Featured Post

Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!

(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...

Aug 31, 2015

Shul as a social experience

In what is most likely an unscientific poll, Bangitout.com tried to find understand why people got o shul.. Here is their inforgraphic of the results of the poll:



I always say that shul needs to be more than just a place to daven and talk to God, and it needs to also be a social experience, where we socialize with our friends. Obviously talking during davening is not good and is prohibited in some parts of davening, and the "social aspect" of shul needs to not violate the sections of davening where one cannot talk. But shul, the place, the experience, needs to include some social aspect - a regular kiddush, talking and socializing before and after services, and at other times.

People are busy all the time with work and family and learning, and it is important for people to be able to socialize a bit with their friends. it keeps people in the community, and it keeps them mentally healthy. the one place most frum Jews get to see their friends is in shul, thus turning the shul into the one place where socializing must be  apart of the experience.


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The Reform breslaver who sprayed Na Nach graffiti in Syrian ISIS areas

This is strange. And that is one heck of a title!

A fellow named Timothy Wordsworth, from the United Kingdom, using the name Batn El Ghoul on Facebook, has posted some unusual pictures.

El Ghoul joined a group of Kurdish fighters in fighting against ISIS. While in Northern Syria they took over a school building that ISIS had been using as a prison.

El Ghoul is Jewish (he should stay safe and hopefully won't fall into captivity, especially now that this fact is known), and he posted a series of pictures of him in the school-prison - after he followed the great minhag of Breslav and graffitied the wall with Na Nach grafitti.

El Ghoul wrote on Facebook:
ISIS turned this school, 50 km from their capital in Al-Raqah in to a prison. I was part of horrible fighting in the area, my friends and I fended ISIS off when they tried to recapture the prison from the next village. ISIS left women's clothes and underwear on the floors of the cells, a lot of it, evidenice of un-holy crimes. I wrote Rabbi Nachman's name here to bring some light in to this black sink hole of torture, rape, murder and savage war. Amen.

Here are some of his pictures:











In another Facebook post, El Ghoul posted the following thoughts with another picture:

Peace to the whole world and a hand of reconciliation and new beginnings to all States.
All States have murdered people, in the past, the Islamic State have done it in the modern day but I would like to extend to them a hand of Peace and New Horizons. I would like to see the British and French 'Sykes- Picot Agreement' created States of Iraq and Syria dissolved and cut in to three new countries all spanning the old borders of Iraq and Syria. In the South of what was Iraq and Syria a new Shiite Muslim State, in the centre of what was Iraq and Syria a new Sunni Muslim State 'ISIS' and in the North of what was Iraq and Syria a new Kurdish State ' Kurdistan'.
For all sides to exist peacefully and for the Kurds to give up claims to territory in Turkey and Iran.
Everyone in the middle East should learn from Israel. Biblical Israel is a huge country but the modern State of Israel settles for a small strip of land and tries to live peacefully with neighbours.
If the Kurds, The Islamic State and the Shiites would, like Israel be willing to settle for less than their ancient dreams then at least everyone in the region could have their own beautiful little homeland instead of 'coveting his neighbours land' and each destroying the other. An end to war NOW.
God bless you all.



El Ghoul explained in an interview to Ynet that he always knew he was Jewish, and his grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. Being that he was raised as a Christian, as his father converted to Christianity, he did not qualify for the Law of Return and after spending some time in Israel he was eventually made to leave when his visa expired. While in Israel he somehow got connected to the Breslavers and took a liking to them. When back in the UK a friend convinced him to spend Uman in Rosh Hashana, which he says he has done now three times.

ElGhoul says he is a member of a Reform temple in London and plans to try to make aliyah again.

I don't know what is cooler - the daring graffiti he sprayed in Syria in an area under ISIS control or the fact that he is a Reform Breslaver!


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bike rentals coming to jerusalem..maybe

If you can't get the movie theaters shut down, at least get the bikes locked up. Then nobody can get to the movie theaters! two birds with one stone!

According to a report on Galei Tzahal news the Haredi askanim in Jerusalem are now fighting against the plan to open a cross-city bike rental program, similar to what exists in Tel Aviv (called Tel Ofen).

the program will have the bike rentals throughout downtown jerusalem and some of the surrounding neighborhoods.

the reason for the opposition to the plan is because the bike rentals are planning to be in operation on Shabbos just like during the week.

everything, no matter how big or small, has to be a fight.

I won't support chilul shabbos, but I have no interest in telling other people how to live, or that they have to live like me, or that they have to follow my understanding of Judaism and the laws..

I wonder if this program will be scrapped, or altered to not include shabbos, as part of the supposed compensation Barkat conceded to the Haredi community by enforcing the Shabbos laws on a number of stores after they lost on the movie theater fights...

I think the rentals and returns are all done via machines, and not through rental agents. If that is the case, I am not sure why its functioning on Shabbos disturbs anyone. People ride bikes, and drive cars, in Jerusalem on Shabbos already, and if people get these bikes by a mechanized system I am not sure why they should view this as being any different or more disturbing than the normal bike and car riding already happening.





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The rodef and the nirdaf

Rav Aviner was asked about the status of people who "harass" the Rabbanut and work to its demise. Rav Aviner's response was that it is very serious, and he quoted Rav Shapira who said such people have the din of a rodef.

While personally I am [relatively] confident Rav Aviner was employing hyperbole in his answer and did not actually mean such people should be killed, as is the common understanding people get when the term rodef is used, I do think it behooves our leaders, both rabbinic and otherwise, to tone down the level of speech.

The term rodef is highly charged nowadays and we need to take extra care to not give people an excuse to act, especially in the name of the Torah, in a violent manner.

And really? Is a person really a rodef every time he does something you don't like? Have we not overused the rodef title by a lot?

And nothing to do specifically with Rav Aviner, as I have wondered about this in the past, if you use the term and call someone a "rodef" when he isn't one, using hyperbole or whatever, does that person then become a nirdaf and the speaker become the rodef?


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Picture of the Day

source: Hazinor

the picture was sent to Hazinor from a visitor to the Auschwitz Museum, who was rubbed the wrong way when seeing visitors enjoying new mist sprayers at the entrance of the museum that were installed to help visitors keep cool...

what do you think - inappropriate or perfectly fine? images that look like Jews getting gassed in Auschwitz?



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Israelis: What is the status of women in Israel? (video)








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I am Israeli (video)

what does it mean to you?





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Shimon Peres presenting the "give 5" campaign of Ministry of Education (video)

Shimon Peres is the presenter for Bennet's plan to increase the number of students taking 5 units in the bagrut of mathematics...









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Satmar training the kids (video)

Netanyoeey.. I still love it!

סאטמר from חרדים 10 on Vimeo.



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Quorum sings a cappella Im Hashem lo Yivneh Bayis by Shlomo Yehuda Rehnitz (video)

Male a cappella band from Lithuania sings beautiful song in hebrew during their 10-th anniversary concert in St. Kotryna's church, Vilnius. Sorry for pronunciation and rushing ahead:)






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Aug 30, 2015

Picture of the Day




a shonda!

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Year in, Year out

The haredi media has been, rightfully so, consumed with the issue of the girls being discriminated against in various Haredi cities and not accepted into schools and seminaries.

While there is clearly a lot to discuss on the topic, and they are discussing much of it, the one thing I did not hear discussed (not that I heard every discussion that was had) was how this scenario repeats itself every single year. Year in, year out. Come two days before the beginning of the school year and suddenly the press has the latest scoop of school administrators not listening to the gedolim, or the law, and rejecting kids for no good reason other than discrimination.

Year in, year out. Like clockwork.

(though, to be fair, while I do not have numbers to back this up, from my recollection alone it seems to be getting better each year in the sense of each year less girls are suffering from the problem)

It is almost as certain as death and taxes.

If the Haredi community is one thing, it is consistent.




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Seventy Five Years since the Palmach was Founded (video)







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Meet the Pantry Packers Chesed Project (video)







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Peek A Jew: inside the Trump campaign headquarters (video)

somehow the Jew is the guy with the pizza






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To shave or not to shave (video)

ok!

not a bad svara, but nobody is going to change such a custom because of Lipa





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Rapper Kosha Dillz fighting anti-Semitism one rhyme at a time (video)







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Aug 27, 2015

Quote of the Day

I am happy that finally, after 3 years in the Knesset, Yair Lapid and Yesh Atid have an accomplishment  - that I will be a minister because of the Supreme Court. They have no accomplishments in housing, none in economics, no social accomplishments, and nothing else. The only thing they have is that they have now added a few shekels to my salary. I don't need their favors, but after the decision of the Council of Torah Sages, I respect it.

   -- Deputy Minister (soon-to-be-minister) of Health Yaakov Litzman


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Book Review: The Challenge of Jewish History

NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.

Book Review: The Challenge of Jewish History, by Alexander Hool


The Challenge of Jewish History, by Alexander Hool, published by Mosaica Press, is a scholarly look at the discrepancy of the missing 168 years between the Jewish calendar and the chronology of the Western world, as well as other historical conflicts and discrepancies in the timelines of Jewish history.

The Challenge of Jewish History is truly a very scholarly analysis of dates, history and timelines, culling many sources to pick out the details of ancient kings and kingdoms from the Greek and Roman historical records, as well as Persian and Babylonian records, and , obviously, comparing them to the various Jewish and Talmudic sources..

I will honestly say that much of this book was well "over my head". I was dizzied by the dates and ancient kings, by the mathematical analyses of dates, and by all the evidence presented.

The Challenge of Jewish History is not a casual read. It is academic, it is serious, and it is complex. I have no idea how to evaluate if his theories are correct or not, but for someone interested in this aspect of Jewish history, the issues and theories presented by Hool should definitely be considered.


buy The Challenge of Jewish History on Amazon.com


NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.




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Fee Parking in Bet Shemesh

A Guest Post by Dr. Harold Goldmeier

Parking on many commercial streets and in public parking lots in Bet Shemesh is no longer free.  A few business owners tell me they were never polled or consulted.  It seems neither neighborhood nor economic impact studies were done prior to the Mayor instituting the pay for parking program.  The story is told best in pictures.

The Ramat Bet Shemesh-A commercial center used to be a balagaan with cars. Many drivers double parked, took two spots for one car, cars were left parked for days, and employees of stores and offices in the RBS center captured the spots closest to shopping for themselves. Customers were forced to walk blocks from wherever they found parking. Drivers trying to capture an open parking spot threatened pedestrians. Pay for parking has made the RBS center a more safe place to walk, ride a bike, and park your car without fear of damage from drivers squeezing three cars into two spots.

Here's the problem. The reason fee for parking works so well is because people have an aversion to pay for parking. All ready in their cars they can shop in areas where parking is free. For example, go to Osher Aad for groceries and shop in the adjacent mall stores in the cavernous free lot.

Sales I estimate headed downward in double digits in RBS center stores, since pay for parking was introduced. People are losing their jobs and businesses are moving elsewhere. Neighboring residents have lost their parking on residential streets. Business will only worsen for RBS center shoppers and storeowners when the new RBS mall opens across the street. A parking lot is being built like at BIG with free parking for shoppers.

Finally, the litter, dirt, and deterioration of RBS-A center have exacerbated. This is not only the fault of the City administration.  Storeowners and landlords take no responsibility for cleaning the high traffic areas, planting flowers, repairing broken and filthy public benches, sprucing up the place to make shopping a more pleasant experience. If there is a local chamber of commerce it is a failure.

There is a field of study called City Planning that appears lacking as a resource to decision makers and stakeholders the rapidly growing City of Bet Shemesh. Residents and entrepreneurs are the ones who suffer the consequences. There are options to saving commercial city centers as an alternative to the "malling" of Bet Shemesh and slum-like environment.










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the protests against Gal Hirsch are why he should be Chief of Police

I have no comment on Gal Hirsch personally. I don't know much about him, other than the little I've read in the past couple of days... I do have a comment on his appointment as Chief of Police. My comment is not actually on his appointment, but on the appointment of somebody from outside the ranks of the police force.

Ever since Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan announced Gal Hirsch as his appointment for Chief of Police, people in the Israel Police have been criticizing the decision, calling for the appointment of someone from inside the police force and not appointing an outside, even from the ranks of the IDF.

The police force needs some serious reform. Nobody from within is going to do it. Those associated with the police who are speaking out against the appointment of Hirsch are doing so because they know that an insider will protect them, protect the force, as they perceive "protection" being from change, from exposure.

Right now the people of Israel need to be protected from the police. An outsider, hopefully Gal Hirsch, can change that. An insider almost definitely will not.


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Best Day of My Life | Hadassah Medical Center (video)

The Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem treats those contending with cancer and supports their families. The people you see in this clip are not actors. They are doctors and nurses, patients fighting cancer and those who have fought in the past - those who are still with us and those who are not.
The dedication of the staff, the love of the families and the bravery of those undergoing treatment are a source of inspiration for us all.





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Five Ducks (video)

Hamas musicians have not had another big hit since their platinum hit "Tkof Taase Biguim". Not wanting to be remembered as just a one-hit wonder, the Hamas musicians keep trying, releasing new singles in the same genre... here is its latest attempt to recapture that musical success..

Five ducks is a song about the Gaza War from last summer and depicts IDF soldiers as ducks and claims five of them were captured in Gaza during Hamas's terror war last summer.




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Israel Tyme (Yalla!) (video)

a cute video recap made by Julian Edelman of his recent trip to Israel with fellow NFL players...





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Shimmy Engel - Givald | Official Music Video (video)








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The Shuk - D'ror Yikra (Call For Freedom) (video)








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Aug 26, 2015

PRESS RELEASE Chicago Rabbinical Council Helps Pass Kosher Milk Legislation

Last night I received the following press release from the CRC, and I thought it important and worth sharing. It seems like it implies serious ramifications as to the kashrut status of regular milk in the USA, especially where such a law is not in effect:

4 Elul 5775August 19, 2015 The Chicago Rabbinical Council2701 W. Howard St.Chicago, IL 60645(773) 465-3900 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  For more information please contact: Rabbi Yona Reiss, Av Beis Din, at reiss.crc@crcweb.org On Thursday, August 6, after months of concerted effort by the leadership of the Chicago Rabbinical Council (cRc), Governor Bruce Rauner signed Senate Bill 1228 to amend the Grade A Pasteurized Milk and Milk Products Act, at the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago.  Senator Ira Silverstein, Rabbi Levi Mostofsky, Executive Director of cRc, and Rabbi Dr. Jerold Isenberg, President of cRc, attended the signing. The Grade A Pasteurized Milk and Milk Products Act had allowed the sale of milk from any hooved animal, “including milk from pigs and camels,” said Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, Kashrus Administrator of the Chicago Rabbinical Council. This allowed for the possibility that milk from a non-kosher animal could be added to cow’s milk, and it still would have been labeled as milk. The new bill requires that even the smallest amounts of milk from any animal source other than a cow not be sold unless it is labeled accordingly. The efforts began when a consumer read about the act online and alerted Rabbi Fishbane, who contacted Senator Silverstein. The Senator agreed to sponsor the legislation, and asked the cRc to join him in crafting an amended bill. In March, Rabbi Yona Reiss, Av Beth Din of the cRc, traveled to Springfield, Illinois with Senator Silverstein to lobby the Illinois General Assembly. Rabbi Reiss, a graduate of Yale law school, presented before the legislature, met with keyfigures, and crafted language in negotiation with other special interest lobbies in order to make sure to protect the Jewish consumers who rely on such legislation to be able to consume milk and milk products. “It is now a clear violation of law if milk from a non-kosher animal is sold without proper labeling,” explained Rabbi Reiss. “Rabbi Reiss did an outstanding job explaining the whole issue to the committee,” said Senator Silverstein. “He [Rabbi Reiss, himself] rewrote the bill several times.” “The cRc is protecting the Jewish community to make sure …milk is kosher. They did the right thing going to the Illinois General Assembly to resolve this issue,” said Senator Silverstein. Rabbi Fishbane noted that it is significant that it was a consumer who initially informed the cRc about the act. We “can service people better when consumers work together with us,” he said.
For more information, please contact the cRc at 773-250-5482. The Chicago Rabbinical Council (cRc) founded in 1932, is comprised of approximately 140 member rabbis from across the United States, Canada and Israel, and strives to convene a unified voice for the Orthodox Rabbinate of greater Chicago. The cRc provides a wide array of Jewish services including kosher certification, an internationally recognized Beth Din (Rabbinical court), along with community education, programming, and services.


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Support Henri's for staying closed on Shabbos

This is surprising. And shocking.

Henri's, a dairy restaurant chain with a branch in the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv, is being fined on a weekly basis to the tune of 3500nis because the owner wants to stay closed on Shabbos. The contract he signed when he took the location in this new mall stipulates that the shop must be open on Shabbos, as the owner of the mall wants the place to be in business all week long. The owner of Henri's claims that despite the contract there was an oral acceptance of the fact that they might not stay open on Shabbos, or at least it would be open for discussion. This branch of Henri's is also the only place in Sarona that has a hechsher because it is the only place closed on Shabbos.
source: Srugim and Kooker

Shocking that the law states businesses must be closed and can be fined for operating on Shabbos, while the mall owner forces the businesses to stay open on Shabbos. I wonder which fine is larger - the City/State or the mall, though the State is not that good about enforcing the Shabbos laws in most cities, so the mall is probably better about fining Henri's than the State is about fining Sarona.

I propose a suggestion that this restaurant deserves to be supported by people who respect the fact that he does not want to be forced to work on Shabbos. Go eat at Henri's, if you may, and tell him you support him remaining closed on Shabbos.

And the State should step up its enforcement of Sarona and fine it heavily for doing business on Shabbos. I don't know how this can be dealt with legally, considering he signed a contract. Maybe lawyers can weigh in - perhaps it is an illegal clause as it violates a State law or City ordinance. Even if at one point he intended to be open 7 days a week, perhaps he might change his mind at a later date, for business or personal reasons, and choose to close. People should not be forced to work on Shabbos in Israel.




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15 year old sefardi girl in Bnei Braq marries to get a green card into seminary

For a haredi sefardi girl in Israel today, getting into a haredi seminary is probably harder than getting a Green Card to live in the United States of America!

Actually it is very similar, according to a recent story, as reported on by Walla News and Kol Hazman.

According to the report, a 15 year old girl in Bnei Braq got engaged to an Ashkenazi man. In order to get accepted into seminary.

Reportedly she has already spent a year at home, rejected from all seminaries due to her being of sefardic lineage. While she was accepted into a seminary, it was supposedly a low quality one, whatever that means, and her family's rabbonim told them she shouldn't go to that school because it was not good.

An unnamed gadol the family consulted with recommended she start shidduchim.

The person speaking to the journalist said "she is a tzaddeikes of a girl. she does not even know what a computer is."

I like how that how we weigh the level of righteousness of a person nowadays.

Two points:
1. this is illegal. Both the rejection of her, assumnig the details reported are correct that it was for no apparent reason other than her being sefardi. And her getting married at this age (Walla says married, Kol Hazman says engaged) is illegal. I wonder if the "lower quality" sefardi seminary is worse for her spiritually than jail
2. neither of the articles say if after marrying the ashkenazi fellow did she then get accepted into the elite school of her choice, because now she is ashkanazi, or not.
3. In the USA there are federal agents that look for fraudulent marriages that are solely for the purpose of getting a green card. Here the police would need to look at her fraudulent marriage for the purpose of becoming ashkenaz.

Anyways, I wish them mazel tov and bracha, and with them a long and happy life together. Considering she won't even have a high school education I do wonder how she is going to support him.



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The division of dayyanim appointments

this article, describing a deal made for the appointment of new dayyanim to the batei din, made me wonder.

The relevant point is that an arrangement was reached by which the new appointments will be comprised of 33% asheknazi haredi dayyanim, 33% sefardi haredi dayyanim, and 33% dati leumi dayyanim.

Here are the garbled and partially redundant thoughts it caused me to wonder about:
1. that is 66% haredi and 33% dati leumi. why did the dati leumi agree to it?
2. why is it ok for the haredi side to distinguish as two separate groups the sefardi and ashkenazi dayyanim, thus claiming an equal portion of both, yet the dati leumi are happy to not make that distinction, thus ending with a clear majority for haredim over dati leumi?
3. are the haredi reps really so divisive and racist or is it successful tactics to get more dayyanim?
4. are the dati leumi living in Utopia? are they really so not-racist that they are willing to forgo such a big discrepancy just so as not to appear as being racially divisive?
5. why not divide it two ways? or four ways?


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Headline of the Day

Lion kills safari guide in Zimbabwe park where Cecil lived


  -- CNN

1. where is the outrage? all those people horrified and outraged that a hunter hunted and killed a lion, are they outraged that a lion killed a man who was not even a hunter?
2. Lions are kings of the jungle. Amazing beasts. They are also murderers. They destroy African villages, maul humans and kill babies, and even adults as we see in the story above. Let's not forget that. This lion was also a tracked lion, like Cecil.
3. The game park owners along with the country,  that promote these safaris and hunts make a lot of money off all these tourists and hunters. Cry me a river, as they say, that a hunter killed a freaking lion.


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Jimmy Kimmel: How Long...SpongeBob (video)

funny,,, but wait for the point of posting it....






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what the "haredi street" has to say about Litzman possibly becoming a minister (video)








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U of Michigan QB Traded to Israel National Football Team (video)

from INN:
History will be made next Sunday, when the Israeli national American football team takes part in its first official international game against Spain.
If Israel wins, it will qualify to compete in the International Federation of American Football’s B-Group International Tournament in 2016.
The best players of the Israeli Football League (IFL) are represented in the national team, with players hailing from all nine local teams. Among those taking part will be 3-time reigning league MVP Dani Eastman from Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion, who plays for the Judean Rebels, along with Johnathon Curran of the Ramat Hasharon Hammers on the coast, and Assaf Katz of the Tel Aviv Pioneers.
A new addition to the national team is former University of Michigan quarterback Alex Swieca, who played with the Israeli league's Jerusalem Lions while taking part in a Young Judea year course in 2011-12, and went on to be the league's MVP that year.
Despite being entitled to play at Michigan for another year because he was in Israel for his freshman year, he decided instead to come back to Israel.
"I am so excited to have an opportunity to represent the State of Israel in Europe with my fellow teammates” Swieca said. “But I am also hoping to spend time this year promoting American Football throughout Israel and getting even more Israelis excited about the sport.”
Swieca made a comic video earlier this month about his decision to play football in Israel rather than stay in the US.





watch Spain vs Israel live:



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Super Power Poker - Live From Iran - Iran Short Film Series #4 (video)

cute



The stakes are the highest they've ever been. Nuclear Iran. The US, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel play for the security of the world. This is the ultimate hold'em game. Who holds the aces, who will go all in, who is bluffing and who has a tell that will leave them with nothing but a mushroom cloud. No nukes for Iran






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Conductor, Composer, Orchestrator and Arranger - Dudi Kalish - Yaldei Dinner (video)

Famed Composer and Choir master Dudi Kalish was flown in from Israel special for Yaldei’s ninth annual dinner in Montreal, Canada at the Crown Plaza Hotel, February 22nd 2015. he dazzled together with the Shearim orchestra, singing popular melodies and performing his own original compositions including a beautiful Yiddish song about Yaldei. 

He was joined by both the Zimra men’s choir and the Zimra boy’s choir. During one of his performances, Kalisch slowly built up his musical piece, starting with the boy’s choir, adding a little piano, then slowly inserting instrument after instrument – with an addition from the crowd too – until the full 18 piece band, both choirs, the audience and Kalish exploded into a powerful, harmonized pitch perfect melody.






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Aug 25, 2015

vintage Sharon tractor for sale on eBay

Are you interested in buying a valuable piece of Israeli history?

The first tractor owned by Ariel Sharon on his farm, Sycamore Ranch, is up for sale. On eBay.

Starting bid stands at $20,000.

From the description of the sale item on eBay:
This unique tractor belonged to the late Israeli prime minister, Mr. Ariel Sharon. The tractor has been in good hands throughout the years and has a very interesting history:
This tractor is really Mr. Sharon's first friend. It served Sharon as he worked with sheep in the Shikmim Farm, where he resided. After a while, Sharon realized the tractor was too big and fast for his work with sheep, so he decided to sell it
.
A Cherkessian farmer named Korkus bought the tractor in 1974, and worked with it until 1990, while maintaining the machine's excellent condition. In 1990 the tractor was sold to Nir Sadan, the current owner. When Sadan came to pick up the tractor, Korkus said: "This tractor belonged to Israel's war hero, Mr. Ariel Sharon".
Years later, Sharon has become the prime minister of Israel and has arrived to a corner stone ceremony in the Gilboa. Sharon's tractor was the only one near the stage, and other tractors surrounded it. When Sharon went on the stage to start his speech, he immediately recognized the tractor, his first friend. Sharon could hardly contain his excitement and talked about the tractor. The crowd clapped with pride and joy for the reunion of the two friends, and in respect to the very special man that was Mr. Ariel Sharon.
This even is shown in the video below.

Nir Sadan, the current owner: "I'm honored to be part of the chain which serves to perpetuate the legacy of this amazing man, who contributed so much to Israel".
Mr. Ariel Sharon, also known as Arik Sharon, has been a prominent figure in Israel's military and political arenas throughout the years.
Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948, and participated in most of Israel's big wars. After his military career, he was nominated Agriculture Minister and Defense Minister. He was nominated as Israel's 11th Prime Minister.

This is pretty cool. I am surprised there is not a picture included of a younger Sharon driving the tractor from earlier days...

I'd love to see this appear on the show Pawn Stars and watch them authenticate it and value it, then negotiate for it.

Anyways, go bid. get yourself a vintage tractor


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kosher taxis

Looks like the next Haredi battle is going to be over taxis..

that's right...taxis.

The Committee for the Purity of the Camp is upset that some taxis are installing video screens for the viewing pleasure of their passengers.

That seems perfectly understandable to me.

According to Kikar, this organization has called upon the public to specifically ask for kosher taxis when calling a dispatcher - kosher taxis being taxis without these viewing screens. They specifically mention Get Taxi taxis as being a big part of the problem, as they encourage drivers to install such screens as a way of improving service and the riding experience. Get Taxi also has problems with chilul shabbos, encouraging drivers to work on Shabbos, so Get Taxi should be avoided in general.

I can see it now - soon we will have kashrut symbols and certifications on taxis, similar to the way we have it now on cellphones.



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Book Review: As Long As The Candle Burns

NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.

Book Review: As Long As The Candle Burns, by Chana Bunim Rubin Ausubel


As Long As The Candle Burns, by Chana Bunim Rubin Ausubel, published by Mazo Publishers, is the memoirs of a woman named Chana. As you might guess from the first last name in the list, Chana is the daughter of the famous Irving Bunim, who was a businessman and community leader, and especially a community activist and founder of the Vaad Hatzalah that worked to save Jews from the Holocaust and bring them to the United States. Growing up in such a home, even without knowing who she is or anything about her, you can be sure she is going to have some stories to tell!

As soon as you open the book and start reading, even from the first page alone, you can tell that Chana is full of energy and is extremely active. Right away you know she must be involved in a plethora of organizations and issues, and you want to jump right in.

As Long As The Candle Burns is the telling of Chana's memoirs from her parents home, but more than that from her own activities - her involvement with the founding of the Young Israel movement, as a director of Emunah and working to open branches all over the United States, her involvement running schools in Israel - including one for potential converts, among other things, involvement in the fight for the freedom of Soviet Jewry, and much more.

A portion of the book is more personal, describing herself growing up, her first marriage that ended in divorce, her raising of her children as a single mother. I found particularly interesting how Chana, a modern Orthodox woman (if any particular description/title can be applied) was married to a Hassidic rabbi and how they worked it out, i.e. how she lived her life outside the home being active while he was a hassidic rabbi of a shul, for as long as they did.

Chana was very involved with the State of Israel and spent much time in Israel until she eventually made aliyah, leaving behind her children, but being a home away from home for her grandchildren who traveled through Israel and came to study.

Particularly surprising was to see that Chana was involved in an incident in which Rav Goren paskened worked, unsuccessfully, to remove the status of mamzer from someone who was planning to marry a convert. It was interesting to get another angle on this story, when we, distant from the story itself, only normally hear the details from the perspective of the halachic analysis.


Another particularly interesting story related was from the 1960s when Chana was running a nursery school and had an African American assistant. Having traveled to Florida for a vacation, with her assistant, Chana was not aware of the issues of segregation in the South. In her memoirs she relates how she dealt with discovering the discriminatory laws and how she dealt with them - she was revolutionary well before it was in style!

As Long As The Candle Burns is filled with stories, from Chana's involvement, in significant portions of Jewish history in the United States and Israel, along with lessons Chana learned and tries to impart to the reader.

I enjoyed reading As Long As The Candle Burns, and you will too.



buy As Long As The Candle Burns on Amazon.com

buy As Long As The Candle Burns on Mazo Publishers



NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.



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The Honorary Jew Donald Trump

Donald Trump is running for the position of President of the USA. Currently he is competing in the primaries of the Republican party. If he loses there he might continue competing as an independent.

Trump has been very pro-Israel.

More than that, Donald has a daughter, Ivanka, who converted to Judaism and married a Jewish, Orthodox, man.

And now, I just discovered, Donald Trump's son, Eric, who is not Jewish and has not converted, just married a Jewish woman, television producer Lara Yunaska.
source: JPUpdates

With all these connections, Trump has to be the candidate that is most connected to the Jewish people.

I think all this should make Donald Trump an honorary Member of the Tribe and give him status as a Jew (honorary) for the purpose of the elections. And then, no matter how crazy he is or how crazy his proposals are, a majority of US Jews would have to vote for him.


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A Drive through Israel's Negev desert (video)

I love the negev, but this is not a very exciting video..





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Glider Raises Tel Aviv Shabbat Observance (video)








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Yonatan Razel interview (video)







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One year to Oz VeGaon (video)







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The Living Wells - The Process (video)







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Aug 24, 2015

Shlissel reminded me of the Menendez brothers

The Menendez bothers murdered their parents (in 1989) and then begged for the mercy of the court on account of them being orphans.

This expression is almost the definition of chutzpah and dates much farther back than the Menendez brothers. Abraham Lincoln is credited with using this as the definition of "hypocrite". Lincoln said a hypocrite is the man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.

My mind went to the Menendez brothers when I read about the court decision in the case of Yishai Shlissel, the man who murdered Shira Blanki in the Gay Pride Parade recently, and tried to stab others. Actually it was not the court decision that made me think of the Menendez brothers, but something Shlissel himself said during the court proceedings.

Shlissel said that to commemorate the memory of Shira, the Pride Parade should be stopped and no longer held in the future. If we want her ultimate good, we must stop the blasphemy against God. Future parades will bring harsh decrees against the Jewish people.
source: Kooker

I think Shlissel's statement qualifies for the title of "chutzpah, and for Lincoln's definition of hypocrite. He might not be as bad as the Menendez brothers, as he was not asking the court for mercy, but he isn't that far off. 








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Quote of the Day

There was never an ideology to not serve as a minister.I cannot guess, but I can wonder what the Torah Council of Sages will decide. The main principle is though that it will be the Moetzes that will decide and not me nor Litzman.
One must also offer a good word for a person who does not want to be a Minister for ideological reasons and is willing to accept the decision of the gedolei torah and not decide for his personal career.

  -- MK Yisrael Eichler (UTJ)

first he says there is no ideological reason behind it, and then he praises Litzman for the ideological reasons of not becoming a minister. which is it - ideological or not ideological? 




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collecting to go to Uman

pretty much every year once we enter the Hebrew month of Elul, and more so as we approach Rosh Hashana, one is likely, especially in Israel,to come across people, often Breslaver chassidim but not just, collecting money for the trip they want, or need, to take to Uman to spend Rosh Hashana by the grave of Rebbe Nachman.

There are different halachic opinions I have heard as to whether one should or should not give them, specifically whether such donations could be considered tzedaka or not, but that is not my point here. Each person can decide for himself or herself and if necessary consult with their own rabbi.

I stumbled across this new way of collecting money for the trip to Uman, and it employs a more modern, hi-tech, method of raising the money.

This fellow wants to go to Uman, even though he is not even a Breslaver chassid, because his wife considers Rebbe Nachman her rebbe. She wants him to pray there for them to have a child, which they have not yet been blessed with.

To that end, this fellow has started a GoFundMe page to raise the necessary monies for his trip, which he details.

Personally I am not going to donate money, but one cannot help be touched by his situation as he describes it. I will offer a prayer on their behalf, as if my prayers could possibly be helpful, as he requests at the end of his letter.

I am surprised by how expensive the trip looks to be. I am surprised because so many people go, many of whom have no money for such a trip and scrounge around to raise the funds. I thought it was much cheaper than this, just based on what I have heard - such as food supplied by soup kitchens established there, shared accommodations, and the like. I am surprised that so many people who cannot afford it go regularly paying this type of money.

Donate if you will, don't donate if you won't. I find it interesting that he went this route of a gofundme page, and think his story is touching.


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Lapid forces Liztman's ministerial integration

Yair Lapid thought he could scar eoff Yakov Litzman by appealing to the Supreme Court against Litzman's status as Deputy Minister of Health. Litzman, from the Haredi party UTJ, has historically refused to be a minister, and was given the status of Deputy Minister, with Netanyahu retaining the official title of Minister of Health (along with some other ministries in which he does similarly for other reasons).

Lapid thought that if the Supreme Court would rule that Litzman must become a minister, he would run, leave the government, resign, or whatnot, because it is against his beliefs. So Lapid appealed Litzman's status to the Supreme Court, claiming that the Ministry of Health is too important to be run by a deputy minister and needs a full time minister.

During the process, Litzman said a few times, whenever asked, that Lapid is fooling himself, and if forced to by the Supreme Court, he would not abandon his post but would become a minister. He has not had a reason to break the historical arrangement until now so he did not, but if a reason would come to be, such as a ruling from the Supreme Court, he would have no problem becoming a Minister.

Sure enough, the Supreme Court has ruled that Litzman can no longer serve as Deputy Minister of Health with no Minister above him, i.e. with Netanyahu retaining the title of Minister of Health.. and has 60 days to have a Minister appointed.

Instead of resigning or appointing someone else as Minister, Litzman will now take the post with the full title.

And Litzman does a good job at it, by everybody's count, so there should not be any opposition to this.

At the end of the day, it looks like Lapid is helping the Haredi community integrate into Israeli society and the Israeli workforce after all!




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Rabbis across America sign Kol Koreh about reporting abuse

wow!

community rabbis and roshei yeshivas across America just signed this... kol hakavod. they don't need my affirmation, but I offer it anyway and give them my respect (even though they mostly had it anyway)



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Dr. Mordechai Kedar on Hamas and the Palestinians (video)








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In Feature-Length Film, Hamas Depicts its 'Victory' over Israel (video)

good acting, but we all know movies aren't real...

from INN:
Hamas's media arm, "Al Aqsa," has released a feature-length drama to mark one years since last summer's war.
The 55-minute, slickly-produced film is entitled "Ambushes of Death," and intersperses testimonies from terrorists who took part in fighting against the IDF with dramatizations of their battles during Operation Protective Edge.
The film portrays the war as a "victory" for Hamas, despite it not having achieved its stated goals of ending Israel's blockade of Gaza, and despite the massive damage wrought to its military infrastructure and loses inflicted to its fighting force. The 50-day war ended with a ceasefire on August 26, which has largely held despite intermittent rocket fire from Gazan terrorist factions.
In the movie, actors playing Hamas terrorists can be seen reenacting various missions, including fighting at close quarters, burrowing through tunnels into Israel and laying ambushes for Israeli soldiers. At one point, the film depicts a terrorist crawling undetected to an Israel tank to lay an explosive charge.
The terrorists are portrayed as heroes, committed to their cause and willing to die. In illustrating their members' thirst for "martyrdom," the Hamas propaganda film also dramatized the death in combat of several terrorists, and the entire production is interspersed with recitals from the Quran.
In contrast, Israeli soldiers - played by Hebrew-speaking Arab actors - are portrayed as cowardly, incompetent and lazy, hiding behind a tank and at points randomly firing at civilian areas in Islamist-controlled Gaza. The film also shows edited footage from Israeli TV of IDF soldiers giving real-life testimonies about the tough conditions they faced against an enemy heavily embedded into the civilian infrastructure of Gaza.
That portrayal is far from the reality of last summer's conflict, which in fact saw IDF soldiers fighting house-to-house against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who regularly hid behind the civilian population of Gaza- often openly boasting of their effective use of human shields. Documents seized by the Israeli army during the fighting revealed how the use of human shields was an essential part of Hamas's strategic doctrine, both to hamper Israeli military operations and use subsequent civilian deaths to gain sympathy through the international media.
The movie ends with a familiar message often featured in other Hamas propaganda, calling on Jewish Israelis to leave the country voluntarily or be violently ethnically-cleansed, and promising to conquer Jerusalem.
The film's release comes amid ongoing, unconfirmed reports that Hamas and Israel are close to reaching a long-term ceasefire, one which could potentially stretch for as long as 5 or even 10 years.






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Gav HaUma responds to the Haredi attacks on it (video)


I debated whether to not to put this up, because I did not really like it.. This is the section from the latest episode of the satire show Gav HaUma in which they respond to the attacks from the Haredi askanim and politicians claiming Gav HaUma is anti haredi and anti religious... the response is really just being funny. I decided to post it because I posted the original attack on. As a response I was not too impressed and it seems to just be something like "this is who we are. we get paid to be funny", even though that's not what they say.

I don't watch every episode, not even most, but I heard this response was coming so I watched a couple of clips looking for it. This is from the latest show, which included a section scoffing at the Palestinians, a section scoffing at Supreme Court Justices, and a section talking about the legalization of marijuana with the guest of the show being MK Tamar Zandberg..

The episode prior to this one had the show hosting Kobi Arieli, a Haredi journalist.  That episode was hilarious, though a bit racy.




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