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USDA: RUBASHKIN GUILTY, USDA INSPECTORS TOOK BRIBES – USDA BLOCKED RELEASE OF REPORT FOR 1 YEAR – PETA VINDICATED

As you read this, remember the "improper gifts" were noted after minor investigative work. The gifts may very well have been larger and more extensive than reported. The report also makes clear that line inspectors thought they were not supposed to interfere with the kosher slaughter, no matter what took place. As first reported here, it appears this understanding began immediately after an October 2003 Washington meeting between Rubashkin's attorney, Nathan Lewin, the OU, Agudath Israel of America, CRC, KAJ, etc., on one hand and officials from the highest levels of the USDA. In that meeting, the rabbis claimed USDA regulations could "mislead" line inspectors and cause them to stop the slaughter. The rabbis asked to rewrite the regulation. (The report is fuzzy about when this regulation was re-written. This may be an attempt to protect the former Secretery of Agriculture and other current and former USDA senior-level officials.) The USDA did so with heavy input from the rabbis and Nathan Lewin. The new regulation called on line inspectors to contact a regional office before stopping a kosher line, and that regional office to confirm its decision with Washington. This convoluted and improbable situation led line inspectors to believe the USDA did not want them to inspect or stop kosher lines. Immediately after this new regulation was released, Rubashkin – with the permission of the OU, KAJ, and many other kosher supervising agencies – began using hooks to rip out the throats of live animals. This awful cruelty was done with the permission and under the oversight of those rabbis. Also note that Rubashkin may have sold you diseased chickens.

The New York Times reports:

Inquiry Finds Lax Federal Inspections at Kosher Meat Plant
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: March 10, 2006

An internal report from the Agriculture Department has found that one of the nation's leading kosher slaughterhouses violated animal cruelty laws and that government inspectors not only failed to stop the inhumane practices but also took improper gifts of meat from plant managers.

Also, some of the plant's 10 inspectors made faulty inspections of carcasses, failed to correct unsanitary conditions and were seen sleeping and playing computer games on the job, said the report, by the agency's inspector general. It was provided to The New York Times by the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Conditions at the plant — AgriProcessors Inc. of Postville, Iowa — created a controversy in late 2004, when PETA released a videotape taken clandestinely inside. It showed that after steers were cut by a ritual slaughterer, other workers pulled out the animals' tracheas with a hook to speed bleeding. In the tape, animals were shown staggering around the killing pen with their windpipes dangling out, slamming their heads against walls and soundlessly trying to bellow. One animal took three minutes to stop moving.

The scenes caused a furor among Jewish organizations around the world. Some accused PETA of promoting anti-Semitic libels that kosher slaughter is torture. But others were angry with AgriProcessors for violating the spirit of religious laws requiring that animals be killed without suffering.

Soon after, the plant changed its practices under pressure from the Agriculture Department, the Orthodox Union kosher certification authority and Israel's chief rabbinate.

In September, the department told the plant that in light of those changes, "legal action will not be instituted at this time," but warned that future violations could lead to it.

AgriProcessors is the country's largest producer of meat certified glatt kosher, the highest standard for cleanliness under kosher law. ("Glatt" means smooth, or free of the lung blemishes that might indicate disease.) Employing 700 people and selling under the brands Aaron's Best, Rubashkin's and Iowa's Best Beef, it is the only American plant allowed to export to Israel.

After a six-month investigation, the Agriculture Department suspended one of its own inspectors for 14 days and gave warning letters to two others, a department spokesman said. He declined to describe which offenses brought which punishments.

The inspector general's office gave its report to federal prosecutors, but "based on the information presented to us, we decided there was not a prosecutable case," said Robert Teig, a lawyer in the United States attorney's office for the northern district of Iowa.

The investigation ended last April, but the report was released to PETA only after months of appeals under the Freedom of Information Act. The group will release it today on its Web sites, including GoVeg.com.

PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, said the Agriculture Department "should fire all the inspectors who accepted gifts and did nothing about these egregious abuses of the animals whom they are supposed to protect." Bruce Freidrich, a PETA spokesman, added that the punishment "indicates yet again that the U.S.D.A. is completely uninterested in enforcing the law."

At issue was a "second cut" the plant formerly made.

Under Jewish law, an animal cannot be considered kosher if it is stunned before it is killed. The Humane Slaughter Act of 1978 requires stunning in all American slaughterhouses, but has an exception for religious slaughter, as long as the animal's neck is cut swiftly and no "carcass dressing" is done before the animal is insensible.

But at AgriProcessors, a second worker would step in after the first cut by the shochet, or ritual slaughterer. He would use a knife to open the animal's neck further and reach in with a hook to pull out the trachea and esophagus, with the carotid arteries attached. This was done to speed bleeding; kosher meat must contain as little blood as possible.

The 15-page report contains summaries of interviews with inspectors and supervisors then or formerly at the plant. All names were whited out, but it is clear that some inspectors thought they were not supposed to interfere with ritual slaughter and usually did not even watch the "kill box." Visiting supervisors also raised no objections to the killing.

But the report also says a district supervisor concluded after the PETA tape was released that the trachea-pulling "should not occur while an animal is conscious or sensory."

Mike Thomas, a spokesman for AgriProcessors, said the practice was immediately discontinued and the shochet was given a stun gun for any animal conscious after the first cut. Meat from that animal would be sold as nonkosher. Mr. Thomas said the shochets never used the stun gun in the first four months they had it, when he was checking regularly.

The report also describes multiple incidents in which plant employees gave inspectors packages of chicken wings, steaks, turkey, sausage or beef bacon. Although it was sometimes delivered with the words "Here's your sample, Doc," as if it were for laboratory tests, the inspectors sometimes cooked and ate it on the spot.

While the report describes accepting such gifts as "misconduct" and "very serious," investigators concluded that no bribery was involved, a department spokesman said.

Mr. Thomas of AgriProcessors said he knew nothing about gifts of meat, but said that such handouts were not company policy and that "there certainly was no quid pro quo." Someone might have given them "to be neighborly," he said.

The report also described an inspector sleeping as obviously infected chickens came down the line and doing inspections with his hands pocketed instead of checking meat for contamination as required. A supervisor was described as spending hours in the office playing hearts on the government computer.

The report said that the day after the PETA tape was made public, inspectors warned plant management to clean up hides, blood and garbage lying around because supervising investigators were on their way.

Mr. Thomas said the warning was irrelevant. The plant, he said, had invited the Agriculture Department to inspect it more closely after the tape was released "because that was the only way to settle it."

The plant is at the center of a 2000 book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," by Stephen G. Bloom, which described the tensions in the tiny farming town between residents and Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn who took over its defunct slaughterhouse in 1987.

UPDATE: Here is the entire (pdf) USDA report. It has been heavily censored by USDA officials. Even so, it is clear why the USDA did not want this report released. It's inspectors slept on the job, ignored major health and humane slaughter violations, ate free food from Rubashkin (absolutely forbidden by USDA policy), and failed miserably at their jobs. And you, dear readers, ate the meat they "inspected." Keep in mind that more than 60% of Rubashkin's output is sold to the non-kosher market. If you bought meat in Safeway, Albertsons, and other food chains, along with many restaurants (especially in the Chicago area), you most like ate this meat – even if you do not keep kosher.

Chabad's Very Own MESSIANIC Rasta #5

The New York Times trashes Matisyahu. The Forward's Steven I. Weiss breaks the Matisyahu messianism story. Previous coverage 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Agudath Israel In Lakewood Scandal

State auditors have uncovered a scandal involving Lakewood's Urban Enterprise Zone, its jobs program andd Agudath Israel of America and/or Agudath Israel of Lakewood. Inappropriate payments and other irregularities were discovered. But this scandal may not stop here:

James Waters, who has been on the LDC board for several years, said the audit's findings didn't surprise him.

"I know Lakewood is one of the places the FBI is looking into," he said. "I don't think it's (the FBI) related to it (the state audit) . . . but when you look into a town where this is one question that is raised, then a lot of questions could be raised."

(First seen on Yeshiva World.)

Chabad's Very Own Messianic Rasta #4

New York Newsday savages Matisyahu:

But though the mood strove for the euphoric, and though the north-of-college-age crowd were rapt participants, the evening was hampered by a nagging musical flatness.

Because he employed only a sparse trio of guitar, bass and drums, the greater part of the burden fell on Matisyahu's voice. And sadly, he wasn't always up for the challenge. He struggled to hit the high notes in "Fire of Heaven/Altar of Earth" and failed to convincingly sell the clunky love song "Unique Is My Dove." Trickier still were the up-tempo numbers. Matisyahu has a nimble tongue and a fondness for speedy, tongue-twisting runs, but he has a tendency to hit the syllables like an understudy nailing his marks: with precision, but without any real sense of ownership. More troublesome is his insistence on employing a fake Jamaican patois, a device that only emphasizes that he is not from Kingston. Lacking the gruffness of dance-hall giant Elephant Man or the sweetness of reggae vocalist Sugar Minott, Matisyahu mostly comes off as a well-meaning mimic.

The same goes for his band who, while certainly proficient, were prone to bouts of unnecessary showiness. Their attempt to append a dub break to the end of "Exaltation" was listless and forced, and their occasional detours into meandering jams (the most unbearable of which ended in a drum solo) were ill-advised. In the end, the songs felt strangely starched, aping reggae's cadence and loping bass lines but lacking all of its glorious dankness and mystery.

The moments when things did lock into place were genuinely exciting. In "Jerusalem," while the group worked a slow, surging groove, Matisyahu's voice fit snugly between the whirring of bass and drums. "Close My Eyes" built to a gloriously frenzied conclusion, with the band consumed by a manic, frenzied jam and Matisyahu spinning giddily on one foot, grinning and raising his hands to the sky. If he can only figure a way to funnel that ecstatic personality into his songs, he might be onto something.

Sure. He could sing Yechi.

Tzemach Atlas reports the Boston Globe also trashes Matisyahu:

"Youth" might be refreshing, even inspiring, if Matisyahu's delivery made up for his material. But his voice is reedy and strained, and his accent shifts from Caribbean to Hebrew to generic American with no discernible connection to the songs.

The band wanders out of reggae syncopation into rock with a similar lack of purpose. It feels like a preppy band that got through college on drugs and audience indulgence before finding religion. Matisyahu's faith is his business, but comparisons to the spirituality of a Bob Marley -- one magazine, hopefully in jest, quizzes readers to distinguish between the lyrics of the two -- are a wee bit premature.

Rolling Stone also trashed Matisyahu. Their conclusion?

[T]he most exceptional thing about Matisyahu remains the most circumstantial.

Just like today's Chabad.

Just In Time For Purim

Every Spring - about a month before Passover - is the Jewish festival of Purim. For centuries, Jewish kids have dressed up as an assortment of characters. These days, comic book heroes are among the biggest favorites.

But some Jewish educators and parents wonder about Wonder Woman and nix the X-Men, concerned that characters promoting Jewish values might be more appropriate for the holiday.

This year, the Jewish Hero Corps, the first comic book Jewish super-team, have been licensed to a major costume manufacturer; and this Purim, kids can dress as Menorah Man, who grows eight flaming arms; or Dreidel Maidel, the "hurricane heroine." Other costumes include Magen David, the first Sephardic Super-Hero, and Shabbas Queen, whose wand enables her to fly and to stop electrical devices, giving them a ‘rest.'

Marci Brumberg, Coordinator of Family Education for Beth Israel Synagogue in Roanoke, Virginia, used the team as the theme for the Synagogue's summer camp last year. At that time, her counselors made makeshift costumes and conducted educational programs dressed as each of the heroes who reside at www.jewishsuperhero.com.

"Using the Jewish Hero Corps was an educator's dream come true." said Brumberg. "Forget Superman and Batman, children relate to super-heroes who are Jewish! It instilled a pride and excitement for our traditions. It doesn't get any better than that!˜

Since its release, the comic book has been used in classrooms and synagogues as a Jewish educational tool. The project was designed in coordination with the Jewish Literacy Foundation to be effective in acquainting kids of all backgrounds with Jewish holidays, history, culture and language while utilizing the contemporary American mythology of super-heroes.

The costumes are available at www.KinderKlassics.com - a web site devoted to engaging and educational Jewish books, toys and accessories for children.

KinderClassics sells the comic book, as well.

Yigal Amir To Artificially Inseminate "Wife"

Should a prisoner, especially a prisoner in jail for a murder he admits committing, be allowed conjugal visits with his wife? If not, should he be allowed to artificially impregnate her? Israel Insider reports:

The jailed assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has been permitted to provide sperm samples for the artificial insemination of his wife, the Prisons Authority announced Tuesday.

The prisoner, Yigal Amir, is serving a life sentence without parole for the 1995 killing, and married an Israeli woman, Larissa Trimbobler, by proxy in 2004.

Why should this be allowed? Readers?

Chabad's Very Own Messianic Rasta #3

Steven I. Weiss has a link to Matisyahu singing Chabad's messianic chant "Yechi adonaynu moreynu v'rabbaynu melekh hamoshiakh l'olam voed," Long live our master, our teacher, our rebbe, king messiah forever" as a bridge between two songs.

For more on Matisyahu, see Chabad's Very Own Rasta #1 & #2.

Bahar Soomekh

This is a picture of Bahar Soomekh, an actress who is starring in the new Mission Impossible flick. She's Iranian, but grew up in California. Anybody know anything about her?

Chabad's Very Own Rasta #2

The New York Post has an interview (via CrownHeights.info) with Matisyahu. The Post, not known for a stong arts section, appears to love him. Not so with Rolling Stone, which just trashed Matisyahu's second album this way:

The whirlwind of attention surrounding twenty-six-year-old Matthew Miller -- better known as the reggae newcomer Matisyahu -- can partly be attributed to the fact that the world has never seen a Hasidic Jew rocking payos side-locks and the mike with equal devotion. Youth, his major-label debut, arrives amid numerous high-profile slots at reggae festivals and a cameo on P.O.D.'s recent track "Roots in Stereo."

Much of the time, Matisyahu sounds like the former Phish-following high school dropout from White Plains, New York, that he is. His voice is nimble but reedy, his choruses generally given over to starchy platitudes like "You can't sew a stitch with one hand while you're taking it apart." … [T]he most exceptional thing about Matisyahu remains the most circumstantial.

Funny. Rolling Stone's take is basically what I wrote last week. Matisyahu pimps the image, and Chabad pimps Matisyahu.

[Partial hat tip: Dovid Lerner.]

Rabbi Kopul Rosen #5: More Chabad Myths Surface

Chabad appears to be unable to leave the Rabbi Kopul Rosen story alone. CrownHeights.info has lengthly article based on a piece written by Rabbi Nachman Sudak that contains many of the lies found in Rabbi Tuvia Bolton's recent article. Worse yet, these lies were printed in Kfar Chabad Magazine #196. [Images of the article are found below.] This again proves that Chabad creates myths of the Rebbe's greatness and "supernatural" powers. Every miracle story Chabad tells about its Rebbes should be viewed with suspicion. If the Rabbi Kopul Rosen stories are any indication, they are mostly lies.

[Hat tip: Dovid Lerner.]

UPDATE: Rabbi Jeremy Rosen writes:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. At least now I know the source of the myth. On the one hand Rabbi Sudak was indeed 'involved' and close to the events. On the other his imagination has got the better of him because he has so many details completely wrong, such as changing the school curriculum ( any pupil of that era will attest that nothing changed) or the blood transfusions ceasing. My father spent the last month of his life in an Oxford clinic receiving  blood regularly.

But by now I am reconciled to the fact that certain circles, in enhancing a myth, truth is irrelevant!

It is clear no Chabad rebbe stories can be trusted. Are some true or partially true? Sure. But many are just like this one, made up of lies and wild exaggerations. And there is no way to tell them apart.

Please click the images to enlarge.

President Katsav: It Might Have Been Better If Ethiopian Jews Had Stayed In Ethiopia

Israel's President, Moshe Katsav, had this to say about Ethiopian Jews:

Israel may have been wrong to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel, President Moshe Katsav said Sunday in an unusually candid comment. "At times I feel we did an injustice to the Ethiopian population by bringing them to the country," the president said after being presented with recommendations for fighting violence within society.

Katsav's remarks came after the Ministry of Absorption released data showing that during 2005 there was a drop of 11 percent in crimes involving youths of Ethiopian descent and a 10 percent drop in crime involving youths from the former Soviet Union.

The president also criticized the lack of appropriate care for youths who emigrated from Ethiopia.

President Katsav did not make the same remark about Russian Jews. I cannot say what President Katsav meant. But I can say this – corruption and repeated (and uncorrected) mistakes do not lead to good absorption. And neither does the bigotry so in evidence from both politicians and rabbis.

But, if history is any indication, Israel will not learn this lesson. The corrupt and inept absorption will continue, politicians and rabbis will not stop being racists. The price for this will be paid by Israeli society, which will have, for years to come, black people on its margins – black people who wanted nothing more than to come home after thousands of years of exile. And it will be paid by Ethiopian Jews, who came home to Israel only to discover the color of their skin is more important than their years of sacrifice.

Shame on us all.

Israeli Baby Needs Immediate Transplant To Live

An Israeli baby, Agam Ben-Old needs a multi-organ transplant to survive. The family has raised $600,000 but still needs another $400,000 to pay for the transplant and aftercare. More information, along with a link for secure online donations, here.

Rabbi Mordechai Tendler Sues Shul

The Journal News reports on the Rabbi Mordechai Tendler scandal and Rabbi Tendler's move to sue his synagogue's board in beit din (religious court). Surprisingly, it is a one-sided report in largely in favor of Rabbi Tendler. I suspect the tone of future reports will change when more details of Rabbi Tendler's life are made public by the courts. Orthodoxy's stubborn refusal to set up a viable way of dealing with alledged rabbinic sexual abuse has turned this case into a circus. In the end, it will be Orthodoxy, not just the Tendlers, that will be damaged.

If the allegations against Rabbi Tendler prove true, his closest defenders, who appear to have played fast and lose with this case, must suffer punishment. In my mind that means Rabbi Moshe Tendler is removed from Yeshiva University, and Rabbi Dovid Feinstein is marginalized and removed from the Moetzet (the haredi council of Torah sages). Of course, this will not happen, no matter how much evidence against the Tendler-Feinstein family surfaces. And that is another reason why Orthodoxy as we know it is dying.

WABC's report can be read here.

Ex-Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu: Any PM Who Carries Out Disengagement Will Disengage From This World

Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has issued a threat against politicians who would dare to cede land to Arabs. Ynet's Zvi Alush reports:

Stern warning: Any Israeli prime minister who dares undermine the Land of Israel or disengage from parts of it "may be disengaged from this world," former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu said in an interview with an ultra-Orthodox weekly.

Addressing pulsa denura ([pseudo-]Kabbalistic death curse) ceremonies performed against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Eliyahu said: "There is no person in the world who can perform a pulsa denura. The only one able to do a pulsa denura is the Land of Israel."

"In the past, some leaders undermined the land of Israel and gave away parts of it, and later they suffered grave disasters," the rabbi said. "There's no reason to name any names. When they asked me to pray for their health, I said first we will pray for their mental health, and later for their physical health."

The rabbi issued another stern warning, saying that "the land of Israel pays whoever undermines it in this world already – and in cash."

"Everyone who spoke about concessions was hurt, and certainly those who didn't make do with talk and really undermined it, and the list is long," Rabbi Eliyahu said.

Hawkish disengagement foe

The rabbi, who served as Israel's chief rabbi in the 1980's, is currently considered one of the two main spiritual leaders of Religious Zionism along with Rabbi Avraham Shapira.

On the eve of the Gaza disengagement, Rabbi Eliyahu led a hawkish line against the pullout and made appearances in rallies organized by settlers, at one point assuring listeners the disengagement would not happen.

After his predications, which raised great hopes among disengagement foes, failed to materialize, the rabbi offered the following explanation: "I was talking about prayer, not a prophecy."

Rabbi Eliyahu and his colleagues inch ever closer to jail. Rabbi Eliyahu's remarks can be read as incitement to murder. It's about time Israel's security services do so – and act against him.

Chabad To Endorse Agudat Israel In Israeli Election?

Chabad is denying reports that it is in advanced stages of negotiations with Agudat Israel. The deal would bring thousands of Chabad votes to the Gerrer-dominated Aguda:

… Menachem Geshayd, an Aguda spokesman, confirmed that there were advanced negotiations between his party and Chabad.

In the past month there has been growing pressure on Chabad leadership to recommend a particular party.

"A lot of Chassidim are asking the rabbis to recommend a political party," said Menachem Brod, official Chabad spokesman. "People are confused. They want the rabbis to decide."

All three possibilities are problematic. Support for Shas is unlikely due to the Sephardi party's support for territorial compromises in the framework of a peace process.

The ideological divide between religious Zionists and the haredi Chabad and the fact that the NRP sat in the government during the preparations for disengagement make it less attractive.

"One thing is for sure," said Gluckowsky. "No Chabad Hassid should waste a vote. That's why I recommend not voting for [right wing extremeist] Baruch Marzel. The rebbe always said that every vote is important and must not be wasted."

The sticking point in the Chabad endorsement of Aguda appears to be rebellion from Chabad messianists, who reject doing deals with any political party that remained in the government during the Gaza Disengagement:

[O]n the Internet site Chabad.info, which is run by the more messianic stream of Chabad followers who believe the deceased Schneerson is alive and will return as the Messiah, the possibility of support to Aguda was rejected.

"There is no truth in the reports," wrote the site. "Chabad learned its lesson after supporting Binyamin Netanyahu in the summer of 1996."

The site was referring to the failed "Bibi is good for the Jews" campaign.

"Also, Chabad would never support a party that sat in the government while thousands of Jews were expelled from Gush Katif and Northern Samaria."

The root of the move toward Aguda appears to be the desire of old line Jerusalem Chabad hasidim to move away from Religious Zionism:

According to a report in the haredi weekly Bekehila Rabbi Tovia Bloi, a Chabad Rabbi in Jerusalem's haredi Nave Ya'acov neighborhood, sent a letter to Agudat Yisrael promising Chabad support if Aguda would obligate itself to oppose any future territorial compromises.

Bloi is known to be in favor of pulling Chabad closer to the haredi movement. He has voiced concern in the past that Chabad has become too influenced by religious Zionism.

So how is Chabad spinning this internal paralysis? Like this:

"Chabad belongs to everyone," said a respected Chabad figure who preferred to remain anonymous. "As soon as you come out in support of any particular party you exclude a part of the Jewish people."

Read it this way: Messianists won't vote for Aguda. Chabad therefore can't endorse Aguda, because it will deliver far too few votes and will be embarrassed. The only parties Messianists will support are on the extreme right wing, Kahane by other names. Chabad cannot endorse these parties because it will hurt their fundraising and their image in America and the West. Unless the Messianists cave, Chabad will officially "remain neutral." Most of the rank and file will vote for the hard right. A few will follow Rabbi Tuvia Bloi and vote Aguda. And Chabad will become further polarized.

JTA Again Lies About Ethiopian Jews

The JTA's Uriel Heilman has written yet another inaccurate article about Ethiopian Jews. The errors in his reporting are so large, they must be intentional. Here is one out of many howlers:

Israel, which had clandestine ties with Mengistu’s regime, feared that the TPLF’s anti-Zionist rhetoric and hostility toward Mengistu could lead to massacres of the Jews when the rebels took Addis, and quickly put together a plan to rescue the country’s remaining Jews. Israel pressed the United States to persuade the rebels to hold their positions on the hilltops around Addis for 36 hours while Israel airlifted more than 14,000 Jews out of the country.

The fall of Addis came just hours after the completion of Operation Solomon, on May 24, 1991. 

The US did not need to be pressured – if anything, Israel did. Indeed, former US Senator Rudy Boschwitz packaged the rescue for President Bush. The Israelis in effect came along for the ride.

The JTA continually proves itself to be less than reputable. Heilman is downright sleazy.  And here's more proof of that:

But in 1979, an insurgency in northern Ethiopia opened an exit route to Sudan, and thousands of Ethiopian Jews — who called themselves Beta Israel but were known to outsiders as Falasha — began fleeing the famine and war of northern Ethiopia on a journey they hoped would end in Jerusalem.

Along with thousands of other Ethiopians fleeing their country, which at the time was ruled by communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Jews settled in refugee camps in Sudan and waited for Mossad operatives to take them out.

For the first few years, those who were taken to Israel left in one of three ways. Some were given forged documents and put onto planes in Khartoum bound for Athens. Once in Europe, they then were quietly put onto planes to Israel. Others were moved from their Sudanese refugee camps at night to Port Sudan, where Israeli naval commandos put them onto clandestine naval vessels and then transferred them onto ships headed for Israel. A few were airlifted directly to Israel from the Sudanese desert on illicit flights.

A famine in Ethiopia in 1984 lent great urgency to the effort to rescue Ethiopia’s Jews, many of whom were dying of starvation and disease in refugee camps in Sudan while they waited to be taken to Israel.

In the covert maneuver Operation Moses, Israel began airlifting large numbers of Ethiopian Jews from Sudan’s desert beginning in November 1984. Leaks about the operation and growing risks forced its early end in January 1985, after more than 8,000 Jews had been brought to Israel in the space of just six weeks.

Thousands more remained stranded in communist Ethiopia.

No mention of the Ethiopian Jew, Baruch Tegegne, who risked his life to open those Sudanese routes, only to have Israel refuse to admit the Jews he saved. No mention of the privately funded rescues Tegegne carried out. No mention of the years people waited in Sudan to be saved while Yitzhak Shamir's government refused to save them. No mention that the leaks that killed Operation Moses (a US-led operation, by the way) came from the Israeli government, with the ultimate leak, the one that finally killed the rescue, coming directly and publicly from the Prime Minister himself, Shimon Peres. And I could go on.

Heilman is either incompetent or a liar. Either way, he should not be working for the JTA.

Rabbi Mordechai Tendler Suspended, But Refuses To Step Down

Rabbi Mordechai Tendler has been suspended from his Monsey synagogue due to charges of sexual impropriety. Rabbi Tendler is refusing to recognize the suspension, the Jewish Week reports.  The Jewish Week also notes the resignation  of Rabbi Tendler's brother Aron from his LA synagogue, also under a cloud of sexual abuse allegations.

New Circumcision Blog

An Israeli filmmaker is making a documentary about circumcision. He just started a blog to collect circumcision stories. Leave yours here.

Chabad's Very Own Messianic Rasta #1

I've basically avoided the whole Matisyahu issue. But Rolling Stone has an interesting piece on Chabad's very own Rasta. It opens this way:

Walking home recently from morning prayers, Matisyahu -- the Hasidic reggae MC -- got a call from his manager: Madonna wanted to invite him over for Passover Seder. A follower of the Jewish mystical tradition Kabbalah, Madonna promised to follow all the strictures of Matisyahu's faith, but he remained suspicious. "I don't know if I can go," he says. "I'll have to check it out with, like, multiple people, to make sure it's kosher."

And who exactly is Matisyahu?

It's a world away from Bend, Oregon, where Miller got his start. After he struggled with drugs and dropped out of high school to follow Phish, his parents sent him to a hippie-ish drug-treatment center where teens go on "vision quests" in the woods. He started beatboxing and singing at coffeehouses as MC Truth, alongside a dreadlocked friend, MC Mystic, playing Rick James covers and reggae classics. "He was a cool guy, a total stoner," says Rob Ainsworth, who lived with Miller in Oregon. "He was a little burnt out, but music was incredibly important to him. You could tell he was talented."

Sitting down to sip soup at a kosher restaurant, Matisyahu recalls his shows as MC Truth. "It was wild," he says. "We would drink a big pitcher of mushroom tea, and I'd come out with a turban on my head and a huge Israeli flag, and we'd walk around throwing sage on people."

So here's my two cents worth: Matisyahu trades on the current Kabbala craze and Chabad mysticism. A large part of his fame is based on that, not on talent. This does not mean he is not talented. It simply means in a business flooded with talent, you need extraordinary good luck and a great hook to end up on top. Mattisyahu's hook – and a significant portion of his early promotion, media, and PR – is Chabad.

On the other hand, Chabad gains greatly by promoting Matisyahu. It helps them raise money. It buys them a hip image. And it brings in new recruits. But is it kosher?

As someone who once (stupidly) turned down the opportunity to work on my own songs with a producer at Prince's studios, I have some understanding of the business. And I also have some knowledge of the interface between it and halakha.

What Matisyahu does is unseemly. Few, if any, significant poskim (rabbinic legal scholars who rule on halakha, Jewish law) would approve. But what bothers me more is blatant trading on Kabbala and Hasidut to make money. that this does not bother mainstream Chabad may be because this is what mainstream Chabad has itself done for years.

I also know of other, far more talented, musicians who were given rabbinic advice that effectively destroyed their careers. Some of that advice came directly from the Rebbe. People work in camera stores today or paint signs, in large part because they were not allowed to do the things that Matisyahu now does (with much less talent) to great acclaim. It is this that bothers me far more than Matisyahu's newbie ignorance of parts of halakha, his naive understanding of Judaism, and his pandering.

While Matisyahu may inaccurately represent Judaism, he accurately represents today's Chabad – all shiny surface, little inner truth.

[Hat Tip: Dovid Lerner.]

Lakewood Pays For Haredi Conflict Resolution Training

Lakewood recently brought in an outside trainer to help police deal with difficult interactions with the public. The idea is to train police to diffuse the anger of citizens during traffic stops and other interactions. The root of this new training seems to be the incident caused by a Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva interfering in a traffic stop made on his niece, and the resulting bad behavior by Lakewood's haredim. Interestingly, Lakewood paid for the same trainers gave a presentation to Lakewood's Orthodox community as well, to teach them how to correctly interact with police officers. (Apparently Lakewood's haredi school system does not teach basic manners or respect for civil authorities, so the city had to do this for them on an adult remedial basis.)

Rabbi Eliyahu, Jr: It's OK To Teach Non-Jews Kabbala, If There's Money In It

Arutz Sheva reports:

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of the city that what was once the Kabbalah center of the world, Tzfat, says that Kabbalah studies for Gentiles is "positive," if done in the proper manner.

Speaking with Arutz-7 today, Rabbi Eliyahu said, "I believe that the study of the Zohar by Gentiles, as in the common phenomenon we see today with Gentile musicians and entertainers studying Kabbalah, is a positive phenomenon - as long as it is done in the right way." He explained that it should not just be a matter of curiosity, but of a genuine search for the "Torah of life."

Rabbi Eliyahu addressed the matter in light of the jump in sales of books of Kabbalah. The Manufacturers Association informed Arutz-7 that in light of the world-wide awakening to Kabbalah around the world, exports of such books have tripled of late. Thirty-five million dollars worth of Kabbalah texts were exported around the world from Israel in 2005, and professional printers are in short supply relative to the continuing demand for holy books from Israel.

"This is exactly what Elijah the Prophet told [1st-century C.E. Zohar author] Rabbe Shimon bar Yochai and his group when they began writing the Zohar," Rabbi Eliyahu said, "that in the course of time, people will begin making a living from this work. Of course, Elijah was referring to the fact that it would have a spiritual effect on those who study it, but it can be understood this way as well."

"It is told about King David," the rabbi said, "that when he wanted to bring people closer to an authentic Torah life, he would teach them the 'secrets of Torah.' In general, to see people searching for spirituality is a positive and important development."

Meir Bar-El, Deputy Director of the Manufacturers Association, said that total exports of Jewish holy books in 2005 grew by 119% over the year before, and totaled $92 million - 70% of all book exports from Israel. He said that Israel is lacking in training courses for professional printers.

So it is all about the money.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: Vote Shas, Reach Heaven

Shas, the haredi Sefaric  political party, is facing its first election without amulets. Shas's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has a solution: Vote Shas, Reach Heaven!

Is Non-Jewish Life Worth Saving?

We now know that three non-Jewish African-Americans risked their lives to pull Ephraim Klein from his burning car to try to save his life.

Many readers of FailedMessiah.com openly contend Jews should not risk their lives to save non-Jews. Some contend Jews should never help non-Jews (unless all Jews everywhere are perfectly safe and comfortable). Indeed, this may very well be the position of the next Chief Rabbi of the IDF, who openly asserts that, all things being equal, Jews should never violate Shabbat to save a non-Jew's life.

This appears to be the normative Orthodox position, held by haredim and Modern Orthodox alike – including Chabad. Chabad's late rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson clearly asserted that helping American Jews with their spiritual needs took precedence over saving the lives of dying black Jews in Ethiopia. (That no halakhic [Jewish legal] source exists to support that contention did not stop the Rebbe from making it. This has led many to think the Rebbe secretly believed Ethiopian Jews were not Jewish. If so, they argue, teaching a Jew Torah in Minnesota certainly takes precedence over saving a dying non-Jew elsewhere.)

So, what is the correct approach? Do we view non-Jewish life as less (or 'differently') important? Is Shabbat more important than saving a non-Jewish life? Readers?

NON-JEWS RISK LIVES TO TRY TO SAVE JEWISH VICTIM – CROWN HEIGHTS MURDER PROBABLY NOT HATE CRIME

The murder earlier this week of Crown Heights resident Ephraim Klein is probably not a hate crime. Klein was apparently  accidentally murdered in a conflict between two street gangs. More will be known as the investigation progresses. But a germane piece of information has surfaced with regard to the immediate aftermath of the killing:

According to police reports Klein, said to be something of a night owl, was moving his SUV at 1:30 a.m. on Carroll Street to comply with alternate side of the street parking regulations when he was shot in the arm and chest. He lost control of his vehicle, which slammed into several parked cars along the block before coming to a stop.

His car caught fire and three African-American residents of the Brooklyn neighborhood pulled him out and “attempted to save his life,” [the Jewish Community Relations Council's David] Pollock said.

Klein was pronounced dead later that morning at nearby Kings County Hospital.

Leaders of various religious and ethnic groups that live in Crown Heights, the base for Chabad Lubavitch, held a press conference Tuesday at the Jewish Children’s Museum.

“The ongoing theme was the crime of gun violence” that strikes at the entire community, Pollock said. “The other theme was that Crown Heights pulls together quite readily now — it’s a neighborhood working together, black and white.”

[Hat tip for the link to the above article: OrthoMom.]