This afternoon I had a strange experience.

An agent of Pelephone called me. For those of you who might not know, Pelephone is one of the companies that provide mobile phone services.

The rep asked me which cell provider and I using. I told her I am with Golan.

She asked how much I pay, and I told her 99 NIS. She asked if I have additional lines, and I said I have 2 lines at 10 NIS each per month.

After thinking for a moment she said said I will offer you a deal to switch to Pelephone. 3 phone lines for 149 NIS per month.

I asked her why would I switch to Pelephone if you are offering me a deal that is more expensive than what I am already paying?

She gave me an answer about how Golan is no good and they don't give good service and you cannot rely on them..

I said to her you need to go to a course in sales right away. After the pitch you gave me, there is no way I would switch to Pelephone. You asked me the cost and then offered me a more expensive price. You asked me if I am happy and then after I said yes you tried to sell me on their being no good. I also said I used to be with Pelephone and their service stinks, so that would never be a good selling point.

I was scratching my head after that phone call. If this is how they try to bring in customers, they must not be making many sales...

1. the making of a racist

2. I dont text on Shabbos

3. the private kiddush

4. the messenger and the message - the money excerpt from Rabbi Wein.. "Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennett, Dov Lipman may be the messengers and they bear the brunt of the personal attacks being leveled against them by the Charedi world’s spokesmen. But let us ignore who the messengers are and listen to the message. The current social and economic situation of the Charedi society in Israel is no longer tenable. There is a limit as to how many generations can consecutively be raised in poverty without there being a breakdown in that society."

5. the end of the telegraph

6. chocolate chip pizza - interesting example comparing it to learning during davening

7. when the ultra-Orthodox advocate religious freedom - William Kolbrener on Haaretz (sorry about the paywall, but well worth the read)

8. 1 lock, 1 key and 3 walls

9. paradigm shifts for Americans banking in Israel

5 weeks ago MK Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) announced that he was preparing to propose a law that would make it illegal to ban haredim.

Today MK Litzman formally submitted his law proposal. According to the proposed law, it would be illegal to ban haredim, or to express hostility to them, for any reason. The punishment for someone who does, according to Litzman's proposal, would be 10 years in prison. And, any results gained by such a crime would be reversed.
(source: NRG)

While I agree haredim should not be banned, just like other groups should not be banned, I find it strange to submit a law against banning just haredim. It should be illegal to ban anybody, or it should be legal to ban anybody - one way or the other. The haredi community is not unique in this regard. Don't ban haredim, don't ban women, don't ban Ethiopians, don't ban Russians, don't ban Conservative Jews, don't ban Reform Jews, don't ban yeshiva students, don't ban university students, don't ban Ashkenazim, don't ban Sephardim, don't ban Settlers, don't ban people who dodged IDF service, don't ban people who served in the IDF, don't ban immigrants, don't ban the elderly, etc. Make the crime equal for all of them and make the punishment the same for all.

The neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel in Jerusalem has been a regular headline in the local news over the past few years. Kiryat Yovel is a secular neighborhood to which haredim started moving, started with a trickle and then picked up a bit, a few years ago. As more and more haredim were buying homes in the neighborhood, Kiryat Yovel residents (original? long-term? secular? I am not sure what type of residents to call them) started to feel threatened, as if there is a planned takeover of the neighborhood by the haredi community.

What is a haredi takeover of a neighborhood, also known as hitchardut? I doubt we will ever really know the truth, but some say it is a fiction, as no such takeovers are organized on a communal level, while others say that such takeovers are quietly organized and are fairly methodical. The method of a takeover (according to those who think they are organized) is that haredim do not like to live alone - they need a community so they can have schools for their kids and shuls and yeshivas and kollels and the like. So, one haredi family is not going to move to a secular neighborhood in the hope that one day maybe a few more will join him.

So what they do, the theory goes, is that a few come in and offer very good prices to a number of homeowners. When they sell out, because how can you reject such an offer above market value, the neighbors start to become afraid and are suddenly starting to consider selling. Then a few more are bought, still at prices above market value. After a bit of this, plenty more want to move, as they do not want to end up in the middle of a haredi neighborhood, and it reaches a critical mass with more and more apartments being bought/sold at market value or at even less than market value.

Sometimes it is even more organized than that. A group will get together and make the initial purchases through a non-haredi third party, so that the trend will not be identified and opposed before it succeeds in the critical first few stages.

It is all very conspiratorial. However, I have seen in Haredi ad media advertisements from buying groups advertising to people who might be interested in buying in such a group in a "mitchared" neighborhood in the early stages. It had warnings not to buy from outside the group as it could harm the groups chance of success. The fact that I have seen a couple such ads does not mean it is a common situation and happens like that in every "mitchared" neighborhood, but it does happen in at least some places like that.

Now back to Kiryat Yovel.

At some pint the secular residents of Kiryat Yovwl woke up and noticed that they have a small but growing community of haredim in their neighborhood and their own friends have been moving out. Surely some did not care and continued on with their lives, while others went ahead and put their own homes up for sale, while others decided to fight back and fight for their homes and neighborhood. In the past few years, Kiryat Yovel has been a prime location for fights between haredi and secular residents. The secular residents protested against kindergartens being opened in apartments, something that is common but illegal due to zoning issues, and had some of them closed. The same with shuls and other religious services. Haredim had people saying tehillim in the streets to scare away more secular residents. Haredim would scream about cars in the streets on Shabbos, while secular would arrange intentional drives on Shabbos and late night parties to annoy the haredi.

and on and on and on...

Most recently, as was reported in the news, with the advent of the warm summer month, the secular residents have begun to arrange parties (a.k.a. cultural events) at night in the neighborhood streets, and in some of them they include belly dancers and other immodestly clad dancers that they know will make the haredim uncomfortable to be around.

And now they have decided to open a "secular yeshiva" in Kiryat Yovel.

Now, personally, I do not know why a secular yeshiva would bother anyone. Some might protest such a thing because of an ideal of learning torah only "properly" while saying that because they cannot in such a setting so it is damaging to the Torah to have such a setting. I would think that even if they are learning the Torah in their way and not ours, they are still developing a love for the Torah, which they will surely also transfer to their kids, and who knows how it will turn out. Maybe they will be more sympathetic to religious Jews and therefore more accepting of them, maybe they or their kids will eventually become more connected to the Torah, and all in all there is little wrong with it, at least in the sense of it disturbing my life. And, nobody, even people who take great offense at such a thing, needs to actually see it - pass the building and walk on. If you do not walk in, you won't know what is going on inside. So I don't see why anybody should take such  great offense at it, even if they don't particularly like or approve of it.

According to Bechadrei, though, the Haredi reaction has been to consider it another point in the fight over the neighborhood. The group filed all their requests and the city has approved the formation of the secular yeshiva. The haredim consider it an attempt to chase them out of the neighborhood.

Again, I do not see why. Let them have their yeshiva, and it should bother nobody. The haredim can have their yeshivas, and the secular can have theirs and one need not bother the other. But they don't see it that way.

Eran Broch, head, rosh yeshiva, of the secular yeshiva in Tel Aviv, justifies the establishment of the new secular yeshiva in Kiryat Yovel and denies it should bother anybody. Broch said that just like I do not oppose a dati yeshiva n Kiryat Moshe, nor do I oppose a haredi yeshiva in Bucharim neighborhood, so there shouldn't be any opposition to a secular yeshiva in Kiryat Yovel either".

And I agree. Not just because of "live and let live", but because it is not like belly dancers in the streets - they will be indoors doing whatever they do. Why should that bother me and make me want to leave?

The following email went out today on our neighborhood email list...enjoy!

We have purchased a donkey for the mitzvah of Peter Rechem Chamor (redeeming the firstborn male of a donkey).

The donkey is at Davida's farm and according to Davida she is now pregnant. Gestation takes about a year and we do not have a due date yet. For anyone who wants to join in the Mitzvah, you can become a partner by giving 100 shekels to the group and making a kinyan with me. Proceeds will go to Bet Knesset Feigenson. You only have to do this once, so if the donkey (named Shoshanna) gives birth to a girl she and her baby will be sold and we will start again with the group's money transferred over as shares in a newly purchased donkey.

Of course this Mitzvah is only for Yisraelim as Cohanim and Leviim can NOT join the group (but for those Cohanim or Leviim interested, you can volunteer to give Shoshanna a bath). I can be reached at 054xxxxxxx and I look forward to expanding Our Mitzvah group.

The President's Conference, also known as #tomorrow13, has been around now for 5 years. The focus of it is engaging in issues that will influence the face of our future. The sub-text of it is a love-fest for President Shimon Peres.

For 2.5 days, world leaders, industry leaders, economists, moralists, experts in their fields of expertise all gather and shower love upon Shimon Peres and Israel, through discussions of how to plan with the various issues of today and tomorrow. The conference is scheduled around Peres's birthday, this year his 90th.

I had the pleasure of attending the conference, or part of it at least. The organizers once again invited bloggers along with the traditional press to participate. And not just to participate, but they even had arranged special sessions for bloggers only, such as a meeting to discuss issues with STanley Fisher, a discussion with Shimon Peres and Sharon Stone and some were scheduled to meet and interview the famous Israeli singer Rita.

Love-fest or not, it is a great conference.

There was a lot of criticism in the media about the conference this year. The criticism was about the expense, the lavish appearance, the over-the-top atmosphere, and the like, especially while many Israelis are struggling to get by, with cost of living going up, with taxes going up, with the government running a deficit, etc.

I don't know from that, and will ignore it. I do not know how much of this, if at all, was paid for by the government. Maybe it all came from private donations - I don't know. Was it grandiose, and maybe over the top? Yes, but so what - the man is 90 years old and has found unprecedented love in both Israel and around the world in recent years - let him enjoy it a bit, while Israel benefits from the exposure.

I had the pleasure of hearing world leaders and experts, and there were plenty I was not able to hear due to overlapping sessions. World leaders were heaping praise on Israel (in addition to the praise heaped on Israel), making statements of support to Israel, coming to Israel  and making the BDS movement a failure, and as a bonus they told us about their vision for the future in whatever topic they were discussing.

Bill Clinton, Barak Obama, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Juan Carlos, Rahm Emmanuel, Barbara Streisand, Robert DeNiro, Natan Sharansky, Benjamin Netanyahu, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Shai Agassi, Stanley Fisher, Prince Albert of Monaco and the list goes on and on, all talking about their fields of expertise and the role they will play in Israel in the future, and the role Israel will play in those fields and industries. Note: some of the name mentioned above were physically present while others sent messages by video. The only thing missing, that can be done better next year, would be to have Benji Lovitt give the keynote address (they call it a plenary session)!

The event was great for seeing friends and fellow bloggers, and for networking. But really it was great to hear so much praise heaped on Israel, along with the intellectual stimulation of hearing and talking to such industry experts and leaders. Over the top a bit? Maybe, but so what!

Thanks #tomorrow13 for the conference, and for the invitation.

Ever wonder why your packages delivered by the post office sometimes arrive looking a bit banged up?

Check how this post office employee was caught on video handling packages..



needless to say, a stink was raised over this. The Israel Postal Authority responded saying that this employee was immediately called in for a meeting about this and disciplinary steps were taken against her (I hope nothing like the discipline espoused in the preceding video from Kuwait..). Steps were also taken to ensure such a thing cannot happen again int he postal system.

this is a very interesting discussion.. and I admit that at times I laughed...

I think it is great that the Simon Wiesenthal Center is still out there searching for and pursuing the old Nazis to get them tried for their crimes against humanity. Just because those Nazis are old does not mean they should be allowed to live out their days in peace. They should all be caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Let as much as possible get on to the public record, even via the courts f necessary with hundreds or thousands of hours of eyewitness testimony...

Hungarian prosecutors charged a 98 year old man for his part in sending Jews to Auschwitz in WWII. This Nazi topped the Wiesenthal list of wanted Nazis.

In 1948, Laszlo Csatary was found guilty and convicted to death sentence, in abstentia. He ran and spent the next decades in hiding. He was captured by Hungarian police last year. Since then his sentence was commuted from death to life in prison.
(source: Yahoo news)

May his upcoming years be filled with much shame and suffering. And may he live as long as possible bearing it.

A message from the organizers of the petitions regarding RBS D and E..

We do not think that a large and respected company like Google, that deals in the field of technology, needs to become a field for decisions of policy. 
The Israeli position is known, a Palestinian country, if it should be established, will be a result of direct negotiations with the Palestinians. This is something anchored in the Oslo Accords with a commitment by the Palestinians to not take unilateral steps. That is why we see in a negative light any wavering from that. Unilateral moves distance us from the desired result, and only through dialog can we bring about change. As long as a unilateral option is on the table, the Palestinian Authority will refrain from entering direct negotiations. Therefore we have asked Google to reconsider its decision.

  -- Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin