Falash Mura In Tiberias Bomb Shelter; Are We Too Much Concerned About “Ni@g@rs”?

Newly arrived Falash Mura from Ethiopia are assigned to a hostel in Tiberias. They’ve spent much of the last three weeks in the hostel’s bomb shelter, but are not complaining. The CBC reports:

Yayesh Aitagl, who arrived with her husband and daughter 15 months ago, said she is scared, even though the staff at the hostel help by showing them what to do.

Her husband, Truye, worked as a driver in Ethiopia and confesses that he didn’t expect this when he came to Israel.

“No, I didn’t think it would like this,” he said. “I am surprised, but I think it will all work out all right in the end. After all, it isn’t targeted at us, we are only going through what all the Jewish people are going through.”

Meanwhile, a haredi commenter who calls himself moshe kaufman left a series of comments today critical of this blog and most of our readers. This particular comment (left today on a post posted months ago) encapsulates his worldview:

stop slandering the names of reb elyashiv and reb chaim kaniveskiwho

are two of the holiest people on earth or you will find yourselves

sliding donw the slipery slope straight to hell faster thatn you can

say 1,2,3 you sick freaks i mean don’t you have ANYTHING better to do

with you’re time you guys afe such losers if that’s all you have time

to do is this stupid shit oh yeah and STOP SCREAMING ABOUT THE FUCKING

NIGGERS IN AFRICA!! you’re jewish brothers and sisters are being killed

by hamas in israel and you still won’t shut up about those STUPID

FUCKING NIGGERS!!!!!

Such a wonderful American yeshiva education on display. I’ll bet you make your rosh yeshiva very proud.

Edah Journal To Continue

From an Edah email:

1. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) is absorbing the Journal, the website

and the audio-visual library. We are still discussing with them whether and

how the name of Edah will survive on any or all of these programs. Those

decisions will be based on administrative needs, and ideological issues will

not inform the matter. Dr. Eugene Korn will continue to serve as the editor

of the Journal in conjunction and cooperation with members of the YCT

faculty.

2. Edah at the JCC will continue to be offered for an additional year.

Here too, the continued use of the Edah name is under discussion.

David Klinghoffer On Mel Gibson

Steven I. Weiss asks Discovery Institute fellow and Forward columnist David Klinghoffer about Mel Gibson’s antisemitic outburst:

Booze goes in, truth comes out. Yes, it does seem that Gibson has an anti-Semitism problem as of this past weekend. What we don’t and can’t know is whether, if he’d got drunk three years ago and been pulled over for DUI by Malibu cops, he’d also have delivered a disgusting anti-Semitic rant. Is it possible that he wasn’t an anti-Semite before making the Passion, but that the continual and deeply personal attacks on him from the ADL and the

rest of the Jewish establishment affected his feelings about Jews? Yes, I would say that’s possible …

Could Gibson have become antisemitic because of Abe Foxman and Rabbi Marvin Hier? Sure, in theory this is possible, but unprovable. And because it cannot be proved, it cannot be disproved. Gibson may be a johnny-come-lately to Jew-hatred, and one day a pig may fly. Until then, the words of Christopher Hitchens win the day:

[T]he difference between the blood-alcohol levels—and indeed the speed limits—that occasioned the booking are insufficient to explain the expletives…One does not abruptly decide, between the first and second vodka, or the ticks of the indicator of velocity, that the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are valid after all.…

Gibson is a pig, and he has not left ground.

Like Michael Medved, Klinghoffer is a disciple of Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

Christopher Hitchens On Mel Gibson

From today’s Slate:

And it has been obvious for some time to the most meager intelligence that he is sick to his empty core with Jew-hatred. This is not just proved by his twistedly homoerotic spank-movie The Passion of the Christ …

[T]he difference between the blood-alcohol levels—and indeed the speed limits—that occasioned the booking are insufficient to explain the expletives…One does not abruptly decide, between the first and second vodka, or the ticks of the indicator of velocity, that the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are valid after all.…

No, he spoke his “mind,” and in case anyone wants to burble about political correctness, it should be added that he spoke this way because of his religion, not just his warped personality. Let him keep the fortune he made from a pogrom movie…there was another touch of in vino veritas when he tearfully told the cops that “my life is f—ed,” and this inadvertent truth ought to be remembered in all charity as the last words we ever want to hear from him.

[Hat tip: Professor Gershon M. Ahmed.]

Mel Gibson, Rabbi Daniel Lapin and Michael Medved

Now that we know Mel Gibson is an antisemite, one must wonder what Michael Medved, the Rabbi Daniel Lapin acolyte and Salem Radio talk show host (and, therefore, TownHall.com columnist), will do with Gibson’s Jew problem. Lapin has been a shill for the Christian right for years, as has Medved. Medved was a big supporter of Gibson’s during the controversy over the Passion, as was Lapin. Will Medved handle this honestly? Will Lapin? Or will they find a way to shill for Gibson?

The smart money is on an effluence of snake oil.

UPDATE: I wrote four months ago:

Several years ago, WorldVision launched a campaign to aid those hurt by suicide bombing and terrorist attacks in Israel. The radio commercial had bombs exploding, sirens wailing. Where was the money going? To the West Bank and Gaza, and only to Arabs. I asked WorldVision why. A spokesperson responded by saying (I paraphrase) that WorldVision helps the most at need. Jews can take care of themselves. The Arabs cannot. I asked about the morality of using terror attacks against Jews to raise money for Arabs. Terror hurts both sides, was the response.

The Salem Radio Network had a joint campaign with WorldVision to fund this very project. Ads for it ran during both the Dennis Prager and Michael Medved shows. In effect, both shows raised money for the extended families of suicide bombers. I contacted both hosts and explained the problem. Both wanted details that involved many hours of research. I did that research (without pay) and sent the information to Prager and Medved. Prager banned all ads for that WorldVision campaign from running during his show. But what did Medved, whose rabbi-guru is Lapin, do? He increased the ads and began endorsing that very WorldVision project.

Doctors of Death

From the July 21, 2006 Wall Street Journal:

A medical resident — we called her “Dr. Death” — at the Intensive Care Unit at Long Island’s North Shore Hospital chased us down the hallway.

“Your husband wants to die,” she told my mother, again. Just minutes before I had asked her to leave us alone.

“He can’t even talk,” I reminded her.

“He motioned with his hands when we tried to put in the feeding tube,” she said.

… A new resident appeared the next day, this one a bit more diplomatic but again urging us to allow my father to “die with dignity.” And the next day came yet another, who opened with the words, “We’re getting mixed messages from your family… [My father] was not in a “persistent vegetative state” (itself a phrase subject to broad interpretation), that magic point at which family members are required to pull the plug — or risk the accusation that they are right-wing Christians.

I complained about all the death-with-dignity pressure to my father’s doctor, an Orthodox Jew, who said that his religion forbids the termination of care but that he would be perfectly willing to “look the other way” if we wanted my father to die. We didn’t. Then a light bulb went off in my head. We could devise a strategy to fend off the death-happy residents: We would tell them we were Orthodox Jews.



My little ruse worked. During the few days after I announced this faux fact, it was as though an invisible fence had been drawn around my mother, my sister and me.…

Though my father was born to an Orthodox Jewish family, he is an avowed atheist who long ago had rejected his parents’ ways. As I sat in the ICU…the irony struck me: My father, who had long ago rejected Orthodox Judaism, was now under its protection.

As though to confirm this, there came a series of miracles. Just a week after he was rushed to ICU, my father was pronounced well enough to be moved out of the unit … A day later he was off the respirator…He still mostly slept, but then he began to awaken for minutes at a time… A day later, we walked in to find him sitting upright in a chair, reading the New York Times.

I’ve never been one of those Jews who makes facial contortions at the mere mention of the Christian Right; I actually agree with them on some matters. And this experience with my father has given me a new appreciation for the fight many evangelicals have waged against euthanasia.…

I would add Agudath Israel of America and the RCA have done some very good work on this as well. So have Dr. Fred Rosner, Marvin Schick, Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler, and Rabbi Dr. J. David Bleich.

[Hat tip: Professor Gershon M. Ahmed.]

Help Still Needed

I still need a copy of the Beit Yitzchak Journal, 5746. Any help in this regard will be much appreciated. Thank you!

Good News For The 9 Days

Ynet has a remarkable report on haredim who, while not fighting in the army, take this war very seriously:

“More than 50 years ago the ultra-orthodox community said ‘you fight and we’ll pray'”, said a staff member at the prime minister’s office this week, also a close aid of the former prime minister Ariel Sharon.

“It’s true that they were always criticized about this, but on the other hand, they really do stand by their part of the agreement. They don’t try to dodge the commitment they took upon themselves. Utra-orthodox worshippers pray because they truly believe that that’s what will help, and perhaps we need someone to do it.”

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef told his followers to cancel their traditional summer vacations (scheduled to begin next week) and to use the time to learn:

“We’re all experiencing these troubled times, what’s a vacation? We have to study the Torah. With the help of the Torah god will save us. We have to strengthen those who are endangering their lives,” said the rabbi.

Perhaps not as good as mass enlistment, but still a very welcome and much-needed effort.

Baruch Dayan HaEmet (Hitler’s Pope? cont.)

The New York Times reports:

Alexander Safran, the former chief rabbi of Romania who tried to prevent the deportation of Jews by his country’s pro-Nazi regime during World War II, died on Thursday at his home here. He was 95.…

After leaving Romania for Switzerland, Rabbi Safran became the chief rabbi of Geneva in 1948. He was also professor of philosophy at the university there and published a number of literary works.

Rabbi Safran was elected chief rabbi of Romania in 1940, when he was only 30. From April to August 1940, as a member of the Romanian Senate, he tried to persuade the military government of Ion Antonescu to moderate its anti-Jewish legislation.

After the authorities ordered the dissolution of all Jewish organizations in December 1941, Rabbi Safran helped set up the Jewish Council, an underground organization that included all sectors of the Jewish population. His home became the group’s meeting place.

The council used its links with Romanian church officials, the Vatican and the royal family in an effort to prevent the mass deportation of Romania’s Jews to the Nazi extermination camps.

About half of the 800,000 Jews who lived in Romania before World War II were killed during the war. But the fact that many were saved was widely attributed to Rabbi Safran’s efforts.…

Rabbi David Dalin notes on page 14 of his book, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, that Pope Pius XII was praised by Rabbi Safran for his efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust – efforts, one can see, Rabbi Safran had personal knowledge of.

Just another bit of information that helps prove that DovBear is mistaken on this issue.

Sir Martin Gilbert Responds

Sir Martin Gilbert was kind enough to respond to challenges posed by FailedMessiah.com readers, including DovBear. With his permission, his response:

One of your readers writes to you (entirely erroneously in my view):

“Churchill knew about the dangers the Jewish people

faced, and even gave speeches about it, well before

WWII officially started. However, once the war

started, rescuing Jews was not a priority of his, and he did hardly or nothing to help. His five volume history of the war barely mentions

the Holocaust and does not record any effort by England

to help the Jews.

Your correspondent adds:

“Which is sad, not only for those who may have been

saved and were not, but because Churchill otherwise

has an overwhelmingly favorable WWII resume. Also

note that Churchill was saved from financial

ruin before the war by a Jewish financier who

realized

that Churchill was needed.”

Your correspondent ends:

“It is impossible that Churchill did not know what

was going on….”

All the above points are dealt with in detail in my

forthcoming book, Churchill and the Jews, which will, hopefully, be

published during the Fall or Winter of 2007: by Holt

in the USA, and by Simon and Schuster in the Britain, as well as by

McLelland and Stewart in Canada.

Incidentally, Sir Henry Strakosch, Churchill’s

financier in 1938 was not Jewish!

…

I feel that my American Spectator review answers the

other questions posed about Pope Pius XII, in so

far as those questions are dealt with in my review – as

most of them are.

You can read Sir Martin Gilbert’s review of Rabbi David Dalin’s book by puchasing the American Spectator at your local newsstand or by reading it in your local public library.

Another Way To Help Israelis

The Board of trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in LA have put $300,000 into a matching fund to help Israeli victims of the war. This means that, if you donate, your donation will in effect be doubled.

The Center says it will give the funds to reputable Israeli nonprofits working with the refugees and victims. From an email sent today:

In this moment of crisis, as rockets continue to rain down on Israel, and she has suffered her worst civilian casualties since the beginning of the terrorist attacks, I will be leading an emergency five-day frontline mission to Israel this coming week.

Members of the Center’s Board of Trustees have contributed $300,000 to personally distribute to those in great need. We are asking you to click here to match that amount, dollar-for-dollar, through Monday, July 31st, for direct emergency aid that we will distribute on the ground in Israel.

We will be helping people who have been living for weeks, night and day, in shelters. We will visit hospitals, rehabilitation centers and summer camps. And, we will be dispersing the funds to reputable humanitarian and children’s charitable groups throughout the country.

We will also meet with government and local officials to show our solidarity and offer our support during this time of crisis

I therefore appeal to you to help us offer direct, financial assistance to the people of Israel who need it the most as they struggle to cope with this unprecendented crisis.

Thank you,

Rabbi Marvin Hier

Founder and Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center

Life Underground In Nahariya

This is the best piece I’ve yet seen on what life is like for those who have not fled northern Israel. When plumbers are on the front lines …

Meanwhile, Tzemach Atlas is photo-blogging the war.

Israel: How You Can Help Right Now

Edah has sent out a link to an Israel-based website that has what Edah calls the “most complete listing that we have seen” of worthy projects to support in various ways.

What is striking about this list are the many people hosting, feeding and clothing refugees from the north, and doing so without any help for the government. These kind people are running out of money (in some cases, they too are broke) and need help now.

There are more than 200,000 refugees from the north of Israel. Others have stayed in the north, unable or unwilling to leave. Almost all need our help now, and will need it for the foreseeable future.

Take a look at the list. Find a project or family you like and take it on.

In North America, United Jewish Communities has set up a fund to aid these refugees, and many other organizations are raising money to help them as well.

Find one you like and give today.

The Right Of Information

The Jewish Student Press Service held a conference in late Fall of 1982 in NYC. The lineup was stellar – Anthony Lewis from the NYTimes, Nat Hentoff, and other Jewish journalism pros – and very left. This conference took place a few months after the Lebanon War started, and Israel was taking a beating in the media.

Anthony Lewis was a constant and sharp critic of Israeli policy, as were many of the other speakers.

A few weeks before the conference, I asked the organizer to make the conference more inclusive by bringing in speakers from the right and center. He asked who I had in mind. I suggested Norman Podhoretz from Commentary Magazine. He told me he had asked Podhoretz in previous years, and Podhoretz always refused to come. I asked him to ask again, and to have Podoretz suggest a substitute if he wasn’t coming. What happened?

Podhoretz refused to come and also refused to suggest a replacement, so the conference went on, skewed to the left. (DK has suggested, correctly I think, that this comes from elitism. Podhoretz and company considered themselves to be intellectuals, not journalists, and did not want to slum with either journalists or undergrads.)

There were about 100 student journalists from across North America there. Many went on to take positions in print and electronic media, including at major (non-Jewish-community) newspapers. All but two of us appeared to be left-leaning.

I was lucky enough to put Anthony Lewis on the spot. Most felt Lewis acquitted himself poorly. The journalist who introduced him as “my hero” came up to me immediately after Lewis’ talk and said, “You got him! You really got him!”

It turned out most of the student journalists were open to hearing from the right and center. But their campuses were dominated by the left, and the right – under the leadership of the Podhoretzs of this world – could not be bothered.

Podhoretz’s magazine is now in many ways a shell of its former self. They charge very high subscription rates with no discounts for students (surprise) or opinion makers. (I hear complaints about this from academics who would love to use Commentary on their campuses but cannot due to price.) Their website is poorly maintained and largely useless, unless one subscribes, and even then the articles are often far from timely. Commentary is still operating as if we lived in a pre-digital, pre-24-hour-news world.

Podhoretz refused repeated attempts – including attempts WUJS North America made – to reach students who later became the very journalists and opinion leaders he so often criticizes.

In those days, Commentary was associated with the American Jewish Committee, which made Podhoretz’s behavior that much worse, because it was in effect a Jewish community organization.

The right seems not to have learned much in 24 years.