Tu Bishvat and praying for an etrog

This afternoon I attended a shiur where the lecturer stated that Tu Bishvat is an auspicious time to daven that one should receive a nice etrog in the coming year on Sukkot. In the video below a rabbi opines about the juxtapostion of Tu Bishvat and Parshat Yitro.

A group of more than 350 prominent Israeli rabbis has sent a letter of support and encouragement to Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, after comments he made about US Secretary of State John Kerry triggered a diplomatic backlash.

The Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) thanked Ya'alon "for his clear and fearless remarks that 'enough is enough'," referring to American pressure on Israel to cede land to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Continue reading: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/176341

With Ya'alon having to issue an apology for calling Secretary of State Kerry "obsessive and messianic," has anyone asked Barbara Walters to apologize for saying about Obama that "we thought he was going to be the next messiah"?

Jewish art dealers and Jewish holidays

It's a medieval treasure trove worth an estimated quarter of a billion dollars, filled with gold crosses studded with gems and intricate silverwork. For years, it's been at the center of a dispute between a Berlin museum foundation and the heirs of Holocaust-era Jewish art dealers.
Continue reading: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/berlin-museums-jewish-heirs-dispute-art-21537892

The fall quarter at most UC campuses will start a week later than usual and winter break will be a week shorter in the 2014-15 school year as the schools seek to avoid beginning their terms during Jewish High Holidays.

...Officials said the schedule change was in line with a policy that was issued in 2007 in response to complaints from Jewish families that “move in” days at UC dorms had been held on the Jewish High Holidays. The rules call for shifts in the academic calendar to avoid pressuring Jewish students to possibly violate religious bans against working on those days.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-calendar-20140114,0,3436601.story#ixzz2qS4GgTT0


Alex Berman, your music lives on.

Not synonymous

Eli Steinberg has written a fabulous article titled Liberalism And Jewish Values Are Not Synonymous

Misrepresenting faith to the benefit of a political party and ideology.

Click here to read the article.

Below are a number of questions posed at the State Department briefing of Monday, January 13.


QUESTION: Abbas made a statement this past weekend saying that they will never accept what is requested of them on the Jewish aspect of the state of Israel; and second, they will never forfeit Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine; and third, that the right of return is a personal issue for the Palestinians, and not a collective issue. Do you have any comment on that?

MS. HARF: I think I’ll let his words speak for themselves. Again, we’re discussing – all issues are on the table. We’re discussing them privately. I think the Secretary’s been clear that we’re at a critical point right now, that the Palestinians and the Israeli leaders are grappling with difficult and challenging decisions, and very sensitive ones. But the details of those discussions we are keeping private to give them the best chance to succeed.




QUESTION: And do you have any comment about Assad’s comments about how Kerry’s talks in Paris are fictional?

QUESTION: He didn’t say fictional. He said illusionary or --


QUESTION: Anyway, his point was that they were far from reality.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/01/219629.htm


Given that the State Department  opined that "the remarks of the Defense Minister (Moshe Ya'alon), if accurate, are offensive and inappropriate," is the State Department going to issue a comment about Assad's remarks?

OU hechsher for Girl Guides of Canada cookies

Huffington Post reports Kosher Cookies For Girl Guides Certified In Canada Following Efforts Of Orthodox Jewish Troop.

IPT reports U.S.-Iranian Citizen Arrested for Shipping Military Secrets to Tehran.

The charge against him carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if Khazaee is convicted. Read more: http://www.investigativeproject.org/4262/us-iranian-citizen-arrested-for-shipping-military


I suppose that if he were spying for Israel, the above sentence in the article would read, "The charge against him carries a minimum sentence of life in prison.


Michael Shtender-Auerbach and Markus E. Bouillon have written an article at the Huffington Post titled Defining the Endgame of the Peace Process.

When the Oslo Declaration of Principles was signed in September 1993, few Israelis would have contemplated that a final agreement would mean full-fledged statehood and few Palestinians would have expected that a final deal would acknowledge both a Jewish and an Arab homeland in historic Palestine -- with most refugees returning to the Palestinian state. These parameters are now widely, grudgingly accepted,...

...As such, Mr. Kerry deserves the benefit of doubt -- and full support from both sides of the aisle, from European and other international stakeholders, and from ordinary Israelis and Palestinians who may be skeptical but yearning for peace.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-shtenderauerbach/defining-the-endgame-of-t_b_4584291.html

Arab foreign ministers notified US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday that they will not accept Israel as a Jewish state nor compromise on Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem, backing positions voiced by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Read more: Arab ministers back Abbas in rejecting 'Jewish' Israel | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/arab-ministers-back-abbas-in-rejecting-jewish-israel/#ixzz2qMAojdMv

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) went even further on Saturday, stating that Israel's demand that the PA recognize it as a Jewish state is an attempt to “legalize racism.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/176267#.UtTk26R3vcc


Where do the authors of the Huffington Post article see the grudging acceptance of a Jewish homeland?


If I were to write the article, it would be much shorter.


The endgame of the peace process is a Nobel Prize for Secretary of State John Kerry.

Jewish roots

The Brooklyn landlord who was kidnapped near his office late Thursday was found in a dumpster at a Long Island gas station, authorities said Saturday.
The body of Menacham Stark was found in the trash container at the Getty gas station in Great Neck just before 4 p.m. Friday, according to Nassau County cops.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/man-body-found-long-island-feared-abducted-brooklyn-landlord-article-1.1566192#ixzz2pTWs0h5V

A cache of unregistered weapons was found at a diplomatic residence where a Palestinian envoy was killed by an explosion, officials said Friday. ...Officers searching the house following the blast found enough weapons to arm a ten-man combat unit, police said.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/gun-cache-uncovered-at-palestinian-diplomats-home/#PgsaHoYpGU3ItHxL.99

Genie Milgrom’s quest for her religious roots began with a mysterious box her maternal grandmother left her when she died. It ends, if one can call it an ending, with a book, a website, speaking engagements around the world and a scholar’s depth of knowledge about Jews who were forced to convert, or pretended to convert, by the Spanish Inquisition.

First, the box. Milgrom, who was raised Catholic in a traditional Cuban household, had already converted to Judaism when her maternal abuela left her a well-worn hamsa, or charm-like “hand of God” trinket, and one gold earring with a Star of David in the middle.

...Milgrom and her husband keep kosher. They walk to shul. And when she lights candles every Friday night, “I feel all my grandmothers are standing around me and they’re saying, ‘Good job.’ I’m glad they’re here for me.”
Read more:  http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/03/3850310/miami-woman-tracks-her-jewish.html

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/03/3850310/miami-woman-tracks-her-jewish.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/03/3850310/miami-woman-tracks-her-jewish.html#storylink=cpy

Brooklyn man arrested, charged in five 'knockout' incidents against women

Barry Baldwin, 35, was arrested for a rash of assaults that some have connected to the infamous 'knockout game,' cops say. Sources say Baldwin was initially charged with hate crimes for targeting Jewish victims, but those charges were later downgraded.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/brooklyn-man-arrested-knockout-game-women-article-1.1566125#ixzz2pTVkeD8C

A small plane owned by a Jewish man made an emergency landing on a New York City expressway on Saturday, resulting in minor injuries to the three onboard and backing up a traffic on the major thoroughfare, emergency officials said.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/190331/plane-registered-to-jewish-owner-makes-emergency-l/#ixzz2pTWLinQQ

The glaring hypocrisy

Walid Shoebat calls attention to a program which is to be aired on HBO about Islamophobia which features CAIR-Michigan’s Executive Director Dawud Walid. Click here to read the article. Investigative Project has an article about Dawud Walid over here. You can listen to his words over here. At the 15 minute mark he talks about the Jews who incurred the wrath...

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has criticized the glaring hypocrisy and inconsistency of the Obama Administration for urging Israel to free Palestinian Arab terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands while simultaneously expressing outrage that Afghan President Hamid Karzai intends to free dozens of prisoners with the blood of Americans on their hands.
Read more: http://5tjt.com/shocking-hypocrisy-of-obama-admin-urges-israel-to-release-palestinian-killers-of-jews-yet-condemns-afghans-for-intending-to-release-killers-of-americans/

The victim who fought back

Chabad Crown Heights info writes about a phone snatching victim who fought back. Click here to read.

During an episode of the program Sights of Jerusalem broadcast in October, official Palestinian Authority TV dehumanized Israelis and Jews as crows and rats. In addition, the program denied Jewish history and the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, calling Israelis "foreigners."
...The program was co-produced by PA TV and PYALARA, a Palestinian NGO for youth. PYALARA is funded by NDC (NGO Development Center). NDC's donors include: the European Union, the World Bank, the French government's Agence Française de Développement, and a donor consortium of Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Read more: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10482

Stanley Kutler thinks "very highly" of some U.S. senators and their motivation to support Israel.

Now comes a "bipartisan" group of U.S. senators determined to join Israel in isolation. They are motivated from little else other than electoral fears and campaign contributions. They have offered legislation imposing new, more severe sanctions on Iran at a most inopportune time, and a pledge of American diplomatic and military support if the Israelis attack Iran.

He also is concerned about a balanced discussion on the Palestinian question.

Swarthmore College's Hillel chapter also tried to have a balanced discussion of the Palestinian question, but the governing body prevented it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stanley-kutler/israel-can-do-no-wrong-je_b_4521643.html

The pro-Israel campus groups Hillel International and the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) have been denied the right to present a discussion on Israel at the Jan. 9-12 Modern Language Association (MLA) convention in Chicago, JNS.org has learned.

MLA’s convention includes a roundtable discussion that will feature supporters but no opponents of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/academic-group-hosts-bds-bars-pro-israel-groups-at-panel-on-israel/2014/01/02/

Is Stanley Kutler concerned that the Modern Language Association convention present a balanced view?

A Twitter account belonging to “@BDSAmsterdam“ is using an outrageous image of Anne Frank dressed in a red keffiyeh, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Thursday.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/01/02/dutch-bds-twitter-account-using-image-of-anne-frank-in-keffiyeh/

A thought on the parsha, an op-ed and a new release

There's a nice thought on this weeks's parsha at kikarhashabat. It's in Hebrew, but I will try to translate it, when I have the time. Click here to read.

Gil Solomon has writte an Op-Ed: Jews Killed Nobody.

According to a new release from the JAMA Network Journals, vitamin E may help Alzheimer’s patients. Researchers discovered that a daily dosage of 2,000 IUs of vitamin E for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease slowed functional decline and lowered caregiver time in helping patients.
Read more: http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/vitamin-e-may-help-alzheimers-patients-study-finds/#ixzz2pE5nm7hO

Wishing you a good chodesh.

On December 31, Roger Cohen published an op-ed at the New York Times titled My Jewish State. On January 1, Sticking Point in Peace Talks: Recognition of a Jewish State by Jodi Rudoren was published. The first and third paragraphs in bold below were written by Roger Cohen. The second and fourth paragraphs were written by Ms. Rudoren.

Notice any similarities?

For Palestinians, such a form of recognition would amount to explicit acquiescence to second-class citizenship for the 1.6 million Arabs in Israel; undermine the rights of millions of Palestinian refugees; upend a national narrative of mass expulsion from land that was theirs;

They contend that recognizing Israel as a Jewish state would disenfranchise its 1.6 million Arab citizens, undercut the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and, most important, require a psychological rewriting of the story they hold dear about their longtime presence in the land.

When I spoke to him in Tel Aviv a few months ago, Yair Lapid, a top government minister, said: “The fact that we demand from Palestinians a declaration that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state, I just think this is rubbish. I don’t need that. The whole point of Israel was we came here saying we don’t need anyone else to recognize us anymore because we can recognize ourselves. We are liberated.”

Yair Lapid, a top minister in Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition, has distanced himself from the recognition demand, saying in an October interview, “My father did not come to Haifa from the Budapest ghetto in order to get recognition from” Mr. Abbas.

Cell phone penalty

KikarHashabat pointed me to an article at tzfatinews regarding a successful initiative in a shul in France where the gabbaim instituted a monetary penalty for those whose cell phones rang during davening. The money would be set aside for the shul's use. Needless to say, the congregants got the message after a number of days and prayer is no longer interrupted by the ringing of cell phones.

The article ends with a suggestion that the initiative can be implemented in other synagogues or public places where the ringing has become a nuisance.


 

Roger the prophet

For people at high risk of depression because of a family history, spirituality may offer some protection for the brain, a new study hints.

Parts of the brain's outer layer, the cortex, were thicker in high-risk study participants who said religion or spirituality was "important" to them versus those who cared less about religion.
Continue reading: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/30/us-thicker-brain-sections-tied-to-spirit-idUSBRE9BT0LA20131230

A Wikipedia entry titled Prophets in Judaism lists the 48 Prophets and seven Prophetesses. Perhaps the list should be amended to include NYT columnist Roger Cohen, who finds time amongst his new year's celebrations to prophesy about the coming year.

But I am going to make one prediction for 2014. It is that, for all John Kerry’s efforts, this will be another year in which peace is not reached in the Middle East. (And if I am wrong, I vow Sisyphean penance in eternity.)

Of course, Israel is mostly to blame for the sorry state of affairs in an article titled My Jewish State.

Then there is the rebounding Israel-is-a-Jewish-state bugbear: Netanyahu wants Palestinians to recognize his nation as such.
...If Israel looks like a Jewish state and acts like a Jewish state, that is good enough for me — as long as it gets out of the corrosive business of occupation. Zionism, the one I identify with, forged a Jewish homeland in the name of restored Jewish pride in a democratic state of laws, not in the name of finicky insistence on a certain form of recognition, nor in the name of messianic religious Greater Israel nationalism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/opinion/cohen-my-jewish-state.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

Jeffrey Grossman opines about the NYT article.

Yes, Roger (Iran is "not totalitarian") Cohen is given to playing footloose with the truth, and my prediction for 2014 is that he will continue to rain manure down upon us.
http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.be/2013/12/roger-cohen-my-jewish-state-still.html

Who Cares What You Think, Roger Cohen?