Choosing to be Jewish—and How

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This is the second installment in a series chronicling the author’s fiancé’s conversion to Judaism. You can find the first installment here.

Just like that, another round of High Holidays has come and gone. This year was a bit different, though. My sister Gabbie, who goes to Colorado College, surprised me with a New Year’s visit. Since she was only in town for a few days and not feeling the idea of spending them in temple, we decided to skip services. This was the first time in my adult life that I haven’t gone to High Holidays services and let me tell you: It was exhilarating. We had a festive meal with some friends at Jack’s Wife Freda, which has always been my favorite part of the holiday anyway.

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ISRAEL

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/d3bk5lptgat4/?view=att&th=14b74d2329f95484&attid=0.1&disp=attd&realattid=f_i5zm9ul60&safe=1&zw

I really think it is time for your readership to understand what is happening in Israel now!

It must be stopped!

Please print the attached article.

Thank you!

religion of gedolim

Where are Reb Shmuels defenders who will state that a gadol is more important
than Chazal or truth or even g-d


that is the clear basis of his defense!

Stupid Trump Tricks

nytimes


This week Donald Trump failed to stand at attention during a military ceremony. He just sat around talking and telling jokes. My question for today is: Do we need to dwell on this?

Stop jumping up and down and cheering.

Policy-wise, this has been a particularly dreadful week in Washington. The president trashed the health care act and washed his hands of the nuclear agreement with Iran.

Attention must be paid. But there has also been a bumper crop of Ridiculous Events. And it seems only fair to mention a few of them, given that the president himself doesn’t have enough stable thoughts for a serious policy debate. He never did understand the Affordable Care Act. During one top-level discussion with his foreign affairs advisers, he reportedly compared the United States’ strategy in Afghanistan to the remodeling of the 21 Club in Manhattan.

Good story, huh? I’m afraid I’m sinking to his level.

Let’s get back to the flag. Trump was doing an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, sitting in a hangar used by the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. A bugle began playing “Retreat,” music marking the end of the day and, often, the lowering of the flag. The military tradition is that when you hear it, you rise and put your hand on your heart. Or salute. Trump kept sitting and talking. He joked to the crowd that the bugle was in honor of Hannity’s ratings.

Well, maybe he had no idea what “Retreat” was. And to be fair, only people outdoors are really obliged to stand for the ceremony. But if you’re a president who went to a military high school, sitting in a military facility, near people who suddenly get to their feet, there ought to be an inkling that some attention should be paid.

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Gail Collins
American politics and culture.
The Trumps, the Poodle, the Sex Scandal
OCT 12
Dogs, Saints and Columbus Day
OCT 6
Out of Control on Contraception
OCT 6
Sex, Sanctimony and Congress
OCT 5
A Very Taxing President
SEP 29
See More »

RECENT COMMENTS

PJ Maybruck 18 hours ago
Thank you Gail for today’s article. You are blessed with having a wonderful writing skill filled with knowledge, integrity and humor.My...
Mark Long 18 hours ago
Why is Trump treating California and Porto Rico quite differently than Texas and Florida? Two reasons... One... Number of electoral vote...
TJ Michaelson 18 hours ago
Speaking of the bugle incident, Trump attended the NY Military Academy. He should still be familiar with the appropriate response to...
SEE ALL COMMENTS
Trump was in Pennsylvania, by the way, to promote his tax plan. In recent days he was also in North Carolina for a dinner with the Republican National Committee. He played golf with Lindsey Graham and met with the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Do we have any right to ask why he hasn’t dropped into California to check up on the wildfire disaster? He couldn’t do anything to help, and most Californians wouldn’t vote for him if he showed up wielding a hose and rescuing trapped bunnies. But it would still be a nice, leaderlike gesture.

Have you noticed how much of our discussion about the president is just a list of symbolic failures and punch lines? Are we just aping his fecklessness? Nah.

Has the Israeli taboo on criticizing Trump finally been lifted?

jpost

Israel's Likud government showed a tactful fondness for the US president so far, but it seems that the floodgates have been opened and Israel's patience with Trump is running out.

DEFENSE BY KILLING MESSENGER

Ad hominum arguments – that is how rav Shmuel is being defended. INSTEAD OF DEFENDING HIS POSITION SUPORTING ADULTERY. EFFORT IS WASTED CLAIMING I AM IMMORAL


SAM WHAM WROTE:

I'M JUST WONDERING WHY YOU LIKE TALKING ABOUT RAPE ALL. DAY.




IT IS STRANGE YOU CANT NOTICE THE OTHER THINGS I WRITE ABOUT LIKE R KAMINETSKY

‘Bad Rabbi’ exposes seamy underbelly of early 20th century Jewish life

'Bad Rabbi' by Eddy Portnoy (Courtesy Stanford University Press)

times of israel

Thugs. Thieves. Blackmailers. Deadbeats. Murderers. These are the kinds of Jews who populate “Bad Rabbi and Other Strange But True Stories from the Yiddish Press,” a new book published this month by Stanford University Press.

Contrary to what Hollywood, popular culture, and family lore would have us believe, not all Jews who lived in the first part of the 20th century — in the old country and new — were pious, honorable and upwardly mobile. One need only peruse the back pages of the many Yiddish dailies published in New York, Warsaw and other heavily populated Jewish cities in the decades leading up World War II to see that life was a series of daily disasters for many average members of the tribe.

For Trump, the Reality Show Has Never Ended

ny times

WASHINGTON — Over the weekend, President Trump was accused by a Republican senator of running the White House like a “reality show.” In the 48 hours that followed, this is how the president rebutted the characterization.
He called out the offending senator for being short and sounding like “a fool.” He challenged his secretary of state to an I.Q. contest and insisted he would win. He celebrated the downfall of a critic who was suspended from her job. And his first wife and third wife waged a public war of words over who was really his first lady.
Mr. Trump’s West Wing has always seemed to be the crossroads between cutthroat politics and television drama, presided over by a seasoned showman who has made a career of keeping the audience engaged and coming back for more. Obsessed by ratings and always on the hunt for new story lines, Mr. Trump leaves the characters on edge, none of them ever really certain whether they might soon be voted off the island.
“Absolutely, I see those techniques playing out,” said Laurie Ouellette, a communications professor at the University of Minnesota who has studied reality television extensively. “Reality TV is known for its humiliation tactics and its aggressive showmanship and also the idea that either you’re in or you’re out, with momentum building to the final decision on who stays and who goes.”
Among those on the in-or-out bubble in this week’s episode was Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the frustrated Republican who described — and derided — the conversion of the White House into a virtual set for “The Apprentice” and, for good measure, expressed concern in a weekend interview with The New York Times that the president could stumble the country into a nuclear war.

MainAll NewsILTV ISRAEL DAILYTell your kids to get up and play Tell your kids to get up and play

Several armed teens arrested as Israel’s clown menace continues

arutz7

As the 'scary clown' fad hits Israel, a year after it ended in the US, kids in one Israeli seaside town don’t suffer the fools gladly

The post Israeli teens form night patrols as clown panic sweeps country appeared first on The Times of Israel.

married and divorced with nfalse identity

arutz 7