FailedMessiah.com

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.

The Richest Man In Palestine

Ynet has an article on the richest man in the PA. That's his home pictured above and his library below:

Any God In A Foxhole? HonestReporting Goes North

HonestReporting.com took a trip to Sefat to document conditions there. Among the people interviewed is my old friend Eli Greenspan (yup, the same guy who bought my share of the kosher meat market, which allowed me to live in Israel during 1993–95).

The second video on the linked page is taken in a bomb shelter. You can see the "Yechi" Chabad messianic banner hanging in the background. Any god in a foxhole, eh?

Send A Hug To The IDF

You can send a personal message along with free chocolate to front line IDF soldiers, and it won't cost you anything, courtesy of HAS and Strauss Elite.

[Hat tip: The Beadle.]

Rabbi Herbert Bomzer: Mondrowitz Escaped To Israel, Drop The Case

Nathaniel Popper of the Forward has an article on the Mondrowitz man-on-boy sex abuse case. Note this brilliant statement from an Orthodox rabbi:

One member of [Brooklyn District Attorney Charles] Hynes's Jewish council, Rabbi Herbert Bomzer, said he does not remember Mondrowitz's extradition being discussed by the council. Bomzer did say that he knew Mondrowitz when the younger man was a counselor at Yeshiva University's high school, and that Mondrowitz had been "loved" by the students.

When asked if he would now support extradition proceedings, Bomzer, president of the rabbinical board of Flatbush, said: "If he has managed to get to Israel and is protected by the law there — then leave it alone."

What is Mondrowitz doing in Israel? Teaching young men.

The Pope and the Holocaust: A (Partial) Response To Dovbear [UPDATED 7-28-06]

DovBear asks why I carry a brief for Pope Pius XII and the Church. I do not. I simply seek the truth, and the truth in this case supports the Church. I made scans of (part of)  Sir Martin Gilbert's endorsement of Rabbi David Dalin's book defending Pius. Page 1 appears immediately below; page 6 is posted after the jump. Please click on the images to enlarge:

The Bible Told Them So – Waaaaay After The Fact

Mike. S. Adams writes on the newly Evangelical-controlled TownHall.com:

Astrophysicist Hugh Ross helped me—through his brilliant writings—to compile a list that illustrates how authors of the Bible have remained far ahead of the scientists throughout the ages:

Leviticus 17:11 says, “For the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life that makes purification possible.” For centuries after these words were written by Moses the scientists were bleeding the sick with leeches. How much better would humanity have fared, had these scientists listened to the Word of God?

Job 28: 24, 25 says, “For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.” Long after these words were written, scientists maintained the primitive view that air is weightless. Eventually they caught up to the Bible and realized that air has weight.

Job 38: 19, 20 says, “Where does light come from, and where does darkness go? Can you take each to its home? Do you know how to get there?” When God asked these questions of Job, he was letting him in on the secret that light actually travels. It would take the scientists many years to figure that one out without the guidance of the Holy Scriptures.

Ecclesiastes 1:6 says, “The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.” Long after Solomon shared the truth that the wind blows in cyclones, the backward scientists were still claiming that it blew straight. They should have listened to Solomon. He was a very wise man.

Isaiah 40:22 says, “God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them.” Scientists once thought the earth was flat. Had they read the great prophet Isaiah, they would have learned much earlier about the “circle of the earth.” In fact, they could have formed a progressive “Round Earth Society” based on the Bible’s teachings.

Jeremiah 33:22 says, “And as the stars of the sky cannot be counted and the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me.” The scientists believed there were only 1100 stars long after Jeremiah knew there were a closer to a billion.

Funny, isn't it. These 'inescapable' conclusions were missed by generation after generation of Christian and Jewish religious leaders, and did not come into vogue until science discovered them.

If man knew what Adams claims, we should have a historical record of it. But we do not have such a record until well into the 20th century. And we do not because, as long as science claimed otherwise, there was no reason to try to make the Bible fit, because there was no conflict. But, when science, through hard work over centuries, showed the world to be far different than man had previously understood, apologists sought to make the science fit to the Bible. When this repeatedly failed, apologists moved to making the Bible fit to current science. (The difference here may be hair-splitting, but it does exist.)

Predicting the results of 10 consecutive coin tosses carries astronomical odds. Writing a list of the results of those coin tosses after they have occurred and getting that list correct is no great feat. Adams and Ross are making (questionable) lists way after the fact, and ignoring history in the process. (Kind of like Aish HaTorah's Discovery seminars.)

What can be said is as follows:

1. The Greeks knew far more science earlier and more accurately than anyone else.
2. The Roman Catholic Church was much more liberal on issues of science and its conflict with religion than is commonly understood. (Lawrence Principe has done much work on this.)
3. Evangelical denominations have been downright illiberal on this issues, from the original push against Darwin to the Scopes Monkey Trial to "Intelligent Design."
4. Orthodox Judaism has for the most part mirrored the behavior of the Evangelicals, especially during the last 10 years. But before there was a denomination called OJ, Judaism was more liberal on these issues.

Evangelicals deal with science the way they deal with Israel – with blind faith. That is helpful for Israel but bad for scientific advancement.

I should note that many of TownHall.com's better columnists are also found on JewishWorldReview.com. At least one, Dennis Prager, began writing his column at the request of JWR's publisher, Binyomin Jolkowsky. If you want to read a TownHall.com columnist, try checking JWR first to see if JWR has the column posted.

Brooklyn DA Fails To Seek Extradition Of Hasidic Abuser Who Fled To Israel

The Village Voice has a compelling report written by Kristen Lombardi documenting the abuses of Avorhom Mondrowitz, the hasidic psychologist and radio show host is is accused of abusing dozens of young boys in Brooklyn until he fled arrest for israel in 1985. New victims have come forward after reading about the Mondrowitz case in New York Magazine. Charles Hynes, Brooklyn's DA since 1990, has steadfastly refused to press for extradition, just as he has allegedly protected other haredi abusers, preferring to allow haredi rabbis to police their own. The reason for Hynes' largesse? Haredi block-voting under the control of those same "self-policing" rabbis, the same ones that "self-policed" Rabbi Yehuda Kolko as he continued to abuse dozens of young boys.

Perhaps the best point in the whole article is made – unintentionally – by Aron Twerski, the dean of Hofstra Law School, haredi rabbi and self-proclaimed advocate against haredi sex abuse. Twerski most recently surfaced in an attempt to protect Rabbi Lipa Margulies and his yeshiva from fallout over the Kolko scandal. Margulies by many accounts knew of Kolko's abuse yet kept him employed as a teacher of young boys and defended him from victims and their advocates. Lombardi writes:

Twerski, of Hofstra, advocates "zero tolerance" in the community for sexual abuse. But when told about the newly vocal Mondrowitz victim and his desire to reopen the case, Twerski replies, "I don't know what to say about that. That's an old, old case and I'm not going to comment on it."

Another interesting point, this one with a Chabad connection:

Hynes has worked hard to court the community over the years. In 1990, he became the first D.A. in the city to convene a Jewish advisory council, which kept leaders abreast of cases involving Jewish defendants or complainants. The council is now defunct, says Schmetterer, replaced by the office's full-time liaison to the Hasidic community, Henna White, herself a Lubavitcher. (He refused to let the Voice interview White for this article, saying, "It wouldn't be her place to talk about this case.")

Of course it would not be her place to talk – she can't violate the haredi Omerta.

The New York Post's coverage is here.

Hitler's Pope – No Way, Says Sir Martin Gilbert

Sir Martin Gilbert has a review [not online as of yet] of Rabbi David Dalin's The Myth of Hitler's Pope in the June/July American Spectator. Gilbert strongly endorses the book and, in several pages of terse prose brings case after case after case documenting Pius XII efforts to save Jews. He also confirms much of what I wrote previously regarding Pius. (Please see below.)

Gilbert is perhaps the world's leading historian on both WW2 and the Holocaust.

What will Church-haters like Beyond BT's Steve Brizel and, of course, DovBear, do with this shining endorsement of Pius? My guess? (And this is only that – a guess.) Continue to hate at all costs. After all, that is what bigots do.

[Earlier coverage of the issue: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.]

UPDATE: I have uploaded scans of Sir Martin Gilbert's review here.

Anti-Zionism and the Holocaust

Rabbi Teichtal

Ariel Sokolovsky has sent a link to online versions of Eim HaBanim Semeichah, the book written during the Holocaust by Rabbi Yissoscher Dov Teichtal. Rabbi Teichtal was a leading anti-Zionist close to the Munkatcher and Satmar Rebbes, who saw with his own eyes the destruction and death caused by that theology. He in his own terms repented, and wrote this book to stress the importance of settling Eretz Yisrael.

While the book is a classic much studied in Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionists circles, it remains largely unknown in the haredi world.

I don't have the time to search through the online editions, but if you do, look for the section where he describes Hungarian rabbis telling their congregations that Hitler, yshv'z, will not get them because we are anti-Zionists, and God will protect us in the merit of our anti-Zionism.

London's Haredim Refuse To Support Israel?

Are London's haredim boycotting pro-Israel rallies during this trying time of war? Could be. Our London correspondent The Beadle writes:

Hi Shmarya,

I went to the "Yes to Peace - No to Terror" Solidarity Rally held at
Jewish Free School.

There were 7,500 people (which is a lot for British Jews, considering
our numbers). There were messages of support from the British Hindus
and British Anglicans who said that they stood with the Jewish people
and the people of Israel in their fight against terror. There were
various speakers, Zvi Heifetz the Israeli Ambassador, the head of the
UJIA who said (quite correctly) that we are the true authentic voice of
British Jewry (an attack on those who signed the anti-Israel ad in The
Times a couple of weeks ago), and the Chief Rabbi who made a very
emotional and inspiring speach. We had a live satelite link-up with the
mayors of various Northern towns. I am sure you will be able to find
various reports on various websites.

It was all very moving and we were very proud of most of the Jewish
community.

The one upsetting part, in my mind, was that apart from Chabad (who
were there ostensibly to put Teffilin on people), the Chareidim were
almost non-existant. Chareidim are usually quite noticable - but amost
none could be spotted. A few of my friends there commented
similarly.This on top of the fact that someone told me that in his
Chareidi shul yesterday when he asked them to make a special
mishaberach for the matzav in Israel they refused saying that it wasn't
warranted.

I was hoping that, with your help, maybe some of your readers out there
in the blogosphere could offer a suggestion as to why Chareidim feel
that showing solidarity with their fellow Jews in Israel is not of
particular importance to them?

Best regards

The Beadle

The Beadle also noted there seemed to be more non-Jews rallying to support Israel than haredim. Readers?

A Call To Action?

Chabad.org has put a special web page on the crisis in Israel, A Call To Action. It's theme? What each person can do to help:

The Rebbe taught us the power of a mitzvah.

On the eve of the Six Day War in 1967, when the entire world predicted Israel's demise, the Rebbe initiated the tefillin campaign, and assured us that great miracles are in store. He quoted the Divine promise that in the merit of the mitzvah of tefillin, "all the nations of the world will see that the name of G-d is called upon you, and they will fear you" (Deuteronomy 28:10).

In the summer of 1973, shortly before the surprise outbreak of the Yom Kippur war, the Rebbe asked that Jewish children gather to pray and say words of Torah at the Western Wall and other locations in Israel, in fulfillment of the verse, "Out of the mouths of young children You established the power... to neutralize the enemy" (Psalms 8:3).

In 1976, during the Entebbe hostage crisis, the Rebbe encouraged the fulfillment of the mitzvah of mezuzah and emphasized the protection it brings. As our Sages have said: "A human king sits inside his palace and his servants guard him from the outside. But you sleep on your beds, and G-d guards you (i.e. through the Mezuzah on your doorposts) from the outside."

In 1982, during the Lebanon War, the Rebbe initiated a campaign to have every Jew acquire a letter in a Torah scroll to foster Jewish unity.
On numerous other occasions, when the people of Israel faced threats from their enemies, the Rebbe urged us to respond by increasing in Torah study, prayer and charity.

A mitzvah, a G-dly deed, has the power to reach deep into the core of our being--where we are all one, and the physical distance between us is of no consequence. At this core, a positive deed on our part will help bring salvation to a brother and sister in distress.

During past conflicts in the Land of Israel, and during times of danger for the Jewish people, the Rebbe made practical suggestions of mitzvot that would elicit G-d's blessings and protection (see insert above).
Let us not underestimate the power of good! With a single good deed on our part, here and now, we can each contribute toward the victory and safety of our fellow Jews in Israel.
Take a minute to do one or more of the following. You can make a difference!
• Torah study (suggestion: our Daily Study page contains selections from the Torah)
• Say a prayer for the safety of Gilad ben Avivah Shalit, Eldad ben Tovah Regev, and Ehud ben Malka Goldwasser; for the soldiers of the IDF, and for all residents of the Holy Land (suggestion: Psalm 20 is traditionally said in times of distress)
• Charity and acts of kindness: Put a coin in a charity box, give a gift of money to a fellow in need or to a charitable cause, or extend a helping hand to someone who needs it.
• Tefillin: If you already put on tefillin every day, encourage a friend to do so. If you don't yet, now is a good time to start! Click here to find out how to put this important mitzvah into practice or contact your local Chabad center for assistance.
• Mezuzah: If you don't yet have a mezuzah get one now! If you already do have one, it may be time to have it checked to ensure that the words on the parchment have not faded.

You'll note the list is long on spiritual things – learn a little extra, say more psalms, pray, check your tefillin, etc. – and very short on necessary physical things (i.e., tachlis) like ensuring the hundreds of thousands of displaced Israelis have food and shelter.

My friend in Sefat has left there and is now in Jerusalem. She tells me hundreds of remaining Sefat families are without money or food, and that local food shelves and soup kitchens – like Collel Chabad – are meeting only a very small portion of this need. Families with 10 children are lucky to get 2 TV dinners for all to share. There is no public transportation, no way for many of these people to get to a doctor, the food stores are for the most part closed, and the soup kitchens too far away to walk. This scenario is being repeated throughout the north.

Further south, cities like Jerusalem are being flooded with refugees, refugees that are for the most part being fed and housed by private individuals. But these private parties cannot feed dozens of refugees forever. They too are not wealthy and will soon not have the funds to continue. And no infrastructure is in place to deal with this situation.

If you know refugees or individuals hosting them, send them money. If not, tell any of the dozens of charities helping out (Collel Chabad, Meir Panim, etc.) that you will give money but hold them accountable. You will be checking up on their claims and, if the organization's reach turns out to be far less that the organization's PR, you will not give again. We cannot allow this relief effort to operate like a Brooklyn haredi school's "hot lunch" program.

Calling your elected officials and expressing support for Israel's defensive actions, especially stressing Hezboalla's role in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut that killed hundreds of Marines, is very important. So are brief, well-thought out and well worded letters to newspapers and calls to talk radio and cable shows.

Buy Israeli products and encourage others to do so as well. The extra demand created will lead to new orders which should help the economy and keep the spirit of the country strong.

And, by all means, pray. Just make sure to take copious real-world action as well. And, if you need to choose between prayer and action, action comes first.

Beit Yitzchak Journal

I need to obtain a copy of the Beit Yitzchak Journal, 5746. Does anyone know where I can buy (or borrow) one?

FORWARD: Lack of Meat Choices Not Kosher

The Forward has a report on the misbehavior of Rubashkin and his primary national distributor, Twin City Poultry, based in Minnesota. Everything in the report related to these abuses is true. How do I know that? Because when I owned the kosher meat market in Saint Paul 13 years ago, I had the same problems with TCP, Rubashkin and Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff:

The only problem, Markon said, was that after putting in orders for non-glatt meat, it rarely arrived; the manager of the store, a SuperValu, says she was told that the distributor was "pushing" glatt meat.

Finally, Markon and the SuperValu she enlisted went directly to AgriProcessors, the Postville, Iowa-based company that is the country's largest producer of glatt and non-glatt fresh meat. When the first shipment came in last week, there was no non-glatt meat inside — and no explanation.

"We've been in a sort of stranglehold," said Markon, who works at the local Jewish day school. "If we want to have the most people eating kosher food, and we don't allow them the least expensive way to achieve that — that's a great disservice."…

"There are people who are closing our choice in kashrut and unless we are vigilant about it, it ain't going to be," said Morris Allen, the religious leader of Beth Jacob Congregation in St. Paul. Allen is the rabbi who has brought together local Conservative congregations to address the lack of non-glatt kosher meat.

According to research that Allen did, in recent weeks non-glatt meat in nearby areas of the Midwest has been as much as 48% cheaper when it comes to Swiss steak, 23% for bologna and 15% for knockwurst.…

Markon's concern about the lack of non-glatt meat was a concern for was shared by Rabbi Paul Drazen, director of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism's regional office. On trips to Chicago, Drazen noted that he could buy non-glatt brisket for $6.99 a pound, while in Minnesota glatt brisket was $14.99 a pound. He says he asked the head of the local Vaad, known as Minnesota Kosher, if the kosher stores could stock prepackaged non-glatt meat. Drazen says he was told it wouldn't happen. The Orthodox rabbi who heads the Vaad, Moshe Lieff, could not be reached for comment.

Allen tackled the issue head on after St. Paul's only kosher meat outlet went out of business last December. He held a meeting at his congregation in February, at which 100 people showed up and the "Choice in Kashruth" campaign was launched. He also met with the rabbis from the four other Conservative synagogues in the Twin Cities.

In the first experiment, Allen's congregation ordered about 20 cases of non-glatt meat for Passover through the Cooper's SuperValu in St. Paul. A few days before the holiday, word came back from the local distributor, Twin City Poultry, that none of the meat would come in.…

A few weeks ago SuperValu placed an order directly with AgriProcessors for David's meat. After a number of delays, a shipment finally came in — but according to Cooper, the non-glatt meat was missing. "It's really strange," she said.…

I checked 6 markets across the country. All were selling Rubashkin and Empire chicken for less retail than I was being charged wholesale. Non-glatt meat was ordered, Rubashkin would confirm the order and confirm the shipment. When the orders came, the non-glatt was missing.

When we were able to get non-glatt from Rubashkin (by driving down to Postville to get it), Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff told his congregation we were untrustworthy and could not be patronized, even though the non-glatt and glatt was kept separate and clearly marked, and we allowed anyone to check our processing and storage at any time without any prior warning.

We were threatened, taken to beit din (we won), and then threatened some more. And the non-glatt? It stopped coming even though we won the beit din.

One last thing. I got into the business because Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin promised me he would sell me non-glatt at cost. His idea was that we would retail it cheaply, so cheaply that Russian Jews and others who did not keep kosher would buy from us. But when I bought the business and placed my first order, the non-glatt did not arrive.

Rubashkin meant well. But aspects of his business changed in the two weeks it took for the sale of the business to go through. He signed a distribution deal with TCP, and TCP was under the thumb of Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, the then-new "chief rabbi" of Minneapolis, and a popular speaker who also works for Agudth Israel. And Lieff and Rubashkin were childhood friends. Lieff would not let non-glatt into the Twin Cities.

13 years later, Rabbi Allen now realizes what we went through. The sad thing is, so does the US Department of Justice.

Aron Tendler's Former Shul Moves Right?

An LA reader writes:

I've been told that Rabbi Yitzchock Summer, the rabbi of Anshei Emes in LA, was offered and now has accepted the position of rabbi of Shaarey Tzedek – Aron Tendler's former synagogue. Anshei Emes is way more black hat than Shaarey Tzedek. Anshei Emes is the shul Rabbi Summer's father built. His mother still owns the property …

Is Shaarey Tzedek moving right in the wake of the West Coast Tendler scandal? Readers?

The Tribal Way of War

Robert D. Kaplan writes:

While the U.S. spends billions of dollars on sophisticated defense systems, the dime-a-dozen kidnapper and suicide bomber have emerged as the most strategic weapons of war. While we tie ourselves in legal knots over war's acceptable parameters, international law has increasingly less bearing on those whom we fight. And while our commanders declare "force protection" as their highest priority, enemy commanders declare the need for more martyrs. It seems that the more advanced we become, the more at a disadvantage we are in the 21st-century battlefield.…

Our progressive global culture--with its emphasis on convenience and instant gratification--finds it difficult to cope with such warriors, for whom war is a first resort rather than a last one. And what if a warrior takes command of a large and modernizing nation-state, as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done? We are accustomed to adversarial states with rational goals, like China. In the long run, China may constitute a greater threat to American world leadership than Iran. Yet China is a traditional and, therefore, legitimate power. We will have a serious military competition with the Chinese, but only through miscalculation would we ever fight them. Yet the darkest cloud on the 21st-century horizon is big states whose leaders may simply like to fight. Their reasons are tied up with pride, vengeance and martial religiosity and cannot be gratified through negotiations.

What then should we do? The authors quote Sun Tzu, the fourth-century B.C. Chinese theorist of war: "Know your enemy." This book is a good place to start.

Why Are Missiles Hitting Israel? Not Enough Anti-Gay Hatred

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Hizbullah's ongoing attacks on Israel and the war in northern Israel are the result of the planned international gay pride parade in Jerusalem next month and Israel's inadequate response against the controversial event, a senior Israeli Rabbi said Wednesday.

"We have not protested enough against this parade of abomination and therefore we have received this warning," warned Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, the head of the extremist Eda Haredit rabbinic court, in a hand-written message to his followers. "Who knows where things will get to if we do not act further and more stringently against it."

Gedolim.

Mordechai Tendler v. Bloggers, cont.

The Jewish Week reports on disgraced rabbi Mordechai Tendler's now-dropped lawsuit against a group of anonymous bloggers – including JWB – who exposed him:

“The greatest ‘crime’ today in the Jewish world is not the number of agunot, it is not the sexual predators that have been allowed to prey on the vulnerable of our community,” wrote Jewish Whistleblower, one of the anonymous bloggers named in Rabbi Tendler’s petition, in an e-mail. “No, it is the crime of speaking out publicly against the corrupt leadership of our community and those that prey sexually on the vulnerable in our community.

“The Jewish community needs us bloggers simply because our leadership refuses to address these problems.”

Steven I. Weiss disagrees:

“It’s immoral to use a disguise to put the heat on other people,” said Steven I. Weiss, a blogger whose reporting on sexual abuse in the Orthodox world and other issues can be found at The Canonist.

Weiss noted that several Orthodox leaders, like Rabbi Yosef Blau, spiritual adviser at Yeshiva University, have been highly criticized for speaking out against abuse within the community and that by doing so they ultimately increased the credibility of their claims.

“That’s part of what credibility is: knowing the consequences for what you are saying and doing it anyway. Anonymous bloggers aren’t willing to live with the consequences,” Weiss said.

Many of these anonymous bloggers are trying to protect their wives and children from the retaliation that would certainly come if unmasked. Until the Orthodox community protects whistle blowers and their families, many will have no realistic choice but to stay hidden., even though it hurts their credibility.

Chabad Takeover Of Europe?

A friend in Europe writes:

For months the RCE [the upstart Chabad-controlled organization of European rabbis] has been trying to portray itself as the true voice of authentic Judaism in Europe in a battle with the long standing and much respected Conference of European Rabbis. In the course of this campaign, they attracted a disparate group of disaffected charedim into their organization. (For example, Dayan Lichtenstein, fresh from his bruising libel court-case with Brian Maccaba, in which leading CER figures gave evidence; Rabbi Schlesinger of Geneve who is suspect in relation to his ‘hechsherim’ and who was unceremoniously ejected from the CER some years ago; Rabbi Elchonon Halpern, the elderly rov of a hasidic shtibl in London who is a vehement opponent of leading CER figure Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu’s North West London eruv).

Charedi leaders in Europe have long suspected, though, that the RCE is simply a front for obtaining money from the EU and for consolidating Chabad’s power in Europe. They are also concerned that a number of the activities of organizations under the RCE umbrella are not in keeping with their standards, and certainly not in line with halocho. The charedi leadership in Europe have now finally banded together to disallow any chareidi participation with RCE and forced Rabbi Halpern to resign as ‘nossi’ of the RCE (note the wording on the announcement). His ‘resignation’ comes just six months after the resignation of his predecessor as ‘nossi’ of the RCE, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneebalg, the elderly head of the Manchester charedi Machzikei Hadas kehilla.

This battle seems to be heating up again, after Chabad's recent attempt to use Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger to force the EU to recognize Chabad's RCE.

Help The Kidnapped Soldiers

Help the kidnapped soldiers by signing this online petition today.

New York Mag Profiles Chabad Boxer

New York Magazine profiles Chabad professional boxer Dmitry Salita.

Sefat Update:

Ellen Silman writes from Sefat:

The Mayor's office estimates that half the City has left. The remaining residents are now experiencing simple day to day problems. Except for a few supermarkets everything is closed and it would appear that everything will remain closed for the near future.

The Soup Kitchen of Kollel Chabad is distributing about 500 portions of food each day. There is a volunteer who is delivering to individual families when needed. The remaining residents tend to be older or poorer and therefore have problems even going out to buy food. There is no public transportation for the time being. Yad Sara has begun to help residents that need ongoing medical treatment get to the hospital in Tsfat or Haifa so that their treatment will not be delayed.

Even those families in shelters here are beginning to say " How long can we stay here!". I know families who simply cannot take staying in a shelter for such an extended period of time.

Hopefully the situation will improve soon!

Rabbis: Disengagement Caused Missiles To Fall On Israel

The Jerusalem Post reports rabbis associated with the settler movement are blaming the new Lebanon war on Disengagement from Gaza:

Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu called the Hizbullah offensive a direct result of disengagement.

"The logical outcome of our desertion first from Lebanon then from Gaza and Northern Samaria is what is going on right now," said Eliyahu.

Kiryat Shmona Rabbi Tzfania Drori echoed his colleagues' sentiments, saying the present situation is punishment for the "disengagement folly."

As "punishment" for Disengagement? God is causing missiles to rain down on Israel to show his wrath? If so, this little factoid should point out where God's wrath is really directed:

[Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona] Metzger said he was devastated by the extent of damage caused to Safed by the bombing.

"One of the missiles made a direct hit on the city's rabbinic court," said Metzger. "It landed in the middle of the court room, completely destroying the place. We prayed to God thanking Him for not letting it happen on a weekday when there are people inside."

Maybe the rabbis looking for signs from above should look more closely at this incident – perhaps God has sent them a message.

Say Tehillim

Our gedolim (sigh) have asked that all Jews say Tehillim (psalms) for Israel in her time of danger. As I noted earlier, extra prayer, saying psalms, etc., is fine – as long as you take practical steps as well.

Anyway, for those wanting the specific Psalms in both Hebrew and English, ArtScroll has a free download.

Send Pizza To The IDF

A friend writes:

Some good friends of mine have been running an organization called PizzaIDF for a few years now.

They deliver pizzas, burgers and ice cream to Israeli soldiers. During the last four years they have delivered many thousands of pizza pies and other gifts to thousands of soldiers. It is hard to describe how happy they are to receive your "special treats" -- it goes well beyond getting a hot pizza late at night at a lonely post. It is as tremendous an experience for those who give them out as it is for the soldiers to receive them. They love to know that people everywhere support and care for them.

Please show your love and support for the soldiers especially at this time…

I know exactly what he's talking about. 19 years ago I founded Keren Kiddush L'Chayalim with two friends. We made kiddush for the soldiers that guard the Kotel (Western Wall), walking from guard post to guard post, group to group, Friday nights and Saturday mornings, equipped with bottles of grape juice and bags of cookies. We were three poor yeshiva students, and we did this weekly without any sponsorship from our yeshiva or any outreach organization. When I left Israel, I passed KKL on to another student, who in turn passed it on sometime later. KKL ran for at least 8 years in this fashion, and may still be running today.

I can talk about those soldiers for hours.

Send a pizza. It will do more good than you'll ever know.

More Help Needed

I need to see a copy of the following papers. If anyone out there can share these with me, it would be much appreciated. Thank you!

1. Autonomy and Paternalism in Geriatric Medicine; the Jewish ethical approach to issues of feeding terminally ill patients, and to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. J Medical Ethics 1998; 24:44-8. Rosin, AJ, Sonnenblick, M.

2. Jewish Ethical Guidelines for resuscitation and artificial nutrition and hydration of the dying elderly. J Medical Ethics 1994; 20:93-100. Schostak, R. Z.

3. Schostak, Rabbi Zev: Ethical Guidelines for Treatment of the Dying Elderly. Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society XXII: 62-86, 1991

4. Friedman, Dr. Fred: The Chronic Vegetative Patient: A Torah Perspective. Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society XXVI: 88-109, 1993

5. Angel, Rabbi Marc D.: Halacha and Hospice. Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society XII: 17-26, 1986

[UPDATE: 2 down, 3 to go. Thanks to Menachem Butler for the two articles crossed out above and to the many people who send abstracts and links to those and to other similar articles.]

Sefat Update

Ellen Silman writes from Sefat:

Monday was a relatively quiet day although you could clearly hear several explosions outside of Tsfat during the day. Things started around midnight. There was a barrage that hit the Afula area. My friends left Tsfat to go to Kiryat Sefer. I just spoke to them as they were passing by Afula shortly before the barrage. This is the first time that the firing around here has taken place in the middle of the night. At 2 and 3AM you could hear the landings.

Seven Ways To Deny Reality

Aish.com has one of the most foolish articles about the new war in Israel I've seen. Entitled "Seven Ways You Can Help Israel," the article is long on feel-good spirituality and short – very short – on tachlis. The seven ways you can help? Here they are, in order just as Aish lists them:

1. Pray.
2. Cry.
3. Study Torah.
4. Believe.
5. Repent.
6. Do good.

Okay, so there are only six ways. The seventh, stated at the end of the article, is get on a plane and come to Israel today, presumably to do much more of numbers one through five.

When Jews face danger, prayer is natural – and correct. But it is not the be all and end all Aish makes it out to be. God wants us to do the most we can in the here and now to make things better. The midrash points out Nachshon ben Aminadav went into the sea until his nostrils were a fraction of an inch above water. It was only then the sea split. A midrash also chastises Moshe for praying when he should have been doing exactly what Nachshon did.

The lesson for us should be clear – doing what we can do to help Israel, from going there and helping out to sending money to funds that will help offset the tremendous financial losses taken by Israelis in a time of war, comes first. Extra time praying and learning should happen as well, but not as a first choice or even as a second. Practical help always comes first.

So, you might wonder why I ridicule Aish. After all, what we have is a disagreement over priorities. Both parties here endorse practical action. If you thought this, I would not argue with you. If the only sin of Aish was a shifting of priorities, the tenor my attack against them would be uncalled for. But it is not Aish.com's only sin:

Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, one of the greatest Torah leaders in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust said this before he was murdered by the Nazis: "In times of trouble, anyone who can strengthen themselves and doesn't transgresses the command of "standing by while your neighbor's blood is being spilt." Literally. Because every effort by every single Jew has the power to prevent bloodshed and save the Jewish people. And if someone has the capability and doesn't do anything, he's an accomplice to destruction, preventing the preservation and salvation of the Jewish people with his own hands."

Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman (who in the above passage is speaking about spiritual action like praying and learning) forbade his students and followers from fleeing to Palestine or America. Most perished in the Holocaust. Wasserman allegedly refused visas for himself and his students from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary because Yeshiva University (the parent organization of REITS) was "worse than Hitler."

Wasserman was an extreme anti-zionist who also hated modernity. His "advice" killed hundreds of his followers. To cite such a man in the context of what should be done today to help Israel is unconscionable. The only reason I can think of for Aish to do this is ignorance.

Wasserman is not a role model. He was an extremist whose advice led to death, not life, and whose words were filled with hate for Jews who kept Shabbat, kashrut and Jewish law but differed with him on theological grounds.

Israel needs your help. Send money. Offer support. Go if you can and think it safe (or go if you are willing to take the risk). But by all means do not spend excessive time learning or praying until you are certain every Israeli has food and a safe place to sleep. That is what Jewish law – and common sense – expects and demands.

Why Israel Has Not Struck Damascus

Once it became clear that Hezbollah is receiving Syrian (along with Iranian) help in its latest campaign against Israel, a question arises – why is Assad safe in Damascus? After all, he is openly hosting Hezbolla, and one of the missiles that passed through his hands killed 9 Israeli civilians in Haifa yesterday and wounded dozens more. Yet Israel has been careful not to strike Damascus. Why?

Of course, Israel is concerned about "widening" the conflict and drawing Syria into a full scale war. But a missile landing in Haifa should call for a commensurate reaction. It should also call for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah farther away from Israel's cities, but that has not happened, either.

I believe the reason for this is the large number of westerners in Lebanon and Syria, including many Americans. While the EU has been swiftly airlifting its citizens to safety, the US has not, paralyzed, so it seems, by events many predicted weeks ago. I also believe this can be viewed in one of two plausible ways:

1. The US is using its citizens as pawns to slow the Israeli assault in the hopes that full scale war can be averted.

2. The US – specifically the US under the leadership of a crony-dominated administration – is just too incompetent to act swiftly when necessary.

My gut tells me it is US incompetence, not foot-dragging, that is at work here. But either way, Israel seems to be waiting for the US to get its citizens out before doing what it must to completely cut off Hezbollah escape routes and entering Lebanon with the ground forces necessary to root out and destroy Hezbollah's missiles, launchers and operatives. Israel has allowed one runway to remain open at Beirut International Airport to facilitate the US evacuation. This runway can also be used by Hezbollah to rearm – or to escape. And there are other examples of highways and infrastructure left standing to help the slow-footed US get its people – our people – out.

George Bush can talk the talk. But, like his response to Katrina and literally dozens of other examples, his walk comes later, hesitantly, like a baby taking its first steps, and he hits full stride only sometime after full stride is necessary.

If Israel is waiting for its friend in the White House to do the right thing, it must remember the cardinal rule for dealing with George W. Bush: His heart is in the right place, but his body – and the actions of his administration – lags behind.

Why were US civilians not evacuated Friday or Saturday? That is the question the Bush Administration should be asked and held accountable for.

A Favor

I need to see "Paralysis in Contemporary Halakhah," Tradition 36:3 (Fall 2002), 1-13. If you have a copy you can share, .

Thank you!

Rabbi David Berger Responds

I emailed Rabbi Dr. David Berger on Friday to ask him about his choice of venue for his valuable new article on the state of Chabad messianism. We exchanged emails and, with Rabbi Berger's permission, I am publishing his response:

Dear Shemarya,

In response to your question about publishing an article regarding Lubavitch on a Yated-run website despite the fact that 1--the website is guilty of objectionable behavior in the Slifkin matter, and 2—the decision makes me an easy target for Lubavitch critics who will disqualify anything written there by pointing to R. Schach’s hostility to the movement:

I want religious Jews, decidedly including haredim, to be aware of the realities addressed in the article. Many haredim who read Yated's website are not disciples of R. Schach with respect to this issue and are entirely susceptible to misleading propaganda about Lubavitch. Thus, one such Jew told me just two weeks ago that I should forget about Lubavitch messianism since the Lubavitch hasidim themselves have forgotten about it.

In addition, there are very few forums in any sector prepared to publish this information. At this juncture, the Jewish Observer will not. Jerusalem Reports was approached by Littman after my English book appeared and expressed no interest. Thus, when the Jerusalem Post asked me to write about the 770 court decision, I complied with the request. When Mordecai Plaut--with whom I had had no prior contact--read that article, he asked me to address the question of the actual beliefs of Lubavitchers, and after some hesitation I agreed. Within limits, I take the opportunity to keep this issue alive whenever such an opportunity presents itself. Fair-minded people who read the article will judge its persuasiveness on the merits. (Most of what is written in the article is already in the book, especially the Hebrew version, but few people are willing to read books. This, of course, does not prevent them from expressing firm opinions about subjects with which they are barely familiar.)

Of course Lubavitch hasidim will say that the article is posul because of where it appeared, but they would say--and have said--the same thing about other venues as well. What would they say if I published it in "Failed Messiah"? Would the Jewish Week or Forward (which wouldn't publish it anyway because of its length and possibly also because of its subject matter) be less subject to attack as posul? Similar things were said--not altogether unjustly--when I published my article about avodah zarah in Haaretz. As I wrote in the book, I decided to publish a follow up article in Hatzofeh because of this criticism only to discover that practically no one reads Hatzofeh. When the RCA passed its resolution it was skewered as a worthless organization. (I published a brief passage about Chabad in the current Tradition at the end of a review essay on Irving Greenberg's book about Christianity.) I suppose the most concise response to your question would be that Lubavich hasidim and their sympathizers already say that anything I write is null and void since I am a mendacious, Torquemada-like, Osama bin Laden-like hater who declared his hostility toward Lubavitch on the day he was born. (Both of those analogies have appeared in print, the former in First Things, the latter in the Algemeiner Journal.) Plenty of people believe this.

There are indeed some readers who might have been receptive to this article in another forum who will discount it in this one, but beggars can't be choosers.

Having said all this, let me add something about the website itself. I have no ongoing familiarity with it. In fact, after receiving the editor’s email message, I had to find the URL through a Google search for “Mordecai Plaut” and “Yated.” I do not doubt that it contained material relating to the Slifkin affair that I would find objectionable. As a Modern Orthodox Jew, my ideological orientation is hardly identical to that of the editors of Yated Ne’eman. Nonetheless, I begin by saying that to me, haredi Jews are not the Other. I identify with them much more closely than I do with the editors of Haaretz or the Forward, where I have published and would publish again.

In addition, let me share an experience with the website in question that goes against the stereotype of a rabidly anti-Lubavitch entity that would do anything to besmirch the movement. First of all, I was asked to do a piece that would be as factual as possible and relatively free of editorializing. Second, a lengthy half-sentence was deleted by the editor in large part because of a policy that attempts to keep “ki’ur” to a minimum. The article contains the following sentence: “Another [Lubavitch rabbi] wrote that ‘we Lubavitch hasidim believe that Lubavitch is Jerusalem, the House of our Rabbi in Babylonia (i.e., 770 Eastern Parkway) is the Temple, and the Rebbe is the ark of the covenant standing on the even ha-shetiyyah in which (referring to the Rebbe/ark) God’s Being and Essence rests.’” In my original submission, the sentence continued as follows: “and he went on to say that the prohibition against shittuf, i.e, associating God with something else in a manner that would normally constitute Christian-style avodah zarah, applies to the sun and moon, but not to tzaddikim, who are one with God.” I argued that this additional information is crtitically important, but the editor felt that it was not important enough to overcome the larger editorial policy. I did not draw a line in the sand and allowed the deletion. While I think the editor’s decision was mistaken, I admire the commitment to avoiding what he sees as unseemly content, a commitment that overrode any desire to add additional unfavorable information about Lubavitch. I ask myself if I can think of any other forum that would be so fastidious, and I come up empty.

Finally, let me take this opportunity to say something about R. Schach. Modern Orthodox Jews see his Lubavitch campaign as an egregious example of his extremist zealotry, and outside the circle of his disciples, the Traditionalist Orthodox see it as an unfortunate idiosyncracy. But those all-too-few Jews who have come to understand that Lubavitch Hasidism after the Rebbe’s death has visited a historic catastrophe upon the Jewish religion need to acknowledge that R. Schach saw what we did not. I write much more respectfully about the Rebbe than R. Schach did, and I wish that the critique had been formulated somewhat differently. Nonetheless, I have developed enormous respect for his prescience and his courage. Would that such prescience and such courage were not in such short supply.

David Berger

Haifa Reported Hit Again – 9 Killed

Ellen Silman writes from Sefat:

All the Yeshivas in Tsfat have been closed. The Lubavitch Yeshiva moved to a place near Haifa. I told them Motzai Shabbat that was not far enough. I just heard on the news that Haifa was hit again. 9 killed

To say that things are tense is putting it mildly. The Breslov shul which Friday night generally has about 250 people had around 20 people.

I mentioned to several people that I now understand what the Blitz of London was like and they agreed.

Ellen

ISRAEL UPDATE: Report From Sefat

Ellen Silman writes:

Between 8:30 - 10:00 Shabbat morning we could hear Katusha explosions at the rate of 1 every 30-60 seconds. Most of these were outside of Tsfat. I would estimate that we heard about 100 explosions in the Tsfat area.

Chaim Clorfene took another close hit – about 75 feet up the block. It was pretty darn close. Then there was the one that hit just as Chaim was about to say Kiddush Friday night. We almost fell down the stairs running to Chaim's basement.

12 wounded in Tsfat.

Ellen

Jack The Ripper Jewish

Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorized London over a century ago, has been identified as a Polish Jew, Aaron Kosminski, a resident of East London. The lead investigator's private notes on the investigation were released. In them, the investigator notes that Kosminski was positively identified by a witness, but the witness refused to give testimony, in part, it seems, because both Kosminski and the witness were Jewish.

[Hat tip: JWB.]

Rabbi David Berger Writes New Piece On Chabad Messianism

Rabbi Dr. David Berger has written a new piece on the scope of messianism within Chabad. Unfortunately, it is published in Yated Ne'eman's online edition, with which many of us have (correctly) found much fault. The Yated has traditionally been anti-Chabad, and the credibility of its reporting on other issues is serious supect. For Berger to publish this piece in it diminishes his credibility – and that is sad, because the piece is spot on and needs to be widely circulated.

[Hat tip: CS.]

UPDATE: Rabbi Berger responds to my questions here.

2 Dead In Ketusha Attack On Mt. Meron

A woman and her 5 year old grandson have been killed in a ketusha rocket attack on Moshav Meron, not far from Sefat. I have a friend there about the woman's age. I fear this may be his wife and grandson …

JWB, Other Anonymous Bloggers Claim Victory

Both Luke Ford and Steven I. Weiss are reporting JewishWhistleBlower and other anonymous bloggers are claiming victory. Disgraced Rabbi Mordechai Tendler has dropped his Ohio lawsuit aimed at forcing ISPs to reveal the bloggers' identities.