Missing Children

[We are] trying to help more than 65 child survivors of Holocaust find information about their past.
Please look at the photos and read the profiles of each child.

Perhaps you have a missing piece of information for these child survivors. Perhaps you have  a suggestion for additional research. Click on the pictures or names for the individual profile pages.

Thank You!

Thank you to all who donated to our campaign to raise $1800 to save the lives of two children in Addis Ababa with Hodgkin’s Disease. We met our goal of $1800 in one week, and the money will shortly be on its way to Dr. Rick Hodes in Addis Ababa. You can still donate by clicking emailing me. All money, even that in excess of $1800 will go directly to those children’s care. No money or fees will go elsewhere. Again, to all of you who donated, thank you. Shabbat Shalom!

Save Two Lives, Part 2

The readers of this blog, along with readers of JeanetteFriedman.com and DovBear have raised over $1600 to save the lives of two Ethiopian children with Hodgkin’s Disease. This is really good news, but there is a problem. What is it?

We need $188 more to do the job. If you can give, please do so now. Even small amounts are welcome. Once we have the $188, I’ll send the entire $1800 to the JDC in New York. They’ll get the entire $1800 to Dr. Rick Hodes in Addis Ababa.

Time is of the essence. These children will, God forbid, die if they don’t get treatment, and Dr. Rick doesn’t have the money to pay for the medicines needed to save their lives. In other words, your dollars really count and your donation really matters.

Please give now. Just click on the button below to donate. You’ll get a receipt you can print out for your records. Your donation is tax deductible in the US. Thank you!

UPDATE: 1/11/06 9pm CST – Our goal has been reached! The $1800 will soon be on its way to Dr. Hodes. You can still donate by emailing me. All additional money raised will be sent to Dr. Hodes. No funds will be siphoned off for handling or adminstration.

Save Two Lives

As many of you know, Rick Hodes is a ( Modern Orthodox) Jewish doctor who lives and works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He heads the JDC’s operations there and also serves as attending physician (without pay) at Sister Theresa’s Orphanage. He’s saved many lives and been written about extensively.

Dr. Rick does much of his work without pay. He begs for medicines and plane tickets, imports his own medicines, and relies on the kindness of others to help him succeed.

I propose that we, the readers of this blog and JBloggers in general, adopt Dr. Rick and raise some money to help him. $1400 will provide anti-cancer drugs for two children (he has 25 now waiting for treatment) and $400 will pay for one year of school for each of them. A total of $1800 will save two children.

I’ve set up a way for us to donate. (Please see below.) All contributions are tax deductible in the US. If you want to place this button on your blog or website, email me (see the right sidebar for the address) and I’ll send you the code. Thanks!

UPDATE: 1/11/07 – The $1800 has been raised! You can still donate by emailing me. Every extra dollar will help desperately ill children in Addis Ababa.

How Difficult Is It To Be Disabled In Israel? Very

According to Access Israel:

…95 percent of the cafes don’t have accessible bathrooms and only five beaches are accessible.

There are problems with post offices and stores as well." He says only 26 percent of 500,000 handicapped people are employed in any way…

This is despite years of pleading by Diaspora Jews and the intervention of people like Isaac Stern. If you were to check shuls and yeshivot, I think the number inaccessible would approach 100%.

There is no excuse for this. The number of wounded Israeli soldiers who are unable to go to shul or a café is heartbreaking. And no one really cares.

Child Rape as Genocide

David Rubenstein writes:

On Sunday December 10th, as part of UN World Human Rights Day, activists in cities around the world will hold demonstrations in front of the Sudan’s embassies to "Raise the Alarm" on Darfur. We have called on communities of faith to participate through the "Weekend of Prayer and Action," December 8th-10th.

I would like to invite you to participate in this weekend’s important activities by asking your house of worship to add its name to an urgent sign-on letter to President Bush.…

We hope to use this weekend to bring diverse communities of faith together in calling on the president to take immediate action to stop the genocide in Darfur.

In particular, we hope to raise awareness of the horrific situation women and girls face every day in Darfur.

Women and girls as young as 8 years old are being raped and sexually assaulted by the Janjaweed on a daily basis as part of a calculated strategy of genocide.

They live in constant fear of attack. Even routine tasks such as searching for firewood have become perilous for them.

Please ask your house of worship to sign on to the letter urging President Bush to act immediately to end these atrocities. Click here to let us know if you plan to ask the leaders of your house of worship to add its name to the letter.

You will be joining hundreds of thousands of concerned people around the world who will be calling on their respective leaders to act for the people of Darfur.

Please forward this message to your friends and family and invite them to join you in participating in this effort.

Thank you again for your dedication.

Best regards,

David Rubenstein
Save Darfur Coalition

P.S. Are you looking for a meaningful holiday gift? If so, click here to visit the Save Darfur Coalition’s online store to browse our selection of t-shirts, wristbands, and much more. Our merchandise is the perfect way to give a gift to someone you love and help people in need at the same time.

Say A Quick Kapitel

I want to thank all of you have been davening for my sister Chaya Estherbas Rochma, who has been in a coma for the last five months. Tomorrow, at 10AM London time, the doctors will try to revive my sister by means of a new technique. Please daven for her at that time.

Thanks and may we all share besorot tovot b’karov!

Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

For all you BTs, this note is from Ohr Somayach’s Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair. For all you musicians, this note is from John Sinclair, Foreigner’s producer (Cold As Ice). His sister who he asks you to pray for is the founder of Stiff Records, the famous London-based punk and new wave label.

He Did It Without A Plaque, Without A Dinner, Without Being Honored

Kansas City – For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the
streets every December quietly giving people money. He started with $5
and $10 bills. As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years,
Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at
a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. So far,
he’s anonymously given out about $1.3 million. It’s been a long-held
holiday mystery: Who is Secret Santa?

But
now, weak from chemotherapy and armed with a desire to pass on his
belief in random kindness, Secret Santa has decided it’s time to reveal
his identity.

He is Larry Stewart, a 58-year-old businessman from the Kansas City
suburb of Lee’s Summit, Mo., who made his millions in cable television
and long-distance telephone service.

His holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was nursing his
wounds at a drive-in restaurant after getting fired. It was the second
year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.

"It was cold and this car hop didn’t have on a very big jacket, and
I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She’s out there in this
cold making nickels and dimes,’" he said.

He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.

"And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to
flow down her cheeks. She said, `Sir, you have no idea what this means
to me.’"

Stewart went to the bank that day and took out $200, then drove
around looking for people who could use a lift. That was his "Christmas
present to himself." He’s hit the streets each December since.…

That was a feeling he came to know in the early ’70s when he was
living out of his yellow Datsun 510. Hungry and tired, Stewart mustered
the nerve to approach a woman at a church and ask for help.

The woman told him the person who could help was gone for the day, and Stewart would have to come back the next day.

"As I turned around, I knew I would never do that again," Stewart said.…

Doctors told Stewart in April that he had cancer of the esophagus
and it had spread to his liver. He has been lucky, he says, to get into
a clinical trial at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But the
aggressive chemotherapy has stripped away his appetite and energy. He’s
lost about 100 pounds, but has held onto his white hair.

The treatment costs more than $16,000 a month, not including the
cost of traveling to Houston every two weeks and staying there for five
or six days. He now has two months off, but returns to treatment in
February.

His insurance company won’t cover the cost of the treatment, which has left him concerned about his finances and his family.

Now, his mission is bigger than handing out $100 bills. Stewart wants
to speak to community groups about his devotion to kindness and to
inspire others to donate their time and money.

"That’s what we’re here for," Stewart says, "to help other people out."

I knew a man like Stewart. He lived in a poor neighborhood. He had little money. But he somehow managed to find the cash to help street people, institutionalized former neighbors and random people he met over the years. He brought candy and sundries to nursing home residents, even as he himself became one, and continued to give out candy until 2 weeks before his death. He bought shoes for street people. Winter coats and hats. Toys for children. And he did this without being asked and without recognition. Pat Levy was a good man, perhaps the kindest man I’ve ever known. Just as his memory is a blessing, so should Stewart’s living be one, and may God grant him many more years and the continued resources and the strength to do the good he does so well.

Two Children, One Prayer

Two children need a quick prayer or mitzvah done in their merit. Please take a minute and watch this brief video for the details. Thank you.

MISSING PERSON

Sent via email from Halacha Berurah:

PLEASE FORWARD AND HANG IN SHULS!!! Our cousin, Danny Miller, is missing. He is under psychological care and has not taken his medicine in over 5 days. He disappeared from JFK airport some time between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. He is 5’6 overweight 32 year old male wearing a black suit, white shirt and velvet yarmulka. He has black hair and eyes, glasses and a beard and a British/South African accent. He is carrying plastic bags and may say he’s from Georgia, London, Israel, or South Africa. Please help us find him. Call shomrim at 718-338-9797 with any information. Thank you so much! Aura Haft and Adina Blassberger.

Israeli Treasury Rejects Bid To Help Poor Holocaust Survivors

That’s right. A modest bill costing about $13 million dollars per annum would have paid 75% of tperscription drug bills for poor Holocausr survivors. The bill would also wave their television tax and provide a mechanism to help elderly poor survivors find public housing. Israel’s treasury has rejected the bill. The longer the government stalls, the less is pays out. And that, my friends, seems to be the plan.

The Tzaddik of Addis Ababa

Uriel Heilman reports:

The door to Mother Teresa’s Mission in Addis Ababa cracks open and a nun pokes her head out. When she sees the doctor, her face breaks into a broad smile and she swings the door wide open.

"Come in, come in," she beckons, grabbing Rick Hodes’ hand.

Inside, the nun and the doctor — an Orthodox Jew originally from Long Island, N.Y. — quickly are overwhelmed by the clinic’s masses of sick and dying.

Every three paces, Hodes is stopped by another patient. They come to him limping, clutching their bellies, hobbling on elephantine legs rendered virtually useless by cancerous growths or mysterious tumors.

Hodes, 53, is the only doctor most of these people will ever see. As the lone Western-trained physician to conduct regular rounds here, Hodes represents the best hope at this palliative-care clinic for Ethiopia’s neglected legions of malaria patients, cancer victims, AIDS orphans and tuberculosis sufferers.

Without X-rays, lab tests or MRIs, Hodes does what he can, making diagnoses on the fly, recommending medication and moving from patient to patient with an urgency that bespeaks his mission.

Often he pays out of his own pocket to send the more hopeful cases for tests or treatment at private hospitals.

"It doesn’t matter what religion he is; he is doing this for humanity," says Monica Thonen-Bartet, a Maltese volunteer at the mission. "This is the most beautiful man I have ever seen."

This is not Hodes’ day job: As medical director for Ethiopia for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Hodes is responsible for the medical welfare of some 10,000 Ethiopians known as Falash Mura.…

Hodes’ real passion, however, seems to be caring for the severely ill at Mother Theresa’s Mission. He does not get paid for this work.…

At last count, Hodes had more than a dozen youths living in his home, and he has placed three more at boarding schools in Ohio and a cancer clinic in Washington. Hodes picked most of them up at the mission, where they had diseases ranging from polio to bone cancer.

Many were abandoned by their families; some were orphans. Mostly healthy now, these boys no longer are Hodes’ patients; they’re his children. Hodes has paid for the boys’ private schooling in Addis Ababa and has officially adopted five of them.…

When Haredim Leave

The Jerusalem Post reports:

In a ceremony held in Ramat Aviv on Wednesday night 54 former haredi men and women received academic scholarships from the Hillel organization that will help them catch up academically with their fellow Israelis.

Hillel, founded in 1994, is an entirely voluntary organization, that gives guidance and assistance to young men and women from ultra-Orthodox families who choose to leave their communities.

The young ex-haredim discover that their education has not prepared them for the secular workplace, according to Irit Panepe, the organization’s volunteer spokeswoman. “Usually we are talking about extremely intelligent people who came to a real conclusion, that “the ultra-Orthodox world” is not their place,” she told The Jerusalem Post before the start of Wednesday’s ceremony.

“Even those who come from the best yeshivas, such as Ponevezh, stopped their [secular] education at somewhere around the fourth grade level, she said.” They learn nothing about history, civics, literature, and geography – not even Bible as we now it. The organization emphatically affirms that its agenda is apolitical.

“We have no political identity,” Panepe insisted. “We are a social organization; we help people who need help.”

And that help is impressive in scope. Hillel operates apartments in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in which ‘yotz’im beshe’ela’, those who left the haredi world behind for secular Israel, can live for a few weeks or even months.

During this time the organization’s 300 volunteers help them with writing resumes and finding work.

The young former haredim also receive academic tutoring and psychological help in addition to what volunteers call “basic help,” such as assistance in choosing and purchasing colorful clothes.

In addition, Hillel takes groups on weekend trips all over Israel.

Many of the young people taking part on the trip have never seen Israel’s outdoors.…

And the haredi reaction to all this? Nothing surprising here:

Hillel’s work has encountered much resistance in the haredi world which views leaving the ultra-Orthodox community for a secular lifestyle as a danger to the community’s cohesion and ideals. The organization’s offices have experienced several break-ins during which identifying information about the organization’s participants was stolen. In addition, Hillel representatives claim that haredi leaders have set up a similarly named organization meant to receive phone calls from confused haredi youth seeking Hillel.

The biggest threat to haredim may very well be this:

While Hillel doesn’t have any political affiliations, it does openly call for establishing and enforcing a standardized educational curriculum throughout Israel.

“If the state doesn’t mandate a minimal curriculum,” said one representative of the organization, “then we believe the Education Ministry should take responsibility for these people who know nothing, and help them to catch up.” Until such a policy is in place, vowed the representative, “we’re doing it.”

This is what the recent fight over funding of haredi education has been based on. Haredim produce students ill-equipped to function in society. They cannot hold jobs other than the most unskilled. And they cannot feed their families without welfare. Haredim are a tremendous financial drain on the state, but continue to deny the problems generated by their sub-par school systems on the one hand and refuse to do anything to further prepare the masses of haredim for work on the other.

In America, a former Lubavitcher, Malkie Schwartz started a smaller version of Hillel. Footsteps does what Hillel does, but on a much smaller scale due not to a smaller need, but because of limited financial resources. (You can help by donating here.) This is probably because in America, welfare is paid by a truly secular state, and is divorced from specific Jewish community politics. If it were closer to home, rampant haredi welfare fraud and abuse would be a huge issue for the American Jewish community, just as that same abuse and fraud is a major issue in Israel.

Kosher Meat Scandal Update, Monsey – Spring Valley

As reported below, non-kosher meat and chicken was sold as (glatt) kosher in Monsey. This announcement comes from the kosher supervisors of the establishment(s) in question:

The following revised kashrus alert is from Congregation Bes Tefilla on September 5, 2006.

Revised directive concerning meat and poultry bought at “Shevach Quality Meats’:

All meat and poulty and meat and poulty products (except those in the original packing of the kosher processing plant) which were purchased at the “Shevach Quaility Meats” during the past years may not be eaten.

All utensils that were definitely used hot (there is no safek) for the above food itmes must be kashered.

If chicken bottoms were purchased on Tuesday, August 29 or Wednesday, August 30, then utensils must be kashered even if there is a safek.

Ed. note: Information of kashering can be found at www.kashrut.com/Passover/.

The following kashrus alert is from Congregation Bes Tefilla on September 3, 2006.

Congregation Bes Tefilla has removed its kashrus certification from Shevach Quality Meats, Spring Valley, NY due to kashrus violations. There is an on-going investigation. Chicken legs from August 29 and August 30, 2006 that were labeled Kiryas Yovel or Vineland should not be used and any keilim used with them should be kashered.