B"H the heavens have opened, the rain is here, and the Kinneret is rising.

Over at Lema'an Achai, the phones continue to ring, as local families face the biting poverty of the two-years old recession in Israel.

Families who were poor previously, are in a worse situation that they were, because basic commodity prices and the cost of utilities have gone up (water by 50%!!), while Government benefits and employment opportunities have both gone down.

And the phenomenon of middle-class families calling Lema'an Achai for help, has gone from being an exception, to now become a regular occurrence.

People who used to be generous donors, and whose neighbors and friends consider to be financially well-established, have become unemployed or under-employed, indebted, and without back-up from their families who
have themselves been hit by the international financial downturn. For these struggling families to cut their cost, and seek out supplementary sources of revenue, is in many ways no less traumatic than any other families suffering the effects of poverty.

Lema'an Achai has even established a new concept in community assistance to help these nouveau poor and struggling middle class families - "Community Consultants".

"Community Consultants" is our team of professional Financial Counsellors, Employment/Career Consultants, Get-Your-Rights Experts (including both the intricacies of National Insurance and Employer/Employee regulations) . Our "Smart Chesed" experts have developed innovative methods and solutions, and have gained unparalleled experience in helping local families over the past ten years of Lema'an Achai. All this expertise is now available on a subsidized consultancy basis for ALL MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY. Call 02-9991553, and ask for Motti for details.

Lema'an Achai's services, which are the jewel in the crown of Ramat Bet Shemesh, have no equal or equivalent in any other community in Israel; Lema'an Achai has been accoladed in 2009 by Israel's Minister of Welfare Isaak Herzog and invited to participate in proposing changes in national policy regarding poverty.

Lema'an Achai's highly professional services are critical for the wherewithal of our whole community

And yet, the one phone which is quiet at Lema'an Achai is the donations line.

Lema'an Achai receives no government funding (which we are fighting to change!) and is totally reliant upon balei-batim, regular households, to continue helping local families in poverty.

Of course donors are especially generous at the giving-seasons, such as Purim, Pessach and the Yamim Noraim, and of course we account for these cyclical ups-and-downs in preparing our annual budget - which
strive to give everyone who needs our help reliable 24/6 service, and regular dependable assistance throughout the year.

But the actual donations right now are a shocking 47% lower than projected and budgeted. That means we have shortfall this past month (for example) of over 80,000 NIS ($20,000).

I know you plan to give generously to Lema'an Achai come Purim and Pessach. And, on behalf of the families we help, we are sincerely appreciative of that critical support.

But please, please don't forget that the poor and distressed have constant and desperate needs throughout the year.

You can give now securely on-line athttps://www.lemaanachai.org/donations.aspx

Please consider making your donations monthly, throughout 2010 - either by credit card, or with a direct debit arrangement (we will deal with the banks for you): https://lemaanachai.org/lemaanachai-horat-keva.pdf

Or mail your tax-refundable donations (in Israel, USA, UK and Canada)to Lema'an Achai, 40/7 Nahal Lachish, Ramat Bet Shemesh 99093 or your local Lema'an Achai mailing address.

There is also a 24/6 telephone line for accepting donations - 02-99999.33
Yes - B"H it's raining outside here in Israel.

But the communal pot is going dry.

--Tizku Lemitzvot,

David & R.Avrohom

P.S. Please feel free to pass this message on to your friends, family who may be interested to help Lema'an Achai's incredible "Smart Chesed" programs for combating poverty, and for getting families out of the cycle of poverty.

According to the news reports, the New York Jewish community is suffering a mumps outbreak with 300 people already diagnosed.

Along with that, Mishpacha reported that there is another outbreak in Israel among yeshivas and seminaries with so far over 100 diagnosed.

How does this happen? Are there so many people who forgo basic vaccinations? I am not talking about "iffy" vaccinations that haven't been proven and have serious possible side affects, like the swine flu vaccination for example. Mumps is a basic one.

Are people crazy?

They abused me. They stripped me naked and they electrocuted me.

----- Hamas operative describing what the Egyptian security forces did to him when they arrested him, in an attempt to find out the location where Gilad Shalit is being held..

1. Lion of Zion has a historical piece on a tone deaf baal korei...

2. Going Home to Yerushalayim (Habayitah) has a piece on the importance of encouraging children to ask questions, and providing answers..

3. Geshmack has a bunch of questions on the parsha...

4. HaMavdil on insecurity and BTs integrating into haredi society

5. Pesky Settler has issues with weather reporting..

6. Yaak compares Israeli elections to Illinois elections...

in an event of war with Israel, not only will you [Assad] lose the war, you and your family will no longer be in power.

--- Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Many are taking the words of Transportation Minister Yaakov Katz in support of unofficially mandating the mehadrin buses operation as a sign of success.

As I mentioned then, it is simply the statement of a position. It is not up to the Transportation Ministry to decide. It is up to the courts. Katz's opinion might have weight in the decision, but it alone is not a decision.

There is a feeling in the Haredi press that Katz's words are the final say. In this week's Eidah weekly newspaper, for example, their article on the issue states that the mehadrin buses have won the battle and those who oppose them have lost.

They will be disturbed to hear that in a meeting today in Supreme Court about the mehadrin bus situation, one of the judges on the panel responded to the government representative, after the rep stated the ministers position on the matter and that signs could be placed around telling people where it is recommended they sit, very sharply. he cynically asked if they could also put up signs telling people not to get violent if someone sits in the wrong area and if that would solve all the problems with the mehadrin buses....

While no decision has been made, it is way too early for anyone to celebrate (one way or the other) thinking themselves victorious. At least one judge on the panel seems to be against it...

The Kohen Gadol, Elazar ben-Tzadka) died.

The Kohen Gadol of the Shomronim, that is. The KG was 83 years old, and the new Kohen Gadol taking over is 81 years old. He claims to have lineage all the way back to Aharon, I assume documented otherwise he is like any other kohen. By their count, he is the 131st Kohen Gadol since Aharon HaKohen. (source: Ynet)

This group always intrigues me...

Yesterday they had another instance of finding a dead body (in Meah Shearim this time), trying to take it for an autopsy, the body was snatched by Haredim with rioting because they opposed the plan to do an autopsy, the sides came to an agreement to only perform an external examination so body was returned.

I wonder what it must be like to snatch a body... Who has the courage to grab a dead body and run away with it slung over his shoulder or however he carries it. There is something surreal about the image in my mind of how this goes down.

Overheard from a 6 year old trying to manipulate a 2 year old to share treats from gan with her. This comes after repeated attempts in which the 2 year old refused to share...

6 year old: We'll play a game. You'll be the mommy, I will cry and you'll give me some. Ok?

2 year old: Ok.

1. she easily manipulated the 2 year old into thinking it was a game.
2. It only lasted one time, as the 2 year old quickly realized that even though it is a game she is giving away her treats.
3. The 6 year old revealed her tactics in manipulating her parents (i.e. us). She takes it as a given that this is how it works. This is her normal process.
   

Was Elvis Presley Jewish? Obviously he did not practice, and I never heard before that he acknowledged himself as being Jewish.

Yet, in this article someone sent to me, it might suggest that Presley was a Member of the Tribe. The Houston Chronicle ran a list of 75 lesser known facts about Elvis Presley. If you look at the list, you might notice items number 15 and 16. They say:

15 Presley started wearing a chai necklace because his mother, Gladys' maternal grandmother was Jewish -- the reason he added a Star of David on his mother's gravestone.

16 When asked why he wore the necklace, he said, "I don't want to miss out on going to heaven on a technicality."

If his mothers maternal great grandmother was Jewish, it sounds like he might have been Jewish. Unless the chain only was some female but one of the people along the way was a Jewish grandfather who married a gentile. Anybody out there know any more details?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Story Hole - Children's Cartoons From Hamas
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Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

1. Torat Yisrael points out something from Shimon Peres' speech at the Herzliya Conference...

2. Yeshiva Guy went out for a great steak dinner and found out his eating mate was living well beyond his means...

3. Mississippi Fred has a picture of a yekke with curly payos. He will later reveal who it is.

4. In the Pink has a wacky sign..

If Mengele's diary had to be auctioned off, at least it was bought by a descendant of a Holocaust Survivor and designated to be placed in a Holocaust museum.

At least now it will be preserved and not destroyed as part of an attempt to make it look like nothing ever happened. And, at least now it will not be used by Nazi wannabes as a motivational tool to encourage similar atrocities..

An auctioneer of historic documents said Tuesday that he had sold a journal written by Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi Holocaust's "Angel of Death," to the grandson of an Auschwitz survivor, the Hartford Courant reported.

According to the report, Bill Panagopulos of Alexander Autographs wrote in an e-mail that he had sold the 180-page journal for an undisclosed sum Tuesday "to an East Coast Jewish philanthropist who wishes to remain anonymous."

"He is the grandson of an Auschwitz survivor who personally encountered Mengele at Auschwitz," Panagopulos wrote. "He intends to donate the manuscript to a museum devoted to the Holocaust."

Background on Ynet.

The incident described within this post was told to me firsthand by the person to whom it happened and by whom it was witnessed. I am relating only the more relevant details..

A woman took a mehadrin bus yesterday. She got on the bus and sat in the first row of seats with her child. The bus was empty, so she figured it was ok, and the driver didn't care. She said she prefers the front because she gets nauseous in the back, and since the bus was empty...

At a much later stop, the bus suddenly filled up. It was near a simcha hall, so it was probably people getting out of the simcha, or just a very popular stop. One person made a big deal about her sitting in the front and pestered her until she moved. She moved further back, but at another stop this guy told all the women sitting in that area (the first section of the womens area) to move further back as there were some empty seats and if they moved back to fill those seats, the men could have more seats available and some standing would have seats.

There was a bit of a ruckus, with this guy making all the trouble. It seems he felt like he was in charge of the bus and passengers, as he kept moving people around telling them where to sit. When this woman got up to help a different woman with her kids, the guy took her kid and bag off the seat and put them on the floor, freeing up the seat for a man, forcing her to stand much of the way after that.

After that, as the bus came to the later stops and people were disembarking and the bus was less full, this guy was walking back and forth from the front to the back to talk to his wife and see the kids. This woman told me that he was the only man on the bus who spent considerable time walking through the womens section a number of times.

Lesson #1 - mehadrin buses are not about frumkeit. they are about control.

On the same bus ride, it seems that it is pretty common that people find ways to avoid paying the bus fare. Some get on the bus using the back door - as the driver has to open it for the women, and don't bother coming to the front to pay, hoping the driver hadn't seen them or hadn't noticed that they hadn't paid. Others blame the spouse - oh, I thought my husband was paying for me, or my wife was paying for me.

The bus driver already knows the tricks and knows people aren't paying. At some point he pulled the bus over to the side of the road, as he was about to leave the city, and walked up and down the bus asking people why they did not pay and demanding that they do. A large percentage of the people on the bus had all sorts of excuses, but once confronted by the driver, they all paid up.

Lesson #2 - under the guise of frumkeit, they are all just trying to cop free rides (aka theft), as it is easier to to do so on a mehadrin bus than a regular bus.

Somebody in City Hall must have read my post yesterday in which I said that unless they put the new recycling bins near my house (and I think this is true for most people), I will probably not be conscientious about using them. It is unlikely I would shlep all my paper garbage a few blocks in order to dispose of it for the purpose of recycling. if it was near my house though and not out of the way, I would.

So somebody must have read that, along with knowing how much waste we create in our house. The photo below is from the end of my street. Look how many bins they decided to put in such close proximity to my house!









Actually, that is just the staging area they are using to lay out the bins as they prepare them for distribution around the neighborhood. They did put one by our house...