UK Labour MP suspended after saying Jews don't experience racism

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-740041

Labour Against Antisemitism (LAAS) Spokesperson Fiona Sharpe issued a statement stating that Abbott's letter was unacceptable. 

Sharpe added that the letter attempted to "reduce the racism faced by Jews to mere prejudice when in living memory 6 million Jews were systematically slaughtered in Europe for their race is grossly offensive."

Sharpe added "In the UK today, 1 in 5 of all Jews has suffered a racist attack..."

Book scanner

 I need to scan books - 100's of pages into pdf or word format

There are many scanners for books with features such as autofocus page flattening and curved surfaces - does anyone recommend a particular model or whether it is better to use a professional service - which I am still looking for in Jerusalem.

After four days: Missing yeshiva student found dead

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/370356

Kisus went missing after he left his kayak in order to swim at an unofficial beach, and it seems he was swept away by the current.

Dozens protest after Arab justice says rape was 'without significant violence'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/370316

Dozens protested Thursday night outside the home of Khaled Kabub, a Supreme Court justice, after he declared that a rapist acted "without significant violence."

In the incident in question, an Arab raped a Jewish woman, but Kabub declared that the rapist had acted "without significant violence" and ordered that his release be considered.

Ghetto Mentality has consequences

Murdoch’s ‘stupidity’ gave Dominion a huge win

Biggest winners and losers in the blockbuster Fox-Dominion settlement

 https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3959031-biggest-winners-and-losers-in-the-blockbuster-fox-dominion-settlement/

Even for a multi-billion dollar company, $787.5 Million is a lot of money. 

Fox Corp., which owns and operates Fox News, is also facing lawsuits from shareholders on the company’s board who are upset with the network’s coverage of the 2020 election and the resulting litigation it has sparked. 

Shareholder Robert Schwarz alleged in a lawsuit filed in Delaware Chancery Court earlier this month that Murdoch and other board members breached their fiduciary duties to shareholders by failing to uphold the company’s ethical reputation. 

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.

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."