv)
5:45 PM     Dinne


R Jonathan Rosenblum - Tiger Woods has no counterpart in Judaism

This is the most astounding statement that this wise, intelligent perceptive person has ever said.

Jewish Media Resources/Jerusalem Post  December 24, 2009  Jerusalem Post Comments section
I wish I could say that self-destructive behavior, like that of Tiger Woods, is unknown among Orthodox Jews, or at least among Orthodox rabbis. But I have no particular desire to make a fool of myself.
I am not aware, however, of any figure revered by a large cross-section of Torah Jewry whose private behavior ever stood revealed to be wildly dissonant from his public image. Vast Torah knowledge is usually one aspect of that reverence, but only when it is accompanied by a lifetime of work on self-mastery of one's drives and desires, the subtle as well as the commonplace.
Constant, intense efforts at character development, including knowledge of one's weaknesses and the ability to anticipate the consequences of one's actions, is, at the end of the day, the only protection of against making a terrible botch of our lives.

Proselytising? I

Who is really to blame?
by Jonathan Rosenblum
Jerusalem Post
June 1, 2007
http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/article/1094/

[This is the second half of the article]

"IT IS NOT those who uphold strict standards for conversion who show a lack of love and concern for the convert, but rather those who ignore the halachic requirement of a sincere commitment to mitzva observance. The latter expose those "converted" under their auspices to the danger of a painful shock many years later when they discover that their conversion is not universally recognized.

A universally recognized standard is the greatest protection for the sincere convert, and the implementation of such a standard by responsible rabbinical courts is the key to the complete integration of the sincere convert into the Jewish people, without any concern that someone will someday question his or her conversion.

Two weeks ago, I participated in a three-day seminar sponsored by the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) organization in Phoenix, Arizona. The participants were 32 intermarried couples in each of which the non-Jewish spouse is contemplating conversion. (The leading contemporary halachic decisors have ruled that in the case of intermarried couples, the general rule that "the right hand pushes away" the would-be convert does not apply.)

The Phoenix seminar was the second of its kind. Of the 32 couples who participated in the first, 28 are on track to a full halachic conversion for the gentile spouse. One couple from the first seminar was halachically married at the Phoenix seminar. Another seven seminars sponsored by EJF are scheduled around the world for the coming year, each at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Working with intermarried couples is only part of what EJF does. The organization also promotes a universally accepted standard for conversion. It has already sponsored numerous conferences for rabbinical court judges in the United States and Israel, and one is scheduled in the near future for Europe.

The two-fold efforts of EJF provide irrefutable proof that concern for universally recognized standards of conversion goes hand-in-hand with the greatest love and respect for the convert."

Authority is indispensable

 Chinuch (71) It is impossible for the settlement of people without their making one of them head over the others, to do his command and fulfill his decrees. As the opinions of people are different and they will never all agree to one opinion - to do one thing from among the many things. And from this, the result will be idleness and a cessation of actions. And therefore they need to accept the opinion of one of them - whether it is good or whether it is bad - so that they will be successful and be involved in the business of the world, sometimes finding great benefit from his will and counsel and sometimes finding the opposite. And all of this is better than disagreement which causes complete idleness. And since the one appointed as head is the cause for the benefit that we said - whether he is big in leading us in the ways of religion or whether he is big in the kingdom to guard a man from his neighbor that is more powerful than he - the matter is fitting and proper that we not treat his honor lightly, and also that we not curse him. 

FOX News Media, Dominion Voting Systems reach agreement over defamation lawsuit

 https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-media-dominion-voting-systems-reach-agreement-over-defamation-lawsuit

The lawsuit, which stemmed from coverage of the post-2020 presidential election, had become media fodder with news outlets closely watching the outcome of the highly publicized legal battle.

Then-President Donald Trump and his allies fiercely challenged Joe Biden's victory in the weeks following the election. Some of them, including members of his legal team, made false and unsubstantiated claims against Dominion Voting Systems and are the subject of separate defamation lawsuits.

Fox News Media Host Refuses to Report Dominion Settlement Amount

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-media-host-howard-kurtz-refuses-to-report-dominion-settlement-amount?ref=home

Fox News media host Howard Kurtz couldn’t bring himself to repeat the hefty $787.5 million settlement his employer paid to Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday, claiming he was unable to “independently confirm” the amount. Kurtz, whom Fox forbade from covering the Dominion lawsuit before easing that restriction last month, made several on-air appearances to discuss the shocking settlement on Tuesday. 

Is This a Real Fox News Ad Published in the NY Times?

 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fox-news-ad-ny-times/











An image authentically showed an advertisement by Fox News in The New York Times, featuring survey data about "TV networks most trusted for news."

Fox News and NY Post fail to report on Dominion settlement

 Murdoch's papers are so committed to accurate reporting they failed to report that Fox News is giving Dominion almost a billion dollars for damaging the company with false claims. Instead they placed an ad in NY Times claiming they are widely believed 

Israeli society doesn't actually want haredim in the IDF

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-729182

What does Israeli society actually want?

The answer is that we, the general Israeli society, don’t really want haredi soldiers serving in the IDF. Meaning we want haredim to serve but we want them to be less haredi. If you’re already in the army, we think, then what’s the problem with having female soldiers around? And why not a Druze worker in the kitchen? And why special kashrut standards, prayer services and Torah study?

IDF opposes draft exemption for Haredim, presents new outline for mandatory service

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-presents-new-outline-for-mandatory-service-says-will-keep-drafting-haredim/

The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday presented a new outline for military service, amid plans by the government to grant ultra-Orthodox men earlier exemptions from drafting to the army.

The IDF indicated that it was opposed to the plans discussed by the government earlier this week that would essentially give Haredim a blanket ban from army service, stating that drafting Israelis from all parts of society is of utmost importance.