this is funny..

A Guest Post by Nili Phillip

It seems that the United Nations recognizes 10 holidays as official holidays. Such recognition allows UN employees to take those days off without having to give up an official vacation day.

No Jewish holiday is included in the list of recognized UN holidays. Then again, we are just a nation of about 14 million people - why should they recognize our holidays as official holidays when so many other nations that are larger than ours dont get recognition for theirs?

The officially recognized UN holidays include both Christian and Muslim days, such as Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha, the Islamic New Year and the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, along with Christmas Day, Palm Sunday, and Easter.

Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin and the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prossor requested from the UN this week that they add Yom Kippur to the officially recognized holidays list.

Once making the request, they should also have included Rosh Hashana (at least the first day), in my opinion.

The UN Deputy-Secretary General said the issue would be examined.
(source: Haaretz, JTA)

yay?

Racism is still a problem in Israel. And not just in certain religious sectors. It is a general problem. The following ad is a good example..

It is a new ad by Cellcom, the mobile service provider, for a free phone line for a year for existing customers.





Looks fine to you? It did to me as well. But it has generated complaints. The ad is framed around a unit of Golani soldiers. The troubling thing about it is that the soldiers are all extremely white. They all look ashkenazi. In reality, the Golani unit, like all IDF units, is a tremendous mix of soldiers from all backgrounds and skin colors, including sefardim from all countries, Ethiopians, Yemenites, along with ashkenazim. Yet nobody but a pure white ashkenazi is depicted in Cellcom's ad. It seems they think dark-skinned sefardim isn't a good sell for a phone line.

I typed the word "Golani" into Youtube and selected 3 random videos of real-life Golani units. Here they are:

(no need to watch the entire clips, unless you want to. Just click around to different time spots in each video)








You can see clearly that the Golani unit in real life has plenty of dark-skinned soldiers.

And obviously Cellcom was not filming a real Golani unit but was using actors. However, by choosing only "pale-face" actors, they are making a statement that they think ashkenazi actors sell better than sefardi actors. Even by depicting imagery that has nothing to do with reality.

If you think I am making a big deal of nothing, it was actually soldiers in a Golani unit that saw it and got upset. One former Golani soldier wrote in NRG about the ad that when he was a soldier in the mid-90s, he had a commander who was a Druze, one that was Moroccan, some were ashkenaz, one was a new oleh from Russia - and they all spoke the same language - Golani.... there were descendants of Russian immigrants, French, Brazil.. all together defending Israel. Each Friday they prayed in a different nusach, and each Shabbat when the families came they devoured the food no matter which ethnicity the dish came from... He goes on saying how in Lebanon the huddled together to stay warm in the freezing nights and nobody cared which ethnicity someone was or what the color of his skin was...

Among most people there probably is not much racism. Many people in Israel seem to know how to look past that, though surely there is still plenty of racism. Among many community leaders racism seems to be a problem,, and it seems to be a problem in marketing as well.

and this is a different video someone, I do not know who, made to a nice song also showing the deterioration  and neglect of the city...

Here is my opinion on elections and supporting different candidates:
We live in a democracy and every person has the right to support whatever party or whatever candidate he or she prefers, for whatever reason. Even if I think the worst thing possible about any specific candidate, as long as he is running as a legal candidate or party, people can choose to support him/her/it. I might not agree with your reasons for who you choose to support, but I respect your right to support your preferred candidate.
And, I expect you to respect my right to support my preferred candidate, and to respect the next guys right to support his candidate, etc.

Why do I mention this?

A short while ago I saw someone rip down an election poster for a political party he does not support. This was a young yeshiva boy, looked to be about 15 or 16 years old, tearing down a poster of TOV.

I do not work for TOV. I have not yet decided if I will be voting for TOV. I have no formal connection to TOV (other than knowing somen of the people who run it). I am not a member of TOV. I am not a candidate for TOV. I have not even expressed support for TOV, though there are many things about TOV that I like. So, my connection to this vision before my eyes was not personal - I did not take it as a personal affront or damaging my party's property.

I called out to this young man to stop tearing up other peoples property.

He finished tearing it down and then responded to me that he is allowed to because Rav Shteinman said not to vote TOV and that they are against the gedolim.

I do not know if he actually said that or not, but I did not ask him for proof. I did ask him if he asked Rav Shteinman, or if Rav Shteinman said on his own, that one is allowed to destroy TOV property and signs or did he just say not to vote for them?

He said Rav Shteinman did not say anything about tearing up signs, but anyways they get money from the Iryah for this.

I said, I don't know if that is true or not, but so what? That fact, even if true, does not give you the right to destroy their property and their signs.

He then started arguing that because Rav Shteinman is against TOV, the TOV posters are actually an insult. He compared it to someone who has a crazy father, and someone goes and hangs up a sign across the street from your house against your father. Wouldn't you tear it up?

Sounds like a silly comparison to me, but I just asked if he asked a rav if he is allowed to destroy others signs and property. I said I am not from TOV, and these are not my signs, but he should be asking a rav before he takes the liberty to destroy property of other people.

What do you think? Is removing signs of competing political parties a legitimate action? Can I tear down signs of parties I do not support?

It looks pretty final. The Ministry of Education yesterday distributed a letter to various yeshivot informing them that as of 2014 there will be no more funding for foreign students. As of right now the funding is being decreased, to 30% of the monies received for an Israeli student, until the end of the current year.
(source: Kikar)

This is going to be a big hit to many yeshivot - worst of all to Israeli yeshivot that have a lot of foreign students, like the Mir and many others. I don't know for sure, but I think the one year American yeshivot, also known as "gap year yeshivot" probably won't be hit so badly - they already charge high tuition, which the Israeli yeshivot do not do, making them less dependent on the subsidies from the government.

Israel and Colombia signed an open commerce deal: All taxes on industrial products will be removed

  - The Marker

Colombia is probably best known for its production of cocaine, so it looks like cocaine will be getting cheaper in Israel! Who said cost of living out here only goes up???

this is really great. They are making a movie based on Yehuda Avner's book - "The Prime Ministers". It was a captivating book, and I am sure the movie will be great!